“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 I am writing these messages, I try to be as positive as I can be and to speak a word that will encourage people in their faith and lift them up and help them to place themselves in a position so they can receive all the promises of God. Sometimes in order to receive the blessings God wants for us, we have to be corrected so that we can make some adjustments.
I have a strong feeling that this word may be critical for someone. I don’t know who you are, but what you do with this word is going to either open a door to blessing, or it’s going to open a door of opportunity for your enemy to prosper instead.
My goal in writing this is that anyone who reads it and finds that they have been sitting in the window, sleeping, will awake and move off the window sill before they fall.
In a spiritual sense there are many in the church today, like this young man, that are sitting in this most dangerous place.
We could assume any number of reasons that he finds himself in this place
* The place was crowded and there was no place to sit
* It was hot and stuffy and he wanted some fresh air
But I tend to believe that he had begun to become disinterested in what was taking place inside, the preacher was long-winded and so he had lost his desire for the things of God, the Word of God was no longer exciting to him and he had stopped being entertained and so he drifted farther and farther away from the presence of the Spirit and Word.
The window is the Place where you can be inside and still see what’s going on outside. In this context then the window represents that condition of drawing back.
Hebrews 10:39
“But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
Today in our churches there is a very obvious “draw back” spirit. It is the spirit that wants all the blessings of God, healing, miracles, prosperity, but without making a commitment. If it’s the blessing line they’re first to the front, but if it’s the commitment line, the dedication line, or the consecration line, for some strange reason their bladder goes to acting up, or they have to step out and make a phone call.
This is the spiritual condition that I want to call the “Window Seat”
From the window seat it appears that you have a spectacular view. The People who are in the window seat can see all the problems in the church. They can hear every sour note, see how everything should be done, they know right away what kind of praise we should have, they know when the preacher preaches a dud, and they can see all the weaknesses and faults of others.
You still have a great view of all the things that you left outside from the “Window Seat.” The things that the Lord brought you out of come back into view. You know what I’m talking about, habits that you had shut the door on, the things that were killing you, hurting your marriage, sins that were causing division in your family and turning your children from God, all of a sudden they become visible again, and from the window seat they don’t appear to be as bad as you remember. The window seat is a very dangerous place to be, and there are so many that are deceived into believing that they can look at those things and it won’t affect them. They believe they can stare at it as long as they don’t touch it.
I’m strong I won’t fall out of the window. It doesn’t kill you to look, right?
It all starts with a flirtatious thought, “Man wouldn’t a cold beer taste really good right now? Wouldn’t it be fun to smoke just one more joint, or maybe watch one of those dirty movies, just one more time? Of course I would never do that they think to themselves, I’m just window shopping, just taking a peek, just having a moment of imagination.
Another word that we equate with the word window is “opportunity” and we are told in scripture not to give opportunity to the devil.
Eutychus never intended to fall out of the window.
Hebrews 2:3
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him;”
Why did Eutychus fall to his death?
He neglected his passion for the things of God
He was more out than he was in
At midnight he fell from his window seat: all through the scripture midnight is a very critical time:
It was midnight when the death angel passed through Egypt and smote the first born
It was midnight when the cry was made that woke the sleeping virgins
It was midnight when Paul and Silas turned the corner and turned their pain into praise.
“Midnight” is where your situation can go either way, “Midnight” speaks of decision time.
The “window seat” is very uncomfortable at first. When we first begin to turn our thoughts back on the things of the world we feel shame, we think, “How could I even be thinking about those things.”
But the more you allow yourself to think about it the more comfortable, it becomes, then without any warning you’re falling. You’re falling back into that lust, back into those old associations, falling back into your old ways of talking, back into desires that you thought were dead, back into those flirtatious ways, falling back into the habits that the Lord delivered you from.
I am speaking to those who have known the goodness of the Lord, but for one reason or another you have found yourself in the window seat and now you’re more out than you are in. Please come back inside, get out of the window before you fall and find yourself dead on the street. There may not be a Paul to bring you back in.
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