Wake Up (Pastor Greg Hudson, 05/10/25)

When was the last time you had something unexpected

happen to you? Has there been a time when the

way you anticipated something going, it went

very different? About the time I got here this

morning, I had seen a notice that something happened

this morning. Did anybody notice anything maybe

about 9 .05 -ish this morning? Apparently up

near Knoxville there was a little earthquake,

like three and a half or four, and it could be

felt down here in Georgia. Did anybody feel it?

I was on the road driving here at that time.

A few people are claiming that they felt it.

I don't know. So that was unexpected. This is

not a place where we usually have earthquakes.

California? Some of you maybe have experienced

earthquakes in California. Anybody? Been in California

for a bigger earthquake? Many of you have. If

you had been traveling about a week ago, a week

and a half ago, if you had been on your vacation

to Europe, maybe you were in Spain or Portugal,

on a Monday afternoon, oh, about 2 o 'clock,

probably right about the time siesta would be

starting. I don't know. I'm making that up. But

something unexpected happened. The power went

out, not just in a little area, but across almost

all of Spain and Portugal, and even into France,

suddenly there was no power. There was a blackout.

I have a really cool picture of a blackout here,

but you'll just have to use your imagination.

So if you were at work, well, there was no electricity.

If you were at the store, again, no electricity,

so you couldn't buy anything. because you couldn't

use your credit card because that's connected

to the power grid. You couldn't even use cash

because most of the cash registers would use

some sort of electricity. You couldn't, if you

would use public transportation, well, the trains

and stuff were not working because there was

no power. You couldn't call an Uber because you

had to have the internet connection to call an

Uber to get home. And so everything was connected

to the power grid. And so there was no internet.

There was no power. There was no electricity.

Everything was in the dark. You couldn't shop.

You couldn't work. You couldn't travel. I have

a friend who lives in Spain. And the next day

or a day or so after, after all the power had

mostly come back on, he posted a video on social

media. And he was just commenting on, I'm safe,

things are getting back to normal. But then he

said, I'm really kicking myself for not being

prepared. I wasn't totally prepared. And there

was one thing that he said that he wished that

he had through this blackout. He said, I wish

that I had a radio with batteries. Because he

couldn't listen to the news. He couldn't find

out what was going on. He couldn't turn on the

television. There's no power. He couldn't check

the internet. There's no Wi -Fi. There's no internet.

And so he's like, I wish that I had a radio.

with batteries so that I could listen to the

news and find out updates and find out what's

going on. How many of you have a battery -powered

radio somewhere in your house? I went and checked

just to make sure. We do have one. And I turned

it on and it worked. So I did notice that it's

rechargeable. You know, you plug it in. So whether

that would continue for a long time. That's the

question that I'm not sure about. Oh, there's

the blackout there. You can see Spain and Portugal

without any lights on. Sometimes unexpected things

happen. Are we prepared for it? Are we prepared

with something as simple as a radio with batteries?

Are we aware of what might be coming ahead? Here

we sit today in a Seventh -day Adventist church.

We are here on the seventh day of the week. because

we believe the seventh day is the Sabbath. So

we're here on the day that we believe we're called

to worship God, our creator. We're here on this

day. But there's a second part of that name,

seventh day Adventist. That's a word we don't

use quite as often. Maybe at Christmas time,

we talk about being in the Advent season because

we're remembering the first coming. of our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ. And so as Adventists,

that means we are looking forward to the second

coming, the return of Jesus. And so we are anticipating

that something is going to happen, that there's

going to be events that happen, and Jesus will

return. And sometimes we study different prophecies

like Matthew 24, for instance, and we talk about

wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences

and all these things, and we can recognize that

it sure seems like we are getting closer and

closer to Jesus coming again. We expect Jesus

to return and to return fairly soon. But the

question I want to consider today is do we allow

that expectation to impact the way that we live

our life? Does that expectation of Jesus returning,

does it change the way that we go about our daily

living? In other words, are we ready? Are we

prepared? Are we thinking about Jesus coming

again? Here we are in May. And I see several

students out here. How many students do we have

in the room today? Okay, we don't have any students.

They're so tired of school that they don't want

to even... How many students do we have? Young

people, at least. Raise your hands. Are you guys

ready for summer vacation? I would imagine. They're

very quiet. That's good. They're not going to

admit. But students at this time of year are

typically ready. to get to a little bit of a

break at least. And teachers and those that work

at schools, I know from experience that you too,

at this time of the school year, you are ready

for some sort of break, some sort of change because

you just get in your tests and classes and homework

and you're just ready for something new. But

I also know that young people, by the time the

end of July or August rolls around, you're probably

ready to get back to school, to get back to the

routine, to see some of those friends that maybe

you've missed a little bit. And for those of

us that are out of that stage of life where we

have summer vacation and graduations and different

things like that, Maybe we would like some sort

of break. We would like something to break up

the ongoing, you could even call it the monotony

of life, because sometimes it seems like, well,

you wake up, you go to work, you wake up the

next day, you go to work, you go to sleep, and

there's nothing like a summer vacation that we

get to look forward to. And sometimes we can

seem like life gets in our way. And sometimes

we can almost be drowsy or be bored. Now we're

going to turn to Matthew 25. And I know if you

were here last week that Pastor Derek explored

Matthew 25. And we're going to look at the similar

parable, but I think we're going to look at it

from a different aspect. So I was hesitant a

little bit to... You probably don't usually have

two sermons in a row over the same passage, but

we're going to explore this first parable of

Matthew 25. Now, Matthew 24 explores the signs

of the times and the conditions in the world

before Jesus comes, those wars and rumors of

wars. Matthew 25, as was mentioned last week,

has three parables. One is about being... awake,

being prepared, being ready. That's what we're

going to look at today. And then there's one

that talks about using your talents, your gifts

and skills for God. And then there's a third

one that talks about how do we treat other people?

And it even challenges us to think about who

do we like the least? Don't think about that

too hard. Don't name any names. But the way you

treat the person that you like the least, Jesus

says, whatever you've done to the least of these,

you've done to me. So we need to remember that

as we treat others, that's how we treat Jesus.

So Matthew 24 looks at the conditions of the

world, but Matthew 25 looks at the conditions

of the church, the conditions of God's people.

So let's turn to Matthew. 25 and verse 1. And

we're going to spend a little bit of time in

this parable before we go to Romans. And it says,

Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to

ten virgins who took their lamps and went out

to meet the bridegroom. So there's a wedding

taking place. And without taking the time to

explore all of the symbolism, what this picture

is, it's looking forward to this advent, this

return of Jesus. When Jesus comes again. It's

called the wedding of the bridegroom, Jesus.

And there's people that are expecting that. And

it says in verse 2, now five of them were wise

and five were foolish. So there's a difference.

There's people expecting and anticipating and

waiting to meet God. But it says five of them

were wise and five of them were foolish. Now

we have to make it clear here that this is...

talking about God's people. This isn't God's

people versus those who don't follow God. This

isn't Christians versus pagans. These are all

those who are anticipating, expecting something

to come. And it says five were wise and five

were foolish. And it goes on in verse three.

And it says those who were foolish took their

lamps and took no oil with them. but the wise

took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And

so that's what set them apart, whether or not

they had oil in their lamps. Now I have here

a little clay oil lamp. Jolie and I were able

to go over to Israel several years ago, and we

got this little souvenir. This is not a historical

artifact, let me assure you. This is a tourist

artifact. But you would put oil in it, and you

would have a little wick, and you could light

that little wick, and depending on how much oil

you had would determine how long your lamp could

burn. And people didn't typically go out at night

in those days because there weren't street lamps,

there weren't headlights, and so at nighttime

it would be very dark. And it could be very scary

because there could be criminals or potholes

or whatever, and so people didn't go out very

much at night. But if they had a little lamp

with a little bit of oil, it could light their

way. Now, most of us don't carry a little oil

lamp to light our way. What would we do if we

found ourselves in the dark? Maybe a flashlight.

Maybe a flashlight like this. Does anybody carry

a little flashlight with them? Why don't you

pull out your little flashlight? Let's, you know,

this little light of mine, I'm going to let it

shine. Let's see the lights that we have. Sometimes

you'll use this light. Sometimes I'll even just

turn on the screen, you know, and use the light

from there if I don't want to wake up Jolie if

I'm coming to bed or if you're looking for the

plug to plug in your phone, you know, to charge

it at night. Because we don't... worry about

how much oil we have in our lamp, but we do have

to worry about how much battery, how much charge

we have on our phone. And if you don't plug it

in, you know, at least once a day, that little

battery up in the corner, it's going to get less

and less and less, and it's going to say 20 %

battery. And then if it says 10 % battery, maybe

you're starting to panic just a little bit because

I've got an important phone call to make. I've

got to use the GPS, and I forgot the charger.

So we don't need oil, but we do need a certain

kind of cord to plug it in. And it used to be

that my wife and I had the same phone, and so

it used the same cord, but then she got a new

phone, and it uses a totally different cord,

even though it's the same company, and that can

be frustrating if you have one cord but not the

other. And so, in just a small way, this is a

reminder. These guys needed oil for their lamp,

and we have something that we need power for,

that we need to make sure that we charge that.

Now, that oil, of course, as was mentioned last

week, talks about the Holy Spirit. And how we

get that. And if you missed that, you can go

back to last week's sermon and look that. But

I want to go ahead in the story to verse 5. It

says, while the bridegroom was delayed, they,

what's that next word? They all slumbered and

slept. It wasn't just the foolish ones who fell

asleep. All of them. They were all waiting for

the bridegroom to come. But they all, every one

of them, the wise and the foolish, fell asleep.

So could it be that as we're anticipating, as

we're expecting the return of Jesus, the problem

isn't the fact that sometimes we have different

levels of our spiritual excitement, our spiritual

engagement. The challenge would be how we respond

to that when maybe we're in a spiritual rut or

how we prepare for that ahead of time. We're

going to have some natural ebbs and flows in

our spiritual life, but how do we respond or

how do we prepare for that when maybe we're falling

asleep spiritually? Not physically falling asleep

right now. Maybe some are. If that's the case,

I'll take the blame for that. That would be my

fault. But spiritually, falling asleep. Sometimes

maybe we use a word, and there's many words that

could be talked about, but we use a word that

sometimes we are apathetic, or we have spiritual

apathy. Have you heard that word before? Well,

the word apathetic comes from the word pathos.

Pathos. Anybody know what that means? Well, that

comes from that, but pathos really has to do

with showing a feeling, enthusiasm, being excited

about something. You have deep pathos as you

are really engaged in whatever is going on. Now,

in the English language, if you add an A in front

of a word, what does that do? What? It changes

it. It makes it the opposite. So instead of with

feeling, if you say apathetic, that means a definition

of showing or feeling no interest, no enthusiasm,

no concern. And sometimes as we're going through

our life as Christians, as we get in a spiritual

rut, sometimes we can find ourselves apathetic,

not enthusiastic. expecting someone else to fill

our spiritual need and not even having the engagement

to want to go to Jesus. We're just going through

the motions. Now, what are some things that can

cause our spiritual apathy or cause us to fall

asleep spiritually? And there's many, but I just

want to look at a couple this morning. One is

busyness. Not business. Business is something

that... You know, you've got to take care of

your business. A business is your employment,

your livelihood, whatever that is. But busyness,

you ever seem like you're never done with anything?

You're never caught up with anything? Before

you finish the one assignment, the one project,

there's already something else that you're supposed

to be working on, whether it's at home or at

the job, and you're just on this hamster wheel.

You're just going. And you never seem to have

any time to consider who you are, to consider

what place God has in your life, to consider

your place in your family or your church, and

you're just so busy that that church stuff doesn't

have any preference. It doesn't have any place

in your life. We just are going, going, going.

It reminds me of an old scene from a classic.

television show, I Love Lucy. Lucy and her friend

Ethel decide that they want to get a job. They

want to get some extra spending money. So they

go down to the candy factory and they get a job

and they bumble around and they get moved around

and before long the two of them find themselves

on the assembly line. Some of you maybe have

seen this scene before. The stern boss comes

in and says, when this assembly line turns on,

you will get the chocolate and you will wrap

it in paper and you will put it back on the assembly

line. And if one chocolate gets through, you

will be fired. Roll the assembly line! And here

come the chocolate. And Ethel's taking the chocolate

very daintily and wrapping it in the paper and

putting it back on. Lucy's doing it a little

faster. And then before you know it, here comes

a few more chocolates. And they're having a hard

time keeping up. And they start putting them

in their mouth. And they move them off the assembly

line. And they're putting them in their hats

and in their shirts. And before long, the picture

looks something like this. Because the chocolates

just keep coming through. And they can't keep

up. They're too busy. And then they hear the

boss coming and the assembly line stops. They

scrape them all off and they put them in their

hat and in their mouth and in their shirt. And

so there's no chocolates on the table, on the

line. And the boss comes in and says, well done,

ladies. Very good. Nothing got through. Speed

it up. And now here come they come even faster.

And sometimes in life, we are so busy, busy,

busy that we don't have time for God. We don't

have time. for what is most important, and we

fall asleep. Another thing that can cause this

spiritual drowsiness is sometimes perhaps we

are unnourished spiritually. We're not taking

the time during the day to feed ourselves, to

spend time in God's Word. to spend time in prayer.

And this can have to do with the busyness because

we just don't have time to it. And maybe our

spiritual life has been relegated to a verse

of the day or a little half -page devotional

that we read. And those are good things. Don't

get me wrong. Those are good things. But we need

more than just one verse a day. It's like trying

to survive on a goldfish. Now, I love goldfish

crackers. I could eat the whole package of goldfish

crackers. But if I was trying to survive on just

one solitary goldfish for each meal, I wouldn't

last very long. And neither would you. And if

we're trying to survive on one solitary little

morsel from the Word of God, what does it say?

Jesus says, man shall not live by bread alone,

by goldfish alone, but by every word that comes.

from the mouth of God. If you just read one verse,

okay, read it, but don't just read it. Write

it down. Memorize it. Think about it as you go

through the day. Put it on your mirror. Put it

on your desk at work and contemplate, how does

this one verse make a difference in my life today?

Because we can't just survive on a tiny little

morsel. We are unnourished. And another thing

that can sometimes put us to sleep is that we

can be spiritually malnourished. Now, what's

the difference? Unnourished means we're not getting

enough. Malnourished would mean, well, we're

getting enough content, we're putting enough

stuff in, but it's not the good stuff. It's not

the healthy stuff. It's not the things that are

going to... draw us to God and the things that

are consuming our time and filling our heads

and our imaginations. It's not just unnourishing,

but it's pushing us away from God. It's malnourishing.

It's causing us to forget about God, to be distracted,

and to not even really care about God. Let's

look at another passage here. Let's go to Romans

Romans 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13, our scripture for the day. Riley

did such a great job in reading for us. Romans

13, starting in verse 11. It says, There's a

lot of little statements in there. I want to

examine them kind of one by one. The first one

is, Knowing the time. Do we know what time it

is in our world? We can look at headlines. We

can look at prophecies and different things like

that. Do we pay attention? It's important to

pay attention, but not to get so consumed on

a headline that we're forgetting what is most

important. It's okay to recognize, okay, well,

there's a conflict between... India and Pakistan,

two nuclear powers. It's okay. Let me pay attention

to that. It's okay to realize, okay, there's

a new pope, the first American pope. That's intriguing.

Could that lead to something prophetically? It

might. Could it not lead to something prophetically?

Maybe not. We don't know at this point, but it's

okay to know the time. It's okay to pay attention.

If you were to go back to the 1960s, I see a

few people who might have been alive here. Kennedy

became the very first Catholic president in the

United States. And people were like, well, this

is it. And here we are a long time later. And

so it's okay to know the time. It's okay to pay

attention. We need to pay attention. But we also

have to make sure that we're focusing. on the

things that are most important. Because notice

the next phrase. It says, knowing the time, now

it is high time to wake up out of our sleep.

Wake up. It's time to wake up. Paul wrote this

a long time ago. It was time to wake up for the

people in Rome, and it's time to wake up for

the people in Ringgold. It's time to wake up

now. What do you use to wake up? How many of

you use the alarm on your phone? Anybody set

your alarm on your phone? How many of you have

another kind of alarm, maybe a clock that sits

next to your bed? Anybody have a clock next to

your bed? Okay. Anybody have a, maybe the kids,

your mom come and wake you up because it's time

to go to school. How many of your mom comes in?

That's good. I don't see any hands up. A couple

people there. That's good to be able to be there.

How many? You just wake up on your own naturally.

You just wake up and it's always the right time.

Very good. Biological clock. How many of you,

maybe your pet, your dog or your cat, jump on

your head and say, okay, it's time to get up.

You've got to take me out. A few people there.

So there's different things that we have to wake

us up. When I was a student at Georgia Cumberland

Academy back in the 80s, believe it or not, They

had lights out, and you didn't just have to turn

off the light, but they would actually flip the

breaker so there was no power in your room. So

you couldn't listen to that secret radio that

you weren't supposed to have. So you couldn't

have a clock that plugged in. You had to have

either a battery -powered clock or a clock that

wound up. We use different things to wake us

up, but it says now is the time. to wake up out

of sleep. And then it says, for now our salvation

is nearer than when we first believed. We don't

know when Jesus is going to come. The Bible says

no one knows the day or the hour. We can look

at headlines, we can look at prophecies, but

we don't know when Jesus is going to come. But

we can know for a fact that it is nearer than

it used to be. Believe it or not, I've been a

pastor of this church now for about a year and

a half. And guess what? We are a year and a half

closer to when Jesus is coming than when I started.

We've got some students here. If you're, say,

18 years old, well, guess what? We're 18 years

closer than when you were born. We've got some

retirees here. You're at least 65. We won't go

into any more numbers than that. But guess what?

we're 65 years closer than when you were born.

Whatever starting date you want to put on it,

we are that much closer. If you want to say yesterday,

well, guess what? We are one day closer to when

Jesus comes. So it is high time to wake up for

our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

So I can guarantee that we are closer than we

used to be. And a second thing I can guarantee

is that we are no longer than one lifetime away.

Whatever lifespan that may be, when someone passes

away, their next thing they're going to know

is Jesus coming again. And we don't know when

our life is going to end. So we need to know

the time. We need to wake up out of our sleep

because we are nearer than when we first begun.

And notice verse 12. It says, the night is far

spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us

cast off the works of darkness and let us put

on the armor of light. We've got to take away

those things which are causing us to be too busy,

which are causing us to be unnourished or malnourished.

And it says we've got to cast off those works

of darkness. And then in verse 14, it says, put

on the Lord Jesus Christ. and make no provision

for the flesh to fulfill its lust. So we've got

to set aside those things that cause our spiritual

apathy, and we've got to put on Jesus. We've

got to focus on his total, inconceivable love,

and the hope, and the guidance, and the forgiveness

that he has. That's what we have to put on as

we're waking up. We have to keep our attention

not on who the Pope is, but on who Jesus is.

Not on what conflict is happening in the world,

but on what the Prince of Peace is doing in our

life. I saw a statement just yesterday that said

if we're more concerned about Popes than about

saving other people, then probably we don't need

to look any further than our own reflection to

see the spirit of Antichrist. Have mercy. We

need to care about the people that we know, the

people that are in our sphere of influence. And

we can know the time and we can pay attention

to things, but let us put on Jesus Christ. Now

we've got to go back because we left 10 people

sleeping on the side of the road. We don't want

to leave them there. Matthew 25, let's go back

there briefly. It says, and at midnight, A cry

was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming.

Go out to meet him. And then all the virgins

arose and trimmed their lamps. And it goes on

and says, they trimmed their lamps and the foolish

said to the wise, give us some of your oil for

our lamps are going out. But the wise answered

saying, no, lest there should not be enough for

us and you, but you go and gather from those

who sell and buy for yourself. said, wait, we

have this. We prepared. We had woken up. We had

expected something. But sometimes even the expected

thing happens at an unexpected time. And these

foolish young ladies, they were anticipating,

expecting Jesus to come, but they still missed

out. Notice this next verse, verse 10. While

they went to buy, The bridegroom came and those

who were ready went in with him to the wedding,

but the door was shut. They were expecting the

bridegroom to come, but they missed it. They

were anticipating it, but they weren't ready.

They hadn't prepared. They hadn't been filled

with that oil of the Holy Spirit. They hadn't

spent that time focusing on what God is, but

they had been tied down and they had gone to

sleep. spiritually, and they hadn't prepared

for how they were going to interact with that.

And so just a few verses later, verse 13, notice

what it says, Watch therefore, for you know neither

the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man

is coming. We've got to keep watch. We've got

to wake up, because we don't know exactly when

Jesus is coming, but we know he's coming soon,

and each day we go by, He's coming that much

sooner. There's a story from a few years ago

about a gentleman, James Shaw. He was hungry,

and he wanted to go eat somewhere, and it was

the middle of the night, like 2 o 'clock in the

morning. Now, there's not a lot of places you

can go find some food at 2 o 'clock in the morning,

but in Nashville and many other places, there's

at least one, and that's Waffle House. Open 24

hours. So James Shaw was at the Waffle House.

probably eating a waffle, maybe some hash browns,

covered, smothered, I don't know how he liked

them, when suddenly there was an unexpected noise

of gunfire and windows shattering, and someone

begun shooting into the Waffle House and came

into the door. And as you might imagine, everyone

in that facility scattered and tried to find

a place to hide, and James found himself with

others. down the little hallway that goes back

towards the restrooms. But that door doesn't

lock. And so they could hear and sense that that

person was coming closer. And James already had

a graze of a bullet on his arm. And as that gunman

was getting closer, they could tell he was reloading.

fixing a jam or something. And James jumped out

and he grabbed the barrel of the gun and it burned

his hand, the hot barrel. He wrenched the gun

away from the gunman. He threw it over the counter

back to where the cooks are. And that gunman,

without his weapon, he ran away and later was

arrested. Now, four people died in that shooting.

Tragically, four people died. But how many more

might have died? This is what James said when

they interviewed him later. He said, I was completely

doing it just to save myself. Now, me doing that,

I did save other people. But I don't want people

to think that I was the Terminator or Superman

or anybody like that. It was just, I figured

if I was going to die, he was going to have to

work for it. And so he did that to save himself.

But in the process of saving himself, he saved

the lives of many other people. It was an unexpected

situation, but he responded in a positive way

and made a difference. And as we find ourselves

in unexpected situations, as we are waiting for

Jesus to come, how will we respond? If we respond

in a way to save ourselves, to wake ourselves

up, to make sure that we are focusing on Jesus,

that we're putting on the Lord Jesus, well, guess

what? There's a good chance that by saving yourself,

you're going to save somebody else. You're going

to influence somebody else. You're going to bring

somebody else along with you. So let's make sure

that as we expect Jesus to come soon, that no

matter what comes along that is unexpected, that

we will keep our attention and we will keep our

focus upon Jesus. And in all that we do, we will

let our light shine for him. Let's bow our heads

for prayer. Dear God, we thank you so much that

you love us enough to care about us. You love

us enough to give us clues and hints and a promise

that you are coming again. And Lord, forgive

us for times that we have gotten spiritually

drowsy when we have fallen asleep. But Lord,

help us in all that we do to focus on you, to

put on the Lord Jesus Christ, to know the time

that we live in, to awake out of our sleep, and

to keep our eyes on you. In your name we pray.

Amen.