Sleepy Christians
Psalm 127:2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.
It is amazing what sin has done to man. Sleep should be a blessing.
Ø We can sleep or rest in Jesus.
Ø Sin has touched sleep and the blessing has made into a curse.
Ø Now sleep has become a symptom of the sinful condition of man.
There are many who are spiritually dead and asleep.
Ephesians 5:13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.
14 Therefore He says:" Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light. "
1 Thessalonians 5: 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
God told Adam if you eat of this fruit you shall surely die.
Ø Adam did not listen to God but listened to the devil and ate from the fruit.
Ø Because of the disobediance of one man death came to all.
Ø In the same way, because of the disobediance of one man there was a spiritual death that came to all.
The natural man cannot understand the supernatural, spiritual things because the natural man is dead and asleep when it comes to spiritual things.
People that are alive to sin are dead to God. They are in darkness. Jesus is the Light of the world and this is the very reason why He came. He is calling us to ARISE, WAKE UP!
Isaiah 60: 1 Arise, shine;For your light has come!And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
We too were dead and in darkness, but when the Lord called us we rose from our spiritual dead condition and became alive to God.
Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
There was no way we could have risen ourselves from death or break the chain of sin, only the light of Jesus could rescue us.
Ø We were in bondage to sin.
Ø We were chained to sin, slaves to sin.
Peter was put to prison by Herod and he was chained, put in a cell and he was asleep, there was no way he can get out.
Acts 12:6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.
7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, "Arise quickly! " And his chains fell off his hands.
We were in prison chained to sin, asleep, but the light of Jesus shone upon us and our chains fell off and were rescued.
1 Thessalonians 5: 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
Sadly, there are still many Christians who are asleep and still in bondage in our churches today.
Keith Green sang that they are, "Asleep in the Light," not literally, although some of these Christians do fall asleep literally in the church.
Ø Sleepy Christians go to church on Sunday waiting for their pastor to feed them with spiritual food, but not for too long, they wouldn't want to be late for their physical food.
Ø They just sit and eat and eat from the pulpit getting fatter and fatter always demanding more for themselves.
Ø They like to eat but do not want to plough the field.
Ø They want to drink the wine of the Lord but do not want to work in the Lord's vineyard.
Mark 6: 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.
Even King Herod loved to hear John the Baptist preach, but sitting there listening didn't make King Herod a Christian.
James 1: 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Ø Today in our churches there is no consciousness and awareness of others.
Ø If someone is sick they don't care as long as they are healthy.
Ø When someone is persecuted they don't care as long as they are not persecuted.
Ø They don't feel anything, they have no feelings.
Ø When they see the fatherless, widows, orphans, poor, hungry and needy, they are not be moved with compassion for them.
They stand at the very edge of hell, but they tremble not.
The anger of the Lord is burning against them, but they fear not.
Ø Sleepy Christians are self centered and only think of themselves first.
Ø They enjoy all of the pleasures of the world.
Ø They sing the worldly music and dance to the beat of the world.
Ø They dream of the worldly things.
Ø They are never content what they have.
Like a bird in the trap, they are caught by the enemy of this world and unable to resist the passions of this world.
Ø They wake up early go to work come home, turn on the TV and watch their flesh likes to see. But they are inactive in the Lord.
Ø They have no time for the Lord. They cannot spend one hour a day with the Lord but have time for themselves.
Then they say they cannot resist temptation.
Ø We are not dead but should be made alive to Christ Jesus.
Ø We should not be still asleep, but awake in Christ.
Ø Why are we going back to sleep?
Ø How can we sleep when we realize what our Savior has done for us?
Ø Many who call themselves Christians are sleeping.
Jesus told the disciples, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation”. He agonized in prayer, but when he came back he found the disciples sleeping.
Ø Sleepy Christians have no power to resist temptation.
Ø Their spiritual strength has left them.
WAKE UP YOU SLEEPY CHRISTIANS!
Ø Sinners are perishing daily and people are dying and going to hell, while we Christians are enjoying the presence of God and falling to sleep.
Ø We are the light of the world, but why is there no light shining from us.
Ø We are the salt of the earth, but why has the salt lost its flavor.
Our town is filled with crime as sin is spreading through out this nation and we are fast asleep. And the devil loves it; he will make us even more comfortable so we can sleep a little longer.
He will cause us to sin the sin of doing nothing.
Soon the Bridegroom will arrive. Do we have enough oil in our lamps?
Remember the story of the ten virgins. Five were wise and the other five were foolish, but all of them were asleep.
The church of God
Ø We get excited and busy when it comes to worldly things.
Ø We are busy living a careless life.
Ø We put away and ignore spiritual things until later.
Ø Our Christian walk had been too easy and far too comfortable.
This has been great for our lazy, natural, fleshly natures, but has put our spirit man to sleep.
If the road we are traveling is narrow and winding, it would be difficult to go to sleep. Jesus said to take that narrow road because it will lead us to life.
How dare we sleep instead of meditating on heavenly things? The angels in heaven are getting excited waiting for that moment when we as "the church", and I don't mean "a church", will finally wake up and realize what we have been called to be.
Ø We are to be alive in Christ and dead to sin.
Ø We are to die to self and put on Christ's nature.
Ø The former things should have been put away from us by now.
Ø We have slept for far too long. Over 1800 years is long enough.
Samson lost his strength while sleeping. When he woke up he didn't even realize it was gone.
Ø He still looked like Samson.
Ø He still thought the same as Samson.
Ø He even still remembered his calling from God that he had before he went to sleep.
But his supernatural strength was gone. He awakened and his spiritual oil was empty. The enemy easily overtook him and made him captive.
There is a perishing world around us. We are living in a day when the enemy is taking this spiritual war very seriously.
Christ is calling us to take up our cross, die to our selfish desires and follow him.
Ø It is only a foolish soldier will continue to sleep after the alarm has been sounded sleep.
Ø It is a foolish man who allows himself to fall into the hands of the enemy because he need just a few more minutes of sleep.
Can't you hear the Holy Spirit crying "AWAKEN, YOU SLEEPY CHURCH, AWAKEN. There is life waiting for you. How you can sleep when you know of these things. You should be excited. You should be alive to God".
The Holy Spirit is calling us to get ready.
Wake up!
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