Prayers of Urgency

Don’t Sleep on God!!

Introduction

I was raised in church, great mother and father. I have a brother and sister. We were your average family.

I loved baseball and dreamed to play it professionally, but when I got a little older, I started to party a little bit, was hanging out with a rough crowd in Antioch, and before I knew it, I had quit the sports I loved, dropped out of school, and had a new set of dreams.

My new dreams were to be a successful drug dealer, in a twisted idea of a mobster lifestyle…the Bible says the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy and that’s exactly what happened.

Just two years earlier I got saved and was growing in the Lord and had realized that God called me into the ministry and with one bad decision after another, I became spiritually asleep and sinfully minded.

Little did I know that these bad decisions were leading me on an 18-year journey that should’ve led to my death; in fact, the only reason it didn’t kill me is because the Lord woke my mother up from her sleep whenever I was in grave danger and she was obedient to get up and pray or fast or whatever she felt she needed to do to save her son!!

When God wakes us up, it’s for a reason and the outcome could very well depend on your obedience. I’m a living testimony of that!

Don’t Sleep on God!!

When God gave me this sermon, I was talking with my mom and dad and my mom said to me that when God woke her up to pray for me, she could have gone back to sleep.

And immediately I began to think about all those nights I would come home and she would say to me, “I don’t know what you’ve been doing tonight but the Lord woke me up and I’ve been praying for you every minute since.”

Now that’s not only a momma’s unconditional love…but it’s the Heavenly Father’s never-ending love! He never gave up on me. He never quit waking mom up to pray for me either.

I was fully addicted to drugs, got into gangs and did everything I could to kill myself, but my mother’s prayers and my Heavenly Father’s grace saved me!!

To be awake is to be aware. We can be in spiritual sleep as well. Sleeping in when we should be speaking out. When God returns, will He find us sleeping?

The Disciples couldn’t justify sleep.

They didn’t sleep after Jesus yelled.

They missed experiencing the Savior in Agony by sleeping.

No two ways about it. I’m a living testimony of what happens when one of God’s people is willing to lose sleep to save sheep!! God knows we need sleep, but at times, He needs us to be aware of things.

Sleep means unconsciousness. Are you consciously obedient to God or unconsciously asleep?

Are you spiritually sleeping? Sleep might not always mean physically asleep.

In Mathew 26:36-46 the Disciples also struggled with sleep. They slept in the Garden.

Matthew 26:36–46 CSB

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And he came again and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. After leaving them, he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”

This all began when Jesus started having sorrow. Jesus was feeling sorrow which was a signal to pray. He also asked three of his Disciples to pray.

God gives us signals. IS JESUS WAKING YOU UP? You will know when He is waking you up to pray, He gives you signals. He asked Peter, James and John to watch and pray.

If Jesus felt that more prayer – the prayers of these Disciples – would be effective, more effective, then guess what, additional prayers are more effective. When I’m going through things, I ask everyone to pray because it is more effective.

So, the Bible says Jesus goes a stone’s throw away, knelt down and prayed. He then comes back to the Disciples and finds them sleeping and says, “You couldn’t even pray for one hour?”

God doesn’t have crazy or unrealistic expectations for us. When He wakes you up, He wants your help…He wants you to help with an issue that’s important to you, which in turn is important to Him.

He said, “Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation.” If staying awake and praying combats temptation, then when we forfeit our wake-up call, the devil starts working even harder. When we go back to sleep, we are opening ourselves up to temptations, problems, and who knows what else.

He goes apart to pray the second time and then returns again to the Disciples, who are again asleep.

God woke the Disciples up multiple times. He is waking us up for our needs, our loved ones, ourselves. He not only wakes us up but after we reject the first wake-up call, He comes back and wakes us up again.

Jesus knew and knows what it’s like to need sleep. He was all man. So, it seems like He knew they could stay awake. He wouldn’t have expected them to do something they could not do.

They could have asked Jesus to help them stay awake. Were they spiritually asleep? Did they realize that they were going to be the ones carrying on the message? The Disciples were asleep physically and spiritually.

Our flesh wants sleep, drugs, sex, porn, etc. but our spirit is doing everything to say NO…come this way!

IS JESUS WAKING YOU UP?

So, after waking them up twice, He comes back and says “Wake up the time is near, the Son of Man is being betrayed and My betrayer is near.”

Jesus woke the Disciples up multiple times and every time they went back to sleep. So while they were sleeping the enemy was working. The devil/Judas was getting one step closer. When we choose to sleep, the enemy is advancing.

IS JESUS WAKING YOU UP??

Are you going back to sleep?

Who is He waking you up for? Our loved ones? Ourselves? Our Neighbors?

Wake up calls are urgent! When God wakes you up to pray, I dare to say it’s URGENT!

It was urgent for my mom praying for me and it was urgent when Jesus needed the Disciples to pray.

So, when Jesus wakes us up it is urgent.

It’s possible to sleep with your eyes open.

Everything Jesus did was a lesson. That was their last lesson and they missed it. We can’t afford to miss it.

Slept while commanded to do otherwise.

God’s grace is waking us up as a final chance to pray and affect the final outcome.

When you are sleeping the thing God wants you to be awake and praying about is still happening, except it is now happening without your prayers.

Evil is not waiting on us to wake up and be obedient.

While God is doing everything to get your attention, the enemy is doing everything to keep you sleeping. Had my mom slept, I would be dead.

While we sleep the evil one is planning his next attack and gloating over his last victory. We have to wake up men! Cry to God and help Him help us. Pray His will be done…especially the men of the church!!! We can’t afford to be asleep men!

Preachers of our churches have gone to sleep and furthermore the leaders of the church – Men.

Staying spiritually alert when sleep calls is hard! The physical obedience brings spiritual release, which equals Power. The physical obedience – waking up and praying, brings spiritual release = prayer’s effects. Doing these things equals power.

I’m a living example of what happens when an obedient servant is willing to lose sleep to save sheep – in this case – her son!

I literally would be dead if she hadn’t woke up and prayed for me. My dad said that God told him once that I’m alive because of my mom’s prayers. Mom’s prayers saved me.

So back to the Disciples. The final time Jesus returned to them, He said, “Wake up – the Son of Man is being betrayed. My betrayer is near.”

Now what happened next? Let’s see what the Scripture says. In Matthew 26 we find in the passages that the Disciples are fleeing.

Vs 56 Jesus had prayed through and knew His Father’s will. Had Peter prayed he wouldn’t have cut off an ear and then been scared and fled.

Jesus woke the Disciples up for the last time; Judas is now in the Garden to betray Him. Jesus surrendered to the guards and things have now gotten ugly and THE DISCIPLES FLED! It was too late to change that situation because they slept instead of prayed.

Over and over in the Bible it tells us that prayer and communion with the Lord fills us with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit makes us bold. When we keep going back to sleep after God wakes us to pray, it makes us weak. The Disciples were weak. They didn’t know what to do because they did not know God’s voice at this point. So weak that in one account of this story one of the guys runs out of his clothes. They were spiritually asleep.

When we go back to sleep we’re denying Christ just like Peter did. Maybe had he stayed awake and prayed He wouldn’t have denied Jesus. Peter didn’t put in the time and effort to be in tune with God and it led him to denying Christ. That also led him into a lot of heart ache and depression, etc. The enemy attacks from all angles! When we are spiritually sleeping, the devil is methodically creeping.

Had we woken up and trusted in God, this ugly situation probably would not have happened…because it is probably what He was waking us up for in the first place.

IS GOD WAKING YOU UP? ARE YOU GOING BACK TO SLEEP?

2 Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 4 says: Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all things went on the way they were.

The Disciples slept through this lesson; they missed it.

Staying spiritually alert when sleep calls is the hardest.

God’s grace is waking us up as a final chance to pray and effect the final outcome. While you are asleep… the thing God wants you to be awake and pray about is still happening except it’s now going on without your prayers and evil is not waiting on us to wake up.

IS GOD WAKING YOU UP? ARE YOU GOING BACK TO SLEEP?