Time To Wake Up

TIME TO WAKE UP.

Date: November 11, 2001

Place: Allendale Baptist

Read Romans 13:11-14

Introduction: I like to sleep. Some one has said “the best sleep is when you over sleep”. Not to long ago my wife & I purchase a “rice bed” or a four-post corner bed. We had been wanting one for a long time. It sets about four feet off the floor. The first night was wonderful, but I over slept & was last for work that next morning. When I realized I had over slept I jumped out of bed not realizing I was four feet off the ground, thinking I was in the old bed. There was a window on my side of the room & when I fell out of the bed the momentum carried me toward that window. All I could think about or see was myself going through the window. I was enjoying myself so much in my sleep now I was about to be injured.

In the verses Paul gives instructions to Christians to the matter of sleeping.

I. TIME TO WAKE UP. V.11

A. We sleep in our sin. Example of Jonah asleep during the storm.

B. Psalms 38:3 tells us there is no rest in our sin.

C. We must live in spiritual alertness.

II. TIME IS ALMOST GONE. V.12

A. It’s later then we realize.

B. Stop putting it off.

Whatever we’re going to do for Jesus we better do now.

III. TIME TO CLEAN UP. V.13

A. Behave literally means to walk.

Ephesians 4:1-3 “ I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with witch you were called, with all lowliness & gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit, in the bond of peace.”

B. John Mac Arthur says, “We should live a life pleasing to God, manifesting in our outward behavior the inner reality of a redeemed life.”

C. Paul tells us to “put off 6 things”

1. Revelry & drunkenness: wild parties, sexual orgies, brawls, and riots.

2. Lewdness & lust: sexual immoralities.

3. Strife & envy:

Many may not struggle in the first 4 areas but now he’s talking to the First Baptist Church of Rome. Strife- fusing & fighting envy- jealousy

IV. TIME TO DRESS UP. V.14

A. Have you ever heard some one say, “ I don’t have anything to wear”

B. Put on the things of Jesus.

C. Galatians 4:24 “Put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness & holiness of the truth.”

V. MAKE NO PROVISIONS FOR THE FLESH. V.14

A. If a person has an addiction to drugs or is an alcoholic they are told not to be around those things.

B. I Peter 2:11 says, “I urge you as aliens & strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.”

C. John MacAuthur says “ NO PROVISION – has the meaning of planning ahead or forethought. Most sinful behavior results from wrong ideas and lustful desires we allow to linger in our minds.”

Application/ Challenge

It’s time to stop pushing the snooze button in our Christian lives, time to get up, get cleaned up, get dressed up & go to work.

Some one told the story of a church member that asked the pastor to go & visit a lost family member that was ill in the hospital. The pastor was busy lost track of time & days & never did make the visit. The family member called to tell the pastor the family member had died. Died without Christ.

Time is short… Souls are precious.

Invitation