Be Aware Of The Window Seat by Brother Curtis Hansen

         Good morning. If you would, please turn in your bibles to the book of Acts. We are going to read from chapter 20, starting at verse 7. It's an incident that we are going to look and examine this morning. Paul is speaking to a group of disciples as we begin.

        7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

        8 And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.

        9 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.

        10 And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

        11 When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.

        12 And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

        When you look at the overview on the book of Acts, Luke is reporting events in great detail. Events which occurred after Jesus ascended into heaven. There is some fascinating choices which get written about in this book as there was a lot which happened in the establishing of the early church. The story of Eutychus made it into the book. It's one thing to nod off during a lengthy sermon. Many people, myself included, have not been always awake during services. You develop this narrow focus of your attention to what is happening in service. Now, I would think if you had a chance to ask this young man anything about what led up to his accident, he would have said he had just fallen asleep. What happened to him serves as a warning for you and I today in being careful where we sit and aware of our engagement. There is no life advice to give saying if you sit on a windowsill, you may die.

        As you continue your walk with God, the book of Acts gives you Paul's missionary journeys where he had someone else accompany him. In the case of Ananias from Damascus, you had a man answer the call of God and baptize the blind Saul, knowing as to who Saul had been to the early church. The partnership of Paul and Silas had them in jail for ministering. Through praising God with hymns and prayer brought their freedom. Silas was there to encourage Paul. Paul and Barnabas shows you the value of encouragement in the walk from another brother. Barnabas was the man who vouched for Paul in the christian church regarding Paul's conversion and his faith. Each one of Paul's friendships and associations on his journeys are helpful examples of who we need in our daily walk. Do you have a Silas in your life? Ananias? Do you have a Barnabas?

        My first point this morning is depth of capacity. When you study these scriptures, it is amazing the amount of content Paul had in speaking and how deep it was. Equally amazing and often overlooked was the attention the people who listened to Paul. Their depth of capacity reminds me of the parable of the sower. The one constant in that parable is the seed. No matter where the seed fell, the seed remains the word.

        My question to you this morning is, do you have the capacity to receive? The crowd has an expectation to receive by the number of lights which were lit in the upper chamber. What is our expectation to receive the word. You have to come with expectation when you go to God in prayer. The proof of expectation in the scripture were the lamps burning in verse 8. Lamps are associated with the word of God. Jesus spoke in a parable of 5 wise virgins and 5 foolish virgins using lamps. There's the scripture in Psalms about the word being a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path.

        The point of Eutychus' story is about the power of God to heal but the issue is where he sat. Intention will get you in the room and attention is what keeps you in it. An open window is like sitting on a church pew Sunday morning, but, you're half a breath away from falling back into the world. You have the mindset of straddling a line between the world and God without falling.

        Everyone grows tired and falls asleep. If you read the account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples were asked to pray for him as he went up to pray. Jesus would return to find them asleep. What had Jesus told them? Be careful not that ye not fall unto temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. If you give into your flesh, you're closer to sleep.

        Paul addressed this in a couple of letters. You can look up 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 as well as Romans 13:11 to read what he wrote on the subject.

        There are a few signs you are getting sleepy in your walk. 

        1) You have less appetite for the word daily

        2) Your prayer life falters. You keep rolling it back or your halfhearted with it

        3) You no longer feel any conviction for willful sin

        4) You have a desire to be served than serve

        5) Avoid all accountability

        6) Spreading or entertaining gossip

        7) Isolating yourself from your church family, your own family, and your confidants

        When you think about how the accident happened to the young man and how the fall happened, I recognized that there were no elders in the gathering to check on him. The church was just getting started. There was no system yet in place for them to operate. Paul went down 3 flights of stairs and prayed for the man. Many figures in scripture were sleepy. This is why you need the church today. The church is established to help warn someone when they are sitting close to the window. The most powerful part of this story is that Paul immediately stopped preaching, went down to where the man had fallen and prayed for him. This remains our calling this morning. When we see a need, we stop what we are doing and pray for the need.