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God's Alarm Clocks
"Ministers are like alarm clocks; they get most of their abuse for doing their duty - waking people up." - Encyclopedia of Sermon Illustrations
Although it plays a necessary part in each of our lives, it is hated by all.
What am I referring to?
The alarm clock!
Most of us never feel as though we have had enough sleep and would just like to sleep a little bit longer; when all of a sudden, the most irritating, unnerving, and loud noise or buzz fills the atmosphere - reminding us that it's time to Get-Up! Oh! How our flesh oftentimes battles those first waking moments. We hit the snooze button several times so that we could catch a few more winks before the actual "Rise and Shine."
Being sleepy or sluggish in the physical realm is not quite as drastic as it is in the spiritual. To be asleep - spiritually speaking - is very dangerous. However, God has His "Alarm Clocks" on duty to wake us up or keep us awake - lest we begin to fall asleep or become sluggish. They are His Holy Ghost-inspired preachers who have been given the charge to - "Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine"(2 Timothy 4:2).
Many today are "at ease in Zion"(Amos 6:1).
Through spiritual slothfulness, they have become stupefied, senseless, mindless of their affairs, and utterly unconscious of their situation and the dangers thereof - whereby they are sleeping away their time, burying their talents, and living a meaningless life for God.
Proverbs 19:15 informs us that - "Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger."
Throughout his various Epistles, the Apostle Paul admonished us to stay awake - to "watch and be sober."
1 Thessalonians 5:6-7 says - "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night."
Romans 13:11 says - "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
1 Corinthians 15:34 says - "Awake to righteousness, and sin not..."
Ephesians 5:14 says - "Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead..."
Romans 12:11 says - "Not slothful in business..."
People who are spiritually asleep generally have certain features about them. Some of them are as follows:
They are -
...secure, careless, and unconcerned about their souls
...negligent of their duties like prayer, Bible Study, fellowship with other believers, and witnessing
...regardless of their spiritual enemies or the warfare in which they are engaged
...given to a carnal security and sinful indulgences
...stupefied and blinded by besetting sins
...living as though there is no tomorrow or an eternity awaiting them when they leave this world
...willingly ignorant of God's Word and His Will for their lives
...unteachable and avoid any serious means of instruction
...generally intemperate and excessive
...corrupt in their morals
...insensible to spiritual things
...lukewarm in their love for the Lord and His kingdom work
...given over to the lusts of their own flesh such as "chambering," "strife and envying," "surfeiting"
...unresolved in their convictions and unstable and unsteady in their purposes
...constantly in a warfare in their souls as to whom they should serve - God or the world, their own Selves, and Sin.
They have a divided heart between God and this world -
...fear God - yet have hearts that are filled with the idols of this world
...Like Ephraim, they have mixed with the people of this world, learned their works, lost their spiritual identity by becoming conformed to this world and its ways, and adhered to the counsel of the ungodly rather than the Word of God
...have "itching ears" which are constantly looking for teaching and preaching that will gratify the lusts of their own flesh and satiate their endless curiosity or desire for variety
...avoid any kind of teaching or preaching that calls for holiness of living or the crucifixion of their flesh...
and have turned away their ears from the plain and solid Truth.
The Apostle Paul loudly and clearly sounds out the alarm to the Body of Christ today -
1 Thessalonians 5:6 says - "...let us not sleep, as do others..."
Romans 13:11 says - "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
1 Corinthians 15:34 says - "Awake to righteousness, and sin not..."
Ephesians 5:14 says - "...Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead..."
Romans 12:11 says - Don't be slothful in your spiritual affairs - "Not slothful in business..."
The Lord Jesus also warned us throughout the Gospels as well as in the Book of Revelation -
Luke 21:34 says - "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares."
Luke 22:46 says - "...Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation."
Revelation 3:16 says - "So then because thou art lukewarm..."
The New Testament is not the only part of the Bible speaking about spiritual slothfulness or slumber. We read several accounts in the Old Testament where the children of Israel were admonished by the prophets to awake from their unconscious state -
1 Kings 18:21 says - "...How long halt ye between two opinions?"
2 Kings 17:41 says - "So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images..."
Hosea 7:8 says - "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned."
Hosea 10:2 says - "Their heart is divided..."
God always sent His messengers - prophets or preachers - "rising early" with a Word - announcing "Thus saith the Lord" - to awaken His people from their slumbering state. Today is no exception.
What is the overall reaction?
Do the people of God welcome "God's Alarm Clocks" into their lives, services, or groups?
Do they readily receive the "sounding of the alarm" from the prophet's mouth?
Do they eagerly accept the admonition to lay aside the flesh and get serious with God?
On the contrary, these ministers - for the most part - are hated, rejected and despised, separated and cast out from the company and fellowship of certain ones, mistreated, reproached, vilified, reviled, mocked, scorned, gossiped, slandered, lied about, and financially stripped and starved.
What is their crime, if any?
They just happen to be "God's Alarm Clocks" - sent by Him on a mission to wake up a Church who - generally speaking - wants to sleep and be secure in her worldly ways and comforts of Sin.
The Lord Jesus warned that His True ministers would be mistreated by some as He was mistreated -
Matthew 10:22 says - "And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake..."
John 15:18-22 says - "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent Me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin."
Those who are vain, earthly, sensual, pleasure-loving, carnal, and devoted to this world and its interest stand in total opposition to those who are called out of the world and influenced by different principles like the Word of God and Holiness. They clash. They repel. They find that they have nothing in common even though they both call themselves "Christians."
God's ministers have been given a "charge" - a Dispensation of grace to "preach the Word" - not fancies and notions that will tickle the ears of some -
2 Timothy 4:1-5 says - "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."
Whether there is an opportunity to do so or not, they are called by God to earnestly urge His people to -
...give no place to Satan and Sin
...fulfill their duty before God and men as outlined in the Scriptures
...live holy lives before all.
They are called to -
...reprove or tell others of their faults
...cuttingly and severely rebuke those who won't abandon their sins
...make a difference between right and wrong - truth and error
...exhort and encourage those who are struggling in their Christian walk.
How do we know if they are doing their job correctly?
In Jeremiah 23:22, God makes it plain and clear as far as their duties are concerned - "But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings."
This is the job of every minister of the Gospel - to cause God's people to hear the Word of the Lord which admonishes them to turn from their evil ways and wrongdoings - and there are no exceptions!
God never sends His preachers to tickle people's ears and lull them to sleep or unconscious, carnal security.
No! God's ministers are "His Alarm Clocks" - sounding the alarm to Wake Up those who are asleep and to keep others awake and on their constant watch.
Lately, has God sent you some of His ministers - "His Alarm Clocks" - to Wake you from your slumbering state?
How did you react to them?
Did you mistreat them and reject their word?
Or did you readily receive them and their admonition from God?
Remember - If you reject them, you are actually rejecting the God Who sent them.
That is serious business!
Think about it!
May God Bless His Word.
Connie
| © COPYRIGHT Connie Giordano - All Rights Reserved
