[SPEAKER_00]: High Praise Podcast. [SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High Praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast. [SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you. [SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today. [SPEAKER_01]: Even as Pastor Josh said, I do feel on assignment to release a word to encourage you and to strengthen you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because I feel like we're in a moment right now, significant moment. [SPEAKER_01]: And this is why I love being able to invest into young people and to be invest into this next generations because I believe that this generation has believed the lie that they're called to sit on the sidelines until a certain age when God is calling you now, to step it up and to step out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to be a part of what God is doing right now, I believe the time for you wasting your life on TikTok and on Instagram, those days are over because God needs you. [SPEAKER_01]: Now there's an urgency in the hour. [SPEAKER_01]: There's the spirit leading you and the spirit drawing you for such a time as this. [SPEAKER_01]: And I believe God brought you here this week to reveal that purpose to you and to reveal that calling to you in a way like you've never known before.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tonight, I'm going to share a word that has just been rumbling in my spirit for this generation because I believe what we are in need of right now across the nation and the nation of the world is awakening and reliable. [SPEAKER_01]: So I want to share a word with you tonight simply titled The High Cost of Sleep. [SPEAKER_01]: The high cost of sleep, let's pray together. [SPEAKER_01]: Father, I thank you that tonight you are here in this room.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thank you Lord that you are moving and that you are shaking everything that can be shaken. [SPEAKER_01]: And Lord, I pray that tonight Lord, we ask you Holy Spirit for revival. [SPEAKER_01]: We ask you for awakening. [SPEAKER_01]: We pray with every fiber of our being let us be fully awake for the glory of God in Jesus, my name, everyone said. [SPEAKER_01]: Amen. [SPEAKER_01]: Amen. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I want to begin by saying this.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I believe in conferences, I believe in camps. [SPEAKER_01]: My life was transformed at the age of sixteen at a small church camp in the backwards of Alabama and a small town called Green Pond, Alabama. [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, you know what, sing Green Pond, Alabama, a green pond. [SPEAKER_01]: and nothing else. [SPEAKER_01]: This church came to have anything nice, it didn't have nothing cool, but I got wrecked by God there and what happened to me as a sixteen year old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thirty-five now and I'm still walking and so I believe in what we're doing tonight. [SPEAKER_01]: I believe in this and I believe that what God wants to do in you in this week is greater than just something that you walk in for a month. [SPEAKER_01]: or two months, or maybe a year and a half, no listen. [SPEAKER_01]: God wants to initiate a work in you that you're going to live in for the rest of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you're seventy, eighty, ninety's your old, you're still burning, you're still on fire. [SPEAKER_01]: This is not just a youth high. [SPEAKER_01]: This is called to be your normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've seen so many young people come and I lived in that cycle of being on fire for God and going back to the world and being good and going back and I lived in that for years and I walked out of that and I believe tonight God wants to help you to keep you from going back to old patterns and old ways of life because I want to expose one of the biggest lies of the enemy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the biggest lies of the enemy is that, you know, when you leave and you leave here, you know, I think sometimes we're looking for the big stuff to watch out for temptation, amen? [SPEAKER_01]: It's the big stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: We think the enemy's gonna come like in a big way, like you don't be like, driving on the road and also you're gonna hear a voice that's like, go Rob Wells Fargo. [SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, where's my ski mask at?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you each over the glove box, drive the ski mask, and you're like, busing up in the woods for, like, give me all you might, you know, like, we think the enemy's gonna come with something big. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, all the one day you're just gonna be sitting in a math class, so I'm just gonna hear voices like, start a drug cartel. [SPEAKER_01]: You're like, I bet, I love you, that's okay. [SPEAKER_01]: We see, that's where we're looking for the big things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're strategy to the enemy. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot more quiet. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot more behind the scenes and the Bible says, you don't be ignorant of the devil's devices. [SPEAKER_01]: So we got to understand that a lot of times the enemy, he's patient and he's slow and he will actually sow a seed that he won't reap for years.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we're looking for all these big things but can I tell you that it doesn't always start with the big grotesque intense crazy sin. [SPEAKER_01]: It starts with something called complacency. [SPEAKER_01]: See, we don't want the end result. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to lose everything and go off the deep and on this. [SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're on guard for. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to go there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you realize that nobody just stumbles there, it starts at the very beginning with a little bit of passivity and a little bit of ease and just a little bit too much flesh. [SPEAKER_01]: And we find ourselves getting into the place where we allow the marking and the fire of God on the inside of us to slowly dwindle down because we did not steward over it the way God asked us to steward over it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We did not guard that precious thing that he initiated on the inside of us. [SPEAKER_01]: And I said earlier, I believe God won't deport out of awakening. [SPEAKER_01]: He's won't deport out of revival. [SPEAKER_01]: But listen, here's the deal. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to understand in order to be revived, you have to be asleep first. [SPEAKER_01]: In order to be awakened, you have to be asleep first.
[SPEAKER_01]: So naturally as I begin to ponder on this, I begin to look into this. [SPEAKER_01]: I begin to ask myself, I begin to look at the connections between natural sleep [SPEAKER_01]: and sleeping in the spiritual realm. [SPEAKER_01]: Students, how many of y'all have been enjoying some good sleep since school ended? [SPEAKER_01]: I ain't mad. [SPEAKER_01]: How many of y'all slept till ten a.m. [SPEAKER_01]: Eleven, twelve, one, two. [SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, we got a problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something's wrong, man. [SPEAKER_01]: It just kept on going up. [SPEAKER_01]: Some y'all don't even know how you got here, you're just like, [SPEAKER_01]: Like, can I just get really honest with you and just confess with you? [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a bougie sleeper. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what does that mean? [SPEAKER_01]: That means I need to have everything just right in order to sleep. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not like somebody all hurt like cats. [SPEAKER_01]: You can just sleep anywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't sleep on planes. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't. [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't happen. [SPEAKER_01]: I need the right conditions in order for it to sleep. [SPEAKER_01]: And let me just point out a few things from my own sleep, a lifestyle to share with you that I believe will make sense and compare them into the spiritual room. [SPEAKER_01]: The first really recipe, the ingredient you need in order to get good sleep is you've got to be in the dark.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, because actually we see scientific when you get into a dark room, it begins to release your natural melatonin that will ultimately lead you to becoming sleepy in a dark room. [SPEAKER_01]: And what I've often found is that people who find themselves spiritually asleep, they slowly enter in to living into the dark. [SPEAKER_01]: This is what John three says. [SPEAKER_01]: This is so powerful. [SPEAKER_01]: John three says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse seventeen, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. [SPEAKER_01]: He who believes in him is not condemned, but he does not believe his condemned already, because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. [SPEAKER_01]: And this is the condemnation. [SPEAKER_01]: That the light has come into the world and listen, hear this, and men loved darkness rather than light. [SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because their deeds were evil. [SPEAKER_01]: For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, unless his deeds should be exposed. [SPEAKER_01]: But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see this that the reason why we love darkness is because we're afraid of exposure because the enemy would lie to you and tell you that exposure is dangerous but can I tell you that the truth of the word of God says in exposure there's freedom there's healing there's the liver's the Bible says walk in the light as he is in the light and we will have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us of all of our sins the lie of the enemy says hide it
[SPEAKER_01]: You sinned, you messed up, hide it, conceal it, don't tell nobody, because if you tell somebody, don't bring it to your father in heaven, because he's gonna shame you, and he's gonna push you out, what can I tell you? [SPEAKER_01]: That's the exact opposite of what scripture says. [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, the more I've grown in Christ, the more I've grown to love the lie. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't wanna hide in darkness with my sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, when there's an issue, I wanna run into the lie. [SPEAKER_01]: Why? [SPEAKER_01]: Because I know mercy and grace and the blood of Jesus waits for me in the light. [SPEAKER_01]: She got to live in the darkness. [SPEAKER_01]: You've got to make friends with the darkness hiding those things in your heart. [SPEAKER_01]: Listen to second ingredient you need for some good sleep. [SPEAKER_01]: Now this is just me again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you're like this, but if you're not, I worry about you. [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, in order for me to sleep, I need to have some noise. [SPEAKER_01]: I need some noise. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm convinced that the best sleep you can have is from a big old white box fan. [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, man. [SPEAKER_01]: See, this is why we're family. [SPEAKER_01]: You see that right there?
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of y'all already starting to think about your box fan right now, you're like, [SPEAKER_01]: And can I tell you, the crustier, the better. [SPEAKER_01]: Don't clean that thing. [SPEAKER_01]: You sleep better. [SPEAKER_01]: If it is gray and black with dust, y'all, I wanted to sound like a plain engine when I... I wanted to bring me into a comatostate. [SPEAKER_01]: kind of love a good white box frame from Walmart.
[SPEAKER_01]: They ain't nothing like it, but I've grown in my technology and I've actually found something that I use instead. [SPEAKER_01]: Just some good white noise. [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I've found this, and I think it's so interesting that a key ingredient for us to even follow a fall asleep spiritually is that we constantly have to have noise.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're like me, and you get convicted on Sundays when your screen time alert pops up, [SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, how does this even happen? [SPEAKER_01]: And I could just be very, very honestly, I've gone through scenes of my life that have been tough and that have been hard and I've been stressed. [SPEAKER_01]: And rather than running to the Lord, I'm just getting vulnerable, I ran to this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And rather than dealing with issues and dealing when the voice of the Holy Spirit comes in conviction, I just bury myself in reals. [SPEAKER_01]: Because if I'm distracted, I can't hear him. [SPEAKER_01]: And what if our addiction to our devices and our addiction to Netflix and all this stuff is just simply the tactic of the enemy to keep us busy from hearing the voice of God calling us deeper. [SPEAKER_01]: Hearing the voice of conviction leading us and guiding us.
[SPEAKER_01]: What if it is us just investing into our flesh? [SPEAKER_01]: And that fire that once burnt on the inside of you is inverting as much as it did because we've literally filled ourselves with just white noise. [SPEAKER_01]: The Psalmist who said, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. [SPEAKER_01]: You're not needing to say sinlins, full things. [SPEAKER_01]: He said, worthless things and then have we become so distracted that we find ourselves sleeping.
[SPEAKER_01]: The third thing is this and it's very plain and simple in order to get good sleep. [SPEAKER_01]: You need to be comfortable. [SPEAKER_01]: Again, like I said, I personally like a freezing cold room under a thick blanket. [SPEAKER_01]: That's why when I go to hotels, how low can it go? [SPEAKER_01]: Sixty-two, let's try it. [SPEAKER_01]: I might freeze up the system tonight, but it's not my power bill. [SPEAKER_01]: That's like peak comfort, freezing room, Eskimo.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying? [SPEAKER_01]: And your face is frozen, but you're like, this is great. [SPEAKER_01]: I need to be comfortable. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm afraid that our culture is addicted to comfort. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to do anything outside of our comfort zone. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to embrace denying of our flesh. [SPEAKER_01]: We actually want to cater to our flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've found that often times in my life, where God asks me to do something a step of faith, or even an increase of prayer, or maybe even maybe when God calls you on a fast. [SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, really lonely. [SPEAKER_01]: I need to fast. [SPEAKER_01]: And then you start looking at the holidays. [SPEAKER_01]: You're like, well, Lord, fourth of July is next week. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna go Billy's making ribs.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on the other side, we're so addicted to comfort. [SPEAKER_01]: We can't see pass and realize that on the other side of our discomfort, there's a breakthrough and there's an increase and there's something that God's calling us into. [SPEAKER_01]: We're coming addicted to comfort. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to do anything outside of our comfort zone. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't even, if that means us waking up early, that means us staying up like to seek the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to do anything that contradicts our flesh nature. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to guard ourselves and then I know I this this honestly this word came from a review from the Lord to me I had to do a service soul searching in my life and say what areas of life?
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been comfortable in what areas of my life I have I haven't just noise drowning out the voice of God is there anything I've hidden in the dark and it brought me to this place to say okay if we are [SPEAKER_01]: struggling in this place between being asleep and awake, we have got to stir ourselves up in this hour. [SPEAKER_01]: Because here's the question. [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the question for the hour. [SPEAKER_01]: Is this, are we asleep or are we dead?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think, biblically, we're both. [SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians, five, four, ten, listen, what a says. [SPEAKER_01]: O wake you who sleep, rise from the dead. [SPEAKER_01]: And Christ will give you light. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm thirteen three, consider and hear me, oh my God, and lighten my eyes, less I sleep, the sleep of death. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to understand our complacency is deadly.
[SPEAKER_01]: complacency is deadly and we've got a guard ourselves against being lulled to sleep by the enemy. [SPEAKER_01]: Let me point out to you really quickly, three times in the Bible where sleep was highly costly. [SPEAKER_01]: Sleep had a high cost. [SPEAKER_01]: The first one is this, when we sleep, we can miss the glory. [SPEAKER_01]: When we sleep, we can miss the glory. [SPEAKER_01]: Luke nine, twenty eight, you know, this story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now it came to pass about eight days after these things that he took Peter, John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. [SPEAKER_01]: And as he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered. [SPEAKER_01]: His robe became white and glistening and behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his disease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. [SPEAKER_01]: But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to this, I love this. [SPEAKER_01]: But when they were fully awake, say fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him, then it happened as they were parting from him that Peter said to his master, it's good for us to be here. [SPEAKER_01]: Let us make three tabernacles. [SPEAKER_01]: One for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. [SPEAKER_01]: You've got to understand the gravity of this moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he got to understand the significance. [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus didn't invite all the twelve. [SPEAKER_01]: He invited three. [SPEAKER_01]: toward the most sacred moments in the Gospels where he is being transfigured, but not only that, Moses and Elijah show up, what a significant moment in history yet they could barely keep their eyes open. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm afraid right now, we are in a place in human history, where God's wanting to pour out his spirit on all flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's wanting to send a revival, the likes of which we've never seen before, and signs, wonders, and miracles, but we're asleep. [SPEAKER_01]: And God's wanting to move, and we're standing in the back like this. [SPEAKER_01]: And the pastor preached us too long, so I'm moving to another church, and I'm offended. [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't like the style of worship. [SPEAKER_01]: When was the last time? [SPEAKER_01]: That's one of the most rigging things.
[SPEAKER_01]: How was worship? [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't for you. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't like the worship there. [SPEAKER_01]: Good news. [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't for you. [SPEAKER_01]: It was for him. [SPEAKER_01]: And as long as we are preference driven over being present driven, we'll always find ourselves sleeping in the glory. [SPEAKER_01]: And here they are gone. [SPEAKER_01]: Look, they're invited into this holy moment. [SPEAKER_01]: I believe we've been invited to a holy moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we have got to guard ourselves to say, am I sleeping in the glory? [SPEAKER_01]: But I love it, since when he was fully awake, they saw the glory. [SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, I'm telling you, I'm hungry. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm hungry for you. [SPEAKER_01]: I even felt it tonight, the hunger in the room. [SPEAKER_01]: You're not here just to go through another conference. [SPEAKER_01]: You're not here just to attend.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe there's something on the inside of you that says, I'm not leaving here the same way I came in. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not leaving here with the same complacency and the same issues. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm hungry and I want to see God moving my life and moving my city. [SPEAKER_01]: They almost missed the glory. [SPEAKER_01]: Second thing is this, we can sleep when Jesus needs us the most. [SPEAKER_01]: Matthew, twenty-six, thirty-six.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Jesus came with him to a place called Guessimony and said to the disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there, and he took with him Peter and the two sons of zebby, and he'd be going to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. [SPEAKER_01]: Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. [SPEAKER_01]: Stay here and watch with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: who in a little father fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cut pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. [SPEAKER_01]: Then he came to his disciples, found them sleeping and said to Peter, what could you not watch with me one hour? [SPEAKER_01]: Watch and pray, less you in her intimidation. [SPEAKER_01]: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, the second time we went away and prayed to him, oh, my father, if it is possible, if this cannot pass away from me, your will be done. [SPEAKER_01]: And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy. [SPEAKER_01]: So he left them, went away again and prayed that third time saying the same words. [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, came to the seventh and said, are you still sleeping and resting? [SPEAKER_01]: The whole, the hour is at hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: The son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. [SPEAKER_01]: Rise, let us be going. [SPEAKER_01]: My betrayer is at hand. [SPEAKER_01]: Here we have Jesus in one of the darkest moments. [SPEAKER_01]: The gospel's story. [SPEAKER_01]: And here he is. [SPEAKER_01]: He's about to go to Calvary. [SPEAKER_01]: He's about to be betrayed. [SPEAKER_01]: And again, he pulls on Peter, James and John. [SPEAKER_01]: And he's has one request for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Watch him pray with me. [SPEAKER_01]: Watch him pray with me and Jesus goes and we know the story. [SPEAKER_01]: He's literally praying and he's groaning and he's weeping with loud cries and tears and rather than hearing the prayers of his brothers, he's hearing their snores. [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the big things that I'm even going my heart right now and in this hour is Lord, when you need me, don't let me be bound by my complacency.
[SPEAKER_01]: in this hour where people are hurting and people are broken and the gospel needs to be preached to all nations. [SPEAKER_01]: He needs you. [SPEAKER_01]: Young people, I said at the beginning, he needs you. [SPEAKER_01]: He's not waiting for you to turn eighteen. [SPEAKER_01]: He's not waiting for you to get a high score. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's waiting for you to say yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's waiting for you to wake up and say, Lord, whatever you want to do with my life, I say yes. [SPEAKER_01]: You have my full heart. [SPEAKER_01]: You have my full obedience. [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever you want to do in me, I am here for you. [SPEAKER_01]: If anything is set of us, let it be said, we were there for him when he needed us. [SPEAKER_01]: I believe that's a beautiful picture of consecration as I'm waiting and I'm ready, Lord, whatever you need me to do, I'll do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you need me to pray, I'll pray. [SPEAKER_01]: If you need to go, I know it sounds simple, I know, I know, I know for a while, man, I wanted to be a missionary and I wanted to travel the world and I wanted to go overseas, but I remember one day, Lord, if you can't do it, dollar general, I can't do it for you in India. [SPEAKER_01]: And when we begin to realize, [SPEAKER_01]: We've waiting on a location to be used by God, but he's just waiting on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just waiting on you. [SPEAKER_01]: He's just waiting on you. [SPEAKER_01]: He's waiting on you. [SPEAKER_01]: He's waiting on you at Walmart. [SPEAKER_01]: He's waiting on you to high school. [SPEAKER_01]: He's waiting on you to work. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to be ready in this dark hour, which he's looking for someone to lean on. [SPEAKER_01]: Can we be a generation? [SPEAKER_01]: And can we be a people?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is why you're praying and you're crying in the garden. [SPEAKER_01]: Hear the sound of my voice carrying this burden with you. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to become a people who's willing to be burdened with the things that burden the Lord. [SPEAKER_01]: Because that's the truth. [SPEAKER_01]: Burdens are uncomfortable. [SPEAKER_01]: burdens aren't kind of that's why you know when you see the sad commercials on TV. [SPEAKER_01]: You change the channel.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the arms of the angels. [SPEAKER_01]: I see that stupid dog commercial might make sure. [SPEAKER_01]: Anybody else do that is like Sarah McLaughlin be quiet. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a skipper. [SPEAKER_01]: Why why? [SPEAKER_01]: Because it disrupts my comfort. [SPEAKER_01]: And as long as we avoid, and as we live in a time right now, where there's a new new story in the cycle, we can't even allow ourselves to be agreed for something because there's something new, every single day.
[SPEAKER_01]: What about the ones who are willing to tear it with the Lord and say, Lord, I'll pray this through. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, believe it or not, there's still war going on in Russian Ukraine. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll still carry that burden Lord if you need me too. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll still pray for the areas in America that need revival. [SPEAKER_01]: God, what area do you want me to carry? [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, I believe our burdens are not supposed to be like reals.
[SPEAKER_01]: We describe when we get bored with it. [SPEAKER_01]: What if we say yes to carrying the burdens that he's called us to carry? [SPEAKER_01]: Let's be people who are there when he needs us the most. [SPEAKER_01]: The last one is this in worship team. [SPEAKER_01]: You can go and come on up. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to be vigilant. [SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says be sober. [SPEAKER_01]: be vigilant for your adversary that ever walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he made a power.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said it earlier, and I don't want you to get me wrong, because I'm not saying that the enemy doesn't want you to end up here what I'm saying is, there's always a gateway, and I believe a lot of times the gateway to the in-resulted destruction starts with complacency. [SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says that broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many are those who find it. [SPEAKER_01]: But narrows the way to lead to eternal life and their few who find it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And could it be that the broad path leading to destruction always begins with our complacency in it, begins with a slowly and surely missing a Sunday because we don't feel like it? [SPEAKER_01]: Stay in the home of Wednesday night because our favorite show is coming on it. [SPEAKER_01]: It's slowly and surely we find ourselves slipping away and walking down the broad path.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we're not careful when we're sleeping, actually the enemy's pointing us in the direction, he's wanted us to go, one more story, judges, sixteen versus eighteen. [SPEAKER_01]: You know the story of about a man by the name of Samson. [SPEAKER_01]: Bob was tells the story of Samson. [SPEAKER_01]: You know the story, he, after one compromise, after another compromise, after another, he finds and meets a girl by the name of Delilah in judges sixteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen what I said right here concerning the member. [SPEAKER_01]: He could not do three things as a Nazarii. [SPEAKER_01]: He could not touch anything from the vine. [SPEAKER_01]: He could not go near a dead thing. [SPEAKER_01]: And finally, he could not cut his hair. [SPEAKER_01]: Listen to what happens right here in July to the XVI-III.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the Lord's and Philistine, saying, come up at once, for he's told me all this heart. [SPEAKER_01]: To the Lord of the Philistines came after him brought her money in their hand. [SPEAKER_01]: Listen to verse-nineteen, then she lulled him to sleep on her knees. [SPEAKER_01]: and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then she began to torment him and his strength left him. [SPEAKER_01]: And she said the billisines are upon you. [SPEAKER_01]: So he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free. [SPEAKER_01]: But he did not know the Lord had departed from him. [SPEAKER_01]: She lowed him to sleep on her knees. [SPEAKER_01]: Our complacency causes us to ultimately lose our consecration.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Samson thought he was safe, Samson thought he was good, but the entire time, the song that led him to sleep was the very thing that brought his destruction. [SPEAKER_01]: And what I'm afraid of is that a lot of our heads are in the lap of Delilah and we don't even know it. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't even realize it because we're so comfortable and we feel okay, but in reality we're playing right into the trap that the enemy wants us to be in.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I have good news for us tonight. [SPEAKER_01]: We serve a loving father who loves to wake his children up. [SPEAKER_01]: And he's, and here's the thing about awakening is that a lot of times awakening, actually all the time, awakening is uncomfortable. [SPEAKER_01]: It's loud. [SPEAKER_01]: It shakes you out of your faults, comforts, when you feel comfortable, and you feel good, and everything's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of times, even though we don't think we need it, we need the lights flipped on, we need the comforter ripped off, we need the sound of the alarm, the voice of the Holy Ghost, blaring on our lives, saying, this is not who I've called you to be. [SPEAKER_01]: It's time for you to wake up, awake you who sleep, arise from the bed, and cries will give you lights. [SPEAKER_01]: If you wouldn't understand all over the room.
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[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.