If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 13, I'll be reading from verse 11 to 14. And this will be a second part of what we started last week. Romans chapter 13, 11 through 14. "Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

The night is far gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality, not in sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. You are a God who truly is worthy of our affections. You're worthy of our lives. You're worthy of all that we have. Help us, Lord God, to be mindful of what it is that we have in Christ, that we may live lives truly worthy of the gospel you've given us.

May this time be a blessing to you. Help us, Lord God, to worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Last week we looked at the first part of what Paul was saying in verse 11 and on, where Paul is urging the church to live with a sense of urgency.

Now living in Orange County, the challenge that we have is that nothing external reminds us of this urgency. So we are constantly reminded in the church, in Bible study, sometimes in fellowship, that we ought to be living a certain way. But our environment naturally does not push us toward that direction.

How do we live with a sense of urgency and not just come to church and just check off and do Bible study, I did quiet time and I did this and I did that, but with a sense of urgency because you know how your spiritual life is affected when you have that sense of urgency.

If you've ever been out to short-term missions, you know what that feels like. That short period of time, whether it's 10 days or three weeks or a month, during that short period of time, you're so focused in your energy, we need to evangelize. You eat certain kind of things.

You sacrifice some of your comfort. You get together and you share about what you did during that day. And then you encourage each other and you go out. And so every single day is lived with a sense of urgency. And when you come back, you miss that. And that's part of the benefit of going out to short-term missions because for a short period of time, you're able to live the way God really wants us to live.

And for many Christians, that's exactly how we want to live. But how do we live with that sense of urgency while we're at home, taking care of our children, when our bills are paid? You know, there's a kind of urgency that we feel because of our environment. You know, if you happen to be around certain people who are doing certain things, and just like I mentioned, you go out to short-term missions or you're in the mission field for a period, and your environment causes you to have a sense of urgency.

You're surrounded by certain people. Certain events are taking place. But the problem with an environmental urgency is that that environment is not dictated by you. And you become dependent. So a lot of people come back from missions always fantasizing about, "What would it be like if I was to live there?" And even though 99% of us will be living here, and a small amount of us experience what it's like to go out to China for a period and then come back, and they begin to live with this like, "Man, I was such a great Christian when I was there.

If I was in this group, if I was in that group, it would be different." But the reality is that environment, if our urgency is dictated by our environment, you will always be dependent on whatever environment that you're in. So if you happen to be in a lukewarm environment, you become lukewarm.

If you happen to be in an environment where there's a sense of urgency, then you live with this urgency. So the sense of urgency is not coming from within. Sense of urgency is coming from without. And so our spiritual lives goes up and down based upon who we're with.

And then there's circumstantial urgency. Whether you are in the middle of a job, or there's a sickness or illness, or something has happened, persecution is happening, natural disaster, there are certain things that are happening in our life that causes us to be urgent. But even that, if it's based upon our circumstance, we don't have control over that.

We can look at, "Wow, those people were persecuted. They really love Christ and it purifies the church." But what if you're living in a place where the persecution is not happening, where you and I live? The persecution is what's causing the sense of urgency, which it does, but if we're dependent upon that, then we will always be dependent upon our circumstance and whatever is happening around us.

So our spiritual life isn't grounded in Christ. It's grounded upon whatever changing circumstance or environment that we're in. Sometimes God will bring us to those circumstances. Sometimes in our environment, there are things that are external that are going to push us toward that. But the kind of urgency that Paul is talking about is not talking about circumstantial or environment.

He's talking about value or truth-based urgency that does not change because you're young or you're older, or before you were married, or after you were married, or because you have a certain group of friends, or because you don't have a certain group of friends. A certain kind of urgency that comes from believing in the truth of the gospel.

But like Paul said, when he says, "I have found the secret of being content in every and all situation, having a lot or not having it at all," Paul said that his life and his passion for Christ and his joy is not based upon whether he's in prison or out of prison, whether he's being fed or not being fed.

Ultimately, our sense of urgency is grounded in the gospel itself. We talked about that last week, how the gospel message, "Eugengelion," basically means "good news." And news is meant to be told. It's meant to be shared. There's a sense of urgency in the very word "gospel" itself. So if our urgency and sense of importance of what we're doing and how we ought to live isn't grounded on the things that we believe already, and we're constantly waiting for something to happen outside of us to move us, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

In fact, a lot of times it doesn't. In fact, most of the time it doesn't. Most of our lives are lived in the mundane. Most of our lives, you go to work in the morning, you clock out at night, you come home, you eat your dinner, you take care of your children, and in your fatigue, you try to fit in your quiet time and do what you need to do, and then you put the kids to sleep, and this is what five, six days out of the week it looks like.

Majority of our lives, the environment that we're in doesn't push us toward Christ. It doesn't give us a sense of urgency. In fact, it fights against that because we live in a world where everything, especially here in Orange County, where everything is safe, everything is good. And every once in a while, you may experience something in your life, whether individually or maybe in a large scale, something happens to remind us that we need Christ.

But if our sense of worship, if our sense of urgency is dependent upon things that are outside and not the truth of the gospel, it means that majority of our lives, majority of our lives, we're going to be living thinking that it would be great if I was in this situation.

It would be great if that happened, and living envying other people, envying other circumstances. So we read testimonies of pastors who are sacrificing their lives to get the gospel and say, "Wow, that's awesome. I'm really challenged by that." Or every once in a while, you'll hear a missionary or a pastor or somebody who's doing something fantastic for God, and we live vicariously through the testimonies of other people.

But for us, we're just living day to day, hoping, frustrated that maybe the circumstances today, only if this changed, only if that changed, only if these people were in my life, only if those people were. And we drift from year to year, sometimes decade to decade, not passionately serving Christ as a result.

Paul reminded us last week in verse 11 and on, he says four separate times, he says, "This thing you know, you know the time, that the hour has come, that the night is far gone, the day is at hand." And so he gives a sense of urgency to not only to live for Christ and to honor Christ, but to recognize that today, you only have today, today.

Once today passes, you can't look back and say, "Oh, I wish I could do that again." It's gone. You only have your 20s once. You only have your 30s once. You only have your 40s once. You're only single once. You only have your children when they're young once. And once it passes, it passes.

And that's why the scripture reminds us to redeem the time that God has given us. That we would not simply be hearers of the word, but when we hear it, that we would have a sense of urgency today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Do not go back into your old routine, but just carefully examine what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ?

So this morning, I want to look at three separate things that the scripture teaches in the text that we're looking at. What does it mean to be woke? What does it mean to be woke? Now, I know it's grammatically wrong. And those of you who are already aware, like a lot of you have a smirk on your face, so I can already tell you know what I'm getting at.

In modern day, the slang that they use for woke, and I'm going to give you the urban dictionary. For those of you who don't know what an urban dictionary is, you're going to have to look it up. Okay? So urban dictionary basically is the modern definition of things that are kind of new vocabularies that are coming into the culture.

Okay? I already made it sound uncool. All right, so that's basically what's happening. So the urban dictionary, what it means to be woke, if you haven't heard that yet, it says getting woke is like being in a matrix and taking the red pill. So if you don't know the matrix, you're already lost, so I can't help you.

So those of you who know and you've watched that movie, the greatest movie ever made, you know what I'm talking about. You get a sudden understanding of what's really going on and find out you were wrong about much of what you understood to be truth. So to be woke basically means that you were thinking one way and all of a sudden something happens, you're enlightened, and you're able to see the world in a completely different light.

So you're woke. You're woke. Right? The reason I'm using that term to refer to what Paul is saying because it does relate, because Paul says considering the time, considering the hour, considering the season that you and I are living in, he says let us wake up from our slumber.

And he describes in chapter 13, 12 to 14, what does it mean to be woke? A biblical definition, not the urban dictionary, but the ESV dictionary. What does the Bible say about being awake? Just to go off the definition of what the urban dictionary says, to be able to see, to understand truth, that changes everything.

Doesn't that describe every single Christian? I remember part of the reason why I enjoyed that movie Matrix so much is that when they offered the red pill, right? So if you don't know this movie, I can't help you, but if you remember this movie, they offer that red pill and they take the red pill, and as a result of taking the red pill, a whole new world opens up.

It's the truth, but it wasn't a truth that was pleasant, and yet it was truth. And we realize that everything that they knew about the world was fake, right? And it was pleasant. If you just never saw it, if you never took the pill, you would have never known, and you would have just lived like everybody else, but because you took the pill and your eyes were open, you can never shut it.

Because once you take it, you can't go back. Every Christian, when we come to Christ and the gospel opens our eyes, we can never go back unless you never believe it to begin with. If all you were really committed to was the religious life of being a Christian where you go to church and you do certain things and maybe God's going to bless you, so you're basically asking God to help you with life, help you with your business, help you with raising children.

If that's the reason why you came to church, then your eyes were never really open to begin with. But if you came and you were confronted with the gospel truth that the world that you and I are living in is under the condemnation of God, it's under God's judgment, and death reigns.

And so the truth of the gospel opens our eyes to see that everything that you and I have been experiencing was under the reign of the God of this age. Music, culture, what we value, our sense of safety, our sense of security, all of that was a lie. What happens when we die?

All of this that we were taught was wrong. And so once our eyes get open, we're woke. We get awakened. And if you were truly awakened, you could never close that again unless you never really believed it to begin with. That's what happened to the disciples. They were completely blind until Jesus goes to the cross.

Jesus is telling them he's going to die, resurrect. And during that whole time, you could completely tell they don't get it. Their idea of the kingdom just didn't fit what Jesus was doing until he was resurrected. And all of a sudden, you could see the light bulbs going off.

I get it. Now I get it. Now I get it. Now I see why Jesus was willing to go to the cross. Now I see what he meant by picking up your cross. Now I see, he said, if he who finds his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake, he will find it.

All these things that probably didn't make much sense to them, it all of a sudden began to make sense. And once their eyes got open, they looked at their life differently. Even in the book of Acts, as they're standing before the Sanhedrin, commanding them to not to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They said, you tell me if it's right or wrong to obey you or obey God. And they defiantly continued to preach the gospel. What gave them this kind of courage? Because their eyes got opened. Apostle Paul, on the road to Damascus, he encounters this Christ that he thought, ultimately, that he was doing God's work.

And then God knocks him off a horse and he's in anti- what is it? My mind went blank. Where was he at? Tell me. Where was he going? Damascus. Sorry. Okay. You guys all knew it, but you didn't want to say anything. Okay. He's on the road to Damascus.

He's there for three days, scale on his eyes. So can you imagine what he was thinking for those three days? Everything he knew about God was wrong. Everything that he thought he was doing for God was wrong. So once the scale falls off and he's encountered God, he's a completely different person.

He's born again. Just like Jesus says to Nicodemus. He's a completely different person because he opened his eyes. What happened to Paul? Did he go through seminary? Was it like 15 years of intense training that he went through? That all of a sudden that he was willing to give his life?

What happened to him? Like today we think like discipleship, if you just put them through the right training program, you have a guy who doesn't love God, all of a sudden he's going to love God. But if you look at the scripture, people who are running full speed ahead one direction, all of a sudden change, and then they're giving their lives, they become generous, they're living with boldness, they have intimate fellowship, and all because God opened their eyes.

That happens to every Christian. It happens to every disciple. It happens to Apostle Paul. It happens to every single one of us when we genuinely encounter Christ. So being sober is not necessarily about our circumstance. It's about believing what we already profess to believe, really believing what we already profess to believe.

I want to point out three things that he says about being awake or woke. Number one, being woke is being mindful of who we are. Really remembering and our life being consistent with the things that we profess. He says to wake up from our slumber. And what does he mean by slumber?

Slumber basically means not living according to what we profess. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 2-4, Paul describes what it will be like before he comes, before Jesus comes back, and this is how he describes it. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, while people are saying there is peace and security.

That sudden destruction will come upon them in labor pains, come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. Paul describes the end times before Jesus comes back, that they're seeking for peace and security.

He's not talking about debauchery. He's not talking about setting up idols and worshipping it. And all of these things may be true, but predominantly, the way he describes it is, people are just going to be living their normal lives, which is what everybody seeks. There is peace. They're going to be seeking peace and security.

That's how he describes slumber, not being awake. They're just living their lives like everybody else. Again, in Matthew 24, 37, 39, Jesus himself describes the end times this way. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark.

And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Look what it describes. What were they doing? They were just eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. There's nothing that he describes here. It's like they were in debauchery.

They set up idols and they sacrificed everything. They had human sacrifice. No, he said they were just eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, just like everybody else in this world does. That's how the Bible describes being asleep. See, it's understandable that if you do not believe the gospel truth, that we would live to make the most of this world.

So it would make sense that our goal is to have peace and security if this is it. If this is everything that we have, if these 70, 80 years that we have on this earth, if this is it, you want to make the most of it. But once our eyes become open to the gospel truth, that everything that you and I experience in this world is under condemnation of God, that when he comes, all of it is under God's judgment.

Everything that we experience is under the reign of death, and that ultimately, God is preparing us to go into eternity because of what Christ has done. If we've opened our eyes to that truth and continue to live like the rest of the world, he says we are asleep. You have forgotten who you are.

Either you have drifted away from the truth of the gospel, or you never believed it to begin with. It's like somebody who wakes up in the middle of the night and sees his house burning down. That truth, if you believe it, no matter how tired you are, no matter how fatigued you are, you will get out of bed.

You will grab your children and run out of the house. You're not going to sit there and say, "Well, I know the house is burning down. I believe it with all my heart, but I'm going to give it another five minutes because I'm a bit tired today." Maybe five minutes later, maybe ten minutes later, you won't do that.

If you wake up in the middle of the night and you realize what is happening to your house, that truth is going to get you moving. It's going to get you to be running out of the house. So a Christian who has professed to believe this gospel and to live like the rest of the world, either he has drifted so far away from the thing that he professed that he has fallen asleep and has completely forgot who he is, or he never believed it to begin with.

But somebody who has opened his eyes to this truth can't one day just decide to not see. It's no different than an individual who sees the fire and just goes back to sleep. It is not possible. So the first thing that he calls us is to get up from our slumber.

You don't have to be a super Christian. You don't have to go to ten years of discipleship training. You don't have to have an MDiv degree to know this. This is the reality of the truth from day one. You meet Christ. You don't need to be a dispensationalist. You don't need to be covenant theology.

You don't need to know all the intricate details of the Trinity. The fact that you have confessed to believe that Jesus was crucified and was resurrected from the dead, that that truth from day one opens our eyes and we are changed. So the first thing that he calls us to is to wake up.

Wake up from our slumber. In Ezekiel, God says that he has established us as watchmen. And if our job is to be watchmen, the worst thing that a watchman can do is to fall asleep. Because his job is to warn the people that danger is coming. And so he says to the watchman, "I tell you that danger is coming.

I say to you, unrighteous man, that if he doesn't repent, judgment is coming, and you fall asleep and you don't tell him, not only will he be judged, but so will you for not warning him." But he says, "I tell you to tell a wicked man to turn from his sin, and you tell him and he doesn't turn from his sin, he will be judged, but you have done your job." God says that he purchased us for the purpose of declaring his glory.

Our very identity is to be the light of this world. He says you are salt for the purpose of preservation, and yet if the salt loses its flavor, what good is it? If a watchman is standing as a watchman to warn the people and you fall asleep, what good is it?

The whole purpose of why you and I exist, he says, while we're here, while we're not in heaven, the moment that we meet Christ, while we're not in heaven, is so that we can be the mediator to warn the church, to warn the world that Christ is coming to prepare.

That's why the first thing about being awake, being woke, is to recognize who we are, that we don't live like the rest of the world, that we don't follow what the world goes after. We look at people who win the lottery and we say, "Wow." We look at that with envy.

We look at guys who are getting drafted in the NBA and like, "Oh, I wish." We look at guys who started great business and they have multiple businesses all over the world. We look at people who have great houses and driving around with nice cars, and we look with them with envy and we covet, because we have forgotten who they are.

We have forgotten who we are. We are children of the Most High God. The blood of Christ has covered us, and our destiny is eternity in heaven. So for us to look at the world and the trivial things, even at their greatest success, to covet that, is to forget who we are, is to forget what we have been given in Christ.

That's why in Ephesians 4, 1-3, Paul says, "I therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." You and I have been called as children of the Most High God. If we're not careful, we can pursue trivial things in this world, just like the rest of the world, seeking peace and comfort and wealth, and at the end, all of that is going to be under the judgment of God.

So the first thing about being awake is to know who we are, to remember who we are, remember the height from which we have fallen, to repent and redo the things that we did at first. Philippians 1-27, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." To live a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And obviously, he's not saying you have to earn your salvation. Obviously, that's not what he's saying. He said, "Consider what you have been given." Consider what you have been given. The fact that you're able to come to church and worship God, do you realize what a tremendous gift that is?

Because if the condemnation of man came because we have fallen short of the glory of God, because mankind had rebelled and they are living their life for their own glory, living their life for their own satisfaction, and then to be able to have access to this God to come back and worship is to restore what was lost in creation.

So the fact that you and I can come, listen to his word, pray songs, fellowship together with other Christians, the tremendous gift, sacrifice that went to, to bring us to this point. To call God our Abba Father. You know, we complain so much about fellowship, about other people and how, what they have or don't have.

And we don't proclaim enough about the gift of fellowship we have with God. It doesn't make sense to spend all our time discouraged by people when the greatest thing that we have in God never comes out of our mouth. It just doesn't make sense. That's just like winning the lottery and complaining about a parking ticket.

We have access to God. Everything that we have for life of godliness has been given to us in Jesus Christ. So it doesn't make sense for us to celebrate the gift of life and the Son of God and complain about how the road is crooked to get there. If we have forgotten what we have, that's the first thing that he calls us to, to wake up from our slumber, remember who we are.

Secondly, he says, to be woke means to put off the works of darkness. Live consistently with who you are. If we know who we are, and if we believe the things that we profess, then put off the things that is inconsistent with the things that we profess. He says, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the daytime. And then he describes some of these things. Obviously there's a long list of things that he could easily put in saying that you should shun these things. But almost always on the top of this list is sexual immorality. Not in orgies, drunkenness, not in sexual immorality, not in sensuality.

And the scripture says to flee from sexual immorality. It's almost always on the top of the list. The number one on the sins to flee is sexual immorality. You ever think about why? I mean, you talk about murder. You could think about stealing, slander. I mean, all of these things hurt other people.

And I can, I can understand why the world pushes the envelope with sexuality. Because if the worst thing that you can do is to hurt other people, sexuality, like who you have sex with, why you have sex with them, as long as the two consensual adults don't mind, why is this such a big deal?

If I wasn't a Christian, I completely understand where their mindset is coming from. Who are you when two consensual adults, whether it's man or man, woman or woman, or it's sex outside of marriage, who cares if they're okay with it? Why is sexuality so offensive to God? Why is this on the top of the list when it really, I mean, consider the damage it does for murder, for hatred, for slander, for stealing, and then sexuality to people who are just having fun and they enjoy it and no one is hurt by that, so what do you care about it?

Consider what sex is. Sex is at the core, human sexuality is at the core of God's purpose in creation. God created Adam and Eve and he gave the command to be fruitful and multiply, so our very existence as man and woman centers around sexuality. God ordained sex to procreate other human beings.

Every single one of us is a result of somebody having sex. I know you're going to be grossed out thinking about it, but that's, you're adults here, right? Every single one of us are here because of sexual encounter between husband and wife, and God ordained this from the beginning, that the union between husband and wife was ordained to procreate other human beings.

Every other relationship in creation stemmed from the relationship between husband and wife. Children came from husband and wife. God didn't create grandparents and grandfather and grandmother, aunts and uncles, God created husband and wife, and from that came children, and from that came grandchildren, from that came aunts and uncles, so all other relationships stem from the relationship between husband and wife.

And it all came because of the sexual relationship between husband and wife. So if God ordained that for the purpose of creation to bring glory to him and mankind fell because they disobeyed God and ate of the fruit that God told them not to because of this tree of knowledge of good and evil, how much more would it be offensive if it's at the core of our existence what God has ordained we pervert?

If the marriage bed is perverted, it overflows to their children. It overflows eventually and affects every other relationship. It's not simply about whether it bothers you or whether people are bothered or not bothered. At the core of God's purpose of creation was sexuality. So the perversion of what God intended is an offense to God.

And that's why it says in 1 Peter 2.11, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul." It is not just me, it doesn't bother me or maybe it just only affects me. He says no, it is waging war against your soul.

We only look at it at the physical. But the spiritual, there's war. He goes on and he says not only does that, he says to flee from quarreling and jealousy. The scripture says before you go to the altar, if somebody has something against you, deal with that before you come.

Come to the Lord and say, "Forgive me as I have forgiven my brothers," to be reconciled. And again in James chapter 4, 1-3, "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" There's something internal going on and there's some frustration, certain desires that I have and it is not met and when that becomes expressed, it becomes a conflict and he says, "Isn't that the core?

Because there is a war within you. You desire and you do not have, so you murder, you coven, you cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. And you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions." See, he's saying that these things are inconsistent with somebody whose eyes have become open.

To acknowledge God as our Lord and Savior is to acknowledge God's intent in our life as supreme. You can't simply confess and say, "You know, I've opened my eyes and I've seen the truth and this is not about discipleship. God did tell us to teach them to observe all that I have commanded you." He's simply saying, "Do you believe this truth or not?

Do you actually believe the gospel that we profess or not? Have you actually seen Christ or not? Do you love him or not? Are you eagerly waiting for Jesus or not? Are you a follower of Jesus or not?" There is in six different categories. Either you've opened your eyes and you confess this truth and that changed your outlook on everything in life or you didn't.

There isn't anything in between. It doesn't require years of discipleship to make a commitment and to say, "I believe." That's what he's calling us to. He said, "If you know who you are, live according to what you profess. Put off the thieves of the darkness." And then he says, thirdly, "To put on the armor of light and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ." To put him on.

In Isaiah 61, it says, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." As you and I have been studying through the book of Leviticus, in Leviticus it makes it very clear when the priests were to give sacrifices or take something out of the camp, they had to put on the priestly garment.

And the priestly garment separated them from common and holy. And so what it meant was to put on the garment means that they are different from the other people who are coming into the tabernacle because they are preparing for worship. They're doing something sacred. So a Jew, when they heard the idea of putting off and putting on, automatically had this image of becoming a priest for God's kingdom.

And that's exactly what he's telling us to do. To put on the armor. And this is not just any clothing. You don't put on army to go shopping. You don't put on the army to take a nap. You put on the armor because you're preparing for some kind of battle.

And that's exactly what he is calling us to do. To engage in spiritual warfare. That's why Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, 7, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." This is Paul at the end of his life describing the totality of his life after he met Christ.

He called it a fight. Think about how hard we work because we don't want to fight. Think about how we automatically have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that's going to cause discomfort in my life. Maybe sometimes we don't even want to hear sermons that's going to poke at things that you don't want to hear.

You kind of turn your ear or turn your face because you don't want to hear the truth because that means, the truth means, it's going to challenge the things that you hold on to dearly. But if you profess to be a believer of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you have committed to live consistently with what you believe, he says, put on the armor.

And put Christ on. And what does it mean to put Christ on? To put Christ on means to put who he is. That everything that we have is basically to portray Christ. We are the body of Christ. We are the arms of Christ. We are the mouth of Christ.

So we are called to do what he would do if he was in this situation. And finally he says, to make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desire, to live in such a way where you're not living by the flesh but living by the spirit. Martin Luther said, "I cannot keep sparrows from flying about my head, but I can keep them from making a nest in my hair." We can't help being tempted.

We can't help sometimes being frustrated. We can't help at times wanting security and safety. But when you embrace that, when you entertain that, when you make that your goal in life, you have to take a step back and ask yourself, do I believe this gospel? Do I believe that the world is on fire or not?

Do I believe that Christ is coming with righteous judgment or not? When I read the book of Revelation, is that true or not? When I read the book of Romans, that Christ came to save sinners and as a result of this mercy and grace, the challenge to live a life worthy of the gospel, to give our lives as a living sacrifice, do I believe this or not?

There is nothing in between. Either our eyes are open and we can never go back to our old life or we can live a lie, all our lives, thinking that we have some sort of fire insurance and then coming to meet the Lord saying, "Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven." Either we are awake or not.

That's why Paul says in Philippians 3, 13, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Let those of us who are mature think this way and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Only let us hold true to what we have already attained. Hold true, be honest with what you profess, be honest with what you sing, be honest with the passages that you read, be honest with the sermons that you hear, have integrity, be true to yourself, be true to the things that you confess.

Don't say you believe in heaven and hell. Don't say that Jesus died for your sins and that heaven is waiting for us and then live completely contradicting everything that we profess every Sunday. Who are we? What are we to put off? What are we to put on? And let me conclude with this.

You know, with all the stuff happening in North Korea and South Korea, because I am a Korean fob, people ask me, "Give me your expert political advice on how to think of these things." Right? I really don't know what to think of it because just a few months ago and years ago, we were hearing news about how Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea, was killing his own brother, his uncle, his close companions.

And prior to that, in the previous regime, for the last 30, 40, 50 years, they were killing their own people, propping up a communist army, and the eight billions of money, dollar that went into North Korea was used to prop up their regime and to make nuclear bombs. This was, this is a fact.

This is not a political opinion. Recently, they've been threatening, you know, nuclear bomb, nuclear attack, and so everybody was kind of on the edge, and now they seem like they're going to have a peace accord and they're shaking hands. And historically, it's crazy that the North Korean dictator actually crossed over to South Korea and the South Korean president actually crossed over to North Korea, and then soon Donald Trump is going to meet them at the same place where they did that, and the world is celebrating that we're at peace.

What does it mean to make peace with somebody who's killing their own people? Again, you know, I don't get into politics here, you know, because there's, I know there's all kinds of opinions, but what does it mean to shake hands with somebody who previously used all the aid that you've given them for the poor and use it to build a nuclear bomb?

Now I'm optimistic and I'm praying that it will lead to something good, but I don't know what to think of it. I don't know what to think of it because the whole purpose of this is like, we'll give you money, just don't go crazy. So you can continue to do what you're doing, you can continue to let your people suffer, you can continue to kill anybody who opposes you, but just don't have a nuclear bomb.

As long as we're safe. So making peace with North Korea, I don't know what to make of it. What does it mean for Christians to make peace in this world? The scripture says the God of this age is Satan. He has blinded the mind of the unbelievers so they do not see the gospel and the glory of Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to make peace in a world that is under condemnation? I don't know what to make of it. I don't know what to make of Christians who profess to believe this and live and decide and everything that they do is to live a peaceful and quiet life on this earth.

I don't know what to make of that. What does it mean for Christians to live peacefully here, knowing that judgment is coming? I want to encourage and challenge you. The scripture says broad is the path that leads to destruction and many will be found on it, but narrow is the way to eternal life and few will be found on it.

Don't forfeit your passion because you see a few. It will always take a few. We always seek safety and comfort in numbers, but there's great danger in crowds. Remember the large crowds? They're the ones who abandoned Jesus. It was the large crowds who crucified Jesus. It was the large crowds who persecuted the few Christians.

Revival never came with a movement of the crowds, but when God empowered the few. Don't wait for urgency to happen with the crowd for you to commit your life to Christ. The crowds only come when they see other crowds coming. The remnant move wherever and whenever God moves. I want to encourage you.

Don't wait for a movement. Don't wait for other people to wake up. Don't wait for other people to join you. God always calls the remnant. If he opened your eyes and you believe the truth, live up to the calling that God has given. Let's pray. (pages rustling)