Asleep
Notes
Transcript
Matt. 25:1-13
Intro- I'm sure you have all heard the story of Rip Van Winkle, but I'm not sure you have heard Leonard Ravenhill's version. He was raised in England and he first heard it when he was studying about AMerica in elementary school. He told the main portion very similar, Rip van winkle went up the hill and fell asleep and slept for 20 years befoe he woke up. But he goes on to tell that when Rip went up the hill he passed a sign with the face of King George the 3 painted on it. When he woke up and passed the sign again it had another Englishman's face painted on it. That was the hidden secret of the story not that he slept for 2o years but that he slept thru the revolution.
I'm afraid the majority of the church is sleeping and has been sleeping thru one of the worst revolutions we have ever seen.
I would like to look at this parable just a little bit diffrently that what you have probably heard it before. I believe we are living in the sleepy age. When nearly everyone is asleep. We find in our text that they all slumbered and slept, There are some problems connected with sleep I'd like to show us this morning.
I. When one sleeps they can't work- We are living in a world of multi-taskers but you can't work and sleep at the same time. One of my neices sleep walk occasionaly, One night her parent's woke to a strange sound, they went to check it out and found her in the kitchen going thru the fridge. When they asked her what she was doing she told them she was cleaning the boy's room. It wasn't getting too far. When we sleep we can't do much. We see in our scripture the virgins all slept the foolish hadn't purchased extra oil, and were caught off gard when the cry came, "Behold the bridegroom cometh"
A. I don't want intend to preach on the second coming, I wanted to preach about revival. Lord help us to wake up and get out of our ruts. SO we can work.
1. Bro. MOsely said something that has stuck with me, the last time he was here. "Revival if for the church"
2. This is a good time to store up some oil, when the tide isn't so high.
II. When One sleeps they are defenseless-
A. You can't fight while you are asleep.
B. Remeber the legend of the "Trojan Horse"
1. It was while they were asleep that the soilders came out.
III. When one sleeps they can't keep the fire burning.
The virgins when they were finally awake noticed their lamps had gone out, They had to trim their lights and refill with oil but 10 of them didn't have any extra.
I hope I can help us this morning that we will stir ourselves, Yes we will probably have to do it ourselves, to get out of our ruts. A. W. Tozer warns that a sure sign of a rut is when you can predict what will happen the next service. When there is growth their is an air of unpredictabilty. May God help us not to sleep while it is important to stay awake.
Remember Jesus and his disciples on the night of his betrayal, They just couldn't stay awake,They missed their oppotunity to escape temptation, Jesus told them that, pray lest ye enter into temptation.