Losing An Hour

Welcome to the Reem Sound Church of God podcast.

Wherever you're listening from, we hope you are blessed by

today's message. All right, Matthew chapter 26,

Matthew 26:36

verse 36. Then Jesus came with them to a

place called Gethsemane, and he said to the disciples, Sit here

while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and

the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply

distressed. Then he said to them, My soul is

exceedingly sorrowful even to death, Stay here and watch with

me. He went a little farther and

fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh my Father, if it is

possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and

said to Peter, What? What could you not watch with

me? One hour specifically, He said.

One hour. Watch and pray lest you enter

into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing,

but the flesh, Oh, the flesh, Oh my flesh, but the flesh is weak.

I want to speak to you on this thought today.

Losing an hour. Losing an hour, Father, I thank

you for everything God, that's happened and is happening.

I thank you, Lord, for the way your blessing from the nursery

all the way around to the junior youth and back into this

sanctuary, God. And we've committed it all to

you today and we're believing you, God, that you still have

more to accomplish here this morning.

And we open our hearts to you for you to use us for your glory

in Jesus name, Amen. You may be seated.

Well, something mystical happened last night.

I didn't stay up to watch it, but something happened at 2:00

AM. Was anybody watching your clock

at 2:00 AM this morning? There was 1.

Great when we got one over here as well.

I've never seen it, so I want to ask you did it immediately just

jump to three? Just that's what it did.

So 2:00 AM this morning, it became 3:00 AM.

We lost an hour. Where did it go?

What happened to 201202205? What happened to 2:59?

It totally vanished off the face of the earth and we lost that

hour. Something I don't quite

understand all of that, but 2:00 AM became 3:00 AM and something

happened and it changed everything just that quickly.

Now, I don't know about how you prepare for this daylight

savings time thing, but for me, I start on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, I start going around the house and every clock

that doesn't change itself, I change it.

I change it because I want to fool myself into thinking it's

already an hour later, that I already lost it and I don't have

to worry about it Saturday night.

And one of the reasons I do that is because it's it truly is

important to me. And I for your sake, I want to

be fresh on a Sunday morning. I don't want to come here and do

less than my best. My best may not be all that

great, but I want to do my best. And so I don't go into any wild

parties on Saturday night. I don't go to any wild parties

at all at my age, Jarrett Hall, you know.

Well, anyway, but I try, I try to, I want to get, if I can, I

want to get proper rest. And the only way I can do that

because it nags at me knowing that I'm going to lose that hour

all day long. So I've already prepare myself.

The clock's already set. So I'm, I'm, I'm ready to go.

Let me ask you this. How many of you like daylight

savings time? You like it.

I do. Does anybody else join me?

You like it and some of you OK. How many of you don't like it?

You want it to stay the way it was.

OK, there's more of you that like it, but how many of you

that like it don't like the fact that you lose an hour on that

Saturday night? Now I want to tell you

something. I did some research and you've

heard these things before, but I never realized how much there's

so many arguments against changing the clock.

There's places I've got reference from Stanford

Medicine, John Hopkins, Bloomsburg School of Health,

Northwestern Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic, and let me

just tell you what they tell you happened to you.

Losing an hour of sleep for daylight savings time disrupts

your body's natural circadian rhythm.

That's something we talk about every day.

How's your circadian rhythm today?

How's it going for you? That's a good question to ask

people because it only talks about it means your internal

clock from day-to-day, one day at a time.

And that's kind of a Latin phrase there.

But anyway, it says it messes you up and it increases short

term public health and safety risk like heart attacks and

accidents. They said that fatigue and sleep

deprivation are obviously the main culprits.

The primary effect is a collective loss of an hour of

sleep causing grogginess, increased sleeplessness and

difficulty concentrating the following week.

So the whole next week is already messed up for you.

Short term effects, long term effects impaired performance.

It reduces alertness and slower reaction times affect daily

functioning, potentially leading to lower productivity and more

errors at work or at school. Judges listen to this.

Judges have even been shown to give harsher sentences on sleepy

Monday after daylight savings time.

I hope you don't stand before a judge tomorrow.

There are increased accident risk.

Studies consistently show a spike in accidents immediately

following the time change. 6% increase in fatal car accidents

after DST begins. An increase in workplace

injuries, with one study finding an average of 3.6 more injuries

on the Monday after the shift of time.

So don't go to work tomorrow, stay home.

This disruption of the body's internal clock puts the body in

a pro inflammatory state and affects numerous biological

processes, increasing the risk of cardiovascular events.

The risk of heart attacks increases by 24% on the Monday

following the spring shift. Strokes and atrial fibrillation

admissions also rise mental health issues.

The shift can exasperate existing mental health

conditions like depression and anxiety, and can increase stress

and irritability. Doesn't encourage you?

I'll get to the word in a minute.

Metabolic and immune issues Circadian misalignment can lead

to a slowed metabolism, weight gain, and a weak.

It's that whole that our thing has hurt me so much.

And a weakened immune system making individual more

vulnerable to illness. And who is vulnerable?

Who are the most vulnerable? Certain groups, including night

owls. If you stay up late at night,

late starters, teenagers, older adults are those with

pre-existing health conditions. And so all of this can happen.

So here's where we are. There's a whole lot of bad stuff

and so I guess I should have just cancelled service last

night today so you wouldn't get messed up, but I didn't.

Or I should stop now and let you out an hour early, but I won't.

So we are stuck here together, but there seems to be an awful

lot of concern over one hour a year, one hour a year, and the

whole world is going off its orbit and it's falling off its

axis even as we speak, because people lost an hour.

But in the text that we just read, there is a loss of an hour

that Jesus talks about. And it wasn't a loss because

people didn't sleep, it was a loss because they did sleep.

Verse 40 says, Then he came to the disciples and found him

sleeping and said to Peter, what?

I can hear that. What could you not watch with me

one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter

into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing,

but the flesh is weak. So while there are problems

associated with losing an hour of sleep, there are more serious

complications spiritually for people who lose an hour because

they sleep when they should be praying.

Amen. You see, Jesus knew what was

about to happen and this losing an hour that he asked them to

watch was going to be very costly because they were all

scattered. And the Bible says that even

Peter, who he spoke to about this, actually denied him, as

you know. And we preached about that

recently three times in one episode.

It was a it was a lost, it was an hour of lost opportunity

because it was an hour that Jesus asked his disciples to do

something for him. And all he asked him to do was

to watch and pray for that one hour.

And they lost that hour of opportunity by sleeping.

And I begin to think about stories in the Bible and really

stories even from history where people have a lost because of

sleeping when they should have been awake.

Now, we lost last night because we were awake when we should

have been sleeping because that hour, we just lost it during the

night. But I want you to think back as

I think about the prophet Jonah, when when in the book of Jonah,

it tells the story of God speaking to Jonah and telling

him to go to Nineveh and to preach the destruction of that

city if they didn't turn their lives around.

But he didn't want to do it. And so Jonah went the other way

and he got on a ship headed toward Tarsus and something

happened. And I want to read it to you.

In Jonah chapter one verse 5, it says then the Mariners were

afraid and they were afraid because a great storm came out.

The man of God Jonah was sleeping and the Bible said it

was so bad that they threw the cargo that was in the ship into

the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the

lowest parts of the ship had lain down and was fast asleep.

So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean,

sleeper, what are you doing? Why are you sleeping?

Arise and call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider

us that we may not perish. Because there were a lot of idol

worshippers and image worshippers and false God

worshippers on that boat. But there was one man that knew

God, and these others were calling out to whatever God they

believed in, which wasn't even real.

But the man who he could have changed the course of all of it,

missed that hour of opportunity and had to be awakened.

And when he was awakened, of course, it was revealed in that

he was actually the problem, but it was a lost opportunity.

When we read the stories in the Book of Judges, we we read about

the course of history being changed by a man by the name of

Samson. And Samson did what?

Samson was able to maintain his strength even though he flirted

with the enemy. He maintained his strength until

he laid his head in the lap of Delilah and he took a nap and

that was a costly hour of rest to him because she had him shorn

and he lost his power and judges.

We read a couple accounts. 1 is in Chapter 7 when get in with

300 men going against 32,000 or more needs an answer from God

and he is told by the Lord to go down to the camp of Midian and

when he gets down there they're asleep.

They're asleep and and Gideon gets close enough that he hears

2 men talking about a dream of how God is going to win this

battle for Gideon. And so Gideon defeats the

Midianites because they were sleeping.

It's amazing what power we lose when we are asleep.

Amen. I'm talking spiritual asleep.

I'm talking about being asleep spiritually.

The Bible also tells us in Judges chapter 4 that there was

Judges 4 · chapter mention

a Canaanite military commander and and that man's name was

Sisera and Sisera was an enemy of God's people.

But there was a time when the Lord's people were beginning to

win. God was beginning to answer

prayer and victory was coming, and Sisera had to actually run

for his life. And he ran to the tent of a

young lady by the name of JL. And he asked JL to keep him on

the inside of the tent, and if anybody came to tell him, nobody

was there. But JL went to sleep in that

tent. And when he laid his head down

and went to sleep or not, JL. But when he went to sleep,

sister went to sleep. JL took a tent peg and a hammer

and hammered it right through his temple, and God's people

were given a great victory. That victory came, though,

because the enemy was asleep. Do you know in American history

there are stories also in Texas there today at a place called

Lapointe, Texas, if any of you have ever been there, there's a

monument standing. Really.

Because people went to sleep. That monument that it is the, it

is the tallest column monument in the world.

And it's actually taller with its base in the Washington

Monument. And it is there because General

Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana there.

But Santa Ana and his Mexican troops got there and they

thought they were safe. And so that afternoon, some of

them took a siesta and they rested and they just kind of

chilled out and rested Sam Houston and his men that they

didn't realize was short distance away.

And they came that afternoon and in an 18 minute war, an 18

minute battle, Sam Houston and his Texans defeated Santa Ana

and his Mexicans. And Texas ended up winning its

independence from Mexico because somebody slept.

It's also, of course, and many of you know it, and it touches

our hearts and many in many different ways.

But the incident at Paul, Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941

caught our people off guard. And some.

It was a Sunday morning and there was that kind of

lackadaisical 8:00 Sunday morning feeling.

And there were some warning signs that had been ignored.

But before that day was over, we had lost 2400 Americans and many

battleships and airplanes that a lot of it was because people

were were resting. We're not aware of what was

happening around them. Unprepared, scattered.

Those men back in Texas were not in a battle formation and there

was a total collapse, as I said, in an 18 minute battle.

How many know we've all, probably all of us have missed

some golden opportunities because we were sleeping in our

lifetime. We've had issues in our there

are things that I've missed, things that you've missed

because we were unprepared, because we were resting, we were

not paying attention and we were caught sleeping.

And so you fill in the blank for me when you snooze.

Let's do it again when you snooze.

And that's what happens spiritually.

So while last night we lost an hour of sleep and it's got us

out of shape and wanting the preacher to get through quickly,

more times than now we lose the hour because we sleep and it

cost us. And Jesus warned us about that

more than once in Mark chapter 13 verse 32.

Mark 13:32

But of that, this is the words of Jesus.

These are but of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the

angels in heaven or the Son, but only the Father.

Take heed, watch and watch and pray, for you do not know when

the time is. It is like a man going to a far

country who left his house and gave authority to his servants

and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to

watch. Watch therefore, for you do not

know when the master of the house is coming.

The master of the house is Jesus.

Folks, you don't know when the master of the house is coming.

In the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or

in the morning, lest coming suddenly, that's coming suddenly

he finds you sleepy. And what I say to you 2000 years

ago, what he said to his disciples, He said, I say to

all, watch, all of you watch. The apostle Paul challenges us

and encourages us to be children of the light and the children of

the day. In First Thessalonians 5, he

says in verse one, but concerning the times and the

seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you,

for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the

Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

I want you to keep that little expression in your mind because

I want to get back to it. He's coming like a thief.

What a strange analogy, a thief. He's coming like a thief in the

night. For when they say peace and

safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains

upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, you brethren are not in darkness.

So that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Jesus said I'm coming back like a thief.

But you don't have to be caught off guard as though you didn't

know. And so it's not like a thief to

you because you knew he was coming.

You knew he was coming. And then he goes on to say, what

a wonderful compliment. You are all sons of light.

Thank God you are 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 for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who

get drunk are drunk at night, but let us who are of the day be

sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love,

and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God did not thank God for this next word.

For God did not appoint us to wrath.

God does not appoint you to wrath.

You were saved by the blood of the Lamb.

It's not His plan for you to have wrath poured out on you.

Aren't you glad for that? Now some people seem to want it,

but I'm looking for this one. He's not appointed us to wrath.

The Bible says children of the day, children of the light.

He did not appoint you to wrath, but to obtain salvation through

our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us.

For whether we wake or whether we sleep, we should be together

with Him. What a wonderful word of the

Lord. We know that Peter said be

sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil is like a

roaring lion and he prowls around and he's looking for

someone to destroy and devour. So stay awake spiritually.

Back to Jesus. In Luke 2136, he said, 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. Jesus advises us to stay alert.

Don't be weighed down. Don't lose the hour that you're

living in. Don't lose that opportunity that

He's given us. In fact, the apostle Paul urges

us to wake up from our sleep. He urges us, listen.

Verse 11 of Romans 13 says and do this and do this knowing the

time that now it is high time to awaken out of sleep for now is

our salvation nearer, nearer than when we first believe.

It's getting closer and closer. You are closer today to the

coming of Jesus than you have ever been in your life.

It's not getting further away. It's coming closer.

Church. It's be sober minded because

He's coming and He's coming soon.

Paul says this in First Thessalonians 415.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, talking about

the coming of Christ, talking about the catching away of the

Saints, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of

the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep or

who've died. For the Lord Himself, the Lord

Himself, the Lord Himself, will descend from heaven with a

shout. It hasn't happened yet.

It's going to happen as sure as your name is what it is, and

maybe surer than that, as sure as where you're sitting today,

as sure as you're in this building today.

The word of the Lord says the Lord himself is going to descend

from heaven, not quietly, but with a shout, with a shout and

with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ, they're

going to hear it. I said the dead in Christ going

to hear it. So some of you are going to hear

it. Then we, the rest of us who are

alive, how many are alive? Amen.

Yeah, you. Did you get that?

If you're sleeping some of your fulfilling Scripture, you're

sleeping Christ right here. Thank God that you'll hear it

though. Praise God.

You may not be hearing me, but you'll hear the trumpet.

Praise God, you'll hear the shout of the Lord because he's

even coming after sleeping Saints.

Amen. I got to be nice to everybody.

It's it's not a day to be all right, all right.

Listen to what he said then we who are alive remain should be

caught up together with them in the clouds of meet the Lord in

the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

I want to try 2 quick things together.

You know the word of God and we've read two different places

where the Bible says that Jesus is coming like a thief in the

night. That's a strange way of

expressing it because we think about the thief is coming to

kill, steal and destroy. But Jesus didn't say he was a

thief. He said I'm coming as a thief.

In other words, a thief comes without you expecting it.

A thief comes in a way that you don't know he's coming.

A thief doesn't announce that I'm going to be at your house at

2:00 AM when it becomes 3:00 AM. He doesn't tell you that he

shows up unexpectedly. And a thief does what?

He's a thief because he takes something.

If you've ever have been robbed, you know what this is like.

You know that a thief if anyone ever broken into your home and

stole something, you know, they they take something there,

there's something that you is gone and that's what a thief

does. Well, I want to tell you that

Jesus is going to do the same thing according to what what

Paul writes for us, what Paul tells us about the Lord coming

and he's actually going to take from the grave the dead in

Christ and and he's going to catch up the living.

Then I would simply say that he's taking something.

That's why he's considered a thief because he's coming after

something. You want to take something, but

I'm telling you he's coming for his own property.

I said he's coming from what belongs to him.

He's coming for those that have been washed in the blood of the

Lamb of God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

He's not coming to steal your money.

He's not coming to rob you of valuable things.

He's coming to get his valuable property.

Those that he has cleansed, those that he is saved by the

blood of the Lamb, they're the ones that he's stealing.

He's coming. Lord Hallelujah, give him

praise. Amen.

You know what? On that day, I want to be, I

want to be listed as stolen property.

I said I want, I want. So what did he take from your

house? Well, he he took Arthur T

Carrot. That's who he took.

He he didn't take any money. He didn't take any of my wife's

fried chicken, but he took me stolen property.

Thank God. I'm glad.

Take me, Jesus, take me. Jesus.

Steal me, Jesus. Take me and put my name on you,

because I want to belong to you. So he says don't sleep.

But then sleep is natural. And the Bible says he gives his

beloved sleep. So sleep is a good thing.

But you have to understand that when you go to sleep, you need

to go to sleep prepared for whatever is next.

Jesus gave this parable, Matthew 25 verse one in the Kingdom of

heaven should be likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps and

we went out to meet the bridegroom.

And there's a whole thing with how the Jewish weddings took

place back in that day, and we won't go into that, but this was

a normal thing. Now, five of them were wise,

they were all virgins, but five of them were wise and five were

not wise. They were foolish.

Then those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with

them. They had lamps, but the wise

took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

They don't have carried a lamp, but they had a little bottle of

oil, you know what I mean? So if they run out, they've got

something. But while the bridegroom was

delayed, and this is what this is all about, it's the whole

thing comes down to this. There was a delay that they

weren't expecting. There was a delay.

Now the Bible gives us a reason. The delay of the coming of the

Lord is for more people to get saved the harvest.

Amen. And all of you people praying

for your loved ones to get saved before they die, you're holding

back the whole thing, so stop it.

No, I'm just kidding. You know, pray for your loved

ones, pray for your loved ones, let Jesus come.

Amen. Let Jesus come.

Pray for your loved ones, obviously.

But it says then at midnight a cry was heard.

Behold, the bridegroom is coming.

Go out to meet him. Then all those versions arose

and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the

wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.

But the wise answers say no, lest there should not be enough

for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for

yourselves. Go back to the church.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who

were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was

shut. The door was shut.

And afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord,

open to us. But he answered and said,

assuredly. I say to you, I do not know you.

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in

which the Son of Man is coming. So forget all the charts and

graphs, and no one knows, not even the angels, but the Son of

Man is coming. And Paul tells us in Ephesians

514 Therefore he says, Awake. You who sleep arise from the

dead, and Christ will give you light.

And he says in First Corinthians 1534, awake to righteousness.

Awake to what? It doesn't say awake to

worldliness or sinfulness. It says awake to righteousness

and do not and do not and do not sin.

For some do not have the knowledge of God.

And I speak this, he said to your shame.

So while last night we lost the sleep, we see in the Bible where

people lose because they sleep when they should be awake.

Or in the case of the parable, it wasn't that the sleep was

wrong, but it wasn't it was that they weren't prepared.

They took the break and the rest without being prepared.

And we can let the oil represent the Holy Spirit and a lot of

other things we can do, but just keep it simple and just know

that what he is saying is you need to be prepared.

Whether it's it becomes when you were expecting or when you don't

expect him, you, you be ready. You make sure that you have a

light, a lamp burning and you have that the the reserve of oil

in your life, in your walk with God, a man in your walk with God

because church Jesus is coming. I know that we're living if the

worship team will come. I know that we're living in

today, to be honest with you. And there are places certainly

that are major exceptions. But you know, in a lot of

Christian circles, the coming of the Lord is almost a lost

doctrine. It's almost like we just kind of

think we're going to live here forever and we're just going to,

you know what, you know, people say that, you know, we're going

to change the world and we're going to have this peaceful

world because we're going to make it that well.

We aren't doing so well with that.

I believe it's going to take Jesus to do that.

I said I believe we can do what we need to do and want to do and

do our best, but it's going to take the King of kings and the

Lord of Lords to straighten this stuff out.

I'm telling you right now, it's going to take Jesus to get this

all worked out. But he will.

I said He's still King of kings and he's still Lord of Lords,

and he is coming again and he will rule and reign on this

earth. He will.

Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord. So I'm challenged you today to

don't lose the hour. And an hour in this case is not

60 minutes. It's a season that we're in.

Don't lose an hour. Don't lose this season by being

so caught up with the world that we can't see what's happening

and that the coming of the Lord draws an eye.

Be prepared, be ready. He's coming, folks.

And I don't need to tell you this, you all, you see the

papers or maybe you don't see the papers.

You see the Internet. You see everything that's going

on in the world and the chaos and the war and and that's going

on. And I remember what Brother Bud

said when he prayed about the war Sunday night.

He said there's no glory in war. I remember you saying that,

Brother Bud. And I remembered that all week

there's been so much of A heaviness.

There's other places in the world that are being affected by

what's happening and, and we got, we're in a world that's

it's, it's really churning and we need an answer.

And the answer is Jesus. Folks, I said, if pin your hopes

on Jesus. I said, pin your hopes on the

Lord Jesus Christ. And if you don't know him, it's

time to wake up. Bow your head with me, if you

will. It's time to awaken to your

need. It's time to say, Jesus, I need

you to come into my life, come into my heart, come into my

soul. I want to be ready.

I want to be ready, Pastor. I know I'm not pastor.

I know I'm not. I don't have to question it.

I know I'm not ready. I know I'm not saved.

I know if Jesus came right now, I have no doubt I wouldn't be

going. Brother or sister, I don't want

you leaving like that. I want you to know in your heart

that you have got salvation and it's not based on your works and

it's not based on what you put in the offering today or didn't

put in it. It's all about the sacrifice

that Jesus made on the cross of Calvary and your your reception

of it. You're accepting of it.

So this is an hour for you to wake from the dead.

Thanks for joining us today. If you'd like to connect, visit

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