Sermon Title: The Diagnosis and Treatment of Spiritual Sleepwalking Sermon Series: Revalation: Christ Our Coming King Sermon Text: Revelation 3:1-6

Transcription

1 Sermon Title: The Diagnosis and Treatment of Spiritual Sleepwalking Sermon Series: Revalation: Christ Our Coming King Sermon Text: Revelation 3:1-6 November 9, 2008 Are any of you sleepwalkers? Have you ever encountered a person sleepwalking? It s a pretty odd experience. Sleepwalkers walk around, do things and sometimes even talk to you. They look totally awake but they are completely asleep. I gathered up some stories of sleepwalkers these are pretty fascinating I regularly shout swear words at my mom, throw TV's, turn all the lights on, crawl around on the floor looking for my bunnies. Sometimes I pull the bed right out looking for them. I ve found tins of cat food open with forks in it (am sure I haven t eaten it). (from the talkaboutsleep.com message board) Usually within 1 hour after falling asleep, I get out the bed, go into a separate room, turn on the light and a computer, and play complex computer games that I have no interest in when I am awake. My eyes are wide open, I have very normal conversation with my husband to the extent that he needs to ask me "are you awake or sleeping?"--i usually answer "of course I am sleeping"! In addition to playing games, I tell my husband funny jokes I never remember thinking of before, or sing songs he knows but I don't. I do a lot of things, but never tried to go outside or do dangerous things. My husband says I am very entertaining in my sleep. Besides I feel refreshed in the morning. That is why I think I am a very fortunate, happy sleepwalker. (From sleepnet.com) The phenomena of sleepwalking is pretty familiar to all of us, but did you realize that there is such a thing as spiritual sleepwalking? Jesus actually first diagnosed the condition. And in the letter to the church in Sardis he calls out to spiritual sleepwalkers. Look at verse 1. Jesus calls out to spiritual sleepwalkers These Christians in Sardis seem to have started out alive and awake and engaged with Jesus. They were either initially convinced about Jesus in their minds or at least initially intrigued by his claims and infatuated with his promises but apparently they didn t continue to grow or gain elevation in their journey with Jesus. You might say they had head knowledge of Jesus

2 but never followed through and thoroughly entrusted their lives to him. They hung around with Jesus but were never really developed a close friendship with him and so the relationship drifted off to sleep. They might have got drawn into the energy and warmth of those who follow Jesus and loved how it felt to find unconditional love and community in a church. But, apparently over time the initial intrigue or the initial spiritual high wore off. It seems that over time they lost interest and drifted off to sleep and became like spiritual sleepwalkers. Ray Stedman, former pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, over in Palo Alto calls these folks Spiritual Zombies (Stedman, Ray, God s Final Word, p.67-78). Once their initial experience wore off they just continued to go to church, and sing the songs, and greet all the same people at church and go through all the motions of church and so on the outside they looked like a normal spiritually alive Christian, but Jesus sees through it and tells them they are actually on their spiritual death beds. Their spiritual house seems in order from the outside, but inside where it really matters where God sees where eternities are judged: they are on their last breath. In our culture, it s so easy to drift off to sleep spiritually. It s so easy to look alive spiritually on the outside but in reality be in a spiritual coma on the inside. If you are not intentional, your spiritual lives can become like your commute to work. You ever leave your driveway and then get to work, and wonder how you got there? You ve made the drive so often that you don t even have to think about it anymore and so you don t. You just space out and go into auto pilot. It s a lot like well, sleepwalking. The Bible speaks to this condition a few times because the people of God are prone to this mistake. Isaiah 29:13 says, These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. That s a description of spiritual sleepwalking. That s describing the people of God going through motions of life, but they are spiritual zombies. Did you know, sleepwalking can be really dangerous? A guy by the name of Scott Falater admits stabbing his wife to death and pushing her body in the backyard swimming pool while their children slept inside their home. But Falater, 43, says he remembers none of it. His defense: "He was sleepwalking at the time the event occurred and he had no consciousness operating in his mind at the time, in fact, his brain was, in fact, asleep," said defense attorney Michael Kimerer during opening statements of the murder trial. Dr. Cartwright, a sleep disorder expert who examined Falater, says it's possible. "Sometimes sleepwalkers hurt themselves. Sometimes they hurt other people. But this is a state in which they are confused. They're not conscious. They think something terrible is happening and they have to defend themselves so, often, they will fight. The "sleepwalking defense" is not unique. In 1992, the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of Kenneth Parks, who said he was sleepwalking when he drove 14 miles, stabbed his mother-in-law to death and seriously injured his father-in-law. (

3 Sleepwalking can lead to serious trouble. And there are some serious risks to spiritual sleepwalking as well. Look at the second half of verse 3 as Jesus describes the dangers. Jesus describes the dangers of spiritual sleepwalking - v. 3b If they don t wake up out of their spiritual sleepwalking Jesus is going to come to them and totally catch them off guard, unprepared and vulnerable. Many scholars don t take this reference to coming like a thief to refer to the coming of the Lord to gather his true followers and take them out of the world. In which case, the inference here is that they will sleep right through it, miss it and be left out (Matthew 24:43, Luke 12:39, 1 Thess. 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10, Rev. 16:15). Instead, many understand this to be a warning of a sudden unannounced coming judgment on them much like we saw in the letter to Ephesus when Jesus said, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand. Or to Pergamum when he said, Repent Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. It s difficult to know for certain what Jesus is intending to communicate to them. But, fundamentally he warns them that spiritual sleepwalking has some serious consequences. Either you are going to face some surprising discipline from God or worse you are going to find yourself left behind when he comes to gather those who are awake spiritually and looking for him. I read where our 13th president, Calvin Coolidge was an extremely quiet and reserved man. He got the nickname silent Cal because he rarely answered in more than 2-3 words. People used to say that he looked as if he had been weaned on a pickle. When the news announced that he had died, many wondered, How can you tell? (Stedman, Ray, God s Final Word, p. 69) As we stand under the sober glare of our Lord s letter to Sardis, we have to look honestly within and ask ourselves, Can anyone tell whether we are alive or dead? Am I truly alive in Jesus or am I spiritually sleepwalking? How can you diagnose if you are a spiritual sleepwalker? You might be able to ask yourself questions like: Do you care about what God thinks or how he feels about things in your life enough to change how you act or how you live? Or, do I recognize my complete dependence upon Jesus for my salvation? It s pretty tough to know if you are asleep when you are asleep or dead when you are dead. So, I think it will work better to get with someone who knows you and loves you enough to be honest with you and let them respond to these questions. And this time, DON T GO TO YOUR SPOUSE ON THIS ONE. And if a friend comes to you, don t weasel out by saying, Whom am I to judge? They are not asking you to judge their salvation, but to feedback to them if you see spiritual life in their life. Do you see the fruit of the Spirit increasing in my life? Can you give some examples? Do my attitudes, responses and behaviors reflect that the love of God is in me?

4 Do you see me using my influence in my life in increasing measure to further the name and mission of Jesus? Do the patterns in my life in how I spend my time, talent and treasure indicate to you my Biblical or Kingdom values? In other words, do you see my life increasingly aligned with the values Jesus teaches? It s very encouraging to notice that as the Lord Jesus calls out to Spiritual sleepwalkers, he doesn t say, I wash my hands of you. He says, You are on your death bed but I am still your Lord, and I will show the way to recovery. If you think you might be spiritually sleepwalking, I want you to see the remedy Jesus prescribes for spiritual sleepwalking. Look at verses 3:2-3a. Jesus prescribes the remedy for spiritual sleepwalking - v.3:2-3a The words of remedy in these verses are sharp, staccato commands designed to jar us awake like smelling salts or a slap on the face. They are told to Wake up! Wake up and honestly face your failure and spiritual dullness! Admit you have been going through the motions. Own that you are a really just a Christian in name only. Are you a morning person? Or do you have a tough time waking up in the morning? What does it take to wake you up? If you are spiritually sleepwalking right now going through the motions of following Jesus but your heart is not really engaged what will it take to wake you up? Keep in mind that sleepwalkers often require the help of another person to wake them up. And I believe Jesus gives us a clue as to the most important person required to wake up the sleepwalking believer in his introduction to this letter. These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. These images signify the Holy Spirit in his fullness and completeness. What sleepwalking believers need is LIFE from the Holy Spirit. If you feel you are in a state of spiritual sleepwalking don t continue to pull the sheets over your head and grab a few more winks. Call on the Holy Spirit to fill you and bring spiritual refreshment and life to you and snap you out of you spiritual slumber. Each of us must continually call on the Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us to avoid drifting off to a state of spiritual sleepwalking. We are told to pump up! We are told to strengthen what remains of our atrophied hearts and condition what spiritual life we have left. The fact that there is something that remains tells us that they were not beyond hope. Remember, they were still going to church, singing songs and maybe even serving. But, Jesus says their deeds or their actions were not complete in the sight of God. In other words, they had right actions, but they had wrong motives. By doing the right things with the wrong motives, they robbed their actions of power. This is what Paul warns Timothy about in 2 Timothy3:5. He says, mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will have a form of godliness but deny its power. Folks; strengthening what remains - starts with desire. Then it continues with intentionality. And it is nurtured with discipline. Your relationship with Jesus is no different than your relationship with your spouse or good friend. For your relationship to stay alive and fresh and vital it takes desire, intentionality and

5 discipline. Again, we must call on the Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us to strengthen what remains. We are told to stir up. They are told to remember the things that originally awakened them to Jesus. Stir up in their minds the things that first amazed them about Jesus. When I used to do marriage counseling, couples would sometimes come to me because their marriage relationship had just grown sleepy and was slipping into a comatose state. One of the exercises I had couples do was to go back and remember and write down all the reasons they were originally attracted to the other person. Often refreshing ourselves in the things about the other that initially captured our hearts wakes up our love. It wakes up our desire. It wakes up our passion. It wakes up our appreciation of the other. I think he s calling them to remember the stunning truths about salvation that awakened their hearts to Jesus in the first place. Truths like Titus 3:3-7, At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Stunning truths like Ephesians 2:3-5, 8-9, Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. These types of fundamental truths in the Bible remind us that you and I were doomed and helpless in our sinful condition, but God made a new chance and a new life possible through Jesus. Now, listen carefully; when you wake up to the reality that Jesus has died for YOU and you decide to take a trust filled free fall into his arms salvation is yours. Routinely remembering the indescribable and completely undeserved gift of Christ s love and sacrifice for you is absolutely necessary to avoid spiritual sleepwalking. Do you think that s why Jesus instituted communion? Jesus said, As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup do so in remembrance of me. To recover from spiritual sleepwalking we are told to wake up. We are told to pump up or strengthen what spiritual muscle or life that remains. We re told to remember the fundamentals and finally we are advised to get back on the path of spiritual life and vitality. We are told to follow up. We are told to get back on the path of spiritual life and vitality and stay there. It s a lifestyle of spiritual vitality. This involves the things we just talked about: Calling on the Holy Spirit to fill you and wake you up, pump you up and stir up your memories

6 of the things that first awakened you to Jesus. Now, this last one speaks to making that a lifestyle. It s the difference between going on a diet to simply to lose weight then bagging it and changing your lifestyle and eating habits to stay healthy. A dear friend of mine is a fitness trainer and educator. Recently he was staying at my home so I invited him to give me the once over in terms of my nutrition and eating habits and to review my work out routine. You know what seemed to be the key to following up on a desire to be physically fit? Balance and variety! It applies to food and to exercise. When he reviewed my work out routine he gave me all sorts of ideas about how to mix things up and change things around from time to time so that it doesn t get boring. The same principle is true for following up on a desire to be spiritually awake and fit. Like I said a moment ago a spiritually healthy lifestyle involves desire, intentionality and discipline, but it also involves creativity. Following up on a spiritual awakening and staying on a path of spiritual alertness means you have to mix things up from time to time. It means reading various solidly Biblical authors and listening to solid Bible teachers. It means reading through the Bible using different methods and in different translations. And after you have been in a season of all reading, take a season and listen to the Bible on CD. It means processing through different aspects of the Christian life with a friend or those in your small group. It might involve reading through the old hymns or even the new worship songs. It might mean singing them when you are by yourself in a private worship time. It might mean painting your devotional thoughts or committing them to writing or to poetry. As in all these letters, Jesus reminds us of the reward that awaits us if we hear and take to heart to his warnings. Jesus closes out this letter by reaffirming the blessings that await those spiritual sleepwalkers who heed his warnings and wake up. Look at verses 4-6 Jesus reaffirms the blessings of waking up spiritually - vs. 4-6 Jesus points out that there are a few good role models left in Sardis. They have not soiled their clothes with godless, spiritual lifeless patterns of living. And these are promised: They will walk with Jesus dressed in white because they are worthy. Clean, white clothing in the book of Revelation is consistently a symbol of religious and moral purity, especially in the face of persecution (see 3:18; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9, 13), while soiled or disheveled clothing, or no clothing at all, is a symbol of religious and moral impurity and shame (see 3:17-18; 16:15). These are worthy not because of their works, but because of they are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. Their names will never be blotted out of the book of life. Again it s an assurance of salvation for those who make Jesus their Savior AND Lord. Jesus reaffirms for them, Those who place their trust in me rather than in their own efforts, those who are covered by my righteousness, can never be blotted out of the book of life. And when it is all said and done and God reviews the video tape of your life, Jesus assures us that he will be there and he will acknowledge those who have followed him by name in front of God the Father. He ll step up in front of the screen and say, none

7 of that matters this one (he ll say your name) Brian is covered by my blood and my righteousness. Brian wears white garments. Brian is mine. That s worth waking up for!