…Lords here amen. Excited again to open up our bibles so if you brought one with you say amen and turn it with me to 1 Thessalonians 5 this morning, 1 Thessalonians 5. If you’re visiting with us we’ve been going verse by verse through this marvelous book however we took a short break as we talked about finances. We talked about the Quest. Well today we’ll pick up in chapter 5 and talk to you on the subject Sobriety.
Now it may not be what you think this morning when I mention the word sobriety. But did you know the new testament has the word found all throughout. The term elevates a need for all genuine followers of Jesus Christ to be clear headed, to be full of all God’s truth set forth in his word. The word in the Greek emphasis’s the need to be free from the influence of intoxicants. The New Testament gives commands to us as Christians to live a life of sobriety. Now ladies and gentleman why is it that we need to live a life of sobriety? Why is it we need to be sober? Well there’s a couple major reasons in the New Testament that I have found in my study. The New Testament tells us first of all that we need to be sober because we have an enemy, we have an enemy. The Lord Jesus said to his disciple Peter in the gospel of Luke “Peter, Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat” and you’ll recall in the darkest day in the life of Jesus Christ peter was sifted, the enemy found his weak spots and peter ended up denying the Lord three times. Well thankfully the Lord Jesus Christ died, was buried and then he got up from the grave and then he ran back into peter again on purpose and he restored peter to the ministry. What’s interesting is that peter wrote a letter entitled 1 peter and I want you to listen to what he said to followers of Jesus Christ, he said this “be sober be on the alert your adversary the devil, that is Satan, prows around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Now ladies and gentleman you can know peter knew what he was talking about. He’d experienced the enemy jumping on him like a lion. So we have an enemy therefore we need to be sober, we need to be clear headed, we need to be focused on the mission that God has given us.
But did you know there is another reason we need to be sober this morning and that is because there is an ending. Peter writes again in 1 peter 4:7 “The end, I want you to listen to this, the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” Ladies and gentlemen, whether or not you believe it is not up for grabs the bible teaches that the end is near. The end is close. The end is right beside us. So the bible says that you and I as followers of Christ need to be sober and the reason we need to be sober, look at the preacher for just a minute, is so we can be involved in prayer. And we need to be praying that God in his marvelous grace would indeed show himself at Ewing Road Baptist Church to be mighty to say ‘I’m under deep conviction that the Lord God wants to use this church family this plot of land to beacon in this community. And every one of us, listen to the preacher, have to remain sober. The devil wants nothing more than to get in here and stir up junk. To mess up what God’s doing and if we’re not careful we may welcome him. So may I say this to you this morning stay sober. May I say to this preacher, my own self, stay sober. I remember the first time I ever preached on this word sober. I was a um, I believe I was 19, I was a student pastor and the Lord gave me something prayed over my life using the word sober as an acrostic quite often. Someone just, I wasn’t planning on sharing this but here’s my prayer Lord. Enable me to seek you with all of my heart. Lord help me to obtain wisdom from the word of God. Lord help me to be filled with the holy spirit. Lord help me to express humility in my life and Lord help me to resist the devil. Now I want you to look at the preacher for just a moment, some of you may think that as a pastor it would be real easy just to stay away from the enemy. I want to say something to you dear friend, I’m as susceptible to falling as anybody in this room. So I deeply need to stay sober. I deeply need to be certain that God through the power of the Holy Spirit is using the bible, listen to this, to build up a wall in my life that I can find refuge in. Safety and stay away from the enemy. So we all need to be sober. Ladies and gentlemen, Paul’s letter in chapter 5 and verse 1 through 11 doesn’t talk about the enemy just yet but he does talk this morning about the ending.
So I want us to see it together, you got your bible, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, I’m going to read through verse 11. I’m only going to preach a couple verses but well get back to the rest later. Notice what the scripture says ‘now as to the times and the epics brethren you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While their saying peace and safety, then destruction will come on them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape. But you brethren are not in darkness; y’all see that, that the day would overtake you like a thief for you are all sons of the light and sons of day.’ Oh, what an awesome song, into marvelous light I’m running. We’re not of the night, nor the darkness, verse six, so then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night but since we are of the day, let us be sober. Having put on the breast plate of faith and love and as a helmet of hope and salvation for God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation though our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that we who are awake or, so whether we are awake or asleep we will live together with him. Verse 11, and therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are also doing.
