Latest / Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons / Wakey, wakey!
Transcript
- 0:00We can turn back now to our reading in Isaiah chapter 51. We're going to look at verse 9 down to chapter 52 there as we go into that chapter.
- 0:13Reading again at verse 9,
- 0:15Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.
- 0:27What woke you up this morning? Was it just a natural stirring as you'd had a good sleep and just came round when it was time to wake up?
- 0:37Or was it an alarm clock perhaps that woke you up? Or maybe it was the noise of maybe people, children or other people around or even animals outside or inside barking or other noises.
- 0:51There's so many things that can wake us up in the morning or indeed through the night as well.
- 0:58But did the Word of God wake you up this morning?
- 1:00Have you read God's Word today and has it had that impact on you where it's like an alarm clock going off, where it has woken you up?
- 1:11It's spoken to you in a way that maybe you've never seen before.
- 1:16A word or a passage or something that you've never noticed.
- 1:21It's had that impact on you of just stirring you, giving you a bit of a shock, waking you up.
- 1:27God's Word is powerful and it can have that effect.
- 1:33And as we read here in chapter 51 and into chapter 52, there are three verses in this reading and maybe they stood out for you when you notice the title of the sermon today being Wakey Wakey.
- 1:48You think, well, where do we see that in this passage?
- 1:52Well, we see it in three places.
- 1:54The verse that we read there, verse 9,
- 1:57There's a wake-up call there.
- 2:05Then in verse 17, you see it again.
- 2:07Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem.
- 2:11Another wake-up call there.
- 2:14And then in chapter 52, verse 1,
- 2:16Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion.
- 2:21Three times you see it there.
- 2:25Wake up, awake, awake.
- 2:29And you see it as you read through God's Word.
- 2:33That's what God's Word does to us.
- 2:36It wakes us up.
- 2:37It's always speaking to us.
- 2:39Sometimes it speaks gently to us.
- 2:43Other times loudly, but always with a purpose to get our attention, to get us to listen.
- 2:51But the question is, are we listening?
- 2:53Are we listening to what the Word of God is saying to us?
- 2:57Are we listening to it in the days in which we're living?
- 3:01Well, in Isaiah's days, he was speaking to the people then.
- 3:07And he was asking for them to respond, to wake up.
- 3:11Because they were in the midst of great trials.
- 3:15They were in the midst of times of despair in many ways.
- 3:19There were so many things going on that was leaving them feeling downcast.
- 3:24And they were being given this wake-up call.
- 3:27And if we have a wake-up call, what does that mean?
- 3:31Well, it's something that's kind of bringing us to our attention.
- 3:35Bringing us to realize that there's something important.
- 3:38Something that requires action.
- 3:40For example, you can have wake-up calls in different ways.
- 3:44If you're staying in a hotel.
- 3:46Maybe you're staying at an airport.
- 3:48You're catching a flight the next morning.
- 3:50And you ask for a wake-up call.
- 3:52So you get a call early in the morning to make sure that you're up.
- 3:57It's up to you what you do with it.
- 3:59Do you listen to it?
- 4:01Or do you ignore it and just go back to sleep?
- 4:04Well, there's consequences.
- 4:05If you ignore it, you maybe miss your flight.
- 4:09Other times, we can get a wake-up call in life by something happening to us.
- 4:14Perhaps you're someone who likes to drive fast.
- 4:17Many of us, when we first pass our test, you enjoy that sense of freedom.
- 4:22Going out in the car, driving at speed.
- 4:26Feeling indestructible.
- 4:28But a wake-up call comes.
- 4:30When you lose control, you crash the car.
- 4:33That should be a wake-up call.
- 4:35You need to slow down.
- 4:36You need to pay more attention.
- 4:40And surely that's what God does to us again and again.
- 4:43Whether it's through his word or whether it's through what happens around us.
- 4:48His works of providence to us.
- 4:50Again and again, God gives us a wake-up call.
- 4:54He speaks to us in a powerful way.
- 4:58And we need to take action.
- 5:00We need to listen for things to change.
- 5:04What is our action to be?
- 5:06What can make a difference?
- 5:08Or who can make a difference?
- 5:09Do we need to wake up?
- 5:12Who needs to wake up?
- 5:14These are the kinds of questions that we see in Isaiah 51 and 52 here.
- 5:19And that we're going to look at together this morning.
- 5:23These wake-up calls that shout out loudly to us.
- 5:28Three of them.
- 5:29In the verses I mentioned, verse 9, 17, and verse 1 of chapter 52.
- 5:35We're going to look at each of these and think,
- 5:37well, what is it saying to us?
- 5:39Well, verse 9 there, first of all.
- 5:41Awake, awake.
- 5:42Put on strength, O arm of the Lord.
- 5:47This first wake-up call is a challenge to faith.
- 5:52Who is being challenged to wake up here in verse 9?
- 5:56Read it again.
- 5:58Awake, awake.
- 5:59Put on strength, O arm of the Lord.
- 6:02Awake as in the days of old.
- 6:05It's not God saying to the people to wake up here first.
- 6:11It's the people saying to God, God, why are you asleep?
- 6:16Is it not time that you woke up?
- 6:18Awake, awake.
- 6:19Put on strength, O arm of the Lord.
- 6:22Awake as in the days of old.
- 6:26What are they saying here?
- 6:27They're saying, God, why are you sleeping?
- 6:33Are you not seeing the great need that we are in?
- 6:35Are you not seeing the devastation that is all around us?
- 6:39Why are you asleep in it all?
- 6:43Have you ever said that in your own life, in your own experience, in our own day?
- 6:49Where is God in the midst of everything?
- 6:51Is God sleeping?
- 6:54Or even as some would say, well, God, if he was real, God is gone.
- 6:57God is dead.
- 6:59God is not dead.
- 7:01And God is not sleeping.
- 7:04But that's the way we can so often feel and so often see him.
- 7:09What we have to remember here is that in Isaiah's time, as I mentioned earlier,
- 7:14in the book of Isaiah, you see it, a warning of disaster coming up to chapter 39.
- 7:20And then from chapter 40 onwards, that sense of the Lord is going to comfort.
- 7:25The Lord will comfort if the people will return to him.
- 7:30Isaiah 40, these wonderful words of the beginning of the chapter.
- 7:35Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
- 7:39And yet, there seems to be no comfort.
- 7:42Comfort. Comfort seems so far removed.
- 7:48Because the people that are being spoken about here are in disarray.
- 7:54They're in a terrible plight.
- 7:56You see that as you read on in chapter 51.
- 8:00Just look at verse 19 there.
- 8:03These two things have happened to you.
- 8:05Who will console you?
- 8:07Devastation and destruction.
- 8:08Famine and sword.
- 8:10Who will comfort you?
- 8:12So these things have happened in their midst.
- 8:15There is desolation.
- 8:17There is destruction.
- 8:19And the people are saying,
- 8:20God, why are you sleeping in the midst of all of this?
- 8:26There is no response.
- 8:29God is seeing as if he doesn't care for them.
- 8:32And the people are then finding themselves in the situation of doubt.
- 8:38And that's why they're saying,
- 8:40they're afraid.
- 8:41Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord.
- 8:46They're afraid.
- 8:48They're mourning.
- 8:50They're devastated.
- 8:52There's so much going on.
- 8:54And they think God doesn't care.
- 8:57Are you like that today?
- 8:59Do you feel that sense of fear?
- 9:04That sense of sorrow?
- 9:06That sense of doubt?
- 9:08That sense of despair?
- 9:10And God isn't interested.
- 9:12God doesn't care about me.
- 9:14God doesn't care about our nation or the world.
- 9:17Do you think that is true?
- 9:21Is this how we are to come to God?
- 9:26Have you forgotten us, O Lord?
- 9:30Well, surely not.
- 9:33We could easily allow doubts to creep in.
- 9:37We could easily allow fear to overwhelm us.
- 9:40But God has not forgotten.
- 9:43And you see that in his response in verse 12 to verse 16.
- 9:49I, I am he who comforts you.
- 9:53In verse 13,
- 9:54and have, you have forgotten the Lord,
- 9:57your maker who stretched out the heavens,
- 10:00laid the foundations of the earth.
- 10:02You have forgotten just who God is.
- 10:06How he is able to comfort.
- 10:09How he is able to remind us he has made all things.
- 10:14But they are saying,
- 10:15yes, Lord, but you did it in the days of old.
- 10:18Then you go back to verse 9.
- 10:20Awake as in the days of old,
- 10:22the generations of long ago.
- 10:24Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces
- 10:27and pierced the dragon?
- 10:29Rahab and the dragon there are looking probably to Egypt,
- 10:32that powerful nation that overwhelmed
- 10:35the people in the past.
- 10:37And yet God took care of them,
- 10:39brought them out of Egypt.
- 10:41You see in verse 10,
- 10:42the one who dried up the sea,
- 10:44they crossed the Red Sea.
- 10:46By the power of God divided it.
- 10:48So God had done great things in the past.
- 10:52We can look at ourselves and say,
- 10:54well, God did great things in the past for us.
- 10:58But now has he forgotten us?
- 11:01Well, God doesn't sleep.
- 11:04And we have to remember who God is.
- 11:10That he has power to do all these things
- 11:13that he has done in the past.
- 11:15It's the same power today.
- 11:17He is still the one who we forget
- 11:19is the maker who stretched out the heavens,
- 11:22who laid the foundation of the earth.
- 11:25He has all of these things in his hand.
- 11:28Does God sleep?
- 11:31Can we accuse him today saying,
- 11:33wake up, Lord, wake up.
- 11:35Do you not care?
- 11:37Well, look at Psalm 121.
- 11:39What does it say there?
- 11:42He will not let your foot be moved.
- 11:44He who keeps you will not slumber.
- 11:47Behold, he who keeps Israel
- 11:49will neither slumber nor sleep.
- 11:51He does not sleep.
- 11:52So we don't have to cry to him to wake up.
- 11:59Have you ever been driving your car?
- 12:02You've been on a long journey
- 12:03or driving late at night
- 12:04and you start to feel drowsy.
- 12:06You start to feel sleepy.
- 12:09It's a dangerous thing
- 12:10when you start falling asleep at the wheel,
- 12:12when your eyes start just closing.
- 12:15It's a fearful thing.
- 12:18That's the kind of thing
- 12:18that the people are saying here.
- 12:20But God, God, you're asleep at the wheel.
- 12:22You're not interested in the direction we're going.
- 12:25You're not interested in our safety.
- 12:28But God is never asleep at the wheel.
- 12:32He's always there in control,
- 12:34even when it seems beyond us.
- 12:37Just like the disciples in Mark chapter 4
- 12:39when they were caught in that storm.
- 12:43They were out in the boat
- 12:44and Jesus was asleep in the stern,
- 12:47asleep on a cushion.
- 12:49And they said to him,
- 12:50Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
- 12:53But he woke.
- 12:55He rebuked the wind and the waves.
- 12:57It was a great calm.
- 12:58And he said,
- 12:58Why are you so afraid?
- 13:00Have you still no faith?
- 13:03That's the challenge of this wake-up call here.
- 13:07Awake, awake, O Lord.
- 13:08It's not to wake him up.
- 13:10He was asking,
- 13:11Do we have faith?
- 13:13Do you have faith in him today?
- 13:16Do you believe?
- 13:18Do you believe?
- 13:20Have you still no faith?
- 13:24Yes, we can look around and see so much disarray.
- 13:27We can look at ourselves and see our own hearts,
- 13:29our own sin.
- 13:30We cannot say to God,
- 13:33You awake.
- 13:35Do you not care?
- 13:37He does.
- 13:38Because as he says in verse 12,
- 13:39I, I am he who comforts you.
- 13:43That is as true for us today
- 13:44as it was then.
- 13:48Then we have to move on to our second
- 13:50wake-up call in verse 17.
- 13:53Wake yourself.
- 13:55Wake yourself.
- 13:56Stand up, O Jerusalem.
- 13:58Here we see a wake-up call
- 14:00a challenge to listen.
- 14:04It's who it is that needs to wake up.
- 14:08Well, it's not God.
- 14:11So God is saying here in this verse,
- 14:14it is you.
- 14:15It's you, my people,
- 14:16who need to wake up.
- 14:18Wake yourself.
- 14:19Wake yourself.
- 14:20Stand up, O Jerusalem.
- 14:24The reason God gives for their failure here
- 14:27is that they were not trusting in him.
- 14:31In verse 18,
- 14:32there is none to guide her
- 14:34among all the sons she has borne.
- 14:36There is none to take her by the hand
- 14:38among all the sons that she has brought up.
- 14:41There is no one to help.
- 14:42They've been trying to find their help,
- 14:44to find their trust in people around them,
- 14:47their leaders.
- 14:48But there's none.
- 14:50There's no one.
- 14:51So the Lord is waking them up,
- 14:56saying,
- 14:56Wake yourself.
- 14:57Wake yourself.
- 14:58Stand up, O Jerusalem.
- 15:01You cannot go on trusting in those
- 15:03who are unable to help you,
- 15:05those who are leading you into confusion,
- 15:08destruction,
- 15:09away from the Lord.
- 15:11There is no point to that.
- 15:13Earlier in this,
- 15:16I say in chapter 43,
- 15:18you see there how the people have responded.
- 15:21They have turned away from God.
- 15:24In chapter 43, verse 22,
- 15:26Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob,
- 15:29but you have been weary of me, O Israel.
- 15:33And then in verse 26, it says,
- 15:35Put me in remembrance.
- 15:37You did not call upon me.
- 15:41You have been weary of me.
- 15:43Put me in remembrance.
- 15:46Wake up, he's saying.
- 15:47Wake up.
- 15:48Who are you trusting in?
- 15:50What is going to help you?
- 15:51Who is going to help you?
- 15:54Are we trusting in the Lord who says,
- 15:56I, I am he who comforts you?
- 16:00When we go on by ourselves,
- 16:02when we lose sight of who God is,
- 16:05we fall away from him more and more into sin.
- 16:09It happens so easily.
- 16:13And what happens when we do that
- 16:14is when we lose sight of God,
- 16:17our sin overwhelms us.
- 16:19You see in verse 17 there,
- 16:21You have drunk from the hand of the Lord
- 16:24the cup of his wrath,
- 16:26who have been drunk to the dregs,
- 16:28the bowl, the cup of staggering.
- 16:32What is this cup that he's talking about?
- 16:35It's a cup of God's judgment.
- 16:38This is what sin brings upon us.
- 16:42Drunk it to the dregs.
- 16:44In other words,
- 16:44every last drop has been drunk out of it
- 16:48and it leaves us staggering.
- 16:50It's that image of being drunk.
- 16:54And that's what happens here
- 16:56when there's no comfort.
- 16:58You're found, as it were,
- 17:00lying on the ground almost.
- 17:02In verse 21,
- 17:04Therefore hear this,
- 17:05you who are afflicted,
- 17:07who are drunk but not with wine.
- 17:10We are drunk with the wrath of God.
- 17:14We are lost in our sin.
- 17:17That cup of wrath is upon us.
- 17:21And the comfort of God
- 17:22seems a million miles away from us.
- 17:26And we look at our world
- 17:30and we see the condition,
- 17:32the state that it's in.
- 17:33The world is overrun
- 17:35with war,
- 17:36with hatred,
- 17:37with famine,
- 17:38with anger,
- 17:39with trouble.
- 17:41There is all of these things going on.
- 17:43We are seeing this cup of wrath.
- 17:45We are seeing nations
- 17:49trying to overwhelm other nations.
- 17:54We look at the church
- 17:56or the churches around the world.
- 17:59We see empty pews.
- 18:01We see a discouraged people.
- 18:03We see a lack of people involved in the church.
- 18:06We look at our own denomination.
- 18:08We see vacancies,
- 18:10lack of ministers.
- 18:11We see all of these things.
- 18:13We could go on.
- 18:13We could go on.
- 18:16And is it for us to say,
- 18:17God, why are you sleeping?
- 18:20Or is it for God to say to us,
- 18:22wake up yourselves.
- 18:24Wake up yourselves.
- 18:26Stand up, O Jerusalem.
- 18:29Take heed of my word.
- 18:32Take heed of my call to you.
- 18:35Wake up.
- 18:39It's not God who is sleeping.
- 18:40It is us.
- 18:41He is crying out to us
- 18:44to wake up and put on his power.
- 18:48To put on his strength.
- 18:52We can feel helpless just now.
- 18:56We can look to God.
- 18:58To God and all that he has done for us.
- 19:02And to remember him,
- 19:04who he is and what he has done for us.
- 19:06The letter to the Ephesians says in chapter 5, verse 14,
- 19:12Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead,
- 19:15and Christ will shine in you.
- 19:19We need to wake up and look to Christ.
- 19:24And as we do, he can shine in us and on us and through us.
- 19:29But we need to take heed of what he is saying.
- 19:35Wake up.
- 19:36Do you want Christ to shine in you today?
- 19:40What difference does it make?
- 19:43Well, as you look at this section,
- 19:47you go into verse 22.
- 19:49Thus says your Lord,
- 19:51the Lord your God,
- 19:52who pleads the cause of his people.
- 19:54Behold, I have taken from your hand
- 19:57the cup of staggering,
- 19:59the bowl of my wrath.
- 20:00You shall drink no more.
- 20:02He is able to remove it.
- 20:06And it's the same as he is able to do with our sin.
- 20:09As we come and confess it before him,
- 20:12as we heed his word,
- 20:13as we look to ourselves and think,
- 20:15I am but a sinner before God.
- 20:18Well, how can I be right?
- 20:21It's to look to Christ.
- 20:23And as we think of coming,
- 20:25approaching a communion weekend,
- 20:26God willing next weekend,
- 20:28we come to do this in remembrance of him.
- 20:30What has he done for us?
- 20:34Well, this cup of wrath,
- 20:36he has drunk.
- 20:39He has taken it for us
- 20:41so that we might take
- 20:44of the cup of his grace,
- 20:47of the cup of his love,
- 20:49the cup that is life
- 20:51through faith in him.
- 20:54He takes it,
- 20:56the cup of wrath,
- 20:57away
- 20:57so we can have that cup
- 21:00of salvation.
- 21:03Are you awake to that?
- 21:06Are you awake to the need
- 21:07that you have of this Christ
- 21:08who takes away your sin,
- 21:12who says,
- 21:13awake, awake, stand up.
- 21:15It is time to take heed.
- 21:18Well, the third and final wake-up call
- 21:23we see here is a challenge to trust.
- 21:27And we see this in verse 1 of chapter 52.
- 21:31Awake, awake, awake.
- 21:33Put on your strength, O Zion.
- 21:35Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem,
- 21:39the holy city.
- 21:43Put on your strength, O Zion.
- 21:46Put on your beautiful garments.
- 21:49He calls to their attention
- 21:53the fact that
- 21:54trouble is not that he is asleep,
- 21:57but that they are asleep again.
- 22:02They have not put on
- 22:03the power which he has to offer.
- 22:07Put on your strength, O Zion.
- 22:11If a wake-up call should make us realize
- 22:14that we need to take action,
- 22:18well, what is the action that we need?
- 22:21It's to see that he is our only help.
- 22:25He is the only one that we need.
- 22:28Put on your strength, O Zion.
- 22:31What is that strength?
- 22:32That is the strength of the Lord.
- 22:34God is saying,
- 22:36I have power.
- 22:37I am not asleep,
- 22:38but you have not sought my power.
- 22:42You have not sought me.
- 22:43You have not looked for me.
- 22:46You have underestimated me.
- 22:48You have not believed me.
- 22:51You have not understood who I am.
- 22:53Is that true of you today?
- 22:54All of these things.
- 22:56You have not sought him.
- 22:57You have not understood him.
- 22:59You have doubted him.
- 23:00You have disbelieved him.
- 23:02Well, again, it's this cry,
- 23:05awake, awake.
- 23:07Put on your strength.
- 23:08Put on what is that on offer to you.
- 23:12Imagine waking up in the morning
- 23:14and you find your clothes
- 23:17laid out for you to wear.
- 23:19Maybe you're one of these people
- 23:20who before you go to sleep at night,
- 23:22you want to have everything ready
- 23:23to put on in the morning.
- 23:26Or maybe you're one of those people
- 23:27who just first thing you see in the morning,
- 23:29you'll grab it and put it on.
- 23:32But imagine waking up in the morning
- 23:35and you find that there's clothes there
- 23:38for you to put on,
- 23:40but you've never seen them before.
- 23:43They're not yours.
- 23:46They're much better quality.
- 23:49They're the best,
- 23:50the most beautiful clothes
- 23:51you've ever seen.
- 23:53Where did they come from?
- 23:55Who has put them out for you?
- 23:57You don't understand,
- 23:58but they're there for you to wear.
- 24:00Well, this is what God is saying to us here.
- 24:06Awake, awake.
- 24:08Put on your beautiful garments.
- 24:11Put on what I have prepared for you.
- 24:16God has laid out clothes for us
- 24:19to wake up to
- 24:20and to put on for ourselves.
- 24:22So instead of our filthy rags,
- 24:28the rags of our sin,
- 24:30of our doubt,
- 24:31of our fears,
- 24:32of our anger,
- 24:33of our disbelief,
- 24:34of our questioning God,
- 24:36all of these things
- 24:37that we are continually putting on,
- 24:40he is saying,
- 24:41I have these beautiful garments
- 24:43prepared for you.
- 24:46Beautiful garments
- 24:47of the righteousness of Christ.
- 24:51That robe that he gives
- 24:53to his people
- 24:54to put on,
- 24:55to know the forgiveness of sin,
- 24:59that salvation,
- 25:00that comfort,
- 25:02that forgiveness.
- 25:04We have all of these
- 25:05beautiful garments
- 25:06to put on
- 25:07when we awake and see
- 25:09that Christ is our Savior,
- 25:12a Savior for us.
- 25:14And he offers us
- 25:16so much to put on.
- 25:19So we can go on
- 25:21in his strength.
- 25:22You think of that great passage
- 25:23in Ephesians 6.
- 25:26Put on the whole armor of God.
- 25:31Those beautiful garments
- 25:32that he speaks of there.
- 25:35Put on the whole armor of God
- 25:36for the days in which we live our evil
- 25:38and stand firm.
- 25:41He offers us the belt of truth,
- 25:43the breastplate of righteousness,
- 25:45the shoes on your feet,
- 25:47the readiness of the gospel of peace,
- 25:50the shield of faith,
- 25:53the helmet of salvation,
- 25:55the sword of the Spirit.
- 25:57We have all of these
- 25:58beautiful garments
- 25:59to put on.
- 26:02They are all available
- 26:03if we wake up to him.
- 26:07To wake up
- 26:08and see that he is calling us.
- 26:11We doubt so much.
- 26:15We fear so much.
- 26:17But he is calling us
- 26:19to faith.
- 26:22Have you still no faith?
- 26:24As Jesus said to the disciples,
- 26:26have you today
- 26:27still no faith?
- 26:31Wake up.
- 26:33Put on your strength, O Zion.
- 26:35Put on your beautiful garments,
- 26:40the clothes that are ready
- 26:42for his people to put on,
- 26:45to do away with the rags
- 26:46that we so often cling to,
- 26:50and to put on his salvation,
- 26:53his righteousness.
- 26:56Doubt and faith
- 26:57are poles apart.
- 27:00It's a little poem once said,
- 27:02Doubt sees the obstacles
- 27:03while faith sees the way.
- 27:06Doubt sees the darkest night
- 27:07while faith sees the day.
- 27:10Doubt fears to take a step
- 27:12while faith soars on high.
- 27:15Doubt asks,
- 27:16Who believes?
- 27:18Faith answers,
- 27:20I.
- 27:21Doubt and faith.
- 27:24That's what we see
- 27:25in this passage.
- 27:26As the people began
- 27:28in verse 9
- 27:28to say,
- 27:29Awake, awake,
- 27:30calling to the Lord
- 27:32to wake,
- 27:33as if he was asleep.
- 27:35But it is God
- 27:37who is saying,
- 27:37No,
- 27:38it is not me
- 27:39who is sleeping.
- 27:40I,
- 27:40I am he who comforts you.
- 27:43And then he says,
- 27:44No, you,
- 27:46wake yourself.
- 27:47Wake yourself.
- 27:49Stand up,
- 27:50O Jerusalem.
- 27:51See the sin
- 27:52that you are in,
- 27:53and see the salvation
- 27:55that there is on offer.
- 27:57And then awake,
- 27:59awake,
- 27:59put on the beautiful garments
- 28:02that he has prepared
- 28:04for you.
- 28:06Will you wake?
- 28:09Awake to your sin.
- 28:12Awake to a God
- 28:13who is wide awake,
- 28:15who is in control.
- 28:17And awake to the garments
- 28:19that he has prepared
- 28:21for his people.
- 28:23That salvation
- 28:23that is in Jesus Christ.
- 28:26May we wake up.
- 28:28Let us pray.
- 28:32Lord,
- 28:32our gracious God,
- 28:34we thank you
- 28:34that your word
- 28:35stirs us in our hearts,
- 28:38that it speaks to us,
- 28:39O Lord,
- 28:40of reminders
- 28:41of who you are
- 28:42and who we are,
- 28:43that you are not a God
- 28:45who is asleep.
- 28:46For even as the psalmist says,
- 28:48you never slumber
- 28:49nor sleep.
- 28:50And help us
- 28:51to remember that,
- 28:52that you are the one
- 28:53who is awake
- 28:55with your eyes upon us.
- 28:57But you are one
- 28:58who says to us
- 28:58as your people,
- 28:59wake up,
- 29:01wake up.
- 29:02See where we are.
- 29:03See our need.
- 29:04But see Christ
- 29:05who has done all for us.
- 29:08And see these beautiful garments
- 29:10that are prepared for us.
- 29:12The righteousness,
- 29:14the salvation,
- 29:15the forgiveness,
- 29:16the comfort
- 29:18that is ours
- 29:19through him.
- 29:20So,
- 29:21Lord,
- 29:21help us to hear
- 29:22and to wake
- 29:23and to rise
- 29:25even from here today
- 29:26with that hope
- 29:27in you
- 29:28as we ask all
- 29:29with the forgiveness
- 29:30of our sin.
- 29:31In Jesus' name.
- 29:32Amen.
- 29:33Amen.
- 29:41We're going to conclude
- 29:42by singing in Psalm 30 again,
- 29:45the Sing Psalms version,
- 29:47page 35.
- 29:49We're going to sing
- 29:49the last three stanzas there,
- 29:52verse 10 to 12.
- 29:57Psalm 30 at verse 10.
- 29:59Hear as I cry,
- 30:00O Lord my God,
- 30:01and listen to my plea.
- 30:03Come to my aid
- 30:04and my distress
- 30:05have mercy,
- 30:06Lord,
- 30:07on me.
- 30:07You turned my wailing
- 30:08into dance.
- 30:09No longer was I sad.
- 30:11My sackcloth gone.
- 30:12You gave me clothes
- 30:13of joy
- 30:14and I was glad.
- 30:16We'll sing from
- 30:16verse 10 to 12
- 30:18to God's praise.
- 30:19The tune is Wallace.
- 30:26Hear as I cry,
- 30:29O Lord my God,
- 30:35and listen to my plea.
- 30:43Come to my aid
- 30:48in my distress.
- 30:53Have mercy, Lord,
- 30:58Lord, on me.
- 31:00Have mercy, Lord,
- 31:05Have mercy, Lord,
- 31:07on me.
- 31:09You turned my wailing
- 31:14into dance.
- 31:20No longer was I sad.
- 31:27My sackcloth gone.
- 31:36You gave me clothes
- 31:41of joy
- 31:43of joy and I was glad.
- 31:49Of joy and I was glad.
- 31:50Of joy and I was glad.
- 31:52Of joy and I was glad.
- 31:58Therefore my heart will sing to you,
- 32:08you and never cease to praise to your great name, O Lord my God.
- 32:29I will give thanks always. I will give thanks always.
- 32:48After the benediction, I'll go to the main door. We'll close with the benediction.
- 32:52Now may grace, mercy and peace from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
- 32:57rest upon and abide with you all now and forevermore. Amen.
- 33:02Amen.
- 33:27Amen.
- 33:28Thank you.