How Can You Sleep At A Time Like This?

So the ship master came to him and said and him what meanest thou o sleeper? Arise, call upon by God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not.

Now let's lay the foundation for this word.

Who was Jonah? Jonah was a true prophet of God

Jonah heard the voice of God

Jonah knew the will of God

Jonah knew the presence of God

Jonah fled from the presence of God because he didn't want to obey God's voice. Because whenever you get in the manifest presence of God he deals with everything in your heart, and because He didn't want to carry the gospel of judgement on sin

He was like a lot of our smooth talking prophets today: he only wanted to speak what made him popular with the people.

Jonah fled to Tarshish (the region of the stone)

He went down to Joppa, which means beautiful.

(Beautiful but dead) you may do something good but if it's not what God said, it's disobedience.

He found the ship going to Tarshish and he paid the fare thereof.

Disobedience cost, sin costs, sin will cost you in the long run. He went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. This speaks of hardening his heart, rebellion.

But the Lord sent out a great wind in to the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was likely to be broken.

I want to say something right here: It was God that sent the Storm after Jonah

I know it doesn’t fit with this sloppy agape message today that insinuates that God never gets angry and God never judges anyone, and God would never allow you to fall down, or never allow you to get hurt.

But the God of the Bible will send a Storm into your life, and he may just allow you to lose everything that you put your trust and confidence in to bring you back to him.

Somebody here right now, you know you were rebellious and stubborn and hateful angry resentful. but instead of God cutting you off he sent storms into your life to wake you up and turn you around. If you know that God was merciful to you and turned you around. You need to lift your hands right now and give him some praise and thank him that he didn't let you drown and thank him that he didn't let you destroy yourself.

Vs 5 but Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep.

The Mariners, the sailors, the passengers we're all terrified, they were afraid for their lives, they began to cry out to their gods, and they began to throw things overboard.

This means the things that they held onto and trusted in and depended on they just threw them in the trash.

They were in total desperation. Then suddenly they became aware that one of the passengers was not on deck.

So the shipmaster found him sound asleep and with total desperation for his life and the lives of everyone on board he asked the sleepy prophet.

How can you sleep at a time like this?

This is also what I hear the world saying today.

In their actions they're saying this.

The world is saying we are in turbulent times our lives are being destroyed nothing makes sense anymore everything is upside down, we don't know what to believe, or who to believe.

The world is looking at a slumbering church and asking the question how can you sleep at a time like this?

The world is saying where are the true prophets of God the ones that pointed true north, that gave us a point of reference, that told us right from wrong.

The ones that gave us truth that we could navigate by, and make it through the storms of life.

Where are the true prophets the ones that would hear God's Word at his mouth as Ezekiel and prophesy as they are commanded?

Where are the prophets who are more concerned about doing God's will then making money?

Where are the prophets who don't care about being politically correct?

Where are the prophets who are more concerned about God's reputation than their celebrity status?

Where are the true prophets of God that preach righteousness, holiness, separation from sin, sanctification and consecration?

Where are the prophets that do not overlook sin or pretend like it doesn't exist but command repentance?

Where are the prophets who do not use grace as a cloak for sin but as the power to conquer sin?

Again the question is asked how can you sleep at a time like this?