27/11/05 Sleep Shopping and Sleep Living Mark 13:36-37
: SLIDE 1 quote
1.“Most of us are asleep, most of the time. Even when we shop we’re sleep shopping. Filling our trolleys with the same thing week in week out.”
Who said that? Where does it come from?...
ÞÞ Jamie Oliver
: SLIDE 2 Sleep shopping is just a slogan invented by the Ad Agency that Sainsbury have employed to improve their sales. It seems to be working. Over the last year since the Jamie Oliver series of adverts began, Sainsbury’s sales have gone up.
This phrase sleep shopping suggests that many of us don’t really think very carefully about what we are doing… and just lob the same stuff into the trolley week after week. Now this idea that we can sleep shop our way through the supermarket… is perhaps a useful idea to think about.
If we can sleep shop… is it possible to
ÞÞ “sleep live”?
Is it possible to just keep on doing the same things from day to day without really thinking about or even being aware of what we are doing, of the significance of the choices we are making, or the choices we are failing to make.
I think it is possible for us to keep on doing the same things, behaving in the same way, making the same choices, making the same mistakes even… without really being aware of what we are doing.
It is as if we are living without really thinking about how we live or what we are doing.
Sleep living.
3. In service of morning prayer one of the responses we use is from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians… says…
: SLIDE 3 Wake up, O sleeper and rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you. So St. Paul thought it was possible for the Christians in Ephesus.. to live as if they were asleep. He tells them to WAKE UP!
He said the same thing to the church in his letter to the Romans…
: SLIDE 4 Romans 13:11
Another reason for right living is that you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for the coming of our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
In the book of Revelation, we hear the words of the risen Jesus addressed to the church in Sardis…
: SLIDE 5 Revelation 3:2
I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.
Now wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is at the point of death. Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly and turn to me again. Unless you do, I will come upon you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.
Wake up… you are living as if you are asleep. That was the message of the risen Jesus. Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God and it is as if you simply are not aware of what you are doing. Wake up.
4. This sort of Sleep living seems to be a possibility for Christians doesn’t it? And there is a definite theme emerging here…
: SLIDE 6 we need to wake up!
Jesus warned his disciples to be alert at all times and to be so awake each and every day that they lived as if any moment they were excepting him to return.
In this morning’s reading… Jesus said,
: SLIDE 7 stay alert and keep watch…
keep a sharp lookout! For you do not know when the homeowner will return--at evening, midnight, early dawn, or late daybreak. Don't let him find you sleeping when he arrives…
Jesus has told us to stay awake, to live our lives in a state of readiness.
: SLIDE 8 If Jesus was to choose to return this morning is there anything you would need to do to be ready for him? Jesus has told us that he must not find us unprepared when he returns.
Are you wide awake and ready to meet Jesus… or are you sleep living? Of course the problem is that if we are sleep-living through each day then we might not even realise that we’re not ready.
5. Here is something that describes a medical condition.. it is a condition that needs to be treated and can be treated… I’m just reading a description of a problem: Parasomnias are dysfunctions associated with sleep… and may be associated with a specific stage of sleep or related to the transition between sleeping and waking. Patients may not know if they are awake or asleep and thus confuse activities…
: SLIDE 9 So how could a Christian discover whether or not they are awake or asleep?
How can we take a reality check and be sure that we are not just sleep-living as well as sleep shopping? How can we know whether or not we are staying alert as Jesus told us to.. or whether we are nodding off to sleep as followers of Jesus.
: SLIDE 10 Check it out
6. Here are a few suggestions...
ÞÞ Is there anyone in your life at the moment who you simply refuse to forgive for something they have done to you, or not done for you, or said against you?
I met a man just a few weeks ago who hasn’t spoken to his daughter in years because of something that she had once said to him.
If you are harbouring unforgiveness in your life… then WAKE UP… because you are no longer alert, you are sleep living. Have you forgotten what Jesus said..
If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:14-15
Here is another suggestion.
ÞÞ Do you find that it is getting harder and harder to find the time and space in your life to worship God with other Christians? You can remember a time when you never missed a week.. but lately it’s not been like that. There are so many other demands on our time, so many other commitments.
Wake up. God wants you to hear this from the letter to the Hebrews…
let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.
Hebrews 11:25
Let’s try another way of checking on whether we are awake or asleep…
ÞÞ Have you got enough money to do all that God wants you to do? (Notice I did say to do all that God wants you to do, not to do all that you want to do!)
We can so easily fall into the trap of thinking that all we need is more money. If only we had more than our problems would be solved. If only we can get enough money now well then one day we will be able to relax and enjoy it. If only we had more money then life would be so much better because we could buy all the things that would make us happy. Sometimes Christians can become so attached to money that they find it almost impossible to give away.
Wake up. Jesus warned us…
you cannot serve both God and money.
And God wants us to hear what is written in the first letter to Timothy… 1Ti 6:10
For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Other checks you could take…
ÞÞ Check out your thought life…
God’s word to us says… Fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. hilippians 4:8
Is that where you are at?
ÞÞCheck out your behaviour at work...
Are you a good employee do you work for your boss as if you were working for Jesus? That’s what wide awake disciples should do… the bible says…
Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24)
ÞÞCheck out your conduct as a parent…
And now a word to you fathers. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Ephesians 6:2
ÞÞCheck out your willingness to be known as a Christian. Do the things that you say help people to know that you are a follower of Jesus…. Jesus said…when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me (Acts 1:8)
7. Do you get the idea? Just In the bible God has given us all we need to make it possible for us to check out whether we are awake or asleep.
: SLIDE 11 Mobile phone call
You know how it is when a mobile phone goes off? Immediately you take notice of it and rummage around and take it out. I have seen people lots of times stop what they are doing to answer it. Maybe leave a meeting, or interrupt a conversation, or stop the car, or start talking to someone on the phone while they are in the checkout queue or walking down the street. I have even known people who turn off the television, or at least turn the sound down so that they can answer the phone.
ÞÞGod is just as important as whoever might be making that phone call to you. It is even more important that you pick up whatever message He has for you. Are you prepared when you hear a message from God to you? Are you prepared to stop what you are doing and pay attention?Or are you happy to just keep on dozing?
: SLIDE 12 stay alert…
: SLIDE 13
Wake up O sleeper and rise from the dead.
And Christ will shine on you. (Ministry Time)