A couple was staying at a small motel in rural Georgia. The wife woke up first and began packing, getting dressed and taking things to the car while her husband snoozed away.
“Get up,” she said. “I’m taking some things to the car and I swear if you’re not up when I get back, you’ll regret it.” As she stepped out, the husband got up.
Meanwhile, outside, the wife put her things in the car and went back to the room. Only one problem--she went to the wrong room. She opened the unlocked door to see a man snoring away. “I SAID GET UP!” she shouted. Then at once she realized that she was in the wrong room and turned around red as a beet and slammed the door.
The dazed man inside rubbed the sleep from his eyes and said, “Man, that’s what I call a wake-up service!”
Wake up calls come to each one of us at various times in our life for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they alert us that we are destroying our life through a rebellious and irresponsible lifestyle. Others alert us to destructive habits that will eventually rob us of our health. Some are calls from God to turn our life around and start living a different way.
Wake up calls come in many forms--some gradually leading up to them over a long period of time and others appear seemingly out of nowhere during a crisis in our life. It is important to listen to wake up calls.
His name was Saul although most people who know about him today know him as Paul. Something happened in his life that was life changing. It was truly a traumatic and mind blowing experience. Let me read some verses from Acts 9 that tell this story.
1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers.[a] So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Acts 9:1-6
These words give us an example of a man who had been around “religion” for a long time, yet his life had not yet been changed by the “living Christ.” Saul of Tarsus was a very “religious” man. He was a good Pharisee who knew the scriptures well. He kept the Jewish law and traditions to the letter but he sincerely believed that the new Christianity was dangerous to Judaism. He hated the Christian faith and did everything he could do to stamp it out. He persecuted believers without mercy. Not only was he out to hunt them and hurt them, but he was out to kill them. Chapter 8 tells us that he was present when Stephen was killed. Verse 1 says, “And Saul was there, giving approval to [Stephen’s] death. Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house to house, he dragged out men and women and put them into prison. 
1. A Wake Up Meeting: Sometimes the wrong road can lead to the right road.
Today’s scripture opens by saying, “1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers” It was time for a wake up call.
Saul, the hunter, was a brutal and bloody man. His goal was nothing short of the complete extermination of the Way. He was a frightening, violent enemy. He describes himself years later to King Agrippa with these words:
9 “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.[a] 10 Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers[b] there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. 11 Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus.[c] I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities.” Acts 26:9-11
He was a callous, self-righteous, bigoted murderer set on a full-scale inquisition. He was so hungry to do these evil deeds that he was making a 150 mile trip to move into a new territory. This story reminds us to never write anyone off as being beyond the grace and love of God.
Sometimes we think that some people are beyond the reach of God and that nothing can change them for the better. Sometimes we think that about ourselves as well. We say, “This is just the way I am. I have always been this way. My sins are too big for God to forgive. I came from a bad neighborhood, I came from a bad family background. I have heard the wake up call, but nothing is going to change.”
We often are like Saul in many ways--maybe we do not do such drastic things as he did to harm Christians but we also too often make up our own rules and justify ourselves in our sins. We say, “I don’t see why I have to go to church, I don’t see why I have to receive Jesus as my Savior, I don’t even need a Savior. I can save myself. I live as good a life as “so called Christians.”
Saul did the very same thing--he justified his actions and in his mind he was doing what he thought pleased God. He was getting it completely wrong. He put the blame on others.
Are we living the same way? We make up our own rules and blame others when things don’t work out right for us. But it only leads us on a downward spiral farther and farther away from God? Was there hope for Saul of Tarsus? Many would have written him and off and said, “No way can he change. He’s been this way too long.”
John Wesley speaks of the “prevenient grace of God” that goes before us from the time of infant baptism that seeks to draw us to know God long before we even realize it. The Holy Spirit begins to open our eyes and draw us to become receptive to spiritual things. Sometimes years go by and then it happens. Although Saul seemed to be immune to the good news and self satisfied in his own way of thinking, God broke into his life and stopped him right in his tracks.
He is able to break into our lives whenever and wherever we are as well. How did the Lord first get your attention? What kind of a wake up call or meeting does He need to use to get your attention? 
2. A Wake-up Message: Sometimes we can be passionate about the wrong things.
3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
It is interesting that sometimes while on the wrong road it leads to the right road. Saul was full of passion for what he did yet the work of God was subtle and profound in his life. We know that in Acts 26, Paul quotes God as saying something that doesn’t make it into our text today.
“14 We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[d] ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.[e]’”
Some translations have included a phrase that says, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Goad were sharp sticks that would be place strategically behind the animal pulling a cart so that if the animal tried to back up and not pull it would be prompted to go forward by the sharp points.
God had placed these in Saul’s life. On the day of Stephen’s death, those who stoned him laid their coats at the feet of Saul. Saul heard Stephen’s last prayer asking God to forgive his murderers.
That day while Saul was on his way to hunt down the believers, he, himself, was arrested by the very presence of God. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground struck by a sense of his unworthiness.
From his religious training, he knew that a light and a voice signified divine presence He didn’t know WHO was speaking to him although the term Lord was meant as a term of respect. The voice repeated his name twice--”Saul, Saul”--signifies that he should listen. At that time it was common for a person to be addressed by the repetition of his name. It was an important message that he should be alert to. It was his wake call that day.
The Message Bible says it this way, “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?”
Saul answers and asks, “Who are you? Who’s talking to me?”
“I am Jesus the one you’re hunting down” (Message).
No doubt he thought, “how could that be? I’m defending God’s laws and God should be pleased. I’m doing everything I know to do to please God.”
Jesus said, “I am alive and associated with God the Father whom Israel worships.” If this were true then Saul had to revise his thinking. Jesus was not an impostor but he really did fulfill prophecy. Jesus’ resurrection confirmed Him as the nation’s Messiah and Lord.
Does he believe it or not? Here he had been persecuting the risen Christ himself. Does he ignore the wake up call? Or does he take heed to it? What would you have done? Saul was on a mission for God. Now, his plans have been dashed to pieces by this new information.
Kent Hughes writes, At least two things burst on Saul’s conscience. First, Jesus Christ was alive! Verse 17 indicates that Saul actually saw Christ. Later he would present this vision as part of his apostolic credentials. Second, Saul now knew he was not merely attacking those belonging to the Way – he was persecuting Christ.”
This was terrible and wonderful news at the same time.
What do you do about changes to your plans? Do you resent God messing up your plans? How do you handle your wake up calls? Some people drown them out by alcohol and drug abuse, some people drown them out by packing their days and nights with busyness so there is no way to respond. They can’t pack in another thing into their schedules. Their response is often I can’t hear you Lord. I’m too busy, too confused, too out of it. I have a message for you today. God is pursuing you. He wants you to allow Him to turn your life around for the better. There will be a reason. There is always a reason.
There are two great days in a person’s life -- the day we are born and the day we discover why. 
3. A Wake-Up Mission: Sometimes there are more important things we should be doing with our lives.
That day Saul listened to the wake up call. He was wide awake. There was no dozing or hitting the snooze button of life. By the way, do you feel like you have been hitting snooze button of life? Do you ever feel like you put off everything till tomorrow but tomorrow never seems to come? 5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
A computer tech support person was talking on the phone to a long haul truck driver. While waiting for his computer to reboot, the man told the tech support person he had been driving for 25 years. The tech support person said, “I’d love to drive a big rig, but I’d worry about falling asleep at the wheel.”
“Here’s a tip to stay awake,” the driver responded. “Put a $100.00 bill in your left hand and hold it out the window.”
Saul was stopped in his tracks for a reason. He was being called by Jesus Himself to take the message to the Gentiles. God had a mission just like he has a mission for everyone in this room. There are people that your life is influencing right now. Today you will have an influence on others and I ask you is that going to be a godly, positive one or will it be a negative and ungodly influence?
This story fills up the first 18 verses of Acts 9. It is a beautiful story of an awakening that literally changed the world. One man, accosted by God, decided to give God a chance and his life became an adventure and more fulfilling then he could have ever imagined. This same man named Saul became the Apostle Paul and authored at least 12 books of the New Testament!
After waiting on God the writer of Acts includes these words in verses 20-22:
“At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests? Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.”
Saul could have rejected the wake up call. But he wasn’t going to. We have been given the choice too. Do we go God’s way or do we say, “No, I have my own plans.” What happens when we go our own selfish way?
Scripture says in Proverbs 13:15, “the way of transgressors is hard.”
But when we listen to God’s wake up call and do what He asking us to do, we find out that His way is far better than our own.
Isaiah 55:8, 9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Waking up to your wake up Call. What does it mean for you today? Are you still pressing the Snooze Alarm? Have you ignored it completely or have you responded to what God is trying to say to you today?
The fact of the matter is this Easter weekend that God is pursuing you. Francis Thompson who lived mostly in the late 1800’s wrote the 182 line poem entitled The Hound of Heaven. This poem lays out God’s pursuit of Thompson during his drug addicted life. It has been the source of other great writing and art as well for the last 120 years.
The Hound of Heaven: (Here are a few lines)
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
I prefer to end today with a story line from a classic 1932 black and white film entitled The Most Dangerous Game. In this Richard Connell story, Rainsford, one of the world’s most celebrated big-game hunters. Rainsford accidentally falls from his speeding yacht at night while en route to a hunting expedition along the coast of South America. He is a strong swimmer and manages to beach himself on a foreboding island. Rainsford knows the island is inhabited because he has heard shots during the night. To his complete amazement he finds a palatial chateau inhabited by a Russian nobleman, General Zaroff, and his servant. The general recognizes his visitor’s name and welcomes him warmly because he too is a big game hunter. Rainsford is pleased with his good fortune until the formal dinner that evening when during the conversation the general announces that he is hunting a “new animal” on the island.
When Rainsford inquires as to the identity of the “new animal,” the general answers, “It supplies me with the most exciting hunting in the world. No other hunting compares with it for an instant. Every day I hunt, and I never grow bored now. For I have a quarry with which I can match my wits.”
When Rainsford’s face shows great bewilderment, the general explains, “I wanted the ideal animal to hunt. So I said: ‘What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?’ And the answer was, of course, ‘It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason.’”
“But no animal can reason,” Rainsford protests. “My dear fellow,” the general responds, “there is one that can.” “But you cannot mean, --“ Rainsford protests. “And why not?” I cannot believe you are serious, General Zaroff. This is a grisly joke.” “Why should I not be serious? I am speaking of hunting.” To his growing horror, Sanger Rainsford, the great hunter, learns that he is Zaroff’s intended game. The hunter has become the hunted.
You and I spend our whole lives hunting things that will satisfy our deepest longings. We will go to great lengths and even do foolish things to satisfy something inside of us that never seems to get satisfied. And then there is God. Ever pursuing and ever longing for you and I to return His love. He hunts us. He places circumstances in our lives that should turn us toward Himself. He calls us and urges us to be awake, to wake up from the deep sleep of self indulgence and self destruction.
In this story today of a man named Saul, God hunted him down. Saul was a pursuer of men but the pursuer became the prey. Saul, a fierce persecutor of the church of Christ, discovered first to his horror and then to his eternal delight that he, the hunter, was also the hunted. It is our story. It is the story of a God that never gives up on trying to call you to His way. A bar of steel worth $5, when made into ordinary horseshoes, is then worth $10. If this same $5 bar is manufactured into needles, the value rises to $350. And yet if it’s made into delicate springs for expensive watches, it is worth more than $250,000. The same bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its’ proper size, passed through one blast furnace after another, again and again, hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded, finished and polished until it’s ready for those delicate tasks.
I think today that I could be talking to some people in this room that are tired of running. Tired of trying to run your life your own way. I wonder who God is speaking to even now and you are wondering what in the world is wrong with you. Yet down deep in your soul you know that God is watching and waiting and wanting to help you. Listen to these words.
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the LORD. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” Jeremiah 29:11-14
This is Easter weekend and do you want to see one last example of the power of Christ’s resurrection? We find it in Matthew 27:50-53:
50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
The power of God was so great that it shook the dead awake when Jesus died. Maybe you’ve been sleeping. Maybe you have been snoozing your way through life but today you know that God is calling you to wake up. Shake yourself awake and let the power of God change you today. Let Him give you a new mission for the rest of your days on this earth.
Send Out:
God has done too much for us to allow ourselves to sleep our lives away. Let’s go out today and fully wake up to all that He is calling us to do and to be for Him. Through the power of His death and resurrection, He will give you great things to do in all your waking moments. Thanks for coming.