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WAKE UP!
Sleeping In Church
Ed Young
May 4, 2008
It is important, often times, when we study scriptures when we read God’s word to stand, sometimes to kneel. If you have your Bibles turn to the Acts 20:7-9. “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. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep.” Please be seated.
Now this is the first instance we have of someone sleeping in church. And it is definitely not going to be the last. Eutychus, my boy Eutychus has had many successors.
Sleep is funny, isn’t it, because we all sleep. We spend about a third of our lives sleeping and the fact is when we’re asleep we don’t realize that were sleeping. You don’t understand that you’re asleep until after you wake up.
For example, how many snorers do we have in the house, if you’re a snorer? Well, you have never heard yourself snoring. Thank you for your confession. You have never heard yourself snoring. Someone has told you, you snore like a chain saw. Sleep is funny. We sleep, but we don’t realize we’re asleep until we’re awake.
Some people can fall asleep anywhere. Have you known people like, I mean anywhere, even in church. They could just fall asleep taking a bath. They can fall asleep. Others have to have everything perfect, everything just right just to go to sleep. My wife has to have this noise machine that makes sounds like a wave so whenever we travel she totes the noise machine along. She has to have the noise machine for a sound sleep.
All of us sleep. We have a desire for sleep. And this text in the book of Acts is very fascinating because it tells us what was happening in the early church. As the early church began to progress and emerge we find some interesting facets.
The Apostle Paul, I’m talking about Saint Paul, the greatest preacher next to Jesus who ever walked on planet Earth was preaching to this collected group of believers.
So that’s always given me confidence. If they fall asleep when Paul’s talking and they fall asleep when I’m talking, then I feel pretty good. I feel like I have some confidence because if you can fall asleep when Paul was speaking I feel really, really strong in my self esteem.
And sometimes as I’m preaching I will watch people fall asleep. I really will. I will watch people nod off. And if you ever hear me begin to talk really softly, what I’m doing is I’m trying to lull them into sleep. I kind of talk in a rhythmic fashion and then all of the sudden I will make a loud noise or scream and then it will wake people up. So if you ever see someone jump now and then that’s pastoral humor. I’m just waking somebody up. I’m just waking them up.
Paul was speaking in Troas and he knew it was the last time he could speak to this bunch of Christians who had been collected together in this third story of this mansion. Obviously, one of the Christians was very, very wealthy because they were meeting in the third story of this house, maybe in this guy’s media room. I’m not sure what the deal was. The people were all pressing in because when the Apostle Paul came to town, man, people showed up. And don’t you know that Paul was talking about the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ; the death, burial and resurrection. The place was standing room only. You know it was hot, it was humid.
And the Bible said the lamps were there. Did you read that? Did you hear me talk about the lamps? Why would the Bible talk about the lamps? Well, back in the early church the church wanted everyone to know what was going on. They didn’t want people to think that something freaky or funky was going on. So everything was lit up so everyone could look around and see that’s what they’re doing. They are talking about Jesus, the resurrected Son of God. There were a bunch of lamps in the room. And the lamps were swinging back and forth, and maybe a breeze that would blow through now and then.
Don’t you know as people hung on Paul’s every word they could see the scars on his face from the persecution? They could see the stress, the anxiety, the urgency that he had to communicate Jesus to all of the people.
There was a guy there, a young man named Eutychus. He definitely makes the all-name team. And the name Eutychus means fortunate in the original language. Eutychus found a really good spot. He found himself perched on a window sill listening to the Apostle Paul preach.
Now back in the day, back in the early church, they didn’t put a clock on the services. I mean, time just flowed. They were just in it for the long haul.
And the Bible says that Paul continued his message until after midnight. Eutychus, you know, was sitting in the heat. And a breeze would blow through now and then. And as he was hearing Paul talk on and on he began to fall into a deep sleep. And something probably startled him. Then he fell out of the window, dropped three stories and hit the pavement. Eutychus. You’d cussed too if you had fallen three stories and hit the pavement!
And everyone thought he’s dead, he’s dead. Paul stopped his message, ran down three flights of stairs, embraced Eutychus, brought the guy back to life and then led him back up three flights of stairs and continued preaching into the wee hours of the morning. Wow! Eutychus, sleeping in church. The first instance we have, the first documentation of someone sleeping in church.
T.S. I think if we knew what was going on here, a lot of us are sleeping in church. No, you’re not asleep physically, at least not very many of you. You’re asleep, though, maybe spiritually, morally. You’re asleep to the opportunities that God has for you. You’re asleep to this amazing plan and purpose that God has for your life.
Well, I want today’s talk to be a wakeup call because it’s very tempting for all of us when we hear this message to think, “My spouse needs to hear this. He’s asleep or she’s asleep. I saw my neighbor and my neighbor’s down front; my neighbor needs to hear this. Or I saw someone and obviously they’re in the balcony and they need to hear this message.”
I know it’s tempting. But I want you to think about you, because sleep is unique. A lot of us are asleep spiritually and we don’t even know we’re asleep. And you won’t realize it until you respond to the alarm. And the alarm is flashing 5:14, those red numbers, 5:14. I’m talking about Ephesians 5:14-17, “Wake up, o sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
In other words, if we’re sleeping we can’t understand the will of God. If we’re sleeping we don’t understand life. If we’re sleeping, we’ll never know what to do. If we’re sleeping, we’re not going to live a life that’s packed with wise decisions. We’re just going to be sleepwalking through life.
How many times have I talked to someone or heard about someone who has been a part of Fellowship Church for several years and maybe they’ve attended here pretty regularly; maybe they have been to a small group; or maybe they’ve done this or that.
And then I’ll find out they’re in the cesspool of sin and immorality? And I will say “Wow, how could that happen? How could that be? They were right here.”
Well the answer is very easy; they were asleep. They were asleep. They were sleepwalking and they walked off the edge into the cesspool of immorality.
Are you asleep? Maybe some of you are sleeping to knowing God. A lot of us know about God, but some of us don’t know Him. What does it mean to know God through Christ?
Well, I talk to people now and then who are on this performance track, this religious thing. And they think that being religious and they think that being a good guy or good girl will do the stuff. There’s a problem with it. We will always fall short when we try to rely on our good works. The Bible says we’re going to fall short. The Bible says the payment of sin is death. The Bible says we can never work our way into heaven.
ILLUS: I was talking to a young man just recently about the claims of Christ. He told me how religious he was and how he goes to church and how he had been sprinkled as an infant and confirmed and all of that. And I began to explain to him about the gospel, the fact that Jesus has already done the work, that he’s already died on the cross for our sins and risen again. And I said hey, it’s nothing that we do, it’s something that’s been done. We either receive it or we don’t. And as I was talking to him I said to myself, “This guy is asleep. He didn’t get it. He didn’t comprehend it.” It was like trying to wake someone up, but I could not do it.
Could it be that you’re asleep to knowing Jesus Christ? Could it be that you are on the “do” stuff and not on the “done” stuff? Because we’ll never do enough or we can never be nice enough or holy enough or righteous enough to have this connectivity with the Lord. It’s got to happen when we admit the truth about who we are, when we admit the truth about our condition, turn from our sin and say, “Jesus, take control of my life. I receive you. I realize what you have done for me.”
Maybe you’ve said that. Maybe you’ve made that decision. Are you walking with the Lord? Are you listening to his voice or are you asleep? Because Satan loves to sing lullabies to us. Did you know that? Satan can sing. And especially he likes to sing to Christians.
Right after you become a believer Satan likes to say come here, “Rock‑a‑bye believer in the tree top, snoozing will cause your growth to stop.
Ignore the alarm and stay in bed, you’ll never reach your potential you sleepy head.” And then Satan whispers, “Don’t wake him. Don’t wake her. Yes, they’re a believer, but that’s about it. They need to sleep, to sleep.”
Are you asleep to knowing God? God has a wonderful will, an amazing plan for every person’s life. If we could see that plan we would fall flat on our face. We would say, “God, you want me to do that much?! God, my life is that awesome? God, you want to bless me that much? God, you want me to have that much adventure, that much excitement? You want me to do all of that, God?!”
We would be shocked. So the devil’s favorite ploy is to get us to sleep because he wants us to be comfortable, he wants us to be relaxed. Yes, we’re comforted by Christ. But we need to be uncomfortable for him. We need to wake up; the alarm says 5:14.
Some of us are asleep to knowing God. But notice this, some of us here are asleep to sowing. Yes, some are asleep to knowing, others are asleep to sowing.
Your life and my life is a seed. The Bible talks about the law of the harvest. If I plant corn I’m not going to reap mangos. It’s just the law of the harvest. Whatever I sow, that’s what I’m going to reap. And if I’m sleeping I am not going to be doing very much reaping. We have time. I just talked about it from Scriptures. We have time. But the only time we’re guaranteed is now. We have time to leverage, to do great stuff for God. Don’t sleep your life away. Take advantage of the time.
Did you hear in the book of Acts chapter 20 that the disciples met together, the church met together on the first day of the week? What’s the first day of the week? Sunday. Why Sunday? That’s the resurrection. I give God the first day of the week, that first element of time and that first day of the week as corporate worship as I obey Hebrew 10:25. God is going to bless the rest.
I give God the first time, my first offensive energy boost to the Lord, in my quiet time through Scripture reading and prayer. God is going to bless the rest.
I give my talent and abilities to the Lord. I leverage them within the church. Guess what? God is going to take my talent and my ability and multiply it exponentially.
I give my resources, the first fruit of what I made to the local church. I bring the first ten percent to his house. Guess what? God is going to bless the rest. It’s the law of the harvest; it’s the law of the first.
Read the Scripture. The first born, the first fruits, the first day of the week, the first portion of every day. It’s the first. Because when we give God the first, he will bless the rest. Jesus was God’s tithe and look what happened. Look at the blessings because of it. Are you asleep to sowing?
ILLUS: I just did a statistical analysis of Fellowship Church’s children’s ministry. I saw over the last ten weeks that we’ve had over 8,500 children attend Fellowship Church. 8,500. That is bigger than a lot of towns in Florida and Texas.
But there was a part of the study that messed me up. I found out that only 161 kids have attended the last ten weeks of church. Only 161 of 8,500 have attended every Sunday. And then I read something even more disturbing, I read that only 30 percent of 8,500 kids have attended every other week.
Parents, wake up! You wonder why your lives are screwed up? You wonder why your kids are in the deep weeds? You wonder? You have turned your back on the church! You have gone to sleep when the great church is right here at Fellowship Church! It is one of the awesome moves of God in the world today. We have people calling us from all over the place just to know what’s going on.
And for the life of me, parents, for you to not take advantage of this consistency in attendance not only for your kids but for you…that just messes me up. Wake up!
The select soccer team ain’t going to do it! The basketball team ain’t going to do it! Club Cheer ain’t going to do it! The retreat at some school ain’t going to do it! The hunting lease ain’t going to do it! The fishing trip ain’t going to do it! The ski trip ain’t going to do it!
Only the church will do it. And one day when you die God is going to look at you face to face and say, “What did you do with my church?” And many of you will say, “You know what? I slept through it.”
Don’t let that be you. You’re turning your back on the only thing that Jesus ever built, the local church. Wake up! Wake up! Don’t go to sleep.
Some of us are going to sleep with our time. Some of us are going to sleep with our abilities. You know what? I’m a creative genius. Some of you are like, “That’s pretty egotistical.” No, it’s not. So are you.
Just turn to your neighbor and say, “Neighbor, you’re a creative genius.” I can say that in complete confidence because we’re all made in the image of our creative Creator. So we should use our abilities and gifts within the context of church. It takes time to do that and then it takes talent to do that. God has gifted you and me to use our stuff to bring glory to him and to touch people for Jesus Christ. It is part of sowing with our life.
So when I sow my time, when I sow my talent, I am going to be blessed. God is going to multiply all of that. We all have different amounts of money. We’re to sow our money in the church. I can’t make you do that. I hope you know that. I can tell you to; I can teach you from Scripture, but I cannot force you to become a part of that.
And some of you, especially the men in the house, are financially asleep and you’ll never see God bless your life until you get a hold of this one. Because people get funny, as I always say, when you talk about money. The Bible says when I bring the first fruits of my income to the local church; when I wake up to this dynamic, God is going to bless the rest.
Malachi 3 says if I eat the tithe, if I play with the tithe, if I keep the tithe, if I spend the tithe on myself, guess what? I’m under a financial curse. So a long time ago I thought, “I have a choice. I’m either going to be under cursing or blessing. Gee, that’s a tough one; I’ll choose blessing!”
And some of you here are choosing cursing every single week. And it is unbelievable. So again, if you want the best, if you want to discover God’s will for your life, do this stuff.
Now we have to understand that for God to build his church, he’s got to prosper a lot of us. How else is God going to build his church? How are we going to pay for this camp in east Texas that costs 30 some odd million dollars unless a bunch of us make a bunch of money? But see, we’re not making the money, God is blessing us with the money and we’re either rivers or reservoirs. We’re either conduits or we dam the blessings up.
So what are you? I don’t know. Why has God blessed you? For the church. But God also wants you to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and me too. And that’s cool. God could have done it the other way. But he said “You know what, enjoy it. But that first 10 percent is mine.”
Some of you are asleep and you don’t even know you’re asleep. We can be asleep to knowing, asleep to sowing and also some of us are asleep to growing.
What does it mean to mature in Jesus? What does it mean to grow? Yes, we have to have information. It’s important to know the Scriptures and we should know what the Scriptures say. But the big thing is application. That’s why 69% of Christ’s words were words of application.
How do you mature? Most of us don’t need another Bible study. I hope you know that. How do you mature? You mature by serving. And if you are not serving within Fellowship Church you’re not really a member of the church. You might have your name on some dusty roll, but you are not a member of Fellowship Church. If you’re not bringing at least ten percent to Fellowship Church, you’re not a member of Fellowship Church.
What are you smoking? If you’re going to be a member you have to become a part. And a lot of you have so many gifts and abilities and you’re wasting them on all of this other crap and you’re missing using them on the greatest thing out there, the local church.
We have thousands and thousands of opportunities to serve. People all the time say, “I want to serve.”
Well, just show up and roll up your sleeves. We have mission trips all over the world. We have this camp that has thousands of opportunities available. We have our student ministry, our children’s ministry, and our preschool ministry. We have this Hand in Hand ministry where we help those who have lost loved ones. We bring food to people who are destitute and downtrodden. We have opportunities for Bible studies and opportunities for small groups.
So don’t sit there and say, “I don’t know what I’m supposed do. I don’t know where I’m supposed to serve.”
You’re asleep. Wake up! There are opportunities all around. We need you to get off your rear and into the game. Get out of the stands and on to the court. It’s time to do it. The time is short. Don’t sleep. Don’t sleep.
Martin Luther had a dream of hell one day. He dreamed the devil was sitting on the throne and a bunch of demons were reporting to the devil about what had happened.
One demon came up to Satan and said, “Satan, let me tell you man, some Christians were going on this caravan throughout the desert and I caused these tigers to attack them and kill them.”
Satan said, “That’s stupid, because their souls are with Jesus. That doesn’t do a thing for me.”
Another demon said, “Satan, there were some missionaries on their way to this trip, to this island out in the middle of nowhere. And I caused this great wind and waves to hit the ship and it killed all the Christians.”
Satan said, “Man, again, you don’t get it. I’m after their souls.”
Then this wise demon came up to Satan and said, “For ten years I have been trying to lull this Christian to sleep. And finally, he went to sleep.”
And with that, all hell began to break out in a standing ovation because one person had fallen asleep. Don’t go to sleep. Wake up to the power and the grace of God!