Has it happened to you?  Have you ever been “overcome by sleep” in the middle of a sermon?  You’re not alone.  A guy named Eutychus fell asleep during one of Paul’s sermons!  Paul!!!  Admittedly, some sermons are so boring, they have better results than Melatonin, but Paul’s sermon!?  There is some slight evidence that Paul may have been reciting the lessons of the letter to the Roman church.  The beauty and glory of the gospel, delivered by the very apostle who received it and wrote it, must have been very compelling.  But, not for Eutychus.  I feel sorry for the guy.  Not only did he fall asleep, he fell out of the upper room window and died when he hit the street.  Talk about embarrassing, the whole lesson had to stop so he could be revivified.  Why is this story even in the Bible?  Does it give us permission to sleep in church?  Is it a warning to preachers to keep it short or people may die?  Is it a reminder to not eat a big meal before listening to a sermon?  I suppose there is some practical wisdom to be gleaned from this incident but we should be careful about making the Eutychus incident the main event of the text.  In story form, we actually have a description of early local church life.  If you compare this event with how the church after Pentecost functioned (Acts 2:42-47), you’ll see some similarities.  God willing, we’ll look at those similarities this week in Acts 20.  We lose an hour of sleep this weekend, drink some coffee, please do your best to stay awake.  We’ll try to keep the service to an hour .