Today’s title is “Wake up call!“
Today we will begin with a testimony of a man of God. Drm Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist, who went to be with the Lord on May 19th, 2020.
Testimony: Ravi Zacharias was 17-years-old, lying in a hospital bed in India in critical condition after attempting to die by suicide when a visitor walked into his room. His simple act would change not only Ravi’s life but countless others.
Zacharias often shared how he wound up in that hospital room in his home city of Delhi, India. As a young boy he dreamed of playing cricket or tennis but was not talented enough to rise to the elite levels, and he was not a good student. As a result of his poor performance in school, his father would often beat him. Depressed and with what he viewed as no options in life, Zacharias attempted to end his life.
He had actually already made a decision to follow Jesus once. It happened after his sisters convinced him to go to a Youth For Christ rally. Sam Wolgemuth, who was the president of Youth For Christ International at the time, was the evening’s speaker. At the end of the night, Zacharias was the only person to go forward and accept Christ. However, it was after this event he slipped into depression under the scrutiny of his father, and he tried to take his life.
“I wanted out of life. My life had no meaning,” Zacharias has said in sharing his testimony.
A YFC worker, Fred David, came to visit Zacharias in the hospital. “A man walks in, with a little, red, Gideon’s New Testament,” Zacharias said.
Zacharias says that he was in such critical condition, having been dehydrated from drinking poison, that he couldn’t even reach out to take the Bible. “My mother takes that Bible that he gives, and she says, ‘You really can’t stay here. My son is in critical condition.'”
David replied to her by saying, “Ma’am, your son needs this more than anything else.” David opened the Bible to John 14 and read Jesus’ words from verse 6 to him: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'”(NIV). “And then he goes on,” Zacharias says, “in verse 19 and says, ‘Because I live, you also shall live.’
It was those words, and the promise of life, that led Zacharias to truly commit his life to Christ. “The power of the Word of God to crack open this encrusted heart of a young man who never had the wisdom to open it before. And I began to pray, ‘Lord, if you are the Lord of life, take me out of this hospital room. I will leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of truth.”
That pursuit of truth would lead Zacharias to almost 50 years of ministry, and he preached the Good News of Jesus in over 70 countries.
My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
Psalm 102:11
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
Psalm 103:15-16
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
James 4:13-14
Now the question is, what kind of relationship do we have with God? A tiny virus has shuffled the world upside down, however are we prepared? Prepared for what? To fight this pandemic or numerous epidemics/pandemics that are about to come?
People are running here and there. Migrants are looking for absafe haven during this lockdown. Many among us want to go home and be with family, safe and sound. Which is the safest place?
He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
Psalm 91:4
He that by faith chooses God for his protector, shall find all in him that he needs or can desire. And those who have found the comfort of making the Lord their refuge, cannot but desire that others may do so. The spiritual life is protected by Divine grace from the temptations of Satan, which are as the snares of the fowler, and from the contagion of sin, which is a noisome pestilence. Great security is promised to believers in the midst of danger. Wisdom shall keep them from being afraid without cause, and faith shall keep them from being unduly afraid. Whatever is done, our heavenly Father’s will is done; and we have no reason to fear. God’s people shall see, not only God’s promises fulfilled, but his threatenings. Then let sinners come unto the Lord upon his mercy-seat, through the Redeemer’s name; and encourage others to trust in him also.
Have you ever given a thought, what will happen during the second coming of Christ?
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.
Romans 13:11
Four things are here taught, as a Christian’s directory for his day’s work. When to awake; Now; and to awake out of the sleep of carnal security, sloth, and negligence; out of the sleep of spiritual death, and out of the sleep of spiritual deadness. Considering the time; a busy time; a perilous time. Also the salvation nigh at hand. Let us mind our way, and mend our pace, we are nearer our journey’s end. Also to make ourselves ready. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; therefore it is time to dress ourselves. Observe what we must put off; clothes worn in the night. Cast off the sinful works of darkness. Observe what we must put on; how we should dress our souls. Put on the armour of light. A Christian must reckon himself undressed, if unarmed. The graces of the Spirit are this armour, to secure the soul from Satan’s temptations, and the assaults of this present evil world. Put on Christ; that includes all. Put on righteousness of Christ, for justification. Put on the Spirit and grace of Christ, for sanctification. The Lord Jesus Christ must be put on as Lord to rule you as Jesus to save you; and in both, as Christ anointed and appointed by the Father to this ruling, saving work. And how to walk. When we are up and ready, we are not to sit still, but to appear abroad; let us walk. Christianity teaches us how to walk so as to please God, who ever sees us. Walk honestly as in the day; avoiding the works of darkness. Where there are riot and drunkenness, there usually are chambering and wantonness, and strife and envy.
Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
Amos 7:14-15
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord . “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord . “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord . “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord . “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord .
Amos 4:6-11
God’s warning…
“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
Amos 4:12
See the folly of carnal hearts; they wander from one creature to another, seeking for something to satisfy, and labour for that which satisfies not; yet, after all, they will not incline their ear to Him in whom they might find all they can want. Preaching the gospel is as rain, and every thing withers where this rain is wanting. It were well if people were as wise for their souls as they are for their bodies; and, when they have not this rain near, would go and seek it where it is to be had. As the Israelites persisted in rebellion and idolatry, the Lord was coming against them as an adversary. Ere long, we must meet our God in judgment; but we shall not be able to stand before him, if he tries us according to our doings. If we would prepare to meet our God with comfort, at the awful period of his coming, we must now meet him in Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, who came to save lost sinners. We must seek him while he is to be found.
Can you hear the sadness in these words? How much would be in God’s heart?
What we need is a relationship with God. What Ravi did? He made a relationship with God. Can we take up this as our ‘Wake up Call’?
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
1 Corinthians 10:11
Are you ready to have a relationship with God?
Illustration: CS Lewis once said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
People, this is a wake-up call. This is not just a pandemic, but a sign of God that He is at work.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Mark 8:36
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33
You need to be prepared, like Amos, the prophet.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord , “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
Amos 9:13-15
In the book of Revelation, chapter 2 & 3 we will notice that Christ is visiting the places of worship.
Listen people, God is at work even during this pandemic. All you need to do is pray and seek his intervention.
To sum up, here are the beautiful words from one of the worship songs that goes like this…
“Draw me close to you,
Never let me go.
I lay it all down again,
To hear you say that I’m your friend.
You are my desire,
No one else will do.
‘Cause nothing else can take your place,
To feel the warmth of your embrace.
Help me find the way,
Bring me back to you,
You’re all I want!
You’re all I’ve ever needed!
You’re all I want!
Help me know you are near!“
Fix your eyes upon Him and He will help you to find a way. This is not a random virus to bring trouble to us, but take this as a sincere wake-up call.
We hope you are encouraged with today’s service and your eyes are fixed on Him. We look forward to meet you again on next Sunday. God bless!