We’ve GOT to stand up. Stand up church, get to your feet and let the goodness of God loose in the world around you. Rare-back and let it fly! C’mon people, stand up church, stand up in life, stand up in your businesses and let your Godly character shine; stand up in your conference meetings and BE the people the Lord has called you to be; stand up in court, stand up in school, stand up and live His Name out loud; stand up in your secret places and do the right thing ‘cause it is always the right time to do the right thing. We’ve GOT to get up off our pews, get up out of our indifferent places, get up from our leisure…put that fishin’ pole down and let’s get down to business with the Lord. Get up and move out! Put on our “git ‘er done” clothes, and move out. Stand up church, get to your feet and let the righteousness of God loose in the world around you. Let’s stop talking about the wonder working power and go out from your safe places and do the wonder working power.

There is a dark cloud on the horizon, impending darkness moving in the direction of the world and in the direction of the church. It looks like a dark sand storm engulfing everything around it. The days of trial are near to our hand, Stand up church, The night is far spent and the day is at hand, stand up church, get to your feet and walk the walk as never before. BE the people of God! Open your mouth in truth, honesty, reconciliation. Augustine said “Truth is like a lion , you don’t have to defend it; let it loose and it will defend itself.” Stand up Church, you’ve GOT to stand up! We can no longer allow ourselves to be complacent and indifferent to what’s going on within us and around us. Polish your armor, sharpen your word skills. Quit complaining about Jezebel being in your midst and simply quit holding hands with the her.

Tell the world about the justice of God, about the grace of God, testify of what you see and hear. Testify, testify, yes, testify of His goodness. Stand UP church, get to your feet, position yourselves before the Living God and be determined to dance the dance or righteousness. Get up! C’mon! Get up! Wake up, we’ve GOT to stand up!

It’s high time to wake up! Get up from you beds, stand up Church, stand up. Get to your feet and move out.

We’re make a clarion call to the people of God…. Stand Up Church! i say no more white noise living, no more non-response to encroaching evil. We MUST stand up, the Lord is with you… you can do this church. Wake up and catch His rhythm….

Nehemiah 9:5 “Stand up and bless the LORD your God Forever and ever! “Blessed be Your glorious name, Which is exalted above all blessing and praise!”

Let your true colors show…..fly your colors, wear your colors, let the world know by your love and character to whom your allegiance lays.

In Psalm 94:14-17 the word says, “ “For the LORD will not cast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance. 15  But judgment will return to righteousness, And all the upright in heart will follow it. 16  Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? 17  Unless the LORD had been my help, My soul would soon have settled in silence.” ”

“Silence is golden” is a shortened proverbial saying with an obscured origin. The first example of it is from the poet Thomas Carlyle, who translated the phrase from German 1831. His translation was, more accurately, “Speech is silver, but silence is golden”, maybe romantically stated, but it is NOT always true…. there are times, like the day we live in, where silence is NOT golden….in fact….our silence, our lack of response, our “white noise” is often taken as our being complicit with darkness and that just will not do.

In Isaiah 48:12-13i believe the Lord is speaking to us, “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called, I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Indeed My hand that has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has spread out the heavens above; When I call to them, They stand up together.”

How closely is your ear to the ground at the Lord’s feet? Is your ear even on the ground to hear His going forth? Can you hear the sizzle of the cymbals which have been struck in His presence? Can you hear the cadence of Heaven’s drum beat, or are you sitting in a pew somewhere hoping all the world’s badness will miraculously pass you by?How many of us just go home having done our due diligence of going to church and giving our tithe….we hang up our shirt in the closet, make ourselves a sandwich and sit back in our chair believing someone else will do the work? To whom do we hold an allegiance? Are we allied to the world, committed to our own comfort and money? Do we have an attitude that refuses to be inconvenienced by getting involved with what God is doing?  ….or are we committed to the values of God Himself? Stand up Church! Get to your feet and find out where God is working. Find out where the Lord is working and join Him there.

The word for “standing up” and “standing” was used extensively in the O.T., in  over 1000 times this expression is used in one capacity or another…. many times the entire nation of Israel was called to “stand before the Lord” in solemn assemblies…. the phrase “stand before Him” is an expression of dedication, allegiance, and service. Joseph stood before Pharoah, David before Saul, etc, etc and so the believer stands before the Lord in a position of obedience, respect, and readiness to serve. When at church and the music starts, do most of us even know why we stand? Is it because someone told you to? Is it blind habit, something we do because… well… it’s what we always do? Maybe it’s that we see others stand and we don’t want to be the odd one out… and if no one told you to – would you stand anyway? Why would you do that? The wise take the time to carefully consider their motivations….do you stand for righteous reasons?…..what are your reasons for standing, or not?

The whole idea of “standing up” has vision and choosing in it.To stand up means to confront fearlessly, oppose boldly, to take a stand for or against; to hold one’s ground or principles in the face of a challenge. With two eyes which connect to one brain we “see” and we choose our actions. We have the choice to sit in silence and conceal the truth of God, or we choose to stand up and reveal the truth of God –God concealed/God revealed, Deus Abscontitus/Deus Revelatus. In the action of our “standing up” there comes an enabling of the underlying power of the spiritual which is brought into the physical life. To “stand up”, from the Lord’s perspective isn’t in arrogance, but in humility, for the whole idea is to stand for something…..i’m sure you’ve heard the saying that if we don’t stand for something we’ll certainly fall for anything. Can you hear me?

Count the cost and don’t be afraid. The Lord has the cost covered….we have everything to gain in Christ, and nothing to lose. The word of the Lord in Isaiah 40:8, where it says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever,” that scripture gives us a picture that His Word is not sitting in repose or idle…. it is standing and will forever stand, it is active and ready. If His word stands, then we should also. ….and having done all, to stand, Stand therefore… Stand up Church! Get your feet underneath you and stand up

We might say to ourselves that we can be equally effective when we sit, which is quite possibly true, but standing up is a physical action, it implies a mental and spiritual action with a posture of readiness.

Look at the N.T. hero’s of faith. Were they idle, where they casual in their faith, did they lead a life of repose because “standing up” and being firm about the gospel was too scary or too inconvenient?

In Acts 2, Peter stood up with the eleven….he lifted up his voice and testified… it would also appear that the eleven were already standing…they were ready, feet planted, committed and determined.

Acts 4:14, the healed man was standing with the others.By his standing up he was making a declaration…. he took action, testifying of God’s wonder-working power and grace.

In Acts 5 the apostles were seized and thrown into common prison, but then an angel came and rocked that place….prison doors thrown open and they were brought out….then the angel delivered the word of the Lord to them saying, “”Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.”

“GO STAND” is significant. It was a posture of readiness, a position of declaration, they arose and took action. “GO STAND” was a command not to be at leisure nor to be silent or complacent, but to rise up in the power of their testimony.

Now we come to Stephen. Great day what a testimony. In Acts 6 Stephen is revealed as a man of God, full of grace, having done many signs and wonders among the people. The Pharisee’s secretly got some people to lie saying Stephen had used the Name of the Lord tritely with cursing and they stirred up the people and elders against him; they grabbed him and took him to the council for judgment. There….Stephen stood up, do you see that? He stood up, held his ground and testified. As he was standing, all witnessed a physical change in his demeanor. Acts 6:15 says they observed him to have the face of an angel – i take it that he was radiant. Acts 7 reveals that he stood up, radiant in the power of the Holy Spirit and preached quite a piercing sermon….so much so that they were all cut to the heart. Acts 7:55-56, “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56  and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

The Lord was standing, ready…..He was not sitting at rest and it is significant that the Lord was standing. In anger and rage they grabbed Stephen and stoned him, meaning they hit him with rocks breaking skin and bones until someone came with what is called “the headstone” which was the stone used to crush the head of the stoning victim.

Before he died, incredibly, he asked the Lord to not lay this sin to their charge. Stephen was no victim i’ll tell you that! How many of us would have simply been silent from the start, hoping that these accusations would just pass over us, being silent little sheep trembling in fear?

Stephen was committed to God’s values…. he stood up, firm in faith and delivered the words the Lord gave him.

Continuing on of course there was Paul who stood firm to the end. Peter and John stood up in the power of the Holy Spirit. All the apostles stood up in the Name of Jesus and are among the thousands of martyrs across history who stood firm for their faith in Christ. As they did, we must do also…. stand up church. Albert Einstein said, “The world as we know it will not be destroyed by evil,  but by those who watch without doing anything about it. ”Revelation 12:11 11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” Get to your feet and be strong, testify of God’s goodness. Be silent no longer and stand….. up!

Imagine with me for a moment …. imagine in one large picture a vision of the United States; now imagine all the churches in all the cities, towns, and communities, some large, some small, some in homes, some in huge buildings….see all the people who come in and go out again, some walking, some riding, some rich, some poor. Imagine what it would be like if the churchstood up and began to seriously stand for God’s values and the testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

How different would our nation be if we, the church stood up, spoke out, and took action….. no longer being scared little sheep who feared they might not have their comfortable life or might not be liked by others if we lived out righteous character

2 Thess2:, “ So then, brethren, be constantly standing firm and holding fast to the teachings which were delivered to you….”

The Lord establishes us, meaning He causes His ways to stand up in us, His appointments “stand up”, they are made known and declared, they endure and persist. Church…. stand up….declare your colors, whose side are you on?…. be determined to endure and persist, make His values and appointments clear to the world around you…..it is righteous.

Friends – stand up from among the dead! We are not called to pander to the world, nor are we called to live passive lives. He asked us to stand up for righteousness, truth, honor and honesty; He asked us to be lights to the world and no light is ever passive in the dark – it shines where it shines in every place it can illuminate, not in brutal attacks but in grace and love….persistent, enduring, firm,  and unwavering.

Daniel 2:44, “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”

The Lord establishes all that His Kingdom represents and it will endure and persist forever…. as will the people who occupy the Kingdom with Him. Standing up gives evidence to the validity of our testimony.. He gives us our substance that He would establish us in the face of the world and darkness

Stand up from among the dead and get to your feet. It’s time to wake up from your slumber, from your passivity, from you indifference, from your laziness that says it’s too much trouble to be involved with God. Let your hands be strong those who have been hearing and stand up in these days. Our Redeemer will “Stand Up” for His people, Zechariah8 says, “So I will save you, and you s hall be a blessing. Do not fear, Let your hands be strong.’” Amen.

The Lord says in Psalm that His throne endures forever, His throne as the days of Heaven, His Name to all generations will stand up and persist. Psalm 104:31, “May the glory of the LORD stand up forever; May the LORD rejoice in His works.”

He has put His words in our mouths and has covered us with the shadow of His hand that He would plant Heaven in us as fragrant flowers in His Name. He will call us His People!

This has been Outposts, broadcast live from the late evening banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees lean over the rivers edge and every evening in pleasant. This production has been brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

We’ve GOT to stand up. Stand up church, get to your feet and let the goodness of God loose in the world around you. Rear-back and let it fly! Stand up church, stand up in life, stand up in your businesses and let your Godly character shine; stand up in your conference meetings and BE the people the Lord has called you to be; stand up at court in truth, stand up at school in honesty, stand up and live His Name out loud; stand up in your secret places and do the right thing ‘cause it is always the right time to do the right thing. We’ve GOT to get up from our pews, get up from our indifferent places, get up from our leisure…put that fishin’ pole down and let’s get down to business with the God. Put on our “git ‘er done” clothes, and step up. Stand up church, get to your feet and let the righteousness of God loose in the world around you.

The days are upon us friends, take this seriously, please, think about it. Amen.