2021-09-26 Letter to the Church in Ephesus 10am Service

well good morning pathway and welcome to all of you who are regular with us each week and welcome to those of you who have joined us um perhaps for the first time first or second time online and probably you have not even had a chance to come inside our church building but we hope that as this lockdown eases closer and closer towards its end eventually we will get to meet you face to face either way we're glad to have you with us this morning would you join with me in prayer now as we begin our time together this morning our father you know who has joined with us this morning you see all of our regulars you know how their week has been and you know those who have perhaps never stepped inside our building and who for now are not even known to us because they've only encountered us online and we believe that you by your spirit have prompted them to join with us right now as they're watching you know their circumstances you know the things that each one of them is going through in this last week and in the week ahead and lord we know that you long for each one of them to be reconciled to you and part of a worshiping community together and so we pray for these dear ones this morning that you would continue to speak to them even today drawing them nearer to you bless them in their searching we pray and father all of us have watched with horror this week at the scenes that have unfolded within our city and it was good for us to be praying this week through the 23rd psalm we thank you lord for being our good shepherd for leading and for guiding us lord it is easy for us to become anxious when we see these sorts of things on our television screens and when we think about the weeks that lie ahead and yet we know that you have told us not to worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own and so lord whatever each one of us is facing in these coming weeks help us to remember that your goodness and your love will never fail us your grace is sufficient for us and in you our hope is secure you are the good shepherd we love you we praise you and we worship your holy name we commit this time to you this morning amen well i've just got two announcements for you this morning um again thank you to everyone who joined with us again this morning to pray it is so good to be able to pray as a whole church through these uncertain times last week we were praying for peace when we are anxious using the 23rd psalm and this week we move on to week two in this little book and we are praying for comfort when i am lonely using psalm 139 now you may or may not be facing loneliness yourself but i'm sure that you know someone who is and so we move on and we we pray for those who are lonely as a result of this pandemic this year the second announcement is for our children and our children have been through a lot this year and we've had our kids games planned and twice now we've had to defer it due to covid restrictions but not anymore kids games is going to go ahead today but it will be in an online format on zoom cherilyn will be leading that time for our kids and it will be straight after the service so parents please note fortnightly we've been running children's church at 11 30 we're going to moving forward starting from today just begin straight after the service we think that makes it a little bit easier for you not having to wait that little gap for things to start so as soon as the service is over today kids remind your parents to log you into zoom for kids games well hebrews 11 is a great record of the greats of the faith the biblical giants who have gone before us and the writer of hebrews lists out abel and enoch and noah and abraham and all of their deeds and then there's a pause and we read this in hebrews 11 13 to 16 all of these people were still living by faith when they died they did not receive the things promised they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth people who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own if they'd been thinking of the country they had left they would have had opportunity to return instead they were longing for a better country a heavenly one therefore god is not ashamed to be called their god and he has prepared a city for them the writer of hebrews continues listing abraham isaac jacob joseph moses israel as they crossed the red sea and marched around jericho rahab barack gideon sampson geopath david samuel and the prophets and all that they had done and the chapter ends like this in hebrews 11 35 to 40. women received back their dead raised to life again there were others who were tortured refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection some faced years and flogging and even chains or imprisonment they were put to death by stoning they were soared into they were killed by the sword they went about in sheepskins and goat skins destitute persecuted and mistreated the world was not worthy of them they wandered in deserts and mountains living in caves and in holes in the ground these were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised since god had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect you see all of them focused their faith on god and put their hope in his promises and those promises were fulfilled in jesus christ and so in him their redemption is complete just as ours is for so many of them the circumstances of their life were tough they were very tough their faith did not guarantee them an easy life on earth but god had something far better in store for them they would take their place with us as part of that holy city the new jerusalem that will come down out of heaven revelation tells us prepared like a bride for her husband and what a day that will be until then we wait and all of us want to wait well and that's what our current preaching series is about as we work our way through these letters of jesus to the seven churches in revelation we get to hear his precious last words to them and they tell us how to wait well for the day of his return before we hear some of those words this morning we're going to sing together a song of praise and in this week marked by much unrest and troubling scenes the song that i have chosen for us this morning is one that unites us by that which we hold true [Music] through your holy spirit conceiving christ the son jesus our savior i believe in god our father i believe in christ the son i believe in the holy spirit our god is that we will rise again for i believe in the name of jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] suffered and crucified is [Music] [Music] in the holy spirit our god is [Applause] [Music] christ is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i believe [Music] that jesus christ [Music] i believe in the holy spirit our god is [Music] [Music] the holy spirit [Applause] [Music] in foreign name of jesus [Music] [Music] and in your holy church i believe in the resurrection when jesus comes again forever jesus [Music] [Music] our god rise is foreign is [Music] foreign [Music] well having just completed an extended series uh looking at paul's letter to the church in ephesus and all that he taught them in that letter today's the day when we get to find out how that church went um so i invite pastor glenn to come up now he's going to speak to us from that first letter in revelation to the church or the angel in the church in ephesus thank you thank you pastor caroline well this morning meditation is taken from revelation chapter 2 verses 1 to 7. revelation chapter 2 1-7 i hope you can have your bible with you whether it is a hard copy or digital copy turn to revelation chapter 2 and i want to read from verses 1 to 7. it is it is necessary to me it's good that you have your bible opened so that you know that what i'm saying what i'm preaching is actually from the word of god and moreover in revelation 22 the last chapter of the bible it actually says this in verse 18. it says i warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book if anyone adds anything to them god will add to him the plagues described in this book and if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy god will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book so no adding no subtracting from this book and so you'll be wonderful if you have your book that i'm going to preach chapter 2 1-7 i want to read true first on the words that jesus have to the church in ephesus verse 1 to the angel of the church in ephesus right these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lamb stands i know your deeds your hard work and your perseverance i know that you cannot tolerate wicked people that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and you have found them false you have persevered you have endured hardships for my name and have gotten and have not grown weary verse 4 yet i hold this against you you have forsaken the love you had at first remember the height from you have fallen repent and do the things you did at first if you do not repent i will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place but you have this in your favor you hate the practices of the nicolaitans which i also hate whoever whoever has ears let them hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who is victorious i will give the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of god well this is the first letter out of the seventh that jesus said to the churches in revelation the first letter that comes before us is the church located in the city of ephesus as pastor caroline just mentioned that we are just completely studying the book of ephesians together and so we know a little bit about the background but let me just give you a little bit of it so that when we come to the text it will be more beneficial the city of ephesus is a very important city commercially politically and religiously commercially because of the ideal location it was noted for its magnificent harbor and ships came to ephesus from all over the known world and bring their goods and their wealth so it was one of the probably the richest city in asia minor at that time it was also a very important city politically and because of their past service through the empire of rome ephesus was granted the right to be a free city and it was given the title supreme metropolis of asia this means that they can practice self-government it means that they could make whatever decisions they wanted to make it also means that roman troops were not garrisoned there so this allowed the city to drive pretty autonomous in that sense it was a city that is very important commercially politically and i think more importantly religiously as we have mentioned before uh ephesus contained one of the seven wonders of the world the temple of artemis or in greek diana uh was there it was a center of mystical worship that temple occupied the skyline the temple was 425 feet long 220 feet wide 60 feet high and with great folding doors and 120 pillars marble pillars and some of them were covered with gold so people came from everywhere to come to that temple and diana was the goddess of sex goddess of fertility she was represented by a heated statue with many breasted women and the temple was filled with hundreds of temple prostitutes and the way you worship diana was to have sexual relations with a temple prostitute and the temple was also served as a bank people would bring their possession there for safe keeping it served as a museum for fine art art from all over the world was housed in this ancient temple and if you want to read more about it as we have already covered an overview of a book of efficient you have to read ephesians i mean acts chapter 18 19 20 three chapters that paul went to that city preached the gospel there stayed in that city for two and a half years founded and preached there along with timothy being the first pastor there together with apollo's aquila priscilla uh at the early part of the the time when they were there and it has been said that the apostle john who wrote uh the book of revelation 1 2 3 john and as well as the john gospel towards the end of his life he spent the last years of his life in ephesus and it was here that he wrote the gospel of john and three episodes as well and according to tradition again this is only tradition that mary the mother of jesus is buried in ephesus uh we don't know whether it's true or not but it was just a tradition there and so the church was privileged to hear and know the best of the best in those early days and here are some of jesus words to the church in ephesus one generation has passed and 30 to 40 years has left since paul's time where we studied the book of ephesians and now jesus said some words to them i want to divide this section into three points the first one is jesus commands them jesus has some wonderful words to say about his church he commands them and then jesus counsel them some people like to use the word condemn i don't think it's condemned you know jesus counsel them because they are something that they have to learn and then jesus cautioned them so command them uh counsel them and caution them and it is the second point that i will probably spend the most time uh at the third point is it's pretty fast in a sense very short for the first two points i'll expand a bit longer so the first point i want to bring to you from this text is jesus commands them jesus has some very good things to say about the church in ephesus in verse two and three he said i know your deeds i know your hard work i know you persevere i know that you cannot tolerate wicked people i know that you have tested these people who claim to be apostle but are not and you found them to be false you have great spiritual discernment you have persevered you have endured hardship for my name and you have not grown weary now these are wonderful things that god jesus said about the church in ephesus and if you unpack it in in detail he said i know your deeds your hard work your perseverance you cannot tolerate a wicked people you are able to discern the false prophet you look at those five things is they're all in the scriptures every one of those things is about what is expected of us in our christian work pertaining to work i know your deeds your work 2 10 tells us right every one of say for we are god's workmanship created in christ jesus to do good works which god prepared in advance for us to do not that good works will save us but good work is always the by-product of our faith and then coalition chapter 3 verse 23 whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the lord and not for men your hard work and then come to perseverance in hebrews chapter 10 verse 36 it says you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of god you will receive what he has promised and i hate what is evil romans 12 9 say love must be sincere hate what is evil and cling to what is good and pertaining to testing the spirit because there are so many false prophets around and jesus commands the ephesians believers for being able to discern that and 1 john chapter 4 verse 1 by the same altar john also says dear friends do not believe in every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from god because many false prophets have gone out into the world deeds hard work perseverance spiritual discernment and all these things are part of what is expected of us in our christian work hard work is speak of intense work coupled with toil and trouble it tells that this church was serving the lord fervently they were literally working their fingers to the bone and they persevere they persevered the words perseverance is steadfast endurance it tells that this church was working in spite of opposition as you read acts chapter 18 1920 you know that they faced a lot of opposition the people in in ephesus did not appreciate paul and the rest or the believers there for their zeal for the lord and they oppose them publicly and physically but these people endure the opposition and the persecution and they continue to serve the lord faithfully in spite of everything thrown against them and so jesus command them on that and they were spiritually very discerning they test spirit remember in acts chapter 20 before paul left the church there he actually did warn them in chapter 20 of acts verses 29 30 and 31 some of the words that paul says to the elders before he left ephesus he says this in verse 29 i know that after i leave paul say salvage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock even from your own number man will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them so be on your guard paul says remember that for three years i never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears and so here true enough after paul left heresy start to abound in the church but the church in ephesus was able to descend that they were good because they know the word of god and they were able to discern and not allow them to infiltrate and affect and influence them and then if you look at verse 3 paul summarize the commendation by saying that you persevere and have endured hardships for my name and you have not grown weary they have not grown weary so this is the church that has been carrying the lord and during much affliction much opposition laboring to the point of exhaustion and they have done so without any signs of weariness they were a very steadfast congregation and what they did they did for the sake of the lord and they are a church they deserve to be commanded you know as a pastor for many years i have seen many christians come and go i used to pastor a you pastor of a church that has so many youths that many of them has disappeared from the scene they no longer attend church they no longer believe in jesus some have become atheist a well-spoken ages uh come and go his christian faith is is very long from the day you accepted the lord till the day you die it could be 70 years could be 60 years could be 50 years i don't know but it's a long race to persevere as a believer it is not a a 100 meter dash it is a marathon jon thought in one of his books he says this he said the christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict half built towers the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish for thousands of people still ignore christ's warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so and the result is the great scandal of christian damn today so-called nominal christianity in countries to which christian civilization has spread large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent but thin veneer of christianity they have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable their religion is a great soft cushion it protects them from the heart unpleasantness of life while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience no wonder the scenics speaks of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism unquote but that's not the case in inefficiency in in the church in ephesus they persevere martin luther said a religion that gives nothing that costs nothing and suffers nothing it is actually worth nothing nothing before i one of the the christians that influenced me the most one of it among many is the child start ct start i remember in 1993 i was reading his book and he had such a profound impact in my life that i couldn't sleep sometime because i was just thinking so deeply on on those words that his city start or no sacrifice to a great uh a book written by someone about his life just an incredible uh man the founder of the mission organization wek wec i mentioned before a number of times about this tiny little book that he wrote called chocolate soldier actually you can download it for free from the internet chocolate soldier and i love it so much because it talks about what christian heroism is all about that so many times i feel that christian has become so soft in the sand and he says that every true soldier is a hero a soldier without heroism is a chocolate soldier every true christian is a soldier of christ a hero par excellence braver than the bravest scorning the soft seductions of peace and her off repeated warnings against hardship disease danger and death whom he comes among the bosom friends the otherwise christian is a chocolate christian dissolving in water and melting at the smell of the fire sweeties they are bon bons lollipops living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box each clad in his soft clothing a little frill white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitutions god never ct say god never was a chocolate manufacturer and never will be god's men are always heroes and in scripture you can trace their giant food tracks down the sands of time and the church in ephesus they resemble that they were no ordinary lollipop or bonbon sweeties they are no chocolate soldier they are heroes they are strong despite the opposition despite of any challenges that you can pose against them they will be there marching against it until the end and so jesus commands his church because they have such great qualities about them that that has been built over over time with apostle paul with apollos acquirer uh and priscilla and apostle john all were there timothy to build them so ephesus was orthodox in theology in practice and in service and yet something was missing that jesus want to counsel them if not address would ruin their like bearing capacity so let me move to the second point now jesus commands them in verse 3 and 4 and then in verse 5 jesus counseled them verse 4 5 and 6. jesus says this in verse 4 yet i hold this against you you have forsaken the love you had at first you had forsaken the love you had at first they didn't lose the love they didn't this is not lost love this is laugh love forsake to live depart it stresses an act for which one is personally responsible jesus says to the church in ephesus you are the church that had everything right except the main thing you had everything right except the main thing you have forsaken your first love in other person it says you're forsaken your first love and i will say here for a second the love you had at first it's like cooking isn't it you have all everything right but you got the main thing wrong you got this ingredient right and that ingredient right the main part of it you got it wrong and and jesus is saying well you are the church that had everything right except the main thing and that is your love your first love seem to have left this love this first love their move away from their original position of devotion and fervor for the savior by a gradual departure he's still doing the things but the passion the motivation is no longer there they came to put service for the lord ahead of love ahead of devotion ahead of fellowshipping with him it's just mechanical unlike the thessalonians believers in 1 thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3 paul command the thessalonians christian about their work but their work is not just mechanical it's not just duty it is flow out from a love relationship with jesus christ 1 thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3 paul commanded the thessalonians he said we remember before our god and father your work produced by faith your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our lord jesus christ your work your labor your endurance is produced by faith prompted by love and inspired by hope and so it is consistent it's not just the mechanical external part of it but it is flowing out from a genuine abiding fellowship with jesus christ their labor gradually came to be merely mechanical the things that they were responsible to do but the savior wants it to be the result of the abiding life the result of an intimate walk through the spirit of god they have left their first they have not lost it they have left their first love they focus on the form instead of the substance of our faith sometimes we lost our first love we still doing whatever we do we become infatuated with knowledge instead of holiness we become comfortable with the holy instead of being in all of who god is we lose our evangelistic zeal and see the world as our enemy instead of our mission field we become incensive to the holy spirit we become content with what we are instead of being driven to become more and more like jesus christ we allow other things to sit on the throne of our lives and we relegate christ to a lesser place of importance we begin to love something or someone more than we love jesus christ and the church of ephesus was active in all the external but they're but they're doing out serving out a sense of duty and not out of fervent love for him i could think of a story in the new testament that resembled this you know who is that in the story of mary and martyr the story of mary and martha in luke chapter 10 verse 38-42 jesus and the 12 disciples they were invited for lunch and martyr was very busy preparing lunch for the 13 adults lots of garlic to chop onions potatoes to boil bread rolling the bread flour and all that thirteen grown a man plus mary martha and brother lazarus so a good 16 people for lunch and here while marta was chopping garlic and all that rolling the chapati and roti and here mary was sitting there talking to jesus spending time with jesus and she had it all she had enough of it and she just couldn't take it anymore she went in and she came to jesus and said lord don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself come on tell her to to help me when i read that i thought indirectly he's blaming jesus come on don't talk to mary just just release her to get her to come and indirectly is is telling jesus off in some sense and all that jesus said was martyr martyr the lord answered you are worried and upset about many things but few things are needed or indeed indeed only one mary has chosen what is better and he will not be taken away from her jesus is saying don't worry about lunch don't worry come and spend time with me lunch will come out of it when we're all hungry we all may be achieving raw sleep and start cooking i don't know but the point of matter is the fellowship the first love abiding in christ should be our priority and then the work when we do it flows out of that passion and that love just like when you are in love with someone you do anything for that person you will think back to when you first fall in love when you first get married your body thinks that you will have no money you save all you do anything for the person in mark chapter 3 when jesus chose the 12 disciples interestingly he said something he he's mark recorded that jesus went up on the mountain side mark chapter 3 okay you want to figure it out mark chapter 3 verse 13 and 14. mark say jesus went up on the mountain side and he called to him those he wanted he called the twelve disciple and they came to him and here it tells us why jesus called them in verse 14 it says this he appointed 12 why so that they might be with him number one and number two that he might send them out to preach two things he said call this so that they might be with him and then they he can send them out to preach the good news to be with him and to send them out to preach and to cast out demons and the order here is very significant number one is to be with him first then and only walk with him first and then the work come to jesus first and then go the first order of his appointment was their fellowship being with the lord jesus with their ministry in the world being the product of that fellowship work come after walk with the lord first love jesus says you have left your first love you have so much of the work so much of this but it is flowing up just from mere mechanical duty but the love motivation is no longer dead first love is fervent love it is emotional it moves the heart it causes the soul to trill it is not cold it is not dead it is not dusty it is not dry it is alive it is vibrant just like when you first fell in love with your spouse your husband your your girlfriend your boyfriend your love was fervent was emotional he made you write letters say things that you wouldn't you don't normally say and can you remember when you first saved when you first became christian you're excited you're fervent you read the bible you pray you attend prayer meeting you were passionate you you excited about listening to sermon can you remember how you pray you worship your witness you pull out your guitar you string you sing you worship the lord remember the emotion when you thought of what he had done for you that is fervent love that is first love first love is also extravagant love will make you spend money for things you can't afford buy that special person something you couldn't afford but you knew they would love just like mary the story of mary and her alabaster box of ornaments she just pulled it out all lasted maybe a few hours this the smell but he wanted to express her love for jesus that before you die i want to anoint you i want to bless you real love never draws lines real love will give anything at any time for the object of that love and can you remember when jesus had absolute control of your heart and you would not dare tell him no fervent love first love extravagant love and jesus said you have lost it not lost it sorry you have left that first love and the church in ephesus from all upward appearances was a very spiritual church for it was certainly a church that was very active in the work of god they told for the lord they endured much opposition they were doctrinally sound and they took strong stand against the deeds of the nicolaitans heresy nevertheless jesus said something was not right something was hard to detect because only christ only jesus can know what is internal we can't the lord who knows our hearts as well as our outward deeds counsels ephesus to do three things that were desperately needed to re-establish their closeness and their walk with jesus before they lose their witness three things you must do jesus says in verse 5 and 6. he said remember the height from you have fallen number one remember remember jesus said remember the hype from you have remember recall back way back what it was used to be in your relationship with me has your christian life lost some of his excitement and joy are you finding your christian work rather boring and dull even to the extent of drudgery is it just a routine of listening to someone reading the bible prayer is just christian duty to do you still do have you lost the joy of the lord maybe because we have left the position of devotion and occupation with christ so jesus is saying remember recall back your early days and then he said repent now just remember he said repent in verse five remember the hype from you have fallen repent repent means to change the mind or purpose to change one's decisions it means to recognize one's previous decisions opinion or condition as wrong and to accept and move forward towards a new and right path in its place jesus said remember repent and the third one is return return repent and do the things you did at first return back to the to do the things you did at first i was thinking what does it mean by do the things you did at first i think this is certainly not a call to more christian service or renewed christian activity they have plenty of that in the church then what does the lord really mean and how does this apply to us i think first simply means first in time place or or rank it clearly looks back to the beginning of a christian's life beginning of your christian life what is it about your first christian life about the joy to me is the joy of reading god's word the joy of prayer the joy of coming to church attending fellowship be with christian singing praise the lord abiding with the lord i think it includes all these things about bible study reading the scripture meditation memorizing fellowshipping with believers being occupied with christ and refocusing all of our life on him and i think that is what it means by returning back and do the things you did at first so here jesus is saying you have left your first love what i want you to do is remember the height from you have fallen repent and return come back and again when i think about the the the gospel story i could think of a parable of a person who did that probably one of the most popular or famous parables in the gospel in the bible has to be the story of the prodigal son in luke chapter 15. all three points remember repent return is what the prodigal son experienced in his life in verse 17 in chapter 15 of luke it says this he said when he came to his senses after he swindled all his money when he came to his senses he said ah how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare and here i am starving to death he suddenly remember the good old days good time that he was with the father and then verse 18 he repent he said i was set out and i'll go back to my father and i'll say to him father i have sinned against heaven and against you i no longer i am no longer worthy to be called your son just make me like one of your hired servants he repent and he rehearsed in his mind this is what he's going to say to his father but when you read further down when he actually met the father he didn't actually get around to see say the second part he only said the first part does his father never even allow him to say the second part of it that i'm no longer worried to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants even though he rehearsed in his mind to say this but he never got around to saying this because his father's in love and embrace is so great that he doesn't even need to say that in order to convince his father to receive him back he need not to do that and then he returned in verse 20 he got up and he went to his father remember repent and return and then his father embrace him back love the first love oswald chamber one of my favorite devotional artists i mentioned many times before in one of his devotion he says this he said today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to jesus christ people do not really want to be devoted to jesus but only to the cause he started jesus christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today to those who only want him to be their friend and who are unwilling to accept him in any other way our lord's primary obedience was to the will of his father not to the needs of people the saving of people was the natural outcome of his obedience to the father if i'm if i am devoted so solely to the cause of humanity i will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble is it not true how many people are burned out tired and sick of this and that is simply because they are just devoted to the cost to the task to the job rather than to jesus jesus christ but if i love also chambers say if i love jesus christ personally and passionately i can serve humanity even though people may treat me like a dormant the secret of a disciples life is devotion to jesus christ and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness and yet it is like a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies it will spring up and change the entire landscape return back to our first love jesus commands them jesus counsel them because jesus knows that they have left their first love whatever that they are actually doing is actually driven by duty and just mechanical but not out of a devotion and passion in their heart and finally jesus cautions them jesus cautions them in verse five again remember the hype from you have fallen repent and do the things you did at first if you do not repent i will come to you and remove your lamp stand from his place whoever has ears let them hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who is victorious or overcomers i will give the right to eat from the tree of life which is the paradise of god how sad isn't it here jesus is saying if they don't repent if they don't return to their first love he will remove the fire of his spirit from their midst oh well you may still have your buildings you may still have your programs your calendars church calendars may be full and already externals you may still be able to attract new people with pretty facilities and clever how-to sermons but the power of god will be missing god will take his hand off the church and leave us to go through the motions what a tragic picture this pains for us a group of people going through the motions of christianity without the living god in their midst could there be anything more empty could there be anything more sad and therefore jesus cautioned them return to your first love remember repent return rejuvenate back our love for jesus and the work will take care of itself the work will flow out of it the devotion to jesus will come first and then the rest will fall into place that is our goal that is what we want to do that is what we want to excite you to love jesus to go back to the fundamentals basic spiritual disciplines of reading god's word or prayer of meditation on god's word memorizing god's word let this come back to you once again keep serving the lord diligently and with perseverance rekindle your love for jesus and then be an overcomers be an overcomer persevere rekindle your first love and be an overcomers c.s lewis has a very interesting quote he said the long dull monotonous years of middle age prosperity or middle age adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil the long dull monotonous years of middle age prosperity or middle age adversity uh excellent campaigning weather for the devil and some of us maybe we need to return back to the lord and re rekindle our first love for jesus myself as i prepare this sermon i asked myself very hard searching question for myself i know i know i may have loved uh life my first love sometimes the work take precedence over over the the passion and the love for jesus that whatever i do i must do it for jesus i know i used to pick up my guitar and sing and worship the lord i don't do nowadays i usually occupy my terms with other things now and i need to need to recognize that do i read the book do i read the bible will study the bible we're prepared is it just for the sake of preparing sermons is it reading books for materials for my for my sermon or do i really enjoy doing what i'm doing and worshiping the lord let me close with this uh it's no i mentioned many times before when i was growing up one of my uh favorite singer was keith green he died in 1982 even before i became a christian he died at the age of 28. and uh he wrote a book called no compromise that has uh deeply impacted my life as well but he was this song that he wrote this song called my eyes are dry is there a short chorus and he sing and pray it's always move my hearts when i listen listening to this song let me read to you the words of this song and i then i'll pray and i'll close my eyes are dry the songs say my eyes are dry lord my faith is all my heart is hot and my prayers are cold and i know how i ought to be alive to you and dead to me but what can be done for an old heart like mine softening up lord with oil and wine the oil is you and your spirit of love please wash me anew with the wine of your love with the wine of your blood please wash me anew with the wine of your blood i pray that this will be your prayer today just that i have made this my prayer as i prepare this sermon to ask the lord to rekindle our first love for jesus um let's pray shall we lord we thank you for uh your word thank you for loving us we are your bride and you are preparing us to meet you and you counsel us you speak to us and you want us to to correct when we go astray we thank you for your love lord we recall back those days early days of our christian life we were excited we were fervent love for you we love to read your words we memorize your word we listen to speaker we sing we worship somehow some of us we have lost the spark we'll just go through a mechanical part of it without really feeling much we lost that zeal for you maybe we have been back we have been knocked down because of some disappointment or some crisis in our lives lord we pray today i will return back to you let the prodigal son returned to the father and the wonderful story in that parable is the father every day was looking out waiting for his return and when he returns the father ran towards him embrace him that he didn't even have a chance to say those things that he wanted to say he only completed half of it because he did not say the rest he knew the father would welcome him back lord today we want to return back to you rekindle our love lord like the song of what kev green say my eyes are dry some of us our faith is old our heart is becoming so hard our prayers are cold nothing penetrates lord we listen to thousands hundreds of sermons each week we listen to praise songs it doesn't penetrate anymore it just become a routine routine lord we ask that you you perform an extraordinary surgery in our hearts today that we will love jesus we'll come back to the heart of the gospel we'd want to do everything right and lose out on the main thing the main thing is the main thing we want to make the main thing the main things lord we're going to come back to devotion to jesus christ and then the work will take care of itself we want to be a church that loves you to love jesus so speak to us soften our hearts with oil and wine the oil is you your spirit of love please wash me a new lord this morning with the wine of your love thank you lord we bless you lord we love you in jesus name amen let me see say the word of benediction and bless you before i invite you to sing this beautiful him amazing grace may the lord walk beside you to comfort you may the lord walk above you to watch over you may the lord walk may the lord walk behind you to keep you safe and may the lord work walk before you to show you the way amen [Music] amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me i once was lost but now and found was blind but now i see twas grace that taught my heart to fear [Music] embrace my fears [Music] [Music] his mercy rings unending love [Music] amazing grace [Music] the lord has promised good to me his word [Music] as long as life indoors my jeans are gone [Music] [Music] his mercy rings [Music] i've been free my god my savior [Music] his is reigns unending love amazing grace [Music] the earth shall soon dissolve like snow the sun for bear to shine by god who called me here below will be forever will be [Music] forever mind you are forever mine

Channel: Pathway Baptist Church

Views: 624

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Id: _tlBR_DF43w

Length: 69min 43sec (4183 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021