Sermon – March 1st, 2026
Hope Lutheran Church – Port Coquitlam BC
Text: Psalm 121; John 3:1-17; Romans 4:1-8
Theme: “He never sleeps”
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Intr – Psalm 121 presents us a “God 24 hours”. The psalmist says that “he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep”.
For context, this is a song of people who were traveling, especially pilgrims coming to festivals in Jerusalem. People who very much need to be reminded about constant protection, day and night. The Psalm depicts a common scene for those pilgrims: as they approached the city and saw the mountains surrounding it, they would remember that above them is the One who is really steady, secure and eternal. A stark contrast with pagan faiths around them, in which they considered the mountain sacred places where they erected their altars and brought their offers to their gods. What David is affirming here is that the mountains can’t help you, but the creator of the mountains can. Yahweh, the Lord our God.
But one of the most comforting images described in Psalm 121 is the statement that no matter which road we take, there is someone who never ceases to be alert in action in our lives for a minute.
This sounds positive, right? God never sleeps. Now, is that a standard for us? Like, is sleeping is not good? In the Gospel Jesus also says “stay awake”. Can we infer that we only sleep because we are sort of forced to? Like a person in my family who once told me “I only sleep because I have to. Because if I could, I wouldn’t. It seems to me like a waste of time – which could be employed so many other things.
I don’t know how many of you identify with that. Especially in a rainy Sunday afternoon. But let’s see what some of the studies in the area show.
“We tend to think of sleep as a time when the mind and body shut down. But this is not the case; sleep is an active period in which a lot of important processing, restoration, and strengthening occur. Exactly how this happens and why our bodies are programmed for such a long period of slumber is still somewhat of a mystery. But researchers do understand some of sleep’s critical functions, and the reasons we need it for optimal health and wellbeing.” [1] Doctors say that an adult should have from 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night as a good healthy standard”[2]
It seems that sleeping is not only necessary, but restorative. We need those 6, 8, 10 hours or more – depending on your situation – to have some important functions of the body going on.
Why then we have this figure of a God who never sleeps and the call to “Stay awake?”
God is a 24/7 God because our faith is 24/7 as well. I don’t know if you ever thought about it, but your faith never shuts off, never sleeps or slumbers. Not even when we are sleeping. Just like your brain doesn’t really shut down, but keeps working on different needs of your body, your faith never falls asleep.
How is it that faith never sleeps, if I am not thinking about God in a conscious? Or worse, given some of the “not appropriate as a sermon illustration” dreams that I have?
Because, fortunately for us, faith is not our work, but the Holy Spirit’s. He both generates and keeps faith in our hearts. Why is that fortunate? Because if it depended on our ability both to generate and maintain it, we would fall asleep forever. We don’t have that power.
Also, think about this: a person in coma, a person with severe mental disability, someone put to sleep for a surgery or even an infant would cease to be a Christian. If it depended on our capacity of reflection about God, deciding to be with Him or keeping Him all the time in our minds and hearts, we would be lost. That’s why, for example, we baptize everyone, including children. Because faith is a gift that God the Holy Spirit both gives and maintains. It is not merit, as we saw in Romans 4. Was Abraham saved because he made a huge sacrifice? Of course not. It is not by works, it is by the gift of faith that Abraham, Isak, Jacob, you and I are saved and are kept connected to the source of it – our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Your faith doesn’t depend on your ability to stay awake or your power to be perfect; it survives because the Holy Spirit refuses to let it sleep. You don’t keep faith alive — but rather faith keeps you alive in the company of our Saviour.
That also answers questions such as: But pastor, what if I die in a sudden accident, or in a moment when I’m not thinking about God? Faith is given and maintained by the Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian, you will die as a Christian. here is only one person who can kill your faith: yourself. That’s the sin against the Holy Spirit, ceasing to believe.
God brings faith to the heart and He is the one who keeps it there through Word and Sacraments. That was made possible by the fact Jesus is God with us. John 3:16 states that clearly Who he is, his mission and our destination. Although He would sleep as any human during his stay with us, He is the One who promised to be with us until the end of times – something He fulfilled on His Cross. He promised He wouldn’t slumber for even a second, and He is keeping His promise every single day, which we receive through Faith. We can’t stay awake 24/7 trying to fulfill God’s will, and even if we could, that is not the way to salvation. The Law is not the Way, but the Gospel, through faith.[3]
God never sleeps. He guards your coming in and your going forth. He protects day and night.
Now, as advantageous as it sounds to our soul and life – a 24-hour God-, it is interesting that there are times we wished He wasn’t so. What if he worked, let’s say, only 9 to 5? Or if He would take a nap during the day – so that He wouldn’t see some of the places, in person or online, we sometimes go, some of the terrible words we often think and say, some of the bad companies we have in the darkness, and so many other undesirable things we fall for, as sinners that we are. There are dangers, distractions, temptations and problems around us trying to sedate our soul, threatening to induce us in the coma of sin and indifference to God’s law, some sort of a sleepy faith; And a sleepy faith usually becomes a sloppy faith and that is a very, very dangerous thing to have in your heart.
Still, God never sleeps. Never. This can be a harsh word of accusation – LAW – because He always knows what we do. But above all, it is sweet Good News – Gospel. The Lord is always ready to help us. By faith in His Son, who was from 9 to 3 hanging on a cross, He stands as one who, minute by minute, second by second, never sleeps, never slumbers, is always alert, being the Protector of His children throughout the journey in this world. In His Word and Sacraments, he wants to prepare us for every good work, to have us fleeing the temptations, especially of desiring a “Sleepy God”, to bring us back to the every-single-hour God. He is slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love. He sent His only Son to die on the Cross so that whoever is born again from the Water and the Spirit to believe in Him as the Messiah promised to Abraham will nor perish, but receive eternal life. The same eyes that never miss your sin are the same eyes that never stop forgiving your heart and guiding your soul.
Cc – As your body doesn’t really shut down completely even when sleeping, your God never sleeps at all. He is always there in Christ with you and for you, doing the most important functions your life needs. And in Christ, He transforms the nightmare of sin and condemnation not into a dream, but into the most beautiful and eternal reality. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the a year.
He is the God who never sleeps. As you live in faith in Him, you can always sleep in peace.
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[1] How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? – https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/why-do-we-need-sleep
“We tend to think of sleep as a time when the mind and body shut down. But this is not the case; sleep is an active period in which a lot of important processing, restoration, and strengthening occurs. Exactly how this happens and why our bodies are programmed for such a long period of slumber is still somewhat of a mystery. But scientists do understand some of sleep’s critical functions, and the reasons we need it for optimal health and wellbeing.”
[2] https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/do-women-need-more-sleep-men
“Women even need more sleep than man, about 20 extra minutes, according to Dr. Jim Horne, Britain’s leading expert in sleep science. He pointed out that “women tend to multi-task and use more of their actual brain than men leading to a greater need for sleep. Essentially, the more you use your brain during the day, the more it needs to rest while asleep.”
[3] This is why we need the Holy Spirit to blow and wake us up inside (John 3), so we don’t go very much awake into eternal condemnation. In John 3 we see why that is true. Here we see the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. He was a leader of the Jews, so he didn’t want to be seen next to Jesus in broad daylight. That nightly conversation blows his mind, and awakens our mind too. Jesus lets us know that we need the Holy Spirit to blow and wake us up inside, so we don’t sleep the sleep of eternal condemnation. He brings faith to the heart and He is the one who keeps it there through Word and Sacraments.
