So the ship master came to him and said and him what meanest thou o sleeper? Arise, call upon by God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not.
Now let's lay the foundation for this word.
Who was Jonah? Jonah was a true prophet of God
Jonah heard the voice of God
Jonah knew the will of God
Jonah knew the presence of God
Jonah fled from the presence of God because he didn't want to obey God's voice. Because whenever you get in the manifest presence of God he deals with everything in your heart, and because He didn't want to carry the gospel of judgement on sin
He was like a lot of our smooth talking prophets today: he only wanted to speak what made him popular with the people.
Jonah fled to Tarshish (the region of the stone)
He went down to Joppa, which means beautiful.
(Beautiful but dead) you may do something good but if it's not what God said, it's disobedience.
He found the ship going to Tarshish and he paid the fare thereof.
Disobedience cost, sin costs, sin will cost you in the long run. He went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. This speaks of hardening his heart, rebellion.
But the Lord sent out a great wind in to the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was likely to be broken.
I want to say something right here: It was God that sent the Storm after Jonah
I know it doesn’t fit with this sloppy agape message today that insinuates that God never gets angry and God never judges anyone, and God would never allow you to fall down, or never allow you to get hurt.
But the God of the Bible will send a Storm into your life, and he may just allow you to lose everything that you put your trust and confidence in to bring you back to him.
Somebody here right now, you know you were rebellious and stubborn and hateful angry resentful. but instead of God cutting you off he sent storms into your life to wake you up and turn you around. If you know that God was merciful to you and turned you around. You need to lift your hands right now and give him some praise and thank him that he didn't let you drown and thank him that he didn't let you destroy yourself.
Vs 5 but Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep.
The Mariners, the sailors, the passengers we're all terrified, they were afraid for their lives, they began to cry out to their gods, and they began to throw things overboard.
This means the things that they held onto and trusted in and depended on they just threw them in the trash.
They were in total desperation. Then suddenly they became aware that one of the passengers was not on deck.
So the shipmaster found him sound asleep and with total desperation for his life and the lives of everyone on board he asked the sleepy prophet.
How can you sleep at a time like this?
This is also what I hear the world saying today.
In their actions they're saying this.
The world is saying we are in turbulent times our lives are being destroyed nothing makes sense anymore everything is upside down, we don't know what to believe, or who to believe.
The world is looking at a slumbering church and asking the question how can you sleep at a time like this?
The world is saying where are the true prophets of God the ones that pointed true north, that gave us a point of reference, that told us right from wrong.
The ones that gave us truth that we could navigate by, and make it through the storms of life.
Where are the true prophets the ones that would hear God's Word at his mouth as Ezekiel and prophesy as they are commanded?
Where are the prophets who are more concerned about doing God's will then making money?
Where are the prophets who don't care about being politically correct?
Where are the prophets who are more concerned about God's reputation than their celebrity status?
Where are the true prophets of God that preach righteousness, holiness, separation from sin, sanctification and consecration?
Where are the prophets that do not overlook sin or pretend like it doesn't exist but command repentance?
Where are the prophets who do not use grace as a cloak for sin but as the power to conquer sin?
Again the question is asked how can you sleep at a time like this?
Church member how can you sleep at a time like this?
How can the prophets of God sleep at a time like this?
The storm is raging, the ship is going down, the ship is being destroyed, lives are being destroyed, our society is being destroyed, we're not just trying to warn people of the coming storm we're telling you it's here wake up, wake up the storm is here.
We have never experienced what we are now experiencing in America before.
America is in a storm. Society is in a storm. The church is in a storm.
The whole infrastructure of our nation is being dismantled.
Everything is being redefined restructured reformatted.
It's hard to even tell what a true family is anymore, the family structure and the family unit has been redefined by society:
In many homes there are two daddies or two mommies and that is being defined as normal.
Good is now defined as evil, and evil is defined as good. What was bitter is now called sweet, and what was sweet is now called bitter.
The prophet Isaiah sounded out a warning to a generation such as ours.
He said woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Isa 5:20
And he goes on to say in vs 23 (Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!)
What was once called sin and an abomination unto God (homosexuality and lesbianism) is now simply called an alternative lifestyle.
Murder of babies in the mother's womb is now called pro choice and is no longer illegal done in a back alley by some shady unlicensed unqualified person.
Now it's main stream (fancy clinics, board certified medical personnel, government approved.)
It doesn't matter who approves it or legalizes it: God still calls it murder, the taking of a life that he gave.
Alcoholism is not recognized as bondage or an addiction anymore, it's just called a disease.
Fornication and adultery are not called sin anymore they're just called indiscretions.
Now we're being told that Gods only concern for us is that we be comfortable and happy and prosperous.
We're being told from pulpits across the nation that the Holy Spirit no longer convicts of sin he just witnesses to how righteous we are and have good we are.
I've heard it said that if you feel bad about sin that's not the Holy Spirit convicting you, that's just your evil conscience.
We're also being told by many of the so-called prophets of our day: That every body is already saved they just don't know it, they go on to say (it doesn't matter if you ever hear the gospel or not because you're already saved anyway) and besides that; there isn't any hell or eternal judgment any way)
This false doctrine goes on to tell us that light and darkness can now abide together that you can sin in the light (the message goes like this: (as a Christian we live in the light, we walk in the light and we sin in the light so there is no need for repentance we just need to confess our righteousness and keep on going.
This is absolute contradiction to the word of God: Sin is darkness, sin is disobedience, sin is transgression of Gods law, sin separates us from God and the only way to restore that broken fellowship with God is to repent.
These false teachers are also sounding out the message that everything is getting better and better, just hang on everything will smooth out.
At the same time our government is saying: we'll take care of everything, and what they're taking is our liberty's our rights, our freedoms as Americans (they're being stolen from us one after another)
You can gather on a street corner and talk about anything and anyone, You can preach Islam, you can preach occult practices, you can preach homosexuality and lesbianism and the cops will show up to protect your right to assemble and your freedom of speech (but if you preach Jesus, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ) those same cops will arrest you and take you to jail.
When I was a kid some bold prophets of God spoke that the time would come when they would come into the church and arrest you for preaching the gospel and they would lock the church doors) most people thought they were crazy
Those same prophets told us the time would come when there would be homosexuals standing behind the pulpits.
Those same prophets told us that gambling would come into the church, and that drinking alcohol would come into the church, and they told us that nudity would come into the church.
Most people just laughed at them and said they must have had too much pizza before they went to bed (but here we are 2015 and it's here)
And maybe you have been living in a cave and you’re not aware of it but we are tottering on the edge of nuclear war.
The most popular movies today are of sexual bondage and manipulation and domination, and the occult.
Christians by the millions sit in front of a television set that has become a portal to hell through which all kinds of movies and sitcoms filled with lesbianism and homosexuality and the occult pour into their living rooms.
Again I ask the question: How can you sleep at a time like this?
Again Isaiah sounds out a warning to us he says: His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are sleeping dogs, they cannot bark. Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Isa 56:10
Jeremiah also joins with Isaiah saying: They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace, peace, when there was no peace. Jer 8:11
I want you to like me, but I'm not going to lie to you to gain your friendship or approval.
I have to bark
I have never appointed myself to be a prophet: But I can hear the trumpet sounding and I can read the handwriting on the wall and I have a responsibility to sound the alarm.
Isa 58:1 Cry aloud and spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins.
I have to sound the alarm and I have to make it clear.
1Co 14:8 for if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
I have to sound the alarm to wake up the slumbering saints, to warn the sleepy slumbering laodicean church (the not quite church, the half in and half out church, I’m talking about the church that has one foot in the world and the other in church, they have a bible in one hand And a pair of dice in the other.
A bible in one hand a glass of wine, or a cigarette or a joint in the other.
On the same phone that they read the bible on Sunday morning, they view pornography all through the week.
This is the church that says: we don't need revival, we've got it all we're happy (we've got all of God we need, we don't need repentance, we don't need mercy, we don't need forgiveness, we don't need Gods help) we're good.
We're righteous, we confess we are and we are.
We're holy; we confess we are so we are.
We're rich, we're prosperous, we're happy, we're comfortable.
We confess we're free so we are.
We confess we have peace so we do.
My friends if all you had to do was make some kind of confession to get everything God offers; then Jesus died for nothing, he suffered for nothing, he shed his blood for nothing and the Holy spirit came for nothing.
There is more to this Christian life than just moving your lips (there is a transformed life, there is repentance, turning your back on sin and the world, there's separation, sanctification, consecration, there's submission and faithfulness and obedience, there's thinking pure thoughts and speaking words of grace, there's self denial (there's taking up your cross and following him) there's suffering for his sake. There's having no fellowship with the works of darkness, there's laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets you. There's a disciplined life of praying, reading your bible, being faithful to church, tithing, sowing, witnessing.
I am not a prophet of gloom and doom) but I have to tell you, this is not a time of peace it's a time of war
(In other words) it is not a time to be spiritually asleep, it’s time to be awake, spiritually alert, aggressively and boldly confronting the powers of darkness, rebuking sin, casting out devils, healing the sick and the oppressed and boldly confronting false doctrines and seducing spirits that are infiltrating the church.
Joel 3:9 Proclaim ye this among the gentiles; prepare war, let all the mighty men of war draw near, let them come up.
1Thess 5:6 therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober vs (7) For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
Ro 13:11 And that knowing the time it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
I know it's easy to point our fingers at the prophets and preachers and say it's their fault.
And there is truth to that, many of our prophets today have fallen asleep, and they are not warning God's people, they are not sounding the alarm.
But it is also true that everyone who has been saved, been redeemed, been delivered from Satans power has the responsibility to sound the trumpet, to warn of the coming judgment, and to tell of the mercy of God.
I'm here today with a word from God.
How can you sleep at a time like this?
Lost person: How can you go on sinning, lying, fornicating, drinking, cheating and stealing. Pretending everything's fine lying to yourself.
The truth is you're in a storm and the truth is your ship is going down and the truth is today Jesus is your only hope.
He comes to you today to wake you up from the sleep from the slumber of sin. He comes to you because he loves you and it is not his will that any should perish but they all should come to repentance.
Believer how can you sleep at a time like this?
How can you bury your head in the sand and pretend everything's fine? How can you lay down your weapons of war and act like we're at peace and we're just going to sail into heaven on a flowery bed of ease.
How can you pretend that gambling and sippin and Tippin and social drinking has no effect on your relationship with God. How can you pretend watching lesbians and homosexuals and transvestites and pronography and perversity doesn't hurt your spiritual life? how can we pretend that drugs and alcohol and the occult are not attacking our homes our families and our children and worse than that) that we're inviting it into our homes through the television and internet.
Finally Jonah prophet of God preachers, men and women of God, watchmen on the wall
How can you sleep at a time like this?
How can we be silent when truth is being trampled in the street?
How can we be silent when the Word of God is being watered down, deluded, stripped of its power, candy coated and sugar sprinkled?
We have a responsibility to defend the truth
To prove all things and to hold fast that which is good.
To rightly divide the word of truth.
To contend for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints.
I believe today just as the shipmaster came to wake up the sleeping prophet the Holy Spirit who is the ship master of the church is sending a wake up call today.
120 thousand souls were saved because a slumbering prophet woke up.
He woke up to his calling
He woke up to obedience
He woke up to responsibility
He woke up to the desperate need of those around him.
I was just wondering how many souls will be saved when we wake up.
How can we sleep at a time like this?
The storm is raging, the ship is going down, souls are going into a Christ less eternity, We stand on the edge of nuclear war (don't be so foolish to think it can't happen to us) we don't have enough military might or intelligence to protect us, God is our only protection and when we push God out of our schools our homes, the Whitehouse and the church house we are in a very dangerous position.
Sinner friend: It's time to wake up, you have this moment you are not promised your next breath, you have this heartbeat (every heartbeat is a gift from God giving you another opportunity to be saved).
Believer: It's time to wake up, it's time to get our heads out of the sand and face the truth, it's time to quit straddling the fence, it's time get on fire like never before, it's time to show the world what a real Christian looks like.
Prophet: It's time to wake up, you better quit telling people what they want to hear just to keep their money in the church, you better get in the presence of God and hear his voice and prophesy as he commands you.
God is going to hold you responsible for their souls.
God said: we are to be watchmen on the wall, and when we see the sword coming we are to sound the alarm and if we don't sound the alarm God is going to hold us accountable for their blood.
How can you sleep at a time like this?
Sinner
Believer
Prophet, Pastor, Teacher, Evangelist, Apostle
It's time to wake up
It's time to repent
It's time to quit rebelling and running from the call and the commission of God.
It's time to quit running from his conviction
It's time to quit running from the truth
It's time to quit running from responsibility
Some of you are in a storm right now because you are running from God, you know what God requires of you, you know what he has called you to do, you know he's been dealing with your heart but you've been running from him.
And just like Jonahs rebellion brought a storm to those on the ship (your rebellion is doing the same thing) you're making everyone around you miserable.
You're family, you're whole house is suffering because of you. Because of your disobedience.
It's time to wake up
Jonah: sinner, believer, prophet, preacher, teacher, evangelist, soul winner, saint of God (it's time to wake up) To say yes to God, yes to his word, yes to his will, yes to his way.
Yes to his mercy, his grace, and his forgiveness
Yes to his love
I must say it one more time: How can you sleep at a time like this?
If you know this word is true, if you know America needs to wake up, if you know the church needs to wake up
If you know God is speaking to you
If you know it's time to wake up (I need you to join me at the front of this building around these altars) join me in praying for God to be merciful to us and to send another great awakening to this nation before it's too late.
