FOCUS

Complete the sentence: Waking up from sleep _____________________________________________________________________________
Discuss some of the strategies we use to help ourselves wake up. Which is your favorite?

AIM
1. That we more openly admit our most dangerous sleep: our ignorance of and indifference to our duties toward God and our fellow human beings.
2. That we daily dress ourselves in our baptism, by faith putting on our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can successfully resist the temptations of our old lazy self and instead walk in love, in the light of God's new, eternal day.


DISCOVER
1. Read Romans 13:8-10. How might we title this paragraph?
2. In what sense are we always "in debt" to God and to those around us? Verse 8
3. How does Paul's instruction to "owe no one anything" inform us when we are paying taxes, or paying back a loan to buy a house? See also Romans 13:7.
4. Why does love not stop with paying just what is due? John 13:34-35
5. Explain why love is the fulfilling of the Law of God. Compare John 14:15 as well as Romans 13:8b.
6. "Love, generated by faith in Christ Jesus and rooted in God's mercy, does not act in ways which the Law must condemn." ___Agree ___Disagree
Review Verse 10 Give examples of how this love works.

1. Read Romans 13:11-14 Underline two of the most significant words or phrases in this paragraph. Explain your choices.
2. What's the "time" to which the apostle Paul refers in verse 11? See also Romans 3:21-26
3. What's the "sleep" (verse 11) from which we are to wake up? Compare 1 Corinthians 15:34; Ephesians 5:6-14; ! Thessalonians 5:5-11
4. Why is salvation (verse 11) nearer now than when we first were brought to faith by the Holy Spirit? See Luke 21:25-28
5. How late into the "night" are we living? How quickly is the "day" coming? Verse 12
6. How do we "cast off the works of darkness" and "put on the armor of light?" Verse 12 See Colossians 3:5-8; Ephesians 6:11-17
7. Describe our "proper walk." Verse 13 See 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
8. How will any of us ever be able to resist the selfish desires and drives of the persistent, old night-time person within us and to walk properly before our Lord and one another as a new day-time person? Verse 14 Compare Galatians 3:27
9. What did that Bible teacher mean who said that because our Lord Jesus will return soon God is calling us to "wake up" and "clean up" and "grow up?" How do those words summarize this paragraph?


BELIEVE AND DO
1. Write out and then pray each day for the next seven days: A. Your confession of the sin of spiritual ignorance and indifference to your duties to God and your fellow human beings, and B. Your petition for a growing faith which puts on Christ and lives more lovingly in His light.
2. Plan and put into practice at least one new pattern for talking and behaving when you are in the presence of a person who is not yet a Christian.
3. Develop a spiritual strategy which involves you daily in these three steps: "Wake up!" and "Clean Up!" and "Grow Up!"


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