4-19-23 Service: Service With a Smile (Part 2)

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty, Baptist

Church in Eastern Massachusetts. You can find out more about us

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message from God's word will be a blessing to you.

As we continue our Series in Revelation and we are looking at

the seven churches, just ABS a bit of review because it's

probably a good thing for us to take a few minutes to review.

Revelation 2 and Revelation, 3 are letters that were written to

seven literal churches that were in Asia Minor.

They were the ones that first received the Revelation from

John there on the Isle of Patmos.

And Jesus Christ has a message for each pastor of the seven

churches and we're To look at each of these churches.

We tried to get through Ephesus last week.

We were not able to do so, but that's okay.

And we are going to look at each of these churches.

And we're going to find that, although they are seven literal

churches that were around around 90, ad, or so.

And many years after as well. We also see that these seven

churches are representative of churches today, as well and some

of the difficulties and some of the issues and some of the

triumphs that churches have today as well.

And so, there's a lot that we're going to find the Reinstructive

from these churches. And so we started from Ephesus

last week and we saw that each of the seven churches is going

to receive for the most part. A commendation Jesus is going to

say things that these churches did, right?

They're going to receive a complaint.

There's some things that these churches did wrong and then

they're going to receive a charge, all right?

This is what the Lord wants you to do.

And so, we started looking at that, with Ephesus Ephesus is an

interesting Town. It was a town that was prestige.

Aegis. Remember it was the greatest

Metropolis in the Roman Empire in Asia during that time.

It's great and wide Harbor allowed shipping to come in

trade between East and West. A lot of time flowed right

through Ephesus. It was a prestigious place, it

was a political place because of its great Prestige.

It was called a free sitting. The Roman Empire did not place

any army there in and a military presence with in Ephesus, they

were able to self And as long as they mind their p's and q's,

they were able to self govern themselves.

Are there were political place but they were also very Pagan

places. Well, you remember that Diana

was the Goddess that was worshipped there and all of the

great debauchery that took place, the god of fertility.

And so because of that, the sexual acts that took place

there in the name of worship and of course, Pagan worship false

worship. But In the name of worship, all

of that took place there in Ephesus.

And so we looked at all of that last week and we really only got

to the first part of our lesson and I'm a little bit off down

here. There we go.

We've got to the first part of our lesson last week, which was

the Commendation and so we will look at that and as we do.

So let's go ahead and read our text again tonight.

So Revelation Chapter 2, and we'll begin in verse number one.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

Where it says this, it says, To the angel of the Church of

Ephesus. Write these things saith.

He that holdeth the Seven Stars in his right hand, who walketh

in the midst of the seven, golden candlesticks.

I know that works and thy Labour, and thy patience.

And how thou canst, not bear them, which are evil, and thou

Hast, tried them, which say they are Apostles, and are not and

Hast found them. Liars and has born and has

patience, and for my name's sake Hast, laboured and Hast, not

fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat

against thee because thou Hast Left thy, First Love, 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 thy Candlestick, out of his place, except thou

repent. But this thou Hast that, thou

hatest the Deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate

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 garden of paradise. And so in verses number two, and

three And 6, we see that Jesus gives the pastor and the church

at Ephesus a commendation. What does he say of them?

He says, I know your Works, you're working, you're doing

something your labor again, re-emphasizing that by patients,

that they were patient in the work that they did for the Lord,

and thou canst, not bear them, which are evil.

That meant that they were not going to carry that worldliness.

That was there in Ephesus with them in the church as they went

that They were going to not have that.

Be a part of their church and has tried them which say they

are Apostles, and are not and Hast found them Liars.

They didn't take those who call themselves quote-unquote.

Apostles at face value, they took their message and balanced

it against the word of God, and they let the word of God be true

as it says. And every man a liar, they

looked at these ones who call themselves Apostles.

And if they were not Apostles, they had no part of them.

They took no counsel from them verse 3 and has borne.

And as Patience. Once again and for my name's

sake Hast, laboured and Hast, not fainted they worked, they

worked hard. And despite the difficulty of a

church being planted in such a wicked and depraved place.

Like Ephesus, they did not faint, they kept going and going

for the Lord. And the verse 6, we looked at

this, but this thou Hast that, thou hatest the Deeds of the

Nicolaitans, which I also hate and we don't know exactly who

the Nick Elations are as a little bit of review.

But we do know that their name literally Early means to conquer

the people and we saw that it may very well be that it was the

very start of the Priestly assumption that would turn into

later. The Roman Catholic Church in 300

or so ad. When Constantine puts his

official stamp of the Roman Empire upon the church, thus the

Roman Catholic Church as we know it today being born.

And so they said Jesus says to the pastor and to the church at

Ephesus, you have not allowed this.

Type of clergy laity. This type of Priestly

assumption, this type of of preeminent Behavior by those who

call themselves leaders. You don't want it here.

And as a reminder of what I said last week, I am the pastor, but

I am a person in this church, just like anyone else, and that

God has called me to leadership position, but that does not make

me more special to the Lord than anyone else.

Is that, we all have to go to the Lord the same way and you

can see that that's not the case.

In the Catholic church and I believe that was the sin of the

nickel ations that we see here as well and will come up again

later as well. So that's the Commendation that

we found here but there was something that the church at

Ephesus wasn't doing right and it goes back to our title last

week about service with a smile. So there was the Commendation

but there's also the complaint number two.

Its complaint as wonderful as this church was it had a major

issue and this was it really one issue.

One complaint. Here it is.

They lost their first love. They lost their first love.

Look at verse number four, with me again, it says this.

Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou Hast

left thy First Love. Now, what should be the

church's? First love.

I heard that. All right.

God, that's exactly right. Thank you.

As I hear you, I can hear them, but I want to hear you.

All right. Good God.

Jesus Christ is our first love, by the way, when Jesus was asked

about the greatest commandment. What did he answer?

Love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,

with all thy mind. And the second is like unto it

love thy neighbor, as thyself upon this, hang all the law and

the prophets were just talking about that and our men's bible

study last night and so our first Love as a church ought to

be God. Now listen, that should be

common sense. We're a church.

I mean you would think because we're a church.

We just ought to naturally love God.

But can I tell you? My experience from going to

church all my life, not the right church for 17 years, but

being in the quote unquote, right?

Church since then, but still having seen a lot of things and

knowing The Human Condition, and knowing my own heart and my own.

Flesh, just because you're in church, doesn't mean you love,

God, the way you should and just because your church believes the

right, things does it mean the church loves God the way it

should? I mean it should be a slam dunk.

Here we are. It's God's church.

We talk about it regularly? No, it's not my church.

It's not rivero's church. It's not your church.

It's the Lord's Church. Well, if it's his church, we

ought to love him but here's the problem.

Sometimes we get so deep into our own thinking We get so deep

into our own ideas or listen. Sometimes we get so deep in our

servants to him. That we forget that we're

serving him but do we love him? The way we should see.

That's a problem. You say, well, Pastor as long as

you're serving the lord and you're working hard for him, you

have to love the Lord. Oh, you mean like the Pharisees?

Because it seems to me that they were tithing down to the nth

degree, but their hearts are very far from God.

Now I'm not against service to the Lord.

I think it's important. We talk about sharing our faith.

I think it's an important thing to do.

We talk about service in the church I think it's an important

thing to do. We talked about serving our

neighbors in the community, it's an important thing to do and we

do it for the Lord, but at the same time, there is an element.

If we're not careful that we can serve the Lord, while not loving

the Lord, with our heart, at the same time.

Because we get so busy in the work that we miss, why we're

doing the work in the first place.

It is easy for pastors to do Pastors.

Get so involved in budgets, they get.

So involved in church growth, they get so deep into maybe

certain situations trying to help people that church building

and church planting can end up becoming more about ego.

It can become more about self, then it is actually serving the

lord. I know some pastors, if we're

not careful, we can Be very self-serving in our leadership

and in our methods of service because we want the church to

grow. So that our status can grow, you

know, what God says about that is no part in that has no part

and parcel that he doesn't want that.

You know why we serve the Lord because we love him.

That's what it should be. That's what it's supposed to be

and that's why sure we need to encourage people to serve the

Lord once in a while we encourage people to follow the

Lord but in the end, Well then encouragement is good.

There should just be this swell within us that we just want to

serve the Lord we want to do, right?

Because we love him with all of our heart.

This is no. So how did they lose their first

love? It says, right here, in verse

number 4, I have somewhat against thee because I was lost.

I first love it, could mean a couple different things, it

could mean that they had slipped in their love for God because of

the busyness of their service, they were so busy.

Serving God, they forgot about God, some Churches and we're not

careful, we can do the same. We're not better than anyone

else or different than anyone else we can be.

So busy going here, going there, doing this doing that.

That we forget, the reason that we're doing it and why we're

doing it. That a teacher, May teach a

Sunday school class out of obligation just because she, or

he has done it for so long. But they've lost the heart to do

it for God, or maybe there's an opportunity to serve somebody

but somebody doesn't want to do it because it might

inconvenience them or they might be out a few dollars or they

might be out some of their time. But what did Jesus say when you

serve someone else, you're doing it for me, a cup of water given

to someone else is done to Christ and so these people may

it just have been that they were so busy.

And listen, they were people that worked.

They were people that labored I mean, Christ makes that quite

clear when he talks to Ephesus but could it have been that they

were so busy that they had lost their love.

I find this to be true just in my relationship with Diane.

I mean, there are times were coming and going and we barely

see each other. I'm here and she's there or

everything and it's almost like one of us.

We have to say something like this.

I feel like I haven't seen you. And, you know, the funny thing

is, maybe we have seen each other.

Maybe we've even been in the house the apartment, but we just

haven't really spent quality. Together, and I wonder if it's

that way for the Lord. We're so busy.

I got to get Sunday school, got to get the church, got to get

soul-winning, got to, get to the special meeting.

Gotta do this, gotta do that and there's nothing wrong with that

in and of itself, but if we just do it at a routine out of habit

and not out of this, I want to do it because I love him, then

we kind of Miss. What?

God has Ephesus was a great church.

They didn't great things, but maybe they just got so busy.

They lost their first love. So, that's one thing.

But it also could mean this it could have been that they

labored for God in such a way. And they were fighting evil to

such an extent that they lost their loving Spirit as they did.

So, I think this is a possibility.

Probably, when we should dwell on for a minute Ephesus was a

pagan place. There's a lot of bad things

going on. I don't have to read to you.

You don't want me to read you necessarily all of the things

that they were doing in the name of quote-unquote religion, in

Ephesus to the god of fertility, the goddess of fertility, we

don't need to, they lived in a very Pagan place on top of the

fact that the Roman Empire was a very Pagan Empire in general,

but in the midst of it, this church was planted and this

church grew and the Church Thrive.

And it was obvious that there were forces from the outside

that we're trying to work at the church on the inside.

That's why he said there were some that call themselves

Apostles, but you realize they weren't Apostles.

And you took care of them. You remove them from the

assembly. There was a nickel ations who

tried to bring their Doctrine into the church and know you

realize it was wrong and you remove them as well.

They were fighting evil at every turn.

The evil that was outside, just in the community and the evil.

That was trying to be brought into the church by the Evil one,

by the way, it's still the same today as it Satan tries to

discourage Us by what we see on the outside.

And there's occasion that Satan tries to stir up things on the

inside to try to discourage us as well.

The Bible says, we have to watch for both of those things to be

careful to not have that dissension but, you know, you

can get so busy in fighting That in the process, you lose who you

are because of the fight. Could I just maybe illustrate in

a way that we would understand very clearly today?

Party politics and such is, is seems like a losing game

nowadays. It whether, you know,

republican-democrat, it just seems like it's kind of all one

in the same, in a lot of ways. And so, this isn't a political

message, but just understand where I'm going here for just a

second. But it is very obvious.

There are forces of evil that are at play all around us today,

they're out there. They are pushing agendas in

Washington. D.c. they're pushing agendas in

Beacon Hill, they're trying to push.

Gende has agendas rather in towns and cities in classrooms.

This is very, very normal for us to see today, and it's our job

as Believers to stand for that, which is good.

And that which is right to not just accommodate the world.

And to not celebrate the world and to not approve the world and

saying, no, as a church. As much as it would be easier

for us to just go with the flow of the world system, Jesus

Christ died for that world system, so that the people in

the world could be saved. So we can't just agree with it

and celebrate it and do those things know we have to stand

against it. But wouldn't we say that those

who Become our quote-unquote opponents, whether in the

political Arena, or whether it's in these culture, wars, that

take place that we can get to the point that we look at those

people in such a way and when they say things that are just

cuckoo crazy because I mean is there, I mean that's not a

theological term but that's what it is.

They look at us and they say things we watch it on TV, you're

minding your own business. Just looking at the news online

and you're like there it is again.

I'm just trying to, you know find out what's going on in the

world today and there's something to get my blood

pressure up 30 points already and I not even trying.

When we get to that point, we start interacting with people

and could it be? Because we're trying to strive

for that, which is right in the midst of it, we lose our loving

christ-like Spirit as we're standing for that which is,

right? Because the world just wears us

down and what we look at, as opponents in the political

Arena, or as opponents in the culture wars, we look simply as

adversaries instead of as people who Did Jesus Christ, their

savior? No, that's what can happen.

You say, Pastor these people they won't get saved.

Let me ask you a couple questions one.

How do you know that? How do you know?

I know some people that had some pretty liberal opinions about

life until they got saved. And all of a sudden, their views

did not become liberal or conservative their views, became

biblical. Somebody who gave testimony in

that, like, this is my life, aren't you?

Glad that someone didn't look at you and say, oh, well, who did

you vote for? Not a like you, but if we don't,

we're not careful the news, the media, the influencers, the

Twitter feed, the social media will condition us that it's us

against them. When the real issue is this,

it's them against Jesus Christ who is trying to draw them unto

him and we are to be his ambassadors to go and love them.

Still standing for what's right? No not going and approving no

not going. And waving a rainbow flag in

front of the church unless you want to wave the rainbow flag

and say that it's because the the Lord will never flood the

Earth again but no not doing that.

Just to try to say oh we love you, we let no that's not love

what that is is that span during Ring.

And that's taking that, which is not true and putting it out

there. Know what we need to do is stand

for what's right? Like the church at Ephesus is

but we better not lose our first love in the meantime.

And as we love, Jesus Christ, the way we should and we do all

of a sudden, we don't look at them as the adversary.

We look at them as someone who needs to get saved.

It's a big difference. But this is where we're at today

and I'm telling you read wants red to hate blue and blue wants

blue to hate red and we're living in the middle of it right

now. And you know what red does it to

play read like a fiddle so they get their way and blue does it

to Blue to play Blue like a fiddle.

So they can get their way and in the meantime who's the one that

supposed to be in control God and we're following marching

orders of politicians and influencers and people that we

have no business listening to because they have no idea what

they're talking about well that politicians a Christian.

Well, Praise the Lord if they are.

But I've seen far too many politicians that name the name

of Christ to whip us up into a frenzy and then get their own

way. I've seen it far too many times.

I don't know if you're having fun and I'm enjoying myself.

That's good. You're all nodding.

I mean it's almost it's almost like your Baptist you're

nodding, that's good. I mean that's I'm you're not if

you're not going to a man and not as good.

Tomato is good. Whatever feedback is good

whatever. It's like, but the tomato is

red. So I mean it's you know, it's a

mind but yeah, it's but no. Do you understand where we're

going this night? Because I think sometimes we can

be so busy. We lose our love for the Lord.

But sometimes that first love because the first Love Is Love

the Lord, but the second is love thy.

As thyself. And so they have to go together.

And so we need to remind ourselves.

Here's the Ephesians. So great in so many ways, but

they lost their love and we can't get there, Robert Sergeant

wrote this and this is really good.

What lesson, what a lesson to be learned here.

A church that is active and Orthodox.

Yet black backslidden yet. This is the way of backsliding.

Both on a church level and on a personal level.

It is a gradual almost imperceptible process.

We begin to love. Of the work of the Lord, more

than the lord of the work. Think about that.

We begin to love the work of the Lord.

More than the lord of the work. Backsliding is often thought of

as missing church services quitting and areas of service or

Etc. But this is the ending point, a

Christian could be backslidden and yet attend every church

service and be actively involved in a host of worthwhile

Ministries. That's tough.

A Christian can be backslidden and yet attend every church

service and be actively involved in a host of worthwhile

Ministries. Well, as long as I'm in the

right place, doing what the pastor says?

No, that's what the Pharisees did.

And what did Jesus say? We just looked at this last

night unless your righteousness exceed that righteousness of the

Pharisees. Well, hold on a second.

There were supposed to be most righteous of all well know,

their hearts weren't right, their bodies were in the right

places but the hearts weren't we can't do the same and have a

right doctrinal statement. But then have our hearts far

from God. We can't have that.

So that's the complaint that Christ has.

Number one, we see the Commendation number two.

We see the complaint number 3. And finally tonight, we see this

If we see the charge, the charge, what are they supposed

to do to fix this? This is not good.

What should they do to fix it? They are so good and so many

ways. But there's a problem here.

What should they do to fix it? Look at verse number five,

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 thy Candlestick out of his place.

Except thou, repent. There's three words that I have

underlined, in my Bible in that verse Jesus Christ is telling

the pastor and the church at Ephesus to do to be able to get

themselves. Right.

The first is this remember remember remember what remember

therefore from whence Thou Art Fallen.

It's almost as if he's saying this.

Remember when you were in love with Jesus?

Go back to that last place you were loving Jesus when Abraham

got away from the Lord and went down to Egypt.

The Bible said that, he went back to Toulouse where the altar

was were he had met God before? And some of us, maybe just need

to get back to that place where we knew that our relationship

and our love. For the Lord, was what it was.

And we just need to remember what that was like, remember how

beautiful that was remember what it was like, when prayer was

sweet? Remember what it was?

Like, maybe that time that you fasted and God really did

something in your heart. Remember that time?

When you got to lead someone to Christ and how sweet?

That was. Remember those things?

Remember what it was, like, remember that love, and remember

that joyous Fellowship that you had in the Lord remembers?

That but then the second word I've underlined there is repent

meaning. This don't just remember it.

They'll go back to that way. Repent.

Okay Lord. I my love is to the ministry.

Instead of to you, my love is to my own efforts or my own.

Thoughts are my own desires and send it to you.

So now I am going to turn. I have changed my mind about

what I'm going to do. I remember what that was?

And I'm going back because I want to love you as I should I

want to go back to my first love.

I remember. Her and I repent, and then the

most important part, maybe that the next word and do do it now.

Go and do those things you remembered and repented over and

do the first Works. He says, remember when it was

sweet remember when the love was the way, it should have been

Ephesus. He says, Ephesus, you're not far

from where you need to be. Just remember what it used to

be. Like and repent.

Turn back around from the direction you're going.

And then do the things that you used to do and God will approve

you. But here's the thing.

If the people at Ephesus did not listen, there were consequences.

Because it says this remember therefore from whence Thou Art

fallen and repent and do the first works or else.

What does that mean? There's a consequence.

If you don't do what asked you to do, there's a consequence

here is what it is. I will come unto thee quickly,

and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place except thou

repent. Now, we might look at that and

say, well what does that mean? Removing the Candlestick that

doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.

We'll remember, this is something that Is already

revealed to us a little bit ago. So jump up to Revelation chapter

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

1, verse number 20, and you'll see very quickly what this

means, the mystery of the Seven Stars, which thou saw'st 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 saw'st are the seven churches.

So, what is Jesus Christ saying here?

He says, you need to get it right or if you don't I'm

pulling your Authority as a church.

You'll be a Gathering Place will be an assembly, but you won't be

my church. And it makes you wonder how many

places that meet on Sunday have a cross in front, have people

that open their Bibles and maybe even have doctrine, that seems

correct. But yet God says this, you may

look right, you may have the right symbolism, you might talk

the right words, but you don't have my authority.

I've taken the Candlestick away because You've lost your first

love. You're in it for the love of

self, you're in it, for the love of the work, you're in it for

the love of the authority, you're in it for the love of

whatever it is, you not in it for the love of me.

And if you don't love me, then you don't need my authority, go

for it on your own. That's tough, that's tough.

And what's so startling about this as he's not talking about a

church that has Doctrine that's wrong.

He's talking about a church that has the right doctrine, that

hates Doctrine that wants to get it out of their church but he

says this you don't get this love thing, right?

With me, you lose your Authority, you're no longer a

church and it's something that I think about a lot and something

that the Lord has to remind me about often and time and time

again, that it's not just enough to be proud that our Doctrine is

good and right and that our Doctrine, I believe a sound

biblically, but we better be living that which we say we

believe, and we better look. Love the one who we say, we

believe in chiefly Above All Else.

And I'm probably gonna end up preaching a message on this

later on and we were talking about this last night in men's

bible study. So I don't want to get too deep

into it here but we get so deep into the do's and don'ts.

Here's what you should do. Here's what you shouldn't do and

there is a good place for that. We should talk about these

things because the Bible does say there's things that we

should do and there's things we shouldn't do.

And God tells us this out of his abundance of love for us because

he knows those things that we shouldn't do or harmful for us

and he wants to keep those things out of our Lives because

he wants us to have the best. East but here's what we forget

the do's and the don'ts, you can throw them all away.

You're saying really? If you just love Christ, the way

you should. Remember, love Christ, love

others upon this hangs, all the law and the prophets, the law

was our Schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus Christ, but now we are

no longer under that. Schoolmaster, it is a good

understanding for us to understand the Holiness of God

helps us to understand his character.

It helps us to understand his ways.

But at the same time, if I just love him with all my heart, and

all my soul, and all my mind, everything else just works

itself out the way it should. Because if you love someone

deeply and they tell you, I don't want you to do that.

Do you tell that person? Well, show me where it says

that. You say no if that bothers you,

I won't do well with God. The things that are sin aren't

just bothersome to him. There were two front as

Holiness, and not only that but he knows that we partake in

them. It's not for our good either,

it'll hurt us, he wants to protect us.

So we just love him as we should.

And if we don't even if our doctrines, right, we get

ourselves into a place where we are so far off.

God says, you're not even church anymore, because I've been in

Baptist Church. I've been Independent Baptist

Churches, where you go in and it's as cold as a meat locker.

And it is as dry as the Sahara Desert.

But their doctrinal statement on their website lines up down to

every Point, could it have been that they lost that Authority?

The Christ gave them because they lost their first love,

because they got caught up in something else other than Jesus.

So that gets us back. And here's, here's it says, in

verse 7, and I need to address that says he that hath an ear.

Let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches, we're

going to see that at the end of every letter, but then it says

this to him, that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree

of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Now, I need to cover this quickly because we're going to

see the Overcomers if you will, at the end of every letter and

if you're reading that to him, that overcometh, will I give

will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of

the paradise of God, you might get The mindset that salvation

is something that you have to persevere, until the end.

You got to overcome so that you'll be able to go to heaven.

But that's not what it's saying here.

And it's again, why we have to compare scripture with

scripture, the Overcomers that we see in each of these seven

letters. Clearly point to those who just

know Jesus Christ, their savior not because they persevere, I've

overcome until the end. Well, guess who overcame sin and

death and Hell? Jesus Christ.

We are Overcomers because we have trust in As our savior

Revelation, 12:11 says this and they overcame him by the blood

of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved

not their lives unto the death. First John five, four and five

for whosoever or whether for whatsoever is born of God,

overcomes, the world. If you're born of Jesus Christ,

then you've overcome the world for this is the victory that

overcometh. The world even our faith who is

he? That overcometh the world.

But he that believeth, that Jesus is Is the Son of God.

So it brings us all the way back to the illustration.

I use at the beginning of the message, last week service, with

a smile, there's this man at Shaw's it says on the back, ask

me how to save on the back of his T-shirt.

He looked very upset, he looked very angry probably because he

was gathering carts at 7:30 in the morning outside of Shaw's.

And I just looked at him and all I thought was, I would I wonder

what would happen if I asked you how to save it probably would

not be very pleasant your shirt says to ask.

Q. But your demeanor says, stay

away. But when I thought of that last

week and I'm preparing this message, I thought, boy, was

that what Ephesus was like, they had the right message, but they

didn't have the love. And so because of that, nobody

wanted to maybe talk to them about the Lord, is that what we

are like. Oh, we're right.

But we've lost our love. And so sure we say, well, I wish

someone would ask me about Jesus Christ, nobody wants to talk to

you because maybe our life doesn't radiate that love the

way that it should that kindness that compassion that patients,

that it should. We're supposed to serve him, but

we should serve him with a smile.

We should serve him, joyfully, it should be a joy to come to

church. It should be a joy to give it

should be a joy to share our faith with other people to

watch. People get saved to sing to to

Worship in the church to do any of these things.

It's just be a joy, why? But if I don't Pastor won't be

happy, that's I'm not part of that equation.

Or shouldn't be. No, really it's about or I want

to make you happy because you have given me, joy, unspeakable,

and full of Glory. I just want to be able to serve

you and I want to do so with gladness and with a good spirit

it's what Ephesus was missing. We want to make sure we don't

miss at our church as well. Thank you for listening to the

sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

If this message was a blessing to you or if there's any way we

can serve you, please Let us know by contacting us at info.

At my Liberty Baptist dot org. Or you can visit us this Sunday

at eight hundred Washington Street and East and

Massachusetts may the Lord bless you as you grow in his word.

Let us know by contacting us at info.

At my Liberty Baptist dot org. Or you can visit us this Sunday

at eight hundred Washington Street and East and

Massachusetts may the Lord bless you as you grow in his word.