Special

In a minute, brother, Ben, is gonna come. He's gonna be preaching to us, from 1 Peter But before that, Julia, actually, is gonna come back up, and she's gonna be reading for us. 1 Peter, chapter 1 verses 10 to 21. It should come up on the screen if you have a Bible.

Procedure. Concerning this salvation, the prophet who spoke of the grace that was come to you searched intently and with a greater scare trying to find out the time in so instances to which the spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke of the things they have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, even angels long to look into these things. Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As a busy child, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do for it is written. Be holy because I am holy. Since you call on a father who judges each person's work, impartially, live out your time as foreigners here. In reverend fear. For you know that it was not with your perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from ancestors.

But with the precious blood of Christ, alarm without blemish or defect, he was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him, you believe in god, who raised him from death and glorified him. And so your faith and hope are in god. Thank you so much, Julia. And good morning from me.

My name is Ben, if you don't know me, I was a member here at the church for 12 years, and I served, on the staff team for 3 and a half years. And, last September, I moved to Sussex, as to work for a church there in Hayward's Heath. And so I've not been back since then. So it's a it's a great joy to be among you again. But everything seems to have been upgraded since I've come back.

I mean, what is this? Have you seen this? And, so even this is new, even the clicker, for the slides is new and the the microphone is new. It's almost as if you were paying me thousands of pounds and now I've gone, you can afford to upgrade all the equipment, even the sort of the box at the back is new. It's great.

It's really great. Let's pray and then, let's, let's ask for the lord's help, and we'll get into this passage. Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you that it does indeed breathe life into us, and it causes us to wake up if we're asleep. And I pray that you would do just that this morning by your spirit in Jesus' name.

Our men. Our men. I don't know if you if you sleepwalk at night, don't know who here sleep walks at night. I occasionally sit up in bed suddenly, and I'm very agitated. And I will I will be speaking to Kerry, my wife, and I'll be asking her for something.

I'll be saying, Kerry, the keys. The keys, Kerry. The keys. And she'll be like, what's what's going on? I'm like, Gary, the keys.

I'm getting more and more exasperated. And then, and then I go, which is not Bella Russian. That's, that's just me falling asleep. And she goes, oh, Ben, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep. But I don't sleep walk But some people sleepwalk, and the NHS website says that people who sleepwalk can can walk around obstacles.

So, you know, just that they're stumbling around like a zombie, but their eyes are open. They they see things and they walk around things. They go through doorways. Some people get dressed. Some people go downstairs.

They open cupboards. Some people even eat. I mean, imagine that. What a wonderful way to wake up, you know. The bowl of cereal in the middle of an eye.

Oh, it's lovely. You know, if if you get caught. Oh, 0, I was sleepwalking. What am I doing? And listen to this, it it even said this, the website.

It said in extreme cases, the person may walk out of the house and carry out complex activities such as driving a car. I don't know how frightening is that, you know, But, you know, next time you get pulled over, sorry officer. I was asleep. I found a testimony of someone online, they logged into their laptop, They were sending nonsensical emails, so they woke up with all these replies. Being like, what are you what are you talking about?

A sleepwalking person has their eyes open, don't they? They appear to be doing normal things, but actually the reality is they are asleep. They're not awake. And we use the phrase, don't we? Sleep walking through life?

We use that phrase, don't we? To describe when someone's just going through the motions, They're not really aware of what they're doing. They're not particularly present. They're not really engaging properly with what's in front of them. We say you're just sleepwalking through life.

Well, the question I would like to ask you this morning is this, are you a sleepwalking Christian? Are you a sleepwalking Christian? Because it's not actually that easy or straightforward to identify someone who is sleepwalking, especially if they're a sleepwalking Christian because you see a sleepwalking Christian is somebody who regularly attends church. They get dressed. They leave the house.

They get in their car. They drive to this building. They find a seat. They can even get up walk around obstacles and go to the lord's table and eat. They have their eyes wide open.

They appear to be awake you ask them a question and they respond. You say, Hey, how are you today? How are you doing? And they say, yeah, fine. Thanks.

How are you? They can even carry out complex activities like leading a bible study or serving on a rotor, and yet They can be asleep going through the motions, not wholeheartedly engaging, not particularly present. So are you a sleepwalking Christian? The apostle Peter who wrote this letter He seems to be really concerned in this letter that Christians are fully awake. That's what he wants.

That seems to be his urge. So, you know, you can be a Christian and he labors the point in the beginning, section of this letter. He says, you can be elect. You can be chosen You can be foreknown by the living god. You can be sprinkled with the blood of Christ.

You can be shielded by god's power heirs of the inheritance and yet asleep or daydreaming. And so after reminding us of this amazing gospel, Peter then dives pretty sharply into the purpose of this letter. And that is to have minds that are alert and fully sober. Have a look at verse 13. If you have the Bible open in front of you.

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 13. Therefore, he says, with minds that are alert, and fully sober. Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. You see that? Alert.

Fully sober. And in fact, he's gonna use those phrases alert fully sober 3 times in this short letter. And so how do you know this is his main message? Well, he's gonna repeat it 3 times. He says it in chapter 4 verse 7, if you flip the page over.

He says the end of all things is near, therefore, be alert. And sober of sober minds so that you may pray. And then in chapter 5 verse 8, he says it again, be alert and of sober mind, your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And you know, maybe Peter is so forceful here because he's speaking from personal experience. About the dangers of falling asleep when he should have been watching and praying in the garden of gethsemane.

Jesus said to him, watch him pray so that you will not fall into temptation. And Peter failed there, and he fell into temptation. And so here, he's urging us as someone who's failed in this way, be alert. Please be alert. Be of sober mind.

Don't sleep walk through your faith Christian. Our salvation is not a basis to fall asleep. Our salvation is a basis to be awake and to be ready to act. And so, my first oh, I've gone the wrong way. Have I gone the wrong way?

I've gone back in time. Sorry. Here we go. It's the new clicker. Blame it on the new technology.

We've done that. There you go. Are you alert? Little stick? Right.

That's my first point. Are you alert? Are you alert? It's interesting. The word alert here in the Greek it actually literally translates as gird the loins.

So he's saying, gird the loins of your mind is what he's saying. And that's a really just vivid picture that Peter is painting for us here. Cause you see, men in those days would wear long tunics that would reach down to their ankles. And they were quite restrictive. So, you know, you if you were walking around, it was fine.

But if you were to do something physically active, If you were about to lift some things up or or participate in a physical activity, or you were about to go into battle, if you had to suddenly fight you would gird, which means you would pull them up and tie them, strap them your loins. You'd gird your loins, the loin cloth That goes down from your waist. So you would get you would pull that up and tie it. You see, it's the it's the posture for action when you gird your loins. You're ready.

It's a little bit like our expression, you know, rolling up your sleeves. You roll your sleeves up, don't you when you're about to do something? When you when you had to sort of when you have to roll them up to get them out of the way, look, if you weren't expecting to do any heavy lifting, or to be in a fight, you'd just be walking around and your loincloth would be just hanging down to your ankles, and you'd be just sort of flowing around and you, you know, you're not in a rush. You're not really expecting to do much. You're here just to enjoy yourself.

You're a consumer. You haven't got your sleeves rolled up. It's actually a little bit like me yesterday. Because I don't work for the church anymore, it was a joy to be at the away day and not have to do much, I have to do anything. I I led a seminar, but I still didn't have to do anything else.

And if he saw Emma Sims yesterday, There is a woman who's girded her loins. Right? Yeah? She was everywhere. She was on the field at 1 point, and I turn around and she's by a desk.

And then I go to turn around and she's running around the rooms, making sure everything's organized. And then she was doing it again this morning. She's she's her loins are girded, aren't they? Her sleeves are rolled up. She's doing things.

She's ready for action, whereas I was just sort of floating around, just chatting to people. It's lovely. So you gird your loins, and the apostle Peter wants to remind us, look, Christian, you're not a consumer. Your your loin cloth should not be floating at the bottom of your feet. There is heavy lifting to do in serving the lord.

And you're in a fight, by the way. You're in a fight. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. He was doing that this morning as you were coming here. He's doing it right now.

He will be prowling around this afternoon, whatever you're doing. So what do we do? He says be alert. Gird the loins of your mind. And now look, you might be you might be ill, you might be physically unable to do very, very much.

There might be a time of of life you're going through now where you've been hit by things, so you're just recovering. And so this isn't gonna look the same for everyone. But it is interesting, isn't it? Who Peter is writing to here? If you have a look at verse 1, He's writing to exiles.

And in verse 6, he's saying he's writing to people who have suffered grief in all kinds of trials. You know, Tarastinolia are exiles. And what have they done in their exile? What is their prayer? Lord, we don't wanna waste the years of our exile.

What a prayer. And Tara literally has his sleeves rolled up this morning. That brother has his sleeves rolled up. He's gone. He's suffered.

They've suffered amazingly, immensely, and yet what an amazing example for us of people who have their sleeves rolled up in the service of of god. Chapter 4 verse 1. Peter says, therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves. With also the same attitude. Yourselves.

Pick up the weaponry for war. Get ready. This is the language of preparing for war. Christ suffered? Yes.

And what did he do? What was his attitude? He girded the loins of his mind. And so you have the same attitude. Don't fall asleep.

Be alert. So the question is, this morning, is your mind dressed for action? Are you thinking how can I get involved in this church? How can I serve? How can I roll my sleeves up?

What needs to be picked up? What needs to be moved? Who needs to be helped? Or are your loins just hanging low? And you're just here to consume Just enjoy yourself and then you'll leave later.

Are you alert? Secondly, Are you fully sober? Are you fully sober? This is the word here, which is literally, unsurprisingly, the word for being free from the illusions, intoxications, and inebriation of alcohol. So that's what we mean by sober, free from the illusions, intoxications, inebriation of alcohol.

But Peter here is meaning it in a broader sense than just alcohol. Hole. He's saying he's using it to describe our state of mind. He's saying, are you fully sober in your mind? You know, are you free from illusions?

Because when you're under the influence of something, the world becomes a bit rose tinted, doesn't it? You know, you have that first glass of wine and the alcohol in your blood level goes up, and it's lovely. And suddenly you enjoy the world, and everything looks very nice. And they used to call it beer goggles when a guy would find a woman attractive who we wouldn't normally be attractive to, but the because he's because he's, got this illusion. Suddenly, he's like, wow.

She's the most beautiful thing ever. And so Peter is saying, look, in this life, if you aren't fully sober, then you can look at this life and sin in your hearts with beer goggles. If you're not sober, you're looking at things with beer goggles on and you think, oh, it's not really that bad. It's not that serious sin, is it? I mean, what does Satan say?

He said you will surely not die. I mean, is he right? You know, our neighbors who who who where are our neighbors doing this morning? Oh, not very much. But they're good people, aren't they?

God's not really that angry with our neighbors, is he? They're not in danger of the fires of hell, are they? That's the kind of illusion that we can fall into when we're not fully sober in our thinking. And our understanding of what's going on in this world. And that's the kind of thinking, and we're under those illusions that let the loins down.

It's not really that bad. It's not that urgent that people need to hear about the lord Jesus Christ. Peter is saying we need to be sober, free from illusions. We have to be free from intoxications. You know when you're intoxicated by something, you can't take your eyes off it, can you?

You know, some people it's the drink at the end of the work day. It's a stressful day, but at like 10, 11 AM in the morning, they decide, oh, I'm gonna go and grab a pint when I get home. Have that glass of wine. And it's it's that intoxication that got their eyes fixed on it. And if anything gets in the way of them in that drink, if another meeting gets booked, or if someone asked him to do something, man, there's hell to pay, isn't there?

Because I was that's my that's where I'm going to. Or is it like I just want 10 minutes to watch my TV show when I get in, and suddenly the kids are in, and I've been intoxicated by this thing which overrules any kind of rationality or logic to the situation. We need to be sober and free from intoxications. Peter is saying. And we need to be free from inebriation.

So you you know, people who are very drunk, they they easily harm themselves. Don't they? They they bump and scratch and cut, and they don't feel it. They just don't feel it because they're not in their right mind. They get numb to these sorts of things.

And so how many young men die every year doing things they would never do sober, like jumping off of balconies on holiday or driving really fast under the influence. And sober people who are trying to help these people are seen as killjoys, aren't they? So sober person comes in, who sees everything clearly, and they say, no. If you keep doing that, you're gonna hurt yourself. And they say, yo, you're such a killer.

You said boring. Let me jump off this balcony. You're so boring. Peter's saying, look in the same way. We can be inebriated in our minds.

We can be playing with sin. And it can scratch us and we don't feel it because we're numb. Well, oh, that's not bad. I didn't hurt. We're not aware of how much danger we're in, and people who come lovingly to point out our sin are just seen as killjoys.

Oh, stop always being on at me about that. Peter says we need to be sober, free from an abbreviation. And so are you alert? Are you fully sober? What about some of the signs you are sleepwalking?

So if you're still not sure, Peter goes here, it goes on and explains to us some of the signs. So the first sign he's gonna tell us about is, is this conforming to evil desires. You see that in verse 14. So he says, as obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. So that there's a big difference, isn't there?

Between girding your loins, fighting the sin in your life, and conforming to sin, isn't it? There's a big difference. Conforming means submitting to or being obedient to or even serving. That's what conforming means. And so look, if you're in the fight as a Christian, and you're praying against temptation.

You're saying, lord, keep me from being tempted here. You're searching the scriptures for help. You're serving in the church. Then even when you fail, which we all will do, then you're an awake Christian because you're you're you've girded your loins, and you're in the battle, and and you've just you've been wounded a little bit, but you're awake, you're you're alert, you're sober minded, but Peter wants us to know if you are conforming to the evil desires you had. If you were just simply obeying them, if you were just submitting to them, If even if you're serving them, you're going out your way to satisfy them, then you are sleepwalking.

You've given up the fight. You're a child of god, but you're living as if you weren't. You know, these are the sort of sins that just become the norm in your life that no 1 else sees, really, at least no 1 in church. Language on your lips, maybe at work, or in the home. That's just commonplace and without repentance.

Maybe just an notation or surrendering to a sin that you know is inevitable. And you're like, well, yeah, that is gonna happen, but it's okay. Or maybe something that you did that was really shocking at first. And you felt sick, but over time just becomes normal. Or something that belonged to your old life, but you became a Christian.

Wow. I'm saved, but you know, this was a treasure in my old life. And so you bring it across. Into your new life. Have a look at chapter 2 verse 11.

Dear friends, Peter says, I urge you to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Christian, be alert, be dressed for battle because you were at war. Yes, we all still have sinful desires because we're still in this. We're still in these sinful bodies, but Peter says don't conform to them. Don't obey them.

Fight them. He says abstain from them. And abstain means separating by letting go. You know, how are you gonna be free from your sins? You have to let them go.

That's how you abstain. And why? Why do we need to do this? Well, because we've been called to be holy. Have a look at chapter 1 verse 15.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do for it is written, be holy because I am holy. Think this sometimes can be seen as the impossible command from god, isn't it? Be holy because I'm holy. I mean, what what on earth are you asking of me god there? But actually, look, in the Old Testament, the high priest would wear an ornate outfit when he went into the holy of holies into the presence of god.

And as part of it, he would wear a gold sign on his forehead that said holy to the lord. Holy to the lord. And that was not something he was in himself. He was not holy just because he was sort of so perfect, but that was given to him. He was given holiness.

He was set apart by god. He to serve the lord. That's why he was set apart. You're holy, you're set apart, you're consecrated to serve the lord, not to serve sin. Not to serve sin.

And so Peter says, look you, if you're a Christian, you are a royal priesthood. And you are set apart to serve the lord. And so don't serve your evil desires. Fight them. Don't bow down to them.

Live instead according to that sign which is written across your forehead. Holy to the lord. Holy to the lord and serve him. And so are you conforming to evil desires. So if you are, that's a sign that you are sleepwalking in your faith somewhere.

Second sign that you're sleepwalking. You're living like locals. You're living like the locals. Have a look at chapter 1 verse 17. He says since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here.

As foreigners. So Peter says we are to live not as locals. Don't be like the locals he's saying. And so you know, look, our our schools here and our libraries, are gonna be full of books for young people with different ideas of marriage, sexuality, and gender. It's a great shame, but look, we're not locals.

Our politicians are pushing agendas that are gonna go against what we value as Christians. It's a great shame. Yes. But we're not locals. The church has always had to teach its children.

We're not from around here. We do things differently. But if we start to blend in, if we start to behave like the locals adopt their attitudes, their values, then that is a sign that we're sleepwalking. The moment in the evening service, you're preaching through the book of judges fantastic book. The book of judges is a great example of people who should be living like foreigners, living like locals.

Because the big problem is that god's people are constantly assimilating into the surrounding nations when god has told them to be separate. And if you haven't heard those sermons, please go and hear them. They're fantastic. Young men in this church preaching fantastic sermons. In the book of judges, god's people are simulating with the locals.

And look, in the same way we today are doing exactly the same thing. Slowly without noticing, we begin to assimilate. And so you have to ask yourself some sharp questions. To check whether you're a local or whether you're a foreigner. So here are some sharp questions.

Do your opinions on marriage gender and sexuality, map more closely with the locals or with the word of god. What about the role of men and women in the church and in the home? Do you adopt local man is that locals love to use. Love yourself. Self love.

Love yourself before you love others. Love yourself. You must love yourself. Or your truth. That's true for you.

It's not true for me. It's your truth. You're starting to sound like a local. Have you got a local accent? How about organizing and spending your money and your time?

You know, does god have the first and the best of your time and your money? Or is that for you first, and then what's left can go to god? Well, Peter says in chapter 2 verse 12, he says live such good lives among the pagans. So we live among the locals, Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify god on the day he visits us. And so if we're living like locals, they aren't gonna see anything.

Are they? They're not gonna notice the good deeds. They're not gonna bring glory to god on the day that he comes because we're just living like them. And so we're sleepwalking if we're living like the locals. Thirdly, a wake up call then for sleep walkers.

What is the call that wakes us up from our slumber? What is the trumpet blast that brings us to our senses. The wake up call is the transforming power of knowing the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ. That's the wake up call. There's nothing particularly religious.

I'm glad I'm good to go and do anything or say any incantations or perform rituals, it's knowing the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have a look at verse 18 of chapter 1. It begins for so this is the reason for being alert and of sober mind. Why why are we alert? Why are we sober minded?

Why are we not sleepwalking? Verse 18, for you know that it was not with perishable things. Such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life, handed down to you by your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, A lamb without blemish or defect. Peter is saying remember the lord Jesus Christ. Remember the precious blood that was spilled on the cross for your sins.

That's how you were redeemed. That's the cost. There was no gold or silver that was given to buy you back. You were purchased with the blood of Jesus from the empty way of life into the family of god. And when you see that, when you really see that, you come under conviction, don't you?

It's not fitting for a child of god to be asleep. It's not fitting for a royal priest who's chosen by god sanctified by the blood of Jesus who bears the words wholly to the lord on their forehead. To go back and conform and serve the evil desires you had before that happened. It's just not fitting. I don't know if you saw last year in in in the news last year.

There were 5 American hostages in Iran that were released. Katar helped sort of broker a deal between, America and Iran to release these 5 hostages in exchange for releasing 600 no. 6000000000 dollars. 6000000000 dollars of Iranian money that was held up in South Korea. And so Qatar helped broker this deal.

5 men for 6000000000 dollars. And so you could say that each man was redeemed with 1200000000.0 dollars. Wow. 1200000000.0 dollars for each man. And look, knowing that, it would be absurd and not fitting for that man having been free at such a cost to go and walk willingly back into the cell from which he was freed as a hostage.

Yeah? Or even to keep company with his old guards. Hey, how you doing? Miss you? Or it would not be fitting with it for him to behave as if he was still a hostage.

To be in his living room, or his bedroom chained, not being able to go out, not being able to do anything. It would make a mockery, wouldn't it, of the redemption. Kata would come in and go, what are you doing? Oh, don't you know that we got 1200000000.0 dollars so that you can you're not living this way anymore? It would cheap and beyond belief the cost it took to redeem him.

And Peter says here, listen, For you know that it was not with perishable things, 1200000000.0 dollars, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ. That's a wake up call, isn't it? And not only has he done this, but he has revealed it to us so that we would be transformed by the wonder of it. So in chapter 1 verse 20, it says he was chosen before the creation of the world, but he was revealed in these last times for your sake. This is the lengths god has gone to show you the transforming power of the gospel.

Okay? Christ chosen before the creation of the world, prophets foretelling him for your sake. Preached now by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven for your sake, angels themselves bending over marvelling at the gospel that Jesus Christ, the son of god, would come and spill his precious blood for us. And Christ being revealed in these last times for your sake. Know the gospel.

Know it. That's how you're alert. That's how you're fully sober. Know the gospel. Therefore, Peter says with minds that are alert and fully sober.

Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. And so just to finish, grace for sleep walkers. Grace for sleepwalkers. Did you notice what we are to do with our alert and our sober minds? That's not be alert and sober so you can go and make up to god's the sin that you've committed, go make up to god, the ways that you've let him down?

No. Have a look at verse 13. Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace, on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. And so brothers and sisters, this is the heart of the Christian faith. Is it not?

The gospel is not wake up so you can try harder. The gospel is wake up so you can set your hope on the grace. That is to be brought to you when Jesus Christ returned. See, it was grace that saved you. It is grace that has brought you here today and sustains you in your Christian faith It is and there's more grace to come when Jesus returns.

And so set your hope on that grace. If you're a sleep walker and you've woken up, there's grace. Set your hope on it. Don't fear the day when Jesus returns because there's grace. Coming on that day.

And so if you have been sleepwalking, if you're sat here going, yes, I am sleepwalking. There is an area of my life that I am obeying, that is sinful. There is an area of my life. That I am not fully alert. My loins are down by my ankles.

They they should be girded. I should be serving, then brothers says this grace for you. There's grace. And by the way, you can't sleepwalk out of the family home. Have a look at us 14 as obedient children.

Yeah. As obedient children. That's what you are. So children in god's family might sleepwalk, but their children nonetheless. Verse 17, since you call on a father.

That's who god is. God is your father. You are his children. You cannot sleepwalk out of the family home. If you're a Christian.

So are you a sleepwalking Christian? Or if you're not a Christian, are you sleepwalking? And your sin Then I wanna say repent of that. Wake up, hear the call, the trumpet sound of the gospel. Know that you have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus.

For service to him. And so everyone, you know, look down when you leave this this this room later, look down. Where are your loincloths? Have you come here this morning just to consume? Are you here?

And then popping out, and they're not doing anything else? Look at MSMs. Yeah. She's tied up loincloth girded. She's serving the church.

Now we can't all do things physically like that. There are people who are quietly serving in the background. So what is your posture in the church? Abstain from evil desires, let them go and live like foreigners, be alert, be of sober mind. So we pray?

Our father in heaven, we thank you so much for this letter that the apostle Peter writes, not just to the original hearers, but also to us and all Christians down all of history. Father we're so thankful for the grace of the lord Jesus Christ, for the precious blood that purchased us. From the empty way of life, which had trapped us and into the family of god. Father, we're so sorry for when we sleep, walk in our faith. For when we know on the 1 hand that we're children and yet on the other hand, we live as if we were not.

Please, father, by your spirit, would you convict us of those areas in our lives and our hearts and our minds where we are asleep. Would you wake us up? It's not fitting for children of god to be sleepwalking. Wake us up, please. And would we serve 1 another?

Would we fight sin? Would we have sober minds so that we would set our hope on more grace, which is to come? And we thank you and praise you for this in Jesus' name, amen.