GET UP GET DRESSED GET BUSY
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The urgency of eternity should motivate us to get up, get dressed, and get busy.
GET UP
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Every believer is prone to relapse into a state of stupor. Such stupor is brought on by our failure to follow teaching in Romans 12:1-2. Failure to present oneself daily as a living sacrifice is the first step towards spiritual stupor. Failure to present oneself as a living sacrifice leads to world conformity which prevents transformation.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
Satan rocks Christians to sleep with songs of self not selfless love. He twists Scripture such as
For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Satan’s strategy is self. The Savior’s strategy is selfless. It’s not learn to love yourself and you will then love others. It’s love others as you already love yourself. Undoubtedly those to whom Paul was writing had fallen under Satan’s sway. They had fallen asleep and were failing to bear Christianity distinguishing mark - love. They failed to love others because they failed to love God first.
The Church of Ephesus, too, amidst their many exalted virtues, needed to be reproved for having left their first love
I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Listen to Paul’s caution given to believers at Thessalonica.
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.
Every believer, no matter his/her maturity level, is prone to stupor. We fail to remain vigilant as Peter warned us
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Scripture puts it commands in the habitual tense because our enemy never ceases. He takes no days off, no holidays, and no vacations. He is vigilant and this is why Scripture call us to be likewise.
What causes us to fall into these states of stupor, sleep, and slumber. This aliment has not one but many possible causes.
I will put forth only one possible cause from our study of Romans. Satan favorite tune is conformity.
His favorite design is conformity. His favorite look is conformity. His favorite show is conformity. His favorite hobby is conformity.
Just as a mother cradles her new born baby and sings it into sweet sleep so Satan does with God’s children. He cannot take us to hell so he attacks our spiritual health.
How long has it been since . . .
your hearts burned inside of you for Christ?
other have seen or experienced your zeal for Christ?
you spoke to others about Christ?
stood for Christ?
How long has it been?
Paul has used the mercies of God as motivation to Christian living. He now uses eternal urgency. Time is running out. There is no time to waste. This is Lexington, Mass April 8, 1775. Except it’s not the British who are coming it’s Beelzebub and his army.
Wake up there is . . .
a race to be run
a fight to be fought
a duty to be performed
prayers that need to be prayed
your neighbor, friend, co-worker, acquaintance that needs your Gospel witness
heaven to be gained and a hell to shun
a light that needs to shine in the darkness
salt that needs to be spread in a land of degradation
Wake up
time is running out
our final days are closer than we can imagine
people hearts are growing colder by the day
the harvest is ripe but the labors are few
life is short and eternity is forever
no man knows the day or hour of his return
God is not slack concerning his promises as some believe.
WAKE UP! AND GET DRESSED
GET DRESSED
The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Take off those clothes of conformity and put the armor of light.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
GET BUSY
Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.