PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you. 

Jesus, We belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Romans 13:11–14 (NIV)

On my phone, and probably yours too, among a thousand and one other features, there is an alarm clock. When the alarm goes off, a screen appears with several bits of information. At the top is the date. Below that is the time. Further down is the word “Alarm.” At the very bottom is a small greyish button with the word “Stop.” But just beneath the word “Alarm” and well above the button that says “Stop” is a large, oval-shaped, bright orange button. You know what it says: 

SNOOZE.

Pushing that button gets you nine more minutes of slumber. Why nine minutes? The reason dates back to the early digital alarm clocks, but sleep science offers a deeper logic. Somewhere between nine and twelve minutes our bodies begin the shift into a deep sleep cycle again. Nine minutes is the magic number of minutes to keep you from either really waking up or really going back to sleep. I read a study once saying every time one hits the snooze bar they forfeit 10 percent of their energy for the day. (And I hear some of you doing the math out there with sighs of new understanding as to why you feel so sluggish today). 

As Paul begins to make the turn into the final stretch run of Romans he begins to fire warning shots to the fledgling church in Rome. Today’s text is a canon ball shot over the bow. 

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber,

Of course, this is beautifully reminiscent of one of our other favorite words from Paul, which even in those early decades had already become a saying across the church:

This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
      rise from the dead,
      and Christ will shine on you.” (Eph. 5:14)

You see, Paul is not writing these things to the unbelieving world with its unknowing pagans. Paul is writing to the followers of Jesus. He is talking to awakened believers who have drifted into the nether land between sleep and wakefulness. He is talking to the multitudes of us who have developed a bad habit of the snooze bar. 

The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.

The night has been defeated and yet the darkness lingers as we await the dawn. It’s why Paul doesn’t say, “get out of bed,” but rather “rise from the dead.” The ancient grip of death has been broken and yet the human spirit is weak and often reticent to respond. The grave clothes of death—into which we are born—must be stripped away. Early “belief” must be met with patterned “beholding” if we are to move into the territory of real “becoming.” The “patterns of this world” do not let go easily. To “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” takes more than just setting an alarm clock paired with good intentions. 

Some years ago I picked up a collection of poems by Tom Hennen based on the title alone: “Darkness Sticks to Everything.” Darkness, like death, has been destroyed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and yet it is true—darkness still sticks to everything. Hear Paul out:

So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Paul knows this is not some kind of battle to live by better principles. He knows there is an absolute war on the soul raging all around us. He knows we will need a different kind of armor altogether—the armor of light. Wow! What a picture!

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 

He knows this is not going to be solved by trying harder to be better. He is not advocating for a life filled with better principles and platitudes. This is not a “principled life” Jesus is after, trying to make more ethical people. It turns out, those are the worst snooze-bar offenders of all; deceiving themselves by their principles while hiding behind their self-interested self-righteous image management.

The “principled life” is a way of life that parades as light but remains deceptively cloaked in darkness. I know that stings for some of you. You will thank me later. Abandon the pretense of a “principled life” with all its reasonable respectability. You were an abject, brazen, sinner not so long ago. You are slowly slipping back into the wiles of sin. Stop deceiving yourselves with a religion-wrapped life. Your principles, even godly religious ones, will not save you. They are powerless against the wiles of sins. Here is the remedy:

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ,

Throw away the entire wardrobe of image management. Put on the identity of Jesus Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The armor of light is the indwelling Jesus Christ, who wears the vestments of holy love, donning them in the deepest places of our inmost selves and lives. Religious principles may produce a semblance of a righteous life. Only Jesus produces the radiance we long for. The way is consecration, transformation, and demonstration. 

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you! 

And can we commit to each other—no more snooze bar?

THE PRAYER

Abba Father! We don’t know what we don’t know, especially about ourselves. And that we think we are on the right path does not mean we are on the right path. We are so prone; nay I am so prone to hit the snooze bar in my life with Jesus. I so slowly and seductively forget just how desperate I am for his presence in my life. Train me in what it means to “clothe myself with the Lord Jesus Christ.” I want this wardrobe, recognizing these are not outer garments nor shiny regalia but the inner vestments of holy love. Have mercy on me a sinner becoming a saint. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen. 

THE QUESTION

Do you see your own propensity to hit the snooze bar on your life and faith in Jesus? Will you pray for the Holy Spirit to pierce the veil of any self-deception that is in you? Are you willing to become brazenly honest about what he shows you? 

THE HYMN

It’s Friday, so we will sing a chorus you likely know by heart, “There is a Redeemer.” It is hymn 30 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

P.S. Order your Wake-Up Call Journal for the Upcoming Acts Series NOW

We begin the next Wake-Up Call series on Monday, August 14. This journal is all about digging the well deeper into the Word of God by the Spirit of God in fellowship with many others taking the same journey. Order now so it will be delivered in time for the first pitch. If you are a preacher and would like to preach alongside this next series we would love to welcome you into our weekly sermon preparation fellowship. Let me hear from you at this link and I’ll be in touch with details. It’s a game-changer. 

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