Sleeping in Church

 

“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God… If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief.”

—Revelation 3:2, 3

I can remember my father and other farmers who sometimes fell asleep during church services. Most people excused such behavior because these men had arisen at 5:00 a.m. and spent hours milking cows and doing other necessary chores before they rushed in, changed their clothes, and headed out the doors of their homes on the Lord’s Day.

How do you think our God reacts to see His people not only sleeping in church, but unconsciously living each day in a kind of “sleep walk”? What might God have to say to those “sleep walkers”?

The Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and warned seven prominent churches of deadly habits that would keep God from using them. Most of those churches were pretty useless for the purposes He had created them. In the case of the church in Sardis, He stated that they had a wonderful reputation of wakefulness, of life, and of vigor.

However, like the farmers in my illustration, the Sardis Christians had fallen asleep and displayed only dead works. They were seemingly asleep to what God wanted to do with them. They needed a reawakening.

This letter from John should have stirred them back to their call to effectiveness. John called them to strengthen what remained of their glorious past and to stop slipping ever closer to a deadly sleep.

I like what the Puritan, William Gurnall, wrote about this condition:¹

The Christian is seldom worsted by his enemy unless he is negligent in his spiritual business and the enemy is upon him before he is thoroughly awake to draw his sword. The saint’s sleeping time is Satan’s tempting time…

Sampson was asleep, and Delilah cut his locks. Saul was asleep, and his spear was taken from his side. Noah was asleep, and his graceless son had opportunity to discover his father’s nakedness. Eutychus was asleep, and he fell from the third loft.

The Christian asleep in security may soon be surprised and lose much of his spiritual strength…

Sleep creeps upon the soul as it does on the body. Take heed that you do not indulge yourself in a lazy distemper, but stir up yourself to action, and stand up.

We get so comfortable that sleep comes easily. Yet, the “thief” is upon us. We need the wakeful, vigilant pose of Christians ready to act on behalf of the Savior in this world. God help us all!

Lord, Your church appears asleep, or at best, very drowsy. We have allowed our eyelids to get heavy, rather than standing tall to move at Your command.

Send us watchmen to warn us. Sound “Reveille” and reawaken Your church. Alert us to dangers that have intruded into our bed chambers and wait to kill us in our sleep.

Stir us up. As You awoke our churches in times past, come again and reawaken Your people for Your glory, through the power of Christ our Lord. Amen.

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1 Gurnall, William (author) and Richard Rushing (editor). Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Reading. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 358.