An Awakening

AN AWAKENING

TEXT: Romans 13:11-12

Romans 13:11-12 KJV And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. [12] 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 armour of light.

I. INTRODUCTION—GOING TO SLEEP ON LIFE

-This is one of the exhortations of Paul as he starts to conclude the Roman letter. In fact, we can assert that this is one of the things that is attached to Romans 12:1-2 when he pleads with the Roman church not to let themselves be conformed to the world.

-There are matters that Paul realized that would help the saint of the Lord not to allow himself to go to sleep in a spiritual sense:

• Present your bodies as a living sacrifice

• Don’t be conformed to this world

• Renew your mind

• Discern the will of God

• Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to

• Think soberly

• Serve

• Teach

• Exhort

• Give

• Lead

• Let love be genuine

• Abhor what is evil

• Hold to the good

• Show brotherly love

• Show honor to others

• Don’t be slothful

• Be fervent in your spirit

• Rejoice

• Be patient

• Pray

• Give to those in need

• Bless and don’t curse

• Weep with those who weep

• Don’t be wise in your own sight

• Don’t repay evil with evil

• Give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of others

• Live peaceably

• Be kind to your enemies

• Be subject to governing authorities

• Owe no man anything

-All of these are the words of Paul as he leads up to his words that it is high time for all men to come out of their state of sleep.

-We often discover that we can be asleep with our eyes wide open. There is a sleep that comes to the soul without many ever even realizing it took place. You can go to sleep on life. In fact, there are thousand and one different ways to medicate yourself so that you go to sleep on the potential of life:

• Mindless entertainment

• Soul-numbing materialism

• Pursuing worldly success

• Withdrawing into depression

• Nursing a grudge

• Holding on to some bitterness of the past

-There were some sleepers in the Bible that went to sleep at the most inopportune time and because they went to sleep, they missed out.

• Jacob—When he woke up, he realized he had missed God. (Genesis 28:16)

• Samson—Lost his strength while he was sleeping. (Judges 16:20)

• Jonah—Slept through a storm that nearly sank the ship he was running from God on. (Jonah 1:6)

• Peter, James, and John—Slept in Gethsemane when the Lord needed them the most. (Matt. 26:45; Mark 14:41)

-More often than not we can find ourselves sleeping through life and we miss opportunities that literally could change the whole direction for us.

II. THE AWAKENING OF THE PRODIGAL SON

-One of the most powerful examples of an awakening comes to us one of the most famous parables the Lord ever told. It is in Luke 15 where Jesus related the parable of the prodigal son. For the most part, there are really only three main characters in that parable and a few minor ones.

-If you have been around the church for any length of time, you know the story. It is about a young man who is a fool who wants all that he has coming to him before his father dies. The father concedes and gives the young man the money and he takes off to the far country where he can spend the money in riotous living.

-He spends himself silly until everything is gone. . . then he finds himself in a hog-pen.

Luke 15:15-16 KJV And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. [16] And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

-That is where the awakening really starts.

Luke 15:17 KJV And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

A. Awakenings Don’t Come Very Often

-There are some observations that we can make about what took place in this young man’s life. One thing about awakenings is that they do not come very often. In fact, you will discover according to Scripture that this is the only awakening that ever came to him.