Pastor Paul Chappell: Revival of our First Love

the city of Ephesus was an urban city of the Roman Empire it had really developed much of its greatness under the time period of leadership of of Caesar and it was a city that had great architecture it was the home of the Celsius library and much in the way of Commerce took place there in Ephesus it is the modern-day city of Izmir in Turkey an amazing city it was also the location of the Temple of Diana which was known as one of the seven wonders of the world if you were to visit Ephesus today you would find just a few of these columns still standing but you could imagine walking to Ephesus and seeing something of this magnitude along with the Celsius library that was on this similar scale much of which is still standing today and it was in this city that God did a great work through the missionary leading of the Apostle Paul the church at Ephesus became a center for worldwide evangelization Timothy was also very involved there in fact it was the only Church to receive letters from two different apostles both Paul and John wrote to the church at Ephesus because it was such a critically acclaimed and renowned city and Church and in this passage the churches are referred to as candlesticks and the pastor's are referred to as the stars that were held and not because of some type of notoriety in the sense that we might think today but because they were to be spreading forth and reflecting the light of the Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says in chapter 1 and verse 20 the mystery of the Seven Stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the Seven golden candlesticks the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches and so in this portion of the book of the revelation we see the letters written to seven literal churches of Asia Minor churches that existed churches that were being used of God and we see that in verse 20 of chapter 1 Christ holds his servants in his hands and that Jesus Christ is the head of the church in all the biblical churches look to Jesus Christ as their head and by the way we have been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are the purchased possession tonight as as the Church of Jesus Christ the bride of Jesus Christ and so we open the revelation and we hear as John the Revelator is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to a church that was a hard-working church a serving church a straight-arrow Church a fundamental church in doctrine they had no tolerance for false teachers and and yet though they had no tolerance for false teaching though they were in the vernacular we might use today a separatist Church and took a stand for what was right they had lost their first love and frankly I've met many Christians like that they know how to cross the T and dot the eye but their spirit is no longer gentle it is no longer becoming of a Christian it is no longer gracious and they have lost something of the fragrance of Christianity they still have the form of the flower but there's something about their life that is no longer attractive in the sense of really being used of God Ephesus had come to that place they they looked good but they had lost the effervescence of Christ the Bible tells us concerning the matter of love in 1st Corinthians 13 though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing having our messages broadcast on live stream and on many radio stations and a lot of lot of the messages going out from this place sometimes I receive mail and and a lot of it's really encouraging and some of it is more in the sense of color commentary and and I very fact I've never answered a negative letter back other than just to say thank you for caring enough to write and and so forth and and on a few occasions when I write those letters to people that have been especially disturbing in in the spirit of their letter and the tone of their letter I'll normally say something like thank you for taking time to write and for considering me and thinking of me and I appreciate your prayer and I often will put right in the body of the letter the entire chapter of first Corinthians 13 this first Corinthians 13 and then just sign it because the fact of the matter is we are commanded to speak the truth in love and we are told that though we have all of these other attributes if we have not love then we're missing the point and an emphasis was a church that had so many great attributes but they had lost the most important love and that was their first love they had lost that that reason for living and we have said all along this month that revival the destination of revival is not some particular experience or position the destination of revival is a person and his name is Jesus Christ revival could be defined as falling in love with Jesus again coming back to the first love and I've seen it for all these years I've seen people when they get saved and they they hear the choir and it's awesome and they hear the preaching and it's wonderful and they get around the fellowship and it's great why because they're in love with Jesus and thankful and like Paul the Apostle the love of Christ is constraining them you don't have to tell them to get to church you don't have to call them when they're absent you don't have to tell them the Christian life is a holy life you don't have to tell them that other people need to know the good news they're doing all of that already because they love Jesus for what he has done for them how many of you would say that's a great way to live your life amen and John is simply calling the church back to that moment if you're saved you've had that moment at least once in your life so I want you to notice as John is writing to these churches and I want you to see first of all and he may have the outline tonight the Lord's approval what are some things the Lord gives his approval of regarding this church he says in verse two I know thy works in thy labor and let's just pause there briefly how many of you understand the Lord knows ours as well and while we serve Him because of our love for him let's also remember there are many motivations years ago I wrote a book entitled to in sacred motivations and one of the motivations was the judgment seat of Christ as well one of them was the love of Christ another one was the Bema judgment because all of us will give an account as we stand before the Lord because he knows our labor and we want to be able to lay crowns at his feet again it's still all about Jesus but there are several angles to the motivation and here we are motivated by the fact that Jesus knows our works in our labor and our patience and so the Lord gives his approval of this church first of all because they were a caring Church he said I see your works you served with fervency and I I see your labor he says thou hast laboured you have grown weary the word implies to perhaps even the point of exhaustion they were faithful in serving the Lord I think of the church at Thessalonica we preached about this morning in chapel how that they had a labor of love they were not just bumper-sticker Christians but they literally labored for the Lord Jesus Christ David Brainerd who gave His life as a missionary said I care not where I go or how I live or what I endure so that I may save souls when I sleep I dream of them when I wake they are my first thoughts here was a man who burned out if you will who labored for the Lord Jesus Christ and I thank the Lord that for 32 years since we started with those first twelve folks in church at that first gathering that we have seen a people in this ministry who have labored in the bus ministry in soul-winning in Sunday school at work days hospital visits in counseling and care group leaders and helping missionaries and winning souls and it's a wonderful thing to serve the Lord and he said I see your works and I I see labor and notice what else he says in verse two he says I see thy patience in other words there had been times when they had labored but had not seen fruit maybe you've had times like that I've had times like that it's not like every time you go soul-winning someone gets saved it's not like every time you teach the the lesson in Sunday school that that lives are always instantly radically changed sometimes you're teaching a long time we're witnessing a long time and sowing seed and watering and and he said I saw your patience even when there wasn't an immediate manifestation of fruit and I often as I write notes to our church family I'll type a little verse or write a little verse Galatians 6:9 let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not many times people become impatient because we live in an instant society where we want everything now and so Jesus says I I saw that you were a caring Church they noted secondly he said I saw that you were a contending church verse 2 notice it says and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and has tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and this is a reference to the false teachers of Ephesus verse 6 specifically mentioning the Nicolaitans which jesus said which i also hate and somebody might say well jesus doesn't hate anything let me tell you something my friend Jesus Christ hates of that doctrine and those untruths that lead men and women to a Chryslers hell proverbs chapter 6 these 6 things that the Lord hate yayyyy seven are an abomination there are some things that the Lord hates and and and he says I hate false teaching and and here we see that they were a contending church that the Nicolaitans were people that the word meant rulers of the people they had established somewhat of a hierarchy there at Ephesus and they would go about mistreating people and somewhat like cults today taking advantage of them for what they could get rather than ministering the truth of Jesus Christ and and and Paul says I saw you taking a stand and I do want to pause to say this and listen very carefully Jesus rather is speaking here to the church at Ephesus and and he commends the church at Ephesus and I want you to think about this he commends them for their discernment he commends them for their contending he commends them if you will for their discrimination you said we're not supposed to discriminate we're to be tolerant no no when you see something that is evil and wicked you are wise to discriminate against it and to turn from it we call it sometimes biblical separation and and there are many young preachers today that are growing weak in this area and many churches that are showing the signs of leadership that do not want to take the stand to become separate to come out and be separate they they're giving an uncertain sound God has called us to give a certain sound and the great thing Jesus says he isn't saying to them hey you were too feisty and you shouldn't call out names Jesus calls out a name and I just want to make that point he is commending their separation so biblical separation from false teaching is not rebel rousing now believe me I've seen rebel rousing where sometimes people are just you know kind of frustrated about other things but but when it comes to the truth we need to be willing to stand up and as the Bible says in Jude in verse 3 earnestly contend for the what faith right and sometimes I've heard preaching where oftentimes people are loudest where the Bible is silent and and and that's okay because we all have preferences I suppose but let me tell you something where we ought to be really loud and dogmatic and willing to take a stand is where the truth is concerned and the church at Ephesus had it right they took the right stand on the right things and so I just submit to you that when we take a stand and we say look at that group they might be trying to do some good but their doctrine is not sound and we cannot yoke together with that group that's not being a rebel rouser that's being a biblical Christian that Jesus says good job biblical separation is commended by Jesus Christ he said I'm glad fact notice what he says there in verse 2 he says he says you cannot bear those which are evil and you have tried those which say they are apostles now just just think about this for a moment some of you how many of you were saved out of Roman Catholicism let me see your hands alright so they say that Peter was a Pope and I've always wondered if Peter was the first pope why in the world did he have a mother-in-law that one is always a brainteaser for me but um they say he was first pope in that there's a succession and that these popes have apostolic authority they are the modern-day apostles and we would say that every man is a sinner who needs to be saved and and and the church at Ephesus would have said that they would if these Christians were alive today they would reject that the president of the Mormon Church is a modern day apostle of the Latter day Saints they would completely reject that they would be right on when it comes to standing against the false teachings and those that say they are apostles and are not and notice what it says in verse 2 it says and they have found them as liars in other words they they they made an accounting of what was being taught by these false teachers at Ephesus and when it didn't match up to the Bible this was their attitude let God be true and every man a what liar I mean that's that was their conclusion and so Jesus says good job you were a caring Church you were a contending church you tried the spirits to see whether it was right and then thirdly they were a consistent Church verse 3 says and has born and has patience and for my name's sake hast laboured and hast not fainted they had just struggled on and struggled on and how many of you would say to this point right here man that sounds like one great church would you agree with me on that I mean they were caring they were contending I mean we would call that today balance I mean they had the love and and they had the the willingness to stand up they had the grace the truth and they were continuing on and so for that they received the Lord's approval he says I've seen it it's great but now let's notice secondly the Lord's accusation and we come to that word in verse four Dever the less you know if you've ever read the book the one minute manager the one minute manager I think is really based off of a study of the management principles of Jesus and maybe from these very passages because the one minute manager they say if you want to help somebody within just a moment's time you've got to give them a one minute praise right and then you give them the one minute reprimand and then you give them the one minute goal setting a lot of these coaches will do this this week and well some of them skip the praise nevermind coaches are a bad illustration of that coaches don't have time always for the praise they'll do that later but you'll watch people in management sometimes they'll call someone they'll say hey you know you are doing a wonderful job as a bus captain your compassion your faithfulness your mercy and then you hear the next word but the way you drove the bus and the flower garden of mrs. mcgillicuddy and and the way that you threw that kid out of the bus or whatever they did and you know when that word but or nevertheless comes you're gonna hear the other side of the story right in the one minute manager you're gonna hear the other side and Jesus is saying you did this so well nevertheless however and what did you say in verse four nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love now folks this is one of the scariest things in the Christian life and it's a proven fact that you can be singing in the choir you can be teaching lessons you can be counting and offering you can be preaching a sermon you can be directing traffic you can be doing all of that with a cold heart and Jesus sees that and Jesus says you're doing all this stuff but you don't love me like you used to love me and that's why the theme of revival is so important and that's why I told you on the very first service of this year this year is not going to be so much about what you're doing but about who you are in Jesus Christ God did not create us to be human doings he created us to be human beings to be something with him to be in fellowship with him to be still and to know him and to walk with Him and so the Lord's accusation first of all he says to them your passion has lessened he said you have you've lost your first love you've you've lost the excitement of the the death burial and resurrection you know over the years and I've I've been in church my entire life of course and I've heard so many hundreds of messages and I grew up hearing such great preachers but it always was amazing to me when someone loses their first love they don't get excited about what they used to get excited about you know when you are in love with Jesus one of the most exciting things in the world is seeing someone else get saved no just there's nothing quite like that or seeing someone get baptized you'll know you've lost your first love when one of your main thoughts on the third point on Sunday morning is how can I get out of here as quickly as possible I mean more than you're thinking I hope that guy in front of me that looks a little rough that maybe is a visitor I hope he gets saved more than you're thinking that you're thinking I hope I can beat the Methodists to the Marie Callender's restaurant you've lost your first love when you're thinking well you know that song was okay but I haven't heard it before or that lights out or why is he doing that wait a minute all of the sudden you begin to focus on things you care about but you're not caring about the most important things and you can be in church with standards out the gills and not be right with God your heart can be cold isn't that amazing and here we see that their passion this working this fundamentally separated Church had lost their passion and the Bible says their passion had less in Ephesians 1:15 wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints he says you were a church that had faith and you were a church that had love and zeal but you've lost it I'm gonna tell you something when when someone falls in love you can tell they're in love I was going to prayer Saturday morning walking to prayer and there was one that college young men just standing on the sidewalk standing on the curb in front of a girl's dorm just standing there and he looked lonely she was probably intentionally looking at the window making him wait and then his girlfriend walked out I said how you doing he said okay his girlfriend walked I said doing better now you can tell when someone's in love one little five-year-old was asked what it was love all about he said love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving Cologne and they go outside and smell each other one little girl says love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your french fries without making them give you any of theirs love when someone's in love you can tell you can sense that they're happy in the Lord the little things don't bother them you know a carnal Christian someone that doesn't have that same love they'll take a little thing and make it bigger every little thing gets big a spiritual Christian can take something that could be big and just make it smaller and I find that people that are in love with the Lord they tend to keep the main thing the main thing and the main thing is hoping other people know about the Lord and so Jesus says in verse 4 I have somewhat against thee just just imagine Jesus with with eyes of flame saying to you I have some what against you and and I just want to say tonight I want to encourage you tonight let's not serve the Lord merely out of duty let's serve the Lord because we love the Lord I think every honest Christian who's been saved any more than a few years would say there's times when I did something because I knew it's right and that's commendable there's times when we all do things we're dogs tired or we're sick or I've had times five I've been so sick I have to lay down in between services and try to take some medicine and get propped up to come back and preach in and I'm just saying it's not like we always just feel so great and it's always just a natural thing and sometimes you do what is right to do and that's commendable but may I also say that if you're just doing it because you hold an office or because you're a teacher or because you've been a member do you kind of think it's expected of you after a while you're gonna find that you the arm of the flesh is gonna fail you duty will take you for a little while and duties okay but the real motivation for serving the Lord is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ falling in love with Jesus again and so he says I have somewhat against you Paul said the love of christ constraineth us in the morning when I rise give me Jesus give me Jesus I remember when I was in Bible College and I used to go stand in front of the door my wife was in there was called Charlie Hall was it Charlie your uncle Charlie Charlie Hall uncle Charlie was that maybe a movie or TV show or something Charlie Hall man I tell you I'd stand out there I'd get there early I'd wait she could've been an hour late it didn't matter as soon as she came she was there I remember when she would write me letters and she was up in the Bay Area during the summertime and I was working down in LA and she'd write letters and I'd come right back to the school 1 o'clock in the morning and and I started trying to smell to see if I could smell the perfume maybe she put on the letter and I'd opened that letter up maybe at 1:00 or so in the morning right there and read every word and reread every word not think to myself she only said she loved me two times not three like the last letter I was like an analytic detective insecure Baptist how many of you lad you can read the Bible and you don't have to wonder if the Lord loves you feel so bad for those that are in the Islamic faith that not one time does the Koran tell them that God loves them I'm so glad I know that God loves me what a joy to serve a god that loves us their passion had lessened their witness had diminished look at verse 5 it says remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove that candlestick out of his place except thou repent they they had they had a lack of love they were fallen their light was diminished Howard Hendricks said in the midst of a generation screaming for answers Christians are stuttering here they were in the great city of Ephesus and they weren't as active to witness like they should have been and you know when someone's lost their first love and instead of passing a track out on the commuter bus or instead of inviting a neighbor to a Easter program they just kind of go dull and they go quiet because they've fallen in their spirits Lehmann Straus said it this way a wife or husband may remain faithful and may give evidence of careful attention in matters pertaining to each other and yet there may be a decline in their first love similarly a church member may be very regular in his attendance at services but no amount of activity however intents can compensate for a lack of love right and the answer tonight is not to resign the ministry the answer is to fall in love with Jesus again you see there their witness had diminished this was an evidence that their love had declined the lack of love led to a lessening of service and we see this here in the passage he says to them in verse 5 remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works he says you're not doing what you did at first Matthew 24:12 is in your notes it's an amazing verse it says and because iniquity shall abound the love of I shall wax cold would you say that with me and because iniquity shall abound listen very carefully iniquity is abundant in our society some of the most heinous murders I've ever heard of seem to be daily occurrences the opioid epidemic is beyond out of control the open immorality in our society and even in churches is an indication of a culture that is rotting at the core and the Bible says because this iniquities abounding because the funny shows on TV always seem to lift up wicked lifestyles because this iniquity is so abundant the love of many shall wax cold in other words the culture becomes so influential that the love that we once had for the Lord is tainted it's diminished it's cooled down because of all of this stuff that we're having to see and filter and turn away from and hearing about and the fact of the matter is that many just slowly get worn down many times people stop going to church and stop reading their Bibles and why their love has wax cold their love for the Lord now their interest in the things of the world the entertainment of the world that is on the rise but the love for the Lord is going down and so the Lord's accusation against them is very clear your passion has lessened and your service has diminished but let's notice finally tonight as we close the Lord's advise what does the Lord tell someone who's lost their first love what does he say to the church at Ephesus what does he say to us tonight I want you to notice first of all in this passage at verse 5 Jesus says remember therefore remember could I just encourage you that sometimes it's good to remember I mean it's good to remember some things it's good to remember when you got saved how many of you remember when you got saved let me let me see your hand I mean it's good just to go back to that moment I remember when I was saved as a 10 year old boy at 42 Wayne away and I remember realizing that though I was a preacher's son I wasn't truly saved and on my way to heaven and I remember walking out of my parents bedroom that night just seeming like I could fly I was so excited and burdens were lifted and it was just awesome and I became my mother's assistant bus captain and wanted to tell everybody about Jesus and it was just a wonderful thing and I remember when God called me to preach as a as a seventh grade boy and I I remember the first time at this church we had a hundred and the first time we had a thousand and the first time we gave a million dollars to missions and I'm just telling us sometimes it's good to just remember some things that God has done in your life that's what Jesus said verse five remember therefore from whence thou art fallen he said I want you to remember back a little bit where you were and where you've come I want you to think about it Rome of Psalm 105 five remember his marvelous works which he hath done remember what's gone on here think about where you were and where you are now sometimes it's good to remember because normally what happens is that thankfulness produces thankfulness if someone just honestly thinks about what God has done for them how many of you are like me you can say God's been good in my life remember where you were and how joyful you were and then he says in verse five and and and remember from whence thou art fallen and then notice the second word is the word repent repent how many of you have heard that word at least once from this pulpit in the last five weeks raise your hand okay and someone says well I thought repentance is just like when someone gets saved and they changed their mind about themselves and the need they have for Christ and they turn to Jesus Christ and absolutely repentance and faith are our two sides of the same coin with respect to salvation but I have found that a mature believer is someone who practices repentance after salvation it's someone who can quickly say I've been wronged and say well we're in the dispensation of grace my sins are forgiven and and and so it's it's it's already forgiven and yes God's grace is sufficient you're forgiven but I think of what Paul said should we continue in sin that grace may abound god forbid and I believe that when we recognize that there's been this lessening of love and joyous service for the Lord it's a good thing to turn around and say Lord would you forgive me for merely going through the motions for such heartless service Lord I want to repent of that I want to change my mind and turn around because of that we live in a world of convenient repentance if I get my job back if I don't get kicked out of school then I'll repent if there's something in it for me then I'll repent you know the fact of the matter is sometimes Christians want to play let's make a deal with God there's that look at here's the deal yes you're already loved you're already forgiven but repentance is so that you might head back in the right direction see remember back in 1989 Petros was banned from baseball for betting on his own baseball games while his manager of the Cincinnati Reds so rose finally admitted his guilt and an autobiography written in 2004 about 15 years later then in 2006 Rose began using his personal website to apologize to each fan now how many of you would say wow that's pretty good I mean he he admitted to cheating and now he's on his personal website he's apologizing and so as he's apologizing on his website he said and for only 299 dollars plus four dollars and ninety five for shipping and handling I will send you an autographed baseball that says I'm sorry I bet on baseball a convenient repentance we should not repent simply to save face simply to avoid getting kicked out of school or getting a job back or making our spouse happy the reason to repent is so that you can come back to place of first love to be right in your fellowship with the Lord second Corinthians seven and nine now I rejoice not that you were made sorry but that you sorrow to repentance for ye were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us and nothing for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death as we saw a few weeks ago in James chapter 4 and verse 8 draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded and so what is the counsel of the Lord to this church at Ephesus what is his advice to them at this moment of their spiritual journey he says I want you to remember remember where you were and remember what's happened here I want you to repent of the fact that you've been very religious and doing all the right things but not with the right heart I want you to turn back to me I want this to be about a relationship that we have and then he says finally he says I want you to receive look at verse 7 and he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God he said would you listen to the spirit would you recognize that there is a refreshing message for you and verse 7 I believe speaks specifically to perhaps the tribulation Saints here he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death all of the saved will have a season of refreshing but he says I want you to listen to the words I want you to he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches can I encourage you about something tonight just think about this for a moment would you just think about when you were first saved would you think about when the burden of sin was lifted would you think about the first time you sang Amazing Grace or maybe the first time you went to Sunday school or maybe when you were saved at a teen camp or maybe the first time you went to a revival meeting what is it about us that can become conditioned to the been-there-done-that right look at I understand you get a new car it smells good you take good care of it and and and and then I understand too that coke spills on it and ketchup gets on it and kids are in it and after a while it's just well it's it's just an old car but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever and we should not treat our Lord like a used car but every morning we had to wake up and say Lord thank you for saving my soul thank you for making me whole it's a privilege to walk with you today the psalmist certainly neglected the work of God in his heart David sinned his sins are recorded in the scriptures but when David repented he said restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit I've observed many and I'm observing some now that have had a part of their faith journey here who are not as faithful as they want should be and there's no doubt in my mind their sin in some of these lives perhaps immorality perhaps covetousness perhaps pride the devil has a whole arsenal of things but I'm gonna tell you something whatever the devil uses to pull you away from your relationship with Jesus Christ not just the church but from your relationship of abiding in Jesus Christ of you as a branch abiding in the vine whatever the devil uses it will steal your joy every single time and with David it was lust it was Bathsheba which was followed by murder which was followed by lying and finally when David was confronted and when David repented he said these words Lord restore the joy of my salvation and I believe when we have that right relationship with the Lord the joy returns there's nothing between my soul and my Savior and I'm not talking about the holy laughter movement or just Christian comedy I'm talking about the joy of the Lord is my strength and there's something wonderful about knowing that you are right with God and knowing there's nothing between you and the Savior and so you might say well I think the Lord would approve of me I mean I am pretty faithful here at the church I've taken a pretty good stand I don't do some of those things some of the other Christians do and don't believe some of these false teachers but when it comes to the Lord's accusation your first love how you doing there and I would challenge you tonight to receive his advice if the first love is not what it once was then repent and just turn back to the Lord and say Lord forgive me for getting so busy distracted all involved in my little petty issue that I got my eyes off of you and Lord I want to restore that first love

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

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Length: 38min 50sec (2330 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2018