Wake up!
John Griggs 12th Nov 06
Ephesians 5 v 5-14 Living in the light
Ephesus is a great example of a people who didn't wake up, the town was a thriving port but they let their port silt up.
'Awake o sleeper' is not exactly a scriptural quote, it probably came from a song of the time, but we can still use it to talk to us.
John 10 v 10 'I have come to give eternal life'
Previous issues from our Ephesians teaching series include: sin, renewing your mind, living in unity. It's all about seeking first the kingdom of God and all these things will follow.
Seek first the kingdom of God
'Seek' as in 'seek first' is also in verse 10 'carefully determine what pleases the Lord'. Doing this includes:-
Sanctification – working out our salvation
Meditation – setting ourselves apart in quietness, find a time to sit and think about God
Mentoring – meeting with and encouraging others
Being exemplars – showing by our lives
Wake up!
Why? Because we are supposed to be living as people of light. We need to examine our lives, it's insidious how things can creep into our lives unnoticed. How much of the unhelpful things have we absorbed from our culture.
This year we celebrate the abolition of the slave trade. Because Wilberforce woke up. Many Christians at the time had slaves and could justify this from the Bible.
Dreams
Other people who woke up and changed their society include Elizabeth Fry who reformed prison conditions, and Bernardo who set up children's homes. These people were inspired, had a dream, they woke up and stepped out to actually do something.
What is a dream, can we help fulfil someone else's dream, we are told to make the most of every opportunity.
John Griggs read us a dream from a lady who lives on the Oysterfields estate in St Albans, a dream about God transforming the estate. Two cells from Network Church are involved in this.
Greed
Verse 5 'greed'. In our culture this could cover the lottery advertisements, the Argos advertisement about buying a present for yourself as well as one for someone else. Everything comes in big packs these days, you can't buy just one, you have to get a multibuy or a buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF). We want something for nothing, we're greedy but we don't call it that. God does.
How many cars do you use and what fuel do they consume. Our planet has limited resources, if we have these resources for our use that means that someone else doesn't, there's always a price to be paid even if it's somewhere else.
What about Christmas and birthday presents, do we really need more things, pointless things which we don't need.
A greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world.
Selflessness and self-denial reeks of monks and hair shirts. But when do we ever think of denying ourselves that someone else might benefit?
Love your neighbour as yourself, which means not just those who live next door to us.
Generosity: charities say their income has dropped, is this church as generous as it could be?
James 1 v 27 true religion is looking after the poor.
Does God care about ecology – there will be a new heaven and a new earth after all.
What about the Stern report, published this week. Do we care? The UK will be affected by floods and extreme weather patterns, and those who will suffer most will be the poor. And what about other countries?
Next Sunday 19th November is world toilet day!
The average person spends 3 years of their life on the loo – so if you think you don't have time to meditate ... !
2.5 billion people don't have a clean place to go to the loo. The majority of illness in the world is caused by faecal matter. 5000 children die every day.
How do we wake up?
Individually, as families, as a church, community, nation, continent, world.
How do we react when our child asks for some new expensive toy for Christmas? What about the 'send a goat' type of presents?
We talked about Wilberforce earlier, what about people trafficking which is a topical issue.
Www.ibreathe.org.uk is a Christian website about how should we live as Christians in today's world. It was set up by the same man who wrote the '4life' books.
What are you going to do, go back to sleep or wake up?
Awake o sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will give you light.
What seeds has God put in our hearts, what should we be waking up to, ask God.
How should we live as children of light?
Thought from Tim: Don't be afraid to be part of each other's lives. Give someone permission to challenge you, eg should you be doing that? If you see things in my life which I don't see then challenge me. | 
