-Recently we heard the story about Robert Sanchez who was text messaging some 22 seconds before his California commuter train slammed into a Union Pacific freight train, killing 25 people and injuring over 130 more
-The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,00 crashes each year are caused by falling asleep at the wheel which results in 1,500 fatalities, 71,00 injuries and a loss of $12.5 billion.
-I was almost one of those statistics when I was working as a drill cadet for a basic training class at Fort Bliss, Texas outside El Paso. One of the other drill cadets was from El Paso. We were out at the ranges out in the desert for a few weeks and the drill sergeants decided to give us a break for a few days so my friend was driving us back to the post. I nodded off as the car droned along. I woke up as the right wheels hit the gravel on the side of the road. That was a boost of enough adrenaline to keep us alert for the rest of the drive back to the fort.
-I also, remember being on fire guard when I was a “cadidiot” doing training in the summers. Trying to wake up in the middle of the night and be alert is difficult when you’ve been training hard all day. I probably dozed off ever so briefly when I was on guard duty or when I was pulling security during Ranger school
-When we are tired, we all have a tendency to fall asleep
-One of the objectives of Ranger School is to stress the students by depriving them of food and sleep and see how they react. By the end of the course people are doing all sorts of crazy things because they are so sleep deprived. It’s a good thing they don’t give us live ammo or a lot more people would get hurt.
-While we were on a march during Ranger School, I fell asleep while I was walking. I’m not sure how long I was out but I definitely fell asleep.
-Some other guys walked up to trees and tried to put quarters in them thinking they were vending machines.
-Because of our humanness, we need sleep. We are actually very frail. We need our sleep.
-One theologian has stated that to prevent the attacks of the devil, we need to make sure we never get too lonely, too hungry or too tired
- If you do, you are setting yourself up to succumb to the devil’s temptations
-When we are weakened in those various states we find that we do things that we normally wouldn’t think about doing – things that we don’t think we are capable of
-You deprive a person of food long enough and they will eventually steal in order to eat
-We don’t think through the repercussions of our actions
-You deprive a person of meaningful contact with others for long enough and they will look for contact in ways that are potentially harmful to them
-We don’t always make smart decisions or decisions based on rational thought
-You deprive people of sleep long enough and they’ll start trying to put quarters in trees and expect to get something to eat or drink
-Have you ever done something that you regret wish you could do over again because you were overly tired, hungry or lonely?
- We probably all have
-When I was on my big diet last summer, trying to get down to 189 pounds so I could max my PT test I was really hungry – I was only eating two very small meals a day, running 30 + miles a week and sleeping about 5 or 6 hours a night
-I was run ragged
-Linda told me, “Either you have to start eating again or you have to be nicer.”
-Apparently, all that dieting and work turned me into a big meanie {PAUSE}
-Think about what happened to the Israelites when they were put into austere conditions
-When they were deprived of permanent homes, forced to wander in the desert wilderness what did they do?
-How did they react when they were forced to live on bread and water, oh and quail too?
-What did they do?
-They melted down all their gold and made an idol out of it
-They put the Lord to the test
-God had just saved them in the greatest work of salvation in the Old Testament
-He forced Pharaoh’s hand and made it so he had to let the Israelites go
-He parted the Red Sea and let all the more than a million Israelites go through on dry land
-He swallowed up Pharaoh’s army as he let the Red Sea envelop them
-He had saved the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians and then they wanted to go back
-He later showed them the land that he promised to give to them and they didn’t believe they could conquer it
-The God who got them out of the grip of one of the greatest empires in history wasn’t able to help them conquer a few hooligan tribes.
-How ludicrous, right?
-It’s funny but we do it too.
-When life throws us a curve ball, we freak out or trust in our own strength when we should be trusting in the One who got us through our previous scrapes, the One who got us to where we are today
-Sometimes it’s easier said than done
-Last week, when I showed up having been up for 23 hours I didn’t have a lot left in the tank.
-I realized that the only way that I was going to get through last Sunday was with God’s help.
-I actually ended up getting charged up as the service went on
-It was an added boost to my faith to see how God gives you what you need, once again, when you need it {PAUSE}
-And God does give us what we need
-God sent Jesus, when He started His public ministry, out into the desert wilderness to be tested like the Israelites had
-He fasted for 40 days and then was tempted by the devil
-Jesus was hungry, tired and lonely just like we often are and like the Israelites were
-He was tempted to turn a rock into bread
-Jesus turned away his temptation by quoting scripture, “Man should not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
-Then the devil took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem and told him to throw Himself down because God would send angels to protect him and this time the devil quotes scripture to defend his position
-Jesus again turns away this temptation by quoting scripture, “Do not put the Lord, your God to the test.”
-Lastly, the devil takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and promises to give Him all of it
-Knowing that it already belongs to Him, Jesus turns him away saying, “Worship the Lord, your God, and serve Him only.”
- Jesus passed the test that the Israelites failed and that we fail too
-Jesus fulfilled the commandments perfectly for us. He passed all the tests that we fail for us so that by faith, we receive His righteousness.
-And by His death, our misdeeds, our failures, our imperfections are paid for through His shed blood. {PAUSE}
-That’s great news! We can rest securely, knowing that God is standing guard over us.
-We can sleep soundly because God doesn’t fall asleep at t
