Time Is Running Out | Pastor Patrick Weikle

What's up, United City Church?

How we doing this morning?

Good to see you.

Uh United City Youth, how are you doing this morning?

Hey, welcome to the unofficial, official session four of Encounter Weekend.

Glad all of you adults can make it.

Hey, listen, my name is Pat Um Michael.

I'm uh get the amazing privilege and honor of being the student pastor here, so that's exciting.

Okay, that's enough.

We're in service, okay?

Alright, so listen.

Um, this morning I'm really excited for an continuation of encounter, but I'm really excited for the continuation of the sermon series that uh Pastor Chris kicked off called Kingdom Culture, uh, where we've been walking through uh Romans 12 and now 13 today, where we've been looking about what does it mean to be a part of the culture of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God versus the kingdom and the culture of the world.

Specifically, we've been looking at Romans chapter 12, uh, verses 1 through 2 that says this, where Paul writes and pleads to the church in Rome to understand this.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

He says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Now, I don't know about you, but if you missed the uh week one opener, I about came up out of my chair when Pastor Chris preached and said, The problem with a living sacrifice is it can crawl off the altar.

My goodness.

I'm gonna need you to remember how much you just love that phrase when we get to Romans chapter 13, verses 8 through 14, okay?

Romans 13:8–14

It says, Present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, set apart, pure, which is your spiritual worship.

And then Paul says this.

He pleads with the Romans to understand this, he pleads with the Christians to understand this.

Do not be conformed to this world.

Don't be made to look like this world, don't fit into this world, don't adopt the patterns and the customs of this world, but instead what?

Be what?

Be transformed, look different, have a transformation by the renewal of your mind, which of course we know is the work of the Holy Spirit.

And that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So today as we jump into kingdom culture, it's a good reminder to start with the fact that God is calling us to be transformed.

He's calling us to not conform to the world, but to be different.

If you're taking notes this morning, which if you've been listening to Pastor Chris, we also take notes, especially if you want to be first in line into heaven.

If you're taking notes in United City Youth, every single one of you should be taking notes.

I'm titling today's message Time is Running Out.

Time is Running Out.

Let me add a word of greeting real quick from Pastor Chris and add mine on to it and just say we're really glad you're in the room.

Specifically, there's one group of people I need to welcome, if y'all will just let me do this real quick, and it's to everyone in a correctional facility who is streaming these services.

We're so excited that we get to bring these to you.

You thought we forgot about you.

I didn't forget.

I love y'all the most.

You're my favorite.

Sorry, youth.

And so here's what I want to do.

Uh, I just want to pray for us as we jump in uh in the limited time that we have left today.

I want to I want to pray.

You pray for me.

Believers pray that God will continue to awaken revival.

Um, students pray uh and let's jump into God's word together this morning.

Jesus, thank you so much for United City Church.

God, thank you for our pastor who believes in the next generation, who funds the ministry to the next generation.

God, I'm thankful for a church that's full of members and partners who make space for the next generation to have a space here.

So, God, I pray that for all of us, um even uh adults and grandparents and up to um any age, God, that this morning you would encounter us through the power of your word and the power of your Holy Spirit, and that we all would be different because of it.

And it is in your name that we pray and ask those things.

Amen.

Have you ever um have you ever woken up late for something?

Okay, just me.

I'm done.

No, it's y'all ever woken up late for anything ever in your life?

Yeah, waking up late is the worst.

Matter of fact, waking up late for something might be the worst human experience available to anybody on planet earth.

In full transparency, I almost woke up late for church this morning.

Sorry, PC.

Um, I was I was super tired.

I was also a host home this weekend for Encounter Weekend.

I was just hosting a two-week-old baby.

And so, you know, I was tired and I almost slept in.

I apologize.

You ever remember a time though where maybe you slept in, or not slept in, but you you overslept.

You woke up late for something super important.

Like, was there ever a really big moment that you're like, man, I almost missed it because I woke up late.

Now, men, now is not the time to make the joke about how you almost missed your wedding.

Okay, save that one for later.

It's not gonna go well for you, all right?

Or the anniversary dinner, just pocket that one.

As soon as you ever wake up late for class, right?

You ever just wake up late and all of a sudden you're frantic.

Now, listen, here's the thing.

Uh, there's really only two responses to waking up late, all right?

I've done extensive research on this, I haven't.

Um, but there's really only two responses to waking up late that all of humans in our condition share and experience.

And the first one is this if you wake up late, you completely freak out, okay?

Like the first experience and reaction that you can have to waking up late is you realize you're late and you go, oh no, or oh something else, and we're gonna get to that in the sermon, and you throw the covers off, and all of a sudden you are hustling.

You're like, no shower today.

It's definitely a hat day, you feel me?

Like, we may not even brush our teeth.

You're you're grabbing the first set of clothes you can see, it's just a bonus if they're clean.

You know, it's like we're not we're not even going for matched or anything like that, and you're just hustling and bustling, and you're like, I woke up late, I'm gonna be late, I gotta hurry, I gotta get going, I gotta get serious because I have some place to be.

Or you're like me, and you wake up late and you're like, well, I mean, since I'm already late, you know.

Since I am late, you know, the only thing worse than being late is being worse and or late and dirty, you know.

So, like, for sure hitting a shower, okay?

Like, non-negotiable.

This hair gets washed every day, all right?

And so I'm hitting a shower, and since I'm gonna be late, I can't be looking like a scrub.

I gotta put together a pretty great outfit, right?

We don't wear clothes, we wear outfits in the Wycle household.

And so I gotta put together an outfit, and since I'm late, I can't I can't walk in late and tired.

So I gotta go through Starbucks, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I'm already, I was already late, all right?

So, so I'm I'm just gonna I'm just gonna kind of coast into the day.

And whether you're the first person and you're flinging off the covers and you're freaking out and you're really frantic, or whether you're like me and you're full of godliness and you're just like, hey, what is being late anyway?

Um, whether you're the first person or the set second person, I think this is the truth.

The real tension in the room about waking up late is this no one ever plans to do it.

Like, that's the hard thing about waking up late, right?

Like, nobody's ever like, all right, we have the most important business meeting tomorrow of our life.

Let's get up 30 minutes late.

All right, let's start the day in pure chaos, all right?

Nobody's like, hey, this is the most important day of my life.

Waking up an hour late sounds great.

Let's do it.

Nobody ever plans to wake up late.

Matter of fact, I would go one step further and say this we are all actually victims in the room, okay, this morning.

So we're victims of the worst piece of technology and innovation of all time.

And it is the snooze button.

Can I get a witness that the snooze button is from the enemy and not from the kingdom, okay?

Because listen, here's the I here's the here's the here's the deal.

All right, some of you are smart, uh, you're businessy, and like go with this, okay, for a second.

The only job of an alarm is to do what?

To let me know I need to be up and to be up when?

Now, right?

Like the only purpose an alarm serves is to say, the time is now, the time is right, get up out your bed, right?

Like that's what the alarm is supposed to tell me.

So, why in God's literal holy name would we ever invent something to give me nine more minutes?

Right?

Like, why does that make sense?

Why would they ever be like, hey, I have this idea?

It's called an alarm, and it's gonna wake people up so they can be where they need to be on time, and someone else is like, oh, I have another equally good idea.

Let's make a snooze button to where they can sleep in for nine more minutes.

Like, that's a dumb idea, right?

Because here's what happens, here's how you wake up late.

Maybe you you completely blow through your alarm, but I know that's not true.

I know you're all psychos.

You have so many alarms set in your phone, right?

You don't just have the snooze button, you have seven alarms.

And the first alarm is to let you know that the next six are coming.

And the third alarm is to let you know now you really need to start thinking about being serious.

And then when you finally get to the last alarm, you know what you still do?

You still hit snooze and you got nine more minutes and you wake up late because you're stuck in this vicious cycle of alarm, snooze, alarm, snooze, alarm, snooze, alarm, snooze, alarm, snooze.

And that's exactly where you are in your relationship with Jesus.

And that's exactly where the church in America is at and their relationship with God.

That an alarm has been going off.

And it didn't start two weeks ago in Asbury, but it's been sounding and sounding and sounding, but we've been caught in this vicious cycle of I hear God and then I snooze him.

I hear from the Lord and I snooze him.

The great tension we face in the room is the snooze button.

And in our lives, we're spiritually snoozing the alarm.

This week at an encounter weekend, our speaker preached a message on the morning session about sleepy Christians, and he was talking about this idea that our faith has become sleepy, that we've become sleepy in our response to God.

And in that sermon, he referenced a documentary that I have also seen called Sheep Among Wolves.

And it follows the persecuted church in uh Iran.

And I don't know if you know this, but actually the fastest growing movement of Christianity in the world today is not in the good US of A.

It's actually in radical Islam-persecuted Iran.

And it follows this family, this husband and wife, and how they're escaping persecution and how they're trying to uh worship Jesus and facilitate others to worship Jesus too, and they actually escape persecution and they move to the United States of America, which many would be like, hey, this is their Super Bowl moment.

This is the hallmark, this is so great.

And they only make it two months in America.

And after two months in America, they decide to move back to Iran.

And as they're interviewing them, this is what the wife says.

They say, Hey, why are you leaving?

Why didn't you stay in America?

Why would you ever want to go back to where you could be brutally raped and murdered and persecuted for your faith in Jesus?

And she said this.

She said, The Christians in America are sleepy.

And I'm getting sleepy too.

You see, this world that Paul, that God Himself wants you to be transformed from and not conformed to, has a design to put you to sleep.

You hear from the Lord, and there's TikTok.

You have a message from God, and there's Netflix.

God wants you to do something big with your life, and you have a busy schedule.

And then all the while there's all this talk about how we don't have time.

Can we stop that?

United City Church, can we stop saying we don't have time for God?

Because guess what?

There's a man right back here that I look up to a lot.

He's a business leader.

Almost everything about his life.

I'm like, man, he is great.

I've taken him to lunch many times.

I'm trying to get his leadership into me.

But you know, I respect him because he gets more done than me.

But guess what?

He has 24 hours and so do I.

So what does that mean?

It means he spends his time differently than I do.

Which means this: you're not stuck, you're stationed.

You are spending time the way you want to.

You don't, you do not not have time, you refuse to make time.

And there's this alarm that's sounding in the church right now, and God is saying, Who is ready to get up?

Who is ready to wake up?

Who is done?

Who is tired with hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep?

Who is ready to be awake?

That's exactly what Paul was going to address in Romans chapter 13, verses 8 through 14 this morning.

Romans 13:8–14

So if you will turn in your Bible, let's read there.

Romans chapter 13, verses 8 through 13 says this.

Romans 13:8–13

Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments say, you should not commit adultery, you should not murder, you should not steal, you should not covet.

And any other commandment are all summed up in this word.

Paul's about to give you the cheat code.

Rarely in the Bible is it just this chapter and verse and super clear.

Paul's saying, hey, you know the commandments, but there's one that allows you to fulfill all the law completely and to live perfect before God, and it's this you should love your neighbor as yourself.

Verse 10, for love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Verse 11.

Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to what?

Wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

I love you, and I know we don't like to think about it, but can I tell you something?

You are closer to death than you've ever been.

You have one less day today.

So there's no more time to think about, well, I'll do it later.

I'll be serious later.

I'll let God move in me and through me later.

No, you are running out of time.

The hour is late, the day is coming, the alarm is sounding.

Stop hitting snooze.

Verse 12, the night is far gone, the day is at hand, so let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the daytime.

He's saying, Let's live like we're awake, not like we're asleep.

Not in orgies, in drunkenness, not in sexual immorality, in sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Now, Paul's opening remarks for sure stick out and strike me because I wish he would have picked anything other than love.

I wish he would have decided any other thing besides love is the thing that's the mark of how I'm doing as a follower of Jesus.

And so Paul decides to have this strong language to say, um, hey, you shouldn't owe anything.

If you're gonna owe anything, if you're gonna have an obligation to anyone, if you're gonna have any debt be outstanding, it should be to love.

The thing that you uh that you are obligated to everyone is to love them.

And he actually does something pretty clever here.

Uh, and in and let me let hijack my Bible nerd here for a second.

Paul's actually taking the Old Testament and some phrases from Jesus and he's putting them together, right?

It's not all original to Paul.

He's starting with some commandments from Exodus, and he's saying, Hey, you know the commandments.

And then he's stealing a phrase from Jesus when some young, hot-shot scribe walks up to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew and says, Hey, what's the greatest commandment of all time?

And Jesus says, You know what it is.

It's the love of the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength.

And the scribe goes, dang, he got it.

And then Jesus goes, Oh, in the second, and then everyone goes, What?

He's saying, The second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself, all the laws fulfilled in this.

So Paul's painting this picture.

You have love for God?

Are you awake?

Cool.

Well, that love for God, that strong relationship with Jesus that you say that you have, it should pour out so much so that it looks like you owe a debt of love to every single person around you.

That's how we should know.

We should see it all over your life.

And if you look at it, the tone is serious, the verbiage is serious.

Paul is getting into it here as he's writing, and it all begins to crescendo in verse 11.

And this is what verse 11 says.

My favorite translation says it like this.

I want to read it to you out of this translation.

It says, This is all the more urgent.

For you know how late it is.

Time is running out.

So wake up.

For our salvation is nearer now than we first believed.

United City Church.

The alarm is sounding.

It is time to wake up.

It's time to wake up.

It's time to wake up.

It is time to wake up.

No more snooze button.

Matter of fact, if you only write one thing down, if you only remember one thing, it needs to be that.

It is time to wake up.

And if you're gonna wake up, Paul says, there are some things that are gonna have to walk out of your life.

If you're gonna wake up and you're gonna respond to the call of God, if you're gonna respond to the alarm that it is his word, that's the Christian community, that's the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that's the commands of Scripture.

If you are going to respond and wake up to God's call, some things are gonna have to walk out of your life.

And here's what they are.

He makes a whole list of them.

You want to live like you don't look like you're asleep, like you're walking in the daytime instead of the night.

Wild parties have to go.

That means the sandbar in Kingwood and the keggers and the raiders that go on there have to go.

That means the drunkenness in your home has to go.

Parents, you can teach what you know, but you will always replicate who you are.

So look at me, there's no room for it.

Like it's done, it needs to stop.

It's like the best kept secret, it's like the biggest elephant in the room of our community, the drunkenness and sensuality that is running rampant, not just in our young people, but in the living rooms of our homes.

Being able to be close to students and know them and hear from them and have them confess things to me, and honestly, sometimes in their ignorance, allow me to be friends with them on Snapchat and Instagram and TikTok and all the other things, is I get to see their life, which means I get a window into your living room.

And there is wild sensuality that is running rampant in our lives, and it has to stop.

And we have to wake up and give up sensuality, give up drunkenness, give up other substances to alter our moods and our performances at work.

You want to take a real trip down scare me awake lane?

Go look at some of the anonymous pages for our high schools on Instagram, and you will quickly discover that what you want not to be true is not only alive and well, it is thriving in this generation.

And it's doing that because it's thriving in our homes.

And what United City needs and what these young people need, and what your sons and your daughters and your wives and your husbands need, is for all of us to decide I'm ready to wake up.

Because listen to me, either I'm following the kingdom of God, Romans 12, 1 and 2, or I'm following the kingdom of this world.

Would you please just choose and stop asking everyone else to feel guilty for you being in the middle and not looking right?

Just pick and decide that you will either set your direction of your life and the purposes and the priorities of your life towards Jesus and looking like him and getting rid of all the junk that doesn't look like him, or just be honest with yourself that your heart's biggest desire is to pursue the world.

But Paul and the Bible are saying if you want to wake up, that stuff's gotta go.

Sexual sin has to go.

Look at me.

Pornography has to go.

Your Instagram Explore page, look at me, especially men over 30.

The algorithm knows you better than you do.

Enough with the, oh, Instagram just sends it to me.

No, it just knows what you've been looking at.

And we're forfeiting all of our spiritual authority, and we're forfeiting all of our spiritual salt and light and our ability to move the way that God wants us to because we're settling for the best thing the world has, and it's the snooze button.

And it's the enemy's design to just put us back to sleep, and it's gotta go.

Parents, here's one you gotta help me out with the co ed sleepover.

Please, for the literal.

Love of Jesus, can we end that?

Like what sense does that make?

I love you.

But pastorally, I need to let you see God's word in a different light for a second.

Nothing good will come out of boys and girls staying at the same house, no matter how good of friends they are, and no matter how much chaperoning you have.

Nothing good will ever come out of that.

Nothing good will ever come out of giving them unrestricted, unlimited access to technology.

And if you think you have a handle on it, check yourself again.

You don't.

They're smart.

They're smarter than you.

And the sexual immorality and the sexual sensuality that they see on display in culture, it's not the only place they see it.

They're learning it other places too.

And it's gotta go.

The fighting with people, the quarrelsome, the jealousy, the competing with the neighbors next door instead of loving the neighbors next door, the busyness, the programs, all the good things that take place instead of the God things.

They have to go.

If you want to wake up, these things have to walk out wholesale of your life.

They have to go.

It's not an exception.

It's not for the super Christians, it's for the basic Bible-believing follower of Jesus who says, I'm gonna let God's word speak to me, and it's gonna be a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, and I am going to follow.

No more snooze button.

Young adults, your relationships.

No more snooze button.

It's time to wake up.

Alright, Pat.

I did not expect this out of you this morning, dude.

I thought we were having an encounter weekend raw-rah session.

Okay, I get it.

Loud and clear, I gotta wake up.

I'm feeling a little convicted right now.

I feel like you're specifically talking to me.

Or maybe you're deflecting everything I say right now with judgment, so that way you don't have to let it get close and touch your heart.

How do I do this?

You know, because if God is stirring a great awakening, like Pastor Chris said, there's always awakening before revival.

There's always seasons of awakening in the church and repentance and prayer before revival, and we see numbers added to the church.

So if God is sounding the alarm, if he's awakening in us, but we've been hitting the snooze button, how do I stop?

How do I stop hitting snooze?

How do I cast off the works of darkness?

And how do I wake up and live like I'm in the light?

I'm glad you asked.

I think there's two practical things.

You want two practical things?

You want two teachy, less preachy, practical, tactical things to help you stop hitting snooze and to wake up?

Yes?

You want it?

All right, here it is.

It's in Romans 13, verse 14.

Romans 13:14

The only one I didn't read that I said I was going to, it's this, verse 14.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

That's the application.

Now I would like to teach you something, and I would like to break this down verse into two different parts.

You got time for that?

Okay.

The first one has some subpoints under it that are gonna be real practical.

Um, and the second one is gonna be more convictional.

I apologize in advance, but not really.

All right, here's the first one.

Put on Jesus.

You want to stop hitting snooze, you have to put on Jesus.

Pat, that's weird.

I've never seen Jesus, I've never seen him face to face.

I pray to him, I hope he's there, all those things.

If anyone has seen Jesus physically, let me know.

There's some things I would like for you to talk to him about on my behalf, but it's like, okay, Pat, how do I do that?

How do I put on Jesus?

Well, it's important for you to understand the language here, um, the literary uh analysis here is uh a vision of actually like putting on clothes.

And so the idea is for the believer to sink deep into the identity and the reality of Jesus.

You know, scripture teaches us, Paul in Galatians and in other places would say it's no longer I who live, it's Christ who lives in me and through me.

So the life I live is dead to sin and lives of Christ.

It's the things that we talk about that we've learned in Romans before in baptism, that my life was buried with what?

Christ and baptism and raised to walk in newness of life.

It's this idea that I am and have the imputed righteousness or right standing of Jesus, that at the atonement at one moment I was made right in standing with God.

And when he looks at me, he looks at me through the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and the power of the resurrection of Jesus.

And the Holy Spirit gives me an ability not just to trust in Jesus for faith, but to actually live a life that looks like Jesus.

So as I'm putting on Jesus, I'm I'm not just saying he's God.

I'm looking at his life now, not as just Jesus is a good role model.

Look at me, church.

He's the blueprint of what you were designed to be.

He was the blueprint of how humanity was supposed to live in perfect authority between God the Father, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to say no to sin and to say yes to their God.

And so now Jesus isn't just my role model, like he's a model home of what I was designed to be.

Pat, that is crazy.

Have you ever looked at the life of Jesus?

I don't know if you have, but if you're asking me to clothe myself in Jesus and look like Jesus, that's hard.

How do I do that?

Glad you asked.

Three things.

You ready?

Three practical things that will allow you to put on Jesus and look like him more than you ever had before, to stop hitting snooze and to wake up and cast off the works of darkness.

Here's the first one.

You gotta have the word before the world.

Um your phone dies, what's the first thing you do?

You plug it into power.

Plug yourself into power.

Your life is sleepy because your relationship to God's word is sleepy.

There's too many apps that will read the Bible for you.

There's too many apps that will play Bible videos for you.

There's too many resources at your disposal for you to say that you don't have time or you're not a reader to dig into God's word.

John chapter 1 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God, and everything was created through the word, and the word became flesh and dwelt among humanity, and the word was two things.

John 1 · chapter mention

It was light, and it was what?

Life.

So if your relationship with God is lifeless, it's an ultimate directional sign to the fact that your relationship with God's word is lacking.

So you gotta plug into God's word.

You will look like the thing you plug into most.

So all you have to do to identify what you're plugging into most is follow your time, attention, effort, money, and energy.

If you follow those five things, your time, attention, effort, money, and energy, you will find what you're plugging into most.

And God is calling some of you, maybe many of you, this morning, convictionally, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to wake up and to plug into his word before you plug into the world.

Here's the second thing.

You ready?

You got to practice prayer.

I love when our pastor preaches on prayer.

He has taught me over the last three years and four months, looked it up in the database, how long I've been here the other day.

He has taught me over the last three years and four months that prayer is not about getting things out of God.

Prayer is not a checklist, it's not a laundry list of things I need God to do for me that will determine how much I love him and respond to him that week, whether he says yes or no to those things.

Prayer is not about what I get out of God, prayer is about what God gets into me.

James says, anyone that have uh lack wisdom, ask God.

James says, You don't have something?

It's because you didn't ask.

Oh, you asked, you didn't ask right.

You didn't ask according to God's will.

Prayer is the ultimate way to connect with God, disconnect from the world, and download heaven into this historical moment in your life.

You want to wake up word before world.

You want to stop hitting snooze?

Practice prayer.

Here's the third one, you're gonna hate it.

Real repentance.

Because guess what?

You're gonna mess up, you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna look like the world, and you're not gonna look like Jesus of the Bible from time to time.

And you're gonna have regrets and you're gonna have sin in your life, but God has given you the ability to repent, to turn from a life of sin, turn from a moment of sin, and to look at Jesus and put your faith and trust in him.

And the church has thrown out the secret ingredient to repentance.

You wanna know what it is?

You wanna know the secret ingredient to real repentance?

Confession.

We don't confess anymore.

That's why the Bible says, confess your sins to one another so you may be what?

Healed.

Because the prayer of a righteous person has great power and effect, and it's working.

It's like we get into a room with other Christians and we believe that we have direct access to the God of the universe who created all things, and by him and through him nothing was made that was made and has the power to do whatever, and we start talking about our lives, and we say, Oh, we're good.

We start talking about our lives and say, Oh, pray for me, but unspoken.

You want me to guess?

The reason that verse exists is so you may be healed.

It's not that you you can't have healing without confession.

What James is saying is you'll get healing if you talk about the symptoms.

What if I walked into the doctor and said, I'm sick, and he said, Okay, tell me about your symptoms, and I just said, Guess.

It's not funny because it's the way we live.

You gotta have confession.

Word before world, practice prayer, real repentance requires a confession.

Here's the last thing, okay?

Point two out of the subpoint.

So you gotta make no provision for the flesh.

Start to land the plane right here.

I know you're getting antsy.

Make no provision for the flesh.

Make no mistake.

What you feed will grow, and what you starve will die.

Which makes me go back to my point earlier.

You're not stuck, you're stationed.

The tree of your life is bearing the fruit that you are feeding.

So Paul's warning, God's warning, the Holy Spirit's conviction this morning is loud, like an alarm telling you this.

Stop making provision for your flesh.

Some of you, the truth and the reality is, is you're you're more disciplined towards your sin than you're discipled towards your Savior.

And here's what I mean by that.

You are better at coming up with elaborate ways to participate in and get away with sin than you are disciplined in spiritual realities and practices that make you look more like Jesus.

And since you've come to faith, you've spent more time hitting the snooze button and allowing yourself to sin better in more creative ways to gratify your desires in a way that the church and Christian community knows nothing about it.

And Paul would say, In love, you're making provision for your flesh.

You're making space for sin to grow.

Sometimes in church we say this phrase, uh, healthy things grow.

Well, yeah, but so do weeds.

Right?

And so you gotta ask yourself, what's growing on the tree of my life?

Jesus has this conversation in the greatest sermon ever preached, Matthew chapter 5, Sermon on the Mount, standing on the side of this mountain, and he's preaching to the crowds, he's preaching to his disciples, and this is something I say to United City Youth all the time.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

So y'all just write it down again because you need to hear it.

He's preaching this sermon, and he's doing a lot of you've heard it said, but I say, You've read, but I say.

And he's helping people understand God better because you know he's God in flesh.

And he gets to this point and he says something radical.

He says, If you're if your hand, your good hand causes you to sin, he's talking about your right hand because most people are right-handed.

He says, If your hand, if your good hand causes you to sin, you know what you should do with it?

You should cut it off and throw it away.

If your eye causes you to sin, yeah, even your good eye, you should pluck it out and throw it away.

Because he says, Oh, it's better to lose something good than to miss out on God.

And in the church today, we've become infatuated with the practice of learning, how close can I get?

How far can I go, Pastor, before I'm actually in sin?

Jesus preached the complete opposite message.

Jesus preached a message that said, make no provision for the flesh.

Jesus' message in Matthew chapter 5 was no, not how close can you get, how far are you willing to get away?

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

You want to wake up?

What good things are you willing to cut off the tree of your life?

You wanna be in church more?

You willing to cut out travel sports?

It's better to lose travel sports and for your students to lose their soul.

You want to be a better dad?

You ready to cut out that extra work at uh extra work at your job that may bring a little bit more money, may not?

Better for you to lose that little extra income and that responsibility than for your family to lose their spiritual foundation.

You ready to be serious to your wife?

You ready to be pure before God?

Okay, then cut out that relationship.

Cut out that app on your phone.

I'm just, I'm so flabbergasted by people who won't delete an app but act like they're serious about holiness.

And God is saying, God is saying, His word is saying, if you want to wake up, these things have to go.

And do you realize what would happen if we did this?

I wonder what your business would look like if you woke up.

If you stopped hitting snooze, I wonder what your marriage would look like if you stopped hitting snooze.

I wonder what your kids' faith life would look like if you stopped hitting snooze.

I wonder what your schools would look like if you stopped hitting snooze.

I wonder what your locker rooms would look like if you stopped hitting snooze.

I wonder what your parents and your siblings would look like if you stopped hitting snooze.

What would your grandkids look like if you stopped hitting snooze?

What would your neighborhood look like if you stopped hitting snooze?

What would this church look like if we stopped hitting snooze?

Would encounter weaken become a thing that's normal and not extraordinary because the power of our God and the people that he's put around us, 39,000 students within a 10-minute drive of this building.

300 is special, sure, but it's a drop in the ocean of the lostness in our city.

What would it look like if we woke up and decided to be serious about the God of the Bible and what he's calling us to do and be?

It would look like revival.

It would look like a great awakening.

Here's what I want to invite you to do.

I want you to just close your eyes so that way you can imagine what it would look like.

I want you to just close your eyes right there in your mind's eye.

So you can imagine what it would look like.

Because I think I know what it would look like.

I think I think I know what it would look like for all of us, regardless of who you are.

It would look like one of two things that I know without a shadow of a doubt are in the room right now.

First, for some of us, I think it would look like making no provision for the flesh.

You're a follower of Jesus.

You gave your life to Christ a long time ago.

You surrendered all authority, but honestly, over time you've been taking some of that authority back.

You've been living according to your own desires instead of God's design for your life.

And this morning, you need to be honest with yourself, and you need to be honest with the Lord, and you need to wake up and say, Pat, the reality is this.

I've been making provision for the flesh, and instead I need to starve it and kill it.

I need to wake up.

Is there anyone who would be so bold to raise their hand boldly right now and say, Pat, that is me.

I've been making provision for the flesh.

I see you.

Come on, men, I see you.

Yes, dads, I see you.

Moms, I see you.

Grandmas, I see you.

Listen, here's what I'm gonna let you do.

I'm gonna let you prove it to yourself and prove it to God that you're ready to wake up.

And I'm gonna tell you this: you need to come right down here to this altar and hit your knees.

You don't need to grab a staff member.

You just need to do business between you and Jesus.

If you really are serious that you're ready to wake up, then just stand up right where you are and come down to this altar and hit your knees and tell God that you're ready to stop hitting snooze and you're ready to wake up and be what he has called you to be.

Because he's ready to meet you, not with judgment, he's ready to meet you with grace.

He's ready to run towards you as you draw near to him, James 4.8 says.

He's ready to awaken in you a fire that's been burning slowly down over time.

He's ready to restore to you the joy of your salvation.

He's not gonna shame you.

The enemy is your accuser, Jesus is your advocate.

So if you need to come, you come.

Here's the second group of people in the room.

Here's what it would look like for you.

It would look like putting on Jesus.

It would look like putting on Jesus.

Pat, what does that mean?

It means surrendering your life to Christ, giving all authority of who you are to Jesus to turn from a life of sin and to put your faith and trust in Christ.

So is there anyone in the room who honestly with yourself and honestly with Jesus this morning would say, Pat, I need to wake up and I need to put on Jesus for the first time ever.

I need a relationship with my Savior.

Would you just raise your hand?

Pat, that's me.

Pat, that's me.

Boldly where you are.

I'm ready to wake up.

I see you.

Listen, if that's you, here's what I want you to do.

If you're really ready to wake up, would you just stand up and come grab one of these staff members on the side or right here in the front of the aisles?

And say, Hey, I'm I need to wake up.

I need to put on Jesus.

If that's you, you just raise your hand and say, I need Jesus.

You come and you move right now.

Here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna pray.

And as I pray, you continue to move.

We're gonna sing for just a minute.

And we're gonna respond to all that God is and all that God is doing right now in this moment.

Jesus, thank you for emptying yourself and stepping out of heaven and onto earth.

God, we receive the alarm and we are ready to wake up and to stop hitting snooze in our life.

Help us do that.

Help us have courage, help us have boldness.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

What an incredible message.

Hey, if you made a decision today to give your life to Jesus, we'd love to know about it.

We'd love to celebrate with you.

We'd even love to pray with you.

And so if you made that decision, would you text next to 55498?

And someone from our team would love to follow up with you.

In the meantime, I would love to pray with you even right now because God continues to do things in your heart through you.

And so, Jesus, we love you so much.

We say thank you for the truth of your word.

Thank you for still showing up in people's lives and still doing all what you can do.

Jesus, I pray that you continue that your hearts and your lives.

Uh, bring peace to minds.

And Jesus, once you can just do what you can do to pray.

United City family, this has been an incredible service.

It's been so fun worshiping with you.

Hey, to stay in the know on everything coming on in the life of our church.

We'd love for you to follow us on Instagram and on Facebook to stay up to date on everything happening.

And we'd love to see you either in person or online, right back here next week.

Services are at 9 30 and 11.

We hope you have a fantastic week, and we'll see you soon.