THIS IS NO TIME TO SLEEP!
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. God has a funny sense of humor. He made US didn't he? I heard a story of how God made a young minister’s sermon come alive.
2. While a student at Bucknell University, he was invited to speak at a church in New Columbia, Pennsylvania. The night before, he set his alarm for ample time to reach the church and be ready. Unknown to him, his roommate came in late that night and turned off the alarm.
3. He awoke with a start an hour later than he’d planned. By the time he reached the church he was 35 minutes late for the service.
4. When he finally got up to preach, he had to announce his key scripture - Romans 13:11, "Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep."
5. Many of the church people had their eyebrows raised, knowing that the speaker himself was late to wake up!
B. THESIS
1. Sleeping is a wonderful blessing. It Refreshes the body; gives New Strength and will (enemies try to wear down our military by sleep deprivation). The average American adult doesn't get enough sleep. In Japan, they have a "Yawn Break." Many know that the yawn stimulates the brain. A Japanese transistor manufacturer has scheduled 30-second "yawn breaks" in the factory schedule. On cue, everyone raises his hands over their heads and yawns in unison. The manufacturer claims production has jumped considerably.
2. MANY PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE FELL ASLEEP AT ODD MOMENTS:
a. Abraham fell asleep while God was talking to him(Gen. 15:12).
b. Daniel slept in the lion’s den while the King had insomnia in his palace(6:18).
c. Peter slept soundly the night before he was to be executed(Acts 12:6).
d. Paul preached so long in Ephesus that Eutychus fell asleep and fell 3 stories to the ground, but god raised him up(Acts 20:9).
e. The 10 virgins all slept while they waited for the Bridegroom(Matthew 25:5).
3. But today we’re going to look at the danger of sleeping spiritually. The scriptures indicate three reasons, based on Biblical examples, that THIS IS NO TIME TO SLEEP!
I. SLEEPING IN THE MIDDLE OF A STORM
A. TEXT: Jonah 1:3-15
3But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. 4Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish." 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So [the sailors] asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" 12 "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied…15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.”
B. DISOBEDIENCE & STORMS
1. Jonah is a picture of the believer. He was told by God to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire and warn them to repent or be judged by God. This city had 120,000 people and was approximately 48 miles across.
2. Instead, Jonah went the opposite direction toward southwest Spain, the farthest known point to the West. Jonah was running from God. He was getting as far away as he could from the will of God. When you begin disobeying God you can never sit still; there is no peace & no rest.
3. We all run from doing God’s will sometimes: put off giving up a habit/grudge; don’t exercise self-control (eating/tongue/anger); take liberties which are not pleasing to God; we don't witness as we should/ pray/give/or read the Word.
4. There is no escaping from Almighty God.
C. THE SLEEP OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS TO GOD
1. Jonah was asleep -- unconscious of God's dealings. Are you? In the Bible, "sleeping" can mean: Carnal indifference to spiritual things; Insensitivity to divine things.
a. Asleep while in the greatest peril! Condition of many Christians today! Perilous times; Storms of satanic attack on our nation, yet we sleep!
b. Asleep and imperiling others. Our disobedience can imperil those around us: family, neighborhood, church. How can we sleep calmly on?
c. Asleep while others call on God! Men that didn't even know God were crying out to God for help, but we Christians remain sleepy and indifferent.
d. Asleep while multitudes of loss people hang under the doom of judgment! Nineveh represents the vast world of lost people that we are responsible for reaching. Without our efforts, most of them will perish in hell. We must awake from our slumbers and accept the mission God has given us. God, like the captain, says, "How can you sleep? Get up and pray!"
2. The good news is, Jonah repented and fulfilled his mission for God, and the whole city turned to God! But first Jonah had to REPENT; that’s our first objective as well.
3. Once he did, the Bible says, “Then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the SECOND TIME!” That means that God renewed His invitation to allow Jonah to speak and represent Him to men. God renewed His anointing over Jonah’s life!
4. Yes, he had messed up; but once he repented, he was restored to his original call, and so will we! Praise God!
The 2nd reason we shouldn’t be sleeping:
II. SLEEPING WHILE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ENEMY
A. TEXT: Judges 16:18-21
When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. 20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. 21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison.
B. THE CHILD OF GOD: INVINCIBLE!
1. Samson is a picture of God's child, anointed and commissioned, but compromised. The devil can't subdue a child of God as long as they walk with God. As long as we walk with God, we’re invincible!
a. "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 Jn. 4:4).
b. "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper" (Isa. 54:17).
c. "... we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37).
d. "Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
e. About the righteous, "That wicked one touches him not" (1 Jn. 5:18).
f. "Be not afraid... for the battle is not yours, but God's" (second Chronicles 20:15).
2. So the devil's plan is simple: to get the child of God to walk away from God, then we become vulnerable.
C. THE SLEEP OF DESTRUCTION
1. Delilah has several synonyms; seductress, temptress, vampire. Her name actually means (according to Wikipedia) "One who weakens or uproots or impoverishes."
2. She was bribed to by the Philistine Lord's to betray Samson. Undoubtedly, she later became a hero and very rich among the Philistines.
3. Four times she lied to Samson and told him that if he loved her he would tell her the secret of his strength, but it was only so she could betray him.
4. Think of the terrible picture of him falling asleep on her lap. Delilah was like a pray mantis or spider, that slowly closes in on her victim.
5. How diabolical, to lure him to sleep in her own lap in order to break and destroy him. How tragic it is when a Christian falls asleep in the arms of the enemy!
III. ASLEEP WHEN JESUS DESPARATELY NEEDS YOU
A. TEXT: Matthew 26:36-41
36Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." 39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." 40Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. 41"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
B. THE DISCIPLES IN GETHSEMANE
1. As far as I know, this is the only time Jesus ever implied the disciples should pray for Him. Here He was at His hour of greatest need.
a. The salvation of all mankind hung in the balance;
b. He was already betrayed and His arrest was only an hour away.
c. He was one hour from torture and death.
d. All of Satan's power was bent on tempting Him to turn back from God's will. Fear of torture and death crept over Him.
2. He turned to His disciples for help and support. What did they do? Forget him and SLEEP!
3. Not only would HE be tempted, but so would the disciples. They should have been praying. Peter, whom Jesus singled out, soon denied him three times, presumably because of a lack of prayer -- interior
strength.
C. THE LORD OF THE HARVEST NEEDS US
1. After our lives end, our ability to see souls won or lost will be over. There will never be a time again that we will be able to make an eternal difference -- change someone's destiny from hell to heaven.
2. It is NOW that we are needed. Only for a few more short hours are the harvest fields accessible to us. Now is when Jesus actually needs us! He can't get the job done without people.
3. We look at the disciples and say, "Man, guys, couldn't you stay awake one hour? Jesus really needed you." But look at how they spent the rest of their lives! They will look at us and say, "People! Couldn't you give 20 years for the Lord? That's the only harvest you'll ever get to be a part of!"
4. Proverbs 10:5 says, “He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” Surely this was written for such a time as this! THIS IS NO TIME TO SLEEP!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: THERE IS NO HURRY
1. The “Parable of the Procrastinator” is retold in Currents, wherein three devils try to conquer the world.
2. "The first devil went around proclaiming the message, ’There is no God!’ But even though few people acted as if there was a God, they knew in their hearts that this message was not true."
3. "The second devil announced ’There is no sin!’ And again, although many people acted as if the message were true, they knew deep down that there really was sin.
4. The third devil was smarter than the other two. He didn’t attempt to change people’s beliefs. He made no attempt to argue against their deepest convictions. He simply said, “There is no hurry...” and he succeeded greatly.
B. TIM MEN ILLUS.
1. John Dekker wanted to illustrate the Second Coming of Christ and rapture of the church. "When Jesus comes, He will take only those who are truly His. Some of you have been listening to God's Word, you've been teaching God's Word, but you have not really become Christians. God knows your hearts."
2. John had cut out little men and women, some out of tin and others out of aluminum. He had a paper cut-out of Jesus with a strong magnet attached to the back of it.
3. He taught, "When Jesus Christ comes again, only true believers (tin men) will go with Him. The others (like the aluminum people) will be left because they haven’t been changed in their hearts.”
4. He passed Jesus and the magnet over the tin/aluminum people and only the tin ones rose to join Christ. The others were left.
5. Dekker concluded, “Jesus is coming soon. It may be today. You must be ready!" A young man told John, "I’m not ready." He repented and sought God. Are you ready?
C. ALTAR CALL
1. Paul’s said, “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Romans 13:11-12
2. The spiritual clock is about to strike midnight; are you ready?
3. Call for salvation for the Lost.
4. Call for the Church to be the Church!
