Wake Up, Church! Awaken Our Hearts Series

Many in our country today are claiming to be “woke”.

But as we have seen over the past few weeks the church needs to become “woke” — the church needs to wake up, stand up, and defend all that is right, all that is true, all that is holy.

Evil is all around. Sin is running rampant.

It’s time for a revival in our country. It’s time for the church to wake up!

Paul says in Romans 13:

11 … [U]nderstanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. (Romans 13, NIV)

This scripture could not be more applicable than to our days today. Our world is full of carousing and drunkenness. It is full of sexual immorality and debauchery. And it is absolutely full of dissension and jealousy. These are things which we must not participate in. We must close ourselves with the armor of light and with Jesus Christ himself.

We need to wake up the truth.

We need to wake up our faith and trust in God.

We need to wake up our commitment and dedication to God, putting God first above all.

As a culmination of these things, we must awaken our hearts.

The heart is the life of our bodies. If our heart is not beating, we are not living.

The same is absolutely true spiritually.

The heart is considered the seat of our emotions, our intellect, our understanding, our soul.

(How Can We Have an Awakened Heart?

https://www.crosswalk.com/church/worship/how-can-we-have-an-awakened-heart-11624682.html

Debbie Przybylski

January 9, 2010)

Many people are losing heart … these days. Trials seem to overwhelm them and situations in life threaten to distract, discourage, and disillusion. People are not taking time to stop and listen, to be still and really breath in God's strength. Daily life is often filled with computers, cell phones, the internet, [social media,] text messages, and TV. God wants us to stop and let our heart catch up with all our frantic activity. He wants us to have a heart fully alive and filled with his destiny and plans. 

So this morning, how can we have a fully alive heart? How can we awaken our hearts?

1. First we need to cleanse our hearts.

Our hearts could use a good cleaning.

James writes in James 4:8:?

8 Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded [people]. (James 4, NASB)

It’s a cleansing, a purifying, that only Jesus can do.

The cleansing comes as we surrender our lives to God.

(Steve Saint on God's Cleansing Power

Source: Amanda Knoke, Decision (January 2006), p. 20

https://decisionmagazine.com/for-the-love-of-a-tribe/

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2006/april/7040306.html

Copied from PreachingToday)

The movie The End of the Spear, released in February, 2006, tells the story of Nate Saint and four other missionaries who were murdered by the Waodani people of South America. However, in a testament to forgiveness, the families of the slain missionaries later returned to the tribe, eventually winning many of them to Christ.

Nate Saint's son, Steve, was asked: "So you've had a history of reconciliation [with the Waodani] over the years, but there wasn't a specific moment of reconciliation?"

He replied:

It was a developing thing, but I think that the point of reconciliation really was with Mincaye (min - ky - ee) [the man who killed Steve's father] and my Aunt Rachel. In her journal she once wrote, "Tonight when I was sleeping in the hammock I heard a noise. Somebody was walking around in the dark." Mincaye called out to her and squatted by her fire, wanting to talk.

He said, "You said that Waengongi (win - gong - gee), the Creator, is very strong."

Aunt Rachel said: "Mincaye, he is very strong. He made everything here, even the dirt."

Mincaye said: "You said that he could clean somebody's heart. My heart being very, very dark, can he clean even my heart?"

Aunt Rachel said, "Being very strong, he can clean even your heart."

She wrote that Mincaye got up and walked away, but that the next morning he came back excited. He said: "Star, what you said is true. Speaking to God, he has cleaned my heart. Now it's waatamo (wa - tom - o) —it's clear like the sky when it has no clouds in it."

That was the real beginning of reconciliation.

The same God that changed Mincaye’s heart, that cleansed King David’s heart after his sin, that changed Saul into Paul, that has changed the hearts of millions over the years, can cleanse and change our hearts today.