Pyjamas

By Odon Bulamba

 

When we were singing “Amazing Grace”, we sang, “how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me”.  Someone who is unhappy and disappointed like me, how can I benefit from this grace?  It is not a simple grace but the grace is amazing.  How do you define amazing? It is above your thinking and God has given me that grace.

 

The life we are living is full of challenges; wherever you go and whatever you do. Today I want to talk about pyjamas.  Today, I arranged for this little boy Chris to wear pyjamas.  When you see him, what is your first impression?  He is not dressed properly for church but he looks comfortable and cuddly.  Chris would never wear pyjamas to school but he will feel very comfortable to wear them in his bedroom.  I have seen people wear pyjamas in the supermarket but people will look at them strangely.

 

Pyjamas are very well designed for going to bed but if you are not going to bed and you wear them, people will look at you strange because they are only night clothes.  Sleeping is the time when someone is going to rest, when your body is tired because you have been working all day long and you start to yawn.  You can fight against sleep but you can’t resist it when you need it; no matter who you are, even a warrior or king can’t resist sleep when they need it.  Some people will drink coffee after another but they will still need to sleep at some point. 

 

Why do we wear pyjamas?  Why can’t I just go to bed with normal clothes?  Why not naked?  Why don’t I wear to bed what I want to wear in the office?  People came up with the idea that this is the most comfortable for you to wear to bed and we teach our children to put on the pyjamas before going to bed.

 

The person who designed this, how many pyjamas does they have?  Maybe only one pair?  If Chris, I give you these pyjamas, will you like it? (He nods)  Some will say, I prefer to have the money so I can buy and choose something else.  We can think about buying anything important but think less about pyjamas.

 

Why are we going to talk about pyjamas?  It is like a uniform or costume you have to wear before to sleep.  In Kingdom of God there is the challenge of sleep.  Satan comes and tells you, “it’s evening time and you need to sleep, have some time for yourself, your body needs to rest”.  When you sleep, you won’t know what is going on.  Adults during their sleep will believe they are on the toilet and then they accidently mess up their bed, or walk outside, or talk during their sleep and it is all part of sleep.  You can wear your pyjamas or not, if you talk or walk during your sleep, your pyjamas won’t stop it.

 

The pyjamas have become a good distraction for the church.  If we all went now to the supermarket wearing pyjamas, everyone will comment and stare at us because we look different from everyone else in the supermarket.  In the church of God, when we start to fall asleep, we put on a different clothing to cover our nakedness and we will look different.  God can identify that we are starting to go astray.  That distraction is strong.

 

1 Corinthians 7:35, “This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.”

 

This is not something tough like a leash but a warning from God to serve Him without distractions.  When you put on pyjamas, it is a distraction.  If you have a pyjamas on at 6pm and someone will knock on your door, you will quickly put on something else.  When you put on pyjamas, you feel free to move around in your house. No one can tell me, no you are wrong.

 

Distraction starts with a first step.  Putting on pyjamas is putting on a new costume and people tell you, “it’s my life anyway, I want to take this path because I am free”.  Whenever you start to confess, it’s your life and your decision and you are free, God will remind you that you told God that you gave your life to God.  The life that you are giving is full of colours in the same way that pyjamas are often patterned with different colour.

 

Some people wear socks to bed.  When I turn a sock inside out, it looks ugly while the outside design looked good.  If any shop put the sock on the shelf inside out, no one will want to buy it so they will only show the attractive side and hide the other side which is what will touch your skin.  People try so hard to show to us that they look so good and attractive but inside they are so disappointing.

 

God is telling church today to not be distracted.  If you turn their pyjamas inside out, they look different.  Someone will tell you, since I bought these pyjamas, my skin is itchy, they are fighting against my physical body.  The distraction I want to talk to you today is the internet.  When you jump on the computer, you know it is there to help you or for me to use it.  You can have a list of tasks that you want to do today.  Many will fulfil only 1/3 of tasks and the rest are not done.  You can write down 10 tasks but only do 1 because when your turn on the internet and get distracted with emails, face book, my photos etc while your list of tasks are waiting for you.

 

Ten mins later, this is your uncle’s face book address. The more you talk, you are going deep into sleep and you will jump and realise the day is passed already and then you say, “I’ll do it tomorrow”.  The internet today is a city which has got everything www= world wide web.  World which is wide and it’s a web. The role of a web is to catch you.  We are in this world which is wide but if we approach it, we will be caught in the net. 

 

Preachers today find the answers from the internet; there is no time for the Bible anymore.  The internet is useful so we can see the good side of it but there is a down side also.  I need a verse for fasting, the internet will give it you but when you are reading the verse, a link advertisement will pop up and if you click on it, you will take another direction.  You will find everything on the internet (good and evil): museums, drugs, pornography.   There are no police or rules on the internet.

 

Once a link is there for you and you touch the link, slowly it will give you one step and then another. Like the pyjamas show you the person wants to go to bed whether they feel sleep or not.  Once you jump into bed, nothing can pull you out, except your decision such as needing water or the toilet.

 

The internet is not bad, it is good but do we need to call God to put a leash around our neck to pull us from the sites we always visit: prostitutes, alcohol etc.  Many think they are doing it secretly, but there is no secrets with God.  One time I heard that sending a letter is better than email because email is quick but even if it is deleted, it can be kept for years.  Today, people will save things on the net, in their dropbox, email, cloud etc.  If you go deep into your email inbox, it will be a tomb because you are burning yourself alive. 

 

We can find out where you surfed on the internet.  We as Christians, what is our first distraction? At work, at home?  If the internet wasn’t there, how much would you do for yourself or God or others?  How much less do you perform because of the internet?  Our actions will be there on the Day of Judgment.  What are our actions?  Mothers don’t have time for kids because of the internet.  Fathers don’t sleep because they are watching stuff on line. We drop our basic responsibilities.

 

Many who have to preach in church will use the internet to find a message rather than doing the work themselves.  Does God count my words or my actions?  He will look at me and how important I consider His work.  We start now to teach these distractions to our children.

 

What is your kids favourate page?  Facebook, youtube?  Kids are more involved in those things and when you tell them about a website for God, they feel it’s boring and they start to losing that desire for Christianity.  Do we teach by example and encourage them to look also at things that are important?  Facebook is not bad but let’s remind them that whatever you put on facebook is exposed.

 

Madison website is a website for those married wanting to have affairs and now it’s been hacked and people are being exposed.  God also has a level.  God gives me eyes and intelligence to use but I keep distracting myself with internet.  Sometimes we can spend 2 hours on line but not one minute in our room just praying.  Someone wanted to pray and he received a txt message, he stopped his prayer to answer and then he received another one and another one until he had no time to pray.

 

Why are you wearing spiritual pyjamas while it is day time? We should be in our normal clothing: wear the armour of God like a fighter and work hard.  It’s not the time for pyjamas but we wear them because we are becoming weak and the more weak we become the more the world will use you. 

 

How to become strong?  Make a decision to not be distracted.  If you are waiting for God to come down and put a leash on you, God will never do that.  He let the prodigal son go astray, the father didn’t run after him but waited for him to come back and when he came, he said, welcome back.  Why didn’t he go to find him?  Only a few have grace.  Jesus said, he left 99 sheep to find the one lost because only a few have that grace.  Some will go astray and will leave forever.

 

If we are not careful, our next generation who are learning from us, will not be stopped at all because our government is teaching our children freedom and this web is there to catch them.  If you are walking with your child and you see a danger, you will tell them, “stop come this way”.  But if you tell your child to do what they want with their mobile phones, they will do what they want and get caught somewhere.  Our children will start to hide their actions from us.

 

When we see people in pyjamas we judge them.  In England, MP’s started to wear pyjamas to the office but were told they should stop it.  If Ange goes to a party and her husband wants to wear his pyjamas, Ange will not allow him but tell him to put on nice clothes.  As we see our children going to this bed of distraction and evil, we need to tell them to stop and look after themselves. 

 

When I’m distracted and start to go away from what I was planning to do, I need to tell my website that I need to work now and give to Caesar what belongs to him.  I need to read the Bible for myself rather than go to the web.  I’ve read verses online and the meaning given is shocking, this is a preaching from someone but it’s completely wrong.

 

There are websites stating there is no judgement because God has given his election and they are preaching judgement doesn’t exist so enjoy and do what you want.  Another preacher said, God himself doesn’t exist because I went to the mountain of Sinai where he met with Moses and I couldn’t find him.  Why only Moses and not me?  They preach to our children, “don’t worry all your distraction is ok, you can catch up later”.  We can’t catch up later because time passes and you can’t catch it up, if you miss it, you miss it.

 

What stops you in your life from doing what you should? What are your distractions?  Busy chatting etc.  Smartphones are carrying the internet everywhere.  Bus drivers can txt.  People walk on the street playing on the phone.  It becomes the foundation of our lives. Where is Jesus in all of this?

           

Have you chosen the right time to wear your pyjamas?  Is it important to wear it when Jesus said he is coming back soon?  Why are we distracted?