Sermon Title: Wake up Call

Wake Up Call (2.12.17) 1

Sermon Title: Wake Up Call

First Scripture: Psalm 139:1-12

1You have searched me,Lord,
and you knowme.
2You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughtsfrom afar.
3You discern my going outand my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4Before a word is on my tongue
you,Lord, know it completely.
5You hem me inbehind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too loftyfor me to attain.

7Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I fleefrom your presence?
8If I go up to the heavens,you are there;
if I make my bedin the depths, you are there.
9If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10even there your hand will guide me,
your right handwill hold me fast.
11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12even the darkness will not be darkto you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Second Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6

“To the angel[a]of the church in Sardiswrite:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b]of God and the seven stars.I know your deeds;you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief,and you will not know at what timeI will come to you.
4Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.They will walk with me, dressed in white,for they are worthy.5The one who is victoriouswill, like them, be dressed in white.I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life,but will acknowledge that name before my Fatherand his angels.6Whoever has ears, let them hearwhat the Spirit says to the churches.

Who here is at their best in the morning, who are our morning people? Who here is at their best in the evening, who are our night owls? Who here is never at their best (I'm raising my hand for me)?
BK, that is before kids, I was very much a morning person. I did some of my best work in the wee hours of the morning. Early in our marriage, I was doing school work very early in the morning, and it was about time for Brittany to wake up to go to work. I thought it would be really sweet for Brittany not to wake up to some alarm, but to me singing. Guess who is not a morning person? Suffice it to say I am thankful the only thing within Brittany's reach was a pillow! If it were a hard and or sharp object, that would have hurt! Now I send the kids in to wake her up. The maternal instinct will override the morning hatred instinct.
Wake up calls can be irritating, devastating, and distressing, can't they!? This could be because it rips us out of a state of comfort and complacence forcing us to adapt, and change. In other words we have to wake up. This is true of physical wake up calls and spiritual wake up calls. We are continuing our series on the seven churches Jesus writes to in Revelation. Some of these churches get a good review, some get a mixed review, they are bad, others are just plain ugly! Therefore the series is entitled "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly." This morning we are taking a look at Sardis, a church that is just plain ugly and desperately needed a wakeup call from Jesus!
This church had slipped into a spiritual slumber from which Jesus says "Wake Up! You are about to die. You are about to sever your relationship with me, and you need to snap out of it!" Isn't this how relationships normally die? For sure sometimes there are big blow outs that end marriages, friendships, and other close relationships. But more often than not, over time, we just fall asleep to a relationship. We do not nourish it, we get busy doing things we think are more important. Then, seemingly all of a sudden, we are living with a stranger, our relationship with a 'best friend,' close sibling, parent, or child is almost dead. As we consider Jesus' letter to the church in Sardis, we are going to discover how to perceive and respond to the "A,B,C's" God's wakeup calls in our lives. To be open to God's wakeup calls we need to surrender our assumptions, behavior, and control to Him.
What does it mean to get a wakeup call by surrendering our assumptions to the Lord?
Telling the Christians in Sardis to "Wake up!" and saying "if you don't wake up, come like a thief,and you will not know at what timeI will come to you," would have resonated with them because of the history of the city.Sardis was built on a huge mountain or acropolis. Before the age of rockets, bullets, and any kind of aircraft this was a huge advantage! Sardis was literally one of the most defendable cities in the empire. So defendable, in fact, that the people of Sardis, on two occasions, went to sleep with no guards watching the gates during a siege. They assumed they were safe. The opposing generals picked two of their best climbers, they climbed up the rock face, opened the gates, from the inside, and when the people of Sardis awoke the next morning they were captured!
It seems the people of Sardis were making the same mistake with their spiritual lives. As Jesus says "you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead!" They assumed they were 'good enough' for God, but their relationship with God was dying. When dealing with an area of spiritual deadness not infrequently, we hear people saystuff like "God knows what is in my heart" as if that is comforting. It is true that God knows our hearts. In Psalm 139 we say to the Lord "You have searched me,Lord,and you knowme.You know when I sit and when I rise;you perceive my thoughtsfrom afar." Instead of being a comfort that makes us complacent, however, this should be a wakeup call! This should be terrifying!
After all, the Psalm goes on to say "even the darkness will not be darkto you;the night will shine like the day,for darkness is as light to you." In other words, when we say 'God knows my heart' it means He doesn't just see the shiny, happy parts we are willing to show other people. The dark, icky, painful places we keep hidden from others are in broad daylight to the Lord. To be receptive to God's wakeup call in our lives, we need to surrender the assumption that we are ok the way we are. We have to invitethe Lord to work on our hearts,especially the dark places we want to keep hidden from others. This is what Charles Wesley was getting at when writing, "I have long withstood his grace,long provoked him to his face,would not hearken to his calls,grieved him by a thousand falls.I my Master have denied,I afresh have crucified, oft profaned his hallowed name,put him to an openshame.There for me the Savior stands,shows his wounds and spreads his hands.God is love! I know, I feel;Jesus weeps and loves me still.Now incline me to repent,let me now my sins lament,now my foul revolt deplore,weep, believe, and sin no more." That's the good news, even in giving us a wakeup call to our rebellion He opens His arms and says 'repent' trust in me, you will be forgiven, even more, you will be restored!
As we surrender assumptions to Him, He not only restoresour heart but also our behavior, "b" of our ABC's. Our behaviors are outer manifestations of the inner state of our heart.
For the first time in Revelation Jesus uses the metaphor of cloths reflecting the way people live. He indicates that those who have soiled their cloths have taken on the dehumanizing values of the fallen world around them. Those who live into the life giving values of the kingdom of heaven, on the other hand, will be "clothed in white." This image would have been a powerful one for folks in the Roman world. In that time and place the color of one's cloths indicated what social class you belonged to. The ruling class wore purple, the equestrian class wore red etcetera. Therefore one's clothing was an outward manifestation of one's social status and identity.
This metaphor reaches a culmination in chapter 19 of Revelation. Here we find the church as the bride of Christ dressed in fine, pure linen. This finelinen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Think about this metaphor. When I got married I did not marry a dress, I married Brittany. She could have walked down the aisle in sweatpants and a hoodie, and I would have still married her. But she didn't want that. Instead, she wanted to wear a beautiful dress, and mission accomplished by the way! Why did she want to wear that beautiful dress? Not for our friends and family, not for the pictures, but for her groom, lucky guy!
In marrying the church, Jesus engages us in loving, redemptive relationship. In marrying the church He is not marrying the dress, our righteous deeds. He is marrying His bride because He loved us first and we trust in Him. Because of that love, we want to put on righteous deeds. With the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, we want our outward behavior, our 'clothing,' to reflect our inward commitment, love, and identity. When we consider our behavior, is God giving us a wakeup call? Is what we do a reflection of who we are in Christ? If not, Jesus invites us to repent, turn away from those things, and toward Him.
Turning toward Him is opening ourselves to a wakeup call. Surrendering our assumptions and behavior to Christ leads to, 'c' in our ABC's, a complete surrender of controlin our lives.
Toward the end of His letter to the church in Sardis, Jesus says He will acknowledge the names of those who surrender control to Him before His Father and the angels. This reminds us of passages like Matthew 10:32-33 in which Jesus says, "Whoever acknowledges me before others,I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven." When we are here among believers, the songs, scriptures, prayers, and those around us are encouraging us to sing with our lives that great hymn "I surrender all." However, when we go out in public, 'before others' as Jesus says, too often I surrender all turns into, I surrender almost.
In order to be aware of and responsive to God's wakeup calls we surrender control in all areas of our lives. The Psalmist says "Search me,God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts" not "Search me, God, but not too much!" What parts of our lives, what situations, relationships, and decisions, are we trying to take control, when we really need to surrender? By His Holy Spirit, God will show us those areas of our lives thereby giving us our wakeup call!
As we depart today, let's learn from the Christians in Sardis. Whether we are a morning person who cannot wait to wake up and start our day, or we just want to hit the snooze alarm one more time, let's not miss our spiritual wake up call.
A wakeup call that comes from surrendering our assumptions to the Lord. Never assuming that we are fine the way we are but being open to areas in which He wants us to grow. A wakeup call that comes from surrendering our behavior to him by realizing that everything we do is a manifestation of who we are, and who's we are. Finally, surrendering control to God. Surrendering control by being unashamed and bold in our loyalty, dependence, and love of Jesus Christ our savior and Lord.
Jesus, who saves us from our sins and is Lord of our new lives. Lives awakened to new passions, purposes, and desires. Lives that are awakened to the conquering power in being loyal citizens of our loving Father and Cosmic King. Citizens that are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and redeemed by the blood of Christ.
Let us pray: Lord make us aware and responsive to Your wakeup calls. Wake us up to Your love, power, and purposes for our lives!
Receive this blessing and benediction: Let us go forth a peopleawake and alive to God's kingdom coming to us and through us. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you may go in peace.