Pastor Maria Studdard

Pastor Maria Studdard shared how she stays awake: in prayer, in the WORD, and in telling others about JESUS wherever she goes.

Pastor Studdard began with what was fresh on her heart: the outreach the day before. She said she cried through much of it — moved by the people prayed for and the children who were so happy to see the team — and at one point walked away to sit alone. She was honest that evangelism isn’t her strongest gift. She described herself as a giver and an elder who loves greeting people. Still, watching others pour into the community left her in tears, and she said it comes down to souls.

Then she told the church plainly that her message wasn’t a popular one, and asked to be real with them. Her subject was lukewarm faith — and she spoke about it from where she has stood herself.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of MY mouth.”

Revelation 3:15-17

Pastor Studdard described a lukewarm faith as comfortable, self-satisfying, and compromised. As a nurse, she offered a picture: hot water heals, cold water refreshes, but a glass of lukewarm water is unpleasant to drink. What makes it dangerous, she said, is that it’s easy to miss — it isn’t denying GOD, and it doesn’t look evil. It can look like ushering, singing, serving, and giving, while something is missing: we believe in JESUS, but we stop pursuing HIM.

She knows what that looks like, she said, because she has been there. As a new believer, she sang on the praise team while she was in a relationship she knew was wrong. Every Sunday, as the WORD came forth, her heart was convicted. “I just want to be transparent,” she told the church. Eventually she ended it. She also shared a quieter season from her home in Maryland, where she had a red prayer chair — she would sit there, meditate, and praise GOD, and she began to realize that being a Christian is a real commitment, full of surrender and sacrifice, and that JESUS made a real commitment to come and die for her.

“These people come near to ME with their mouth and honor ME with their lips, but their hearts are far from ME.”

Isaiah 29:13

“I’m going to talk to me now. We are not perfect. None of us. But JESUS is testing our hearts.”

— Pastor Maria Studdard

Pastor Studdard was specific about what staying awake looks like in her own life. She stays in the WORD — she said she was reading her message late into the night before preaching it. She calls herself a watcher: she looks at the signs around her, and she keeps asking GOD whether the choices in front of her are right. She wears shirts and bracelets that say JESUS loves you, and she prays for doors to open so she can tell someone that GOD loves them, everywhere she goes.

She told the church she tells her husband she loves him, but that she loves JESUS more — and that her children know it too. She also named what pulls her fire away: being too busy with school, work, and social media, which she said is part of why so many of us are distracted. About ten years ago, she said, GOD showed her she didn’t have to wait for other leaders and ministers before sharing the gospel, and she has been going ever since. She first preached The Church is Sleeping in West Africa in 2009 and is still preaching it today.

She was careful to say that nice things are a blessing, and that GOD wants to bless HIS people. But JESUS, she said, is the biggest blessing, and nothing or no one comes before HIM.

“Seek first the kingdom of GOD and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Matthew 6:33

Pastor Studdard keeps one promise in front of her: that JESUS is coming back. She read John 14:1-3, and said it’s why she wants to live focused, as though HE could return today.

“I will come back and take you to be with ME, that you also may be where I am.”

John 14:3

She shared the parable of the ten virgins as the picture that stays with her. The virgins, she said, represent the church, the bridegroom is JESUS, and the oil represents the HOLY SPIRIT. All ten fell asleep, but five woke up without enough oil — and when they asked the others to share theirs, they couldn’t. Nobody can borrow someone else’s time in prayer, their sacrifice, or their intimacy with GOD. For her, it has become personal. “How much oil do you have?” she asked.

She closed with her own story. When GOD found her, she said, she was blind, broken, and lost, with no identity. Her salvation is personal, and without it she doesn’t know where she’d be. She said she’s not judging anyone, that she has to be a leader for her own children, and that her prayer is to stand before JESUS one day and hear “well done, faithful daughter.” She invited anyone who doesn’t yet know JESUS, who has drifted, or who knows they’ve been lukewarm to come forward for prayer.

“How much oil do you have?”

Pastor Maria Studdard

The Church is Sleeping, as Pastor Maria Studdard told it, is less a warning from the outside than an honest account of how one believer keeps herself awake: stay in the WORD, keep watching, put JESUS first, and make sure your own lamp has oil.

Watch the Full Sermon

Hear Pastor Maria Studdard preach The Church is Sleeping live at The Gathering Church — October 4, 2026.

Reflect & Respond

What is one habit that helps you stay awake to JESUS — and what is one thing that tends to put you to sleep?