back to indexBerean Community Church - Sunday Service 9/21/2025
00:05:29.780 |
Let no vice or sin remain that resist your holy woe. 00:46:38.140 |
alert and sober. For those who sleep, do their sleeping at night. Those who get drunk, get drunk 00:46:44.080 |
at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober. Having put on the breastplate of faith, 00:46:49.720 |
love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. It's not time to sleep. 00:46:56.000 |
People who want to sleep don't want the light on. They don't want strong messages. They don't want 00:47:04.880 |
to be disturbed because they want to go to sleep. They're trying to rest. And when I come to church, 00:47:11.300 |
I don't feel any rest. I feel stirred, and I don't want to be stirred because I want to go to sleep. 00:47:18.520 |
So if you have a peacetime mentality, if you have a bunker mentality, everything that you're going to 00:47:25.220 |
hear and see is going to be, does this help me to rest? When he says, no, it's not time for you to go 00:47:30.840 |
to sleep. He says to wake up. There will be a time when you will rest when he comes. 00:47:36.520 |
There will be a time when we're in heaven where we don't have to worry about enemies. 00:47:41.900 |
Where we don't have to shine our light because there's going to be a greater light that's going 00:47:46.160 |
to be on constantly. But now we are to shine that light in this dark world. So as long as we are here, 00:47:53.600 |
he says, keep your lamps lit. 1 Peter 5, 7 and 8, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for 00:48:00.020 |
you. Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring 00:48:05.820 |
lion seeking someone to devour. When's the last time you thought that you have an enemy who's 00:48:13.140 |
very sober? Very sober, very alert prowling around to get you. You know how he gets you? 00:48:19.180 |
He's not dressed in horns waiting in the bathroom in dark corners or in bad neighborhoods. 00:48:26.600 |
The way he gets you is through your thoughts. How you feel, what you covet, what you listen to, 00:48:35.260 |
what you see. That's how he gets you. So through your thoughts, through your desire, through your 00:48:41.580 |
coveting, you begin to feel a certain way and those feelings begin to dictate what is right and wrong 00:48:46.720 |
for you. And all of a sudden you're deceived and you don't even know it. That's why he says, stay sober. 00:48:53.060 |
Be alert. Keep your lamps lit. In Matthew 24, 37, 38, for the coming of the Son of Man will be just 00:49:01.920 |
like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, 00:49:07.260 |
giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. They didn't say, you know, 00:49:12.840 |
they were involved in debauchery, sinning, and they were getting drunk. They were, no. They were just 00:49:17.840 |
living like everybody else, unaware of the judgment that was coming, eating and drinking and marrying. 00:49:22.580 |
Yeah, just like everybody else. Because they were unaware of what was happening. They were unaware of 00:49:31.280 |
their sins. They were unaware of their rebellion. They were unaware of God's anger burning against 00:49:35.880 |
them. So they were eating and drinking. I mean, it's interesting. It doesn't describe the debauchery. 00:49:43.160 |
It doesn't describe orgies that were happening and child, you know, murder or sacrifice. No, 00:49:50.480 |
it's just, they were just eating and drinking. Our greatest challenge is this. 00:49:56.760 |
What squashes our passion for Christ? What causes the Word of God to be, to be squashed 00:50:04.960 |
in our lives is eating and drinking. It's daily concerns like everybody else. But I got to pay my bills. 00:50:13.180 |
I got to raise my children. I got to do this. And I got to, God didn't call everybody. 00:50:17.800 |
The next thing you know, whatever passion you had when you were young, you no longer have. 00:50:23.980 |
That's why you're passionate when you're in high school or in college. And then you graduate and 00:50:29.260 |
you start working, paying bills, and then you get married. And next thing you know, 00:50:33.060 |
it's just a distant memory of how you used to be when you were young. 00:50:37.960 |
And if you think about it, it's not because you chose to serve the devil. It's not because you 00:50:43.000 |
chose not to love Jesus. You just love the world a bit more. Next thing you know, the words that 00:50:52.600 |
we're singing has no effect on you. The Word of God just seems like information. Bible study just 00:50:56.560 |
seems like homework. You're no longer passionately seeking Christ. 00:51:04.080 |
It says in Revelations, I'm sorry, Isaiah 40, 31, it says, we eagerly wait, right? Keep your lamps on 00:51:13.500 |
because your master who's at a wedding, he's going to come back. And so that when he comes back that 00:51:19.420 |
you can immediately open the door, right? He talks about a banquet that when he comes that he's going 00:51:26.600 |
to throw a bank in. Isaiah 40, 31, it says, though yet those who wait for the Lord, they will mount up 00:51:33.120 |
with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Those 00:51:37.820 |
who are eagerly waiting for the Lord to come back, they're going to find strength, right? Your strength 00:51:44.660 |
doesn't come from accountability. Your strength doesn't come from being at a good church. 00:51:49.700 |
Your strength doesn't come because you have a mentor in your life. 00:51:55.100 |
He said, your strength comes from eagerly waiting for the Lord. 00:51:58.760 |
Eagerly waiting for the Lord. Why are you eagerly waiting for the Lord? Because he's your 00:52:04.940 |
general. He's your captain. If we're in the context of struggle, 00:52:09.640 |
you're going to hope that he will come because 00:52:19.700 |
He said, when he comes, and when you eagerly wait for him, he said, you will find strength. 00:52:50.720 |
those are superficial things that come and go. 00:52:56.780 |
And then when you don't have it, your world falls apart. 00:52:58.780 |
It's because we put our confidence in the wrong things. 00:53:47.980 |
And they're saying, well, how do I overcome it? 00:54:06.160 |
He who fixes his eyes upon the coming of Christ, 01:14:49.660 |
One church, one faith, one hymn raised, God and God alone. 01:15:14.720 |
One cross, one grace, one name that saves, all praise to you belongs.