It’s been said that you never know who you had in your life until they are gone. And that you never really realize what you had until its gone.
I hope to stir a little appreciation for what you have and who you know today!
What are the signs of sleep?
What are the causes of sleep?
Why should we awake?
“Someone said, “If a man remains motionless on the lounge for three or four hours, we can assume he is asleep. If he should continue in that motionless condition for three or four days, you should assume him dead.”
If a Christian does nothing for Christ, lying motionless on a pew, you could assume he is asleep. If he persists in his course of uselessness, it is a fair presumption that he is dead.
The Christian and uselessness should absolutely be on
opposite sides of the spectrum!
People walk and talk in their sleep, but it is all to no purpose.
Their talk is incoherent, and their walk is without aim.
The same can be said about sleeping Christians.
You might walk and talk but your lifestyle has no aim.
A Christian who is actively involved in winning souls, reaching out to others, teaching bible studies, praying and studying will not go to sleep.
His activity will keep him awake!
As long as you are moving you can’t sleep.
We must exercise our mental, moral and spiritual limbs or we will get sleepy! We will become lethargic!
(1 Th 5:6) “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”
Apostle Paul is giving us a spiritual ‘wake-up call’.
He is telling us to wake up, don’t be caught sleeping! -to keep alert.
Oh, Sleepy Christian, Awake
Why is it so important to stay awake?
Because our lives and the lives of others depend on it!
When a person is asleep he is insensitive to his surroundings
-Oblivious to what is going on.
The majority of robberies occur at night when people are asleep.
Robbers know that most people sleep deep and sound making it possible to slip in and out without waking them up.
When a person gets sleepy, his sense of judgment is foggy
-You compromise details because -you are too tired to think
Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. Jn 4:35
Sleepy soldiers are of no good to the camp.
Sleepy soldiers are easy prey.
10 And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
11 And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
Sleepy Christians tend to be more carnal -I’m tired. Leave me alone.
I don’t care who or what calls, I’m tired I want to sleep!
Some of us are like Jonah, who was spending his time sleeping in disobedience in the hold of the ship, running from God’s call to work
in Nineveh, when he should have been rushing to the harvest
Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
The disciples fell asleep in the garden at the most critical hour of Jesus earthly ministry.
If they had been in tune at all it would have been obvious that Jesus was struggling with something in his spirit.
He asked them to pray with him, but they were sleepy…they did not feel his burden, they didn’t recognize the heaviness in his heart,
they sensed no immediate danger.
Dwight L. Moody, by his own admission, made a terrible mistake on the eighth of October 1871 — a mistake he determined never to repeat again.
He had been preaching in the city of Chicago. That particular night drew his largest audience yet. His message was “What will you do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?” By the end of the service, he was extremely tired. He concluded his message without an alter call but wrapped up his presentation with a concluding statement:
“Go home. Take a week to think over what I’ve asked you.And when we come together again, you will have opportunity to respond.”
It was 9:00 p.m. A soloist began to sing. But before the final note, the music was drowned out by clanging bells and wailing sirens screaming through the streets. The greatest fire ever to hit Chicago was engulfing buildings, homes and lives.
It burned for 3 days. Hundreds were dead and over a hundred thousand were homeless.
He vowed to never end another message without giving an alter call.
We must stay awake.
We must answer the call.
We must sound the alarm.
In 1740, A man named George Whitefield traveled to America, where he preached a series of revivals that came to be known as the “Great Awakening.” He became perhaps the best-known preacher in Great Britain and North America during the 18th century.
About 80 percent of all American colonists heard him preach at least once.
Though only 25 years old, the evangelist took America by storm.
Whitefield’s farewell sermon on Boston Common drew 23,000 people—more than Boston’s entire population.
It was probably the largest crowd that had ever gathered in America.
In his search for God before his conversion, Whitefield fasted to the point that he broke his health and, under doctor’s orders,
was confined to bed for seven weeks.
Whitefield preached at both Harvard and Yale Colleges.
At Harvard it was reported that “The College is entirely changed.
The students are full of God.”
Brutal mobs often attacked Whitefield and his followers
-throwing everything at him from rotten food to rocks.
Whitefield received three letters with death threats,
and once he was stoned until nearly dead.
Whitefield usually awoke at 4 A.M. before beginning to preach at 5 or 6 A.M. Whitefield preached more than 18,000 sermons in his lifetime, an average of 500 a year or ten a week. Because of his passionate boisterous preaching many churches closed their doors to him, forcing him to preach outside.
Whitefield was a man with a remarkable gift and a
relentless energy for preaching.
After preaching several times one day, he went to his room and prepared for bed. Then someone came and asked him to speak one more time because a crowd had gathered outside. Although very tired, he picked up a candle and said he would preach until it burned out. An hour later the flame flickered and died, and Whitefield closed in prayer and went inside.
The next morning he was found on his knees beside his bed — the flame of his earthly existence had glimmered and died. (He was 55 years old)
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awaken out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. Rom 13:11