Sunday Evening Worship Service

Acts chapter 20 and I'm going to begin to read at verse number seven Acts chapter 20 and verse number 7 the word of the Lord says 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 tomorrow and continued his speech until midnight now I don't want anybody to get the idea I'm G preach till midnight and there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together and there sat in a window a certain young man named udcus 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 and Paul went down and fell on him and embracing him said trouble not yourselves for his life is in him I want to speak to us just for a little while on this evening service tonight on the simple topic of be careful who you sit by be careful who you sit by look at your neighbor and say I'm going to be careful who I'm sitting by I would like to focus on a couple things this evening three points in particular I would like to speak about midnight I would like to sleep uh talk about sleeping and especially sleeping in the context of spiritually asleep and then the third thing I would like to speak about is the people involved in your life and Paul the great missionary we find him on one of his travels he ends up in a city called traz and he spent only seven days there and he's about to leave the next day and the Bible describes his preaching he's preaching so long one translation said it like this he went on and on and on and on then right at midnight we have our Focus today and our focus in this story is this young man that he fell from the window and it was around everybody say midnight Midnight and I would just like to say in my estimation in my humble opinion that spiritually speaking I think we are in the Midnight Hour that's right there's something very intriguing even to the world about the Midnight Hour not only from a spiritual perspective but from a secular view there's a lot of books that are written about midnight books that are written and songs and movies that are being made about about the midnight time about this time that total Destruction will come to our world one of the symbols of midnight is the Doomsday Clock the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face maintained since 1947 by the University of Chicago that uses the analogy of the human species being at a time that is minutes away from Midnight they move the clock up recently to 1 minute and 30 seconds before midnight now that's before this major conflict that's happening in Israel I believe they probably had to go out and move it up a little further because we are looking at a midnight time if there's ever a time that the church needs to wake up it's right now we don't need to be sleeping at midnight we need to be awake to what God is wanting to do spiritually we see the signs of the times we reading the pages of God's word how close we are to the coming of the Lord now I looked at all the different things uh and I'm sure most of you familiar about the earthquakes I was blown away by how many earthquakes Ure every year uh around our world I didn't realize there were famines in our world like they are and the war Wars and the rumors of wars and all the things that were seeing things that I never thought I'd see come to America or in America right now if there's ever a time that we need to realize that we're close to the Midnight Hour I would say right now is a good time to wake up and realize what time we're living in amen I've been waiting a long time I know my grandmother used to talk about the Rapture of the church my mother I baptized her in jesus' name and she prayed back through to the Holy Ghost I used to call her up and I said mother what are you doing she said I'm looking out the window and I'm waiting for Jesus amen boy in our time in I I think it'll be a good thing again to lift up our heads and realize that our Redemption draw LIF nigh the Lord is going to come back I don't want to be caught unaware I want to be ready when the Lord comes how about you amen praise the Lord I never dreamed I'd see all this stuff coming to pass and I'm Not Afraid about what what's going on in our world I'm not afraid I'm not scared I'm excited about the possibility that I might be able to be raptured out of this world I'm excited amen that if anything happens to me I know the Lord's got me covered and I'm going to go to heaven and be with him one day but the main thing is you need to realize what time we're living in and we are living in the midnight time the Bible said there were many lights in the upper chamber ber where they were gathered together and verse 9 says and there sat in a window a certain man a certain young man named udus being falling into a deep sleep now before I say too much about this young man I would like to say something very good about him at least this young man was in church amen to all the young people here tonight I applaud you tonight for being in the house of of God come on let's put our hands together while the world's drawing on them when the world is pulling on them I'm glad they're here in the house of God raising their hands beginning to praise the Lord and magnify his name aren't you happy about our young people tonight being in the house of God so I'd like to say there must have been some spiritual Tendencies especially to stay as Paul begin to preach along longer and longer and a longer but he began to fall asleep now what I see spiritually that could be applied to all of us is that he wasn't sitting by a window he wasn't sitting near a window but he was in a window and you must be careful where you're sitting and who you're sitting by and I'll explain that a little bit in just a little bit bed and to me this could very well represent to us someone who's in the church but he's sitting in the window so he can keep an eye on the world I don't want to sit in the window and look at the world I have left the world I've been separated from the world I've come out from among the world and I want to totally have my focus on the things of God tonight amen I don't want to be like this young man that maybe he had spiritual Tendencies and he had a loose affiliation with the church but he also kept interest in the world we used to say it like this years ago there's some people that have one foot in and one foot out I don't want to have one foot in and one foot out but I want to make up my mind totally that I'm going to live for the Lord with all my heart with all my mind with all my soul with all my strength everything that's in me I want to live for the Lord because I want to just tell you it's going to be very difficult for you to be all that God wants you to be if you got one foot in the world and one foot in the church you can't walk two roads at the same time you're going to have to choose what road you're going to walk and as for me in my house we're going to live for the Lord and we're going to walk that straight and narrow path anybody feel that way tonight amen cuz you can't be what God has called you to be if you keep on looking to the world instead of just selling out totally to the things of God we see a lot of examples in God's word when people have problems because they had attachment to the world I remember Jesus once said he said remember Lot's wife she was the one to look back with fondness from what God had delivered her from and when you keep looking back at that old lifestyle to check on it to reminisce with finess about it it will bring to your death it'll draw you back out into it it's time for someone to get out of the window and make up your mind that I'm going to live for the Lord and only serve him and I'm not going to do anything else but keep my focus totally on the Lord amen I grew up in a drug addict an alcoholic family and uh my whole life I remember as a young child we may not had food on the table but there was always alcohol and there was always drugs there I remember our sell them my brothers and and selling drugs out of the home and all the confusion and the chaos and all the things that were happening in that kind of Lifestyle amen I remember all the yelling and the domestic violence that was going on all hours of the night and I remember saying to myself laying there as a young boy if I could only find an escape I'll get it if I could only get out of here I'll never go back to it I remember saying if there's only a way I didn't know the way out of it but God knew there was a young boy down there that needed a way out and God designed a way so I could be saved and I'm going tell you something once I got into the church I never wanted to look back because there's nothing good and the drugs and the alcohol and all that mess that's out there in the world there nothing but destruction so when god Set Me Free amen I was glad that I was free and 40 some years later I'm still praising and magnifying the Lord because I don't want to be somebody that's sitting in the window reminiscing about things of the past I'm so thankful that he brought me out aren't you glad for God 's Deliverance anybody been delivered in this place tonight anybody been set free from drugs and alcohol and terrible lifestyle aren't you glad for What the Lord Has Done you know when God delivers you from something you don't need to go check on it you don't need to call it you don't need to go visit it see that's what Samson did Samson was delivered from a lion and he came back and he saw honey in the carcass of a lion and he was familiar with honey being from the land of milk and honey and he had a taste for it and your old carcass got just what you like and that's what that's why we don't we need to leave it alone because it would entice us to go back into that old lifestyle so when God brings you away from something don't ever be drawn back into it when God brings you away from it make sure you put walls of protection around yourself so you'll never end up in that same old place cuz the devil has a way of trying to draw us back Jesus reminds us that you can't walk too past you got to choose the straight and narrow or the Broadway I'm going to choose the straight and narrow there are too many people in the church that have their eyes on the world I'm seeing it more and more as I'm living for God all these years amen I've seen a lot of people her because they started looking at the things of the world with fondness and I want to tell you the sin of this world will bring you down the sin of this world will destroy your life the sin in this world will destroy what God is trying to accomplish through you and in you so don't allow yourself to get focused in on that world again the New Testament amen King James version the new King James version says udus was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on and and on and all of a sudden he fell into a sound sleep you don't fall asleep all at once you just don't sit there and all of a sudden go to sleep what happens is just a little nod here a little yawn there and next thing you know it you might have bobbed your head a little bit and you look up real quick said to Pastor M see that amen you start getting a little tired and for you know it if you're not careful you'll fall asleep and you're not conscious of what's going on all around you you and in these last days God is doing awesome stuff God God is doing great things God is delivering people God is setting people free God is healing people I know you see it on a daily basis H in Cuba we're seeing people amen that are coming up that are sick with disease and sickness and God's healing them we're seeing people delivered from demonic spirits and God's setting them free we're seeing all kinds of things that are happening amen people come in they're involved in the the religion of santoria amen that's Catholic and Voodoo mixed together and they come in that place they they they do their chance they've done their stuff amen but they come in and get touched by the power of the Holy Ghost and get delivered by the power of God Amen I'm telling you God is doing awesome and great and wonderful things amen and I want to celebrate I don't want to be sleeping when God is working I don't want to be sleeping when God is trying to move I don't want to be sleeping when God has set up a deliverance from my soul I don't want to be sleeping when God has came into this place to help somebody [Applause] tonight amen but sometimes as years go by and we get comfortable boy this is a beautiful place you guys got here you could get comfortable here you can sit in that nice plush Pew it felt so good I've been traveling since early this morning I'm telling you and boy it felt good you can all of a sudden start falling asleep spiritually amen and you don't pray like you used to pray and you don't fast like you used to fast and you don't worship like you used to worship and you don't praise him like you used to praise Him amen I'll go back if you came from where I came from 40 some years later when they start talking about getting baptized in Jesus name I start getting excited amen I start getting a thrill in my when you start talking about people and get the Holy Ghost I start getting excited about getting the holy ghost man when they start talking about Deliverance I can relate to that because I had to be delivered amen I'm telling you I haven't lost my praise my enthusiasm and all because I am so thankful for what God has done I don't want to I don't want to get complacent I don't want to I don't want to fall asleep especially sitting in the window amen and you know tonight if we're not careful we can become disinterested we can we can get disconnected now here Paul was preaching had seven days and he's relaying some very important information for them to have and here we are in the last days and I know you're pastoral staff get up behind this pull pit amen and I know they have very important messages for you from God not messages that they just receed from anywhere but they received it from God for the congregation of God and they come up and step behind this pulpit and begin to preach to you and if you're not careful you can become disinterested disconnected amen got our eyes on other things get our attachments on the things of this world instead of the things of God and we're not careful we begin to miss out on the opportunities that God has given to us in these last days I was speaking to my wife the other day and I'm not like some folks some folks God tells them everything I wish I could be that way amen I mean you know people say God told me to go down to Walmart and told me to buy this and and God told me to go here and God told me to go there God told me to stop at Starbucks give me a latte and I me like wow man God telling this person everything I mean I mean I got people to tell me that stuff and I like wow I wish God speak to me that much but every now and then God appr prompt me in the spirit and I was thinking about disconnection and people missing out getting dis interested in missing things there was a lady that came to our church she was such a faithful saint of God and she got disconnected through the years matter of fact she was a truck driver she got saved she was she was awesome she would leave checks with the secretary signed the checks and said I'll call you and tell you how much my ti is you fill it out put it off cuz she didn't want to miss the offering now you talking about connected that was connected somewhere along the line she got disconnected she got disinterested and she I we just very rarely ever see her we we reached out to her we tried to get her back into the church she she would miss and one day I was just walking through the house and I just been up in my in my little office and I came down and I looked at sister Logan I I know I shocked her I said I said sister so- and so is getting ready to die she said what she said where didd you hear that from I said well the Holy Ghost prompted me and told me she's getting ready to die well I told talk to her sister every so often I talk to her on the telephone we talk Spanish little Spanish she helps me in my Spanish and she's an older lady and we talked and we did our normal talk conversation we talked a little bit in Spanish and and when I say a little bit we just talked a little bit and uh we talked a little bit and had a good time and then at the end she says uh she said Bishop I want to tell you something I said well what do you want to tell me she said my sister's dying and I told her I said the Lord just spoke that to me she said well she just found out the doctors told her there's nothing they can do and I thought about all the times brother n all the times that we've had Services where the power of God was moving all the times there had been healings there all the times that God moved in such a great way all the times that she missed but she's spiritually sleeping all the time she missed out because she allowed herself to get attached to the things of this world and start looking in other directions and other things and instead of looking at the things of God and sometimes God's moving right in the midst of us and we don't even realize it because maybe we're on our phones or maybe we're thinking about tomorrow maybe we're thinking about sports or maybe we're thinking about all the things of life I know how we can get caught up in those things and God is moving in in this church tonight to help somebody amen because God loves you so much that he would come down and help you tonight it don't matter what you've done all last week God said I'll show up because I want to save them and all you have to do is focus that there's a God that is moving there's a God that cares there's a God that wants to heal there's a God that wants to deliver there's a God that wants to sa not tomorrow but right now and ticus he's sitting in a window and he's falling asleep and I just can't figure out brother M why didn't somebody say hey bro wake up you getting ready to fall out the window dude you know how you young people talk you getting ready to fall out the I'm talking to you you going to fall out the window dude come on how do you say bro come on bro I'll say something in the vest I go brh I said bruh amen you getting you getting ready to fall out and you got people that's sitting in the church that are lost on people sitting in the church that are going to go to hell young people that are backsliding and we sit there like we don't see nothing we sit in our pews and act like nothing's going on it's kind of like the people in these big cities there folks out there beating them to death and everybody's just walking about got the cell phone out right amen but disinterested and enough to help him we got folk right here tonight that somebody say dude what are you doing you getting ready to fall out the window you're getting ready to backslide you're getting ready the worst thing you can do in your life is get somebody to tell you what you want to hear some folks will only link up to people that'll tell them exactly what they want to hear right that's right amen you know if they used to to call it Doctor shopping years ago people would go around to a doctor and they would get pills my mother was a prescription addict so I know and then she'd go around to different doctors and she' get prescription for qualus and and vums and everything else man she told me one time pills she took I baptized she got saved amen but I'm telling you God she told me how God delivered her from all that but I couldn't believe she said we just go from one doctor to the next that's how they used to do it now here's what people do when they're getting ready to fall out the window they go find somebody that agree with them I don't like the way things are going now somebody said to them said you know what you need to do you need to go to the prayer room and pray well they're going to move on and they're going to find somebody else and they're going to say you know what I really don't like how things are going I I I think you know this or that or whatever and and then you you you'll find somebody say yeah I don't like it either what we need is for us to realize that right now is our opportunity do you know and I'll be closing here in just a moment but do you know there's some great SE winners in this place that have not been activated yet you've been vacillating for so long you've been hot between two opinions for so long you just been sitting there spinning your wheels and God saying man I'm going to anoint you I'm going to ordain you I'm going to commission you to go out and win souls if only you would sell out to the Lord there's no telling what you could do do you know there's people up in here that could lay hands on the sick and watch them recover do you know that God has ordained some of you to do [Applause] so man there's some great Soul winners up in this place but the problem is is that we get in the window and we don't have anybody that can speak into our lives and that's the most dangerous thing thing than any one of us can do is when nobody can speak into our life here he is and I close this young man it seemed like somebody would have said hey you getting ready to fall out that window you're getting ready to get hurt I can't tell you how many times I've told people don't do that or it's going to end up bad and you know what a lot of them did they went out and did it anyway yes and you know what it turned out bad unfortunately nobody's get nobody gets pleasure in any of that we all are heard about that but that's how we need somebody in our life we need to surround ourself they have a thing what called and you might have heard of this it's called cancel culture and if you say something that people don't like they'll cancel you well I want you to know that's nothing new knew they canceled Jesus they canel Paul they cancel these different voices that were trying to preach truth to them and if you don't if you're not careful you'll cancel out all the voices that God sends to you to try to help you don't cancel those voices out why don't you wake up to what God's trying to do he's trying to help you he's trying to save you he's trying to get you delivered he's trying to commission you to do the work of God hallelujah amen and I thought about udcus I thought about that name udus what a name and I thought Lundy was a funny name amen but udcus got my attention and uh one some of the writers said that udcus actually means fortunate he was very fortunate that he was able to fall out that window window and fall all that way he was fortunate that a man of God fell on him and breathe life into him and I thought about my life how fortunate I was I thought about my brothers struggling with drug addiction I thought about my sisters uh still many of them on drugs and alcohol I thought about all the turmoil my family went through I thought about all the mess they went through I thought about the poverty they went through I thought about the children that were born out of wedlock I thought about all this stuff that happened I thought how fortunate I was uh as somebody preached the apostolic truth to me how fortunate I was to be baptized in Jesus name and to be filled with the Holy goost how fortunate I am to be a child of God as we all stand this evening I went on a long trip in Cuba and I went to what they call the island of Youth I don't know if I look very much younger but I went there and uh I went to this island you have to we had to take a van over to the bus depot and then we all crammed on the bus and we drove on the bus for a couple hours then we took a a a boat ride for about four hours and we're going through all these checkpoints and and Cuba's communist and um you're subject to interrogation you're subject to you know danger of the government you have to be very careful what you do over there and um we go all the way over there and when we land there on that boat we get into another vehicle and we drive an iron and we go to a church that gets very very rarely gets visitors to come to that church because it's so hard to get there and went there they're all excited and we're in there praising the Lord and God's moving in a great way people are getting saved and we're just so thankful for what God is doing and so we go back to the place they had for us and we found the place and got there and uh went in the room and there's no running water there's bugs everywhere it's it's real dirty it's filthy and uh guy was with me we had two bids in the room he said I'm going to go to sleep I said you going to get in that bed he said yeah I'm getting in that bed I said don't do it man and he got in that bed and all night long I watched him it looked like the bugs were chasing him around that bed he was moving all around that thing all night long I wiped down old plastic chair old little white plastic chair I got in that plastic chair and I took my backpack I put my head on it and I try to sleep for about an hour and I got up stretch these old bones oh Hallelujah come on Day come on day I kept thinking come on day hurry up come on sunlight got back down in that chair and stretched a little bit every hour I just get up walk around just thinking boy I'll be glad when it's daylight we got to get out of this place amen I'm ready to leave am amen and somebody said to me said why aren't you awful old be going through all that and I said well I think about I just told him I said I think about how much the Lord did for me I said I think about how he came and robed himself in flesh and he went to calvary's cross he was whipped with a whip and his organs were fallen out and how he went to the cross and was nailed on the cross and shed his blood I think about all the things that Lord has done for me at least I could do is to go there and don't matter if there was bugs don't matter if there's running water it doesn't matter at least I can do is go and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that I was fortunate enough to hear amen and I'm so glad to be among people tonight that love this Apostolic truth amen that are happy to be in the house of God so when the Devil comes along and he tries to convince you you're having a bad day you say devil I'm so fortunate that I'm in the body of Christ I'm so fortunate I'm on my way to heaven when the Devil comes along and tries to get you to look at the world you just look the devil in the eye and say I'm so fortunate amen that I'm in the house of God I'm so fortunate amen that I'm a child of the king and I'm not going to turn around I'm not going back so as I get out of your way tonight I do want you to know if you'll just raise your hands and lift your voice all over this house it doesn't matter what your needs are if you need the Holy Ghost you can have the Holy Ghost tonight if you've never repented of your sins you can do that tonight and you can be baptized in Jesus name for the remission of your sins God is here tonight God is moving in this place the main thing is for you to connect to what's going on to wake up that the Lord is here to save and deliver and set free would you lift your hands all over this house right now and begin to worship God and whatever you need I'm telling you God is well [Music] able [Music] would you come and get what you need from the Lord right now you're so fortunate you're so blessed to be in this house don't you leave this place without thanking him and receiving what he has for you this night would you praise him would you praise Him Hallelujah