Gateway Church Live | “Return to Your First Love” by Pastor Robert Morris | September 19

[Music] gateway church welcome good morning how are we doing today awesome we're listening whether you're right here in the room or you're joining us joining us online we're really excited that you're here it is communion weekend so if you didn't get an opportunity to grab the elements when you came in you can do that now but we'll also give you an opportunity uh during service and if you're watching online you have some time to grab the elements go to your kitchen your pantry grab whatever so you can participate in communion with us church let's lean in together let's celebrate this week and let's worship our king come on [Music] you see my victory [Music] the is [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] nothing can stand [Music] nothing can stand against the power foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] everything [Music] me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there is a grace in the rise and fall there is return for everything we've lost there will be moments when the beauty's gone there is power when we've lost it all there is a place where redemption cries there is a death that can save a life there's resurrection where there was a cross there is power when we've lost [Music] [Music] sunrise and when the sky is [Applause] [Music] don't be afraid of every crooked turn what sorrow plants in their graves and dirt jesus uses all the pain and hurt there is power in the way [Music] hallelujah [Music] and why should i fear every heartbreak is [Music] i'm thanking you jesus i'm thanking you jesus [Music] hallelujah [Music] so why should i worry and why should i fear every heartbreak is drawing me near to you i need you more [Music] [Applause] i'm thanking you jesus i'm thanking you jesus lord we acknowledge our need for you today that we need you more now than we ever did in this place of desperation but not hopelessness we come to you we need you lord we know that you're going to move we know that you are going to make a way even now you are making a way where there seems to be no way you're making crooked paths straight you're directing our paths you're showing us exactly what to do lord we trust you for tomorrow we trust you for today the same god that delivered us from the lion and the bear can and will deliver us from whatever giant is in front of us you've been faithful before you'll be faithful again it's who you are you're good lord i pray for faith to rise in the room today even if we feel heavy even if we feel brokenhearted lord bring us to the maturity in the spirit where we can say hallelujah for the broken heart because it draws us near to you calls us back home but we love you we praise you in this place in jesus name and everybody said amen amen we're going to continue worshiping together today we have the opportunity like pastor matthew said to take communion together so if you would just be seated we're gonna start to prepare for that time together hopefully on your way in you were able to receive the elements the little goblets we call them if you weren't able to get uh the elements if you would just please raise your hand raise it up high our ushers are coming now and they would love to serve you they'd love to bring those elements to you so if you don't have the elements just raise your hand and they'll bring them to you at gateway we observe open communion which means you don't have to be a member of gateway church to take communion with us if you believe in jesus we'd love for you to join us at the table and take communion and remember jesus in this way with us today it's a good time to just think about the faithfulness of god think about how good he's been it's so easy so much more easy to think about how hard things currently are but when we think of our present circumstance in light of god's past faithfulness it gives us hope because the same god was the same yesterday today and forever he'll be with us he's a good father he gives his children all that we need he's going to provide so whatever we're pressing in a little bit more in this service than we have in any of the others i don't know if maybe there's someone here who's really been on the edge of hopelessness really been ready to let go really been ready to walk away i think i'm a messenger for you today to just encourage you whether you're watching online or here in person don't grow weary in well doing don't lose hope don't let go i would have lost hope i would have let go had i not believed that i would see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living the promises of god are not just for heaven but therefore earth as well and he's calling on you and i to experience that place here we're ambassadors of his kingdom and so father as we look to you and as we continue to worship you today as we remember you in communion father i pray you would heal our hearts where they've been broken i pray [Music] for that heaviness lord to lift off of us in the name of jesus lord i pray that we would just come fully and boldly into your presence to worship you to just say we love you we're not asking you for anything else we just want you to know we love you today you're worthy of our praise worthy of our worship the ever-present help in time of need jesus we love you and we worship you today [Music] sometimes i'm full sometimes i'm not bless your name no matter what if emptiness is all i've got jesus is yours [Music] jesus is yours [Music] already speak my sacrifice [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] i just love you [Music] god [Music] [Music] yours jesus is yourself [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Applause] i just love you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] jesus we love you we love you you know one of the one of the ways and places that i feel and can sense god's presence the most for me personally is at the table when i'm gathered around with my family or with my community of friends and we're going around we're sharing our stories of the week our stories of of victory and defeat when we gather around to remind ourselves that we're human beings and not human doings [Music] you know the table for me is a thin place it's a it's a place where i feel the supernatural meets the natural and i can feel god's presence so strongly when we're gathered around there and what i love about the table is that jesus invites us to his table and that's what we're doing right here in this moment this is what we're about to participate in you know different traditions call this different things there's communion or the lord's supper or the eucharist and what i love about this word eucharist is if you break it down in greek the eu means good and keras means grace so friends when jesus invites us to the table he's inviting us to participate in the good grace that he extends to every single one of us and here's the thing membership isn't required it's not like we have to have our life in order to participate in that's not required here the only thing he asks of us is that we receive it look i don't know where your faith journey has brought you i don't know where you stand in your relationship with god i don't know what your week has looked like but what i do know is this is that there are people in this room today or who are watching us online and the question they're asking themselves the question you may be asking yourself is am i worthy enough to receive communion this morning and friends that's not the question the question is not can i receive it the question is will you receive god's good grace this morning not can you but will you no matter your journey no matter your past no matter your present this is the good news friends that no matter where we stand jesus freely offers us his good grace so on the night before he was crucified jesus took the bread and he broke it and he said this is my body broken for you this is my blood poured out for you when you do this you do this in remembrance of me so this morning church we remember and we receive can you hold the bread in your hand god we thank you so much for the bread god and what it represents your body broken for us so that we may be made whole through you this morning we remember and this morning we receive and it's in your resurrected name we pray amen church can you receive the bread this morning can you lift up the cup with me blessed are you lord our god king of the universe god we give you thanks for the cup and what it represents your good grace poured out for us god your love your grace and your mercy this morning we remember and this morning we receive and we thank you that you're a good god who extends your good grace and it's in your resurrected name we pray amen [Music] amen church do me a favor if you go and place that cup down in front of you and stand we're going to continue worshiping our god this morning [Music] i see you clear now you're all around me in every little thing where can i go now to flee your presence there's no [Music] to hear your voice to call your friend to know your thoughts how rare how beautiful [Music] you're with me here i thought was possible so i'll rest right here with you so i'll rest right here [Music] with your [Music] [Music] [Music] to know your thoughts [Music] you're closer [Music] in this holy place is [Music] we wanna be with you [Music] come and speak come and [Music] [Music] by my father [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Applause] but we thank you for your rest that is found in your presence we thank you for the fact that you want to rejuvenate us and restore our souls lord you lead us by still waters make us lie down in green pastures to restore our souls and give us rest so we receive today your good grace we receive today your presence we receive today your rest and we thank you for it in jesus name amen amen well thank you so much for being here today thank you for joining us whether in the room or online we're so glad that you are here with us and we're able to worship together we're going to transition now and pastor robert's got an amazing message to bring it's going to bless you and it's blessed us all weekend it's gonna really bless you i'm excited for you to hear this message it's gonna be great before we jump into that would you just turn around and make those around you feel welcome to tell them welcome to gateway church thank you for being here [Music] [Music] [Music] hey everyone we're so glad you're joining us whether you're with us online or in person here are a few things you need to know a lot of great things are happening at gateway here are a few ways you can get involved right now to check out all that's going on visit us at gatewaypeople.com also you can follow us on social media and join your campus facebook group if you'd like to give today you can visit gatewaypeople.com and click on the gift tab use our mobile app or give it one of the offering boxes at any of our campuses we have so many amazing opportunities for you to grow connect and be encouraged for more information visit us at connectcentral or text connect to 71010 we're so glad you're joining us thanks for being here today [Music] so [Music] we believe in faith we believe in family we believe in this country this month we celebrate our hispanic heritage founded by president reagan in 1988 to honor those that came to this great place with hope in their hearts and gratitude they came to partner with the beliefs values and dreams this country holds we hail from guatemala to cua puerto rico to colombia honduras to mexico and all the places in between we are rich communities with hope faith and love and today we contribute to the american way in every area industry and profession we brought with us our complex and rich culture all of our vibrant food tenacity work ethic and unwavering love for family in coming to this nation the cost was well worth the sacrifice a seed was sown for the opportunity that our generation holds today though we are diverse in appearance accents and origin together we advance as one body undivided towards the creation of a new heritage one that fully reflects and embodies the kingdom of god somos hispanos somos family [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay i'm gonna start talking over here hey everyone i was uh i was so watching that video there that i forgot i was supposed to come up here afterwards so so i just was just intrigued by how god has used brought people from all over the world to the united states i believe it's because what god did here in this country and what god's doing here in this country people see faith freedom and values in this country and so anyway i was just very grateful for that so let me give you an update uh on my leg i know josh showed the pictures last weekend they were just beautiful beautiful pictures to look at sunday morning last week i woke up feeling much much better it was just incredible and it surprised me it shouldn't have surprised me but i just didn't put it together that josh made that announcement uh saturday night or saturday afternoon in the four o'clock service and then it was posted on my social media accounts and so a lot of people began to pray and i just woke up just like feeling much much better so this has been a much better week so thank you so much for your prayer uh now because it was a nerve disorder in the in my lower leg that caused so much pain now that that's just about gone i can feel my hamstring tear so isn't that wonderful once now that the other's gone i can i know that i injured something else so anyway um the gateway conference is um a week from this monday monday and tuesday let me give you a little background if you don't know not much but just a little we started this years ago as a pastor's conference and pastors and leaders from other states but also from around the world come every year to this and we felt a few years ago maybe some leaders from gateway want to attend and so that's when we begin advertising it here but i don't know if you if we ever fully explain to you that it's really a pastors and leaders conference and there will be thousands of pastors either here or online from all over the world at this and so if you'd like to attend we still have spaces open space available there's a cost for it um and it's all day monday and all day tuesday so a week from this uh coming monday so be september 27th and 28th also next weekend is our global impact weekend and this is one of the greatest weeks of the year because we kind of tell you what we're doing all over the world and it's just a really really fun weekend and joachim from sweden will be speaking he's spoken one time here before he's very funny he was pastor great guy but it just kind of helps us understand there's more going on than in just our little realm of the world there's something going on that god's doing all over the world so that'll be next weekend all right and then the following weekend we already had this plan last week it was supposed to be our elders retreat and we canceled it because of my leg so i'm normally not out of the pulpit this much in a month but the next weekend uh we have michael jr here so um don't forget that one of the reasons we have michael jr is because you can invite unchurched people that weekend and tell them no sermon this weekend because they're not used to good servants like you get you know if they're unchurched they're they probably think of sermon as dry dull boring which you don't think of sermons like that obviously but so it's a time when you can bring the unchurched here that have maybe seen michael jr on television or in movies or something and they come and hear him and then you all know how he always turns it to the gospel and we normally have uh about a thousand people accept christ that one weekend so please think about that so that's the next two weekends and then i'll be continuing the series that we're going to begin today um i thought pastor josh did a fantastic job last weekend you will probably never think of jonah and the well the same way and then pastor jilani the weekend before and mentioning pastor jelani on sunday night this sunday night 6 p.m there's an interest meeting for the new plano campus it's going to be starting so if you know anyone in that area or you live in that area and would like to attend that interest meeting it'll be sunday this sunday at six all right all right we're beginning a new series uh called the seven churches of revelation you've been waiting for this series you've been wondering pastor robert were you ever going to preach on the seven churches of revelation well here it is all right so the first thing i want to do though is give you some background on the book of revelation and the apostle john or the disciple john who wrote the book i also want to remind you that when i begin a series about in the first message about the first one half of the message or two-thirds of the message is laying the foundation for the whole series and then we'll actually get to the first church and the lord kind of zeroes this in on one major thing about it and so we'll get that minute the reason i say that is for those of you who are like i am who are time conscious and since i won't get to my first point until two-thirds of the way through i don't want you to pass out okay so we'll we got plenty of time for everything all this background information that you'll love about the book of revelation first of all you need to know that the book of revelation is a letter it's a letter to the seven churches of asia minor which is turkey now but it's the whole book is a letter and much of the new testament are letters you've read the letter to the church at ephesus called the book of ephesians you've read the two letters to the church of corinth called first and second corinthians thessalonica thessalonians colossia um colossians galatia galatians are you following me so this is the letter matter of fact people don't realize peter was written first peter and second peter to the uh tribes of israel that had been dispersed same with james so it's kind of at the very first of the book that we don't even read that part we just kind of go past that part of to whom it was written so so this this is a letter it was written about 95 a.d so 95 almost uh 65 years a little over 65 years after jesus was the resurrection of christ and jesus appears to john on the island of patmos now it was written probably 96 but i'm rounding dates off because in your mind you could do math easier if we round it off all right the reason i'm saying this is jesus appears to john he appears to paul in about 33 to 35 a.d and this is going to shock you what i'm about to tell you if you've never heard this he was resurrected in about 29 a.d i know you're thinking yeah but he was 33 and a half i understand that but that's because he was actually born in 4 bc i know i know you're wondering well how could he be born four years before christ it's because we didn't understand about the calendar and the bcad started about 500 a.d now i just want to mention one thing today they're trying they've changed it and they're not using bcad bc means before christ a d means the year of our lord they changed it to bce before common error and ce common era and when you if you go online and read about why they change it they will say this has nothing to do with taking christ out of out of it nothing at all but if you go back and see why they started it they say very plainly we're doing this so that people of all faiths or no faith are not offended that's literally why it began and they will they'll come up with all sorts of stories that 1500 years bce is what they say before common area error they were taking keeping time by okay it's just a bunch of uh baloney uh belogno in the greek is what that's called [Applause] so we're going to use before christ and a.d when we talk about dates and the year of our lord okay so so i'm rounding dates off let's just say that jesus resurrected around 30 a.d so you can get the dates here and around 35 he appears to paul so five years after the resurrection but 95 he appears to john this is what i want you to catch from that 65 years after the resurrection is when jesus appears to john and addre and speaks these seven letters to the seven churches of asia minor and by the way we're gonna we'll be there in chapter two and three and you need to know if you go and look at it you have a red letter edition on your ipad or phone or whatever however you read the bible if you have one that actually has pages in it you know if it's red letter all every word in chapter two and three is red letter it's all jesus every bit of it him speaking to john and then he shows up in chapter one and and he says some things so this word starts on the island of patmos why is he on the island of patmos he's on the island of patmos john is because he was exiled to the island of patmos now get why because he wouldn't die that's the truth every disciple other than judas and john were martyred john wasn't martyred but they tried to martyr him tertullian tells us this who's a historian of the day he says they put him in a cauldron of boiling oil but he continued to preach and suffered no harm so they pull it out of this boiling oil and the emperor who's tired the roman empire is tired of hearing him preach bans him exiles him to the island of patmos okay so that's where he writes the book of revelation about 95 or 96 a.d he wrote the book of john and 1st john 2 john 3 john between 90 and some say when he was on the island some say before i think he was still in ephesus when he wrote that that's the church he attended by the way the church at ephesus which is the first letter which is uh timothy was the pastor if you remember first timothy second timothy and paul's writing timothy a spiritual son okay so timothy's the pastor john also was the disciple that took care of jesus's mother until she passed away all of this happened uh the i'd be in him being banned and exiled after mary had already passed away um but he's while he's at the church of ephesus the reason i wanted to say that when he wrote the gospel of john is because he wrote his gospel after matthew mark and luke mark wrote about 70 a.d um i mean mark matthew and luke wrote about 85 a.d john's about 90 80. the reason he wrote his gospel is matthew mark and luke are called synoptic gospels synoptic means similar so you will find many of the same miracles in matthew mark and luke but you won't find him in john the reason again that john wrote is because they only wrote about the third year of jesus's ministry they write about the birth and the death but then the every one of them mark 1 matthew 4 and luke 3 all say after john was imprisoned and john was in prison two years into jesus's ministry so they're all covering the last year the third year of jesus's ministry john then decides to write his gospel after all three of those have been written because no one had covered the first two years of his ministry so you find things in john you won't find in matthew mark and luke uh you'll find in john 1 begins in the beginning the way genesis begins its only other book in the bible begins that way you'll find in john 2 the first miracle jesus ever did he turned water into wine you'll find in chapter 3 the conversation of nicodemus chapter 4 the woman at the well the conversation of her chapter 5 the healing of the blind man the pool of bethesda chapter 6 where he describes i'm the true bread that came down from heaven chapter 7 where he describes how he is the messiah and that his he has equal authority with the father chapter 8 the woman caught adultery none of these are in matthew mark or luke chapter 9 the healing of the blind man chapter 10 that he's the good shepherd chapter 11 the raising of lazarus from the dead so whole chapter chapter 12 the anointing preparing his body for burial chapter 13 the washing of the disciples feet not in matthew mark or luke chapter 14 is what he said at the last supper this is the only place we have this recorded chapters 15 and 16 is on the way to the garden and then chapter 17 is the prayer he actually prays in the garden so we have that prayer and in chapter 18 it's a crucifixion and picks up and coincides with the other although it has some two or three statements i'd have to go back and look that he said in john are recorded that are not recorded in matthew mark or luca you'll follow me is this too much detail for you is this interesting okay so you've got john who writes this when he writes it now one thing about john you need to know the average age uh was the for death rate was in the 50s people didn't live very long back then john lived to be over 100 years old at the end of his life it was said that he could only say three words there's a story that is in history but it's not in the bible so we don't know about its authenticity but it's that one day john was at the church at ephesus where he attended and they said hey john's here the last living disciple of jesus and so please come to the front come tell us come tell us you know what was it like walking with jesus what was it like being with jesus and he walked to the front and he said three words love one another and he went and sat down they said toward the end of his life it's the only three words he would say for several years love one another if you remember john's the only one john 14 that recorded jesus saying at the last supper a new commandment i give you a new commandment he talks about in the first john ii john also a new commandment i give you love one another um with him only saying those words i heard i know frankly graham's a good friend of mine billy graham's son and then i was invited to attend the memorial service of dr graham only 2 000 pastors were invited and friends and i was on the fourth row and billy graham's pastor shared a story about billy graham and franklin share with me that in his final years he didn't speak much but when he did speak most time he only said four words so his pastor at his memorial service told the story that every saturday they didn't have saturday services at the church only sunday they didn't have online services so every saturday he would go over to dr graham's house talk with him some and then preach his message on saturday to dr graham that he was going to share on sunday so personally i don't know if i'd want to preach in front of billy graham but that's what the pastor did and for the last few years billy graham didn't say hardly anything and so um the pastor's over there preaching this message and after he preached it he said to dr graham dr graham i don't know if you recognize this message but this is a message actually that you preached and dr graham started shaking his head and he said you preached this in such-and-such city in such-and-such crusade and then he told him how many people got saved and i really don't remember the number five thousand or ten thousand whatever he said this this many people got saved when he preached this message and dr graham raised his finger and said the four words that he was known for saying toward the end of his life it was all him those are the words he used to say a lot toward the end of his life people would congratulate him or commend him on his life and he would always say it was all him so that's kind of the way john was toward the end of his life now these seven churches let me get back to the seven churches are in asia minor modern day turkey why did he write a letter to these seven churches he did it because they were on the most populous trade route of the day let me show you a map so you can kind of get it in your mind of where the seven churches are where the island of patmos is so there's the island of patmos where john was and then if you start at ephesus and go up and go clockwise that's the order of the letter that's the order of the letters the seven letters ephesus smyrna pergamum thyatira sardis philadelphia by the way philadelphia started an extension campus in pennsylvania sorry it's a horrible joke but it's funny all right and then and then the last letter the seventh letter uh to the church at laodicea all right so that kind of lets you know a little bit and i think that the lord spoke to these seven churches they were major churches at that time but then he knew that these letters and you have to remember it wasn't just the seven letters in two and three it was the whole letter it was the letter of revelation the book of revelation which would go through the scripturation process so he knew it would become scripture the last book of the bible and he knew that once these seven churches passed the whole book around the whole letter that then it would go then to other the rest of the body of christ you see what i'm saying so it was a strategic plan all of the letters seem to have three parts now these won't be my three points for each of the letters and i can't go through verse by verse and just explain because this is a seminary class although i'll make comments but i believe the holy spirit's going to point out one thing that we need to learn from each of these letters you know one major thing okay but all of the letters seem to have um let me say five of the seven you see it very clearly two of the seven it's difficult to see it but it is there but they all seem to have three parts commendation correction counsel they start with commendation the lord's saying this is what you're doing well correction this is what you need to change and then counsel this is how you need to change it now one other thing about the seven churches is people see these differently some theologians see these differently some theologians see these as um church history and it's a timeline from the resurrection until the second coming and so the letter at ephesus was about the first church for two to three hundred years then fourth century they're saying that's when they moved to the second church and the third and then and then they'll say and you could see now we're in the seventh letter church of laodicea so we're the end time church there are some that see these seven letters as written obviously to those literal churches but they're only for the end time church i don't believe either of those i believe these seven were literal to the seven churches but also letters to all the churches of all time in other words whether you lived in the seventh century or the the 12th century or the 21st century these letters are for us here are two reasons why i believe that uh because it's in the bible god put it in the bible so just like the letter of ephesians was written to the church at ephesus yet god has spoken you through ephesians i think he can speak to you through these seven letters which encompass one letter so it's by this spirit the second reason i believe it's for all churches of all time is all of them end with either at the last line or close to the last of the letter they end they'll say this all of them say this he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying to the plural anyone who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying now remember jesus said these yet the spirit inspired the scriptures the holy spirit so let him hear what the spirit is saying to the scriptures all right so let me show you how this is the whole book of revelation is two to all the seven churches revelation 1 4 john to the seven churches which are in asia so he this is in chapter one he's telling you the revelation of jesus christ is for all seven churches that's the whole book okay was written to these seven churches verse 11 jesus shows up he shows up in verse seven i think but in verse 11 it says he's saying i am the alpha and the omega the first and the last and what you see this is jesus talking to john write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in asia and then he lists those seven just the same way we had them while ago and then revelation 1 verse 20 now he's going to tell us something about the seven stars because they all start with to the angel so he's gonna tell us something about the angels and the churches all right revelation 1 20 the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches so when john sees jesus he's in the midst of seven golden lamp stands and he has seven stars in his right hand so the seven lampstands are the seven churches so what does that tell us it tells us that we're not the light but we hold the light that we're just a lamp stand you don't light a light jesus said and put it under a basket you put it on a lampstand so the higher the church holds the light the more people are going to come to christ so churches are lampstands the stars are messengers they're angels the greek word is angelos which means a messenger i personally believe that this is the senior pastor or the pastors of the seven churches not an angelic being this is why matthew mark and luke talk about john the baptist and call him a messenger but it's the same greek word for angel but they're talking about a man and then in revelation john has this angel that's showing him around remember you've read the book of revelation probably he has an angel that's showing him around and he falls down and begins to worship him and the angel says don't worship me now listen why he says revelation 22 verse 9 then he said to me see that you do not do that for i am your i am your fellow servant and of your brethren the prophets so i don't think this is an angelic being like an angel from the old testament when he talks about the angels and the angels in camp around i think this is actually a a prophet maybe from the old testament he says i'm one of your certain fellow servants i'm one of your brothers so i believe that when it says to the angels it's talking about to the pastors of the churches because the pastors would get up and read the letter to the church and said listen john sent a letter back and jesus appeared to him and i want to read you this letter so he's talking to the leaders also leaders are referred to as stars in the bible daniel chapter 12 verse 3 says those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever so that's my belief about what the these seven angels all right that they're the spasters all right all right you all ready to get to the first letter you didn't fall asleep did you i mean i test my sermons on debbie and when she starts dozing i know i've got gone into too many details all right so revelation 2 verse 1 and i'll make comments throughout about some of the comments all right some of the verses to the angel which could be it's the messenger could be the pastor of the church of ephesus that'd be timothy right these things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands now verse two starts the commendation all right here's the commendation i know your works your labor your patience and that you cannot bear those who are evil this is referring to the nicolaitans and we're going to talk about those in the third church all right you can't bear those who are evil this next is also referring to them you've tested those who say they are apostles and are not and you found them liars and you have persevered and have patience and you have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary so that's the commendation the counts the correction in verse 4 nevertheless i have this against you that you have left your first love okay so let me just go ahead and give you right now i guess they can do it the the title of the message is return to your first love so return to your first love all right all right so let's go back verse four i have this against you you've left your first love that's the correction verse five is the counsel remember there from where you have fallen repent and do the first works or else i will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent in other words i'm not going to let you hold the light anymore because i don't want people to see the type of light you're holding let me make a comment the church at ephesus was a church that emphasized truth and jesus said i want you to emphasize love as much as you emphasize truth that's basically the kind of a bottom line in this right verse six but this you have that you hate the deeds of the nicolaitans which i also hate let me make a comment about that again we'll talk i'll i will tell you exactly what the deeds of the nicolaitans are in the third message in this series all right but i want you to notice this goes back to what josh said last week that you can share in god's anger against wickedness as long as you share his compassion for people notice he doesn't say that he hates the nicolaitans he says i hate their deeds he loves his people but he hates the deeds so i'll tell you what the deeds are in the third message it's called a teaser by the way all right verse seven he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches plural and then he says and this is in many of the letters something like this to him who overcomes i will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god now i told you a while ago there's three parts it seems like there's really four in most of the letters and that's a reward but the other three that i had commendation correction and counsel all begin with the letter c and i couldn't think of a a word for a crown look at that it's a gift it's a gift i'm telling you so they all have four parts all right commendation correction counsel and crown that's all right all right we got it all there okay so verse 4 verse 4 says i had this against you that you left your first love so i want to ask you something have you ever felt that way well if you're a believer you have unless you got saved an hour ago you have felt like that you don't love jesus like you did when you first got saved you've gone through that you're like i i just i i want you to do something in my heart because man i was so excited and i just fell in love with you when i first got saved i feel like i've left my first love okay it's really easy to get it back and he tells us how to do it in verse five that's his counsel all right watch this verse five remember there from where you're falling repent what's repent me change your mind just change the way you're thinking about this and do the first works do the first works here's how simple it is he's saying do what you did when you first got saved just do it again okay for me it was three things when i thought about this all right and by the way they all begin with the same letter just so you know okay worship word now we'll go through each of them these are our three points worship word and witness worship word and witness okay so we don't have time to go through a bunch of stuff on them but we'll hit each of them right number one's worship when i first got saved i just wanted to spend time in the presence of god and worship can include prayer but i want you to think about when i first got saved and when you first got saved we just wanted to get to know god we just wanted to be in his presence we'd love being in his presence and then life gets busy so for me i got saved at 19 nine months after debbie and i got married um and then um about a year after that josh was born and then along came james and then came elaine okay children work when josh was born before josh was born debbie worked when josh was born she quit work we went from a two income family to a one income family life got busy my work started taking off um we had children so we learned how to not sleep anybody ever been through this and so all of a sudden we feel like we've left our first love and so i remember telling the lord when i was reading this passage this is years ago just a few years into my christianity lord that's me i've left my first love and it was like he said look at the next verse do the first works and i just felt like the lord said make it a priority to spend time in my presence just make it a priority so i began to do that here's the second thing is word spend time in the word of god now the bible has 1189 chapters i'm going to round it to 1200 just for math again okay so that means if you read 40 chapters a day i know that that's a lot i understand that but you could go through the whole bible in 30 days let me put another way if you read 10 i think i started too much all right if you read 10 chapters a day you can go through the whole bible three times a year you can do it 120 days 10 chapters 1200 chapters it's 1189 but close to 12 you can do it in in uh four months all right 120 days so so for me i was traveling and preaching so i was preaching revivals at night so i had a lot of time during the day so i that's how i started doing this math if i read if for me it takes about one hour to read 10 chapters so if i thought if i read 40 a day i can go through the whole bible in a month and by god's grace i was able to do that many times and then i thought you know if i read 50 chapters a day again i'm doing i'm working at night from 7 to 11 or so during these revivals in the evening so during the day i had the time to do this i if i do 50 chapters a day and do it in 24 days and then a few times when i wasn't even when i didn't have a revival or something i just took time away and i would read 100 chapters a day it takes about 12 hours to do that for me but i'd read 100 hours a day and go through the whole bible in 12 days and i just did that many many times it just got me in the word now let me tell you something that applies to all of us maybe you're on a daily bible reading program or you try to read a chapter in the old chapter the new a psalm every day whatever it is have you ever opened up the bible to read your daily bible reading and you think to yourself oh i've read this passage before and then the next thought which is from the enemy by the way is you know you're running a little late so you could skip bible reading today that'll save you like 10 minutes okay so let me give you a comparison uh have you ever had a nutritious meal a good tasting like one of your favorite best tasting but nutritious meal set down in front of you and you thought to yourself oh i've had this before so i don't need to eat today you don't think that do you you eat it anyway even though you've eaten it before because your body needs nutrition right so when you open your bible to a passage you've read before read it anyway because your soul needs nutrition read it anyway so worship word this is what i feel like the lord wants to say to us and then witness when i got saved i just felt like i witnessed to everybody all the time and uh as i grew in the lord i kind of got away now i'm not talking about uh telling seven strangers a day the roman road okay i'm not talking about hey excuse me can't tell uh the bible says you're a sinner and you're going to hell and jesus died for your sins okay i gotta go talk to someone else now okay i'm talking about with sincerity just work jesus into the conversation just work god into the conversation you know if someone says man this rain was sure a blessing you could simply say man it really was a blessing and i'm telling you for me because i was so messed up once this guy shared with me how i could give god control of my life now i really do see everything is a blessing okay you'll get one of three responses when you do something like that one will be i know exactly what you mean once i gave my life to the lord i just see blessings everywhere now well you found a fellow believer second response you might get is what what do you mean gave god control of your life because i've been kind of thinking about the whole god thing so what do you mean now you get a chance to witness to someone third response you might get would be uh okay and then the person backs away slowly but that's okay you planted the seed you didn't get to water it but you got to plant it all right so you need to understand worship in the word and witness god did not design us to be reservoirs he designed us to be rivers the way a reservoir becomes stagnant well let me say it this way for a reservoir to not become stagnant it must have two things it must have water flowing in and water flowing out worshiping the word and witnessing that's the only way you're going to return to your first love let me give you one example um you ever had maybe let's just talk to the guys for a minute you got a group of guys group of friends and all of a sudden you notice that jim isn't showing up you know tuesday night's bowling night friday night's poker night and all of a sudden jim's not here and so you say what happened to jim and they what did they say he met a girl right and pretty soon you see jim standing at a mall outside a store hold the purse [Applause] and when you go talk to jim what does he do he talks about her oh man you need this girl i met you i mean she's incredible we like all the sages he wants to do two things he wants to spend time with her and he wants to talk about her you all know why because he just fell in love are y'all following me when you first fall in love with jesus you just want to spend time with him worshiping the word and you won't talk about it that's how you return to your first love it's that simple i want you to bow your heads and close your eyes every weekend we ask the lord a question at the end of the message holy spirit what are you saying to me through this message i just want you to ask him he's not mad at you he knows all the good things you're doing the only reason he wants you to return to your first love is for you it benefits you it makes this life so much more joyful so much more exciting so this is council yes he's correcting something that could you know lead to another a a a drab dreary life for us but he's giving you counsel let me tell you how you return your first love do the first works so maybe it's not those three things maybe you wouldn't say them the way i said them but let the lord define it for you and then just give him a response telling the word i want to return to my first love [Music] lord i want to tell you thank you i want to tell you thank you lord that we love you because you first loved us and lord we want to all of us commit today to return to our first love we want to spend time with you and we want to talk about you and we want to be the lamp stand that holds the light that you set it on a hill so everybody can see you in jesus name amen amen amen church before we're dismissed we're going to close this service out like we close every service and at this time i'd love to invite our altar ministry team up to the front and church will you stand with me and as our team comes forward maybe something about pastor robert's message really ministered to you and spoke to you and and maybe it's you that wants to and needs to return back to your first love and and you just want prayer with that or maybe something's happened during your week and you just want somebody to stand and agree with you in prayer where our team is here and we would be honored to pray with you you can start coming forward now pastor robert says this every week we all need prayer and you don't have to be a member of gateway church to receive prayer we all need prayers so the altar is open and like i said our team would love to pray with you you can start coming forward now a few more things before you go as you know with the crisis going on in afghanistan we have uh refugees that are coming over here and who are in our own uh backyard and because you guys are awesome you have been emailing us and calling us asking what can i do to help what can we do to to rally around them and be the church for them well i've got an answer for you we're gonna start putting together um evacuation uh refugee kits for the for um our friends who are coming over here and needing a place to stay and land and as you know they're coming over there's no household items that they have they need uh toiletries uh school supplies as they start to get situated here and so if you want information on these kits uh on their refugee kits you can go to gatewaypeople.com and it's gonna give you a list of everything that you uh that these kids are needing and then you can drop them off at our campus either next week or the following week as we partner with world relief and as we distribute these kids uh to our neighbors who are coming here it's a great opportunity a tangible way for us to be the church and bring heaven to earth for our friends who are coming over here and who are needing safety uh and so you can drop them off next week or the weekend after and we would love for you to partner with us in that you can get your community together your family together let your kids be a part of this it's to be an awesome thing so we're really excited about that if you are watching online and you are not near a gateway campus what you can do is you go to gatewaypeople.com and you can figure out how to financially give you can find out how you can financially give to these uh kids and we just thank you for partnering with us in that also pastor robert mentioned gateway conference that is taking place one week from tomorrow this is not just a pastor's conference this is a pastor's and leaders conference and we would love for you to be a part of that so you can go to gatewayconference.com for more information on that or if you are interested in attending online you have that option as well for all that information go to gatewayconference.com if you are new to gateway uh or you've been coming for a while and you want to figure out how to go get connected right outside these doors in our connect central uh we've got pastors and our team in there that would love to connect with you and find out ways how you can get connected uh to this church so uh we would love to meet you get to hear your story and do anything that we can to get you connected church can i pray with you before we go god i thank you so much for every single person in this room god i thank you for the message that you gave pastor robert god that you spoke through him directly to our hearts i pray that our tomorrow morning looks different because of what you've done in our lives today god and we just thank you we give you all the glory and all the praise and it's in your resurrected name we pray amen gary church we love you so much we will see you next week [Music] you

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Length: 76min 55sec (4615 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021