Wake-Up Wednesday

1 Corinthians 15:34 - Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

This verse is one of the most convicting in all of scripture.

It is a wake up call in every sense
1) It is a rebuke by God through Paul to Corinth to wake up, (thereby making it clear that they were spiritually asleep) -and it is a rebuke that passes through time to all who are sleeping in every generation

Consider the state of sleep:

• it accomplishes something beneficial for self but not for others
• the sleeping individual is not aware of what is going on around him/her - vulnerable
• large periods of time go by in this state without the individual really noticing it - it seems like only a moment to them
• often an individual does not wake up on their own but it require some type of outside disturbance or wake up call

We all understand that this command of God echoes through time from its original intended audience to God's children of today - "Those of you who are sleeping - WAKE UP!"

There is little doubt that there is a significant need for revival across churches in America today - many of us in the body of Christ have gone through these times of sleeping where the emphasis was turned to self and not others, times where we have become vulnerable and fallen victim to many of the subtle attacks of the enemy because we were not sober and vigilant to see the impact of these subtle wiles, a lot of time has past with little spiritual growth and little fruit abounding to our account and quite frankly - we like our sleep - it is comfortable and we are not likely to wake up on our own...

Hence God cries out again and again - AWAKE

2) It is a call to Righteousness, a call to perfection (sin not)

I know arguments come in here but consider that if we are to take the Bible as being perfect, then to say that perfect doesn't really mean perfect as in flawless is a problem...

Websters - Perfect
1. Finished; complete; consummate; not defective; having all that is requisite to its nature and kind; as a perfect statue; a perfect likeness; a perfect work; a perfect system.
2. Fully informed; completely skilled; as men perfect in the use of arms; perfect in discipline.
3. Complete in moral excellencies.
Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Complete is what we use to define it, mature, developed, rooted, disciplined, consistent biblical adherence with the right motives behind our right practices.

That the man of God may be perfect...

1 John 4:17-18 speaks of being perfect in love - producing boldness

Christ teaches throughout the sermon on the mount to be perfect in motives and methods

We are shown by Paul in Romans 6 that we have victory over sin through Christ's victory over sin, death and hell

Can we be perfect? Reconciling these passges with what we know about ourselves and Romans 7 - in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not...

The inward man delights in the law of God but it is at war with the law of sin which is in our flesh

Never should we have an attitude of "I just need to try to sin less" We are called to be sinless. We are commanded to turn from it, to hate it, to revile it, to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God.

Will we fall short? A million times over - yes but we must never be content with that. We must never set a lower expectation for ourselves than what God sets and His expectation and command according to 1 Cor. 15:34 is to sin not.

Praise God that when we do sin - we have an ADVOCATE who is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When we accept that some sin is to be expected and that it is common to all - then what happens is that it does not grieve us how it should - we do not hate it how we should, we grow cold to our sin and we even find ourselves joking and foolish talking about our "little sins."

Pro 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Psalms 97:10 - Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Remember Job

Job 1:8 - And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

Yet when he saw who he was compared to God

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:3-4 -

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:5-6 -

This was a man that already beseeched God daily on behalf of his children lest peradventure they had sinned...

Isaiah has a similar reaction when he saw God (Isa. 6)

Seeing God for His absolute holiness and seeing us for our absolute wickedness through His word is what will help us see just the extent of revival that we need.

One preacher put it this way - If you have ever been closer to God then you are right now, it is obvious you need revival. To take that one step further, at our closest to God, is it likely that we were as close to God as Job when God bragged on him...

Revival is desperately needed - to be able to weep for souls, to see thier fate without Christ as I approach them, to be so enamored with the cause and mission of God that the things of earth grow strangely dim and incredibly unimportant.

3) FOR SOME HAVE NOT THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - SPOKEN TO OUR SHAME

it is this generation of Christians reponsibility to reach this generation of the world with the gospel of Christ

When we are asleep, when we are desensitized away from the need, when we become selfserving, when we are accepting of sin rather than hating it vehemently, when we do not hunger and thirst after righteousness by hungering and thirsting after God through His word - - the burden is weak, the passion is small, the love is not all consuming, the concern is not great, the mission is not ever on our hearts, in our prayers, the talk of our lips, the topic of our studies and the goal of our lives

The neighbors, coworkers and friends do not get reached by sleeping Christians

God does not get worshipped in spirit and in truth by sleeping Christians

The uttermost does not get reached by sleeping churches, God's heartbeat for souls all through the world is not in the forefront of the priorities of sleeping churches.

And when Christians are asleep, often we dont realize it - we are in a dreamworld where we are such a success for God that He is pleased with all we do and although we need a little brushing up and maybe to read an extra chapter a day etc - we certainly dont need to weep or be broken or consider that we may actually not have arrived.

Now that I have discouraged myself (since i'm my only reader) lets remember that after Romans 6 where we learn we are to have victory over sin and then Romans 7 where we learn that it will be a continuous battle with our flesh for life we have Romans 8.

There we are encouraged with promises of being conquerors, being adopted by God, being on the winning team and that nothing can separated us from that love of Christ - GLORY!

Lets allow God to drive us to His word and to our knees right now - Revival is typically associated with fasting, weeping and mourning in scripture. Those things are responses to conviction about our sins, the lost world around us and a brokenness for wanting to be closer to God and more like Him.

God takes pleasure in showing mercy and in His mercy He would desire to bring revival if we are ready to be broken...