Wake Up Call

[0:00] Romans 13 verse 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep,! For now is our salvation nearer than when we believe.

[0:28] ! It is high time! To awake out of sleep. It is high time! It's about time. God wants his people to wake up, rise up and shine.

[0:40] I know when I was a youngster, my mum and dad used to say, Rise and shine! I used to love that in the mornings. And awake out of sleep! It's time to wake up! You know, it's so easy to...

[0:52] Just love that pillow and just that ease, that comfort at times of being out of sleep. But the church needs a wake up call. Christians, we need a wake up call.

[1:05] It is high time to awake out of sleep. And historians tell us of some key signs of civilisations that are shown to be finishing. That marks the demise of a civilisation.

[1:17] There's a book, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And it tells us how it's when the family unit, the dignity and sanctity of the home is undermined.

[1:28] The morals of the nation, we know that nation is on its last legs. And there was another man, Zuma Man, in 1947. He listed the factors that show a decline of a civilisation.

[1:42] And he named them a breakdown of the family unit, a rise in feminism and in divorce, a disrespect for parents and authority, an increase in juvenile delinquency and rebellion, and a rise in promiscuity, perversion and adultery.

[1:59] Friends, it sounds like today's newspaper. It sounds like what's happening in our fair nation of Australia. And it's been said that man is the only animal that blushes or needs to.

[2:13] We ought to blush. We ought to be ashamed about the state of our nation. Think of it. It's been said, and I read this just very recent statistics, that there's been a sharp increase in profanity on primetime TV.

[2:29] Profanity means cursing Christ's name, the name of God, and cursing curse words. It's a documented fact. This recent report tells me that in the last five years, just the five past years, there's been a 70% increase in the increase of profanity, of cursing Christ, of God, of the foul words that prevail on TV and movies of late.

[2:59] What is going on? We need a wake-up call. We see the pushing upon society today of what they're calling same-sex marriage. It's being pushed upon us.

[3:12] Just by the way, someone might want to turn that down so it doesn't make that noise, the steamer there. In the US, the school libraries and the secular school systems are promoting the normalisation of homosexual relationships and lifestyle in the minds of children from kindergarten up.

[3:32] No wonder godly parents don't want their kids in that mess. No wonder. And Christian schools are just really the next ones to be hit with this.

[3:42] I'm reading that in the USA today, second graders, second graders, grade two kids, are being given a book called King and King.

[3:53] It's about two men who have a romance and marry each other with a picture of them kissing. This is being given to grade two kids. We're not far behind the USA people.

[4:05] No. No. Hundreds of high schools today in the US, even middle schools. So the younger kids, you know, pre-high school, are holding what they call in America gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender appreciation days.

[4:22] Oh, no. And they celebrate homosexual marriage and other behaviours such as cross-dressing and transsexuality. Friends, we need a wake-up call. Amen. We need a wake-up call in this nation.

[4:34] People of God. Children of God. Society's accepting these behaviours as what they're calling alternative lifestyles. Political correctness has gone so mad that no one dare question such things.

[4:47] Alternative lifestyles. Alternative lifestyles, they're calling it. Accepted, permeating, promoted in society and especially the media.

[4:58] And any negative comments are called homophobic or gay bashing. There's a culture shift happening, people, in the world today.

[5:10] And it's a moral decay. A moral decay. And it's happening at an accelerating rate. A moral decline. A moral disintegration. As paganism and perversion becomes the norm.

[5:22] There is no sense of shame. We ought to blush. These are days that call for a waking up of God's people. It is high time to awake out of sleep.

[5:36] For a discerning of the signs of the times. That time that the word speaks to us of judgment must begin at the house of God. Where we see many churches just not caring or not raising a question.

[5:53] In this world today, Christians are a declining percentage. We're becoming an ever more godless nation. Friends, the word says to you, it is high time to awake out of sleep.

[6:06] To awake out of sleep. We've abandoned the God of the Bible. Families are under attack. And there's a dark future ahead. Christians, what are you doing in this dark hour?

[6:20] Where are the Christians today? Where are they? I put it to you that many are fast asleep. Sound asleep. In the market driven church, they're oblivious to the peril of these times.

[6:34] Church services have become self-help seminars. Where the gospel is lacking, if at all. And for some in the church world, it's church politics that they're playing.

[6:48] Church politics. Where the church is just some ritual or some social club or a cold and formal religion. God forbid that we would have a church where the moving of the spirit of God has long gone.

[7:05] We need a wake up call, brother, sister today. In churches, we're seeing a soft gospel has taken the place of the real one.

[7:15] A soft gospel that challenges no one. There's an inactivity amongst the saints. It is high time to wake out of sleep. People, we need a wake up call.

[7:28] You know, you're just sleeping there soundly. And it's, I don't know what time yours goes off, but... Beep, beep, beep, beep. We need that, brother and sisters. We need to get that wake up call.

[7:40] You know, you're hearing. In the hotels, you can get Telstra to ring you and say... I don't know what they say, but they say, This is Telstra. This is your morning wake up call. We need somebody to wake us up.

[7:52] We need to have that phone call or set that alarm clock that we can hear the wake up call. A wake up call for the church in Australia. A wake up call, a call to arms, a call to greater responsibility.

[8:06] We read such things in Ephesians 5. From verse 11, the concept is of having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

[8:21] But all things are reproved, are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

[8:37] Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. You know, there's nothing the devil would love more than to sing you some lovely, soothing lullaby and rock you in your cradle.

[8:53] Friends, it's time. Fact is, you have been sleeping. I have been sleeping. Awake, thou that sleepest.

[9:05] Wake up. And beep, beep, beep. Don't just hit the snooze button. Don't just hit the snooze button. Turn it, turn it off and get out of bed.

[9:16] Amen. Don't just hit the snooze button. There's a danger for sleeping. I know when my family and I live in the outback, numbers of times, we used to come down to Adelaide for our holiday to visit all the rallies and used to drive that car, you know, some 800 kilometres a day or more, and by the end of that, you know, you need bat sticks.

[9:40] It's like you see those posters, you know, don't you, on the road sometimes. There's a danger of falling asleep at the wheel. And there's a lot of Christians, they don't realise the danger of sleeping, of spiritual sleepiness, the dangers of slothfulness.

[9:57] It's a sin. Slothfulness is a sin. Laziness is a sin. Sadly, when we ought to be awake, Christians sleep.

[10:09] They can hear the Holy Gospel preached, the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, but Christians sleep on. Let him who has ears to hear, listen, listen, wake up.

[10:23] Are you a slumbering Christian? We all can be. I know there's some shift workers here. Don't feel guilty if you start to nod off today. But are you just playing church?

[10:34] God forbid that any of us should play games with God. There's a great danger in that when the church becomes filled with comatose Christians. Comatose.

[10:45] They're almost a corpse. Playing church games. We need to stop trifling, stop pretending, and act now before it's too late to mean business with God.

[10:57] And when all things are pleasant, we sleep. Think of Jonah. The storm was about, but he was down in the deck, down in the bottom of the vessel, and Jonah was sound-o.

[11:09] He was sound asleep because he was safe on board the ship. But when Jonah was thrown out and in the belly of the whale, he prayed and waited upon God.

[11:20] He watched and prayed. Sometimes we need a wake-up call, a jolt. We need someone to give us a shake to wake up.

[11:31] There's a story of a man in a very cold climate, and he'd been walking along stretch.

[11:42] A blizzard came, and he holed up in some little crevice in the mountains, and he was very weary, very fatigued.

[11:54] He did not light a fire or remove his wet clothes. And a blizzard blasted through the cracks in the walls around him, and he sank into oblivion, paralysed by the storm's icy caress.

[12:09] Suddenly his dog sprang into action, and with unrelenting winds, family managed to rouse this near comatose man. The dog was John's constant companion.

[12:20] He says, if that dog hadn't been with me, I'd be dead today. The dog woke him up. The dog woke him up, and the dog kept him awake. It's a bit like my little dog.

[12:31] He tends to wake me up in the mornings when he's outside the window. He makes me get out of bed and yell at him. And we need something to rouse us.

[12:41] We need something to wake us, to stir us, to shake us. Are we cold and sleepy? It is high time to awake out of sleep.

[12:52] Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. What is it going to take you? What is it going to take to get you to wake up?

[13:04] To get you out of your comfort zone? What is it going to take? Maybe it will be like in Mark 10, 38. The Lord Jesus says, Can you drink this cup?

[13:17] Can you drink this cup? Mark 10, 38. But Jesus said unto them, You know not what you ask. The context there was that these disciples saying, Hey, we'd love to sit on your right and your left in the kingdom and have all the glory in the end days when you come again.

[13:34] And Jesus says, You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized, baptized with the baptism that I am baptized?

[13:47] Can you drink of the cup? He says, And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, You shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of, and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized.

[14:05] What a cup! The cup of the cross, the cup of Gethsemane. Can you drink of that cup, that bitter cup? It could be a cup of suffering that you will be called to drink of.

[14:16] It could be a cup of trial, a bitter cup, a baptism with fire. We have to step out of our sleepiness, our casualness, our mediocrity to stop playing church.

[14:29] And to drink of that cup if it be called of you. Friends, in other countries it would be. It would be. I saw a video clip of a reenactment of the Romans and the Christians being fed to the lions.

[14:44] It was a graphic film. Just some graphic clips of what it could have been like as they were there kneeling there in the amphitheatre holding babies, some of them, and they unleashed the lions.

[14:56] They opened the gates and the lions came out and devoured them. Friends, you ain't seen nothing yet. It's time to wake up. It's high time.

[15:07] As someone put it along these lines about the question of playing church. And I've been guilty of that. He puts it like this. You're not playing church when you can say I'll volunteer to help with the outreach.

[15:22] You're not playing church when you can say I'll apologise to that church member for what I did to her two years ago. You're not playing church when you can say there's a smelly, poorly dressed newcomer down the back.

[15:34] I'm going to befriend him. Not casting a person so there are newcomers here today. But I'm going to befriend that one. I'm going to make an effort. I'm going to step outside of the comfort zone.

[15:45] It is high time to awake out of sleep. It's time to rouse the sleeping saints. You'll know you're playing church when you forget your Bible and you haven't spent time in prayer beforehand.

[15:56] You'll know you're playing church when you attend without a burden for those in the community who don't know the gospel. You know you're playing church when you're preoccupied with doctrinal Nats training but have no desire to do the real work.

[16:13] You know you're playing church when you shy away from helping others in need. You know you're playing church when you seek power and position in the church.

[16:24] You know you're playing church when you hunger for personal details about other members so you can engage in gossip. You know you're playing church when you criticise and fault find but do nothing yourself.

[16:38] Are you playing church or will you be the church? It's time to quit playing church to get out of it and keep out of it to be the real deal.

[16:53] and Christianity needs a wake up call. We need a wake up call in this church. Forget about pointing fingers at others. This church has got a long way to go.

[17:05] A long long long way to go. We need a wake up call. And we need preaching that is strong and hot and powerful. And it's been said God never calls a man to entertain sinners on the road to hell.

[17:19] It's not God's design that a preacher comes as a joke teller because he thinks he has to entertain his audience. We need preaching. We need powerful witnessing as we heard earlier today where we can see Holy Spirit conviction where we can see Bible repentance Bible regeneration people truly born again not some glib words at an altar and then they just go and live like the devil as if nothing really happened and nothing really did happen.

[17:53] Every second seven people die. Over 600,000 daily. Do you care? Do you care? If you do care care enough to do something.

[18:08] We were challenged oh that was probably the most challenging part of the service so far was that honesty to say I'm afraid to give out a track but I didn't. Amen. Do you care?

[18:20] Do you care enough to do something about it? If you do not care enough to do something about it then you do not care. It's the real reality and friends we need to most of all fear God.

[18:38] Fear God. A return to that kind of Christianity where God is truly fear where there's a trembling at the word.

[18:49] We take it seriously. Where Christianity is that real that there's a fear of God and friends if you work around dynamite it's a good thing to have fear of that dynamite.

[19:03] A healthy respect not to just throw it around and muck around with it. Dynamite is something that you should have a healthy fear about. When you work around water I know I spoke with a pond of water near their house and they've got to be keeping an eye on their little tackers there's a healthy fear of that water.

[19:21] It's needful to have a respect for the water. If you work around high voltage you respect the voltage you have fear of it. Do you fear God or do you just play games with him?

[19:33] Do you just take it lightly and easily and breezily that you don't really take it seriously about your devotion to him about your love for him? Does it count? Does it really count?

[19:44] Or are you playing church? It's high time to awake out of sleep for a wake up call for personal revival to mean business with God with no reservations to be fully devoted Christ followers not to play it safe as the world would count it but to go outside of your comfort zone to be dangerous to do violence to the kingdom of darkness soldiers of Christ arise we ought to be where the hottest conflict is it's high time to awake out of sleep awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light to close some would say to the preacher a little dainty load of verses just like this preach a sermon preacher it's called preach a sermon preacher but don't preach very long just tell a heartwarming story but don't condemn the wrong say not the thing about specific problems because that's something we don't want to know we're just here to feel real good so don't mess up the show preach a sermon preacher but don't preach doctrine plain let others guess at what is meant don't ever call a name we'll sing your praises loud and long and keep you many a day but preach it clear and you will hear brother be on your way preach a sermon preacher but say nothing of our duty tell us all about

[21:24] God's grace and picture heaven's beauty leave out things that we must do we're busy making money keep it short and off the point and make it sweet as honey preach a sermon preacher but say nothing of our sins don't speak of hell repentance or other stuff that offends tell us about how Jesus loves each and everyone and how he'll forgive us no matter how our lives are run preach a sermon preacher but make sure we're entertained with the right technique there's sure to be new converts to be gained tell us about church youth programs and our gospel band with these we're sure to win more souls and give our Lord a hand preach a sermon preacher and speak of the day we die tell all the folks about our home beyond the starry sky preach a sermon preacher make it strong preach a straight to heaven tell us that since we have church membership we get eternal living friends it's so true isn't it playing church it's called playing church that little poem and it's so true isn't it we spend so much time playing church it is high time to awake out of sleep awake thou that sleep and christ shall give thee light friends i urge you today take this message and live it live it live it don't be a plain church kind of christian be the real deal be the real deal i urge you today let us pray dear lord our god we tremble at your word we respect it it is life it is dangerous to our sin lord let it do that dynamite work within that it might explode and destroy the self and sin that your blood might obliterate everything of sin and self lord that you might give us that piercing wake up call that we might rouse from sleep and slumber and snoozing and be awakened to the battle lord that we might face the conflict with your strength and help each one lord we know for some it could be the bitter cup it could be the baptism of fire that we are encountering it could be but yet lord that could be part of the!

[24:03] help us not to resist the convicting but let us lord to be in tune with you help each one each home each family each heart that you might be resident and president in each life we pray for your glory we ask in Jesus wonderful name Amen I love to tell the story of haunting things above of Jesus and his glory all of Jesus and his love