The Sleeping Church

Can you sleep with the lights on? Do you sleep during the day? Whenever my brother-in-law used to visit, he would ask for the thickest blankets we had, not because he was cold, but to cover up the windows in the bedroom. He can’t sleep unless it’s pitch black. He’s also a go-getting, type-A personality. I think that his brain starts firing as soon as the lights come on.
Some people wake up with the sunrise, while others wear out the snooze button.
There’s an old saying, “The early bird catches the worm.” I know from long experience that the people who get up early are generally the same people who have a habit of getting things done. People with ambition, drive, and purpose are motivated to get to it and are catalysts for making things happen.

The apostle Paul had a word for those Christians who had “fallen asleep”, so-to-speak. Even in his day, it seems that there were those who were content to lazily kill time while waiting for the Lord to return.
Know any Christians like that?
Here’s what he had to say. “And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”(Romans 13:11-12 NIV)
Wake up guys! You are closer today than you were last year! Every beat of your heart, and every minute that passes, is one minute closer to the day of the Lord.
It’s time to get rid of sin, in whatever form it may be in your life, and get close to Jesus. Put on the armor of light, and go do what God has called you to do!
Right now, your friends and neighbors who don’t know the Lord NEED YOU MORE THAN EVER to be the witness for Christ in their lives.
Wake up, cast of the silly sins you’re playing around with, and BE the church. BE the light of the world. BE the salt of the earth. BE an ambassador for Christ.

We don’t do it by protesting. We don’t do it with violence or by force. We don’t do it with finger-pointing, by hurling insults, or with ridicule.
We certainly don’t do it by isolating ourselves, or withdrawing from the world into our protective Christian bubble.
Love doesn’t sit passively by and let the world go to hell.
Love is the source of ambition, drive, and purpose in ministry. All ministry is sacrificed life. It’s intentional. You get to choose, in every situation, if you are going to love and reach people as Jesus did.
Jesus said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.” (Luke19:10) He said this right after he went to the most notorious sinner in town, had a meal in his house, and led him to repentance.

How are you influencing your world for Christ? If you were to evaluate yourself today, which category would you fall under? Asleep and totally unengaged? In that slumber where you hear the alarm from time to time, but you just hit the snooze button rather than get up? Or are you wide awake?
These are not days when the church should be sleeping. In these turbulent times, the world needs you to shine the light of Christ.
Will you?