So I was thinking about an activity
we all do that takes up a third of our lives, and it's a great
blessing from the Lord. You know what that is? Thank
you. Sleep. So I thought, what does
the Bible have to say about sleep? So let's talk about it for a
little bit. Sleep is obviously part of God's
design. He made us so we would have to
sleep. and most of the animal kingdom.
And it's fascinating when you start thinking about studying
sleep. And it's a subject of much discussion these days. A
lot is in the news these days about sleep. We'll discuss a
few of those things. It's just a prelude to what the
Bible has to say about it. But think back in your own life. You know, kids, when they're
young, don't like to go to sleep. But then they reach an age where
they like to go to sleep. And then they sleep a lot. And
teenagers usually love to sleep. And then as we get older, we
have different sleep patterns and all. They have a lot to say
in the news these days about how much sleep you really need
to have. And we're not getting enough,
most of us. And most of America, at least,
maybe most of the world, is walking around sleep deprived. there's
certain things, signs of that that you can see, and it's scary. It's scary for us driving our
cars, it's scary when we're at work and not being productive,
so it's a fascinating subject. First a little bit about the
mechanism of sleep, and this could go on for a long time,
but I'm not gonna bore you with that, but I thought some of these
things were very interesting. The mechanism of sleep from scientists
is that it involves reduced consciousness, reduced senses being active,
the muscles go much more slack, and interactions with the surroundings. Four or five times a night when
we're sleeping, we go into REM sleep. REM stands for rapid eye
movement. And that's the deepest sleep
that you have is the REM sleep. during REM sleep, that's the
period of most active dreaming. Brain waves are most active at
that time. A loss of muscle tone. No homeostasis. Now what homeostasis is, is just
all of the regulatory systems in the body shut down. I'm not
saying really shut down, but they pretty much shut down. Your
pH control, your heart control as far as the heart rate, the
breathing, temperature, your temperature controller kind of
goes slack. And all these regulatory functions
die down. That's called, there's no homeostasis. And you really are in virtual
paralysis during REM sleep. About 80% of our sleep is non-REM,
though. And there's three stages of it,
N1, N2, and N3, where the brain starts going down in activity.
You know, during waking hours, 20% of our energy is used up
by our brain. So the food you just ate, 20%
of it is going to go to brain waves. And the rest of the 80%
is just to our bodies. So during these non-REM stages,
N1 through N3, The brain starts really going down in its energy
consumption. The brain restores ATP, a very
important chemical, and you get into the slow wave sleep, or
deep sleep. It's the most restful sleep that
we have, and it really restores the body. We absolutely have
to have sleep to restore our bodies, and they're finding out
more and more about this. In sleep, we are in an anabolic
state rather than a catabolic state. Anabolic, ana means up,
cata means down. Anabolic means that we are restoring
our functions. We're building up our organs,
our tissues, our muscles, our bones, our insulin, and our growth
hormones during sleep. The lack of REM sleep means,
and they've done studies on this, that we can't learn complex tasks. They've studied people, made
them stay awake for a long period of time, and they're actually
decreasing their ability to do complex tasks. A newborn baby
sleeps 15 to 18 hours a day. And nine hours of that is in
REM sleep. And so that shows you how important
it is for building up the body. Teenagers are supposed to get
eight to 10 hours of sleep a night. And, you know, when they don't,
their bodies are not going to build up like they need to even.
Sleep deprivation results in slower brainwaves, a shortened
attention span. How about that for our society?
Higher anxiety, impaired memory, and a grouchy mood. So, how many,
how much sleep deprivation do you see around you? In 2013,
they discovered that the efficiency of the glymphatic system is very
important during sleep. The clearance of interstitial
waste products. This is fascinating to me. They're
actually finding that during the night, the brain actually
drains amyloid beta proteins. What is it that we get, they
think, when the amyloid proteins build up? We get Alzheimer's. So it's important for these amyloid
proteins to get out of there and to drain, and we need sleep
to do that. In 2014, they deprived mice of
sleep, and they saw that it increased cancer growth and dampened the
immune system's ability to control cancer. Okay, enough science. I just thought it was fascinating.
We need sleep. And it's actually a gift from
God. So let's look at what the Bible
has to say about it. God made us to need sleep for
restoration and healing. He just made us that way. It's
the way it works. And the problem is, in our day
and age, there's just too little or sometimes too much. We'll
get to that in Proverbs. Where's the first mention of
sleep? Let's go to Genesis 2.21. Obviously, God made man and woman
to sleep. And I started thinking about
this. He made man to sleep before the
fall, I would think. I don't think sleeping is a result
of sin in the fall. I don't know that for sure, but
I would surmise that God made us to sleep. He made night and
day. He made this earth to rotate
on its axis and we have light and we have darkness. And I think
one of the main reasons for that is for sleep. So in Genesis 221,
that's the first mention I see of it. So the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept. Then he took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. So it
was for surgery. First sleep was for surgery.
And then from then on, we don't see a lot of specific mention
of sleep, but it's obviously going on. In Job, 4, look at
Job 4, 13 and 14. So this is Eliphaz talking, and
he says, amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me in trembling
and made all my bones shake. So you know that during sleep
or during the night, for some reason, the nighttime is the
time when doubts come, when fears come, when we think about the
worst that can happen. And actually, we do have some
bad dreams at times, and we have that happening at night. That's
evidenced by Job. Well, in Psalm 121, three and
four, This is very obvious, but it's
worth mentioning. It says God never sleeps. Psalm 121, three and four says, He will not allow your foot to
slip. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will
neither slumber nor sleep. Our God is always active. He's always awake, if you will. He's always controlling. He never sleeps. And it's just
kind of neat to think about. Obviously, I never thought that
he did, but he doesn't. He's constantly active for his
children. All right, God gives us sleep.
It's a gift, and we need to be thankful for it. It is a wonderful
gift. Psalm 127, two. Let's read one also. Unless the
Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless
the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up
early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors,
for he gives to his beloved even in his sleep." Now, even in his
is not there. He gives to his beloved sleep. So this is a gift from God, and
what it says here is, It's that it is a gift, and that it's vain
for us to rise up too early. Now, don't take that too far. Obviously, Proverbs says you
need to rise up early and work hard. But to get up too early
is vain. To retire too late is vain. I've known guys who've pretty
much stayed up all night, every night, and that's certainly vain.
and to eat the bread of painful labors." This is worry. You're
worried so much you can't sleep. These are all vanity. These are
all things that we shouldn't get involved with because he
gives us sleep, so we need to take advantage of it. Too much
brain stimulation these days. Too much of everything. All of
our digital media and all of this and that, we need to watch
it or our brains will get going so much that we do stay up too
late or get up too early or wake up too much and we defeat God's
gift. He desires it for us. He gives
his beloved sleep. In Philippians 4, 6, and 7, just
a word on worry, because that's what robs a lot of us of sleep. And have you noticed how, through
the stages of life, worries change? What did you worry about when
you were a kid? It's probably different. from what you worry
about now, but you still worry, don't you? And so what God says
in Philippians 4, 6, and 7 is, let your speech always, that's
Colossians, let's try Philippians. Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. and the peace of God, which surpasses
all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus. So when those worries, when those
things come at us, when we wake up in the middle of the night,
we need to, of course, and this is obvious, go to God in prayer,
turn these things over to him, be anxious for nothing, but in
all things, prayer and supplication. The other thing to keep the bad
things out is to keep the good things in, and there's a couple
of verses on that at night. Psalm 4-4 says, tremble and do not sin, meditate
in your heart upon your bed, and be still. So, meditation
at night when we wake up is good. Also Psalm 63, six. Says, when
I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you and the night watches.
where you have been my help. And in the shadow of your wings,
I sing for joy. My soul clings to you, your right
hand upholds me. So when we get in those situations,
just start counting your blessings. It's better than sheep. And you
know, that's a good thing to do and meditate on our beds. Sleep comes from peace and trust
in the Lord. You remember Jesus in the storm
in Matthew 8, 24. He was sleeping in that boat
in that storm, and the disciples were frantic. So it just shows
you what total peace, which God had, does for you as far as sleep. Of course, they woke him up,
and he took care of them, but he was asleep there. In Proverbs,
3 verses 21 to 26, it talks about sweet sleep. Let's turn there,
that's a good one. Proverbs 3, 21 to 26. My son, let them not vanish from
your sight. Keep sound, wisdom, and discretion. So they will be a life to your
soul and an adornment to your neck. Then you will walk in your
way securely, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down,
you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep
will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden fear,
nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will
be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught."
So we trust in the Lord, and he gives us the sleep. Ecclesiastes
5.12, we won't turn there, but it talks
about the sleep of a working man versus the worry of the rich. So when we've put in a hard day's
work, whatever that was, it can be anything, but God made us,
that's the first, I forgot to mention that, God made us not
only to sleep, but the opposite part of that is he made us to
work. So we work hard, we sleep. We work hard, we sleep. That's
our cycle. And so it says in Ecclesiastes
5.12 that a working man sleeps well. And then it compares it
to a rich man who's worried about all of his riches and not being
able to sleep. In Daniel 6.18, you remember
Daniel and the lion's den. I love that story because Daniel,
it doesn't specifically say that Daniel slept that night in there
with the lions, but he was totally at peace with the whole thing,
he might have. But what it does say is that
the king couldn't sleep worrying about Daniel, because he liked
him. He didn't like what he did in throwing him in there, but
he had made this statement, and he followed through on it, and
then he worried all night that the lions were eating him. Well,
they didn't, so Daniel had a peaceful night. King had a bad night,
all because of God. In 2 Corinthians, 6-5, there's
two places where it talks about Paul says that he had sleepless
nights. Did you know Paul had sleepless
nights? 2 Corinthians 6-5. So why did he have sleepless
nights? 2 Corinthians 6-5. He's naming all of the bad things
he went through in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults,
in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, and so forth. So he
had sleeplessness. Now, there's another passage
that gives a little more light toward that, and that's in 2
Corinthians 11, 27. I have been in labor and hardship
through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without
food and cold and exposure." So he had sleepless nights, whether
it was from being hungry, whether it was from worrying about the
churches, we don't know, but he had them. Okay, a little side
road here that's fascinating that, once again, we'll just
touch the surface of, dreams and visions. When you think back
through the whole Bible and you meditate on the fact of dreams
and visions, you get a large number of things happening. I
mean a large number of dreams and visions, and that's fascinating.
There's two different things going on here. Turn with me to
Matthew 1, first of all. Let's look at dreams first. What's
the difference between dreams and visions? In Matthew 1, verse 20, and this is talking about Joseph
being nervous about Mary and Mary. But when he had considered
this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,
saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary
as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is
of the Holy Spirit. God chose dreams as a way to
talk to men through history. Now, sometimes he spoke directly
to men and women, and you know that. I think he spoke directly
to Adam and Eve. I think he spoke directly to
Noah, but a lot of times he spoke in dreams. And here's a case. Now look at Matthew 1.24. That,
okay. This is the same passage, and
Joseph awoke from his sleep. And what I'm showing you here
is it's proof that this dream happened during sleep. Well,
I guess it, of course, but this is proof of it. So he was asleep,
and the dream came, and God spoke to him. Now, look at Matthew
2.12. This is the wise men. And having been warned by God
in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country
by another way. There's another dream message.
Now, what about visions? Well, visions get even more interesting. It's a different word in the
Greek, orama. And let's look at a few of them. The pastor
mentioned Cornelius this morning. Let's turn to Acts 10. What I have discovered about
visions is that there's evidently, I won't say it can't be coupled
with sleep, but for the most part, visions are not coupled
with sleep from what I can see. And look at this, in Acts 10.3,
this is the middle of the day, About the ninth hour of the day,
they started from six o'clock, so that's 3 p.m. About the ninth
hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision, this is Cornelius,
an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, Cornelius,
you know the story about what God said to him. There's a vision
at 3 p.m. Cornelius wasn't sleeping then.
And then at on the same chapter, verse nine, what's happening
with God speaking to Peter a few miles away to get them together.
On the next day as they were on their way and approaching
the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour,
that's noon, straight up noon, to pray, but he became hungry,
was desiring to eat, he fell into a trance, and he had a vision. In verse 17 it says specifically,
now when Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision
which he had seen might be. Alright, that's a vision. In
Daniel 2.19, you remember Daniel's visions, and that's called, now
that one's called a night vision. So maybe that was accompanied
by sleep. Look at 2 Corinthians 12.2. Oh, this is fascinating with
Paul. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in
the body I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God
knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I
know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the
body I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise,
heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak.
So that's obviously him. It's a weird way that he says
this. It's just must have been a fascinating vision and he's
not allowed to tell it to us. So someday we'll know it. In
Acts 2.17, you know that Joel prophesied and Peter repeated
it in Acts 2.17 in his sermon. He repeated the prophecy in Joel,
and it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth
of my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams. So there's your visions and dreams.
Us old guys only get dreams. The young guys get visions. So
that's interesting. So that's dreams and visions.
All right, just a few more things. The sleep of the wicked. How
about the wicked sleep? Proverbs four, let's go to Proverbs
four. And verses 14 to 17. Do not enter the path of the
wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it,
do not pass by it, turn away from it, pass on. For they cannot
sleep unless they do evil. And they are robbed of sleep
unless they make someone stumble. The wicked can't even go to sleep
until they've done something evil that day. So that's the
difference between Christians and others. Anxiety, hyperactivity
versus peaceful sleep. Okay, how about too much sleep?
Well, we gotta stay in Proverbs here. Is there such a thing as
too much sleep? Yes, Proverbs 6, 4. Lots of verses on this. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor
slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle
from the hunter's hand and from a bird from the hand of the fowler.
So obviously he's not saying don't sleep, but don't be lazy. That's what Proverbs is all about.
And then verses nine through 11. How long will you lie down,
O sluggard? When will you arise from your
sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of
the hands to rest. Your poverty will come in like
a vagabond and your need like an armed man. So if you want
to sleep your life away, you're going to be poor. Don't sleep
when action is required. Don't be lazy. Leads to poverty.
And then Proverbs 20, 13. Do not love sleep or you will
become poor. Open your eyes and you will be
satisfied with food. Proverbs 24, 33 and 34. A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest, then your poverty will
come as a robber, and you'll want like an armed man. So a
repetition of that. You know what happened in Acts
20? Paul evidently could preach a long time. And there was a
kid sitting in the window, and there were oil lamps in the room.
And he fell asleep, fell out, died, I guess. Paul ran down
and revived him. That's just, watch where you
sleep. All right, sleep is symbolic
of some things. It's symbolic of spiritual ignorance
or lethargy. Isaiah 29, Jerusalem was in a
deep sleep. This was spiritually. And in
Romans 13, 11, Paul says to awake out of sleep. So it can be a
picture of spiritual lethargy. Then you know, in Matthew 26,
the story of the disciples in the garden. The Lord Jesus took
them there on the night before his crucifixion. He said, he
took his three, Peter, James, and John, a little farther with
him, and told them, stay awake and pray for me here. He came
back, they were asleep. Did that three times, wasn't
it? And so I said, just go ahead and sleep. So it can be a symbol
of not being spiritually awake, also in Ephesians 5.14. And in
1 Thessalonians 5.6, let us not sleep as others, but let us watch
and be sober. Finally today, it's also a symbol
for death. But there's something interesting
here, and I'll just throw it out to you. I have not determined
it as fact yet, but it's something to watch for. Have you ever seen
a non-Christian's death described as sleep? The more I think about
it, and let's look at just a few verses here, it's the Christians
who are sleeping in death. Okay, 1 Thessalonians 4.13. But we do not want you to be
uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will
not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him
those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Now there's a whole
lot of controversy about what our state of consciousness is
when we die, before the second coming. But it's calling it sleep. Now, how much consciousness we
have of the presence of the Lord Jesus Is up for grabs, but just
follow a few of these passages Matthew 27 52 The tombs were opened and many
bodies of the Saints who had fallen asleep were raised once
again. It's the Saints and And this is what happened at the
crucifixion. Fantastic events at the crucifixion. This thick
curtain in the temple was ran in twain, and then the tombs
of many bodies of the saints were opened, and they had fallen
asleep. John 11, 11 is Lazarus. Jesus said, didn't he say he's
not dead, he sleeps? So, I mean, he was dead, but
that was asleep. And he was saying that. Look
at 1 Corinthians 11.30. For this reason, many among you
are weak and sick, and a number sleep. That's dying. And this
is of treating the Lord's Supper the wrong way, or not honoring
God in what we do. And then 1 Corinthians 15, 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery.
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. So some
of us who are around when the Lord comes will not sleep, not
die, but will be translated just to the final state. That's it. So I thought sleep was a very
interesting subject. We do it a third of our lives.
We ought to know what the Bible has to say about it. We ought
to thank God for it as a gift. Try not to worry too much during
it. Trust the Lord in it. Not sleep too much, but sleep
the peace of God, the amount we're supposed to. And then watching
the scriptures for the picture of it being of death. See if
you find any examples of them saying a non-Christian is asleep
in death. I haven't seen it yet.