Clothed in Christ: Preparing for His Return

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Good morning everybody.
[00:02:59] Good morning.
[00:03:00] Welcome to First Presbyterian Church of Morrisville where our mission is loving God, loving people, and making disciples.
[00:03:07] If this is your first time with us this morning, it's a great time to join us.
[00:03:11] It's the beginning of Advent where we are preparing our hearts to celebrate the first coming of Christ with Christmas and then it's also a great reminder that
[00:03:21] He is coming again too soon.
[00:03:24] We would love for you if it's your first time with us to stop by our parlor after service and we can get you some more information about our church and make sure you get plugged in with everything that's going on in our family.
[00:03:37] Hope all of your travels with Thanksgiving were great and it's time to worship Jesus.
[00:03:44] So I draw your attention to the bulletin for our call to worship this morning from Isaiah 61 verse 10.
[00:03:52] I rejoice greatly in the Lord I exult in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has clothed me in a robe of righteousness as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels and would you join me in praying the invocation prayers well
[00:04:17] Lord, we rejoice in you, for you have clothed us with the garments of salvation and wrapped us in the righteousness of Christ.
[00:04:27] Prepare our hearts as a bride and groom made ready with beauty, that we may worship you with joy and reverence.
[00:04:36] Come, Holy Spirit, awaken us and make your presence known among us.
[00:04:43] In Christ's name, amen.
[00:04:45] And you may stand for our hymn.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Rejoice!

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Rejoice!
[00:05:37] Emmanuel!

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Rejoice!
[00:06:19] Rejoice!
[00:07:05] Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
[00:07:29] O come, ye sight of the ancient time, All peoples in one modern life,
[00:07:41] Rejoice!

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Rejoice!
[00:07:59] Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Join me now in affirming our faith with the Apostles' Creed.
[00:08:15] I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.
[00:08:34] He descended into hell.
[00:08:36] The third day he rose again from the dead.
[00:08:39] He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
[00:08:45] From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
[00:08:49] I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
[00:09:02] Amen.
[00:09:03] You may be seated.
[00:09:05] I'd like now to invite the Mosley family up for the lighting of our Advent candle.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Today is the first Sunday of Advent.
[00:09:19] Advent means coming, and in this season we prepare for the coming of Christ.
[00:09:24] One of the ways we prepare for His coming is by lighting the candles of the Advent wreath to remind us of the gifts Christ brings to the world.
[00:09:31] The Advent wreath includes symbols to help us think about Christ and His gifts.
[00:09:35] The wreath itself is in the shape of a circle.
[00:09:37] A circle has no beginning and no end, and this reminds us there is no beginning and no end to God, and that God's love and care are forever.
[00:09:45] Today we light the candle of hope.
[00:09:47] The people of Israel hoped in God's promises and were not disappointed.
[00:09:51] Again and again God delivered Israel from her enemies and we too have the same experience of salvation.
[00:09:56] That is why we believe in God's promise to send Jesus to us once again to judge the world and establish his kingdom forever upon the earth.
[00:10:08] Hope is like a light shining in a...
[00:10:11] Hope is like a light shining in a dark place, and as we look at the light of this candle, we celebrate the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
[00:10:21] Let us pray.
[00:10:23] Thank you, God, for the hope you give us.
[00:10:25] As we wait for all your promises to come true and for Christ to come again, assure us of your presence with us.
[00:10:31] Help us today and every day to worship you and hear your word, to do your will by sharing your hope with others.
[00:10:38] We pray in the name of the one who was born in Bethlehem, amen.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
There is a yearning In hearts weighed down by ancient grief And centuries of sorrow There is a yearning
[00:11:40] In hearts set in the darkness white, And in the shades of death abide, Are you working for tomorrow?
[00:12:09] There is a yearning for the promised one, the firstborn of creation.
[00:12:25] Let us find the way before the Lord who visited his home, and by his death once did atone to bring to us salvation.
[00:12:49] Emmanuel, Emmanuel within our hearts so yearning.
[00:13:18] Emmanuel, Emmanuel within our hearts so yearning.
[00:13:25] There is a yearning that fills the hearts of those who wait The day of peace appears
[00:13:44] There is a yearning When all our sorrows will be raised When we shall see the One who plays Within our hearts a yearning
[00:14:08] Emmanuel Emmanuel Within our hearts so yearning
[00:14:22] Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts a yearning.
[00:14:39] Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
[00:14:41] In the new world within our hearts a yearning In the new world, in the new world
[00:15:07] We'll give our hearts the yearning

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Amen.
[00:15:48] A couple announcements this morning.
[00:15:50] First of all, I just want to honor Melissa.
[00:15:53] I know she's not in here, but the Folk family is in here.
[00:15:55] Melissa, our Children's Director, and everyone who was involved in making sure our Advent celebration in the Fellowship Hall was able to happen.
[00:16:03] There's a lot of work that goes into that, and so can we just honor their family?
[00:16:11] Thank you, guys.
[00:16:13] Thank you.
[00:16:14] That tradition is wonderful.
[00:16:15] This is my first time this year getting to see that happen.
[00:16:18] Last year I was with my family for Thanksgiving.
[00:16:21] It's pretty cool and beautiful.
[00:16:24] Another announcement.
[00:16:28] Pledge Sunday is December 7th, so that's coming up soon.
[00:16:35] You'll have the opportunity to make pledges that the Lord has placed on your hearts to give towards just the general operating budget of the church or the legacy campaign.
[00:16:46] And so I encourage you to continue praying about how God may want to use you in that way to support this place and most importantly to worship Him because that's what we do with our giving.
[00:16:57] It's worship to Him.
[00:16:59] He doesn't need our money.
[00:17:02] But he wants our hearts.
[00:17:04] And also on December 7th, Pastor Moses' wife, Jordan, will be getting ordained here in the sanctuary at 3 p.m. That is super exciting and we want to make sure that we honor her and your family and all of the hard work that Jordan has put in to be able to be installed and so we will
[00:17:29] let's do our best to be there to support them in that and Moses I'll let you say anything else you want to say about the specific details with the eco ordination and everything and lastly Peggy Davidson let's keep the whole Davidson family in prayer Peggy Davidson has passed and there will be a memorial service held in the sanctuary today at 3 p.m. and anyone is invited to join us for that I know
[00:17:56] Fred will be officiating, so we'll hold them dear in our hearts too in this time.
[00:18:05] With that being said, let's pray.
[00:18:23] Lord Jesus,
[00:18:26] You are coming again God and in this Advent season as we're preparing our hearts to celebrate your first coming how you have already come and you died on the cross for our sins and you were resurrected and you have ascended to the right hand of the Father which is where you are seated right now Lord we know and we also want to celebrate and prepare for your second coming Lord
[00:18:52] Today when you come to wipe every tear from our eyes and to conquer the sin of this world and to take us home with you where we will no longer have to suffer and the enemy, the evil one, will no longer be able to just torment us.
[00:19:15] And so we thank you Jesus for what you have done on our behalf.
[00:19:19] We thank you that you did what we could not do, that you lived the perfect life and that even though you didn't deserve it, you died the death that we deserved and you took the wrath of God upon yourself.
[00:19:37] May we never get tired of praising you and thanking you, Lord Jesus, for that sacrifice, for that love.
[00:19:46] There is no greater love than that.
[00:19:50] And it makes it hurt all the more when we do fall into our flesh and sin against you, God.
[00:19:57] And we take this time now to silently confess our sins to you, Father.
[00:20:17] Create a pure heart in us, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within us.
[00:20:25] Who can ascend the hill of the Almighty?
[00:20:29] Those with clean hands and a pure heart.
[00:20:35] And we just claim your blood, Jesus, over all of our sins right now.
[00:20:42] Our past sins, our sins that we committed already today,
[00:20:46] And the sins that we are going to commit in the future because we're broken, fallen human beings, Lord, we just claim your blood, Jesus.
[00:20:54] And we know that we are righteous, not because of anything we have done.
[00:20:57] And we're forgiven, not because of anything we have done, but all because of who you are, God, and what you have done for us.
[00:21:05] Thank you, Lord.
[00:21:07] Thank you for saving us.
[00:21:08] Thank you for clothing us with white robes that we can come into this wedding banquet now.
[00:21:15] With pure hearts, with clean hands.
[00:21:20] Not having to bear the shame of our sin anymore.
[00:21:24] There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.
[00:21:29] And I pray for anyone who is feeling that weight right now in their soul, God.
[00:21:35] It is good for them to feel that conviction because you have so much more for them.
[00:21:41] but you don't want them to feel that shame Lord and so I pray Holy Spirit that you would help them release that right now to you and that they would take up your your easy yoke and your light burden you said come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest rest for your soul
[00:22:08] Help us come to you now, God, and give us that rest in your presence, Lord.
[00:22:19] We pray for everybody in this congregation who is hurting right now.
[00:22:27] physically emotionally or spiritually in their relationship with you God you know what everyone is going through father you see all things there is no hiding anything from you and so I ask now Jesus that you would touch hearts
[00:22:49] Through this sermon, through the worship, through just brothers and sisters in Christ's encouragement today that you would touch hearts Jesus and that you would bring healing and restoration and redemption and reconciliation whatever needs to be done Lord may it be done according to your will in this place in your house
[00:23:20] Father we want this church to be a house of prayer a place where we commune with you Jesus that's what you said you said your house is supposed to be a house of prayer not a den of robbers not a place that is is about man and about gaining material things and
[00:23:50] Building up a name in the flesh.
[00:23:54] So Lord, we just, at the beginning of Advent, we just consecrate this church again completely to you, Lord, and we ask that you would make us a house of prayer.
[00:24:06] Not just to us, but a house of prayer to many nations, Lord, that you would bring in all types of people into this place, Lord, and that you would use us to share the gospel with them, to minister to them, to love them,
[00:24:20] as we love ourselves.
[00:24:23] Make FPC Mooresville a light in this community.
[00:24:27] It already is, but we want more, Lord.
[00:24:30] We want more of your power and your authority and your grace.
[00:24:45] Father, I lastly just pray protection
[00:24:52] Pray protection over everyone in here.
[00:25:00] Clothe us in your heavenly armor, Lord, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel of peace and readiness.
[00:25:07] Help us pick up the shield of faith and the sword
[00:25:10] of your spirit we know that we do not wage war against flesh and blood but that there is a real enemy out there the devil who wants to pull us away from you god and i pray protection over us that you would surround us with your angels that we would keep our eyes fixed on you jesus just because it's christmas time and advent does not mean that the attack dies down
[00:25:41] Every day he's prowling around like a roaring lion trying to devour us Lord but we are more than conquerors in you and your spirit is in us to say no to the temptations of the evil one and yes to you and your plan and your will your good pleasing and perfect will father so help us in our weakness
[00:26:06] We love you so much, Jesus.
[00:26:09] Speak through Pastor Moses now as he delivers this word.
[00:26:12] I pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[00:26:16] Amen.

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Come, expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.
[00:27:14] Come, our fears and sins release us, let us find thy rest with thee.
[00:27:15] Christ as strength and consolation, O God of glory,
[00:27:57] Lord, who reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
And you may be seated.
[00:28:50] Just as a, to further clarify the announcement about Jordan, she is, some of you already know she has been ordained in the EPC, but she is transferring her ordination over to ECO, and so just part of that, the formal welcoming and celebration and process of that is an ordination ceremony, but more so an installation to our presbytery.
[00:29:12] Thank you, Zeb.
[00:29:36] We're going to read a passage today from Romans chapter 13.
[00:29:40] It is the passage that was aligned for our Advent season readings, and it so happened to line up with our Wednesday night together class that I led, so I call that Providence.
[00:29:52] But if it didn't come to the class, that's okay.
[00:29:54] I'll give you the cliff notes.
[00:29:56] But before I begin, I wanted to tell a little story for us this morning.
[00:30:02] First the question, has anyone ever felt darkness in your heart?
[00:30:09] Thank you for your honesty.
[00:30:10] I have.
[00:30:12] For me, when I was in college, I learned that you can grow up in church, you can know all the worship songs, you can serve in every ministry, and you can still drift into darkness the moment no one is watching.
[00:30:26] Like many of you may know, I grew up in a very strict conservative Christian home and context.
[00:30:33] I grew up with lots of rules, lots of boundaries.
[00:30:36] Now in those days, I believe I truly did love Jesus.
[00:30:39] I showed so by playing piano on the worship team, serving in the kids ministry.
[00:30:43] I helped lead Bible studies for our youth group.
[00:30:47] I wasn't faking those things.
[00:30:49] But there came a time when I graduated high school that I moved away to the University of Central Florida for my undergrad to do a degree in psychology.
[00:30:57] And I realized something crucial there, that nobody knew who I was.
[00:31:02] Nobody knew my parents, my church, my faith, or my convictions.
[00:31:07] And the one conclusion I drew from that was freedom at last.
[00:31:14] But with that freedom came some hard things.
[00:31:16] On that campus, I saw things I had never been allowed to even talk about.
[00:31:20] Party culture, drunkenness, hookup culture, walking in on my roommates and his girlfriend, doing things in our living room they probably shouldn't have been doing and then just laughing about it.
[00:31:34] Open apathy, critique, damnation of God and religion.
[00:31:40] And all I can remember thinking was, well, this is college, this is normal.
[00:31:44] And little by little I just drifted.
[00:31:46] The darkness around me was becoming the darkness within me.
[00:31:51] And so on some weekends I would go home, I would go to visit my church, but I gotta be honest with you, in those days I just looked forward to come Monday morning to get to go back to my freedom on campus.
[00:32:03] But that freedom didn't stay free, my friends.
[00:32:06] I got real lonely, depressed, empty.
[00:32:11] I remember having a professor who would openly mock Jesus in class, in a classroom of 300 students.
[00:32:19] He would say some really ugly, blasphemous things about Christ, the Bible, the church, Christians.
[00:32:25] And a handful of students, out of 300, only a handful would get up and walk out, and you know what I did?
[00:32:32] I just sat there.
[00:32:34] Silent, ashamed, afraid, spiritually asleep.
[00:32:42] But one day, God woke me up.
[00:32:45] I used to wear this black ring that engraved around it was the Lord's Prayer in Spanish.
[00:32:50] My grandfather had gifted it to me after buying it at the flea market.
[00:32:55] And I'm a fidgeter by nature, so I like to take it off, I fidget with it, and I left it down there on a table in one of my classrooms, and I forgot it.
[00:33:04] And yeah, did I lose that thing.
[00:33:06] On a campus of 70,000 students, that ring was gone forever.
[00:33:10] Now, mind you, this was a cheap ring, plastic maybe, from a flea market, but I don't know why it weighed so heavy on me when I lost it.
[00:33:18] And as I reflect back, my conclusion is that that ring, what symbolized me in those days, lost, gone forever.
[00:33:30] I remember saying to myself that I feel like I'm wandering in the wilderness with no hope.
[00:33:37] One day an old friend from high school messaged me and said, hey, Moses, my husband is leading a worship night on your campus in front of the library tonight.
[00:33:46] You should come.
[00:33:48] And here I thought, another Christian group, another study, yet another worship night.
[00:33:54] I don't want to.
[00:33:56] But for some reason I said yeah, and I went.
[00:33:59] It was this tiny picnic tent on this great lawn, hundreds of students walking back and forth wherever they were going.
[00:34:06] And under this tent was just a handful of students with two guitars, some lamps hanging on each edge of the tent.
[00:34:12] And when I tell you that that was one of the most beautiful worship nights in my life.
[00:34:17] Shameless joy.
[00:34:18] These people that I never knew and would never see again after this moment.
[00:34:23] But they welcomed me.
[00:34:25] And we just prayed and sang.
[00:34:27] At some point in the evening, Luke, my friend's husband, came.
[00:34:31] And we all started praying, and he comes around and introduces himself to me.
[00:34:35] And as we're just making small talk, he interrupts me and he says, Moses, can I pray for you?
[00:34:42] And I said, sure, it couldn't hurt.
[00:34:46] I will never forget what he said next.
[00:34:53] He says, Moses, I hear the Lord saying, I still see you.
[00:34:58] You are wandering in a wilderness, but you're not alone, and you are not meant to wander much longer.
[00:35:09] In that moment, something broke in me, and something woke up in me.
[00:35:14] The next morning, I go to class, and as I head back to my dormitory, I lived in the third floor apartment in a building way behind the gymnasium, and I overlooked the campus, and there was a railing outside the entrance of my dorm,
[00:35:28] Do you know what was there waiting for me on the railing, shining in a beam of sunlight?
[00:35:34] Was that ring.
[00:35:36] That ring that I had deemed gone forever was found again.
[00:35:42] And in my spirit in that moment I heard, wake up, come home, you're still mine.
[00:35:51] Everything for me in my life changed after that.
[00:35:54] I found a group called InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and quickly became a student leader.
[00:35:59] I found mentors that loved me and poured deeply into my life and encouraged me in my walk with Jesus.
[00:36:05] I fell in love with the scriptures and began digging deep and asking the right questions.
[00:36:10] And eventually, I would go to seminary, where I would meet a girl named Jordan on the first day, who she would be the one to introduce me to the Presbyterian Church and Reformed theology, and the rest is history.
[00:36:22] And here we are today.
[00:36:25] God woke me up.
[00:36:27] He pulled me out of darkness into the light of Jesus Christ.
[00:36:32] And today in Romans chapter 13, this is a passage where Paul is giving the same wake-up call to the church.
[00:36:40] Because if Jesus is coming again, and my friends, He is coming again, then we cannot drift through our Christianity.
[00:36:51] The big idea for today is that in light of Christ's soon return, take off the darkness and put on Jesus.
[00:37:00] Our passage today comes from the end of chapter 13, verses 11 to 14.
[00:37:04] Your pew Bible, it's page 923.
[00:37:06] Hear now the word of the Lord.
[00:37:11] Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.
[00:37:18] For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.
[00:37:24] The night is far gone, the day is near.
[00:37:27] Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
[00:37:33] Let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
[00:37:43] Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
[00:37:52] This is the word of the Lord.
[00:37:54] Thanks be to God.
[00:37:57] Now, as you may have noticed,
[00:38:00] This passage doesn't come out of nowhere.
[00:38:02] It actually sits close to the end of a letter.
[00:38:06] It sits on the foundation that Paul has been building for 11 chapters.
[00:38:11] See, the Roman church was deeply fractured.
[00:38:13] We might even consider it a network of these small house churches.
[00:38:17] At some point in time, Emperor Claudius had kicked and expelled all Jews from Rome.
[00:38:23] Whether they were believers or Orthodox, it doesn't matter.
[00:38:25] They were kicked out.
[00:38:27] And many years later, when the Jewish believers came back, they discovered that the church had been taken over, or at least its leadership filled in, by Gentile believers.
[00:38:38] And you can imagine that tensions exploded.
[00:38:41] Cultural divisions and conflict, pride, arguments about food, holy days, how we're supposed to worship.
[00:38:49] You might say there was darkness inside the church.
[00:38:54] Now outside the church, it wasn't much better.
[00:38:57] Rome was morally collapsing.
[00:38:59] The first chapter of Romans describes the world around them.
[00:39:03] They were full of wickedness, impurity, sexual confusion, hatred, violence, people celebrating sin and encouraging others to join them.
[00:39:14] Familiar, eh?
[00:39:17] Darkness outside, darkness inside.
[00:39:22] So what in the world do you say to a church in this kind of world?
[00:39:26] How do you encourage them?
[00:39:27] How do you correct them?
[00:39:28] Where do you even begin?
[00:39:29] Well, Paul begins and ends with the gospel.
[00:39:35] All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
[00:39:38] No one is righteous.
[00:39:39] No one is capable to make themselves righteous or to save themselves.
[00:39:44] But God, in His rich mercy, sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for us.
[00:39:50] He rose again from the dead in power and reigns from the throne in heaven.
[00:39:55] And by the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead and now lives in us who have placed their faith in Him.
[00:40:01] And for all who place their faith in Him, we have been justified, adopted, redeemed, and indwelt by the very Holy Spirit of God.
[00:40:12] Amen.
[00:40:14] So those first 11 chapters Paul uses for one purpose, to tear down any human pride and to lift up the divine mercy of God.
[00:40:24] Then when we reach chapter 12, he shifts from doctrine to discipleship.
[00:40:30] In view of all of God's mercy, offer yourselves as living sacrifices, not only to God but to one another.
[00:40:37] Love one another, live a life that is transformed with each other.
[00:40:43] But most every pastor knows this truth that Paul also knew.
[00:40:48] That just because people hear the truth doesn't mean they wake up.
[00:40:54] So at the end of chapter 13, Paul lovingly, not shaming, not angrily, lovingly but urgently, he grabs them by the shoulders and says, wake up, look at the time, the day is near, the night is almost over, get dressed.
[00:41:12] This is urgency, drenched in love.
[00:41:16] Because if the day of Christ is near, his people cannot stay half asleep.
[00:41:23] Now when he says, you know what time it is, that word for time is the Greek word kairos.
[00:41:29] It means a decisive, God-appointed moment.
[00:41:33] A window that will not stay open forever.
[00:41:36] And why wake up now?
[00:41:39] because salvation is nearer now than the day you first believed.
[00:41:45] Now, hearing that salvation is near might be weird because don't we say that we are already saved in Jesus?
[00:41:51] Well, both are accurate.
[00:41:52] Scripture talks about salvation in three tenses, or in three ways.
[00:41:56] First, we have been saved, what we call being justified, or the doctrine of justification.
[00:42:03] You can see that in Romans chapter five, verse one.
[00:42:06] We are being saved, sanctification.
[00:42:09] See Romans chapter six, verses 19 through 22.
[00:42:13] And then we will be saved, glorification.
[00:42:16] Romans chapter five, verses nine through 10.
[00:42:19] And that third one is what Paul means here.
[00:42:22] There is a day that is coming, a day of glory where Christ will come back.
[00:42:26] He will fully reveal his kingdom.
[00:42:28] Pain, disease, sadness, tears, death will be no more.
[00:42:33] And we will be glorified with our Lord Jesus.
[00:42:38] That day is nearer today than it was yesterday.
[00:42:42] Every sunrise that we see is just a sign of the clock that keeps moving forward.
[00:42:48] Every gray hair that we have is a sign that time is not slowing down.
[00:42:53] When I look at my baby girl, Isabella, who hits four months tomorrow, time is moving, my friends.
[00:43:03] Two weeks ago, my grandfather who gave me the ring in college, he passed away.
[00:43:11] Life is a vapor.
[00:43:13] Time is moving forward and not slowing down.
[00:43:18] Paul's message is simple.
[00:43:21] In light of all this, wake up.
[00:43:23] Not because Jesus is far off, but because He is close.
[00:43:28] And mind you, this is not a message to unbelievers outside the church.
[00:43:31] This is a letter written to believers in the church, but believers that love Jesus but have drifted.
[00:43:38] And that's what sleep means in this context.
[00:43:41] It's spiritual drift.
[00:43:43] In the church of Rome, their sleep showed up as division, misplaced priorities, choosing the wrong hills to die on.
[00:43:51] They lost sight of Jesus and therefore lost sight of each other.
[00:43:57] and maybe today you're feeling as I say that.
[00:43:59] I think that's me.
[00:44:03] If so, Scripture says you're not the first and you're not alone.
[00:44:09] I could have chosen many examples of sleep in Scripture, but I'll give us three.
[00:44:13] Three vivid moments where God's people, they weren't rebellious, but they were tired, overwhelmed, distracted, unprepared.
[00:44:20] In other words, asleep.
[00:44:23] The first comes from the Garden of Gethsemane.
[00:44:26] Jesus knows the hour.
[00:44:29] He knows what's coming and he needs to go and pray and wants his closest friends to come and pray with him.
[00:44:36] He tells his disciples, stay awake and watch and pray with me.
[00:44:39] And what do they do?
[00:44:42] They fall asleep.
[00:44:44] That happens three times.
[00:44:47] And then when the traitor comes and they come to arrest Jesus, what did they do?
[00:44:54] They ran.
[00:44:55] They fled.
[00:44:58] Now, did they hate Jesus?
[00:45:01] No.
[00:45:03] But they were just exhausted.
[00:45:05] They did not appreciate the day or the hour.
[00:45:09] You can love Jesus sincerely and still be spiritually asleep.
[00:45:16] What about the parable of the ten virgins that Jesus gives in the book of Matthew?
[00:45:21] All ten bridesmaids had lamps.
[00:45:23] All ten looked ready.
[00:45:24] All ten fell asleep waiting.
[00:45:27] But only five had brought oil.
[00:45:29] Only five prepared for the delay of the bridegroom.
[00:45:33] And when he arrived in the middle of the night, the others tried to borrow someone else's devotion, and they discovered too late that symbolic faith is not the same thing as saving faith.
[00:45:47] We cannot live on borrowed holiness.
[00:45:51] We must be awake and ready for ourselves.
[00:45:56] And the third example is that of the Thessalonian church.
[00:46:00] When Paul writes the letter to the Thessalonians, he's writing to a church that is exhausted, that has suffered persecution from every side, they're grieving their dead brothers and sisters, and they're confused, is Jesus even coming back?
[00:46:14] When is he supposed to come back and save us?
[00:46:18] So Paul writes in chapter five, you are children of the light.
[00:46:24] You are children of the day.
[00:46:26] So then let us not sleep as others do, but keep awake and be sober.
[00:46:33] Why does he remind them of this?
[00:46:36] Because when believers forget their identity, they lose their sense of urgency and they're more than likely to give up.
[00:46:43] If you forget that you belong to the day, you will start living like you belong to the night.
[00:46:49] Identity determines your alertness.
[00:46:52] When you remember who you are, when you remember whose you are, you wake up to what matters.
[00:47:00] All three of these scenarios teach the same warning.
[00:47:04] It is dangerously easy for the people of God to fall asleep at the hour they most need to be awake.
[00:47:14] The night is nearly over.
[00:47:17] The day is almost here.
[00:47:20] So put aside the deeds of darkness.
[00:47:24] When Paul talks about the night, it's kind of the scripture's metaphorical way of talking about the world as it is, this present age, broken, blind, self-centered, spiritually asleep.
[00:47:38] But when the Bible talks about the day, it is the world as it will be.
[00:47:43] The day of the return of Jesus, our friend, our Lord, our Redeemer, his kingdom revealed, darkness defeated.
[00:47:51] And if the night is fading, don't dress like you still belong to it.
[00:47:57] Paul will go on to name three categories of sin or three outfits of the night.
[00:48:03] The first is indulgence, living numb, escaping reality instead of seeking God.
[00:48:11] Immorality, the full spectrum of sexual sin, either physical or, in these days, digital.
[00:48:19] Interpersonal sin, quarreling and jealousy, the quiet sins that fracture the unity of the body.
[00:48:28] Now notice how Paul starts with the really obvious ones and ends with the ones that's pretty easy for us to hide.
[00:48:36] Some sins are allowed, others are buried.
[00:48:40] Bitterness, secret habits, hidden idols, private compromises.
[00:48:47] And church, this is the danger.
[00:48:49] Just because the church can't see them doesn't mean God doesn't.
[00:48:54] And sin is sin.
[00:48:55] No sin is truly private.
[00:48:58] It aims to devour you.
[00:48:59] It aims to destroy you and to destroy the body of Christ.
[00:49:03] Whatever sin we struggle with will affect the body if left unchecked.
[00:49:09] Darkness always spreads unless it's brought into the light.
[00:49:14] So Paul says to the church, take it off.
[00:49:19] Throw it away.
[00:49:19] Why?
[00:49:21] Because you cannot walk in the light while clinging to the clothes of the night.
[00:49:30] Then we hit our climax of the passage.
[00:49:33] Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:49:38] The word clothes there can also be translated as put on, to wrap yourself in, to wear like a garment.
[00:49:44] It's the word in duo.
[00:49:46] It's a clothing word, to wear a uniform even.
[00:49:50] Quite simply, Paul is saying wear Jesus the way you wear your clothes.
[00:49:56] Now that might sound simplistic and silly and simple, but think about what clothing does.
[00:50:02] I found five things.
[00:50:04] Identity.
[00:50:06] Think of a uniform, a school uniform, an officer's uniform.
[00:50:09] It shows who you belong to.
[00:50:12] To put on Christ means publicly identifying with Him.
[00:50:17] Imagine those 11 kids that were baptized at someone's house where Dave and Zeb and I were getting to dunk them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit.
[00:50:27] But before that moment, they stood in front of friends, family, strangers.
[00:50:32] And they said, but Jesus took hold of my life.
[00:50:36] I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
[00:50:38] I want to be baptized into Him and His body.
[00:50:42] That's putting on Jesus, my friends.
[00:50:45] That was identity.
[00:50:47] Then visibility.
[00:50:49] When you meet someone, what do you notice first, outside of their pretty face?
[00:50:53] Their outfit, their clothes.
[00:50:56] People see your life, what you're wearing, before they hear your words.
[00:51:01] Therefore, putting on Jesus Christ means to put on his life, to make it visible, to live with his humility, his patience, his compassion, his forgiveness.
[00:51:12] There's so much more than those things.
[00:51:13] And if you don't know where to begin, I'd say start here.
[00:51:16] Book of Matthew, it's a good one.
[00:51:19] And just start mimicking what does Jesus do?
[00:51:21] What does he say?
[00:51:22] How does he treat people?
[00:51:24] So that Jesus becomes visible, not only in you, but through you.
[00:51:29] The third is protection.
[00:51:30] I see some of us are wearing jackets today because it's cold outside.
[00:51:36] Clothes protect you.
[00:51:37] They shield you in.
[00:51:39] What does Christ do if not protect you from the flesh, from sin?
[00:51:43] And Paul says, make no provision for the flesh.
[00:51:48] Don't feed sin.
[00:51:49] Don't plan for sin.
[00:51:50] Don't keep sin close.
[00:51:52] Lean into your strong tower who is Jesus, our refuge.
[00:51:57] The fourth is proximity.
[00:52:00] Think of the closest thing on your body right now.
[00:52:03] It's our clothes.
[00:52:05] They cling to you.
[00:52:06] Therefore, we do things like spiritual habits of being in the Scripture, being in prayer, fellowshipping together as the body, serving one another.
[00:52:15] Because in doing those things, the Bible says, Christ draws near to us and becomes more visible.
[00:52:22] My friends, don't be a person who just shows up to church and walks out and never to connect again until next Sunday.
[00:52:30] Be a person who learns names, shares stories, moves towards others because God designed the church to represent Christ, not just to the unbelievers, but to one another.
[00:52:40] Jesus said in the Gospel of John, the world would know Him by our love for each other.
[00:52:48] And if we don't love each other here, how will the world know Christ out there?
[00:52:53] Lastly, it's Intentionality.
[00:52:56] I don't know about you, but I did not accidentally roll out of bed and fall into my clothes.
[00:53:02] We choose what we put on.
[00:53:04] Some of you chose really well.
[00:53:09] But no one gets dressed by accident.
[00:53:12] When we wake up, we must either choose Christ, or if you don't, we're just choosing our old self.
[00:53:18] There is no in-between.
[00:53:20] In Jesus, God gives you a new identity, a new life, a new closet with one outfit hanging in there.
[00:53:28] Jesus Christ Himself.
[00:53:31] So leave the old clothes behind.
[00:53:33] Choose Christ and put on Jesus.
[00:53:39] Church, Paul's words are simple and urgent.
[00:53:42] Wake up.
[00:53:44] The night is nearly over.
[00:53:45] The day is almost here.
[00:53:47] Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:53:51] This is not fear.
[00:53:53] This is not shame.
[00:53:54] This is love.
[00:53:56] Jesus is coming soon.
[00:53:59] Closer right now than when you walked in through the doors.
[00:54:03] So take off the darkness.
[00:54:06] Put on Jesus.
[00:54:07] Not later, now.
[00:54:10] And if you find yourself struggling to do that, if you find yourself wandering in a wilderness, lost, hopeless, alone,
[00:54:22] Hear the word of the Lord to you today.
[00:54:25] I still see you.
[00:54:28] You may be wandering, but you're not alone.
[00:54:32] You're still mine.
[00:54:36] Come home.
[00:54:38] Wake up to Jesus.
[00:54:40] Throw off the night.
[00:54:41] Get dressed in Christ so that the world and each other can see Him.
[00:54:47] Since Jesus is coming soon, don't drift.
[00:54:50] Wake up and get dressed.
[00:54:52] Amen?
[00:54:54] Would you pray with me for a moment?
[00:54:57] Lord, we thank you for your word.
[00:55:00] We thank you for the promises of Christ and the hope of glory that we have in you.
[00:55:08] Come soon, Holy Spirit.
[00:55:11] Come soon, Lord Jesus and Father.
[00:55:13] Come and redeem us and restore all things.
[00:55:18] And until then, may we choose to wrap ourselves in Christ, our hope, to endure this life together.
[00:55:28] In Christ's name, amen.
[00:55:34] In a moment, I'm going to invite the elders to step forward as we enjoy the sacrament of communion.
[00:55:41] And I think this passage for us today is very apt.
[00:55:46] The time is short.
[00:55:48] I can't tell you, and I won't even dare to joke about when Jesus is coming back, but he is.
[00:55:55] And all I do know with certainty is that each day is getting closer and closer.
[00:56:00] But as we hope, as Christians, it is actually a joy and a hope for us to look forward to the day of Christ's return, his advent, if you will.
[00:56:09] But while we wait, we don't wait alone, we don't wait powerless, we don't wait without Jesus.
[00:56:16] Actually, Jesus says, I will never leave you nor forsake you, and I am with you always until the end of the age.
[00:56:24] This sacrament is the practice of saying, Lord, you're still here with us.
[00:56:29] This opportunity is a moment to say, Lord, I belong to you and I declare your death and your resurrection is an opportunity to say, Jesus, thank you for your body broken for me, for your blood shed for me that has washed me, has loved me, and made me new again.
[00:56:54] If you're feeling down,
[00:56:56] If you're feeling imperfect, that's okay.
[00:56:59] Remember that Jesus even served Judas before Judas did what he did.
[00:57:05] How much more does he love you and invite you to the table to receive his hope, his comfort, his care?
[00:57:11] Amen?
[00:57:13] At this time, I'd like to invite the elders to come forward.
[00:57:20] On the night when he was betrayed in the upper room with the disciples,
[00:57:24] He took the bread before them and said, This is my body.
[00:57:28] And he broke it and said, This is the body that is broken for you.
[00:57:32] Do this in remembrance of me.
[00:57:37] And in the same way he took the cup and he said, This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of many.
[00:57:47] As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes to eat it anew with us.
[00:57:59] On my left and my right, there will be bread and juice.
[00:58:03] We do it by intinction, just grab and dip.
[00:58:05] Here in the center will be gluten-free and prepackaged cups.
[00:58:09] However you choose to eat, I simply invite you, come and eat.

[01:01:44] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Thank you.
[01:02:45] In Jesus' name, Amen.
[01:03:26] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
[01:03:52] Amen.
[01:04:21] Thank you.

[01:05:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Let's pray once more.
[01:05:02] Heavenly Father, thank you for this gift, the gift of your Son, Jesus, who willingly, for the joy set before him, endured the cross so that we might know the love of God forever.
[01:05:17] I ask that you bless this time.
[01:05:19] Thank you for this moment, and we glorify Christ Jesus forever and ever.
[01:05:25] Amen.
[01:05:28] Friends, simply remember one thing today.
[01:05:30] If you remember anything, clothe yourselves with Jesus.
[01:05:37] Think about what your clothes do.
[01:05:38] Each time you put a shirt on, a dress, a jacket, a sweater, your shoe, think about how you're putting on Jesus for today.
[01:05:47] Be it his love, his mercy, be it his character,
[01:05:51] Be it even just His strength to endure all things, and be it loving your neighbor, your brother or sister.
[01:06:00] In all these things, when we do so, when we do it for each other, we see Jesus more and more every single day.
[01:06:07] And I think we'd all like that, yes?
[01:06:10] So, as you go from this place, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
[01:06:16] The love of God our Father and the fellowship of our Holy Spirit be with you all today and in the days to come.
[01:06:23] And all God's people say, Amen.

[01:07:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[01:07:33] Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
[01:08:01] Let me respond into temptation

[01:08:11] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
There is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
[01:08:39] Amen.
[01:09:04] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[01:09:14] Amen.
[01:09:49] Let us pray.
[01:10:12] Let us pray.
[01:10:56] The Gospel of the Lord.