Heaven Says : Do What You Did At First! | Michael El-Takrori

hey family welcome to church lv online thank you for inviting us into your home we're just so grateful that we're able to meet as a church community virtually this is a season that we're choosing faith over fear wisdom over worry i believe god's going to even use this platform to do a great work in our lives if you're joining us leave a comment let us know you're with us if you're new with us go to the vip link fill it out and a member of our dream team will reach out to you get you a gift as our way of saying welcome we want you to stay connected during this time well hey i know today is gonna bless you it's our heart here at church lb to lead people to encounter new life in jesus and i believe that can happen right where you're at open up your heart lean in and let's get ready for the word of god god bless we're going to jump into the book of revelation and uh mom let's leave no i'm just joking but we're gonna do that you know you know it's a tough time in the world it's very apocalyptic when you go to the book of revelation to get encouraged when you put down the book of psalms you're like god i just need a word from you i'm going to the end times book in jesus name and so we're going to go to revelation that is no joke but i believe there's a passage in this in this in this in this book a little bit of the context is the apostle john one of jesus's disciples is on he's on an island called patmos he gets a vision from jesus himself about what we would call the end times the apocalypse and you know we're we're watching the news we're watching our world and i thought it was suffice to to bri to read the book again you know just to see where i'm at you know in in jesus name i thought that was funnier in my head but no no big deal no big deal but what i love about the book is it it's not just um prophetic in nature it's it's very pastoral that jesus in the in this time is addressing seven specific churches that were prevalent in the mediterranean world first century uh christian churches and he's addressing them and he's and he's and he's and he's speaking a word to them that i believe today he's gonna speak to us in our church and encourage us through his word i really feel this word strong on my heart so i want to encourage you to lean in today can you do that we're going to go to revelations chapter 2 and before i even read the scripture if you never read the book of revelation do it or don't do it you know what i mean it's one of those books that's like i don't know if you should but let me sum it up for you if you've never read the book before or you're too afraid to read the the book which hollywood has made it they just they just messed up the book but i'm i'm i'm gonna give you a summary of the book of revelation here's what it says even when the world gets darker jesus is still on the throne yeah that's the message of revelation oh that that that makes me shout i don't know about you even when the world gets darker we still serve a god that's not moved by what moves us even when we are moved they don't move god he's on the throne he holds history in his hand and we can endure with a little bit more ease and some peace and some strength because we know the end of the story i can get through my trial because the book has already been written i can beat my addiction because the book has already been written i can overcome offense and darkness and despair because the end of the book is written i'm gonna preach today before we even read the scripture we can endure the climax we can endure the rising action the antagonists won't take us out because we know the end of the book and the end of the book is jesus wins [Applause] that pumps me up because when i watch the news and i get a little scared and when i walk in this earth and it gets a little dark [Music] we win we win we need that message today more than ever i'm going to open up revelation 2 jesus is speaking a word to the apostle john to a specific church a church in ephesus if you read the book of ephesians you know about this church this is 40 years after the church is planted and he says this message to them he gives them a what would you call it an encouragement sandwich like a compliment sandwich you ever done that before you tell something good about somebody and then you tell them what you really want to tell them and then you end it up with another encouraging word just so set up they don't cry you know what i'm talking about like hey man you're beautiful but but your breasts thinks but hey your cooking is great like it's just a great compliment right and so this is what jesus does to the to the church in ephesus look what he says to the angel of the church in ephesus right the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven gold lamp stands jesus says i know your works i know your toil your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false he says you've endured you love truth you love doctrine you love knowledge he says i know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary how many of you know that's a good thing do not grow weary but then verse four he goes but but i have this against you this this verse right here this monday it came alive in new ways it checked me it brought me back it reoriented my life around jesus it's challenging but it's true and i believe it's a word that god put on my heart to share with our community he says you've abandoned the love you had at first you've abandoned your first love next verse in verse 5 remember therefore where you have fallen he says repent and do the works you did at first if not i'll come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent yet this you have and he encourages them you hate the work of the nicolasians or the nickelodeons or some i don't know which i also hate he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers i will grant to eat of the tree of life which is the paradise of god in the second installment of the series what does heaven have to say if you're taking notes i want to encourage you to do so online here at green valley would you open up your heart the title today's message is heaven says do what you did at first do what you did at first and typically as a preacher you are prepping and you have an audience in mind and my nature is very evangelistic in nature i'm always thinking about the person who never heard the gospel never heard the good news of jesus the love of god but really today my assignment really is to speak to christians to those that have been walking with jesus for some time now maybe a year half a year three days a week or maybe it's been decades and maybe you're here or you're watching online and you're saying things like i've hit a ceiling i don't sense god i don't feel him i feel far from him it's not the same like it used to be is this worth it should i quit should i jump ship is this worth it if you're asking yourself any of those questions this word's for you heaven says do what you did at first can we pray jesus we love you we thank you god for the honor it is to gather around your word we lift you up we say that you would do a mighty work in our life we ask that you would move in our behalf we pray for our world we thank you that you reign that you wrote the end of the story and we can trust in you speak to us today in jesus name everybody said come on everybody said online i heard you that's amazing hey um i love the beach the beach is awesome anybody love the beach come on somebody the beach is great i i look i love it and here's why i love it because i live in las vegas we don't have one it's dry dusty and parched here and uh vegas has done a great job in a lot of areas of emulating certain great wonders in the world we got um you know the eiffel tower trying to be like paris i get it we got new york new york they do a pretty good job the buildings shake shack all that stuff that's awesome we have the the big you know ferris wheel trying to be is that in london is that is that in london we're trying to be like london now it's it's a it's a beautiful thing we have the stratosphere trying to be like seattle with the needle and vegas has done a good job where we failed in vegas is our attempt to recreate the ocean at mandalay bay that's where we failed that's where we just failed it's an absolute disgrace have you ever been to mandalay bay have you ever been in the wave pool hundreds and thousands of dollars to concoct a wave that takes five minutes to take place and at the end of the five minutes when you're ready while the pool is saturated with sweaty lost vegans and tourists every five minutes you get a little boop and that's it that's it and people loved it like mandalay bed you saw it the waves bro i'm like that's not real waves you can't recreate mankind you can't recreate the wonders of this world and if that doesn't help i taste the water it's a little salty i asked the lifeguard a couple years ago do you guys put salt water in here she says no and i've had to live with that for the last three years salty water at mandalay bay without salt in jesus name and uh i love the beach because i don't get to go so when we get to go i just love it i'm the guy i'm the guy that that like i experience jesus in new ways at the beach i'm i'm i'm emotional i'm dramatic i watch american idol just to cry like that's my personality i just need to cry i need to feel something i look into horizons i see the wonders and majesties of god i i see his love for me and and in his creation and i get in the waves and i just love the water exfoliates my skin as the sun glistens on my face as if it was a holy kiss and i just love to bask in god i skip you ever see somebody skip that's me i skip i kick sand everyone's like ow i love jesus like it's my personality i love the beach i love the whole vibe anybody from la they hate the beach they're so ungrateful they're so ungrateful and so last year me and my wife we we went to laguna beach and it was packed this day and we we sat down i had this real conversation with her we're literally laying on the beach uh with our little like towel and this is how dramatic i am i'm just gonna give you i'm gonna give it straight today to our church community i picked up a handful of sand and i this came out of my mouth i said babe ain't it crazy that god's thoughts of us are more numerous in the sands of the seashore like that's me i'm dramatic that's who i am and so i go into the water because i love the the best experience in at the beach is getting pummeled by waves i just love that feeling i love i love feeling like i ain't in control like god just take the wheel like i love getting smacked by a wave and barely coming out the water let's do it again exhilarating come on online you know what i'm talking about it's exhilarating and um so i go into the water say babe you want to come with me and she's like no i don't want to go under the water and i said that's weird because when we dated you always did adventurous things but now we're married and you don't do this with me and i learned something last year like women they they lie to you and and they watch sports with you and then you get married and they don't ever watch sports with you again and and i put a ring on it but i love her so i go in the water long story short 30 minutes go by and i'm just it's laguna it's like 10 foot waves just smacking me and i'm she didn't come with me so i'm meeting new friends like we're body surfing we're like giving each other high fives we're like yeah god's beautiful amen and we're in the water and 30 minutes go by and i kid you not um i was done i'm kind of i don't have a great visual sight i don't have good vision so i i didn't have my glasses i get out the water i was disoriented i didn't know where i was and then i look and i cannot find gia cannot find her she is nowhere to be found and i'm scared because i feel like i failed as a husband like somebody did somebody take her did she leave me is is there a beach boy here that she walked away with like i didn't do my job you know what i realized as i was looking it took me maybe 30 minutes to find her because it was so many people either eugene no okay cool are you no all right this is awkward here's what happened in 30 minutes the waves pushed me half a mile down the beach i was in a completely different place 30 minutes later could not find my wife and i had to retract my steps and she is over there reading her book just like i saw you leaving i just didn't say nothing because she don't she don't love me um what happened to me at laguna last year in the water is what happens to a lot of us in our spiritual journey we we we are in the water we're doing our thing we having fun but something happens we drift we drift i know i'm not alone here we have the tendency as jesus followers to to to drift we don't we don't plan on it we don't pray for it we don't we don't think about it but then we stop and consider where we're at and we find ourselves so far from the person we came to the beach with and we hear things like this and i say things like this and maybe you've said things like this god you feel far god where are you god did you leave me and we never stop to consider maybe it wasn't god who moved maybe it was us maybe it was us the book of ephesians is amazing and in revelation tops it because we know more about the church in ephesus more than any other book or any other church in the bible excuse me we see the beginning their middle and their end we see their struggle we see them born we see them challenged we see them pastored and we see them confronted it starts in acts chapter 19. you can read it yourself and then it they're encouraged in ephesians and they pastored in first and second timothy and and they're they're edified in first second and third john and they're confronted by jesus himself in revelations chapter two we see the full scope of the ephesian church the church in ephesus and we know about this church they're in a perverted city sexuality is going rampant if you thought we were living in evil times today you could just stroll to the bible and realize it's been dark since genesis chapter three and the gospel is thriving in the community and the church has started and and people are getting saved and it's 40 years later and and and and and they they drifted from where they started they drifted i want to start stop for a moment to consider how all-star this staff was at the church in ephesus i mean is the all-star staff who's your pastor timothy who's his pastor the apostle paul who's the apostles paul pastor jesus oh my goodness who's your elder um john the disciple whom jesus loved that was his nickname the disciple whom jesus loved they called me stuart little in sixth grade and it wasn't because i looked like a rat though i did it was because i looked like the kid that got replaced by a rat from his parents he always had his glasses like all jacked up and they called me stuart little in sixth grade and if you ever call me that i'll never forgive you it's an all-star staff a church you want to be a part of they had good doctrine they've endured they have a lot of things going for them but they drifted and jesus says hey i appreciate your endurance he's commending them and then he confronts them that's a whole message by the way that love commends and also confronts that we need people in our life that don't just applaud us but the people that confront us we need people that love us enough to tell us the truth we need to surround ourselves with people that they will lift us up when we need to be lifted us and they'll look at us and say what needs to be said so that we cannot get stuck let's not push away the people in our life that are honest with us let us not build friendships that are surface level that they only tell us what we want to hear but let us build real friendships of love where we can confront each other as iron sharpens iron that's what jesus is doing and he says i appreciate your endurance but but but one thing something happened you drifted you have forsaken your first love and it tells me that jesus is not just concerned with our endurance he's concerned with the state of our heart after we get through what he's called us to get through endurance is awesome and we'd be preaching that but the ephesian church they were enduring but what jesus is saying is you're enduring but you're not looking at me anymore that's crazy to think about because i get up here and preach it like you know fix your eyes on jesus and you're gonna get through it which it's true but what happens when you get through the trial without jesus because people are doing it every day we're human we got great willpowers we can make it through some hard times people without the gospel people without jesus are making it through hard times what separates us is we don't just go through something we come out the other side better and if we're not careful we're going to say things like let's get through 2020 but the real prayer is god make me better in 2020 i don't want 2020 to break me i want 22 20 to make me i want to grow i want my faith to be purified i want to love you more after this season than i did before this season i want to go through the fire and not be burned i want to walk through the river and not be overwhelmed [Applause] because you're with me he's with us he's developing something in us and through us and that's our mantra make me better jesus i don't want to forsake you i don't want to stop looking at you while i'm enduring and i don't want to endure without you i want to anchor my life on my first love i want to anchor my life on who you are but jesus looks at them and says you've drifted you graduated from my love you were never supposed to graduate from my love love wasn't just the entry way it was what we were supposed to build our life on you have forsaken your first love when he speaks about first love in this passage he's not talking about chronology your earliest love he's talking about priorities he's talking about the greatest of all of our loves one of the great theologians uh augustine fourth century bishop in in south africa read about him in college great theologian he said something so profound about love he says he he he talked about the ordering of our loves he says our our loves order our life it's not a matter if it do we love or do we not love the question is what do we love the most and whatever we love the most our life would be ordered around that it's really profound and relevant to 2020. what's at the throne room seat of our hearts when it's not jesus things go a little bit crazy doesn't it it started with him but but but we drifted he spoke about this idea of the orderings of love and you and i know what that is like if you love a sport sometimes it's good he's talking about how we categorize and prioritize the loves in our hearts when you're a hooper and ball is life that's your whole life you you're a you're a basketball player and everything you do in life orders around that that's not always bad when you're a parent your life is reordered around your children in some shape or another i hope so you know what i mean or you're going to forget to pick them up at school you know like your life is ordered it is good but what happens when it's bad you know that's where we see addiction that's where we see us loving something and our whole life is reordered around it what he said was so profound you know what i'm talking about like some of you you lost your best friend because of this your best friend said you're my bestie and then she got a boyfriend and you never heard from her again you know what happened her loves were changing and her life was reordered around her greatest love and she forsook you i'm joking i'm so sorry if that's you we love you amen bobby done got in the way what kind what what uh augustine said he said what sin is is the disordering of our loves it's when we don't love what we should love and what we should love we don't really love that much he said that's what sin is the disordering of love sin is so crazy it doesn't just make us love bad things we love good things so much we make them bad that's what sin did netflix is not bad when we love netflix too much it becomes bad you know you hear me it's neutral netflix is you know it could be good or bad i guess but but but it's netflix money is not bad but when i reorient my whole life around money my whole life is reordered around the love of money and the love of money is the root of all evil we love good things and we make them bad i knew i was playing fortnite way too much when jesus said what are we doing for date night and i said um the boys will want to play video games i was like i have a problem i love fortnite too much i'm reordering my life around fortnight oh jesus help me god sin is the disordering of our loves and only jesus hear me only jesus can step in the middle of that and get our loves back where it needs to be it's love it's the love of god think about it for a moment jesus is saying this is consider the heights by which you've fallen this is not a small matter to jesus he said guys you started with love how come you're not perfecting in me in love how come you're not growing in me in love you stopped loving people and you stopped loving me love where is love gone love is our story though isn't it the bible says god is love he's not he doesn't just love he is love it's the very essence of who he is love is not ambiguous love is not this this nebulous feeling in the sky that we got to reach out in the universe no love met us in the person of jesus christ god is love and it's an agape love it's a love that is not dictated by the person receiving the love it's dictated by the person giving the love it's a radical love it's a good love it's steady it doesn't give up on us it is consistent his love brings things to light hit god is love he sets the definition of love i don't get my definition of love from culture i get my definition of love from god [Applause] [Music] love ain't shady love love doesn't slide into your dms to get something from you oh hey somebody what happened love does not take love doesn't hate it doesn't discriminate i'm rapping now it's the love of god the bible says perfect love casts out all fear are you fearful today faith isn't the antidote of fear perfect love is when we realize we've been loved by god he got our backs he surrounds us then fear has to be obliterated in our life so i can stand in a culture of fear and still feel secure because my life is built in the love of god and he surrounds me come on somebody the love of god changed our life god do you love me we don't got to look any further than the cross of jesus christ because in that moment of history we see the aperture of god's love where grace and justice meet each other where sin wasn't overlooked jesus took our sin and he died to death we deserve to die paid the price we deserve to pay he took our place so that we could take his place and in a moment where god couldn't just overlook sin he had to take care of sin justice had to be made and grace is now extended because of the work of jesus now when i put my faith in jesus when god the father looks at me he doesn't see my past mistakes he sees me in christ because my sin and your sin and our sin is forgiven forgotten forever can you give god a shout of praise if he's loved you is anybody excited about the love of god man it's the love of god that enables me to love my neighbor that's what we're about we can't love people with the love of god without being filled with the love of god that's that that doesn't make any sense we extend love because we've we're given love a scribe came up to jesus one time he said jesus what's the greatest command and for the first time in scripture jesus does not consider mathematics and he goes the greatest command is to love the lord your god with all your heart mind and soul and he goes oh hold up there's one more dang it there's one more he said what's the greatest command i know i gave you you asked for one but i need to give you two because the two are connected love the lord your god love that love your neighbor as yourself that's what we're about paul says in the epistles we can have faith to move mountains we can prophesy we can speak in the tongues of angels i don't even know what that is but if we don't laugh what do you say it's nothing it's a clanging symbol we become white noise in culture the moment the church stops loving we become irrelevant in culture might as well pack up the bags come on wrap it up wrap the show up we got to get going this building is getting sold that's not who we're called to be though because we have the love of god that enables me to love my neighbor and that's what the church in ephesus was falling away from they made their relationship with god about do's and don'ts it became a routine in a religion but they forsake and they forsook their first love their love relationship with jesus and that's a that's something we need to hear today just come back come back you're not supposed to graduate from love you're supposed to build your life on love in ephesians it says i pray you would understand the heights the depths the the grandness of the love of god that you can't fully understand well thank you paul you're telling me to understand something i can't fully understand yeah it's the love of god we experience it here on earth but it's limited because we're not on the other side of eternity but then when we get to heaven we experience the full weight of the love of god where there are no more tears where there is no more pain where there's no more struggle and toil and sweat it's the love of god come back come back maybe you're not a christian in here maybe you're watching online you're not a follower of jesus because followers of jesus have become mean to you or they've ignored you and you have this reputation about christians you have this mindset of christians that are the furthest thing from love i want you to know that's what jesus is confronting the ephesian church on he's on your side he's saying you're right man they stop loving ain't that true and he's standing with you going the love that they're not showcasing is not a result of them being close to me it's a result of them forgetting me we're called to love and why don't we love in seasons of our life and sometimes we are doing things for god and we don't appreciate being with god what happened we forgot we forgot where we started i think in a season like this we need to remember we need to remember what jesus has done in our life piano could come up i'm almost done this message was birthed in my heart on monday it was a conversation i was having with my wife we were sitting in the office the youth office and it was one of those mondays that just you're like you're not excited for the week you know what i'm talking about like you're just like you know like this monday and i wish you know mondays i try to have faith for the week and try to plan it out and like let's go let's let's win the world for jesus this monday didn't feel like that at all we were in our office and it was a little bit somber i saw my wife's face a little down cast and we sat across from each other we were in in the office together i'm gonna be honest with you today we were discouraged we just had weight we felt like man this is this is not this is not what i thought it was gonna be i didn't i didn't think i was signing up for this how do you pass her in a pandemic how do you help students that you can't see how can you pastor people that are not in front of you we were overwhelmed we were we were discouraged and in that moment i was looking at my wife and i felt impressed by god i don't know what to say really i always try to be strong for her or say the right thing and that never works well for me she's like stop trying to preach at me i'm like stop it like i'm just trying to help and um i just felt led i said i said babe stop let's not think about this week right now let's let's just we're here you know what i did in that moment begin to just remind her what god has done in our life what god has done in her life said gia you remember when when you were in that crazy relationship you were miserable and it wasn't fulfilling you remember how god got you out of that you remember remember you moved to portland to find yourself that's how you know you're lost when you move to portland to find yourself by the way [Music] and you came back from portland and you got invited to a church lv experience it was at a youth night and you heard a message on this scripture by the way come back to your first love remember you got saved that night remember i met you that night and you were trying to get my number but i was i had too much character so i didn't give you my number i'm joking amen just begin to rehearse rehearse rehearse god you've been faithful do you remember when god called you into the ministry you felt like you couldn't do it but you're doing it remember when god brought you brought me in your life hey [Music] the greatest gift you've ever gotten i'm so dramatic that's so bad but in my office in our office we begin to just rehearse and we're crying the presence of god met us in that place you know what was happening at that moment repentance jesus in this passage he goes repent that word gets a bad rap in our culture doesn't it we think it's angry we think it's like repent we see a mad god when we hear that word that's not a mad word that's a word of love repent is remembering and returning repentance is remembering and returning when you and i came to jesus for the first time you know what happened at that moment we were remembering and we were returning to the god that created us to the god that named us and formed us in our mother's womb we remembered and returned that's what repentance is god is not saying repent or i'm gonna take no he's saying come back to me would you remember again you're doing great you're enduring but but don't don't forget it's my love that sustains you can you can you come get out the water get out the water of condemnation get out the water of religion get out the the waters of self-preoccupation and come back to me and you don't gotta journey back to me i'm right i've been following you [Music] i've been doing what jesus jia didn't do it at the beach jesus was following us on the beach ready for us to get out the water so repentance isn't journeying back to god it's remembering and turning back oh you're right there god my goodness you goodness and mercy follows me all the days of my life wow you're so good man i feel that he says do what you did at first do what you did at first if you have no passion right now if you feel like you're a little low if you're on the ground if you feel discouraged if you feel overwhelmed if you feel like it's not worth it if you feel like you can't go another day here's the word of heaven to you do what you did at first because there was something about those early actions that match the love you had for me do what you did at first i love that because when you do the things you did at first maybe something will spark up in your heart that you would remember you are here because of me because of my love because i extended it to you i got you i chose you i named you i formed you i protect you you are with me you are in my arms you're under the shadow of my wings you are not alone you are not forsaken you are not forgotten nothing can separate you from the love of god that is in christ jesus not heights not depths not heaven not hell not angels not demons nothing can separate us from the love of god come on church so we return we come back and we do what we did at first [Music] i was thinking about the documentary uh the last dance of michael jordan and there was a portion it was at episode 8 where he had already run won three championship rings michael jordan so much passion for the game so much zeal so much dedication and hard work inspiring for our faith honestly that's why i love sports it gives us a little parable to endure our fight because i see michael jordan i'm like dang you're passionate i want that passion for jesus he was winning championships mvp after mvp and he just won his third championship and after that season things began to hit him he lost his father the love for the game was dwindling he wasn't walking to games with as much passion as he once did you saw something dwindling in his eyes he wasn't talking to people he was going through the motions like a lot of us do at moments in life and we know the story if you don't i'm giving it to you he became a baseball player it's like that's that was great michael jordan was never supposed to be a baseball player it's michael jordan do you know his baseball shoe no i didn't think so it's michael jordan two years goes by he's playing in the mlb and it was an episode where he goes to lunch with his old teammate and his teammates like hey mike come back come practice with us just come he's like ah i don't know man just come right just say say hi to the guys no no big deal just say hi you don't have to play just just say hi he goes to practice and you can't put michael jordan in a gym when they're near a basketball and him not pick it up and he's like he picks up a basketball and he's just hanging out with his bros like old times and they begin to play basketball and they begin to play pickup game and he was doing what he did at first he was playing the game he loved that he lost a love for but it was coming back to his heart you know what happened a couple months later the nba the world the globe got the news two words on a fax message to the reporters and it was two words that it's it's two words i want to declare over you today he says this he goes i'm back [Music] oh church come on does anybody want to declare in 2020 maybe we might have drifted maybe we've forsaken our first love but i want to declare today i'm back i'm back by the grace of god i'm back by the grace of god i'm standing up again by the grace of god i'm here hey i'm back i'm back do what you did at first what'd you do long walks talk to people about jesus call a friend do a devo get up early stay up late i don't know what did you do at first what did we do at first he says yeah do that right now what do you do when you don't know what to do you do what you did at first god i don't know what to do it's all good do what you did at first because when you do what you did at first something in your heart would reawaken passion will be restored love will rekindle things will start to shift inside of you my goodness you're coming back to your first love man as i end and i want to pray for you tonight i got three minutes and uh i want to give something practical because we know what the ephesian church did at first we know what they did at first it's in acts 19. when jesus said do what you did at first we can go back to acts 19 and it's such a beautiful passage it's powerful the bible says paul goes into the city of ephesus he starts preaching jesus disciples there followers of jesus were there and he says hey have you been baptized with the holy spirit and they were like we never heard of such a thing and he prays for them and they get filled with the holy spirit they begin to be filled with the gifts of the spirit and the bible says he goes with the disciples and he starts preaching the gospel in synagogues at the temple in the courts the bible says that all of asia heard about the good news because of what they were doing it was radical read it for yourself acts 19 it's beautiful the bible says that god was moving so powerfully that paul's handkerchiefs and his aprons were healing people talk about a revival when you get a a a a kleenex from paul and it heals you people were getting healed it was radical the bible says there were seven sons of skiva they were extra they were they did the exorcisms they were jewish leaders and they were like man paul is using this name of jesus to cast out demons he's like we're going to try it out we're going to try that and then they begin to do it they go in the name of jesus that paul uses be gone and the demons were like we we know paul we know jesus but we don't know you and the the demon hops off of the guy and jumps on to the seven sons of skeva and the bible says that they were beaten and they were stripped naked and they ran out the temple now in every fight you ask the question who won the fight if you go into a fight with pants and you come out the other side without pants you took that l you lost and here's what's crazy the bible says that the news about this went through the whole city i want to read it with you this is what they did at first and then we end right now real quick here's it's practical this became known to all the residents of ephesus check this out both jews and greeks and fear fell upon them all and the name of the lord jesus was extolled that's the first thing that happened that's the first thing that happened the name of the of jesus was extolled it was made big in their eyes these were believers and they they were like amazed by jesus his name became the greatest thing in their life they gave jesus number one real worship they put his name where it should be in their life at the throne room seat in their life that the name of jesus is greater than fear cancer pandemic coronavirus it is greater than whatever comes against our world the name of jesus every knee will bow every tongue will confess we worship him when's the last time you gave him a real worship when was the last time you lift them up not out of convenience but out of conviction jesus your name is great and greatly to be praised oh that's what they did at first and look what the bible says many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices these were believers what they did what they do at first they they worshipped the name of jesus they lifted up his name and they began to get honest again they got transparent they were like guys i got some stuff in my life jesus is moving i don't care man didn't it start that way with us we were like god here i am i know i got sin but you took care of my sin you forgave me and what happens we go year after year and somebody asks you how you doing good how you feeling i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm good you're not good what happened we're not transparent anymore with one another what happened it says divulging it it's like they were so honest they're like here's my junk like like like we're too good for the grace of god like we're too good for the blood of jesus what happened we connected maturing in christ as not needing christ what i didn't need christ 100 when this started and now i need him 20 no i need him today like i needed him yesterday like i needed him when this the whole thing started when this whole love relationship took place i need the grace of god here i am god come to my brokenness meet me in my darkness meet me in my doubt i need you right now we got to get transparent again oh man i actually i want to encourage somebody maybe you haven't felt the presence of god in a long time call a brother or sister in christ and just be honest with them here i am [Music] something about bringing our life in the light amen and the last thing they did was they took all that they took the bible said they took their their their books their sorcery books and their magic books these were believers he threw him in a fire like thousands of silver coins like 20 000 silver coins today would have been worth five million dollars they took their old practices that they hid their plan b their secret stash the part of our lives that we keep away from jesus god was moving so much they're like you can have it all god because you're either lord of all or you are not lord at all i don't want to give you a part of my life i want to give you my entire life you're not supposed to be a substitute you're the substance i want to anchor my life on you i'm letting go of the wheel of my life i'm surrendering again to your control perfect love will cast out all fear when we surrender to love when we surrender to god do what you did at first [Music] what a great time in church today i want to give you a couple of ways to stay connected with us the first way is if you need prayer of any kind go to the prayer link fill it out and a member of our team will be happy to reach out to you and pray with you personally via text or phone call we want to make sure you know somebody who's standing with you during these times the second way to get connected is by joining a small group you can actually join a virtual small group if you want to be a part of that go to churchlv.com groups the last way to get connected is following us on our instagram at churchlv for daily content encouragement worship playlists prayers and more we had a great day in church today let me declare some truths over our lives as we end our time together god you are in control we give you our anxieties because you care for us you are our provider you are our increaser you are our healer and i pray that the peace of god that surpasses all understanding would guard our hearts and our minds in christ jesus may the lord bless you may the lord keep you may he make his face shine upon you god bless we'll see you next week

Channel: ChurchLV

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Id: 2TAlDQX_fmA

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020