in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came, and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." And I want to just stop there. We won't take the whole parable, and I want to make an application from this parable. In verse number 25, notice what the Bible says. But while men slept, his enemy came. By the way, time out. We have an enemy. He's real. Be sober. Be vigilant. For your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Once again I faced Satan this morning, and I battled him all the day long. But in my weakness, God sent me in. How many of you are battling him all the day long some day? I think we have an enemy. But I want you to notice what the Bible says. While they drank liquor, the enemy came. While they smoked pot, the enemy came. I'm not for smoking pot. I'm not for drinking liquor. But that's not when the Bible says the enemy came in this instance. While they listened to rock music, the enemy came. What does the Bible say? While men, the enemy came. One preacher said it like this, the most dangerous thing for Christians is yawn. Now, I'm no prophet, neither the son of a prophet, but I perceive that there may be some yawners here tonight. I know I pastor a Baptist church, and one of the things that we have, by the way, I'm speaking spiritually here, but we've got a lot of sleeping going on. A lot of sleeping, a lot of sleeping. And I want to just preach just a little bit on this subject, sleepers. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, help us tonight. Now, Lord, the Spirit's already, Lord, been lifted up. Your name has been lifted up in song. And, Lord, Your presence is here. I felt it. And the sweet Holy Spirit of God in my soul. And, Lord, now we're opening up the Word of God, which is what You've given us to do. And, Lord, I pray that You would fill me and, Lord, use me so that the Word of God may speak to people's hearts. And I pray that you'd help these folks and this church and these preachers, Lord. And we'll thank you for it, for asking in Jesus' name and all God's people said, you may be seated. I heard about one lady and she loved the Lord and she wanted to serve the Lord so bad, but she had the responsibility of raising a child by herself. And she loves singing in the choir. But she couldn't sing in the choir because her son was young and, you know, she just needed to be there with him. And then also her father went to church with her. And her father was an older man and he always would nod off in the middle of church. And she felt like she had to be there to keep him awake. Well, she came up with an idea one day. She said, I'll just use my son to keep my father awake. And so she told him, she said, would you like to earn a dollar? They were little boys, and she said, yes ma'am. And she said, I'll give you a dollar after church if you can keep Grandpa awake the whole service. So she was up in the choir, the preacher got to preaching. He got five minutes into the sermon, and she looked over there. Not only was her dad asleep, but he was laid out on the front row just asleep. After church, she went to him, she said, I told you I'd give you a dollar if you'd keep him awake. He said, you did, but Grandpa said he'd give me $5 if I'd let him sleep. But we have sleeping going on in churches, I promise you that. But you know, the truth of the matter is, Jesus has given us a great, great lesson here. And he wants us to understand that this idea of sleep is a spiritual problem. And He wants us to see that if we're not careful, we can go to sleep on God. Now, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 13, and you're going to have to stay with me, because this is not a message I would normally preach out, but I believe the Lord would have me. I want you to turn to Romans 13. We're going to turn to about four passages first and lay a foundation, okay? Romans chapter 13, real quick, and I want you to look with me, beginning in verse number 8. And I want you to notice what the Bible says. How many of you have it, Romans 13, verse 8? Say, Amen. Romans 13, 8, Oh, no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Well, that's a good verse, isn't it? We need love, don't we? I heard about one fella and he went to the doctor and the doctor had done some blood work on him. He came in, he said, I've got some bad news. He said, what is it? He said, you have rabies. I said, my goodness. And boy, he got distraught. He said, you have a piece of paper. The doctor said, Jason, do you have a pen? He said, yes. The man began to write. The doctor thought he was writing out his will. He said, sir, you're not going to die. You don't have to write out a will. He said, this isn't a will. It's a list of people I want to bite. And the man didn't have love in his heart. Somebody say amen right there. But I'm telling you, it's like that in a lot of churches. It's like one guy, he was on his deathbed. He was dying. And the preacher knew that this man was just enemies with this other fellow in the church. Their whole life they just fought like cats and dogs. And the man was dying. And so he brought the other fellow and they went to the hospital. He said, Bill, don't you want to get things right with Sam here? And Bill said, I do. And boy, they just had just a sweet time together. And the pastor prayed with him. And at the end of the prayer, Bill grabbed Sam and he pulled him down close. And Bill said, you know, if I get better, this doesn't count, don't you? Not a lot of Christians that way. But the Bible says we love one another. By the way, teenagers, I know some teenagers that way. Well, you know, I'm just I ain't going to go if she's going to be there. I mean, you know, she's just always got to have her way. And I saw the way she was looking. She knows I like him. She knows. I mean, she knows that. And she's just doing that on purpose. And she don't even like him. She just don't want me to like him. Amen, preacher, that's good, preacher, come on. But we all love one another. Verse 9, for this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. By the way, time out. Sounds like to me he's preaching the nine commandments, not the ten, but the nine. People thought, we're under grace, not under the law. Where'd you get that from? I mean, we're saved by grace, amen, but we're saved to good works. And that's in nine commandments, nine of the ten repeated. All right, now look at verse ten. Love works with no will to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that it is now high time That word, high time, you know, you ever had an hourglass? You've seen the hour? That's where that word comes from. When they would turn the hourglass over, the fan would fill up. And it's filling up, brothers and sisters. It's high time to, what's the next word? Awake! Can y'all read? All right, let's look at verse 11. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to what? Out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than we believe. All right, I want you to turn to another passage, 1 Corinthians 15, real quick. Y'all turn to 1 Corinthians 15. All right, I want you to, well you say, what you doing? I'm trying to get you to see that the apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ, Their message, and a lot of their message was, hey, we need to wake up. Hey, don't go to sleep. Hey, it's a dangerous thing to sleep as a Christian. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, verse number 34. The Bible says, or verse 33, be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. By the way, who you hang out with will change you. Yeah, they'll corrupt you. You better be careful. Teenagers, but I'm talking to adults too. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Look at verse 34. Awake to righteousness. How many of you see that? Verse 34. Awake to righteousness and stand not. All right. I want you to turn to another place real quick. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Now we're just laying a foundation. We're just getting it ready. OK, we're getting the runway ready. We're going to take off here in a minute. Ephesians chapter 5. And I want you to look at verse number 10. Verse number 10. Proving. What is acceptable unto the Lord? By the way, don't come to your preacher and say, where does it say in the Bible I can't do this? The Bible says you're not proving what's wrong, but proving what's acceptable. What do I need to be doing to please the Lord? And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, but all things that are approved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." There it is in Matthew 13. Awake! There it is in Romans 13. Awake! There it is in 1 Corinthians 15. Awake! There it is in Ephesians 5. Awake! And God say we ought to be awake! And see, when I read my Bible, I read people who slept. You know, the Old Testament, the Bible says the things that were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have. The Bible says these things are our ensamples that we should live godly. And so God gives us stories in the Old Testament to teach us the truth of the New Testament. So when I read my Bible, I read about people that fell asleep. Turn with me to Judges chapter 14. Would you turn there real quick? Let's turn to Judges chapter 14. How many of you heard? Let's just try to find it in our Bibles as quick as we can. Judges chapter number 14. We read about a man that everyone knows and his name is Samson. Now, Samson, by the way, just for mostly for you preachers, just park up at chapter 13 real quick and look at verse number 25, because we do have preachers in here. And I want you to see this. The Bible says in Judges 13, 25, And the spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at times. Just because God uses you doesn't mean this doesn't apply to you. God used Samson. And, you know, I think sometimes we take the mercy of God as the approval for our sin. The Bible says because judgment against the sin is not executed speedily, then people think they get away with it. They get away with it. It's OK. And we got to be careful about that. But this man named Samson was a man that the spirit of the Lord moved upon. And the Bible said he had all this promise. And by the way, everybody look up at me. Look up at me real quick. Samson was a man with promise. Samson was a man with potential. The angel came to his mother and said, you're going to have a child and he's going to be a deliverer. Do you know the book of Nehemiah calls him a savior? And by the way, don't fool yourself. He is a saved man. You say, where does the Bible say that? He committed suicide. You can't commit suicide and be saved. Well, the Bible says in Hebrews 11, by faith Abel, by faith Moses, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, and by faith Samson. The same verse where David's mentioned. Amen, amen. And yet his life was wretched. He's a picture of a Christian who lives a disobedient life to God. Now Satan will get you to sleep. Now, I want you to write this down about a sleeper. Number one, a sleeper is someone who is doing something that they should not be doing. Would you write that down? A sleeper, number one, is someone who is doing something that they should not be doing. You say, well, where's the Bible say that? Well, I want you to know a couple of things about Satan. Look at chapter 14. And by the way, this is how Satan works. Satan was deceived. His life was, you know how he died? His eyes were put out. Come here. You know how they put your eyes out? Come here. You know how they did it? They didn't take you to the hospital. Don't you fall asleep in my sermons. They didn't take you to the hospital and give you, you know, a painkiller. No, they just put their hands right here behind your head and they took their thumbs and just put them right in your eyes and squeezed. Don't fall asleep. Now. Hard life. Did you know that his wife, his wife was given to his best man? And then she was burned in a fire? And then the woman he really loved, she sold him out for silver? Man, what a life! And he was a Christian that lived disobedient. Look at some things he did. Look at verse number 5, chapter 14, verse 5. Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath. And behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mighty upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand. But he told not his father's mother what he had done." Underline that. Tamsin had secrets. By the way, teenagers, he kept some things from his mom and dad. Look at verse 9, "'And he took thereof in his hands and went on eating. And he came to his father and mother, and he gave them And they did eat, but he told not them. You see that? Secret life. You may think you're getting away with it, but what's happening is you're getting put to sleep. You're getting rocked to sleep. Amen, preacher. By the way, y'all not have a secret life, teenagers, that mom and dad don't know about. Can I meddle? Is it OK if I meddle? Can I meddle? Is there a lock on the door? You don't lock on a bedroom door. No, I'm sorry. There's nothing, there's no secrets. You got locked, that means there's something in there you don't want them to see. If you want to ruin your life and wreck your life, then keep most of the secrets from your mom and dad. You don't need a passcode on your phone that your mom and dad doesn't know. Might not even need a phone. I've got my Instagram account, but that's my personal. No, it's not your space. But be careful about these secrets. Be careful. By the way, I know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just this week, just as I sat in my office, a mom and dad sat in my office weeping over their senior daughter and things going on in her life, and a lot of secret things. But she grew up in our church. I love her, and I'm praying, and God's done some things. God did some things Sunday. Praise God. You've got to be careful about secrets. The devil may be just rocking you to sleep. And I just want to say this. Hey, hey, listen. Let's get the TV out of the room. Let's get the phone out of their hands. Now, let's get the lock off the door. Let's be open. Let's be aware. We need to be careful. We need some help here. No secrets. I want you to look at verse 16. Because then Samson gets a wife. And Samson's wife went before him and said, Thou dost but hate me and lovest me not. Thou hast put forth a riddle under the children of my people and hast not told me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father or my mother. So there he is again. But I noticed also that he had a secret from his wife. And by the way, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Some of you parents said amen to the teenagers, but how's it going with your life? And I'm not trying to say I got one on you, but I'm just saying, do you care about your marriage? Hey, there's some things that we ought to just get settled. And husbands and wives need to communicate. Husbands and wives need to be open. Husbands don't need secrets. Wives don't need secrets. They need to be together. I don't care man or woman, you've got no business being up late at night on the computer. There's nothing good that goes on late at night on the computer. I've seen it. I've seen it all. Man, if you knew all the people in our church, you wouldn't want to come to our church. Sometimes I think, is this church or a Jerry Springer episode in my office counseling? I mean, people, God help, brother. I mean, I sat at home one time, computer, and the male, I'm just crying, come on over here. Got over there, yeah, you know, the wife, this time it was the wife, and she's finding these people on Facebook that they were friends with, and up all the hours of the night talking to men that she had dated in high school, and the guy said, I don't, I don't know, I don't like that, I don't like that. We're back and forth, and then he had some friends on there that she didn't like, and he was looking at stuff. I said, hey, y'all want to save your marriage? He said, yeah. Yeah, we do. I said, do you have a sledgehammer? I promise you. He said, yeah. I said, OK, give me your phone and your phone. And I said, give me the computer. What are we going to do? I said, we're going to go outside and break them. I'm not going to do that, preacher. And they got divorced within a few months. But be careful about secrets. Now, the devil will put you to sleep. And then be careful. And then he played with sin. I don't have time to preach this. This is the message I was going to preach. But, you know, he went down into the vineyard, the vineyard, V-I-N, vine. You know what wine is in French, don't you? V-I-N, vine. My wife and I bought a beautiful picture. Spent a lot of money on it. I didn't know that. I'm innocent, you know, and it had V-I-N. It was in French. So I said, Preacher, what you got a picture of wine on your... I said, I didn't know that was the restaurant. You want it? You want it? I'll sell it to you, brother. By the way, he had a Nazarite vow. He wasn't supposed to touch any fruit of the vine. Why are you walking through a vineyard? Hey, listen, you may think I'm weird and I'm crazy and I'm strange, but if I have to walk around the vineyard to save many and save my marriage and save my church and save my testimony, I'll walk around the vineyard. But look what happens to him. Look at look at chapter 16. Look at chapter 16. And verse number. Sixteen, and it came to pass when she pressed him daily. By the way, the name Delilah means. Sad eyes. That's what it means. Sad eyes. I can't do it. I'll scare somebody. She threw them all sad eyes on him. And Preston, verse 17, that he told her all his heart and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head. By the way, time out. Did you know he had killed those 30 men? Samson had killed those 30 men. And what he was supposed to do, according to number six, is he was supposed to shave his own head. And he was supposed to bring a ewe lamb and a he lamb as a burnt offering, but he didn't. And by the way, God got his offering because he burned his wife and he burned his father-in-law. And then God got his haircut, too. And it's always better to judge your own sin than let God judge you. You don't want to get a haircut in God's barbershop. Amen. You better let, you better let, you better go ahead and judge. 1 Corinthians 11, judge yourself, lest you be judged. But anyway, but boy, she took the razor out and she shaved him. And the Bible says in verse number 18, And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has showed me all his heart. And by the way, the devil, he'll turn on you so quick. And then the lords of the fifteen came unto her and brought money into her hand and she made him sleep. How many of you see that? Verse 19. And she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head. Now everybody look at me. A sleeper is someone who's doing something that they should not do. Now, I don't know who you are. I don't know you. I know a few of you, but I don't know all of you. But I know in a crowd like this, I know in an auditorium like this with all the people in here, there's somebody in here. There's two or three. There's a dozen people in here. And you're sleeping. You're getting put to sleep. You're going down a path you shouldn't be going through. You're walking through a vineyard you shouldn't be walking in. You're playing with something you shouldn't be playing with. And I'm just trying to say, Jesus said, while men slept, the enemy came. And while men slept, the enemy ruined their home. While women slept, the enemy ruined their children. While teenagers slept, the enemy ruined their life. While men slept, Paul said, awake to righteousness and sin not. There it is. I want you to write this down, number two, not only are sleepers those who are doing things they should not be doing, but I want you to turn to the book of Jonah. And I want you to write this down, sleepers are those who are not doing the things they should be doing. Jonah was a man who was called by God. By the way, let me say this, it's a wonderful thing to be called by God. Whatever God calls you to do, that's a wonderful thing. God called me to preach when I was six years old. Six years old, God called me. Now, I didn't surrender until I was 18. Now, I remember the night God called me to preach, and I remember the day I surrendered to preach. I remember those two times. But I'm going to say this, it was a wonderful thing when I surrendered to the call that God put on my life. And let me say this, it's been a wonderful time since. I'm not one of these preachers that ever get up here and complain about how hard it is to serve God, because I know it'll be a lot harder if I don't serve God. And I just want to say the journey's been good. And, you know, Jonah was a man who was called by God and God said, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh and I want you to preach in Nineveh and I want you to tell them their sins. And Jonah didn't want to go. And notice what the Bible says in Jonah chapter one. Verse number three, but Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. And let me say this, you will never be right with God until you surrender to what God's called you to do. The Bible says, And he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarsus, so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it. They go with them unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. There was a mighty tempest in the sea, so the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down to the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came unto him and said unto him, What meanest thou? Oh, what's the next word? sleeper. Arise, call upon my God. And I want to say this, a sleeper is someone who's not doing what they know they ought to be doing. A few Wednesday nights ago, we had the privilege in our church of having two men that got called to preach in the last few months in our church. Both men are in their 20s. One man has a job in the medical profession. Great job. But he says, I can't do anything but what God's called me to do. Feels like God wants to be a missionary. The other man's got another job. He's got a great job. He's a manager in a nice store there in a business in our community. But he said, God's called me to preach. If God calls you to do it, you got to do it. But I want to say this. It's not just the big things like being called to preach. You know, God's called us to do things like read our Bible every day. And you'll go to sleep if you don't do the things that God wants you to do. God's called us to pray every day. God's called us to be at church every time the doors are open. God's called us to be a witness and God's called us to tithe and to give. And if we're not doing the things that God's called us to do, we're getting put to sleep. Now, just as I said, in this crowd, there's some that are doing things they shouldn't be doing. I looked at this crowd. There's no doubt. There's some of you that you know what you should be doing. You're not doing it. Now, if it's me, I'd get on the altar and I'd say, Dear God, don't let me go to sleep. Dear God, the enemy came while they slept. Lord, help me be awake to doing the things that you want me to do. Bob Jones said the way to develop character is to make yourself do what you don't want to do and make yourself not do what you do want to do. Any fool can be saved in less than a minute, he said, but it takes a lifetime of struggle and prayer and self-denial to build a Christian character that will stand the blows of time. Any fool can be saved in less than a minute. Some of those guys had a way to put it bluntly, didn't they? But you do not what you want to do. You do what God wants you to do. And you do whether you feel like doing it or not. Do it. Yesterday I went and I got a call last week from a young man. He's a senior. And tragic. He lives basically on his own. Because his dad's in prison or in jail. And I got a text from him. He said, Brother Pine, would you go see my daddy? He said, I saw my daddy for the first time in seven months, and he asked specifically to see you. Now, I led his daddy to the Lord about eight years ago in the locker room. I go to a gym, and in that gym, I led him to the Lord in the locker room. That gym, eight years ago, he was on drugs, and he got clean and went through a program, and he did great in our church and got married, had a little daughter. And I'll just be honest with you, he did great. He was on fire. And can I just be very blunt with you? And then one year, deer season came around. And he started missing church. And little things began to pop up. And little by little, he quit doing the things that he knew were right to do. And I'm not saying if you go hunting on a Sunday, you're going to wind up in prison, but you may. I mean, you start somewhere. And you know where sin starts? It doesn't start when you do wrong. It starts when you stop doing right. And you can't do wrong until you stop doing right. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away. What are you drawn away from, right? And I sat across from that baby, you know, there's just, and I'll tell you what, it's so hard to pick up that phone. That thing seems so dirty to me, you know, you pick up that phone and you're sitting in that little window looking across and they come in there and you see, and I've seen a half a dozen or a dozen grown men just break down and cry because I've led them to the Lord. I've been their pastor, and now they're where they don't want to be, and they're so ashamed. And I watched the grown man just cry and cry and cry about what was going on in his life. And it all started when he went to sleep. Now, some of you look at me and you say, that guy's just a little old young whippersnapper, and I am. But I know what I'm talking about. You better wake up. Wake up. Wake up. A sleeper is someone who does things that they should not do. A sleeper is someone who is not doing the things that they should be doing. Alright, I want you to turn real quick to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. Is everybody awake? Please stay with me, alright? Look at verse number 39. Luke 22, verse 39. Real quick, let's go. Luke 22, verse 39. This is the Lord Jesus Christ in the last hours before Calvary. And the Bible says in verse 39, and he came out, Luke 22, 39, and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives. And his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said to them, pray that you enter not into the temptation. What did he tell them to do? What? And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, thou be willing, remove this truck from me that nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And there appears an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he arose up from prayer and was come to his disciples, he found them for sorrow. A sleeper is someone who is doing what they should not be doing, a sleeper is someone who is not doing the things that they should be doing, and a sleeper is someone who does not talk to God. Someone said like this, your prayer life is your Christian life. I don't know how else to say it. But when we as Christians, Brother Joe preached on the power, the power, and he made the statement, I'm amazed at how much we do without the power of God. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. And that's what it's going to be one day when we get to the Judgment Day of Christ. It'll be a bunch of nothing. But we've got to have God. Is it so simple to say this? When you're tempted, pray. When you struggle with sin, pray. When you don't understand why, pray. When you don't feel like doing right, pray. I mean, is it too simple to say that? I find myself trying to do everything but doing that sometimes, don't you? And Satan's got you right where he wants you. He's rocking you to sleep. Isn't he, too? If he can get us, you know, sometimes we think if Satan's trying to get us to do wrong, sometimes he's just trying to get us to do it in our own strength. I think what Satan would love for us to do as preachers sometimes is he would love for us to preach a great sermon. in our own strength or for our own glory. A sleeper is someone who is not talking to God. And write this down. A sleeper is someone who's not letting God talk to them. Would you turn to Acts chapter 20? Can you imagine hearing the Apostle Paul preach? Boy, I love it. Brother Sellers and Brother Mike were talking about different topics. Wouldn't it be great if we just have Paul here? Brother Mike and Brother Sellers. I think he might even strike you out, Brother Mike. Maybe. I'll get back to you in a week. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul preaching? Think about it. A man that God used to write 12 or 13, which one was it? 13? Books in the New Testament. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what it'd be like to hear him preach? Can you imagine that? There he is. And Paul came to town in Acts chapter 20. And by the way, let me just say this. When Paul preached, it was not like me preaching. Amen. You can say amen, it won't hurt my feelings. Because he was giving, I believe, the Word of God at this time. He was not just preaching the Word of God, he was giving the Word of God. And so what he was doing is it was God speaking. And look at, you understand what I'm saying, right? An apostle. Acts 20 verse 1, and after the uproar ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and braced them and departed to go to Macedonia. And when he had gone over these parts and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, he was about to sail to Syria. He purposed to return through Macedonia. And there accompanied him in Asia, Sopater and Berea and the Thessalonians and Aristarchus and Seleuciadus and Gaius and Verbi and Timotheus of Asia and Tychius and These going before tarried for us at Troas, and we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them in Troas, and five days were about seven days. And upon the first day of the week," there's your good proof text, "...when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to part no more, and continued his speech until midnight." There's another good proof text. Preach as long as you want to. And there were many lights in the upper chamber while they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead. By the way, how many of you know somebody who's fallen out of church? Before they ever fell out of church, they fell asleep. And a sleeper is someone who is not listening to God talk to them. Not listening to God talk to them. It's like the one guy I heard about. He was a deacon. We love picking on deacons. Baptist preachers, you know. Thank you, brother. It's either that or mother-in-law. Which one y'all want? Y'all want me to make it deacon or mother-in-law? Alright, deacon. Okay. And so this deacon, he'd fall asleep every service. I mean, not just fall asleep. I mean, he... So the pastor said, I gotta do something. So he got this guy and he said, look. He gave him a stick. He said, I want you to poke him when he falls asleep. So the pastor got out there preaching. He was just going about two, three minutes. And the guy kind of went on off. And he looked at the guy. The guy poked him. He sat back up. A little bit longer, he kind of started on off again. He looked down. He poked him. He stood. He kind of sat back up. Finally, he got to preach a little bit. And the guy finally just went out. And the preacher looked at the guy. He said, the guy just went out. Wham! Hit the guy. Knocked him in the floor. The guy woke up. He said, hit me again. I can still hear him talking. That's how they are in my church. Joe Arthur said this, he said, it's not my long preaching that gives you a problem. It's your short religion. Amen. One church, you know, they took the offering up at the end. And we don't do that. We take ours up in it. I don't want them to hear me preach because I won't give anything in. But this church took it up at the end. And every service they did that. And finally, this little drama, and the preacher was going, it was 1230, it was 1240, and he was just on point two, you know. And a little girl looked at her mama, and she said, Mama, Mama, if we give him the money now, will he let us go? But all joking aside, spiritually, spiritually, how many Christians are asleep? How many Christians come into church and God is trying to speak to their hearts? And they're just asleep. I'm not trying to be ugly, but I walk in church sometimes and, man, I mean, I've got it. Oh, I preach Sunday morning. I'm not talking about I've got it. Like, I'm just, man, it's in me. I preach Sunday morning. The king is coming. The King is coming. Man, I was reading my Bible that morning. I mean, I purposely, I saved it. I said, I'm going to read Zechariah 14. His feet will set on the Mount of Olives and it will cleave in two. And boy, he's going to walk, boom, kick that eastern gate open and say, I'm here. And slap the dome of the rock all the way back over wherever it belongs and sit down on that throne. And read Revelation 19 where the heavens were open and I saw a white horse And the armies followed after him. And there was a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And a spark, two edged sword proceeded. Man, I was all on me. I mean, it was whoo. And I came in, you know, and you come in and here they are. Who thinks going to win that game, Dallas or Detroit? Preacher, who you got in that championship game, Ohio or Oregon? Like I got money on it. I said, I got $50 on Ohio State. How much you got? You ain't having all your preacher. No, I'm not. I'm trying to preach. But I'm not being ugly, but ain't pray for God to move. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Watch this. Sleep. I mean, people, I mean, people lost in church, people dying and going to hell. Watch this. I just thought you ought to know. I put my tithe check in, and that check ain't cleared yet. Why does it take two weeks to clear? I heard that happen. I said, praise God, I appreciate the extra week. I told him, you got interest, buddy. Huh? You're serious? Yeah? I've seen this screw hangin' out in the sheetrock. I'm just givin' you personal examples, okay? I'm not makin' it. You can't make some stuff. Some youngin's gonna scrape it on there, and I just... I mean, we just gotta get that thing fixed. I mean, that's just not safe. I'll call OSHA tomorrow and get them to check this place out. It's fun just bein' at liberty. Sleep. Sleep. That Sunday school teacher mispronounced my youngin's name for the fourth time and I didn't get a birthday card. You know? He always sings them. They off-key anyways. I mean, you know. Really. I mean, obviously, I think Jesus, that's what He said, wild men slept in and He came. I mean, He's kicking down. I mean, look, Elisha, that old guy, that old servant of Elisha's, he looked out that day and he saw the armies all around them. And he came in and he said, Elijah, they got Dothan. It wasn't Dothan, Alabama, but they were in Dothan. He said, they got us surrounded. And Elisha stood there, he said, open his eyes. And we like that because they were chairs of fire. But what I'm trying to get you to see is this world's under the prince of this world. And if we can just open our eyes all around, I mean, there's a real enemy. He's trying to get in here. He's trying to destroy us. And we got Christians falling asleep, asleep at their post. What you talking about asleep at your post? Some of the school teachers not showing up. Nursery workers. I mean, I don't know. I primed to try to get him to tell me some stuff. The nursery workers not showing up. People not praying for their pastor. When's the last time you spent a little time in prayer before Sunday morning asking God just to get all on your preacher? To protect him. To have the power of God. Next time someone comes to you and complains, just let's pray for our preacher. Dear God in heaven. Sleepers. Now, I know I've done a lot of meddling here. Let me turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 real quick, OK? 1 Corinthians chapter number 4. I said Corinthians, Thessalonians, I'm sorry. I got excited about it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Verse number 13. 1 Corinthians 4.13. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. Ignorant, comma, brethren, comma. That's important. Some things God can't help. Concerning them which are asleep, that you saw or not, even as others are having to hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus." That's a good sleep right there. Will God bring with Him. For this we say, by the way, there is a time when you're going to sleep. And by the way, I had a guy, I talked to a guy yesterday. And the man said, 40 years old. I'm so depressed. I think I'm going to kill myself. And our church has an insurance policy, you know, so if I say something in counseling and somebody does something stupid, then we're covered for a little bit. I got a little liberty there. I said, you ain't going to do that. I mean, I said, you ain't going to do that, man. Just be quiet. He said, well, I mean, I really don't feel good. I said, when's the last time you worked? It's been a year. I said, that's your problem. You go to work. You'll feel better. It's been on the couch for a year. I'm not making this up. Go to work. You'll feel a lot better. By the way, you do feel better when you go to work. There's nothing like working and, I mean, just putting in a good day's work and then you go home and you get a shower and you get cleaned off and you crawl into that bed. Boy, you can sleep. I tell you what, we as God's servants one day, those of us who served Him well, We're going to just crawl in bed and go to sleep in Jesus one day. And then the Bible says here, one day, one day, one day. There's going to be a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be called up together to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Hey, and I'll tell you, you say, what are you saying? I'm saying there's going to be a day when those who have served and those who have worked, who've been getting their reward, they've gotten their sweet rest. They're going to be called up in the rapture. We're going to be called up with them. We need to keep laboring. We need to keep serving. We need to keep going. We need to keep plugging until Jesus Christ comes again. Boy, won't that be a time out of the ratchet. I told our church, I was talking about the King is coming. I said, man, if I wasn't saved, there is no way. There is no way. I wouldn't get on the interstate if I wasn't saved. My wife drives about 85. I said, if I wasn't saved, there ain't no way I'd ride as a passenger. I'd drive everywhere. I tried to scare them into heaven someday. It's true, man. If my wife saved, if I wasn't saved, and she was driving 85 miles an hour down the interstate, poof, she's gone. And then the guy beside us is saved, and he's gone. And these cars are going everywhere. Man, are you crazy? I wouldn't, if I was saved. Imagine on an airline. What if the captain and the co-pilot are both saved? You know, they put that door on there now. He ain't getting in there. I think he's locked from the inside. They're going at Airbus 747. This is your captain speaking. We're at 30,000 feet, cruising altitude. We should be arriving in just a few hours. Kick back and enjoy yourself. And as you're in the middle of talking, you know, just nothing. All of a sudden, I mean, people beside you, they're just a pile of clothes sitting out there. Couple of gold fillings. artificial knee joint, hearing aids, glasses, false teeth, false eyelashes, whatever else. People start screaming. Can you imagine what it's going to be like? Can you imagine? They just want to be like, my mom and dad, they're not saved. And they've heard the preaching of the Word of God. And they just had a little baby. And they hear all this commotion. They run in there. First thing mom and dad does, run in there. And that little baby's gone. By the way, I believe those little babies would be gone. Innocent. Tough little children are coming to me. Forbid them not. They go in that room. Where's our baby? Where's our baby? You imagine? What if you're sitting in church like this? I mean, right in the middle of Brother Flyman preaching. You're sleeping. You're nodding off. And all of a sudden, all at once, every Christian just kind of... Their head just kind of... Because the Bible says it's the truth. And I believe it's that voice. I believe it'll sound like thunder to the lost, according to John. And I believe it'll be our name. And it may be our name, or it may be our name that He's given us that we don't know. I don't know which one. But we're going to know what it is. And all at once, we go like this. And our head goes up. And you see all that at once. And then all of a sudden, 95% of the people in this room, boom, gone. And you're sitting there. Boom. And you're just looking around. You're going, what in the world? What in the world? Can you imagine? And the Lord comes home and calls all those sleepers out of here. What a day that will be. Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes and look.