I Didn't Know I Fell Asleep

I'm gonna invite you to the word of God in the book of Acts chapter 20 verses 7

Acts 20:7–10

through 10 that's the book of Acts chapter 20

Acts 20 · chapter mention

and man and it says on the first day of the week we came together to break bread

Paul spoke to the people and because he intended to leave the next day he kept

on talking until midnight how many of you are ready to stay till midnight today

there were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting seated in a

window was a young man named Eudekus who was sinking into the deep sleep as

Paul talked on and on and he would sound asleep when he was sound asleep he

fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead Paul went down

threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him don't be alarmed he

said he's still alive and man let's come before the presence of the Lord

heavenly Father we give you honor we give you glory Jesus we thank you for this

moment for allowing us to be here Lord in your house your house of worship

father in your house of miracles in this moment we put this word in your hands I

put myself in your hands Jesus that your anointing may flow that your spirit may

speak Father through me Lord open our minds our hearts Father awaken our

spirits Father in the mighty name of Jesus we claim your holy name and we

say amen you may have your seats in this passage Paul spoke to the people until

midnight now we don't know what time their service started I don't know what

what time their their service was was gonna start maybe at 5 p.m. or maybe

like us if it's in the evening we like to start at 7 7 30 but let's say they

started at 7 the passage says that he spoke until midnight see the guest

speaker said well I'm not gonna be here tomorrow so I don't have to deal with

any of you after this and he decided I'm just gonna preach and he went on and

the word says that Paul was talking he went on and on and it hit midnight and

Paul was still preaching and like I said we don't have the details of what time

they started but based on what we read here we can say that probably went on

for a few hours and that was probably normal back then a man that they

preached maybe all day long amen then the word says that there were many lamps

now we don't know if these lamps were already there we don't know but it says

there were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting now if you

think about these times they didn't have a they couldn't just walk in the room

flip the switch like we do right now we just and the lights are on flipping

lights are off they didn't have that so a lot of times people had the lamps that

they carried for these situations so the fact that it's written that there were

many lamps we could assume that the people that gathered to heal Paul preach

took their own lamps and were preparing for a midnight service they were

preparing to be there for a while because they also knew that Paul wasn't

living there with them he wasn't there their their usual preacher it wasn't

the usual so they knew that he was just gonna be with them shortly so perhaps

they were preparing to receive a word from Paul for a long time so we could

assume that these people probably took these lamps with them amen they were

preparing for this finally we keep reading the last part of this passage we

see that there's a young man named Eudekus and the word says that this

young man was sitting in the window and he fell asleep it says when he he was

sound asleep he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up then

now I don't know about you but three stories it's pretty high up I don't know

if he ever jumped off the top of a roof but I know I did when I was a little

don't ask me why but that I was just kind of energetic like that we would play

hot and sick and I would make sure they would not find me I would climb up

trees hit the roof and whenever I saw someone coming I would jump off with no

fear and thank God I never got hurt so based of my experience just one story

was pretty high two stories I can't even imagine but when we talk about three

stories that's pretty high up there for someone to sit in a window see there's

a difference when you are jumping off and you fall off because at least when

you're jumping off you're preparing for the fall but when you're asleep you're

not preparing for that fall from that high up so I'm just trying to put that

into perspective for you today that this young man sitting in the window was

overcome by sleep and he falls from three stories high now I wonder when people

saw him it says that Paul went down and threw himself to him but the first

question that they probably asked you to kids was are you okay or what happened

and I'm wondering if you the kids got up and told them I didn't know I fell asleep

and I want to preach to you today on this thought I didn't know I fell asleep

because nobody plans to fall asleep sitting on a window knowing that there's

a chance that you might fall out and not survive that fall nobody plans that so

the fact that you the kids sat there he wasn't thinking of that he wasn't

expecting that but this is exactly what happened to this young man and when I

was reading this passage I started asking myself well I wonder why this guy

fell asleep like I wonder and I started thinking too many situations where I

fall into sleep when I don't even notice many times at home we put a movie I'm

knocked out I wake up movies over I'm like wait what happened did you stop the

movie so he's like no it already finished and I just knocked out didn't even

know at what point I fell asleep I was just so tired movie put me to sleep there

was one time and I asked my wife for permission or a side I was still in

school and she told me I'm gonna go to the room I need a study I said all right

I said in the living room and after a while I was you know I was just sitting

there watching TV after a while I said well I'm gonna go check to see how she's

doing she needs anything I opened the door she's knocked out I'm I walk in

the she's sitting in the chair mouth open everything I took a picture because I

knew she was not gonna believe me when I woke her up and I go and I'm like wow

this girl's out so much for studying huh and I wake her up she's like I'm like

what happened and I don't know I don't know what happened I was just tired she

said I'm like what happened to studying she's all I'm gonna study right now and

I'm like you you were knocked out cold she's like no no I wasn't I'm like yes I

have a picture so I showed to her she couldn't believe it and in that moment I

started realizing that all of us will reach a moment where physically we get

so tired that it accumulates to the point where it can happen to any of us

where out of nowhere we don't even realize when we fall asleep in those

moments where you're so tired that you don't even know when you fell asleep or

matter of fact how long you've been asleep that would happen to me with the

movies two or three hour movies I'm like wow that was a great movie and it

happens and this is what you dick is experienced this young man we don't know

his situation we don't we didn't know his condition but all we know is that he

showed up to that service he chose to see and he was overcome by sleep in that

moment we don't know how tired he was we don't know much we don't get the

details but all we know is that when he sat there and Paul was preaching and he

was going on and on he falls asleep and falls off this third story floor and when

we study this passage there are various issues that I find that you dick is had

that led up to this fall and the first issue is that he showed up to service

with no expectations see church when we show up to church we gotta show up with

faith when we show up to service we gotta show up with expectation when we

show up to the house of God we gotta show up believing that something is gonna

happen in the house of God a man we gotta show up with some faith in this

place verse they said there were many lamps in that room once again because

these people were preparing to stay for a long night and it could be that you

could probably showed up with nothing probably showed up not expecting anything

to move anything to happen he showed up to this place with no faith and when we

come to the house of the Lord and we're talking about the God the King of Kings

the one who has all power and authority we have to walk into this place

believing that he could turn our situation around we gotta show up with

faith believing that the God that we serve has all power and all authority

amen we have to show up believing in God everyone else that was in that room

with you to kiss and this passage Luke doesn't tell us that anybody else fell

asleep it's just written that it was just one young man but what about the

rest how come nobody else fell asleep with him and I think it's because

everybody else in that place showed up with a different mindset everyone in

that place showed up showed up expecting a move of God because when

you're expecting something you stay up you stay awake when you're expecting

something to happen you're excited you can't wait to get it and when these

people showed up they were expecting to hear a powerful word from Paul because

they knew they didn't get Paul every day they knew they didn't get Paul every

Sunday so they were ready for something to happen but what about

Eudacus Eudacus didn't show up expecting much this is why many of us can show up

to church and we leave the same and it's not because God didn't move and it's

not because God doesn't have power it's because we show up not expecting him to

move because we show up not expecting anything to change when you come to the

house of God and you have a big problem you better walk into this place

believing that there's a big God that can change your problem around believing

in God that he has a power over the situation no matter how it looks you

have to come to this place believing in him having expectation if you have

expectation God will meet you at the level of your expectation God will meet

you many people ask God Lord I want more give me more but are you ready for more

you're asking him Lord take me to a new level take me to a new job or I want

more of this or more of that but are you ready do you have the capacity to

receive more because God is not going to give you more if it's going to damage

you he's not going to give you more if it's going to hold you back he's not

going to pay give you a job that's going to pay you more if it's going to cause

you to leave his ways are you ready to receive more from God you see if we are

expecting if we have faith it means we come to this place with expectancy and

if you're expecting a move of God then that means you have to prepare because

preparation is a sign of expectation pop was preaching to many of them and all

of them showed up prepared to receive what he had to give our preparation is

only a sign of what we're believing God to do and you the kids in this passage

he was present but he wasn't prepared he was present but he wasn't prepared to

receive what was going to happen that afternoon you see I'm going to take you

to Mark chapter 2 verse 3 to 5 mark chapter 2 3 5 and it says then they came

Mark 2:3–5 Mark 2 · chapter mention

to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men and when they could

not come near him because of the crowd they uncovered the roof where he was

so when they had broken through they let down the bed on which the paralytic was

lying when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son your sins are

forgiven you see these four men carried the paralyzed man to Jesus you know why

because they knew who Jesus was they knew the power that he had and they knew

the condition of this man so they said if we could only get him to Jesus we know

what God can do for him we know what Jesus can do so these four men picked

them up and believed and when they showed up they were expecting a miracle when

they were expecting that means they were believing already that it was going to

happen so their job was simply to get the paralyzed man to Jesus see they they

ran into this crowd and said there's too many people we can't break through here

we got to find a different way no matter what but Jesus is here we got to get to

him that they uncovered the roof and they brought the paralyzed man through the

roof and it says that when Jesus saw their face he said son your sins are

forgiven when Jesus saw their faith it wasn't even about the God that was

paralyzed it was about the four men that had the faith that Jesus could do it when

Jesus saw the faith of the four he healed the one that was paralyzed you see

the power of having faith for somebody else is real the power of believing for

your brother the power of believing for your sister when you believe for somebody

else God can still move because of your faith tearing the roof is on me but the

healing is on Jesus tearing the roof is on you the miracle leave it to God you

got to do your part but for the impossible we have a God that has all

power to do all things church don't worry about that part we just got to get

to him we just got to bring the problems to Jesus but the rest you got to

believe that he has the power to do the miracles these four men carried him

believing what I love about this is that they had such a conviction that they

knew all they had to do was to get him there and getting him there was

automatic it was gonna be a miracle now what would happen church if we show up

to this place with that heart and with that belief and with that faith with all

of the faith in this room what can God do to in this place that's all we were

singing right now who am I to deny what the Lord can do come on church who are

we to deny what God can do in this place today who am I who are you to deny what

God can do in your life it doesn't matter if your brother your sister your

cousin your family your friend is not here if you have faith for them God can

still do it come on praise him for that because this is for the honor and the

glory of God amen God will move when he sees your faith move God will move if

you show him your faith he will show you his power let me tell you about a

situation I had at work we were working late one night around 7 8 p.m. almost

everyone's gone it was just a couple of coworkers and myself there and it's a

long building it's a pretty long building and I work on one side the other

side of the building since everyone was gone all the lights were off so from

one side I look down the hall looks dark just around where we were working the

lights were on there and I needed to go to the break room so as I'm walking there

and I go past I keep walking the lights started turning on and I felt like

something so little spoke to me and I felt like God told me there's many times

where we're walking with Christ and we look our situation ahead and we may not

see very far because it looks dark because it because there's a storm in

front of us but God spoke to me through this situation and I felt like sharing

this today with somebody but just know that when you begin to move God will

begin to turn the lights on in your path for you to be able to walk through that

storm when you move God will move with you when you take a step forward God will

be there with you when you take a leap of faith God will hold you God will catch

you when God calls you we obey he will open every single door that needs to be

open but all we have to do is walk by faith that's what the God that's what

the word says that we walk by faith and not by sight when we move God will move

with us a man the second issue that led to Eurikus falling was that not only did

he show up with no expectations to this church to his service to their gathering

but the second issue we find here in this passage is a place where he chose to

sit verse 9 says and in a window sat a certain young man named Eurikus who was

sinking into a deep sleep he was overcome by sleep and Paul continues

speaking he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead

why did he sit there I started asking myself why is it that Eurikus sat in the

window could it be that it was that packed or how come it doesn't say that

there was more people sitting in the window with him was there only one

window or could it be that typically people in general when we walk into a

room I don't know if you've noticed when you walk to a meeting school your class

whatever it may be typically we kind of like to sit towards the back I don't

know that's that that's just me that's what I've noticed I've done that myself

we walk say towards the back maybe not all the way in the back but you know two

three seats towards the back you don't want to be all the way in the back but

kind of the back but not in the front either you know what that is is your

comfort zone where you sit depending on where you sit that that's where your

comfort zone is at so I started thinking I wonder if Eurikus showed up in that

place already not believing maybe he was struggling and his comfort zone let him

to sit in the back and he said you know I don't want to sit in the back view I'll

just sit even further back how about this window yeah I like this window view

here we have to watch where we sit church we have to watch where we position

ourselves because sitting in the window was a comfort issue for Eurikus he

didn't challenge his flesh he didn't challenge himself and comfort in the

walk with God can't be dangerous comfort is not going to get you closer to God

your comfort is not going to tell you to go pray your comfort is not going to tell

you to go pray for somebody you know what your comfort says I'll pray for him

another day you know what your comfort says somebody else will do it I wonder

who's gonna do it it's not gonna be me yeah I don't have enough to do it I can't

do that I can't pray for this brother I can't pray for this sister that's what

your comfort will tell you that's what your flesh will tell you and that was a

problem with Eurikus that he was wrestling with when he sat in this

window it was his comfort it was his flesh he wanted to be there but still

have a view in the outside and that was the problem with Eurikus in this

passage is that you can't be in church and still have an open window to the

world you can't be inside the church and still have a view to the outside you

have to be either in or you have to be out but don't ever sit by the window

where you're trying to listen to Paul but at the same time trying to see what

everybody else is doing outside you got to either stay in the church or be

outside but the word says don't be lukewarm

well he was in church he still had a good view to what was going on outside

and that's why he didn't receive anything because he was lying to himself by

saying well I'm here but your mind isn't he was saying I'm here but your

heart isn't and it's dangerous because you could be in the church but your

heart is somewhere else you could be present but absent at the same time and

that's so dangerous to be present because if you're here and there's

miracles happening you just walked out of this place without a miracle even

though the miracle worker was in this place and all because you were present

but absent at the same time you have to be careful with your comfort zone you

have to be careful with your flesh you have to challenge yourself you have to

challenge and get out of your comfort zone because comfort is not going to lead

you to the miracles that God has for you you got to be able to be there be

present and you got to be focused you got to give God your full attention

perhaps you the kids had a good intention of showing up but intention will

get you in the room and attention will keep you in the room his attention was

completely gone because of the place he chose to position himself in we have to

be careful where we position ourselves in church because our position can

determine whether we draw to God or fall away from God

Proverbs 11 14 says where there is no counsel the people fall but in the

multitude of counselors there is safety we have to put place ourselves put

yourself in a position where you are surrounded by godly people you got to

put yourself in a position where there's people around you that can give you a

word that can correct you that can elevate you that can minister to you you

have to put yourself in a position where somebody can come and tell you hey

what's going on because if we don't we're giving the enemy room to come near

us and that was the mistake that you the kids made that he placed himself he

set himself up to fall and if you give the enemy a little bit of room he will

come and steal that joy he will come and steal that calling kill that calling

destroy that calling because that's what he came to do the enemy comes not but

to steal kill and destroy and somebody's in here you're asking yourself well I've

been in church so long but I don't feel like nothing's changed I don't feel like

anything has changed and God sent me in on assignment today just to let you know

that what has to change is in your heart what has to change is your mind you have

to open up your mind and your heart to receive the word you have to watch where

you're sitting you have to watch where you're positioned because many people

will come and go but when you try to give them a car when you try to visit

them they're not there they don't make themselves available you have to make

yourself available where somebody can reach out to you and minister to you

because God will minister you here but God can also minister to you outside of

these four walls God can minister to you over a phone call God can minister to you

over a visit but you have to make yourself available and in this sense we

can say that you the kids was out of reach I wonder why nobody saw him falling

asleep I wonder why nobody saw him I wonder why nobody could have told me

hey wait wake up you're about to fall like watch out you look where you're

sitting you would think that somebody could have told him something being in a

such a dangerous place I would have thought that somebody could have told

them hey you dick is since he was a young man if he was part of this you that

could hear the guy saying my boy what's going on you dick is needed a boy to tell

him to wake up that's why it's so important for us to connect with one

another because we need godly people around us we need people that will speak

to us people that will tell the truth even if we don't want to hear it because

it's for our salvation people that can hold us people that can tell us you have

too much to offer to fall you have too much potential within you to fall you

have too much to offer to give up we need people that can tell us and we must

be alert spiritually speaking of these signs of when somebody's falling asleep

of when we're falling asleep in the spirit let me share some signs that I

have that we need to watch for when we're falling in the spirit you know

you're spiritually falling asleep when you don't have time or strength to pray

anymore when you say I'm too busy you got to watch out for that you know you're

falling asleep in your spirit when you don't hunger for the word anymore where

you could go months and months without reading his word and you feel fine you

got to watch out for those signs where you know you used to feel hungry for the

word when you know you you just had to read it you had to dive into it but now

you feel fine if you don't you know you're falling asleep if you no longer

get convicted of willful sin of those moments what God would speak to you

where the spirit would speak to you and now you just do it like it's nothing now

you find excuses of why you could do it now you ask questions about where is it

in the Bible well if you open your eyes you would find it because we see what

we want to see and sometimes we don't see the things we don't you know you're

falling asleep when you have a desire to be served and no longer serve others we

have to be careful in those moments you have to analyze yourself and ask

yourself am I doing this for me or am I here to serve others because if you

don't know how to serve you have to remember that Jesus himself came to

serve and not be served you have to remember that Jesus came to serve and

if he came to serve who am I not to come to serve amen who are we not to serve

amen we have to watch you know you're falling asleep in your spirit when

you're easily offended when maybe somebody's attention went somewhere else

and they they couldn't talk to you right there and then because their kid ran

off and they went off and now you're offended because this brother sister

didn't finish their conversation with you or the musician passed by you quickly

because he had to come up here and play and he left you with your hand like

hanging and now you're mad now you're upset now you can't come to church you

have to watch out when you get easily offended because I don't know about you

but when you're physically tired isn't it a lot easier to get mad at someone

like stop trying to fall asleep here I'm tired leave me alone just it's so easy

to get offended or mad at someone you're when you're sleeping when you're tired

and it's the same thing in the spirit when you're struggling everything is

offensive you know you're falling asleep when you're always comparing yourself

to others when you show up to service the service is going the spirit of God is

moving and you're just there watching someone well I could do that how come

I'm not there why are they there why am I why not me when you begin to compare

yourself to other people let me tell you that every single person in this place

has a purpose each and every one of you has a purpose in the hands of the God

of God each and every one of you has a gift within you that God can use but in

due time God will elevate you and you have to be willing to wait on God's

timing because if it's not the time just yet it only means that God is preparing

you for when he says it's time that you could be ready to minister ready to

preach ready to serve but if it's not time just keep serving faithfully you

know you're falling asleep when you're spreading and entertaining gossip you

have to be sensitive to those things you have to be tuned into the spirit of God

for those things because God gossip doesn't honor him gossip doesn't honor

God instead of talking about people we need to get together and pray for people

and instead of gossiping we need to get together and pray for a brother pray for

a sister that you may see struggling don't talk about the struggles help them

pray through them don't talk about them go to them ask them what do I what do you

need how can I help you what is it that you're praying for what isn't that you're

battling we're together church we're in this battle together we need to be able

to pray for one another and it takes me back to that moment why nobody could have

reached out to you to kiss how long did it take them to notice that you to kiss

fell off I wonder how long it took it doesn't tell us we don't know how long

it might have taken but we know that he fell off and I want to when I was

reading and thinking about this passage praying over this passage I felt like

God was asking do you notice when somebody's not here anymore have you

noticed that a eutica stopped coming to church have you noted how long has it

been since that brother or sister that used to sit next to you how long has it

been that since they showed up to service how long has it been did you even

realize that they were no longer coming did you even notice that they stopped

coming to church and God is saying how many of us have reached out to those

people that need a Paul in their life you see because when you to kiss fell

down Paul the word says that Paul ran and he threw himself to you to kiss church

we need to be like Paul where in our hearts we say I don't know about this

brother I don't know about this sister but I noticed that they weren't there it

doesn't matter if you see them or if you talk to them every week but when God

shows you those things we got to be reaching out to these people we got to

be reaching out to our brother we got to be reaching out to our sister together

in one accord fighting showing them that we are there for them that they vow

they have too much value within them to let them go that we're in this battle

with them and I'm wondering how many people are out there right now that

need to be in here right now how many people have left the church that should

be preaching right here right now I'll tell you this right now church I'm here

by the grace of God but there was too many times where I could have fell out

that I shouldn't be here anymore that I shouldn't be in this place I could have

been lost in drugs in gangs in different places but because there were people

like Paul that were after me telling me I see something in you I see potential in

you there's something in you that you have to keep seeking God for I think

God for those people outside my family God put people in it in my life that

could reach out to me and minister to me and because of those people and because

of God I'm still here I'm preaching today because of the grace of God but I

shouldn't be here but there was a Paul in my life that came and spoke to me that

came and threw himself to me that came and told me there's so much to fight

for in this life there's so life is much bigger than us the college is much

bigger than us

first sense says he threw himself and they took you to kids up as then after

falling from this building they believe them that he was dead they believe that

you the kids was done but Paul was the one who told him hold on there's still

life here hold on there's still life in you the kids you the kids it's not over

yet and I came to tell somebody today in the spirit that is not over yet for you

that it doesn't matter how far you fell from God it doesn't matter how many

mistakes you made on the way here that maybe today you barely made it in God

came to tell you today that it's not over yet and I came here to let you know

that there is still life within you that there is still life within you because of

God God kept you because he still has a plan for your life he still had they're

still hoping you there is still purpose in you and what I love the most about

this passage church and I'm gonna invite you to be up in your feet in this

moment what I love the most about this passage is the fact of the people that

are in there we have a young man who made a few mistakes and who fell but we

have Paul who was older more experienced but Paul a man who persecuted the church

a man whose life was going in the opposite direction a man who had a calling

and a greater purpose in his life and he didn't even know it until he had an

encounter with Jesus until he had an encounter with God and in that moment

God turns his life around and then we see Paul preaching in many situations and

in this passage a man who used to persecute the church is now ministering

to the church because that's what God can do in your life when you're running

from God God could turn it around and now you're running towards God that's

what God can do in your life it doesn't matter how far you are from him it

doesn't matter how far you fell from him God can still turn it around in your

favor I can't tell somebody that there's still more life within you that there's

still a purpose within you don't let the voice of the enemy tell you that because

you fell far from God that it's over God used Paul and he used them in a

great way and in this moment we see Paul ministering to you the kiss a young

man that made mistakes and fell because Paul knew what it was like to be in

those shoes Paul knew what it was like to be in his shoes and I wonder if there's

anyone here today that you know what it's like to be in that situation we're

gonna open up this altar car right now and we're gonna invite in everyone in

this place if you know that there's still room within you to get closer to God if

you know that there's a calling within you but you've been battling if you know

that there's still purpose within you but you've been struggling you've been

fighting in your spirit you've been fighting

God is in this room right now and he's saying we're gonna minister because God

is sending his angels God is handing his spirit right now