Title: Rise and shine and give God the Glory!!
Text: Ephesians 4:8-20
Introduction: Have you ever thought about how difficult it might be to preach to an audience as diverse as this?
‒ We have new Christians--Precious babes in Christ.
‒ We have veteran Christians--Served the Lord for years.
‒ We have the attending resister--Your here because you’ve been made to come.
‒ We have people who are the rebels--they have already decided that when they can, they are out!
‒ We have children--the greatest in the kingdom.
‒ And on and on.
TODAY, WHAT I SAY, I SAY IN LOVE FOR THIS CHURCH.
THINGS ARE LOOKING UP FOR US (NEW CHRISTIANS, NEW MEMBERS, ETC)
LOTS OF GREAT STUFF GOING ON, BUT WE HAVE SOME WHO ARE LUKEWARM AND INDIFFERENT. LAZY, UNSPIRITUAL. WE NEED TO CHANGE THAT!!
(Ephesians 5:8 NCV) "In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light."
--Remember your past life.
‒ Filled with bad language, hate, sin, etc.
‒ Then came the light of the Lord.
‒ Things were fresh, new, exciting, you were saved.
‒ Some are experiencing this now.
‒ Then reality set it. This is real stuff, this Christianity.
Then a simple admonition: “Live like children who belong to the light.”
‒ How do we do that? What is the secret? Where do we start?
‒ Some need to start, others need to start over.
1. “Wake up sleeper, rise from death.” Ephesians 5:14
a. We have some in this church who are asleep, and we might be surprised to find out who they are.
i. Those who sleep are those who I won’t get to speak to tonight or Wednesday night because you won’t be back.
(1) Still says, (Hebrews 10:25 NCV) "You should not stay away from the church meetings, as some are doing, but you should meet together and encourage each other. Do this even more as you see the day coming."
(2) The meeting together is for worship!!
(a) Those who don’t meet don’t want to worship. We do exactly everything we want to do don’t we?
(b) Those who don’t want to meet, are telling God, “I don’t love you Lord enough to show up for worship.
(3) We meet together in order to lift each other up.
(a) Someone said it best last Wednesday night, “I could not get through the week living right if I did not meet with my family.”
(b) Problem is, those who are not worshiping together with are probably are not giving their all to Jesus Christ.
(c) Can I just say it brethren, “It is wrong--a sin to not be here when the Lord is being worshiped.”
(4) Don’t we have a Lord worth worshiping!!?
(a) He is the “King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and they who are with Him are the called, chosen, AND FAITHFUL!” (Revelation 17:14)
(b) (Deuteronomy 10:17 NCV) "The LORD your God is God of all gods and Lord of all lords. He is the great God, who is strong and wonderful. He does not take sides, and he will not be talked into doing evil."
(c) (Isaiah 54:5 NCV) "The God who made you is like your husband. His name is the LORD All-Powerful. The Holy One of Israel is the one who saves you. He is called the God of all the earth."
(i) You have a major problem if you don’t want a God like that!!
(5) What are we, who are here, doing about it?
(a) (Galatians 6:1 NCV) "Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin, too."
(i) Sometimes I feel like we owe those who are not faithful an apology.
1) How often is it that you know a brother or sister in sin, and just let it pass?
2) We don’t want to get someone mad, or hurt their feelings.
3) So we neglect our duties as Christians to help our erring brethren.
4) How serious are we in our responsibilities.
5) We “all have sinned” AMEN!! So we are not judging, we just love them and want them back.
ii. We are sleepy in our morals. Too many parents and young alike letting down their moral guards.
(1) Do you realize that we are allowing our kids to see movies and listen to music and even taking them ourselves to see things that are ungodly!
(a) The Bible still says, (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 NCV) "But test everything. Keep what is good, {22} and stay away from everything that is evil."
(b) Does that not apply to movies, and music?
(2) We need to be standing against the moral decay of our nation, not supporting it.
(a) Tell about gong into the video store. And the X-rated movies.
(3) We have members who do things they would not want their friends to know.
(a) They use language among their own children, that they would not allow their kids to use.
iii. We are sleepy in our ideas of church organization.
(1) We need elders who will stand and shepherd.
(a) Elders are to “Shepherd the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” (Acts 20:28) What a responsibility!
(i) That means you guys need to know the sheep.
(ii) That means seeing after the spiritual needs of the sheep.
(iii) That means going after the lost and erring sheep.
(iv) You do those things and you won’t have time for anything else.
(2) We need deacons who will deacon.
(a) That means completing the job you have been given to do.
(b) That means serving with desire and willingness.
(3) Preachers need to evangelize.
(a) Our job is to teach and minister the word of God to others.
(b) We are to be about the business of teaching and preaching the gospel.
(4) Teachers need to teach with excitement again.
(a) We need to be early and ready to tell something good to our students.
(b) We need to be prepared with the knowledge of His will in order that we might give that to our students.
(5) All Christians need to be spreading the gospel to the world.
(a) You can only do that brethren if you are living it. I’d rather see a sermon any day!!
(b) Romans 12:1 "So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship."
(i) Your worship is not only in here. It is out there.
iv. We have sleepers who missed Ephesians 5:10 “Try to learn what pleases the Lord.” My whims, wishes and wants come secondary to what the Lord wants.
(1) We have people who I term, “Whiners and Diners.” They come to worship in order to be fed, but whine about all kinds of things.
(a) They whine because the worship’s too long.
(b) They whine because the songs are too long.
(c) They whine if they don’t get their card read just right.
(d) They whine so they can be heard whining.
(e) Don’t you think it’s about time we stopped allowing the whiners to dictate what we do.
(f) Listen to how God dealt with whiners. (Numbers 16:42-45 NCV) "When the people gathered to complain against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the Meeting Tent, and the cloud covered it. The glory of the LORD appeared. {43} Then Moses and Aaron went in front of the Meeting Tent. {44} The LORD said to Moses, {45} "Move away from these people so I can destroy them quickly." HOW MANY WHINERS GOT IT THE PROMISED LAND?
(g) James says, (James 5:9 NCV) "Brothers and sisters, do not complain against each other or you will be judged guilty. And the Judge is ready to come!"
(2) Let’s stop complaining and get to work for the Lord.
(a) (Ephesians 5:16 NCV) "Use every chance you have for doing good, because these are evil times."
(b) A good rule of thumb, “If it is building up, it is probably a good thing to complain about. If not, then don’t talk about it.”
(c) Remember that our leadership has enough things to worry about without hearing negative complaining.
v. What does he say to the sleepers? “Wake up, rise from death.”
(1) The bad news is that if you are sleeping in the Lord’s church you are really dead.
(a) Spiritual death are hard words.
(i) They mean separated from Christ.
(ii) Without hope.
(iii) Miserable.
(b) The sad thing is that many here this morning don’t even know that they are dead.
(2) The great news is, that he says, “...Christ will shine on you.”
(a) God will forgive.
(b) Jesus has promised to be with us.
Conclusion: What is the conclusion of all this? You might say, “Boy, Keith is angry.”
Here is how Revelation 3 settles the matter.
(Revelation 3:14-21 NCV) ""Write this to the angel of the church in Laodicea: "The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of all God has made, says this: {15} I know what you do, that you are not hot or cold. I wish that you were hot or cold! {16} But because you are lukewarm--neither hot, nor cold--I am ready to spit you out of my mouth. {17} You say, ’I am rich, and I have become wealthy and do not need anything.’ But you do not know that you are really miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. {18} I advise you to buy from me gold made pure in fire so you can be truly rich. Buy from me white clothes so you can be clothed and so you can cover your shameful nakedness. Buy from me medicine to put on your eyes so you can truly see. {19} "I correct and punish those whom I love. So be eager to do right, and change your hearts and lives. {20} Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you will eat with me. {21} "Those who win the victory will sit with me on my throne in the same way that I won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne."
Jesus says to them, “Get in or get out of the way.”
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being a part of a church that is indifferent, argumentative, and considered the haters of the religious world.
I am tired of being in a church and knowing that I have a lot of facts straight, but ignoring the power God has given me to influence the world.
Don’t you want to be an influence in the world church?????
Today some of you need to get out of your seat and walk down here and repent for not being here, some need to repent for not trying to help them be here.
Others need to repent from complaining.
Some need to repent for neglecting your responsibility to the sheep here.
Some of our young people need to come and repent for being lazy in their spirituality.
Others need to come for prayers of encouragement.
It’s time for the Cox Boulevard Church of Christ to quit “Playing church” and get to work for the Lord Jesus.
I can promise you this, JESUS IS AT THE DOOR KNOCKING AND IF WE RESPOND AS A CHURCH, WE WILL BE BLESSED AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BLESSED AND THEN WATCH GOD WORK MIGHTILY IN OUR LIVES!!!
