Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
Before I was baptized into the Christian faith, I had a job that took me all over the country. I used to drive from Eau Claire Wisconsin to Butte Montana. Then I would drive from Grand junction Colorado to Dubuque Iowa. A few days later I’d have to drive all the way back to Jackson hole, and over to Cody Wyoming. It was an incredible amount of driving, and I can’t even remember how many miles that I put on my vehicle some of those years. But whenever you drive that much, you need to be extra careful to make sure that you are alert at all times. Sometimes very early in the morning, after driving all the way through the night, you can get extremely tired, and begin to fall asleep. Before you know it, you hear horns honking behind you, and suddenly realize that you are heading into oncoming traffic. Immediately you turn the wheel as quickly as possible in order to avoid serious consequences or even death.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
When you fall asleep, you really don’t know what is going on around you. Many people who profess to be Christian are asleep in their own sins. Prophets and disciples of Christ were sent to wake them up, because if they don’t open their eyes to the truth, they will ultimately perish in their own corruption. This is the fate for everyone who allow themselves to fall asleep at the wheel.
“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” 1 Corinthians 15:34
When you are asleep, you really are not paying attention to what is going on around you. When that happens, people get involved with all kinds of sinful living and mischief. They look awake, they sound awake, but they are asleep in their sins. Rather than being alert, and focusing themselves on being obedient to the will of God, they close their eyes to scriptural truth.
“…….their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” Matthew 13:15
Many people will set an alarm clock so they can get to work in the morning, but when it goes off, they sleep right through it. How many times have you gone into your child’s bedroom in the early morning hours and tried to wake them up? You might make many attempts, because they simply do not hear you. Sometimes when college students go to a lecture, they will put their head on their hand and before they know it, the class is over. All the information that was handed down to them is lost because they drifted off and slept right through it. When people get involved in sinful living, it does the same type of thing. Rather than listening and obeying biblical warnings, they reach over, hit the snooze, and refuse to wake up to the truth.It’s because their ears have become dull of hearing.
Hebrews 5 ¹¹ Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. ¹² For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Life on this Earth is very short, just like a wisp of smoke, and then it’s gone. This is why we must redeem the time, taking advantage of each day that God gives us. Each moment brings us one day closer to judgment Day. We must take the opportunity now to wake up from sinful living, and walk in the light of God’s Truth.
“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.” Romans 13:11
The only way that we can walk the Christian Life is by opening up our eyes. When you are sleeping, you simply cannot watch the narrow path of Christ that is set before you. Many devastating consequences can happen when people fall asleep. You could run into a telephone pole or right off a cliff. Have you ever had a friend who was drifting in and out of the lane as he was driving? Did you tap them on the shoulder and tell them to wake up? Many people who profess Christianity are asleep in their own sins, and need to be woken up with biblical truth. But some of them have become completely incapacitated because they have decided to sleep through class and refuse to open their ears to the truth.
2 Timothy 4 ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴ And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Many of these people still want to claim to be a Christian, but they don’t want to abide by the teachings of Christ. Because of this, many of them partake of Holy Communion unto damnation. This happens when they don’t examine themselves. They refuse to humble themselves, and reconcile with God or others who may have wronged. Because of this, they become sick, and many of them are asleep in their own sinful condition because of the refusal to repent of their deeds.
1 Corinthians 11 ²⁷ Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
²⁹ For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. ³⁰ For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. ³¹ For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
³² But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
When we are physically awake, we get a lot of things done. We might cut the lawn, vacuum the living room, or paint the house. When we are awake in Christ, we get things done too. We confess our faults, we change, we repent, we submit to His will, we obey, we purify and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. These activities will only happen when people wake up, and rise to the high calling in Christ.
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Ephesians 5:14
1 Thessalonians 5 ⁴ But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
⁵ Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ⁶ Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
People need to be woken up, because if they don’t, they are going to sleep through the work that God calls us to In Christ Jesus. Like a captain who runs their vessel into the rocks, you don’t want to finally wake up on judgment Day and realize that you no longer have the opportunity to change course. At that point, it will be far too late to do anything about it, which is the fatal and foolish consequence for anyone who allows themselves to fall…..
……Asleep at the Wheel
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
tlkjbc.com♥️
Note: Any copies may be printed and freely distributed among those who have no internet service. There is no AI creative involvement in my writings, and must be left intact because they are very personal to me. These are not to be sold, and are made public only for the free benefit of Spiritual knowledge to those who are genuinely seeking the will of God.
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 