“Wake Up Church”

By: Winston Vincent Yap

Key Text

1 Thessalonians 5:1-7, 12-15

1 But as to the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

3 For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that Day should overtake you as a thief.

5 Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.

7 For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunken are drunken in the night.

¹² And we beseech you, brethren, that you come to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,¹³ and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.¹⁴ Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.¹⁵ See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and with all men.

 

We can’t deny that we are living in the last days, whether you believe it or not. The world is not the same like it used to be. We humans have corrupted the earth, we have corrupted God’s laws, and yet some of us are still asleep. I mean look at the world, the great changes that the devil have made. He changed the laws of God by introducing strange doctrine thru his deceiving power.

1. Signs of the last days

 

Back in 2012 we heard the rumors of the end of the world because the Mayan calendar will end.

• Yolanda
• the strangest pope
• LGBT RISE
• the blood moon
• ISIS
• Maute group in Marawi
• President Duterte
• Donald Trump
• Putin,
• Animals are getting extinct
• 70th jubilee year

 

KI expressed that there will be a great revival in the church, a great ecclesia is about to come next yr. when it is the 70th yr of Billy graham.

 

 

And I am here to tell you that that day is near some of us would ask how will the Christians do in that day?

 

– It would get harder and harder

 

Like the days of Jesus and like the days of the book of Acts

 

Why? Even in our present time… when a man announces he/she is a LGBT the world would say “so brave”

 

When a man says he’s a Christian

Isis are beheading Christians

We are in last days believe it or not my friends

 

Back in the day there was only 1 mall that is dominant, Gaisano city

Believe it or not in America today mall are closing down and they predicted that 50% of the mall in America will close in 10yrs time. Why? Internet.

Back in the day I would purchase stuffs from ebay and I love it, and today we see such huge markets in the internet amazon, alibaba, lazada, zalora, titan22

 

All these are changing the way we live, and you know amazon is currently trying to change how we do our groceries. They said no lines, no checkout, only an account

 

It will pave the way for the mark of the beast 666

 

Even in our phones today are of great need we even have an iris scanner to open some of our phones

 

• Phones today are of great need

 

Recently a pastor was talking to his colleagues and suddenly the iphone talked back to him.

SIRI…  without him saying hi Siri

 

Now think about what would be the future 5yrs after, just 5yrs after some of you will say wow great technology is ahead of us, some of us just wants to get out of here

 

But believe it or not before all these things will come to pass, the great revival will take place, the greatest move of the Holy Spirit since Adam

 

It will be a battle of light against darkness. It will be the kind of battle like of John the Baptist vs the pharisees

Jesus against the Pharisees

Apostle against the religion leaders

 

What kind of battle? Words

 

Did u know trump was cursed by witches

• He is fighting for righteousness
• Trump is being backed up by the Christians

 

Pick your side

How would we escape it? How did they prevail?

– In the secret place, Jesus was always praying, apostles were always praying

 

2. Sleeping/Busybodies Christians

 

2thess 3:6-15

⁶ Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother who walketh disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.⁷ For you yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we did not behave disorderly among you.

 

¹¹ For we hear that there are some among you who walk disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.¹² Now those who are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that they work with quietness and eat their own bread.¹³ But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing.¹⁴ And if any man obey not our word in this epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.¹⁵ Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

 

Busy bodied Christians

 

Now I have a problem with busy bodied Christians, and it is getting rampant in the churches around the world conference after conference, they treat worship as though it is a concert. Churches shot by a gunman, churches that have no power, no discernment, no Word. Christians who listen to Worldly music, Christians who fornicate, Christians who live by the worlds standards… these Christians won’t make it.

How will you make it if you don’t pray, you don’t do your devo, you don’t seek God. They seek that anime every week, they seek that Teleserye every night. That new fashion that new shoes, that new restaurant, that upcoming concert of the 1 direction Justin Bieber.

 

 

There’s this one Christian who used to attend this church and is now working overseas. Every time he comes back here he’ll message me “when are we going to play basketball?” there was one time I was fed up I didn’t replied at him.

 

Christians who do sexy pics?

Every Sunday I would go out with my friends, there was one time that all we talked about is issues in the church.

 

I mean what? Christians back biting against one another

 

There was leader who starred at me as if this leader had demon oppressing him/her, you know after the stare, I dint know what I felt, I was trying to explain to myself what I felt… and after a couple of minutes I knew what I felt, I felt troubled…

 

I have so many stories to tell you, helper of Eunice

Food stealing

 

If we can’t stop or control our old habits, why then we call ourselves Christians?

All things are new the old is gone the new has come

 

I don’t judge a leader by his speaking in tongues or his gifts

I judge them how he treats people and specially leaders

 

Can stop our old habits? Just stop it

 

Personal testimonies

 

In the past issued to have a porn collection. At around 100Gb and my friends would copy videos from me, some would come to my house for that. I still know them 🙂 I even gave some to my head in where I am doing my OJT, he gave me a decent score. And guess what I deleted all of them you talk about a collection.

 

I used to play that Pokemon cards, magic the gathering cards. I have a great amount of collection, maybe worth 50k to 100k, guess what happened I burned them all

 

 

You talk about repentance. Listen, when I received JESUS in my life I was willing to leave it all and that is why I have trouble understanding Christians especially leaders who are behaving like devil

 

When I first started my Christian walk, I used to look up some of the leaders in the church, to me being a leader in the church is such a high honor. And as I faithfully attend the church I notice some of their traits, their gossips their habit and I said to myself hey!!! It’s like my worldly friends in school just with a JESUS attached to their name.

 

You know what I believe, I was not first choice to become a primary at that time. Because there were so many leaders to choose from there was this career centered guy and there was this conceited guy. I was chosen not because I was very capable,

I was chosen because there were leaders who didn’t fulfill their role or were too busy with their career, and came in hungry

 

And please leaders of the church I beg of you I see your Facebook, some of your Facebook account doesn’t look like a Christians account

 

Sometimes when a new member would see you, they don’t see you as leaders of the church they see you like the world, there’s no countenance of God in your life

 

So much strife, so much self-centeredness in the past I don’t usually unfollow friends in Facebook, and now I unfollow friends and most of them are Christians

 

The first unfollow I made was with the members of our region who left our church, you know the worship leaders, the couples. Because they were always bragging in Facebook about how revived are they are in their new church how the Holy Ghost is moving in their church.

 

Now I have a problem members in this church liking their post.

 

The Devils Plan

 

And this happened recently, the role of women in the last days.

Social media

 

 

3. Fake Christians

 

2 Timothy 3

3 This know also: that in the last days perilous times shall come.² For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,³ without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, without selfcontrol, fierce, despisers of those who are good,⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,⁵ having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From such turn away.⁶ For of this sort are those who creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,⁷ ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

NIV V6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

 

In today’s society you won’t know the Christians from the fake ones.

Even I was deceived by them, I never knew that there’s such thing as oneness Pentecostal church.

 

And today if u say you’re a Christian to me I would surely try you at first because there are many wolves in the body of Christ in these last days

 

Last month we went with a friend of ours who flew from the states with her boyfriend.

And I was shocked and happy at the same time when he said he was a Christian leader such a prominent church in manila. After I saw his profile in fb. Abs, drinking tattoos, what?

Titus 1:1616 They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

 

I thank God of the gift of discernment in my life because it is such a vital part in today’s Christian life

 

In the 90s when I was a kid I used to listen Christian songs in cassette tapes, in those times you can literally pick any cassette and it would be an anointed song.

 

In today’s time after you listen to some Christian songs, who knows what you’ll get, a demon? You go to a worship concert, who knows what you’ll get?

 

We attended a bethel concert last time in manila, in front of me was a gay Christian. And one of the worship leader has a demon bothering her, how do I know?  Every she sings the flow of God would stop. And everytime her partner would sing a flow of God would start again…

 

Now in the last days the women in the church will have a vital role, and that is support and abstain from the hype of the world

 

⁶ For of this sort are those who creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,⁷ ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

NIV

V6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

 

Let’s face it eve was tempted first. The role of the men in the last days is to be grounded in the word. To stand firm in the faith.  If Adam stand firm in the faith he would not have listened to eve

 

4. People in the last days

 

1 Timothy 4

4 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron,3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving;5 for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of good doctrine unto which thou hast attained.7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

 

Generation of vipers – Liars

 

Matthew 12:34

³⁴ “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

 

Evil and adulterous generation – always seeks a sign and is oppress or possess with evil spirit

Matthew 12:39-45

³⁹ But He answered and said unto them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.⁴¹ The men of Nineveh shall rise in the Judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.⁴² The queen of the south shall rise up in the Judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.⁴³ “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.⁴⁴ Then he saith, ‘I will return into my house from whence I came out.’ And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.⁴⁵ Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”

 

 

Faithless and Perverse Generation – don’t pray and fast

Matthew 17:17

¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to Me.”

 

 

Seducing spirits – evil and adulterous generation

Doctrine of devils (don’t pray) – faithless and perverse

Lies in hypocrisy – vipers

Conscience seared with a hot iron (snakes has no conscience) – vipers

Forbidding to marry – adulterous generation

Abstain from meats(substitutes fasting) – faithless and perverse

 

We need the:

Truth preachers

Prayer and fasting

Miracle signs and wonders

 

Kristi Burton Brown is a pro-life attorney, volunteering for Life Legal Defense Foundation and also as an allied attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom.

It can be disappointing to hang out with modern Christians today. For all the emphasis on love, grace, and happiness, we seem to have forgotten that sin is real.

Sin doesn’t change because our culture changes. Sin doesn’t change because our friends do it or because we struggle with it. Sin is always sin, and it’s really that simple.

• Having sex before marriage is a sin.

• A gay sexual relationship is a sin.

• Refusing to work on your marriage, simply because you “aren’t compatible anymore” is a sin.

• Looking at porn or having lustful thoughts is a sin.

• Getting drunk is a sin.

Modern Christians don’t seem to have trouble calling gossip or pride a sin. We don’t seem to worry about calling out the “unfriendly” Christian or the conservative Christian who may have a few legalistic standards.

But when it comes to serious sin that’s directly called out in the Bible, we’d rather avoid it and talk about grace. About everyone’s right to make their own decisions. About everyone’s ability to do what they want. Yet there’s something seriously wrong when Christians advocate for people living their lives how they want.

“Sure,” they say, “I might not live that way, but who am I to tell them what to do?”

Who are you? You’re the salt and light of the world. You’re the body – and yes, this includes the mouth – of Christ. If you’re talking about a fellow Christian in sin, you’re iron that sharpens iron. You’re a friend who’s willing to wound instead of giving the kisses an enemy would give.

We modern American Christians need to stop worrying about stepping on toes. Of course our words ought to be seasoned with salt; we must be both wise and gentle. But no part of mercy and grace negates our duty to speak the truth.

If we modern Christians truly care about our neighbors, our friends, and our families, we will start speaking up with truth on our lips. We will recognize that grace can only be explained alongside a realization of sin. Without sin, what is grace? And why does anyone need it?

When we dumb down sin, pretending it’s just another valid choice; we lead those we love down a dangerous path of destruction. If we want Christ for those we love, we must first help them see sin for what it truly is.

8-13-2017