The Sleeping Church (Part 1)
Most of us anticipate with great excitement the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, however should that be the case? If we were honest with ourselves, I think that excitement should be tempered with a little fear and trepidation. Why? Because we are failing to do the major thing He asked of us and that is to watch! Now, many believers take that to mean we are to keep our eye on the sky and look for His appearing, while letting our earthly concerns fall away by the wayside but I don’t think that is what He had in mind at all. We are to be about “our Father’s business” right up to the very moment of His appearing. Apparently, however, the church is asleep at the wheel and not even offering the slightest resistance to the encroachments of the enemy. Let’s look back at our deplorable history. We let them take prayer and bible reading out of schools and the church did nothing! We let them legalize abortion on demand and the church did nothing! We let them redefine marriage and the church did nothing! We’re allowing men to use the same restroom as women and the church is doing nothing!What do we have to look forward in the future? If Hillary gets in and wants to re-interpret the Constitution, will the church do anything? If they want to impose their beliefs and force pastors to marry homosexuals, will the church do anything? If they declare we must hire pastors who themselves are gay, will the church do anything? If they want to exert more control over the populace by making us a cashless society, will the church do anything? If they want take away our right to bear arms, will the church do anything? If recent history has shown us anything the answer will be a resounding NO! Just wake us up when the Lord comes back seems to be our response and that should scare us to death.
Every single one of these issues may seem unimportant but they all lead to the same thing which is stifling the freedom of Christians to express themselves and their beliefs! In many work places we’ve already lost our freedom to share Christ with our co-workers. In most schools the free expression of Christian thought is not allowed while other religions are honored. The truth about sin, hell and salvation can now be considered “hate speech”!! When will we wake up and start our own march to freedom. I’m calling for Christians everywhere to take a stand and make our voice heard through peaceful protests. We can call it CBM, which is short for “Christian Beliefs Matter”! We know the eternal souls of our friends, family and neighbors are at stake so what are you willing to risk for so great a prize? Losing your job? Losing some friends? Getting a reputation for being weird and peculiar? Sure they are possibilities but you’ll also receive the greatest reward. What is that you might ask? The chance to hear Jesus say. “Well done my good and faithful servant!” I’d be willing to risk everything to hear those words! Wouldn’t you?
The Sleeping Church (Part 2)
Why are we a sleeping church? Because we fail to recognize the satanic oppression that is overtaking us. As we get nearer and nearer to the latter days, the devil has ramped up his forces, just in case we decide to WAKE UP! The thought that we might actually unite and try to interfere with his scheming has him shaking in his boots so to prevent that possibility he has cast a spell of apathy and lethargy upon us. It’s time for us to STAND UP and declare His NAME to the world.This attack by the devil is rooted all the way back to the Garden of Gethsemane. Matt. 26:36-46 (NIV) “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (James and John) along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going 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.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men 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 flesh is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (words in parenthesis mine) The word “watch” here means to “keep awake”!
So what parallel conclusions can we find here?
1. It was the latter days. (of Christ’s earthly ministry)
2. When Christ needed them most, they were sleeping, most likely caused by demonic oppression.
The bible is chock full of warnings against “sleeping”. Jesus said in Luke 21:36 – “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Luke 12:37 – “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”
Paul also gave us several warnings. Rom. 13:11 – “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
Eph. 5:14 – (echoing Isaiah) “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”
1 Thess, 5:6,8 – “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober…8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” (the word “sober” means to “watch”)
Peter also shared some warnings with us. 1 Pet. 1:13 – “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
4:7 – “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.”
5:8 – “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” ( the word “vigilant” is the same as “watch” which means to “keep awake”)
Being “awake” does NOT mean just lying around and watching an America that is “under God” and whose currency says “in God we trust” get farther and farther away from God. Yes, people in this nation have the right to worship or not worship as they please but that does NOT give them the right to tell US we can’t put up a nativity scene or worship in any way WE please. It does NOT give them the right to tell Christians to Shut Up and stay OUT of government! This government was founded upon religious principles and if Hillary gets elected we will see our Christian freedoms vanish! As a Godly nation who, at this moment, is in the majority if we dare to take a stand, have the right to tell Atheists who are less than 1% of the population to Shut Up and stay out of OUR business! We cater to those who are less than 10% of our population, individually, gays, muslims, trans-genders, etc. In any given community, if ALL the churches took a stand and said, YOU WILL NOT TELL US THAT WE CAN’T HAVE A NATIVITY SCENE or if they all stood before the school boards and demanded they teach EVOLUTION AS A VIABLE THEORY, they WILL listen to us! Hundreds and thousands of people uniting as ONE can NOT be ignored! So I ask you, Do you dare to be about our Father’s business?
One more thing using Christ as an example. Keep in mind that although Israel was under Roman authority the government and bureaucracy of Israel was in the priesthood and how did Christ deal with them when He found corruption in the temple? Matt. 21:12 – “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,”
What did Jesus have to say to those with religious and political authority? We should be echoing these words to OUR government leaders for this is what the church has to look forward to if we don’t!
Matt. 23:13-36 – “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in 14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”
