A Wake Up Call

But if you have your Bibles tonight, we'll jump into God's Word. We'll be in Romans chapter 13. We'll be in Romans chapter 13 tonight. When you find your place, we'll stand to honor the reading of God's Word.

But Romans chapter 13, we'll begin in verse 11 down to verse 14. And the Word of the Lord says in verse 11, and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation near than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and not wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

Let's pray. Father, we just come before you this evening. Lord, there's some that are entering into your house with a heavy heart this evening. Lord, there's others that have great joy.

Lord, there's all those in between. And so, Father, as we pause at this midweek service to pause in your presence, may we set the distractions aside of this week, the heavy heartedness, the burdens of life to focus in on you and your Word. Father, it is rich, it is true. Help us to apply it to our lives, Lord. Help us to see that the time is near of your return. Help us, Father, to not be lulled to sleep. Awake us, Lord. Shake us from our apathy at times. Lord, help us to see the great need that is before us. Lord, help us to be less like ourselves and more like Jesus. And we ask this tonight in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. I know some people, when they come to church and the preacher stands up, that is their cue to go to sleep. I was that teenager when my parents, my stepdad and my mom started to take us to church. I was that teen that would sit in the back.

I refused to go. And as the pastor started to speak, I would doze off to sleep. And there was a guy that I heard about who had slept every time the preacher started to preach. And so one Sunday morning, the preacher decided to play a nice joke on this young man. And as he was preaching about halfway through his sermon, he got real quiet and he said to everybody that was in the sanctuary, he said, if you would like to go to heaven, when you die, stand up.

He said it real softly. And all the people stood up except for the one guy that was in the back sleeping. And he said, okay, you may be seated. And then with a very loud shout, he said, who doesn't want to go to heaven?

Stand up now. And the guy jumps up and he's looking around and he's confused. And he said, preacher, I don't know what we're voting on, but only you and I are in agreement on this.

And so he sat back down, not knowing what the preacher had just done. And as we open this passage of scripture tonight, we're not talking about a real slumber or a real sleep. Tonight, we're going to be talking about waking up from a spiritual slumber. We're going to hear God's alarm to wake up. And I think even in a church as great as lighthouse is with God's hand upon it, we all at some point in time in our walk could be lulled to sleep if we're not careful. We could be distracted by the things of the world.

We could become apathetic to the things that we see. And so tonight, as we look at God's word, we want to look at what Paul has to say and the urgency. And I've titled tonight's message, a wake up call. A wake up call.

And it brings us to our first point tonight. You see that in verse 11, the first point tonight is wake up. And verse 11, it says, and knowing and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. And so as we look at this passage, we learn what it is trying to teach us tonight is what we're looking to do. The first thing we're to do is to wake up. He tells us there's God's alarm clock and it is going off.

Do we see it in the scriptures there? Can we hear it that the urgency in Paul's voice, as he's guided by the Holy Spirit and he's telling us, hey, it's time to wake up. God is saying there's no longer time to sleep.

There's work to be done. It's time for us to wake up. And so I don't know about you, but I believe that there are three types of people when it comes to waking up. There's those type of people that they just get up naturally. Like they don't need an alarm clock. Like whatever time they get up, whether it's four a.m., seven a.m., whatever it may be, they just wake up. They don't need an alarm clock, right?

There's that type of person. And then there's that type of person probably drives my wife crazy because she's like the other type we'll get to here in a minute, but she's just not a morning person. But that person that wakes up doesn't need an alarm clock.

It's like, boom, they're going for the day. The second type of person is a person that needs to set one alarm to help them get up. They're not nearly as like motivated without an alarm clock, but they set one alarm and they get up. They don't have to have several alarms.

This brings me to my third type of person when it comes to waking up. They have 15 alarms on their cell phone. They hit the snooze on each one of them until it's like the very last minute. Anybody do that where you set your alarm like an hour and a half before you have to get up so you just hit the snooze button? So there's some of us in the room that do that. There's probably some in here that don't need an alarm clock.

You just get up and go. And I'm under the impression, under impression, that whoever invented the snooze button was of the devil, I'm thinking. It just had to be a lazy guy that just invented the snooze button. He just wanted to constantly roll over and hit the snooze and maybe that was his daily exercise.

I don't know. But the sad reality is that when God has called us to wake up spiritually, we hear a wake-up call like this and we might be tempted to do the same thing. We might be tempted to hit the snooze button. We might stir for a moment to wake up to a spiritual wake-up, but then we reach over and we hit the snooze button. Not right now, God.

Maybe later. And so what does this look like? What does it mean to be spiritually asleep? What does it mean to have apathy? And so I, Encyclopedia Britannica, you know, those were things back in the day that they went door to door to sell to people. Anybody have those people come to your door back in the days trying to sell you encyclopedias?

Now you just get it free online, right? But this is what they define sleep as, a state of inactivity with a loss of consciousness and a decrease in responsiveness to the events taking place around you. And Webster's dictionary defines this as the natural, easily reversible periodic state of many living things that is marked by the absence of wakefulness, by the loss of consciousness of one's surroundings. And so the phrase the night is far spent and the day is at hand expresses the urgency for us to be called out of our spiritual slumber. The time is now to obey and to heed God's word. And so there's no time for apathy.

There's no time for complacency or indifference. And in this admonition, it was urgent in Paul's day. How much more so today as we see the day of the Lord approaching? Two thousand years since Paul has wrote this letter. And I would say every generation has had their skeptics. As second Peter chapter three verse four tells us, it says, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. And so there have been those if you've ever witnessed to people and they say, oh, you guys have been saying that for years. You Christians have been saying that God's going to come back. You've been saying Jesus's return is near.

But it is true. There's those people that have been skeptical of Christ's return. And so we see that at the time, and it says in that knowing the time in verse 11, Paul is emphasizing that the present time is of the highest importance. Uh, we must be remembered that we are never to stop offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. Romans 12 one tells us this. It tells us in Romans 12 one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.

It is your reasonable service, which is your reasonable service because we are some are untaught. They don't know the scriptures are ignorant, or maybe they're taught wrongly about the scriptures and Christ's second returning. They develop a spiritual blindness. There's a, there's a blindness in particularly, uh, sometimes they could be even close to being classified as unbelievers and their response to the ignorance that they have towards the urgency of Christ's second return, especially the lack and interest of his return.

I would say this is the spiritual illness that has plagued believers in the early church. And even today, um, some people do not go do the work of the ministry because there's more time for that. There'll be another day to do that. There'll be another day that I can witness to my loved one. Today's not the time.

I got a lot of things on my schedule. Today's not the time for me to set aside time to, to share the gospel. He says, now is time.

It is high time to wake out of sleep. Paul's calling for believers to awaken from a spiritual sleep, from the unconsciousness, from responsiveness and inactivity concerning the things of God. And I know in my own Christian walk at times, especially early on, and you have stages of Christianity.

When you first get saved, the Bible says you're a baby in Christ and you're desiring the sincere word. And so as a baby, the baby can't feed itself. Those of us that have had children, we know that, or have been around a young one, we have to feed them.

They can't feed themselves. They can't even change their diapers and we have to help raise them. And then there's what's called children in the faith and they've become a little more mature.

They're starting to walk on their own. And then it speaks of young men in the faith. And then there's the mature believer. And so as we're seeing that sometimes unconsciousness, unresponsiveness and inactivity, we would expect that out of maybe younger, lesser mature Christians. But this too can creep into the life of a seasoned believer as well, I would tell you. Many have been lulled to sleep by the things of this world. It's like they've been on a Netflix binge for weeks on end.

Anybody ever done that? You got sucked into like some, whatever it is, a series. I know my kids, sometimes they get on YouTube and they'll start to watch something. I'm like, how are you still on this? Like hours later. And it's just like this never-ending worm tunnel. And they just continue. I'm like, you're wasting your day. Get off there.

Move on. But we too, if we're not careful, be lulled to sleep by the things of this world. And that's what Satan has his greatest desires for us to do is to be lulled to sleep, to not be active in the things of God, to not be concerned with the things of Christ, and to just continue about our daily routines. And so Paul had a similar call to the believers in Ephesus. Listen to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 14. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. He wasn't speaking to the lost or the unsaved here at Ephesus. He was addressing the church at Ephesus. These are believers in Christ who were spiritually lethargic.

They'd become lazy. Made them, and they basically had made them appear and acting as if they had no spiritual life, as if they were lost, just like the unsaved people in their day. Paul, when speaking to the believers at Corinth, both warned and appealed to them. He said this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 34. Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God.

I speak this to your shame. And so again, Paul's addressing the church at Corinth, and he's saying, hey these people that he would expect this to be said to the lost, but he's speaking to the believers in Christ. Paul here is not accusing those Corinthians of not knowing Jesus as their savior, but he's accusing them of being ignorant to God's word. They become apathetic to God's word. They had become lethargic to the things of Christ. They were unaware of the, and unconcerned about what the Lord was then doing in the world, and also what he would do in his promises in the future, what would still continue to be done.

They were unaware or unconcerned about that. And so what are some of the warning signs? So if we were to do a survey, you know, you take your car in, sometimes you got the check engine light on, and you take it in, they run it on the machine, they do a diagnostic to see, hey what is going on with this vehicle? So what are some diagnostics for us to check to see if we're spiritually lethargic, or maybe if we have fallen asleep? The first one I would say is perhaps you never bring your Bible to church. Now I'm a firm believer that you should have a paper Bible.

Most people have now gone to electronic. I like putting notes in mine and what have you, but if you never bring your Bible to church or you never have it on your device, could be a sign that you may be spiritually asleep. If you never share your faith and never want to share your faith, that could be a sign that you are spiritually lethargic or spiritually asleep. If you do not have a desire to read God's word, if you lack a desire to pray, these are all signs that maybe you have fallen asleep, maybe you are spiritually asleep, maybe I'm spiritually asleep. And so these are just things that we need to check. Do we have unconfessed sin that we haven't been made aware of, that we haven't got right with God, we haven't gone to him in repentance? And this week was my son's birthday on Monday.

We went up north for a trip Monday and Tuesday, I had a great time. We stayed at this hotel and it reminded me that sometimes Christians can be like these signs that are in the hotel. You go into the room and they have a sign that's on the back of the door that you can pull out and put out on the front of the door and it says, do not disturb. And so sometimes us as Christians, if we're not careful, when we're lulled to sleep, we do some of the same things. There are some who do the same when it comes through their spiritual walk. They hang a spiritual sign, do not disturb, around their heart. They're saying, I'm content to come to church, I'm content to sit, I'm content to stand, I'm content to sing the songs, I'm content to hear the message, I'm content to go through the motions, but Lord do not move me in any way when I leave this place. Do not stir me up.

Do not disturb me. And so we have to be cautious of that, myself included. If we can sit through services and the preaching of the word that we have here at this church and not be moved by the Holy Spirit, we need to really check what is going on in our hearts. We need to do a diagnostic to see what is going on because you cannot sit under the teaching and preaching of God's word and not be moved by it. Some people are so content though, they just get into a spiritual rut.

So maybe they haven't really fallen asleep, they're just content with the status quo. And I would ask this, do you believe God is okay with the status quo? He plans, it's greater things. He wants, he wishes that none should perish, that all should come to repentance.

And so our job is never done. As long as we're here on earth, we're to be proclaiming the gospel, we're to go out into our communities, into our highways and our communities and to tell others about Jesus. There are some going through the motions, living it outward, they're going through a religious tradition, they're just kind of going through the motions, they come to church, they sit, they sing, they look outwardly right, but inwardly they're dead. And so they've lost that personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Christianity isn't religion, it's a relationship with our Savior, with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And God is trying to say to all of us, hey, wake up, we're all prone to fall asleep. And if we're in that case, he's like, hey, wake up, today is the day, the alarm has gone off, get up. Matthew chapter 9 verse 37 says, the harvest is truly as plenteous, but the laborers are few.

And I think that's where Satan wants us to say, he wants us to be lulled to sleep, he wants us to be apathetic, he wants us to be lethargic, he doesn't want us to go out. And you see in verse 38 of Matthew chapter 9 it says, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest field. You know, we have a great opportunity while we're here on this earth to tell others of Jesus Christ and what he's done for us. And we look at the church here in Xenia, and we see that he is doing great things. We praise God for what he's doing here at Lighthouse Baptist Church. The question for us tonight though is, if Christ were to return tonight before this message was over, would there be some things that he would not be proud of in our lives? Is there sin that needs to be confessed?

Is there forgiveness that needs to be given or asked for? This past Sunday when pastor preached, you know, and he brought up that, when is the last time as a husband and wife you sat down and read the word of God together? Where's the urgency in that and sitting down and taking the time to do those things? I'll ask this question tonight. We need a great awakening, not only here, but we need a great awakening in America. If you agree, raise your hand to that. Like, we need a great awakening in America, and I agree with that. Would you agree that we need a great awakening in Xenia, Ohio, and our surrounding communities?

We would all agree with that. Now, you don't have to raise your hand on this next question, but how many of you in this room or in this building tonight would say, I need a spiritual awakening? I've fallen asleep at the wheel.

I've been lulled to sleep by the distractions of this world. Listen to what Paul reminded Titus. He tells Titus this in Titus chapter 2, verse 11 through 13, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And verse 13 says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of that great God and our savior Jesus Christ. And James counsels us of the following in James 5 verse 7 through 8. He says, be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.

Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it, until he received the earlier and latter rain. Verse 8, be you patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh.

And so we are to be patiently waiting on the Lord. We are to be about our Father's business, the Bible tells us. We're to go out and to share our faith.

We're to encourage others. Paul reminds us that even as believers, we are going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We may be right positionally in Christ. And that means we are not going to be eternally separated from God, but we're going to be judged for what we did for him while we were here. And this is what it says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. And so as Christians here tonight know that we're going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ or what's known as the bema seat of Christ. And it's a judgment of what we did while we were here with our time, our talents, our treasures for Christ.

Did we use our time wisely? Did we do everything that we could for his glory? We are eternally freed from condemnation. We know that if we're here tonight and we're in Jesus Christ, we're positionally right, but ultimately we will receive a judgment of what we did for him while we were here. And so when Christ returns, there will be a judgment of our efforts on the behalf of his kingdom. When he will bring things to light as 1 Corinthians 4-5 tells us, it says, therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come and both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of hearts and then shall make shall every man have promise of God. And so the end of Paul's ministry as he gets to the end of his life and if there was a man that really spent his time and his efforts for Christ, would it not be the apostle Paul? Shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, left for dead, he bared the marks of Christ in his body. And he said this at the end of his life as he's facing death in 2 Timothy 4 verse 7 through 8, I have fought a good fight.

I have finished my course. I've kept my faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but also all them that love his appearing. And so the good news for us tonight as well as we are all going to receive a crown of righteousness when we get to heaven for the things that we did for Christ.

And so do we bear the marks of Christ in our body? Do we do the things that we're called to do or have we been lulled to sleep? So not only are we first called to wake up but secondly we'll look at the second point tonight is we are too wise up.

We're to get wise about this. It's not only just to wake up but we need to be having wisdom when we wake up. The passage tells us that there's more than just waking up.

It says hey wise up to the time. Look at verse 11 again with me and it says and that knowing the time and so knowing I when I think of knowing I think of knowledge I think of wisdom or being wise and so the New Testament when we look at that and study it when you go back to the original Greek this word here for time there's two words in the New Testament for time. The first one is kronos and I didn't know this when I previously to working here at the church on staff we had a time keeping system and it was called kronos and that's how we updated everybody's hours for the week but kronos is where we get our English word chronology and so that's not the word that is spoke of here in Romans chapter 13. The word that is spoke of when you go back to the Greek here is kairos which it means a season of time. It means a period of time in which we find ourselves and so to help illustrate this if I was to say it is almost time for cooler weather I'm not talking about a specific date like October 15th at 2 pm is when the cooler weather is going to be here. It's sad who loves summer I mean who several of you who dreads the winter so there's several that do not like the winter the snow that's like a dreaded word but when we say that there is a time for cooler weather we're not talking about a specific date we're talking about the fall season that's getting ready to roll in the pumpkin spice lattes the fall decorations they're all coming out and so it's speaking of a specific season and that's what he's talking about here in Romans chapter 13 when it says knowing the time it's not a day on the calendar but is a season that is coming and so what he's what he's unpacking for us is that we do not know the hour of Christ coming however we know that it is some 2000 years closer than when Paul wrote the book of Romans we don't know how much time remains in the top of the the hourglass of humanity before Christ's return but we know that there's not much time left there's evidence pointing that there's not much time left in the the top of this hourglass and I believe for us as believers we need to live like Acts chapter 1 verse 7 and 8 tells us it says and he said unto them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own power so it's not for us to be worried about the times and the power or the seasons of when Christ is going to return the thing is we need to be focused on verse 8 and verse 8 tells us this but ye shall receive power after the holy ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria into the uttermost parts of the world so our our what we should be preoccupied with while we're here is not necessarily concerned when Christ is coming back but the objective is to go out and to tell others of Christ to be witnesses faithful witnesses for Christ to tell others that he did die on the cross for our sins and he is the only way to heaven and that's what we need to be occupied with and not only in in our Xenia our Jerusalem but into our Judea Beaver Creek Jamestown Fairbourn our Samaria which is the you know the Jews hated the Samaritans so for us that would be like Michigan up north that's just a dreaded place sorry if you're from there um kind of not really but anyways no um I still love you uh and into the uttermost parts of the world that's what we should be consumed with in the day and age and the time that we have left the time spent here on earth should be in the power living in the power of the holy spirit and telling others of Christ we're not to be concerned with the exact date and time that Christ is returning we just know that he is and we should live with that anticipation and that anticipation should compel us to live a holy sanctified life set apart from sin that should be our goal and our motivation to live for him and so throughout the new testament god encourages the saved and warns the unsaved of the Christ's return and it being near listen to second Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5 through 8 which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of god that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of god for which ye also suffer seeing it as a righteous thing with god to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and you who are troubled rest with us when the lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and a flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not god and that obey not the gospel of our lord Jesus Christ and so at the end of verse 11 we see it says for now our salvation is near than when we believe than when we first believe the salvation that is near is referring to the future and final destination which is glorification when we get to heaven we will be glorified we will no longer have a corruptible body we'll no longer be able to sin and that is the future plan for us after this life is glorification in heaven and so christ so christians are called to live holy and in anticipation of the return of christ that's why we're to live a holy life that should be the utmost incentive for us to live according to his will we don't know when he'll return so therefore we want to be busy about his business we want to live a clean and acceptable life for his glory and for his good uh to our good and so paul's declaration in verse 12 says that the night is far spent the day is at hand it's now it's the urgency it means that man's time of spiritual unbelief the rebellion and sin is about to end and that god's judgment is coming and his glory and his righteousness is about to begin and so first we're not only called to wake up secondly we're not only called to rise up but the third point tonight is we're called to clean up now obviously we don't obviously we don't clean ourselves up he cleans us up his holy spirit takes up residence inside of us and through that he can he convicts us of our sins and we repent of that and god says that he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins he casts them as far as the east is from the west look at romans chapter 13 the latter part of verse 12 here he says let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting or drunkenness not in chambering or wantonness not in strife or envying and so the illustration is when we wake when we woke up this morning and i'm looking across the room here most of you probably didn't wake up in the state that you're in today you probably had to put in some effort to get ready for the day you you woke up you got cleaned up you brushed your teeth most of you brushed your hair i did not obviously there's not much up here to brush right there wasn't much effort put into this today um but i did wake up i did shower i didn't get and i did get cleaned up and that is um kind of the picture that we have here we didn't just wake up and go about our business no there's things that we had to clean up and so the idea here is a forsaking or renouncing and obviously refers to repentance for the deeds and the works of darkness is what he's saying here god is grieved by all sin but when his children sin it grieves him especially listen to ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 says and grieve not the holy spirit of god whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption and so there's as believers obviously we still sin we should sin less we need to repent of those sins when that happens but our sins can grieve the holy spirit and so david spoke of a man who clothed himself with cursings and with his garments it says this in psalms 119 18 he clothed himself with cursings like as with his garment so let it come into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones and so previously to being saved i live like the world there's things that i consumed and when the pressures of life hit guess what came out the things that i had been consuming and putting in that's what david's saying here this man clothed clothed himself with cursings i'll never forget the first big day the fall family day we were here and i had recently been saved and it was fall family day and we had a soccer thing going on over here in the field and i was taking off after the soccer ball and like there was the goalie that was it and if i could just kick the ball i mean it would have been in clear as day i wouldn't miss i wouldn't have missed the shot probably would have but anyways that was my thought process and i'm running after this ball and i trip and i flip and i fall flat on my face out here the biggest goof embarrassment ever like it was just this moment of sure uh just embarrassment i would say and there's all these guys out there and i'd been living like the world and i kid you not like there was some curse words that came out of my mouth out in that field as i hit the ground embarrassed in front of everybody and i think pastor was right there too and it just made it worse but this man he clothed himself in that and so us as christians we need to clothe ourselves in righteousness we need to to put on jesus christ as we'll get to here in a minute but this we have to put off we have to clean up and it's the holy spirit cleaning up inside of us we sin by choice i would tell us we we choose to sin obviously we have an inherited sin nature that is within us but we choose to sin and when we choose to do that we say that we know our ways are better than god's ways when we sin it's a voluntarily clothing ourselves with evil in the spirit's power we can reserve that decision we can cast off we can we can lay aside these sins we can disrobe it through the power of the holy spirit and so the idea here is to live a sanctified life to put away the sinful behavior of the flesh and colossians chapter 3 verse 8 and 9 tells us this but now ye also put off these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and so sometimes as we we walk our christian walk um we think we may have got some issue under control and anybody ever do this with your kids they're like little gremlins sometimes they just know how to push your buttons and like you're just like you just snap anybody ever say something to your kids and you're like oh that i should have not said and then you have to go back you have to repent and ask them for forgiveness um and so sometimes we have these things that we think that we think that are under control whether it's anger whether it's wrath and we have to go back and we have to repent of those things we have to make it right paul here is referring to a continually putting off of particular sins the writer of hebrews tells us this in hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us therefore lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us and so paul moves from this negative to a positive from emphasizing a confession and repentance to putting on a protective light to put on righteousness paul's picture here he's painting of a soldier basically who went out he partied it up on the the town the night before and he wakes up the next morning and his commanding officer is there and says hey it's time to go to war but he's still dressed up like he went out partying the night before he doesn't have the proper armor the proper protection on to go out into the battlefield that's much like us as christians sometimes uh we we don't put on the full armor of god and therefore we cannot stand against the wiles of the devil and so the picture here is that we need to do this because we don't wrestle against flesh and blood as eph and so in his gospel account john john described jesus as this at john chapter 1 verse 9 it says that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world and so jesus was the true light that came into the world and in his first letter first john chapter 1 verse 5 it says this then this is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that god is light and in him there is no darkness at all and he goes on to say in verse 6 and 7 if we say we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in light we have fellowship with one and with another and the blood of jesus and his son cleanses us from all sin and so as we look at this it's not saying that hey because you have a sin that you fall into it's not saying that you don't have any part with christ but it's a continual habitual living in sin you can't they're they're mutually opposite you can't have darkness and light together um if you go to the ohio caverns and if you've ever been down into that and they turn all the lights off and it's completely pitch black you can't even see the hand in front of your face and if they leave the lights off long enough you'll go blind and so just a little if you had your cell phone you turned it on it would it would radiate light throughout that cavern and so they're mutually opposite they can't be in the same place and that's the picture here is we cannot live continually in sin and say that we're of christ does this mean we need to shine our lights for jesus and obviously the answer is yes matthew 5 16 let your light shine before men right but i would say we cannot shine for jesus however we can reflect the light of jesus just like the moon itself does not shine it merely reflects the light of the sun we too merely reflect the light of god's son jesus christ and what i mean by that is we cannot shine what we do is reflect his light we reflect his personality we reflect his character and it's something that we must choose to do and we're given that option daily that's why jesus said in luke 9 23 pick up your cross daily it's a daily choice to die to self and to live for christ sin and righteousness are as contradictory as light and darkness paul urges the believers to be renewed by the spirit of our minds he says in romans chapter 12 verse 2 and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god and ephesians chapter 4 verse 23 and 24 tells us this and be renewed in the spirit of your mind verse 24 and that you put on the new man which is after god is created in righteousness and true holiness and so back in verse 13 he says let us walk honestly as in the day so what does this mean is he says let us walk honestly as in the day it means to live in a way that pleases god that's what he's trying to communicate to us is it's to live in a way that pleases god it is to live honestly before god and before men it's to live a life that has no sprawl to wrinkle as ephesians chapter 5 verse 27 tells us it says to be without spot or wrinkle uh second peter 314 tells us to be spotless and blameless as well and so the last point tonight is we're to put on not only to to wake up to wise up to clean up but we're to put on and we're to put on the lord jesus christ we see that there in verse 14 but put ye on the lord jesus and make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof and so to put on the lord jesus christ means to be in a continual spiritual growth um at times we can get lethargic we can get complacent in our bible reading um going back to the netflix thing you know there's there's times where i've been guilty of spending more time on media than i have reading my bible in the past especially as a as a babe in christ as a as a child in christ and as a young man in christ not so much more now as i i've moved to that spiritually mature season of my my walk but all of us need to be careful of that we we need to have a continual spiritual growth are we growing in the in our faith in our walk because if we're not growing we're lethargic we're regressing there is no standing still you're either moving forward or you're regressing and falling back it's just like working out um you know i know several of you work out many i run and if i'm not putting in the effort i'm regressing and it's the same thing in our spiritual walk if we're not putting in the time and the effort to be with the lord through bible reading through study and meditating on his word through prayer we're regressing in our walk and so colossians chapter 2 tells us this in verse 7 rooted and built up in him and it's established in the faith that you have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving so are you rooted am i rooted and built up in him are we established in the faith and so as we continue to grow in christ the old clothing of sinful thoughts and habits are continually being discarded we're putting that off and we're putting on the righteousness of christ we're continuing to grow in him and putting on the things of christ with truth and holiness and love being put on this is what paul had in mind when he said this one thing i do in philippians chapter 3 verse 13 and 14 says brethren i count not myself too apprehended but this one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before i press towards the mark of the high calling of christ jesus and so are we pressing towards the mark of christ jesus are we moving forward are we regressing in our walk i will tell you that we grow from one level of christianity in christ glory to another as we faithfully study his word as we faithfully meditate on it and even entering into prayer more faithfully the person who receives christ as savior takes on the name of christian i will tell you but the quality of their christianity is determined by their own spiritual faithfulness to him to his word question is how do we ensure the quality of our faithfulness how do we ensure that how do we ensure that we are walking as we should be and that's by not making provisions for the flesh more often than not we the sins we commit develop we develop wrong ideas and lustful desires and we have allowed our lingering and they they're lingering in our minds i will tell you the longer we allow them to stay in our minds we don't repent of those sins the more we move and make provisions for the flesh the further we move away from the things of christ and to i would tell you this to be much with god or to be much for god you must be much with god the men that i know the women that i know that are being used greatly by god it isn't about their ability it's about their availability they've made themselves available to the lord they've taken time and studying god's word to prepare the study that to prepare and praying and so it's it's a moving towards him and through that they're able to be used greatly by him and so in conclusion tonight on june 10th i married my wife brianna not this year several years back right um but i married brianne on june 10th i didn't just get up that morning of the wedding and just go to the wedding just as i was when i woke up i took time to get ready that morning what little bit of hair i had i got shaved got cleaned up right i shaved my face i got showered smelled good and this was hours before my bride and i ever said i went through our vows and as i think of this jesus is coming back to take his bride home to the marriage supper of the lamb and the bible says that there is a great hymn says that when he shall come with trumpet sound this is a hymn it says when he shall come with trumpet sound oh may then i be found dressed in his righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne and revelation chapter 19 says that the bride of christ has made herself ready for the marriage supper of the lamb let me ask this in closing tonight are you ready are you ready for the return of christ are there things that maybe you need to get right before he returns but then maybe i get right before he returns are you ready for him to come back and i'm not just talking about salvation if you're here tonight you don't know jesus as your personal lord and savior tonight is the night of salvation you need to be saved that is the first step but i'm not necessarily addressing that i'm addressing us as christians are we ready do we have our affairs in order are the things that we need to clean up are there things that we need to repent of or are we still wearing some of those old dirty clothes from our past life are there some old habits and some old attitudes that need to be addressed or there's some unforgiveness that we need to give the bible says that you need to get ready for his return and i need to get ready for his return we need to awaken out of our sleep we need to wise up to the time and to put off the old and to put on the righteousness of christ if you would stand with me tonight the altars are open but as eyes are closed heads are bowed maybe you're here tonight you said braden i don't know that heaven would be my home i don't know that jesus christ is my personal lord and savior i want to call anybody out but if that's you tonight would you just give an uplifted hand so i can pray for you maybe you're here tonight you say braden there's some things going on and that if christ were to return he wouldn't be proud of there's some things that i need to get right i've been lethargic i've been asleep at the wheel that's you tonight would you just give an uplifted hand and hey i've got some things in my life that christ would not be proud of he was to return let's do this maybe tonight you have a loved one that you would like to pray for you know as lost as christ could return at any moment you just like to pray for boldness to share the gospel with your loved ones with maybe a co-worker you just give an uplifted hand to that tonight yes see those hands many of them hands up with you lord we come before you we thank you for this night we thank you for your word and the truth that is in it lord help us to wake from our spiritual happening lord help us to draw near to you to to awaken that the night is far spent that the day is at hand lord i pray for the hands that went up that there's some things that maybe that they need to get right before you return or work in their hearts work in my heart lord help us to be the witnesses that you've called us to be help us to be bold for your gospel help us to tell others of what you've done for us lord we commend this invitation into your hands do with it what you would it's in jesus name that i pray amen