Play

“Stay Alert!”

Allen Dvorak
03/09/25 - Sun AM

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Scripture reading this morning to be 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 1 through 343.

I'll be reading from the new American Standard version.

Now as the times and the epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

While they are saying peace and safety, the destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child.

They will not escape.

But you brethren are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief, for you are all sons of light and sons of day.

We are not of night nor of darkness.

So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.

For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God is not destined for us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

Therefore, encourage one another and build up another just as you are also are doing.

Well, if you haven't discovered it yet, we just began daylight saving time.

Actually, not just now.

It started this morning at 2 a.m.

Have you ever wondered why 2 a.m.?

I mean, what's the point in all of us staying up until 2 a.m.

to move our clock one hour forward?

When we could just as easily have done it before we went to bed, and then it would just automatically be the right time in the morning.

But since I know that you are law abiding citizens, I suspect that some of you didn't get as much sleep last night as you might normally have gotten.

And so this morning, In light of the fact that just losing a single hour of sleep can really change our world, I'm going to talk about sleep.

Hopefully not to lull anybody into that sweet rest that perhaps you did not get last night as you.

Stayed up To turn the clock forward at 2 a.m.

But at least we can talk about sleep this morning.

The consensus of studies is that many Americans are sleep deprived.

I believe that.

If you've ever seen people in the morning sometimes, uh, if you go to work and you're in an office and people kind of trudge in maybe, I don't know, I don't have that experience.

I just have to look at Debbie in the morning.

There was no connection there whatsoever.

You may see people who look like they need several more hours of sleep and uh they'll have their coffee.

uh Mike usually, I think probably has like a mug that's size of a small water tower.

But we're a sleep deprived people.

Part of that perhaps is because we live in a society and a culture where there's technology allows us to do so many more things than we used to be able to do, and we try to cram more things into our days until the time that we go to bed seems to get closer and closer to the time that we have to get up in order to take care of the activities of the next day.

Webster has an interesting definition of sleep.

The natural periodic suspension of consciousness, during which the powers of the body are restored.

The only problem with that definition is it also can describe the condition of many students in school during classes they don't like, where there's a suspension of consciousness, uh, until the bell rings.

But that's what happens when we sleep.

Uh, as a person falls asleep, our senses become less and less active.

We become less aware of our surroundings.

It's first our sight that uh goes uh into unconsciousness, then taste and smell and hearing, and finally even touch becomes practically inactive.

Our breathing slows and our heartbeat slows.

The muscles of our bodies relax.

When uh Cheryl and Vicky and I were young, uh occasionally we were not anxious to go to sleep at the time when we were supposed to go to sleep.

And so sometimes we'd get out of bed and we'd be spying on mom and dad and stuff.

And then if dad came, you know, closer to the bed, and we'd run and jump in the bed and we'd all be mm, you know, you gotta get that slow, relaxed breathing to convince dad that we are fast asleep.

In Dreamland We sleep in cycles with much of our sleep being superficial or light sleep.

Uh, we dream only during a deep sleep.

Uh, as sometimes it's called.

And some people can sleep through just about anything.

I'm suspicious that that picture is manufactured, not by AI. I just think two guys decided to get together and do something funny, but I've seen people sleep in situations that were not much better than that, if even that comfortable.

But you know, in the Bible, there are a number of people who are described as being asleep during activities that you would not suspect would be conducive to sleeping.

I'm thinking of Adam who had major surgery while he was sleeping, a deep sleep upon him, and the result was a woman.

Can you imagine?

You go to sleep, you're by yourself, you wake up and there's this beautiful woman next to you.

Happens to me every day.

Did that make up?

OK. Samson When Delilah is trying to discover the secret of his strength, He finally tells her that if she will weave the 7 locks of hair on his head into the loom.

That he'll lose his strength.

And so she lulls him to sleep, and then she's weaving these locks of hair into the loom and he sleeps through all of this.

Well, that didn't turn out very well with him eventually.

But you wonder how he could do that.

King Saul was asleep with his men around him, and David and, and another came into the camp and took the spear that was next to Saul's head and a jug of water there.

Saul never woke up.

The text does say that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Saul.

I'm thinking of Jonah.

There's a huge storm and in the Mediterranean, Jonah is in the ship.

The sailors are losing their minds.

They think they're going to die.

They're doing everything they can to try to save themselves.

There's Jonah sleep and the sailors are like, how can you be sleeping?

Joh, of course, understands the cause of that storm.

Jesus likewise on one of his journeys across the Sea of Galilee.

is asleep when the boat is being tossed by a storm, such storms as were common on the Sea of Galilee.

And then there's Uticus.

You knew we had to talk about Uticus, who falls out of an upper story window while Paul was preaching.

And then apparently was revived by the apostle Paul.

I don't usually notice even if people are sleeping.

I remember one time, uh, many years ago, I was preaching and there were two young boys who were sitting on the front pew.

They'd never sat there before.

They sat on the front pew.

And both of them were fast asleep by the ser middle of the sermon.

Their heads were back, they were snoring.

And I just said, boys, wake up and just kept on going.

And uh the parents were not very happy with me.

But I don't usually notice people sleeping, and some have kidded me about how many people I can put to sleep, but this is not a sleeping congregation.

Rarely does it seem like anybody is not focused on the things that are being said, the activities that we're engaged in.

But I've learned that sometimes people doze for reasons that are beyond their control.

They're taking medication whose side effects sometimes is to make them drowsy or they work long hours and they're coming off their shift in the morning even.

And so they come to services.

Despite the fact that they haven't had hardly any sleep, uh, in the previous hours or shift work, if you've never worked shifts where you're uh cycling from one shift to another, it's hard sometimes for your body to make that adjustment, especially when you are now just making the shift change.

And so I try to be understanding uh about that.

Uh, people have come to make the, they made the effort to come and to listen.

But I will tell you I do not have the ability to raise anybody from the dead, so sleep at your own risk if you choose to do so.

Well, this morning I want to talk about staying alert, staying awake.

Because each of us needs to be attentive to the spiritual dangers that we face in this world and the sin that can be so quickly in our lives, we need to be alert and active in the Lord's service.

It's interesting to me that like some other things in life, for instance, the eating of food, that sleep is described both in a positive way and a negative way.

In the book of Ecclesiastes in chapter 5 and verse 12, we're told that the ability to sleep uh is a sign of a lack of worry or anxiety.

The full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

I like uh the new King James version, the abundance that he has.

He's maybe be concerned about keeping his things.

He can't even sleep at night, but the laborer, whether he eats little or much, he is able to sleep.

In Psalm 4 and verse 10, the psalmist said, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep for you alone, oh Lord.

Make me dwell in safety.

When people realize that God is taking care of them, that Satan can't.

Take them over without their consent, that God will not permit that.

Then they can sleep at night knowing that they live in the love of the sovereign Lord.

But on the other hand, excessive sleep is the mark of the sluggard.

So Proverbs talks about individuals who are lazy and so, uh, he asks, how long will you lie there, oh sluggard.

When will you arise from your sleep?

Little sleep, little slumber, little folding of the hands to rest.

And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.

The word sleep is used in a metaphorical sense in the scriptures to refer to death as I think probably we're aware.

In John 203th chapter and verses 11 to 13, Jesus had previously been informed that his friend Lazarus down in Bethany in the southern part of Palestine was sick.

Messenger had brought that news and Jesus delayed going to Bethany.

But then he says to his disciples in verse 11, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.

The disciples said to him, Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he will recover.

Now, Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest in sleep.

And so the Bible talks about death as sleep.

When Stephen was stoned in Acts chapter 25 and the end of the chapter, the text just said he fell asleep.

When Jesus died on the cross, the text in Matthew says that the bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and after the resurrection of Jesus came into the city and appeared to many, but that was interesting.

In 222 Corinthians 246:21, Paul says, we shall not all sleep, meaning we're not all going to die before the Lord comes.

There'll be some who will still be alive, but he says we will all be changed.

I want to share with you a comment from W Vine on the, uh, at the point.

Where he defines the word that's translated sleep to sleep.

And he says this metaphorical use of the word sleep is appropriate, that is to talk about it as uh representing death because of the similarity in appearance between a sleeping body and a dead body.

Restfulness and peace normally characterized both.

The object of the metaphor is to suggest that as the sleeper does not cease to exist while his body sleeps, so the dead person continues to exist, despite his absence from the region in which those who remain can communicate with him.

Uh, I don't know that that's something we can conclude 215% if that's the object of the metaphor, but it's quite possible.

And he says that as sleep is known to be temporary, so the death of the body will be found to be.

Well, that certainly is scripture, and we sang about that one day, one day Jesus will be coming.

And when he does, the graves are gonna be empty.

There'll be a general resurrection.

All who are in the tombs and the graves will hear his voice, and they'll come forth, some to life and some to condemnation.

But there's a time when you shouldn't be sleeping.

To sleep is also used in a metaphorical way to talk about inattentiveness or inactivity.

Those who are sleeping as Vine notes and as we've noted already, they become unconscious of the things that are going on around them and that's not a good thing for Christians.

To be unaware of the dangers that are around them that they face.

It's not time to sleep, Paul would say.

I think that's quite an appropriate metaphor, the idea of sleeping, uh, to talk about inactivity or inattentiveness in view of the physical changes that happen when we fall asleep.

The psalmist in Psalm 234 and verse 33, in what appears to be a community lament, has recited how God has taken care of his people, but now it seems as though God is, is not listening.

He's not aware of the things that his people Israel are facing.

And so the psalmist says, awake.

Why are you sleeping, oh Lord, Rouse yourself.

Do not reject us forever.

And David would say much the same thing in Psalm 23 and verse 213, when he says, awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord.

In both Psalms, the writer is saying, Lord, are you seeing what's happening to us?

Rouse yourself, awake as though the Lord is unaware of what's happening to his people.

Many of you are aware that I enjoy hunting, deer hunting.

And I have many times sat in a deer stand.

And it is that hour before it becomes illegal to shoot.

You can shoot 217 minutes before sunrise, you can shoot 30 minutes after sunset.

We always, when we hunt, we always know what time, exact time sunset is so that you're not tempted to shoot when it's illegal to shoot.

That's the golden hour.

That hour where it's beginning to be dusky and then even the, the light is fading, and that's when the deer, a lot of times will come out into the open.

I've sat all day long sometimes in a stand didn't see anything until the golden hour.

There will come that deer out of the woods in order to eat.

But unfortunately, I seem to be sleep deprived sometimes and so it's not unusual for me to be sitting in that stand and I know that this is the time when I need to be awake and I'm, you know, you can't move around cause the deer have great eyesight.

So you gotta be still, and that's death to the person who's trying to stay awake but needs to sleep.

And so I find myself waking up and then waking up.

And I think only seconds occur between one time that I'm falling asleep and the next time I'm falling asleep.

Mike is laughing, but If you want, I will tell you a story about Mike sleeping in the stand.

When he shot a deer and or I shot a deer and he claimed it.

That's the way I tell the story.

You, you can get with me.

I'll be glad to tell you that story.

But I've wondered sometimes as I'm struggling to stay awake because my body just is saying you can't stay awake.

I wonder how many times deer have come out and just walked in front of me, maybe some big buck and he's telling the doe with him.

He needs his sleep.

I wonder how many opportunities.

I've missed because I wasn't alert when I really needed to be.

The scriptures present a contrast in multiple passages between those who sleep and those who are awake.

And watchful or alert.

One such passage is Mark the 13th chapter.

Beginning in verse 32 is where I'm going to start reading, and I believe that Mark 13 is not talking about the end of the world.

I know there are uh some who do believe that.

I think Jesus is still talking about the destruction that is going to come to Jerusalem, but The point that I want to make is that Jesus talks about uh a contrast between those who are sleeping, those who are, uh, and those who are alert.

He says in verse 32 of Mark 13, but concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father.

Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come.

Dropping down to verse 133.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows are in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake.

Whether that's talking about the final coming of Jesus or the destruction of Jerusalem, the point is, you don't know, Jesus says, when the time will come, stay awake.

You don't want to be found sleeping.

When that occurs.

Now, I believe in 1 Thessalonians 5 that Paul is writing about the end of the world, the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord, the final coming of Christ.

And he says in 1 Thessalonians 5, it's on the screen if you care.

Read along with me, for you are all children of light, children of the day.

We're not of the night or of the darkness.

So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Why do we need to stay awake, stay because we're children of the day, we're children of light, sleep, drunkenness, that's characteristic of the night.

The drunkard, like the sleeper is not vigilant, he's not watchful.

Well, If you want an example of watchful.

A deer is a pretty good example.

A deer will come out.

And just away from the edge of the woods and watch and look.

And they're not in a hurry most of the time.

And they'll just look and watch, and they'll come out a little bit further, and they'll reach down maybe and eat and then their head will come up.

I've learned that a deer that's got his head down or her head down eating, she's still watching.

And it just takes a very little bit of motion.

tens of yards away or more, and she's alert and that tail, that white tail comes up.

She's alert like that because she lives in a dangerous world.

She's got multiple predators including yours truly.

And so she's constantly alert to whatever is going on that doesn't look right.

And that's why we need to stay alert, because we live in a world that at least spiritually speaking is dangerous.

There are lots of spiritual dangers that we encounter, false teachers, bad influences in terms of associations that we might in some cases be forced to have because of work or other reasons.

And when we let our guard down, when we Go to sleep, so to speak, and become inattentive to those kinds of dangers.

It can result in our destruction.

Just like the deer who just walks out into the middle without of the pasture, without looking to see if there's any kind of danger around.

We need to watch so that we don't fall into temptation.

The passage that's cited there, Luke 22 and verse 46, is the passage where Jesus and his disciples are in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus is about to be arrested.

He has brought his disciples there to be with him, and he leaves them as a group, and then a smaller group, he leaves and he goes on and prays by himself, but he comes back and he finds the three that he, he finds them sleeping.

And he says, why are you sleeping?

Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Now, I understand that in the circumstances, it was late at night.

They had been probably tired because of some of the things that had gone on during the day and Jesus had taught them.

There may have been some fatigue just because of the tension that, that had gone on during the previous hours, during the supper, and, and then the things that Jesus said afterwards.

But here they are in a situation where they really need to be awake and they're sleeping.

And Jesus says, rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

We need to be alert.

We need to be watchful.

For temptation lest we fall prey.

To the tempter We cannot afford to be spiritually inattentive.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians and 1 Corinthians 15:34 in the ESV, Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

I say this to your shame.

Wake up Wake up and do not go on sinning.

We have an adversary who seeks to devour us, who seeks to destroy us.

And I sometimes get the impression that some Christians are basically asleep.

I don't mean that they're sleeping during services or, or that they're uh sluggards in that sense.

I mean, I, I, I think they're just inattentive to what's going on.

They don't seem to understand what's really important in life.

They're unconscious to the spiritual challenges that face them.

They're all wrapped up in all of their little physical activities that in the end won't mean anything.

They're asleep With respect to the things that are eternal in their consequence.

In their import Be sober-minded, be watchful, Peter would write, and that word watchful is the same word that would be translated in other context as Awake, be alert, be awake.

Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

There are some others who need to be watchful, especially.

Elders need to watch for the flock.

Paul, when he met with the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, the record of his conversation with them.

Luke says Paul said, Therefore, be alert, remembering that for 3 years I did not cease night or day to admonish one with tears.

Be alert, he says.

There are wolves.

There are sheep who need help.

In Hebrews the 13th chapter and verse 17, the author of that book says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, but that would be of no advantage to you.

That's the job of elders.

It's not to decide paint color, carpet color, to take care of the building, to guard the treasury, primarily.

It is to watch after souls.

And the Hebrews writer says, submit to them as they do that work.

They need to be alert, need to be watchful.

Parents need to be alert.

They need to be protecting their children from spiritual dangers.

Well, we could go on, but I'm afraid that some might fall asleep.

So I'm just going to conclude by saying that what we've seen from the scriptures is that the word sleep can be used in a metaphorical way with different meanings.

Sometimes it's used to talk about death.

Sometimes, sleeping is an indication of spiritual inattentiveness or inactivity.

And so as Christians, we need to stay awake, stay alert.

I know that the illustration falls down.

Everybody has to sleep eventually, right?

But as Christians, we really need to continue to be awake and continue to be alert if you follow the parallel, the illustration.

We need to be on guard against temptation.

We need to be watchful for the souls of others, not just elders in that task, but all of us as well.

The Greeks had a word that described a rest house.

A place where travelers could come kind of served as uh what we would call a hotel or an Airbnb.

Uh, it was the Greek word Coitarian.

And what it meant literally was a sleeping chamber, a place for you to sleep, but it also could mean a burial place.

And that word, that Greek word with some minor changes has been passed on to our English language.

It's the word cemetery.

That's what a cemetery is.

It's literally a sleeping place.

I'm not suggesting that souls sleep, but I'm suggesting that when someone sleeps, we expect that they will arise the next morning after their sleep.

And when people are buried in cemeteries, We expect because the scriptures teach this, that at some point, they will be resurrected.

In fact, that's what the word resurrection literally means.

It's a raising to stand.

It's compound word that talks about standing and standing again.

Someone who has died, has been laid to rest and then resurrected stands again.

And so Jesus said that the hour was coming.

And all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and they'll come forth, there'll be this resurrection, both of the wicked and the just.

But that resurrection is going to have a very different outcome.

For those two different, those two groups, we'll all stand up again if the Lord doesn't come before we sleep.

But some We'll stand again to life everlasting.

Some to eternal loss.

Which Will it be for you?

If you're not a Christian.

You still have time, you still have opportunity, at least for the moment, for the present.

We're not guaranteed.

I thought uh some good comments about time that Jim made.

The fact that we're not guaranteed even the rest of today, much less of tomorrow, but we have the opportunity always, we have the opportunity right now to do what we need to do in order to make sure that our relationship with the Lord is one that will result eventually in eternal life, and eternal fellowship and not eternal loss.

If you've not obeyed the gospel.

We're going to send just a few moments to sing and to encourage you to think about doing that very thing, expressing your faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and having repented of your sins, you can be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins.

If you're a Christian and you've been asleep, maybe you've dozed off spiritually and you realize that you haven't been, been paying attention to the most critical things in your life, the spiritual obligations and challenges that you face, then today would be a good day.