Awake From Your Slumber

The consequences of your spiritual neglect will not be contained in your own life; the seeds will spread and affect those around you. God has placed you in a position to have an impact on others. Your neglect will have a negative impact on your family, your friends, your neighbors and co-workers.

C.H Spurgeon said "If we are not blessing our neighbors by the lives we live, we are an injury and an evil to them."

- I would also like for you to understand that:

C) SPIRITUAL NEGLECT AFFECTS YOUR PROFITABILITY

The vineyard and fields should have supplied this man with food and drink that would sustain him and his family. They would have also provided necessary income to support them throughout the year. But the fields were empty, the ground was fallow, and the vines were bare.

Jesus did not simply call us to "bear fruit". He said that the "Father is glorified when we BEAR MUCH FRUIT!". (John 15:8). For this reason it is imperative that you look at your life, examine the fields, and assess the vineyard. If your life is not bearing fruit then you are suffering from the crisis of spiritual neglect!

- Spiritual neglect affects your Productivity, your Peers, your Profitability and last of all we see that:

D) SPIRITUAL NEGLECT AFFECTS YOUR PROTECTION

At some point this man erected a wall to protect the harvest, but he has been idle for so long that the wall is crumbling. A devoted Christian will build walls in his/her life. These walls indicate boundaries that are not to be crossed. These walls also protect us from harm and danger. When we neglect to maintain those walls, we lose sight of the boundaries, our work is subject to an attack from the enemy, and our fruitfulness is at stake.

Would you admit that there are some crumbling walls in your life? If so, they are broken down and crumbling because you are asleep spiritually. Seeds of wickedness and sin now consume your life, harmful nettles have overtaken your field, and whether you know it or not, your adversary is plotting and attack.

Tragically, the wall that should protect you from the impending danger is crumbling. Spiritual poverty is on its way and for some it is already at the door. You have neglected the fields and the vineyards, the walls are broken down, the time for sowing has past, it is harvest time and you will soon reap a bitter crop.

There is a great danger in spiritual neglect, but there is also a solution for this negligence. I would like to conclude by examining:

IV. THE CURE FOR SPIRITUAL NEGLECT

The owner of this vineyard valued sleep over labor. His only hope of reclaiming his property was to awake from his slumber! My friend, that is the only thing that will prevent you from encountering spiritual poverty. It is imperative that you awake from your slumber!

The Christian life is an active life, it is a life of service, it is a life that requires attentiveness, alertness & labor. But some of you have gone to sleep! Your work for the Lord is idle, your support for the church is waning, your love for others has grown cold, your heart has grown hard, your Christian progress is stagnant, your adversary is planning an attack, and you are sleeping thorough it all.