Stay Awake: On Mission Together in a Fainting Culture

Have you ever fainted?

I’m talking about the kind of faint that gives you a little bit of warning. It is the kind where your vision begins to darken at the extreme peripheries of your sight and, like an incoming tide slowly swallowing up a small island, engulfs your vision in utter darkness and silence.

Last year, I fainted. It was completely my fault. I had given blood earlier in the day and returned home to get the house prepared for dinner guests. I did not refuel properly and ran on an empty stomach until our guests arrived with specialty beers and hors d’oeuvres.

Now, I KNOW the warnings about giving blood: eat and drink to replenish lost blood; stay away from alcohol for 24 hours; and stay out of hot tubs for the same amount of time.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of steaks, red wine, veggies, and fellowship in Jesus and topped off the evening with a dip in the hot tub. After a while, my buddy and I stood up to cool off a bit. As he recounted a botched surgery he had recently endured, it hit me.

What I remember most is that it was a slow, enveloping darkness that crept in little by little. Fading from sharp, bright images to muffled, inky blackness. Until everything went black.

I believe that’s exactly what’s happening spiritually in our country!

We are drifting spiritually—and unless we wake up, we will stop living on mission!

Rejection of God

Our culture did not reject God with one big dismissive wave of its socially sensitive hand. It has been a slow drift. A drift away from God’s Word, and from God Himself.

It happened through compromise after compromise. Small shifts… with big consequences. God got pushed out. Truth was sidelined. And faith was minimized.

And if we’re honest, this did not just happen in “secular society,” it slipped into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and has wreaked havoc on us as well. Here’s the hard truth. This isn’t just the world’s fault. It’s our fault, too!

A Real Problem

We’ve allowed culture to silence our proclamation of the Gospel! Weaken our Biblical convictions! And distract us from our calling and commission.

Why? Because we have forgotten our first love — our Lord, Savior, Sustainer, the Lamb of God, Who humiliated Himself by becoming a human being — for us! (Matthew 22:37-40)

Let me take you back to when I first understood this personally. I will never forget the moment I understood that I didn’t have to earn God’s love—He had already demonstrated it through Christ. I am eternally grateful — and daily thank Him for — His grace, mercy, and forgiveness extended to me — not to mention His righteousness imputed to me through Christ!

We have also forgotten our first commission! It is to make disciples… baptizing them… teaching them to OBEY all that Jesus commanded us! (Matthew 28:18-20).

Jesus didn’t say “wait.” He said, “Go. Make disciples of all nations.” That includes your neighbors, your coworkers, and your friends. For those of us “older” (a very relative term), that includes people YOUNGER than you! Check out 2 Timothy 2:2 and Titus 2!

The Vision

Revelation 7:9-10 gives us the picture of the end of our lives:

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.””

An uncountable multitude… from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue… worshiping Jesus! What an amazing future that is! Countless souls standing before the throne of Christ, worshiping and praising Him! What a day that will be!

God has commanded us to love Him and to love our neighbors. And He has commissioned us to make disciples. This is how God brings that multitude to Himself — through His people.

But that future…

… depends on present obedience.

That crowd exists because someone prayed. Someone went. Someone shared. Someone made disciples.

That someone SHOULD be us. We are on mission together.

I’m here to remind you of the ministry work — if you are a born-again believer — to which you have already been called: MAKE DISCIPLES! …of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues!!!

WARNING — Living in “CONDITION YELLOW”

Are you familiar with Cooper’s Color Code of Situational Awareness? It is a simple color-coding of people's awareness of their surroundings. This isn’t just physical — it’s spiritual.

Here is a short summary of the code:

White: Unaware and Unprepared — People at this stage are generally clueless about what is going on around them.

Yellow: Relaxed Awareness — At this stage, you are keeping your eyes open to your surroundings. You are watching, looking for anything “out of sorts” in case something does go “awry.”

Orange: Specific Alert — At this point, you have noticed something that is out of place or your “spidey senses” have been activated, and you are watching someone (or people) who seem to be intent on doing something wrong, harmful, or dangerous. Your mind begins to formulate plans, options, and courses of action for yourself and others.

Red: Focused Alertness and Action — As the situation spirals out of control, you have engaged your plans and are actively moving into it with purpose, clarity, and vigor. The “orange alert” has now become an active threat, and you are acting according to your pre-decided options.

Black: Overwhelmed and Unable to Respond — This is what happens to the people in the “White” category. They are caught off-guard, panic, and usually freeze or take flight without a thought or an active mental plan in place.

Scripture warns us that difficult times will happen. Consider 1 Timothy 4:1-3, 16: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth… Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

We tend to drift from the reality of the Word of God! Truth gets distorted & compromised over time. People follow what they want (social media algorithms), and followers of Christ get lost in “pointless & silly myths.”

Paul warns us to “keep a close watch on” ourselves. “A close watch” means “to be in a continuous state of readiness to learn of any future danger, need, or error, and to respond appropriately.”

In other words, that means living in… Condition Yellow. Not paranoid. Not passive. But aware.

Are you aware of any drift in your personal walk with Jesus? Is there any area of your life where there is any compromise with the Word of God?

Are you aware of any danger in your current thinking, speech, and/or behavior? What have you allowed to take residence in your thinking, desires, and behavior that you know does not honor Christ?

Are you aware of any missed opportunities? What opportunities are you intentionally ignoring to share the truth of God’s Word with a family member, friend, classmate, or co-worker? What gospel-sharing opportunities are you not stepping into?

If we’re spiritually asleep, we won’t seek the lost. We won’t speak Biblical truth. We won’t live on mission.

Personal Responsibility

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:1-5

In this passage, Paul warns us that there is a time coming when people will not endure “sound teaching.” It can also be translated as “healthy teaching.”

In verse two of this passage, Paul uses three words that we need to consider for our lives, relationships, and ministries today. Those words are reprove, rebuke, and exhort.

Reprove means to expose, to convict. Rebuke means to “strongly disapprove,” and in 2 Timothy 3:16, it means “to straighten what is crooked” — like a leaning fence post that needs supports to stand upright. And “exhort” means “to urge” earnestly.

Because our world is not God-centric and because it does not know the truth of the Word of God, it is up to us — starting in the body of Christ, the bride of Christ — to “preach the Word” at all times, exposing the lies of the enemy, communicating strong disapproval of anything that is contrary to God, His Kingdom, and His Word, and earnestly urging and imploring people to turn to Christ for grace, mercy, forgiveness, and more!

Listen! Your pastor doesn’t know your coworkers. I don’t know your neighbors. But you do. And God placed you there on purpose — with a calling to love Him and them. And a commission to expose lies, identify that which is not of God, and urge them to turn to Him for salvation and sanctification!

So the question right now is not, “Am I called?” You ARE called. You ARE commissioned!

The question now is, “Am I obedient?” Am I going? Am I making disciples?

Call To Action

That moment when I passed out in the hot tub — everything went dark… but it happened slowly.

“I wonder how many of us have drifted — not away from God completely — but just enough to stop living on mission.”

Ladies, are you living out Titus 2:3-5? “Older women likewise are… to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children… that the word of God may not be reviled.”

Men, you are exhorted by Paul — as he exhorted Timothy — to take “…what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

There are four generations mentioned in that one verse: Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others. Into whom are you pouring your lives?

Hope + Application

You’re still here. And God is still calling.

This week, ask the Lord Jesus for one person to invest in—and one opportunity to speak truth.

Closing

Don’t wait until everything goes dark to realize that you have drifted.

Stay awake. Stay ready. Stay on mission.

Because the mission hasn’t changed — and neither has your calling!