The Sudden Awakening
Sorry I missed getting the blog out yesterday…
Yesterday morning I preached on the Sudden Awakening and Brutal Honesty.
I will share the Sudden Awakening part this morning.
Waking up can be a hard thing to do! Especially when we are in a Distant Country, amen? (See the post for 7 March 2021)
At one time, I was stationed at Fort Polk. I was working long hours but didn’t want to wait until the weekend to see my girlfriend. She introduced me to a little pill. They were pink hearts!
After almost two solid weeks of popping three to four pills every few hours I was exhausted and just couldn’t go on. I told my girlfriend how bad I was, and she said I had to “come down” so instead of spending the three-day weekend with her, I decided to “come down” at in the barracks room.
I slept for three days! Roommates got me up to go to work!
Waking up was one of the strangest feelings I have ever had. I didn’t know if I was still tired or if I was more awake than I’d ever been. I didn’t know what time it was. I didn’t know what day it was!
Listen! The longer you’ve been asleep, the more difficult waking up can be! That was true that Monday morning at Fort Polk, Louisiana!
That was an awakening moment!
If you’ve spent any time in the distant country, you know that it’s hard to wake up there. Amen?
I don’t know exactly what it is…maybe you’ve been asleep too long, maybe you just can’t hear the alarms, maybe you’ve grown so accustomed to being the only voice you listen to that you can’t hear anything else.
But a lot of times, people’s lives hit rock bottom in the distant country because it’s so hard to wake up to reality after you’ve been asleep for so long.
But maybe you do not have to hit rock bottom. If you are in the distant country right now, let me tell you that you don’t have to hit rock bottom!
Maybe God is trying to get your attention now to save you from rock bottom. But it’s hard to wake up in the distant country.
The son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son experiences this. He doesn’t wake up until he hits rock bottom. Right?
We’ve been studying this story that Jesus told, and we’ve seen this younger of two sons ask for his inheritance early, leave the safety, provision, protection, and abundance of his father’s house, squander all his wealth, and then end up broke and alone.
He leaves the father’s house for the distant country, and he ends up with nothing and no one. Rock bottom.
And if that’s not bad enough, the only job he can find is feeding pigs—and remember, this is a Jewish boy! And he’s hungry enough that Luke 15:16 tells us that he even wanted to eat the pig slop.
He’s in the distant country, and he’s hit rock bottom. But this is about to be the Aha moment. The very next verse is pivotal to this whole story. Without verse 17, there is no Aha.
Luke 15:17-19 NIV (17) "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! (18) I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. (19) I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.'
“When he came to his senses…” That is what I call A Sudden Awakening, and it’s the first ingredient of Aha.
See, Aha stories all begin about the same way—leaving the father’s house, they all progress about the same way—ending up in the distant country.
In order for Aha to happen, there has to be an awakening. Do you hear the alarm?
The Sudden Awakening doesn’t always happen at rock bottom. Sometimes it can happen earlier, if you can hear the alarm.
Maybe it's when your debit card got declined because you squandered the funds on “wild living.”
Maybe it's when you got caught doing something you shouldn’t be doing.
Maybe it's when your friends asked you why you haven’t been to church.
Maybe it's when your children ask why you missed their extra-curricular event.
Maybe it's something else that God is showing you right this very moment, the alarm he wants you to hear!
Have you walked away from the Father’s house?
Are you in a Distant Country?
It is time to hear the alarm!
God wants you to wake up, come to your senses, so he can lead you back to HIS house.
Wake up today
Comments
Great message and awesome applications ... we all have the awakening sometimes its loud blaring because we don't listen for it and some times Praise God we hear and respond when it's a soft whisper!! Enjoying these blog posts ... thank you!!
Amen Deana Connell such a powerful Bible study.
I pray we all have that AHA moment if it hasn't already happened. Sometimes we neglected to get up and go to church and spend time with the Lord. Maybe we get busy with life and neglect to spend time with family or neglect or responsibilities. Eventually our walk with the Lord is broken. The relationship with our family is strained. Our responsibilities or a mess. Every thing we do is dependent on keeping our focus where we should and trying to avoid the destructions.
Amen Tammy Van Horn amen indeed
Amen Tammy!!