Wake Up Sleepy Head Series

II. Simply put this morning, I believe that the Church has fallen asleep in these last days. And I believe that it is time to wake up THE SLEEPING GIANT- THE CHURCH OF GOD UNIVERSAL!

A. Christ said that when He comes, He will come so quickly that many will be caught in a trap. Luke 21: 34 says, "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth.”

B. The people that Jesus is talking to here is the church. And He is warning the Church to come; the Church that will be here on the earth when all of this begins to happen. He is talking to us – you and I – and every other believer in this entire world! (expound)

A missionary went to Sierra Leone, West Africa. When she first arrived there, she was fascinated to see people wearing American T-shirts even when they didn’t know what the words meant. Her biggest laugh came the day she saw a man wearing a pink shirt with an arrow pointing to his tummy with the words: "Baby on board." (expound)

C. It is time to wake up! To get on with the Lord’s business. Nothing else matters. (expound).

III. How do you wake up a sleeping giant? (tell about waking up kids, etc.).

A. How do you wake up a sleeping giant? Look at verse 36 of our text this morning. It says, "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 22:46 says, “Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation." 1Thes 5:5-6 says, “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”

B. How do you wake up a sleeping giant? A man named Floyd Collins, in 1925, was exploring near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and got stuck. He was fifty-five feet from the surface and he got stuck. Icy water was dripping in his face. The rescuers came in and diverted the water, and they talked with him, they calmed him down, but they couldn’t get him out.

He began to come unglued there, stuck in that cave. He was able to see the light, able to see where he wanted to be, hearing voices, getting food, but he was stuck and he couldn’t get out. So he slowly began to have raving lunacies about everything from chicken sandwiches to angels in white chariots.

The newspapers got in on it, and ten thousand people came to see him. They sold hot dogs and sandwiches. It was a side show. Seventeen days later Floyd Collins died in that hole, able to see where he wanted to be and not able to get there. (Expound).

C. I want you to know that we can get there this morning – but we have to change! And the only way to change is to do something different. You can’t expect change if we keep dong the same things over and over - - - because you will always end up with the same results (expound). So how do we change?