ICS Daily Devotions
Stay Awake
Matt 25:3-6,13. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’… “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Both the wise and foolish virgins slumbered and slept while waiting for the bridegroom. The church can be offering its services to the congregation, but we can be “asleep” because we have slackened in our walk, thus going just through the motion of doing a service. A church can go through the services in its form but without life. A church can lose her passion for the Lord and not seek out the unique call of the local church, especially to the local community and overseas mission. A church can be sleeping, and we would not know if we are deep asleep until the midnight cry!
We have learned from the Book of Revelations that we must not lose our first love, must not be lukewarm, must not compromise our faith, must not have a dead faith but be the faithful church though we might face persecution. We will not know the exact time when Jesus will return again. The message for us is to be ready when he returns.
Jesus’ last command must be the church’s first concern. Jesus’ last command was the Great Commission when He sent forth the disciples to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth. God’s heart is always for the lost. But it does not mean that He does not care for those who are already in His sheepfold. He expects those who are in His sheepfold to be well fed and cared for by the pastor.
Therefore, the church being a mission strategy center must always have it very clear in their heart regarding what God has entrusted us to do while discipling and equipping the saints at the same time. We need to reach out as we are being fed so that we will not become mere consumers of Christianity.
God implements His strategy and activity through every church He establishes, empowers, and guides to go into the entire world.
Acts 1:8 (NKJV) But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Every believer on the day of Pentecost was filled with the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit empowers us, every believer can do something for the Lord. We can be bold in preaching the gospel, we can minister to both believers and unbelievers to demonstrate the love of Christ that He entrusted us with.
We are witnesses to the world when we love one another and work well with one another to glorify the name of the Lord. We have been entrusted with the word and ministry of reconciliation to the lost. We must stay awake in the Spirit to fulfil this task of the Great Commission.
Sermon series: Our Church Experiencing God Together (CG Campaign 4)
