It’s Time To Wake Up! Time Is Short Series

It’s Time to Wake Up! Time is Short

by Rev. Saumiman Saud

THE TIME HAS COME

(It’s Time to Wake Up! Time is Short)

(Romans 13:11-14)

Last Tuesday I heard news that a church member at Sacramento suddenly passed away. On Sunday I actually still had a chance to chat with him after my sermon. That makes me realize that our time always gets closer. Then what should we do with such a short time? Even though God gives us freedom to choose, we still have to ask for His wisdom so that we do not do the wrong things. We don’t know our time.

Frankly, not every church member considers this warning about running out of time. There are many who think they are making the right decisions. Apostle Paul here emphasized this not for a time being, but till the end comes, in other words before it’s too late.

My friends who live in America certainly understand the importance of that time. When you go to the mechanic, maybe there are spare parts which must be bought for $50 or something. But the labor cost is much more expensive, maybe $400 or $500 because it’s hard and it takes time to repair the car. Thus “time is money”. But there’s a minister who scorns at that saying, because he thinks that even though time is money, we then can use that money to buy time.

If God has set our age to be 90 years old, and say we work hard all our lives, saving money to ask for extra time. It is impossible to pay God to extend our life from 90 to 125 years. Money cannot buy time. Then what should we do to save ourselves in the time being? What must we do?

In verse 12, apostle Paul explained. We will concentrate on this verse, I will divide it up to three points:

IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP! Time is Short: Remember, the day is late, it’s almost noon.

Apostle Paul complete understood what short time means when he looked at his own

life. Before repentance, Paul was already famous. He was not a layperson, he was a highly educated person. His teacher was the famous Gamaliel. He was very witty, imagine that he was one of the perpetrators of Stephen’s martyrdom. But God wants to use this kind of people. Due to God’s grace, he could change. I’m sure we still remember the transformation from Saul to Paul which was quite drastic. This was an absolute and spontaneous change. Paul really value that moment that he did not waste any time even though he was blind for three days.

If we go back to verse 11, there it says “he hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber” (NIV). What does that mean? Sleep is a metaphor for our spiritual condition that is far from God’s kingdom. Thus we must realize that our world is temporary, our King, Messiah will come soon without us knowing when. It does not make sense to ignore this fact.

Verse 12 starts: “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here” (NIV). I’m not quite sure whether you know what this is like late at night. When you are busy finishing up your paper, or stressed out that you cannot sleep at night till morning, there we pass a vague line between darkness and morning light. Therefore everybody must get up, there are many things to do!

Believers are somewhere between night and day. What we see is vague, but that’s the time to wake up. That means we have to be ready, prepared and start doing something. That something must be a positive thing, something for the glory of God.

IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP! Time is short: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness

William Barclay says this verse is very important for theologians and church fathers,

including Augustine. One day Augustine was walking in a garden; he was troubled because he failed to lead a good life. He screamed in agony many times, “How long? How much longer? Tomorrow and tomorrow again – why not now? Why can’t my immorality end now?” Suddenly he heard a voice: “Take it and read it” It sounded like a voice of a kid, he drained his mind trying to remember a kids’ game that uses those words, but he couldn’t remember.

He then went to Alypius; his friend was sitting down and placed many books, especially letters from Paul. “I took it right away and read it slowly the first part: “Do not party and drink, do not live in adultery and flesh, do not quarrel or be jealous. But use Lord Jesus Christ by your side, and do not use your body to satisfy your flesh.” Augustine said again “I don’t want to and I don’t need to read the coming verses.”