I Didn't Know I Fell Asleep (Robert Madu)

great country of Texas. And it's an honor to be here, especially because of what this house means to me, the impact that this house has made on my life, on my wife's life, on our church's life, and so it's always an honor to come back and to make a deposit into this amazing church. Do you know how blessed you are to be a part of this church? Come on, I hope you know that that deserves more than a golf class. You are not just blessed, you're spoiled, absolutely spoiled.

And I hope you know the grass doesn't get greet or anywhere else. You're at the right church at the right time, at the right place, and this is just evidence of God's hand in his favor. But also because you have incredible leaders and incredible pastors. In this month that we take a moment to pause and appreciate pastors. How many you know we have to pause to appreciate Pastor Stephen and Holly Ferdick for who they are. I'm telling you, the leaders they are and the people they are.

Come on, would you just let them know how much you love and appreciate them? Elevations. You can do better than that across every location. Let's give honor to what honors do. Please, don't ever take the kid God has given you for granted. I fall short of words to adequately express what Pastor Stephen and Holly mean to my wife and I, but I'll steal something I heard a

Swifty say. True though I heard a Swifty say recently, I feel sorry for Taylor Swift, I said, what, So, Yeah, I feel sorry for Taylor Swift because Taylor Swift doesn't know what it's like to experience a Taylor Swift concert. That's what I heard a Swift he say. So I'll say that I feel sorry for Pastor Stephen and Holly Ferdy because they don't know what it's like to experience their leadership and to be on the other side of the incredible songs and the sermons and so I love them.

I'm thankful for all of the pastors that serve here at Elevation. Can we just thank God for them? From every pastor at every location to the man, the myth, the legion chalks, I celebrate you. I'm thankful for who you are, and I'm just don't pretend like I'm at home because I am. Is that cool? I act like I'm at social Dallas, And I want to jump straight

into the Word of God today. I want you to go with me to the Book of Acts, Acts, chapter twenty, and I want to look at verses seven through twelve, Acts Chapter twenty. We started verse number seven and we'll land of verse number twelve. I have to get excused absences from my wife to be at any other church, and so I'm glad that she gave me this excuse absence. But I am families. So can I show you my family. It's been a while. This is the Medu crew. Let

me show you my family. I'll got that picture of my family. They are Look at that, y'all. If you wonder why I have this glow emanating from my face, it's not just because I use exfoliating skin products. It's because I am a blessed man. That is the Madou crew, and those are our three little humans. And I'm excited to preach. Let's let's let's go to work. Go to Acts, chapter twenty, and we're gonna start at verse number seven, and we'll land at verse number twelve. When you're ready

to read it, say yeah, yeah. If you need a little time to find the book of Acts, say hold up, I heard that. Hold up. I'm wait for you. I'ma wait for your Acts chapter twenty, and we'll start at verse number seven, 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, kept on talking until midnight. How many you would stay here if I just kept preaching till midnight?

Anybody'll y'all lieing? Don't lie? Some of y'all gonna leave to catch the brunch, And says there were many lamps in the upstairs room where they were meeting, and seated in a window was a young man named Udicus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on, And when he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. And Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. Don't be alarmed,

he said, he's alive. Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. You know, you gangster, when you do a resurrection, don't even wash your hands, and go right upstairs and break bread. And he he said, the people took the young after talking till daylight, he left, and the people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. Can you say a man, thank you

so much? What a peculiar passage of scripture. I've been obsessed with this scripture for a long time, especially about this young dude name Uticus, because he made the Bible, y'all, not for something he said, but for what he did. Homeboy made the Bible from falling asleep in church, falling out of a window, and dying. He didn't even say anything. But if Uticus could come back today, I think he would tell you what my title is today. He would say to you, who I didn't know I fell asleep.

I didn't know I fell asleep. Would you help me preach and look at your neighbor whichever one you like the best across every location. Just say neighbor, O neighbor. Sometimes you don't know when you're asleep. Come on, find another neighbor. In case that neighborhood stuck up, come on, find another neighbor. Come on, say other neighbor. You my second option. But don't sleep on this message. Give God

some praise. If you got expectation for him to speak today, Father, have your way, speak to our hearts today in Jesus' name. And man, I didn't know. I fell asleep when I read this text. That immediately took me back to a moment in church that I will never forget. It's happened a few years ago. Actually, during the first year of

our marriage. Some of you would know that. Before we planted our church social Dallas, I traveled for sixteen years as an evangelist, had an itinerant ministry, preaching at churches all across the nation and preaching from Genesis all the way to the maps in the back. And I remember we had just gotten we just gotten married, and it was a crazy week of traveling. We're new the wads, and I was actually trying to show my new it's real out here in these ministry streets. It's not vacation.

I'm living out of the suitcase and going from city to city. And it was a crazy week. We're in a different city every single night, and then Saturday night we get into Middlelothian, Virginia. I'll never forget it. And the pastor picked us up and he said, hey, I just want to let you know that tomorrow we have three Sunday morning services since the first one starts at eight a m. So I looked at my bride, my new bride, and I said, babe, it's been a crazy week. I said, you do not have to go to all

three of these services. I said, why don't you just pick one or come to the last one. You don't have to come to all three. Now, keep in mind, this is the first year of our marriage. Okay, now we got eleven years in. We got double digits on the board. If I asked her today, she'd be like, I wasn't planning on coming to all three. I'll come to the last one and catch you at lunch. But when you're a newly way that's different. So she's like, Babe, no,

I'll come to all three. We can't be disconnected so all right, it's gonna be early morning, and so we get to the church. I'll never forget it. It's the first service of the day and I'm preaching and I'm getting ready to land the sermon, land the plane. My wife, who is on the front row. I look at my peripheral and I see her arms are closed. So my first thought is my first thought is see I picked the right one. She is praying for her man right now.

She knows that this is the most important part in the sermon, that I'm about to land the plane, and she is preparing the atmosphere with the gift of Inner session. She is praying for me. Then all of a sudden, I noticed her eyes were all the way in the back of her head and her mouth was open. Then she started rocking like this and going back and forth, and I said, wait, man, we're Pentecosta, but we ain't

that Pentecosta. Why is she rocking back and forth? And before you know it, she is sound asleep on the front row of the church. And I'm panicking because I notice it. And then I noticed other people noticing her, and then I just panicked. I just called the worship team back and I said come back, come back out, and everybody stand. Everybody's everybody stand to your feet. She woke up and stood and I prayed the praying ooh. And I went back to the green room. I wasn't

living at you. I said, babe, what is wrong with you? I told you you didn't have to come. Did you notice? Everybody notice? And you fall asleep? And she said, in that sweet voice, Babe, I'm sorry. I couldn't help it, and I didn't know I was falling asleep. But I look back, I shouldn't have got mad, because come on, let's be honest. This happened to the best of us, hasn't it. Oh, come on, I don't care how saved, how spiritual you are. You could have floated in here,

had communion for breakfast. I promise you you have had you a sleepy sunday. Come you're honest across every location to admit you've had a Sunday where you you were dozing. You're like, look, I'm here. At least I made it. That's the wind today. I'm not impressed with people that tell me they've never fallen to sleep in church. If you've never fallen asleep in church, all you telling me is you don't come to church consistently. That's all you're letting me know. Of course you can stay awake, you

just come on Eastern Christmas. Those of us who fall asleep are faithful. We keep showing up even when we worked late last night. So uh, it's not a big deal. In fact, you want to sleep today, it's cool because it's happened to the best of us. And I didn't come all the way from Dallas to Charlotte to tell you that if you fall asleep in church you're gonna die. It's not my assignment today, Nor do I think that's

the reason that this story is in the Bible. But the question I have been asking myself is why is this story in the Bible? Come on, of all the things that doctor Luke could have put pen to paper to write about, why do we need to know about this young dude named Uticus that fell asleep in church, Of all the things to put in the Book of Backs, Why do we need to know about this this young dude named Eudicus fallen asleep in church, Of all the things he could have written about in the Book of Acts.

You understand that the Book of Acts is giving us the first thirty years of the history of the early Church. It's not telling us everything that happened. It's just telling us snapshots that happened, just a few of the events that happen. I love the Book of Acts. Read it when you get to the crib, because the Book of Acts lets me know that God will always keep his promise. Because you understand that He gave those in the upper

room a promise. He said, and the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you'll receive power to be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judaeus, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Think about that, that something that started with a small group of one twenty in an upper room began to spread around the world, and the gospel is still being preached today. I'm gonna pause right here and

tell somebody, don't despise small beginnings. Come you know, you can start small, but if the Holy Spirit starts blowing on the thing that's you know, it has the power to go around the world. Don't despise small beginnings because when God starts something small, the Holy Spirit gets on it, it can get big. Look at what you sitting in here today at Elevation Church, This didn't start with all

these campuses and packing out arenas. How many are thankful that some families and pastor Stephen and Holly were faithful to step out and all of a sudden because the Holy Spirit blew on something to change the game. But I'm trying to figure out why we gotta know about Paul and the Unicus. This don't make sense to me. I get knowing about Paul and Antonius. Come on, you know, Paul is like some of y'all. He went from ratchet to righteous. He had a testimony. He actually persecuted the

church before he started building the church. God knocked him off his high horse and a light blinded him. Only God could use a light to blind you, and a light blinded him. And he needed Antonius because when God is taking you from who you were to who you're going to be, you need an anonaius to lay their hands on you and show you the way. I get

Paul and Antonius. I get Paul and Barnabas, because come on, God didn't just save you for you to come to church and sit on your blessed assurance and do nothing. Come on, you gotta get plugged in. You have a purpose He created you on purpose, for a purpose. So I get Paul and Barnabas. You need Barnabas. Barnabas is the one that got connected to Paul on his first mission. Every journey, I get Paul and Silas because I mean, you know, when you're in a dark place, you need

somebody that will praise God with you. I need somebody that when I say high Lay, they say Lujah. When I say praise, they say Lord. I get Paul inside of the But Paul and Unicus, why do I need to know Debby fell asleep in church? Surely the message is don't sleep in church. Surely that can't be the message. Surely the message isn't preach short. I vehementically come against that. That can't be the message of this text. I had a Bible college professor. He said, you should preach fifteen

minutes or less fifty minute. He said, yes, the mind cannot retain what the seat cannot endure. Preach fifteen minutes or less. I'm thinking, were you born, you should preach fifteen minutes or less. Surely the message is not preach short, and surely the message can be that the apostle Paul was a boring communicator, because if he was a boring communicator, I believe the text would have said everybody fell asleep, but everybody didn't fall asleep. Eudicus is the only one

that started dozing off in the room. That means, oh, I don't know how many people in the room, but Eudicus was the only one that was sleeping. That means everybody else in the room must have been leaning in. Going, Paul, if you got more to say, we got more to receive. If you're gonna pour out, we're ready to receive it. I want to pause right here and thank God that, first of all, Paul had the depth of content to

keep preaching past midnight. But I want to shout out to other people in the room that have the depth of capacity to receive what Paul was pouring out. Oh see, sometimes we think that God has doesn't have enough content to pour out to us. But sometimes it has nothing to do with what God wants to pour out, but everything to do with your capacity to receive what God

wants to pour out. Is there anybody in here that knows that God has so much more that he wants to pour out, but some of us keep coming to him with a little saucer. Thank God, I'm ready to receive. So I want to shout out the other people in the room that had the depth of capacity to receive what Paul had. I want to shout out the other people in the room that said, Paul, if you got something to say, I am ready with anticipation and I'm ready to hear it. Is there anybody in here that

says I came to receive something from God? I actually have expectation. Sometimes we think the problem is with the seed, and it has nothing to do with the seed, but everything to do with the soil that receives it. That's why when Jesus told the parable of the Sower, the thing that was constant was the seed, but the only thing that changed was the soil. Because often times the problem is not with the person that has the microphone, it's with the people that have the capacity to receive it.

So sometimes I'll preach a message and it'll be terrible, and somebody'd be like, oh, that's the best message you ever preached, and I'd be like, nah, fam, that's the best time you ever listened. I know that wasn't the best one. But sometimes when you actually have the capacity to receive it, it'll hit the ground better. And I know this room had capacity to received. In fact, they had something that I call proof of expectation. They had proof that they were expecting God to speak to them

through Paul. Proof of expectation. I don't ask church people anymore do you have expectation? Because everybody's like, yeah, I got expectation. I asked them, show me the proof of your expectation. Prove to me that you're actually expecting God to do something in your life. Is there anybody in here that actually has proof of your expectation? Somebody will say, I got expectation. I'm believing God for a house. Really? Are you actually sewing right now? Are you giving Nah?

I'm just expecting a house. Really. Okay, have you downloaded Zillow? Nah? Not yet, But I'm just expecting a house. Show me, yo, you got to have proof of your expectation. And I'm telling the people in this room they had proof of expectation that God was going to do something. Can you prove it in the text? I will verse number eight of Acts, chapter twenty. I want you to see something. If you read too fast or miss it, it says there were many lamps in the upstairs room where they

were meeting. There were how many lamps? How many many? There were so many lamps in that upstairs room. That lets me know the people in the room had expectation to receive, because it's how we're down. I don't think Paul planned to preach law. We never do. I think you jarted off and it kept going and kept going and kept going all throughout the middle of the night.

But guess what, the people in the room already knew that this meeting might go long, and Paul's gonna pour out to us and we might not ever see him again. So before they ever got in the room, they set the atmosphere of that room and put many lamps in there. I'm talking to some of y'all, you gotta start setting the atmosphere with some expectation. I'm talking to some of y'all. You gotta start praising God on your way to church.

Don't wait till you get in the building. You want to start praising all the way on your way to church. The lamps were proof of their expectation. They had many lamps. You know how long it took them to set up all those lamps. Say, y'all know Paul might get long winded tonight, Let's just set them all up. Setting up all these lamps as proof that they had expectation for something to happen. Then not only that, wait a minute, who you have to also have oil in those lamps.

It's not enough just to have the lamps. You better have some oil. You remember when Jesus told the parable about the five foolish bridesmaids and the five wise one, And remember all of them pulled a you kissing, fell asleep, And when the bridegroom came. The only thing that separated the wise one from the foolish ones were the ones that have enough oil that were in their lamps. Is there anybody in here and say, I don't just have the lamps. I got some oil, I got some anointing.

I am expecting God. There's something. Those lamps stood as proof that they had expectation for God to speak to them in that upper room. Not only does those lamps stand as proof of their expectation, it also shows the power of illumination. Anytime you see a lamp in the Bible, it is a picture of the word of a God. How many have realized that life is above your pay grade and you need a word from God. You need his word for direction. This is what he says. Your

word is a lamp unto my feet. It's a light unto my path. This is the power of the word of God. I need his word for direction. Oh, it's a lamp unto my feet, meaning that oftentimes his word will just tell you the next step. Often, when God speaks to you, he's not going to give you a twenty year plan. I know that messes up you planners. He would not giving you a twenty year plan, but he will tell you this is what you do next. This is what you do next. Take this step. And

some of you haven't taken that step. You're like, God, I need a new word. He's like, dude, the last one I told you. The lamps proved that his word is illumination in that room, and so all of them had tiptoe anticipation that God was going to speak to the great Apostle Paul, and I have to be honest with you and tell you something. I don't usually like to brag about places that I go, but I've been to this upper room. I've been to this room I've been to this room. I've seen this upper room where

they gat that I was there. I wasn't there, y'all, not in reality, in my exegetically imagination. But I went to Troas and I worked all day. I worked long and hard all day, and I was filled with excitement because everybody was talking about how Paul was going to show up at this undisclosed location, and they said he was going to be there, the great Apostle Paul. So after working all day, I went straight from work to this upper room. I remember it, y'all. I remember walking

up the flight of stairs three stories. I remember walking in. The room was packed with people. I remember the smell in that room because not everybody took a bass, I could tell, and the room was so packed, but nobody cared about the smell because they were just actually excited to hear Paul preach. I was there in the room as we began to take the bread, and we began to have communion, and we remembered the sacrifice of what

Jesus did. I remembered the rooms, and I remember that moment when Paul walked in, who the whole room got quiet. I don't know if you've ever met your heroes. But I remember seeing Paul walk in the room. I remember seeing the scars that were showing through his tunic, because in his body he bore the scars of what he had suffered from the Gospel. And there I was listening to the Apostle Paul preach, and I was trying to take it all in. It was like drinking from a

fire hydrant. He just had death of wisdom and revelation. And there I am listening to the Apostle Paul, and I was so leaned in. Nobody ever spoke like him. And I was with him for the first forty five minutes. I was with him for the first hour. But after an hour and fifteen minutes, he said, bruh, you gotta land this plan. But he kept on preaching, kept on preaching. Then my knees got tired, so I said, I'm as well sit down, and looks like this is gonna be a long message. And I sat down. And I was

good for the first hour and fifteen minutes. But then in an hour and thirty minutes, he's still preaching, y'all. In the hour thirty I had to go to the bathroom. I had too much of the juice. So I got up and I left and I went to the bathroom. And when I came back from the bathroom, somebody stole my seat. I said, ain't that messed up? And Paul is still preaching, so watch just stayed in the back in two hours in. Now he's taken questions. I'm like, Paul,

come on, bro, And he keeps going and going. And then it was hot because all know the lamps for him the room, and I started again light headed, and my stomach was full. And he he's two hours and thirty eight minutes in, and so finally I was getting hot flatchers I went by a window. I went by the window to just get a little air from my tunic, and I started airing out my tunic just a little bit. And then when he's three hours in, I had to just sit in the window. And then he got going.

And now he's three and a half hours in, and the lamps in the room kept flickering, and I saw it going fow off something pleasp. Now I was trying hopping out. I was playing that. I just okay, oh, walk in And then I started looking out the window. I said, Lord, what's going on out here because this is gonna be going on for a long time, finally laying her head on the window. L shute h n. Do you see how it happens? Do you see nobody intends to fall asleep, Nobody plans on going to sleep.

I went through all that to show you, let's not be so quick to throw a stone in Uticus when it's happened to the best of us. For my issue with Uticus, it's not really his sleeping. My issue is with where he chose to sit. Of old places that were in that upstairs room. What in the workadure would you sit and open went on the ledge of an open with My issue is not with his sleep. My issue is with his seat. I'm gonna say, Ludacris, because it is ludicrous. Why are you sitting on the ledge

of an open window. That's a dangerous place to set Unicus, I think you should have chose another seat of all the seats, because when you sit in an open window when you're in church, but you're still got open windows when you're in church, and yes, you got your attendants, but God doesn't have your attention. When you're in church, but you still got open windows. It's only a matter of time before you go from a window to a fall, because you gotta be careful where you sit in the

House of God. You gotta be careful when you have open windows. My issue with Uticus is why would you sit in such a dangerous place? And I'm wondering there's anybody in here who just like Eudicus And oh, you're in church. Oh I understand. Judicus is not in the club. Judicus came to a campus. He was there, but he picked a dangerous place to sit. Judicus had some open windows in his life even though he was in the

house of God. Here's your intention will get you in the room, but it's your attention that will keep you and the row. It is not enough just to come to church. You gotta be careful words you sit. And some of you in here today have some open windows. And God just told me to ask you, is that the best place for you to sin? Is that the best place? You know? You're sitting in an open window when you're trying to see how close you can get to the edge of sin without a being sin. When

you're asking questions like well, what is lying really? I mean, I mean, what's cheating really? It's an open window because you're trying to see how close you can get to the last. And God told me to tell somebody in this place today it is a horrible thing to fight sleep in a window sea. You need to get off of the window sea, get away from the edge. You should go to a wall and end up on something that's solid. Don't fight sleep in a window seat. That's a horrible place to try to fight the war of

falling asleep. The issue wasn't his sleep, it was where he was sitting. Can we be honest? Have you ever been fighting sleep? I'm talking about in the natural? You ever been fighting it? You ever see how stupid you look fighting sleep? Wow? Hitting yourself doing whatever you can't I'm the worst. I'm telling you. My wife is scared

to drive with me. I'm telling for me. All long drives and the engine just drone in and if there's no scenery, I am dangerous behind the wheel if it is more than a two hour drive, because I'll just who I see why he went by the window, Because that's why I do. I open up the windows when I'm about to fall asleep, and I'll stick my head out the window, just fighting so you have been fighting. See I'm telling I am dangerous on a highway, just

doing whatever I can to stay away. I like hip hop, but when I'm telling you, when i'm driving, I'll listen to whatever I gotta listen to. Just stay awake. If you ever seen me on the highway with my head out the window talking about said you up in the like, was that past the robber? Yeah, shout us. Stay awake. It's a horrible thing to fight sleep in a window seat. And all of us disciples have been there, haven't we.

Do you remember when the disciples were with Jesus, Peter, James, and John in the garden of Guesseimone and he told him watch and pray, stay here, just pray with me. And what did they start doing? They pulled the unicuts fall asleep. But do you remember what Jesus said to him. She went up to him, called him out first, y'all sleeping you know they did like we do. No, no, man, we just praying for you. Yeah sure, he said, uh, watch and pray. He says, be careful that you don't

fall into ten. It's an awkward thing to say for somebody that's sleeping. Y'all, got real spiritual with it, like, ooh yeah, what what does temptation have to do with sleeping? Say, boys, you just said be careful that you do not fall into a temperipedic. What does temptation have to do with sleeping? He says. More, he says, the spirit is willing, but

the flesh is weak. He's given us a metaphor, the Great Teacher that in the same way in the natural, when you're fighting to stay awake, that is the war between your flesh and your spirit. He's trying to let you know that we live in a culture that is always trying to put you to sleep, and you got to do whatever you can to fight to stay Oh wake, you cannot go to sleep. I don't know who this is for, but this is your wake up call today because the enemy is trying to get you to fight

to sleep it. That's what he's given us, the metaphor that is hard to stay awake. And I came to tell you that the disciples with the best intentions often fall the sleep. The disciples with the best hearts often fall asleep. Don't forget what happened in that passage when the disciples were sleeping. He says that Jesus was sorrowful to death, but another translation says even the disciples were sorrowful. Sometimes sorrow makes you sleepy because you've been through so

much and you've been fighting to stay awake. But the bain starts lulling you to sleep, and God says, you gotta keep on and don't let the culture and the things around you put you to sleep. I love the Bible because it flows so well together. The Bible is replete with examples and scriptures about our need to stay vigilant, to stay awake. For Thessalonians five, verses five through six says, you are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or

to the darkness. So then let us not be like the others who are asleep, but let us be awakened. Sober Paul says in Romans thirteen, verse eleven and twelve. And do this understanding the present time. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believe. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of the darkness and put on the armor of light. One Peter five

eight says be alert and a sober mind. Your enemy. The devil prowls around like a roaring line, looking for someone to devour. I'm trying to show you the Bible has always been telling us as believers, stay awake because it's so easy. Oh a sleep. I know some of y'all are super spiritual. You're like, I would never get sleepyre. You know how long I've been coming to elevation. I have scriptures to memorize. I'm a child at the most high God. I'm telling you it's easier to fall asleep

than you realize. I would never Okay, you remember Luke chapter nine when the disciples, three of them, saying three that fell asleep, go up to the mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and something powerful happens. As Jesus starts praying, he starts glowing in the dark. Can you imagine being with Jesus on a mountaintop and his clothes get brighter than anybody could bleach it. Some of the crazier happens.

Moses and Elijah show up on the mountain, y'all. I'm thinking if I'm on a mountaintop with Jesus and Moses and Elijah show up and he is glowing in the dark. Oh, I am wide awake. I am not missing this at all. Matter of fact, I'm gonna have my phone recorded the whole thing, saying, who wait till they see this when I get off this mountain. They ain't gonna believe this. But guess what happened to the disciples who are on a mountain would glow in the dark. Jesus and Moses

and Elijah, two people who were dead. Look at what happens in Luke chapter nine, verse thirty two. It's his peters and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. They fell asleep on a mountain top with two people who came back from the dead. You don't sit up there and tell me, and you don't just sleep, yeah that you don't get weary. Even the disciples with the best intentions, the best the hearts

fall I sleep. I guess the question that I'm asking you today is that if I don't know when I'm falling asleep in the natural, you realize you don't know when you're sleeping. If I don't know when I'm falling asleep in the natural until somebody wakes me up, could it be possible you don't know when you're falling asleep spiritually. You don't even know. You could be asleep spiritually for years and it's not until somebody says, wake up you

realize I've been sleeping. Does somebody say wake up? To realize I've just been going through the motions and checking the box, thinking the church at just the country club that I come to. It can be years till somebody says wake up, and you realis I've never even shared my faith with somebody at all. I think I'm in the witness protection program and I'm just going to work

as a secret believer. You don't know when you're asleep till somebody says wake I want to give you a few signs if somebody comes to place softly to let you know I'm landing the plane. I wrote down some signs that you're getting spiritually sleepy. This is an exhaustive list, but some things I just thought about. You know you're getting sleepy spiritually when you have little or no desire to pray. That's why Jesus told the disciples, watch and pray,

Watch and pray. Pray is what keeps us vigilants, what keeps us awake and attentive to the pose is in the plans of God. You know you're getting sleepy spiritually. If you have a loss of appetite for the Word of God. You're losing your appetite for the word. That might be a sign you're getting sleepy. Anybody in there ever tried to eat healthy after eating bad, isn't youre crazy?

How it's nasty at first, But if you stay consistent, you start craving what You're like, come on, the first time you eat that kill, You're like, this is ridiculous. You stay consistent, You're like, you know what you take kill all today. I'm feeling that. It's the same with the Word of God. You start craving what you eat. You know you're getting sleepy spiritually. If you're no longer convicted of willful sin, when it doesn't feel anymore like a sin and you don't have conviction, that's a sign

you know you're getting sleepy. When you have a desire to be served rather than serving others, you might be getting sleepy. If you easily offended, you might be getting sleepy. If you're avoiding accountability, you might begin sleepy. If you're consistently comparing yourself to other people, you might be getting sleepy. If you're spreading or entertaining gossip. That's why someone will sleep with my mouth open, I got something to say

about somebody else. That's a sign getting sleepy. You might begetting sleepy, hear me. If you've isolated yourself from the community of believers. The enemy wants you to be isolated so you can go to sleep. And this is my

issue with this text. This is my indictment against the people that are were in that room that day, because if Eudicus is sitting in a window seat, if Eudicus is sitting there in that window, see, I just want to know, how come nobody in that room walked up to Eudicus and said, hey, man, I'll see you dozen that's not a good place to sit. How come nobody in that room said Eudicus, I wouldn't sit there, stand

over here by me. How come nobody in that room just took a moment to say, Udicus, I've been there before, and I worked all day too. Stand right next to me, and let's keep each other away. The Bible even says he was a young person. How come no older person, somebody from another generation should have just gone up to Eudicus and said, Eudicus, that's a horrible place to say. Let me tell you something. I used to be young.

You better stand over here by me. I'm trying to tell somebody, this is why you need the church, This is why you need community. Because we don't know when we're getting sleepy, we don't know when we're dozing. All so I need somebody around me to say, you got some mu's purpose on your life. You can't sit there. You got too much a nunhing on your life. You can't go there. No, you can't cat them. No, you can't lift that low you're calling it. Do I need

somebody to tell me when I'm falling a thing? Is there anybody in that room? And I had enough concern to say, Udicus, don't sit there, Eudicus, there's another place. How to pick Unicus here and lean home in. Let's stay awake. I know you wanted to be here. Uticus. The fact that you're in the room shows me how much you love God, get just tired. It worked all day and Paul's going a long time, So just stand

by me and don't sit in the window seat. This is why when you need the church, because I don't know when I'm dozing off, I need somebody to tell me wake come. Nobody saw Uticus sitting in the window, and I'm even wondering if they knew when he fell out the window. I'm curious. Were they enamored by the great preaching of the apostle Paul that they didn't even

notice that Judiku just fell out the window. Have you noticed the people that used to be in church that aren't here anymore and the reason God puts you in their life so you can call them back in the room. Are you so concerned with your own life and your own blessing and what you need from God that you'd know this Eudicus has falling out of the window. I wonder if it took the commotion outside to get the room to actually notice. Judith kiss is cane and here's

what hew else. I know something happened in the room that breaks my heart. I think the people in the room, when they noticed Eudachus was down there, didn't do anything. They just looked out the window. I'll tell you how I know it in the moment. But isn't that what church people do today? I love the church? Crazy? How sometimes when somebody who's falling out of the window, we will stay in the room, you got the window and go home. Can you believe that shouldn't have sat there?

I wouldn't have sat there. I would never do that. In fact, let me take somebody just so they can be praying for you to get and let them know what happened. Isn't it crazy? Now? Some of those people who are falling away, we stand at a distance and look out the window, talking about how they fell, talking about how they shouldn't have sat there. But thank God for the apostle Paul. Thank God for Paul, because the Bible says perhaps the most powerful words in that passage.

While everybody else was in the room looking at Uticus through the window, the Bible says, what Paul did. The Bible says that Paul went down. Paul is showing you what a believer it's supposed to do. Paul is showing you what ministry really is. That when somebody has falling out of the window and gone down and made a bad decision. You don't send in judgment from the window. The Bible says that Paul Witch down. You want to know what ministry looks like. Ministry doesn't start on a

platform or a stage. Ministry is coming down to where people are who have fallen an approaches, and you gotta let them know. We save a God who's the resurrection and the life. You don't think his life is over, but it's not over. You're theist. You can live a den And I don't know who this message is for, but maybe the other people have told you that the marriage is over, the kusiness is over, your child, your life is over. But I tend to tell you the devil is a liar. God is enough time. Until God

is time, he can raise anything back to life. Here's the resurrection and the life. Tell me, I'm learning more and more every day. The industry is not about being not damn. It's looking Britian preaching illustrious when you do like the apostle Paul who went down, threw himself on the young.

the grave. So then when I get up, is proof that no matter what has held you down, you can get up to It's crazy because this says that this gathering was on the first day of the week, Sunday. Just like this. This is a change. This is the first biblically recorded gathering on a Sunday. Sabbath used to be a Saturday. Why is it changing because they changed it to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, and then they just laid Jesus to give them a resurrection on the

day they're celebrating the Tower of his resurrection. I say nothing to say, Eudicus. All hope is not lost. You are not defined by your mistake. Even Eudikis's life became a testimony that God steal in the business of horaising things that were dead back to life. I didn't know I fell asleep. But I also didn't know that even after I fail, God could bring me back to life. I'm gonna ask every head be bowed and eyes be closed today. Father, I thank you today for your word. Lord.

I thank you that you don't give up on us, that when everybody else says it's over, just like the Apostle Paul, you come down to where we are, they say, no, there's still life there. Father. Today I'm praying for my brother, my sister. I don't know what location. I don't know if they're Epham, but I do know you're speaking to them, and today is not just another sermon. It's their wake up God. God. We're so weak, we're made of flesh. We don't know when we're dosing off. God. I thank

you that you always give us wake up calls. God, thank you for community that will help us to wake up. Don't tell us, don't sit there, it's a dangerous place to send. Or let us be attentive to what it is you're doing in us and what you want to do through us. Heads about ours are closed today, But I'm wondering if this is somebody's wake up call, whether in this room or watch them online and you need to surrender your life to this beautiful savior, hear me.

Maybe you think you got to get yourself together to come to him, but you can't get yourself together. You just didn't have time to get himself together. You don't clean yourself up to come to a savior. You just come to him as you are. And so what heads about and ours closed? Across every location? If you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, today's your day to come home. He's the as arection and the life doesn't matter what the enemy is telling you it's dead. He can breathe

life back into it. And he didn't come just to make bad people good. No, he came to make dead people come alive. You can have eternal life today. So when heads bout on, iyes close. If that's you, he said, Pastor Robert, include me in this clothing prayer. I need to surrender my life to Jesus. Would you just lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where I could see it? Thank you? Yeah, hands are going up all over this room, wherever you're watching, across every location.

Thank you Jesus, Thank you God. Can we just pray this prayer as one big family. I'm gonna give you the words, but you just say it from your heart. Would you say this, say Jesus, I need you. I cannot do life without you because you are my life. Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. You live the life that I was supposed to live. You died to death that I was supposed to die. You

took my place. So my response is to give you all of me, forgive me of my sin, make me brand new from this moment, for I'm walking with you in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. Come on, if you meant what your praise, can we give King Jesus praise today? Oh? Come on, you can do better than that to your praise. I'm like you know, you got your breath back, you got your life back. Come on, give them a real, real resurrection and praise today.

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