The Day Is Near

Dave Lomas (0:15)

Today, I'll be reading from Romans 13, 11 to 14 You can follow along in your Bible or on screen as I read the passage aloud for us.

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber. Because our salvation is nearer now than ever when we first believed, the night is nearly over and the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

This is the word of the Lord.

JT Thomas (1:13)

Well, good morning.

I bring you greetings from St. Louis, Missouri, which is not home for me, but it's where I live currently. Home is North Carolina. Yeah, we have any Southerners, East Coasters in the room? Okay, I see some hands going up. It's such a joy and a deep honor, a true honor to be with you this morning. My friend, Pastor Jess, and also Pastor Dave, we've dreamed for many years about, well, not many, but a little while. We've dreamed for a while about what it would look like for me to be with you on a Sunday. And Pastor Dave says, hey, we're in this series, and it'd be awesome if you could talk about something. I don't have to title it this, but it could be like, the day is near. And I'm like, well, I'm here, so the day has come. I've arrived, mama. But no, it's amazing, and that really is our focus today. And I'll go ahead and from the outset give you a disclaimer. I start here, and I start vocally here. But I am not a talker, and I'm not a teacher. I am, in fact, a preacher. So you will be preached to today. And if you miss the first sermon, I try to stay pretty conservative. I won't scare you too much. But just so you know, during the first service, I ripped my pants in front of the whole crowd. So I'm on my second pair of pants in less than two hours. So I need these to last the next couple of services. So you might get a little bit more restrained version of me, but that's just buckle up, put on your seat belts. The day is near. Somebody look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, the day is near. Now look at your other neighbor and say, neighbor. I need to hear it from your belly. Neighbor, get ready. Now put your hands together and give God a hand clap or praise.

Now what you're experiencing right now is a little bit of the tradition from the Black Missionary Baptist Church that I grew up in. And that means when we ask you a question, we expect you to talk back. Somebody say talk back. There we go. So you're gonna, if you've never been to a black church, go ahead and give your hands up.

And do this. Understanding the present time.

This is how Paul begins to instruct us, or at least where we're picking up this passage in Romans 13, and do this, understanding the present time. This is interesting because this harkens to a reality that existed in the days of King David, where David had, Saul had slain his thousands, and David slayed his tens of thousands. Saul had thousands of chariots. David had hundreds of thousands of chariots. David had slain giants as a boy. He had lived this life that was worth chronicling. So we have this book of the chronicles of the various kings and arguably the greatest king that we know in history has been King David, upon whom his throne, God, the father chose to bring forth the root of the branch of the offspring of David, which is Jesus himself, the King of Kings, comes through this Davidic line. And so his life is so storied. And one of the reasons why it's so storied is because he was surrounded by a group of commanders that are known in history as David's mighty men. And when you read about these tribes, these mighty ones who went to war with David, it's like something out of Hollywood, out of the Avengers or the X-Men. You read of these special anointings or special giftings that certain ones had, like Baniah, it says, Baniah was in a pit with a lion on a snowy day. And it's just like, oh, okay, that dude is a bad dude. You're a bad man. And then you read about others who it says killed 3,000 with the jawbone of a donkey. You're like, man, this is wild. But then you get to 1 Chronicles or 1 Chronicles 12-32, and it says about this tribe of mighty ones of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs and all their kinsmen under their command. In other words, the supernatural gifting was not x-ray vision or lasers coming from their eyes. The gifting of the tribe of Issachar that helped David win the battles and helped him rule the nation was there was a tribe of people who understood the times and knew what to do.