Stop working in the Night

  ⁵ “Master,” Simon answered, “we worked hard all night long and caught nothing.” LUKE 5.

¹⁶Then Jesus told them this parable. “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. ¹⁷He began to think to himself, ‘I haven’t anywhere to keep all my crops. What can I do? ¹⁸This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store my corn and all my other goods. ¹⁹Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ ²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’” LUKE 12.

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esus was teaching on the shore of a lake where people fished. Two boats pulled up and their owners who were fishermen were washing their nets. They had closed for the day. One of the fishermen gave a frustrating account of their work. “We worked hard all night long and caught nothing.” These men were professional fishermen. Yet they were about going home with nothing even though they had worked hard and long. What was the problem? We will find out. Again, we see in the parable of the rich fool, a man who worked hard and gathered in plenty crops. He had to make larger stores to keep his crops. But just when he was going to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his hard work, “God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life.” You will die this night. You will not enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Consider the stories above. The fishermen caught nothing. Their work yielded no results. They were not lazy people. Instead, they were hard-working people who worked hard throughout the night. They did not sleep. They did not fear danger on the sea. They were working, trying to catch some fish, but at daybreak, they realized they had just wasted their time. They had nothing to show for their labour. If you look at the account Simon gave, you can see their problem. When did they work? It was in the night! God has cursed any work done in the night. No matter how hard you work in the night, your work is cursed. It will not bear fruits! The rich man too worked very hard. He gathered the fruits of his work and was going to enjoy them when death came. Why? He too had worked in the night. God said to him, “this night. . .” He was in the night. Any work you do in the night is a waste of time. You will not enjoy its fruits.

 

What then is night? Night is a period away from God’s presence. Any moment you are out of God’s will, you are in the night. Hear what Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness” JOHN 8: 12. Whenever you are not following Christ, you are in the night. Darkness is cursed. God had to send Jesus as light to the world in order that the world would stop living in darkness. “I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness” JOHN 12: 46. Unfortunately, many people today are still in the night. They do not want to accept Jesus into their lives. They want to live their lives the way they want. It is a terrible situation to be in. They are under God’s curse and judgement. “This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil” JOHN 3:19. 

I want you to know that the time has come when what will determine your enjoyment in life is not just whether you work in an oil company or in the bank. It is whether you work in the night or in the light. Forget that you are a professional. You have been doing this work for many years. The fishermen were not boys. They belonged to a lineage of fishermen. Their fathers had been fishermen before. They had grown up fishing with their fathers on the sea, but that was not what mattered. They were working in the night. Do not be deceived that you seem to be making progress where you are. You have not gotten closer to accomplishment than that rich fool. He was not expecting wealth – he already had it. What was left was just to sit down and enjoy it. That was when the judgment came to him. 

I believe that while this man was working on his farm, he had no time for God. Every Sunday, his neighbours would invite him to church and he would reply, “I really had a busy week. I’m just taking some time out to relax. You know, tomorrow is going to be another day of hard work on the farm.” No spiritual activity found time in his life. He was busy during the planting season, busy during the weeding season, busy during the harvesting season, and busy even during storage season. He was going to be busy enjoying himself in the time ahead when God took away his life! What a tragedy. What was the essence of working so hard in the first place?

Listen to this, you cannot be in the light and still keep company with darkness. Being in the light is not a matter of season. On Sunday for instance, you put on a “spiritual” appearance. You change the way you talk and even walk. You enter the church with your two hands folded across your chest. You are all over the place with false humility and fake gentleness. On Monday when you get to the office, you instruct your boys to collect bribes on your behalf. They arrange women for you all over the town. You get calls from all the hotels in town to go and “service” their customers. You jump from one lie to another. You are in deep hatred. You neglect constant fellowship with God. You rig elections and kill opponents. Do not be deceived. You are working in the night.

If you have accepted Jesus in your life before, but have been jumping from light to darkness and back again, you need to make up your mind. This is what the Bible says, “You yourselves used to be in the darkness, but since you have become the Lord’s people, you are in the light. So you must live like people who belong to the light, for it is the light that brings a rich harvest of every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth” EPHESIANS 5:8&9. It is the light that brings a RICH HARVEST. Stop working in the night.