God Works The Night Shift

GOD WORKS THE NIGHT SHIFT

Ps. 121:3-4

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: MISSING THE POINT

1. A honeymooning couple was passing through Louisiana.

2. As they approached Lafayette, they started arguing about the pronunciation of the town’s name. They argued back and forth until they reached town, where they decided to stop for lunch.

3. As they stood at the counter, the man said, “Before we order, could you please settle and argument for us? Would you very slowly pronounce where we are?”

4. The guy behind the counter leaned over and said, “Burrrrrrr gerrrrrr Kiiiing!”

B. TEXT

Psalm 121:3-4, “He will not let your foot slip— He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

C. THESIS

1. Have you noticed how problems always seem bigger in the middle of the night? They can overwhelm us. They can rob us of sleep and steal our peace.

2. In the middle of the night, when we can’t figure out what to do, we need to remember that God works the night shift. He’s up all night anyway, why not cast our cares on Him?

3. Title: “God Works the Nightshift.”

I. DIFFICULTIES OF THE NIGHT SHIFT

A. PROBLEMS OF WORKING THE NIGHT SHIFT

Q- Have you ever worked the night shift? Getting used to the schedule isn’t much fun.

1. It means eating supper and going to bed when everybody else is eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. Days and nights are reversed.

2. It means sleeping when others are awake, working when others are playing, watching the moon instead of the sun, working in the dark instead of the day.

3. It’s different. Not everybody can take it. Too lonely, too dark, too much of a difficult thing.

B. WHO HAS TO WORK THE NIGHT SHIFTS?

1. Yet life would be much more difficult for everyone if it were not for those who work the night shift—the policeman who patrols the warehouses and dark streets from midnight to dawn, the nurse who makes her lonely rounds at the hospital.

2. Then there’s the stockers who stock the shelves of grocery stores, the taxi driver who’s there to meet the 3 a.m. flight, as well as the pilot who stayed awake while his passengers slept.

3. And don’t forget about the firemen, prison guards, utility workers, our military personnel, etc.

C. THE NIGHT SHIFT INTENSIFIES THINGS

1. Some love the night shift; others hate it. I know one thing: the darkness of the night shift seems to intensify everything.

2. It’s darker, it’s quieter, it’s lonelier, it’s longer. Sixty minutes can seem as long as an entire afternoon with daylight.

3. During the night shift everything is intensified including sounds: the creak of the floor, the noise of the refrigerator, the ticking of the clock, even the whisper of voices or sounds penetrating the darkness.

II. BUT THE DARKNESS HAS ITS UPSIDE

A. IN THE DARKNESS, WE CAN HEAR GOD BETTER

1. Question: Does God work the night shift? You bet He does. In a book entitled, “God Works the Night Shift,” Ron Mehl said that we often hear the voice of God speaking to us in the quietness of the night when the noise of traffic, the cries of children, and the TVs, computers, and Spotify go off! God says, “Be STILL and know that I am God!”

2. Studies have found that when people are born blind, their brain “rewires” itself to compensate for the absence of visual information. In other words, their hearing becomes heightened. Us too!

3. ILLUSTRATION: Trained Ear

a. A Canadian ship was in a fog on one of the Great Lakes. The captain's face suddenly became tense, then perplexed. He rang for slowed engines, then for reversed engines. The whistle shrieked, but no answer came. "There's something dead ahead," he declared, "I get an echo from something."

b. Just then the fog lifted a little, and not ten feet from the bow was a huge steel scow which had broken loose from harbor and drifted. A landman said he had heard no echo. The captain chuckled. "It's a matter of an educated hearing. God gave us ears, but we don't always train them."—Sunday School Times.

B. IN THE DARK, GOD IS SHAPING US

1. In his book, Mehl writes, “Whether you’re a babe-in-Christ or a seasoned saint...there’s just one thing going on in your hardships: God’s working in the dark and shaping you to resemble the Prince of Peace, the Bright and Morning Star.”

2. The darkness is a place we have to learn to trust in God. When we don’t have adequate information to make a choice, we should fall back on the Lord’s last instructions to us.

C. “DARKNESS” USUALLY REPS TROUBLE