Sleepers Awake

In one paragraph

The pastor closed out the Romans 12-13 section by walking through all four verses of Romans 13:11-14. The thread running through the message was a simple one: the day of Christ's return is closer than it was when we first believed, and that fact is meant to wake us up. Before landing on the four closing verses, the pastor ran back through the whole book of Romans to show how everything has been...

Read together

1. Romans 1:16-17 named as the theme of Romans: not ashamed of the gospel, power of God unto salvation, the just shall live by faith
2. Romans 3:20 by works no flesh shall be justified
3. Romans 3:21 justification by faith moves the argument forward
4. Romans 12:1-2 present your bodies as living sacrifices, do not be conformed to this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind
5. Romans 12:3-8 not to think more highly of yourself than you ought, gifts differ according to grace given
6. Romans 12:9-21 let love be without hypocrisy, bless those who persecute you, overcome evil with good
7. Romans 13:1-7 every soul subject to governing authorities, rulers are ministers of God, render to all what is due them
8. Romans 13:8-10 owe nothing except to love one another, love is the fulfillment of the law
9. Romans 13:11 it is already the hour to awaken from sleep, salvation is nearer than when we believed
10. Romans 13:12 the night is almost gone, the day is near, lay aside deeds of darkness, put on the armor of light
11. Romans 13:13-14 behave properly, not in carousing or sexual promiscuity, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh
12. Romans 10:9-10 confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved
13. Mark 14:32-41 Jesus in Gethsemane asking Peter, James and John to keep watch while He prayed; found them sleeping three times
14. Jonah 1:1-16 Jonah fleeing God, sleeping in the hull while a storm raged, thrown overboard, sailors calling on the Lord

Talk about it

1. The pastor walked through the whole book of Romans in a few minutes to show how everything builds toward the application in chapters 12 and 13. Which part of that foundation stood out to you, and how does it connect to the way you actually live from day to day?
2. Augustine kept praying 'Lord, make me virtuous, but not yet.' Where in your own life do you recognize that same delay, and what do you think is behind it?
3. The passage in Romans 13 calls believers to wake up because salvation is nearer now than when they first believed. What does it look like in practical terms to live with that kind of urgency rather than just agreeing with it in your head?
4. Jonah was a prophet of God who ended up asleep in the hull of a ship while a storm raged around him because of his own disobedience. The pastor asked the congregation to consider whether they are sleeping right now in some duty God has given them. What would it mean for you personally to 'take the fault you can' and ask God to wake you up?
5. At the Lord's Supper, the pastor prayed that in the congregation's own awakening, those around them would also be awakened to the gospel, just as the pagan sailors on Jonah's ship came to fear God through Jonah's witness even in his disobedience. How does that challenge the way you think about your influence on the people closest to you?