Here are the notes from yesterday’s message at New Life Community Church. Fourth message in the series REBOOT, entitled “README.” If you would like to listen to this message, you may do so by going to our website at www.newlifesite.com. God bless!
Reboot, Part 4 Sunday, May 25, 2014
“README”
In series:
Restart
Restore
Refresh
Now today;
README
Typically, readme files contain late-breaking information that could not be included in the printed or original documentation.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. II Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
Illustration: St. Augustine
Turbulent youth enslaved by sexual passion and drunkenness, all along rising in terms of his teaching profession – literature and rhetoric. But always the object of the prayers of his mother, Monica.
It was the year 386, and he was now 32 years old and teaching in Milan, Italy. Occasionally he would go to listen to the preaching of Ambrose. He found himself one day in the garden that adjoined his apartment. Amidst a huge internal struggle, he said he “was twisting and turning in my chains”. He said, “I threw myself down somehow under a certain fig tree and let my tears flow freely.
Confessions:
Suddenly I heard a voice from the nearby house chanting as if it might be a boy or a girl … saying and repeating over and over again, ‘Pick up and read, pick up and read …’ I interpreted it solely as a divine command to me to open the book and read the first chapter I might find … So I hurried back to the place where … I had put down the book of the apostle when I got up. I seized it, and opened it and in silence read the first passage on which my eye lit: ‘Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts’ (Romans 13:13-14). I neither wished nor need to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled.
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Romans 13:11-14 (NKJV)
README
Typically, readme files contain late-breaking information that could not be included in the printed or original documentation.
“Eschatology, an understanding of the times in which we live, should govern our conduct.” Moo: Romans 13:11-14, P. 439
“God superintends the course of human history, and we can live rightly only by knowing what phase of history we are now in.” Moo, p. 441.
We need…
To stay CURRENT with God.
To know the TIMES.
To walk in God’s PROTECTION.
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Romans 13:11-14 (NKJV)
11 And do this,
And considering this…
All the previous chapter and a half.
knowing the time,
1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 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. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, I Thessalonians 5:1-9 (ESV)
14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,and Christ will shine on you.” 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5:14-18 (ESV)
that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
HOW DO YOU STAY AWAKE IN JESUS!
Tremendous tendency to DRIFT.
for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Romans 13:11-14 (NKJV)
We need…
To stay CURRENT with God.
6 All Scripture isgiven by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
4 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. II Timothy 3:16-4:5 (NKJV)
1. HEARING FROM GOD
2. OBEYING HIS VOICE
3. STAYING IN FELLOWSHIP
4. ALLOWING GOD TO CORRECT YOU
5. GIVE AWAY YOUR FAITH
To know the TIMES.
KNOW – eidotes which is tied to oida which means seeing.
Three words in Greek dealing with TIME:
Chronos, Kairos, and Ora
Chromos: duration
Kairos: spot action or opportunity
Ora: limited moment or window in time.
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. II Timothy 3:1-7 (NIV)
To walk in God’s PROTECTION.
Armor of light.