No Sleepwalking Allowed Series

Has anyone here ever been afflicted with somnambulism?

Okay, does anyone even know what somnambulism is?

Well, it's a technical term for sleepwalking.

So, back to the original question--has anyone here ever had a sleepwalking experience?

How did it go? Did anyone get hurt?

The reason I ask is that sleepwalking is a dangerous occupation. I checked it out on the internet, and the Mayo Clinic says that sleepwalkers often engage in routine activities--even driving a car. So there's something that we could call sleep-walking. But sometimes they engage in non-routine activities, like jumping out a window.

I think that could result in a very rude awakening!

The reason I ask is that there's a parallel between physical sleepwalking and spiritual sleep-walking. Spiritual sleepwalkers are often completely unaware of the spiritual dangers that surround them, and what they don't know can hurt them, and others.

That was what the Apostle Paul was concerned about for the Corinthians as he concluded his first letter to them in the mid-50's A.D. I imagine that as he concluded the letter he considered what he neeed to tell the Corinthians about how they coul prevent experiencing more of the multitude of spiritual problems and pitfalls that had already plagued the church. If you've been with us during our study of I Corinthians, you know that the letter is a difficult letter. It was written as a correction to many of the spiritual problems the Corinthians were experiencing, like spiritual pride, selfishness, strife, quarrels and divisions. There were even some who practiced gross immorality, and the church not only accepted this sin, but congratulated themselves for their tolerance of it. They also had arrogantly become involved in idolatry, and when they did worship the Lord, during the Lord's supper, they were guilty of drunkenness and gluttony, if you can imagine that. On top of that they had entertained false teachings, some of which even gutted the Gospel of its importance. And the Apostle Paul must have been thinking that these Corinthians were taking a very casual view of their spiritual lives--that they were casually sleepwalkiing through life as though there were no real dangers to their continued walk with Christ.

So, he tells them that they need to be alert. They need to watch out. That they couldn't tolerate any more spiritual sleep-walking, spiritual free-lancing or

And apparently, from the great Apostle Paul’s perspective, that is exactly what the church at Corinth had been doing in a spiritual sense. They were casually sleepwalking their way through their spiritual lives, not recognizing that this world and the unseen spiritual world of evil spirits, was an extremely dangerous place. They had not been alert spiritually. Their casual approach to Christianity and the spiritual dangers in their pagan climate had resulted in pride, divisions among them, cliques, gross immorality, legal disputes, idolatry, the abuse of spiritual gifts and involvement in false and spiritually destructive teachings.

Paul’s summary exhortation for how the Corinthains could avoid all the spiritual pitfalls they had experienced is found in I Corinthians 16:13-14. They are two verses that are worth committing to memory, especially for anyone who aspires to or is involved in spiritual leadership. Paul tells the Corinthians in light of all their problems to “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

If only the Corinthians, or for that matter, any believer, could apply these two verses, it would have saved them much grief. Their problem was that they were rather casually coasting through the so-called Christian life as though there wouldn’t be, or weren’t any bumps in the road, there wouldn’t be any temptations to jump the rails. And boy had they jumped the rails.

Make no doubt about it, verses 13 and 14 are not optional. They are commands. “Be on the alert,” is in the present tense, indicating that we are to be ever and always vigilant. Stay on the alert is the sense that Paul gives the command. You can’t afford to let your guard down. The world is always looking to press you into its mold. And the evil one is always just around the corner with another temptation and another trick to use to attempt to shipwreck your Christian life, your testimony for Christ and perhaps the very existence of your church.

the poor creature doesn’t have a chance.

And the commands here are in nature. Once you have been alert, and have detected the danger, then there’s another step that must be exercised. “Stand firm in the faith.” I believe when Paul talks about “the faith” here he’s talking both about the content of the faith—the biblical and doctrinal teachings that we must continue to exercise in terms of both beliefs and behavior. We must be discerning regarding the truth of the Gospel, the truth of what the Bible teaches, and then knowing that what we believe will determine how we behave, we must act accordingly. We must be careful to recognize when we are compromising Scripture and compromising Christianity with the result that we dishonor God, sin and lead others to sin. And once we have developed that discernment, the ability to tell the difference between truth and error, then we must stand. And we must stand firm. We must not give an inch.