It's not time to sleep!
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Sleeping is one of the activities people love the most. The “activity” of “being inactive” It is one of the cheapest pleasures.
Physical sleep is necessary and beneficial to the body… Insomnia’s consequences: nervousness, headaches, and lack of concentration, even craziness.
But spiritual sleep is harmful to the soul: no peace, heartaches, no concentration in God’s work, and you’re crazy if you think it will be well with your soul.
Here we find a man sleeping when he shouldn’t!
Background:
God had seen the iniquities of the Ninevites and their need of salvation. He had a plan for them.
They could not believe in a God of which they had not heard. They could not hear if there was no one who preach to them. God call Jonah and send him to preach to them.
Read Jonah 1:1-10
Jonah refused to obey God…
His story in chapter 1 represents the life of many Christians who are sleeping when they shouldn’t.
Four important questions for those who sleep.
How can we sleep…?
How can we sleep when people perishes?
How can we sleep when people perishes?
Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”
People without Jesus are victims of idolatry.
People without Jesus are victims of idolatry.
The sailors, as any other idolater in difficult moments, shouted to their gods for help. Their darkened minds did not let them see that images, made of wooden, chalk, or clay cannot hear, speak, or walk, much less save. They did not have common sense!
Nowadays, some have changed their wooden idols for the green paper idol: money! They are willing to do anything for Mammon!
Idolatry is one of the sins the Lord warned His people the most. The second commandment is clear...
If they do not repent, their destiny has been determined:
“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
They need to hear the gospel because without Jesus they are lost.
There is lost people everywhere.
There is lost people everywhere.
He was sent to Nineveh, the great city. There were 120,000 inhabitants in that city, an extremely large population for that time. That’s the equivalent to the population of La Habra and South Whittier together.
They did not know God and that’s why they were so wicked, but also the sailors were lost.
God was putting people who needed to know the Lord in Jonah’s way.
There are 7.79 billion people on earth and out of those only 1.2 billion are non-catholic Christians. (15.4%).
That means that for every 100 people there are or you meet, 84 are lost and need to hear the gospel. You don’t even have to look for them, God put them in your way: neighbor, friends, co-workers, fellow students, relatives, clients, etc.
How can we sleep when God has commanded us to make disciples?
How can we sleep when God has commanded us to make disciples?
The orders are clear.
The orders are clear.
“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it...” 2a
The marching order was clear and indisputable. He could not claim that he did not understand it! Clearer, not even the water!
The Great Commission, the marching order for us is also very clear:
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
We are not reaching the lost.
We are not reaching the lost.
The lost will not come to us, we must go to them! How many have come and ask you, “How can I be saved?” Probably none!
Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion; Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no longer come into you.
People are waiting for a message of hope. They need someone who tells them the message!
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
Like most Christians, Jonah was sent, but he did not want to go!
When he should have been preaching to the sailors, he was sleeping!
This ship called Earth is going through a heavy storm, the winds of COVID19 and the economy threaten to sink the ship. Its inhabitants are desperate trying to save their lives and the ship; but the Jonahs, the Christians are sleeping!
The church, as a whole, has failed because the believers are sleeping!
How can we sleep when evil is so abundant?
How can we sleep when evil is so abundant?
“Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” 2b
- We live in the last days which are very evil:
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
We cannot deny that the description fits the people of this time!
for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
Sleeping people are good for nothing, they do not do nothing, they only occupy the place!
Our boldest enemies have been plundered. They lie before us in the sleep of death. No warrior could lift a hand against us.
In this wicked time, we must be awake and reflect Jesus in our walk.
How can we sleep when we are not right with God?
How can we sleep when we are not right with God?
He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
Do we the conscience cauterized? Don’t we hear the voice of the Spirit?
We cannot escape from God.
We cannot escape from God.
Foolishly, Jonah thought He could escape from God! He went in the opposite direction. He was hiding in the ship.
But, as David expressed it, no one can escape the omniscient and omnipresent God:
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
God gives us another chance to do right.
God gives us another chance to do right.
But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.
The wind and great storm was a call to react! Not sinking the boat was a chance to rectify, to do right!
God is patient and merciful; therefore, He gives us chances to repent and do what we have been called to do.
Many verses in the Scriptures testify to the chances He gives us:
‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. ‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”— Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.
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.
Jesus’ disciples were sleeping when they should be praying and alert:
Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Then Jesus left them again and prayed the same prayer as before. When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open. And they didn’t know what to say. When he returned to them the third time, he said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But no—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Unfortunately, some are so deeply asleep that neither an earthquake, nor an illness, nor a virus wakes them up! They are probably dead, spiritually dead!
God is calming the storm, but woe of us if we do not take advantage of the opportunity before us!