1 00:00:00,800 --> 00:00:04,000 In Romans chapter 13 in verses 11 and 12. 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,800 The Apostle Paul says and do this knowing the time that now 3 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:11,600 it is high time to awake out of sleep. 4 00:00:11,900 --> 00:00:16,600 For now, our Salvation is nearer than when we first believed the 5 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:19,600 night is far. Spent the day is at hand. 6 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,200 Therefore, let us cast off. The works of darkness. 7 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:26,600 And let us put on the armor of light. 8 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:30,300 I would like to propose to you the question tonight. 9 00:00:30,700 --> 00:00:35,400 Are you woke? I heard that term sometime back 10 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,300 and I was not aware of what it meant so I took the time to look 11 00:00:39,300 --> 00:00:43,900 it up and I find out that merriamwebster.com says that 12 00:00:43,900 --> 00:00:47,400 woke is a slang term. That is easing into the 13 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:52,100 mainstream from African American vernacular English and that in 14 00:00:52,100 --> 00:00:58,300 some dialects awake is often rendered as awoke as in, I was 15 00:00:58,300 --> 00:01:05,700 sleeping but now I'm woke. Wo ke Wolk is increasingly used 16 00:01:05,700 --> 00:01:10,800 metaphorically. I'm told for social awareness, a 17 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,000 person who has awakened to social issues and has become 18 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,100 aware of Injustice or oppression or whatever particular social 19 00:01:19,100 --> 00:01:22,900 issue of the day happens to be that person is said to be woke 20 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:25,600 and that just means they're awake. 21 00:01:26,300 --> 00:01:29,300 It is very quickly taking on broader uses. 22 00:01:29,300 --> 00:01:33,500 For example, awoke Corporation is a company that That is 23 00:01:33,700 --> 00:01:37,600 socially aware and adopts Progressive policies, and 24 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:41,600 advertising campaigns reflective of that social awareness. 25 00:01:42,900 --> 00:01:45,500 I also learned that the term woke. 26 00:01:45,500 --> 00:01:50,200 Twitter has a very recently taken off as the shorthand for 27 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:53,800 describing social media activists concern with 28 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:58,800 Progressive issues. So I want to say tonight that 29 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:02,400 woke is something we need to be in the biblical sense of the 30 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:06,300 term. So I asked, are you woke? 31 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:11,300 In Romans 13, the passage that I just read a moment ago, the 32 00:02:11,300 --> 00:02:15,300 Apostle says that it is high time to awake out of sleep, it 33 00:02:15,300 --> 00:02:19,400 is not a time for lethargy and Slumber, but rather it's a time 34 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:24,100 if you will to become woke. Now, there's a tone of urgency 35 00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:28,200 in Paul's words tonight and I hope to be able to communicate 36 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:32,600 that urgency to you as well. So number one tonight, we need 37 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:36,100 to become woke on the brevity of life. 38 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:41,100 James said, in chapter 4 and verse 14, for what is your life? 39 00:02:41,100 --> 00:02:43,800 It is even a vapor that appears for a little time. 40 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:49,200 And then vanishes away when James, Likens your life and mine 41 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:53,600 to a vapor, he Compares it to one of the most fleeting and 42 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:58,100 ephemeral, phenomena of nature. You know, a morning fog appears 43 00:02:58,100 --> 00:03:03,300 in the Twilight morning hours of the day and it is there only for 44 00:03:03,300 --> 00:03:06,500 a brief time and if you're not paying close attention, son, 45 00:03:06,700 --> 00:03:09,700 Only the fog has dissipated before you hardly notice that 46 00:03:09,700 --> 00:03:15,200 it's gone and such as our life. Paul and James are saying 47 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:20,000 therefore that we must wake up and realize even if we're very 48 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,100 young that our life is very temporary. 49 00:03:23,100 --> 00:03:28,100 Well completely temporary and quite brief as it turns out. 50 00:03:28,700 --> 00:03:31,800 In other words we need to give our greatest energies and our 51 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:36,100 service to the Lord now today, because the days are fleeting 52 00:03:36,300 --> 00:03:40,400 and The time passes quickly and we should not therefore squander 53 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:45,100 away our days and are times in our lives for the service of the 54 00:03:45,100 --> 00:03:48,900 material, things of the world, and the service of the devil in 55 00:03:48,900 --> 00:03:52,100 the world. Now I might add though that even 56 00:03:52,100 --> 00:03:55,300 if you take a look at yourself and realize that you've been 57 00:03:55,308 --> 00:04:00,200 guilty of doing this, and even if it may even be late in life 58 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,100 for you as long as you're still breathing, and as long as your 59 00:04:04,100 --> 00:04:07,500 heart is beating as long as you're still, Walking above the 60 00:04:07,500 --> 00:04:11,400 ground, it is still an opportunity for you to change 61 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,000 that. You now can serve God Faithfully 62 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,100 more Faithfully, perhaps than before, I'm afraid though that 63 00:04:19,100 --> 00:04:22,700 the way we are sometimes we need to hear the words of the Apostle 64 00:04:22,700 --> 00:04:28,600 Paul in Ephesians 4 or 5 and verse 14, awake, you who sleep 65 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,200 arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. 66 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:37,200 And so if we're not in the right way and if we're not, Not awake 67 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:41,000 on these issues on this matter of the brevity of life than it's 68 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,600 time that we woke up, it's time that we become woke. 69 00:04:45,100 --> 00:04:49,800 Number two, we need to become woke on the pressing needs of 70 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:54,700 God's service. Now that may be the same point, 71 00:04:54,700 --> 00:04:58,000 I just made, I don't know, but let me just add to it a little 72 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,400 bit. In Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 73 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,100 28. Paul says, let us have Grace 74 00:05:03,100 --> 00:05:06,500 whereby. We may serve God acceptably. 75 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:10,800 With reverence and godly fear. This passage speaks of an 76 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:15,000 acceptable service to God. And let me just say tonight that 77 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:19,400 God needs people to serve him. Now, let me clarify, but God 78 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:23,700 doesn't need anything from us, just read the book of Psalm, the 79 00:05:23,700 --> 00:05:27,500 50th Psalms, the 50th Psalm, and you'll see what I mean. 80 00:05:27,700 --> 00:05:31,400 God doesn't need anything from me, and he doesn't need anything 81 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:36,400 from you, but let me say that God has put his cause into the 82 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:38,800 hands of human beings in this world. 83 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:42,200 And the only way that his cause can be represented and upheld in 84 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:46,500 the world is by people to take hold of that cause and to go 85 00:05:46,500 --> 00:05:50,100 forth with the work. God needs people to love him or 86 00:05:50,100 --> 00:05:54,000 God's cause needs people to love God Jesus. 87 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:56,900 Quoted the Old Testament and you shall love the Lord. 88 00:05:56,900 --> 00:05:59,500 Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all 89 00:05:59,500 --> 00:06:03,900 your mind and all your strength. We also need to love the word of 90 00:06:03,900 --> 00:06:05,800 God. Now, you can go out on the 91 00:06:05,808 --> 00:06:08,200 street and I see, Postponed. The whole lot of people who 92 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,100 would tell you that they have a love of the word of God, and 93 00:06:11,100 --> 00:06:13,800 maybe you can find a lot of people in the church that say 94 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,800 they have a love of the word of God, but if you watch them and 95 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:20,200 listen to them, I'm and observe their patterns of behavior over 96 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:23,600 the course of several weeks days months or Years, you'll find 97 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:26,400 that maybe they don't quite honor it, like, they say. 98 00:06:26,700 --> 00:06:30,400 So when we say love the word of God, we're talking about having 99 00:06:30,500 --> 00:06:34,400 enough of the motivation and the willingness to devote our 100 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:38,100 energies and our resources. To cherishing the word of God 101 00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:41,100 searching, the word of God devouring, the word of God 102 00:06:41,100 --> 00:06:45,700 imbibing, the word of God and accepting it and letting it soak 103 00:06:45,700 --> 00:06:49,500 into the pores of our thoughts. So that we may play them out in 104 00:06:49,700 --> 00:06:52,200 our lives or the word out in our lives. 105 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:57,400 In other words, obey it. God needs people to do this. 106 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:02,200 Let me add God's cause needs people to make the life of the 107 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:05,800 church. Ask lifestyle, and not just an 108 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:09,100 appendage. To all of the American dream 109 00:07:09,100 --> 00:07:13,100 that we sometimes devote more attention to, it seems than the 110 00:07:13,100 --> 00:07:17,100 services of God, people need to devote themselves to the cause 111 00:07:17,100 --> 00:07:20,800 of God in every respect. So that the work of the church, 112 00:07:20,900 --> 00:07:24,300 the efforts of the church. The plans of the church to carry 113 00:07:24,300 --> 00:07:27,800 out the cause of the Lord, the services of the church, if you 114 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:32,700 will become the Warped and wooof of Our Lives on a day-to-day 115 00:07:32,700 --> 00:07:34,800 basis. And like I said, not just a 116 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:38,600 patch that's added on Or so don on Sunday. 117 00:07:39,100 --> 00:07:42,700 And so my friends, we need to become walk on the service of 118 00:07:42,700 --> 00:07:48,600 God but let me hasten and we need to become woke on the evils 119 00:07:48,700 --> 00:07:52,100 of sin in Ephesians 5 and verse 11. 120 00:07:52,300 --> 00:07:55,300 Paul says, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful 121 00:07:55,300 --> 00:08:02,500 works of darkness but rather expose them Have no Fellowship. 122 00:08:02,900 --> 00:08:08,100 This means no Affinity with no involvement in no participation 123 00:08:08,100 --> 00:08:12,500 in any of the things that the Bible calls sin. 124 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:15,700 Now, let me just tell you in my observation. 125 00:08:15,700 --> 00:08:19,500 You can take that position and you can apply it to your life in 126 00:08:19,500 --> 00:08:24,200 a practical way on a day-to-day beat the basis and many people 127 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:29,000 sometimes, even members of the church will call you radical and 128 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,400 extreme. But I believe that extreme and 129 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:35,100 radical is the thing that Paul had in mind. 130 00:08:35,299 --> 00:08:39,500 For when we consider the great power and the force of the sins 131 00:08:39,500 --> 00:08:42,700 of the world and the things that surround us everywhere and 132 00:08:42,700 --> 00:08:46,400 threaten, the spiritual lives of ourselves and our children, we 133 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:50,500 need to be a little more radical than we are and quit trying to 134 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:55,300 Buddy up to the world's, somehow win them to the church through a 135 00:08:55,300 --> 00:09:01,000 congenial stance with sin. It's time that we get Us about 136 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:04,800 living the Christian Life. Now permit me to criticize 137 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:08,600 parents, even though I'm not one, I've been an observer for a 138 00:09:08,608 --> 00:09:12,400 long time of parents raising their children in the church. 139 00:09:12,900 --> 00:09:16,300 And it's been my notice that parents who are proactive, and 140 00:09:16,300 --> 00:09:20,600 make a plan and executed effort to instill, Holiness and a 141 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:24,400 respect for the word of God and a commitment to the body of 142 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,900 Christ. Those parents, who do that have 143 00:09:26,900 --> 00:09:30,200 a far better track record of raising children, who will? 144 00:09:30,300 --> 00:09:33,300 The same thing when they become adults than those, who simply 145 00:09:33,300 --> 00:09:38,400 again, are reactive and only try to fight things off once they've 146 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:41,900 been invited into the home or into the lives of people and in 147 00:09:41,900 --> 00:09:44,900 the lives of their children, because they've been lakhs and 148 00:09:44,900 --> 00:09:49,700 careless in the treatment of matters of sin, relative to the 149 00:09:49,700 --> 00:09:51,600 family. Let me add to this point. 150 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:55,600 Father's need to step up and be the spiritual leaders of the 151 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:58,400 family and stop leaving it for the mothers. 152 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:00,300 You know, people think it's easy. 153 00:10:00,300 --> 00:10:02,900 Seems like that because the mother carries the baby in the 154 00:10:02,900 --> 00:10:05,500 womb and the mother cares for the little toddler. 155 00:10:05,500 --> 00:10:08,300 When it's very young. While the father's off working 156 00:10:08,300 --> 00:10:11,000 at the job and the mother takes care of this and takes care of 157 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,200 that though, when it comes to the matters of spirituality than 158 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:15,900 she ought to take care of that too. 159 00:10:16,300 --> 00:10:18,500 And the problem is that a lot of fathers. 160 00:10:18,500 --> 00:10:22,000 I noticed this in the church a lot, there are lots of men who 161 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,900 think that it is their responsibility simply to make a 162 00:10:24,908 --> 00:10:28,100 living, give, thanks at the dinner table and drive the 163 00:10:28,100 --> 00:10:32,100 family to church on Sunday and Virtually no other input from 164 00:10:32,100 --> 00:10:35,600 the father on matters of spirituality than that. 165 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:38,100 My friends. I'm afraid that there are men 166 00:10:38,100 --> 00:10:41,300 who are going to lose their souls in the day of judgment for 167 00:10:41,300 --> 00:10:45,900 the failure to follow up, and to step up and take the lead in the 168 00:10:45,900 --> 00:10:48,300 family on matters of spirituality. 169 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,200 They are going to be accountable before God on the day of 170 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,400 judgment for the fact that their children are no longer in the 171 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:59,600 body of Christ, and maybe even other influences as a result of 172 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:02,400 that. You know, the Apostle Paul in 173 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:06,100 Ephesians chapter 4 speaks of the fact that there is a thing 174 00:11:06,100 --> 00:11:11,000 called the corruption, that is in the world that grows corrupt. 175 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:14,900 We need to fight that off, we need to do whatever we can and 176 00:11:14,900 --> 00:11:17,600 if we don't know what to do, was talk to people and ask questions 177 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:22,200 and find out what we can do. And what we can know about how 178 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:26,300 to fight off the ways of sin, but I must hurry, we need to 179 00:11:26,300 --> 00:11:30,100 become woke, I believe on the very real and raw. 180 00:11:30,300 --> 00:11:36,800 Rising threat of persecution. Yes, really in Luke chapter 21 181 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:38,500 and verse 12. Jesus says. 182 00:11:38,500 --> 00:11:41,400 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you 183 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:45,300 and persecute you delivering you up to synagogues and prisons. 184 00:11:45,300 --> 00:11:51,200 You will be brought before Kings and rulers for my namesake for 185 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:53,200 years. I think we've been reading these 186 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:56,600 passages like this, as something that that was the way it was 187 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:58,600 back. Then, that's something the may 188 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:02,100 be the way it was a few. Centuries ago but we don't need 189 00:12:02,100 --> 00:12:05,400 to concern ourselves so much with that today and that's been 190 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:08,700 true and maybe it still is to a great extent. 191 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:13,400 But here in this passage Jesus says that persecution involves 192 00:12:13,500 --> 00:12:16,400 prosecution. In other words, whenever 193 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,900 persecution comes on the rise, it will be through the arm of 194 00:12:19,900 --> 00:12:24,800 the state that will attempt to thwart the church and to silence 195 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:28,200 people into submission. This is the way it was all 196 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:31,800 through the Old Testament. When those Us and very brave Old 197 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,400 Testament, prophets were again. And again brought before one of 198 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,800 the Kings of Israel and Judah and brought to task for some of 199 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:41,000 the things that they preached and declared. 200 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,300 Among the people all the way down to the end of the Bible, in 201 00:12:44,300 --> 00:12:47,900 the Book of Revelation when for example, the church at Smyrna in 202 00:12:47,900 --> 00:12:51,800 the Book of Revelation was threatened with the same power 203 00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:54,500 persecution comes through the state. 204 00:12:55,500 --> 00:13:01,000 Now, I'm not an alarmist and I'm not here to be Sensational and 205 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,300 I'm not trying to impress you with anything of that sort. 206 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:08,600 And I don't want to frighten people, but I'm afraid I'll be 207 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:12,300 honest with you. That we are living in the last 208 00:13:12,300 --> 00:13:15,300 days of comfortable Christianity, in America. 209 00:13:15,900 --> 00:13:18,900 And if you think I'm just being radical, just go out and take a 210 00:13:18,900 --> 00:13:22,700 look on the internet at some of the things that people who we 211 00:13:22,700 --> 00:13:24,500 may disagree with, on some things. 212 00:13:24,500 --> 00:13:26,600 But we are Agree, on other things. 213 00:13:26,900 --> 00:13:30,800 And some of those things people are being fined for their being 214 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,800 run out of business for their even being put into prison for 215 00:13:35,300 --> 00:13:38,300 just take a look at the things that you hear and see on the 216 00:13:38,300 --> 00:13:39,900 news. And if you think you haven't 217 00:13:39,900 --> 00:13:43,000 heard much about it, I say go take a look again on the 218 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,400 internet. There is a growing hatred of 219 00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:50,400 Christianity of the judeo, Christian ethics and morality 220 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:55,000 and moreover anyone who upholds it and believes it is hate. 221 00:13:55,100 --> 00:14:00,400 All the more for doing so, and the person who is bold enough to 222 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:04,000 step up and take a stand for, it takes the Heat. 223 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,700 And let me tell you, it's hot in the kitchen, it's hot in the 224 00:14:08,700 --> 00:14:11,500 kitchen. Whenever that type of opposition 225 00:14:11,500 --> 00:14:15,100 comes people all over the Western World. 226 00:14:15,100 --> 00:14:17,400 I don't know if some of you are aware of this or not for we only 227 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:21,300 hear it occasionally now and then on the news but it's all 228 00:14:21,300 --> 00:14:24,100 over the place. All over the Western World and 229 00:14:24,100 --> 00:14:27,800 even in the United States today, people are being sued and being 230 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:30,800 issued. Massive fines for simply acting 231 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:35,000 or failing to act in some cases because of their conviction on 232 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:39,800 certain matters of principle and louder and more powerful voices 233 00:14:39,900 --> 00:14:43,100 are even now calling for legislation that essentially 234 00:14:43,300 --> 00:14:46,800 outlaws some parts of the Bible even in the United States of 235 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:49,000 America. You say, well, that's not going 236 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,000 to happen anytime soon. Maybe not. 237 00:14:52,500 --> 00:14:55,000 But I think we need to be aware of it, I think. 238 00:14:55,100 --> 00:14:58,200 We need to educate ourselves and we need to be thinking about 239 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,800 what we're going to do when we are confronted with these kinds 240 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:04,200 of things. Well I need to hurry. 241 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,500 I'm right now out of time. I want to say one more thing. 242 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:11,300 We need to get woke on the coming judgment. 243 00:15:12,300 --> 00:15:15,700 Jesus, and Paul, and the New Testament, writers proclaimed. 244 00:15:15,700 --> 00:15:19,600 A judgment Jesus proclaimed. The Judgment the world today, 245 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,500 says, there will not be one because there's no God. 246 00:15:22,900 --> 00:15:26,500 And the proof is in how they live and how they openly and 247 00:15:26,500 --> 00:15:31,400 proudly disdain God and His law and criticize every person who 248 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:35,100 upholds it. But just because a thing is not 249 00:15:35,100 --> 00:15:38,700 believe doesn't be mean, it will not become a reality simply 250 00:15:38,700 --> 00:15:41,400 denying. The Judgment doesn't mean it 251 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:42,600 will not. Come. 252 00:15:42,900 --> 00:15:46,100 I may defy. I'm a disdain the law of 253 00:15:46,100 --> 00:15:49,800 gravity, but if I jump off of a 30-story building, it's not 254 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,400 going to take me very long to figure out that the reality was 255 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:55,100 different than what? I believed. 256 00:15:55,500 --> 00:15:59,100 We need to be waking up. We need to wake up in our 257 00:15:59,100 --> 00:16:03,200 spiritual lives and do what we can to awake others. 258 00:16:04,500 --> 00:16:07,200 We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the 259 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:12,900 Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you 260 00:16:12,900 --> 00:16:16,100 would like any additional information or you would like to 261 00:16:16,100 --> 00:16:19,100 receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail. 262 00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:23,600 Please email us at info at True Church of Christ 263 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:27,600 Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays 264 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:33,200 at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. 265 00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:37,300 Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our 266 00:16:37,300 --> 00:16:38,200 honored guest.