On New Years Day, 2025, I would like to share a sermon I delivered in 2012. Happy New Year, everyone.
Wake Up, Christians!
Romans 13:10-12
10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
An Urgent Appeal
11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light;
When we lived in Richmond, VA there was a radio show called “Earl Pitts, Uhmerican.” Earl began every rant with “you know what makes me sick, you know what makes me wanna throw up,” and then he would proceed to tell you. At the end of every segment Pitts said, “Wake Up, Uhmerica.”
Could it be that it is time for us to begin to say, “Wake up, Christians.” What I would like to share with you in these last couple of days in 2012 are these three things that I pulled directly from today’s Scripture:
- When given a choice, always choose love
- Wake Up to new possibilities
- Dress for a new day is coming
When I read the book of Romans, I feel like I am receiving a lesson on the history of Christianity. Paul recounts what life was like before Christ, and he instructs the converts that they are no longer under the law, but under grace. But grace does not free them to continue in their sin. As Paul says, God forbid. Rather, grace frees them to live in victory over their sin.
Our scripture today begins by telling us since love does no wrong to a neighbor, love is the fulfilling of the law. Amen and Amen. When the love of God begins to permeate our beings, then we will know we’ve moved beyond mere Christianity and into kingdom living.
Loving people who are like you is easy, but loving those who are different is not. Have you ever known someone who is just plain contentious? If you say black, they say white, if you say straight, they say crooked. What about people who clearly don’t love you? As disciples, how do we react?
1 John2: 5 But if anyone obeys his Word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him. 6 Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.
So the key to loving all people is obedience to God’s Word. Is it easy to love all people? No. But it is necessary. When we move into kingdom living, we are not made perfect but we are perfected in love. Our humanity is covered by Christ’s divinity, and because of Christ we are able to choose love.
Paul goes on to say that we are to understand the present time. During Paul’s time Christianity was facing very real obstacles. The Jewish Christians had reverted to a kind of hodgepodge of Christianity and Judaism. They would only accept Gentile Christians if they agreed to circumcision. So much for grace!
The Gentile Christians argued that God’s favor no longer fell upon the Jews so there was a real schism between the two groups. In reading the epistles, the early Church seemed to be in constant danger of eradication, if not from without then from within.
Today the problems Christians face may be different but they are no less threatening. Many people, even in North America, find the Church to be irrelevant. Christians are depicted as weak, using religion as a crutch. Some even go so far as to say God did not create us, but we created God so that we could have someone to blame when things go wrong.
We have lost many of our religious freedoms just in my lifetime. As a child, we read scripture, prayed and pledged allegiance to our flag at the beginning of every school day. In atheist countries such as China Christians are being imprisoned. In Muslim countries such as Iraq and Libya Christians are being martyred.
Paul says to wake up from sleep. What does that mean to us? We must stop playing church and be the church wherever we are. When we serve at a soup kitchen, do we perform such service as an obligation, or do we throw ourselves into what we are doing with a spirit of joy? When we see someone in need, do we hope someone else will stop and help so that we don’t have to, or do we give of ourselves, even if it is inconvenient?
Wake up, Christians, not to a new way of doing church but to a new way of being church.
How do you wake up in the morning? Do you have an internal alarm or do you need a physical alarm? Do you need someone to jostle you out of bed? Can you string a few words together to create a sentence or must you have a strong pot of coffee first to get your intellectual juices flowing.
If it is so hard to wake up physically, then how much more difficult is it to wake up spiritually? We don’t have an alarm clock to remind us that it is time to become alert, nor do we have the equivalent of spiritual coffee. So how do we wake up spiritually?
We must become disciplined in the word and in prayer in order to awaken to our responsibility and to grow the fruits of the spirit in our lives. Paul reminds us that when we accept the grace of God into our lives, we undergo a transformation. Where we once lived in the night, we now live in and reflect the light of Christ.
When the night is over, we take off our nightclothes and dress for the activities of the coming day. As disciples we are told to put on the whole armor of God. Ephesians 6 even lays out our clothing for us. We put on the helmet of salvation, we put on the breastplate of righteousness found only in Jesus, we gird our loins with the truth of the gospel, we pick up the shield of faith which can deflect slings and arrows from any direction, we are supplied with the sword of the Spirit, the living, breathing Word of God, and we go out with new shoes that leave footprints of peace wherever we go.
Should Jesus return during my lifetime, I want to be found sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, I want to be serving in my church, and I want to be helping the poor and the downtrodden.
A new year is upon us. We have a chance to start afresh, because that is what new years do, they enable us to leave our baggage in the previous year and begin with a new, fresh perspective.
Isaiah 60:1 says
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.”
Eph 5:8 says
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.
Eph 6:13 says
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
The night is nearly over, but the day is almost here. Perhaps we should begin greeting each other with “Wake up, Christians” and the response would be “We are Awake.” So how about it church? Wake up, Christians! We are Awake!
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Benediction:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace so that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Go in peace, and take the name of Jesus with you, and share Him with everyone you meet.
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- Tagged: exhortation, love, sermon
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