Revelation: A Message to Ephesus

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants,

the things which must soon take place.

He sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant John,

who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ,

even to all that he saw.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy

and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write,

the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand,

the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this,

I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance,

and that you cannot tolerate evil men.

And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles,

and they are not, and you found them to be false.

And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary.

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Therefore remember from where you have fallen,

and repent and do the deeds you did at first,

or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place,

unless you repent.

Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans,

which I also hate.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life,

which is in the paradise of God.

And this is the reading of God's Word.

Okay, so we, if you're joining us for the first time, you're like,

okay, I don't know what I got into with that scripture reading there.

Oh, by the way, we had an amazing, amazing lunch afterwards

with the church last Sunday for the fourth anniversary.

And Marcus, Marcus Tandra, Jeffrey, so Marcus, come here, buddy.

So Marcus gave me this, we had this crossword puzzle we were trying to work out,

and Marcus and I, we could not find out cupcake, right?

And you came here and you said, I don't think that it's on there.

Your wife probably just did his trick.

So I found it, it's right there.

See that?

Cupcake is backwards.

Okay, it took me a while.

I was like, oh, no, it's on here somewhere.

Hey, you know, we are, hey, we had a great time last Sunday.

Today, we are looking at a passage in a book that I heard often taught,

and I was always kind of, man, scared,

because the pastors I heard teach this book,

they got up here and they said, let me tell you how it's going to happen.

This is what it's going to look like,

and this is what the end of times are going to be like.

And I sat there as a young Christian, just in awe, in fear,

and then as a young pastor and as a seminary student, in awe and fear,

wondering if I would ever have the confidence to say,

this is how it's going to happen, and you can bet on it for sure.

And I can tell you that I don't.

There's about four different interpretations for the Scripture,

and God-fearing people who love Christ throughout the 2,000 years

have interpreted some of these passages in many, many different ways.

Some of us, when we come to the Book of Revelation,

I don't know if you've watched TV lately,

but there are some significant shows on TV right now about end times

and what happens when people get taken up and some people are left over.

And there's like four or five major shows,

and it seems like the secular world is very fascinated with this idea

of whether it's zombies that survive and we're trying to live,

but they're very fascinated with this idea of apocalypse and the end of times.

And we want to look at this passage, we're going to look at just chapters 2 and 3 to begin with.

And in the book, some of your Bibles will probably say,

they call it the apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

Apocalypse means the end time.

And again, sometimes as Christians, we think too, too much of this.

We become embroiled in this idea of end times,

and it consumes all of our life.

Joe Littlepache.

So I was in this little high school,

and Joe, I was a sophomore, I was a fairly young Christian,

and Joe was a senior, and we had Bible class in our school,

and we started studying Revelations,

and Joe was studying with a teacher,

and Joe was convinced that Jesus was going to come back in May of that year.

I mean, he just knew for sure that that was the end of the world,

and Jesus was going to come back in May,

and so Joe, he just refused to study.

So Joe, his senior year, he didn't do his homework.

So if you're a student in here, this is not a good thing.

He didn't do his homework.

He didn't study, and whenever we were asked,

well, why aren't you doing it?

He goes, well, it's the end of the world.

Why do we have to worry about that?

Because Jesus is going to come back, and I don't need to study.

And you know what happened to Joe?

Joe was with us next year in school

because he failed out because the end of the world didn't happen,

and he didn't study, and he had to learn all about that.

And then some of us, we just kind of think in our mind,

well, it's not really important to me today.

I don't really think about Jesus coming back

because when he comes back, I'm just going to be dead.

And I can just live my life now, have a lot of fun,

and get everything I need done,

and I'm not going to worry about that

because there's a lot of grace, and God will forgive me,

and when he comes back, I'll be dead.

But you know, when we look at this book today

and these next couple weeks as we look at these churches

that John is talking to,

it's probably one of the most practical books

we can look at as Christians.

It's probably one of the books that talks a lot

about what does it mean to be a follower of God.

It talks a lot about Christ and who he is,

and it talks a lot about God.

It talks a lot about the church,

and there are so many things that we can learn

from this time and this book,

and so I'm excited to kind of dive into it

and just swim a couple inches,

and we'll get a little deeper,

and we'll get a little deeper,

but we're going to enter into this book of Revelations,

the Apocalypse.

It was 1980, and don't tell me if you weren't alive then, okay?

But I was alive, and I see people giggling.

It was 1980, and we went on a senior

or a high school mission trip.

It actually was just a beach project.

We went down to the beach to build houses

and to fix things and stuff like that,

and we were down in Fort Walden Beach in Florida,

and I had just come off some swimming,

and I sat down, and there's a group of us students talking,

and we were hanging out on the beach shore,

and the waves were okay.

It was a little rough, but it wasn't that bad,

and I was talking to some friends,

and unbeknownst to me, two of my best friends,

Dwayne and Steve Elliott.

They were off shore, and they were playing in the water

and hanging out, and we were all talking,

and we didn't know anything bad was going to happen

until all of a sudden we heard this mom scream,

bloody murder,

and she started screaming,

my babies, my babies,

and we were just talking and eating lunch

and hanging out,

and we looked up,

and Steve and Dwayne,

they were no longer on the shore.

They were like half a mile out to the sea.

I mean, they were hanging out,

and it was kind of calm,

but they got caught in this riptide,

and before they knew it,

they were being drugged out to the sea,

and people were panicking,

and I mean, it was incredibly scary.

I was a young kid,

and I just remember it so vividly in my mind,

and people, adults were trying to get out there,

but the waves were too strong,

and they were just getting pulled out,

and all of a sudden,

like out of nowhere,

the surfer came on a surfboard.

I hadn't seen him all day,

didn't know where he came from,

but the surfer came on a surfboard,

and he surfed out to them.

The boys draped themselves around the surfboard,

and the surfer brought them back into shore,

and when he brought them back into shore,

people were so,

I mean, they're just crying and emotional,

and they're surrounding Steve and Dwayne,

and trying to get them hydrated,

and what's going on,

and all these things,

and when we looked for the surfer,

he wasn't around.

We didn't ever see him again.

We didn't know where he went.

We just knew that there was this thing that happened,

and this surfer came up,

and saved these boys.

Now, I tell this story not because of the surfer,

because we don't know what or who the surfer was,

but I tell this story because

I think this story represents the church sometimes.

What I mean by that is

churches start off,

and they stay close to shore.

They're in the sweet spot.

They're doing the right thing.

They're hanging out.

They're in the safe zone,

but all of a sudden,

this riptide comes along,

and it's really gentle,

and it starts to pull on people,

and people don't notice it at first,

but all of a sudden,

before you know it,

you've gone from being safe as a church

where God has called you

and what he wants you to do,

to all of a sudden,

you're way out in the waves

in the ocean.

Sometimes you never get back.

You just disappear as a church

and as God's people.

You start off safe.

You start off in control.

You start off on the right path.

You start off on the beach,

but slowly,

you get moved off a track,

and we lose focus,

and we disappear,

and that's the message

that John is talking to

to the church of Ephesus.

Bear with me,

because I'm going to fill you in

on some background knowledge.

Don't go to sleep,

but you need to know this

because it's important to understand

what John is trying to say.

Now, John the apostle,

he's the apostle.

He's the one that Jesus called from the shore.

He was in Galilee.

He was fishing with his dad

and his brother, James,

and they were fishing,

and Jesus came,

and he called them away

from the fishing business,

and they started to become his disciples.

He was one of the sons of thunder.

It wasn't called the son of thunder

because he liked thunder.

It was because he was loud.

He was powerful.

He was tough.

He was part of Jesus' inner circle.

He was in that inner circle,

a group of people,

that when Jesus went up

to the Mount of Transfiguration

and he metamorphed,

he basically peeled back his skin,

and you saw what he was like inside

as he was outside.

He became as white as snow.

He was there.

He saw that happen.

He was the disciple that Jesus loved.

In the Last Supper,

there's John who's laying down

with his head against Jesus' chest,

and so he had his place of honor.

A lot of people think

that John was Jesus' cousin.

He was at the crucifixion.

All the other disciples were gone,

but John was at the crucifixion.

Remember the scene?

Jesus looks down at him.

He says,

John, take care of my mom,

and so Jesus gives John

the responsibility

to take care of Mary,

and so he's at the crucifixion,

and then he helps bury

the body of Jesus,

and then he runs off

after the tomb is open,

and he's the first one there.

He beats Peter,

and he's at the door,

and he's looking in

in the resurrected Christ.

The Christ isn't there.

The body's gone.

He's resurrected,

and from that point on,

John becomes this amazing

church leader.

He becomes this powerful force

amongst the churches

in Jerusalem

and all around Asia Minor,

and we're told in this passage

by the time we get to this point

that he's been put in prison.

Most of the other disciples

have been martyred.

They've been killed.

Peter was crucified upside down,

so if you think crucifixion is bad,

think about being crucified upside down,

and John is becoming an old man,

and he's on this island of Patmos,

this prison island,

and he's there,

and he's writing these stories,

God's word that God is speaking to him,

and we're told in the first part of John

that he's taken up into heaven,

and he sees his vision.

He sees Jesus,

and Jesus tells him to write a letter,

to write a letter to the seven churches,

to write a letter about what's going on

in their life concerning how they're doing,

what they're doing,

what they should be doing,

and he talks to them about what the end times is like.

So he's up there,

he's in this vision,

Jesus is telling him to write down everything,

he's writing down all these things,

and he's told to write a letter to these churches,

to tell them how they're doing.

My question for us is,

you ever wonder

what kind of letter Jesus would write to you?

I mean, if John was up there,

and he says,

hey, I want you to take down a letter,

and I want you to write to Tobin,

or to Steve,

or to Mary,

or to Christina,

or to Dwight,

what would be the letter

that Jesus would write to us?

I mean, as he looks at our life,

and he sees us living life,

what would he say about how we're living life?

What would he say about what we're doing?

What do you think the letter

would say

to the churches in Hong Kong?

If Jesus were to write a letter

to the churches of Hong Kong,

what would he say to them?

What would he say to Watermark?

And so he begins this letter

to this church in Ephesus,

and Ephesus was this amazing city.

It was a significant city,

and I know I'm going to get in trouble,

but I think Ephesus

is so much like Hong Kong.

I mean, it was one of the most important cities

in Asia Minor.

I mean, it was this huge city.

The Romans called it Luminasia.

It was the light of Asia.

The light emanated from Ephesus

and all the Roman Empire.

The Romans had this special agreement

with the community of Ephesus,

and the Ephesus had their own government.

They could make their own laws.

They had this massive harbor

that all these ships came into,

and all trade flowed in and out of Ephesus.

There were about half a million people

when John writes this letter.

There are four major trade routes,

and they all converge in Ephesus,

so any kind of trade,

any kind of commerce,

anything that happened

in that part of Turkey

that had to go through Ephesus.

I mean, it was powerful.

In the center of the city,

there was this temple.

It's one of the seven wonders of the world.

And if you've ever been to Greece

and you saw the Parthenon,

this temple was twice as big as that temple.

It was a temple of Diana.

And it was a center of pagan worship,

and really, really, really bad things happened there.

I mean, the city was out of control

because of this temple.

Sometimes they call it the temple of Artemis,

and there was a cult there.

And this cult was all about sex,

was all about debauchery,

all about prostitution.

The temple was actually an amazing place.

The temple was one of the first banks in history.

It was said that it was probably

one of the most secure places in history.

If you were a criminal

and you were in trouble of getting prosecuted,

you would go into the temple

because by the laws,

no one could touch you in there.

So a lot of bad things happened in the temple.

There were thousands of prostitutes

that went out every night

to sell their wares,

to sell themselves

because it was part of the worship of Diana.

It was all about sex.

And it felt like the more sex you had,

the closer you got to God.

One Greek philosopher,

I was reading some articles,

one Greek philosopher

who lived in Ephesus said this.

I mean, he was a philosopher

known as the philosopher who never smiled.

And he asked him,

why don't you ever smile?

And he said,

how can I

with the people in my city?

They're full of wickedness

and debauchery.

Another philosopher,

when he wrote about Ephesus,

he said this,

the people of Ephesus are goats.

They eat wherever they want,

they poop wherever they want,

and they fornicate wherever they want.

So Ephesus was,

in one way,

this amazing city,

but in another way,

it was not a nice city.

And in Acts 19,

Paul comes

and he plants

this small little church

in the midst of craziness.

Can you imagine that?

I mean,

I don't know what is

the worst city

that you can imagine

in your world

or where you would say,

if I had to plant a church,

this is the one place

that I would not want

to plant a church.

It's probably someplace

in Australia

or South Africa

or something like that.

The easy places

to plant church

are in Texas,

but I don't know

what that would look like

for you,

but Paul plants

this small church in there,

and we're told that

for three months

he teaches in the synagogue.

He gets kicked out

of the synagogue

because he's too radical

for the Jews.

And then he takes over

this small little school,

and for the next three years,

he basically teaches

night and day,

night and day

to the people,

and he teaches about Christ.

He teaches about the gospel.

He teaches about the freedom.

He teaches about grace.

He teaches about

all these things.

And what we're told

in Scripture

and in Acts

and other books

that this major revival

takes place.

I mean,

it's this massive revival.

I mean,

it's out of control.

People are coming to Christ.

There's stories of people,

they were really big

into witchcraft in Ephesus,

and so everybody collected books.

And there's one story

where people took

all their witchcraft books

and they burned them

because they wanted

to follow Christ

and they didn't want

those things

in their house anymore.

And we're told

that the cost of those things

was over 50,000 silver coins.

That means it's 50,000 days labor,

worth of days labor.

They just burn it up like that.

I mean,

this revival happens

and people,

they don't go to the temple anymore.

They're not paying

the prostitutes anymore.

They're not going

to the bank anymore.

It's interesting

when you put the banks

and prostitutes together.

That's a,

I don't want to go there,

but anyway,

but there's this thing there.

They don't do that anymore.

They're not buying

the silver idols anymore.

And the businessmen

get really upset.

The businessmen

get really upset

because their business

is being hurt

by the Christians

and by this thing

called the way

and people are choosing

to follow God.

And so they cause

this revolt to happen.

And they go out

and they try to actually

kill Paul.

They try to kill him

and basically he's rescued

and he's taken away

and after he leaves,

Timothy comes in

and he takes over.

And the church continues

to grow

and change the culture

and change society

and it's doing

amazing,

amazing,

amazing things.

I mean,

you can read about it

in scripture

and other books.

They're doing

some incredible things.

When Paul writes

the letter to them

in Ephesians

and you can read it

and we've studied it,

he says like 20 times,

you are a church

that loves God.

You are a church

that's doing everything right.

You are a church

that has the right priorities.

He's saying all these things

to them

but 30 years later,

Jesus tells John,

I want you to write

a letter to them.

That's what we're

going to look at.

So John writes this letter

and in the very first verse

what you see is he says,

to the angel

of the church of Ephesus

write,

to the one who holds

the seven stars

in his right hand,

the one who walks

among you,

the seven golden lampstands.

What you know

from the first chapter

is that's Jesus.

The lampstands

represent the church.

So the churches

are these light,

they're the light

and the darkness

are the Christians

in this church

and these lampstands

represent the church

and the stars

represent the pastors

and the leaders

and what he says

is that Jesus is there,

Jesus is with us

right now.

Jesus sees everything

that you're doing.

Did you hear me?

Jesus sees everything

that you're doing.

He knows what you're

going through.

There's nothing

that's going to catch him

unaware in your life.

He's there amongst

the lampstands,

he's watching,

he's in control.

And in verse two

he says this,

I know your deeds

and your toils

and your perseverance

that you cannot

tolerate evil men

and you put to test

those who call

themselves apostles.

And they are not

and you found

them to be false.

Jesus says he knows

their deeds.

He knows that they're

working,

the word there

is copious,

it means in Greek

that they're just

working to the point

of sweat and blood.

These guys in this

church of Ephesus,

they work tirelessly

for the gospel.

I mean they weren't

just spectators,

they weren't just

watching,

they were doers.

So this whole church

is this amazing

church of people

and they're just

working and serving

and doing and

feeding poor people

and going out on

mission trips

and doing all these

things.

He said they persevered,

that things got bad,

things got rough,

that people were

trying to attack them

and kill them

but they stayed in there

and they stayed it

and they sacrificed

and sometimes it even

cost them their finances

and their livelihood.

They were patient,

they were patient,

they were being afflicted

with hardships

and persecution

but they were faithful,

they didn't stand up

to wickedness.

Did you see that

in verse two?

That when wickedness

came into their midst

they didn't stand into it,

they tested every teacher.

I mean there's this thing

about circuit teachers

and they're going around

from city to city to city

and a lot of times

these new people come in

and it happens sometimes

in Hong Kong,

you just let them come in

and they preach in your service

and you don't even know

what they really believe

and what they're about

but the Ephesians

didn't do that,

they listened to everything,

they compared it

to what scripture said,

they compared it

to the gospel

and they found out

who those who were orthodox

and those who were not

and they kicked out

the false teachers

and they kept the good teachers.

The passage says

they hated immoral things.

Verse six says

they hated the followers

of Nicholas

and Nicholas was his Christian

and he basically said,

he started this cult

and he basically said

if you're a Christian

you can basically do

whatever you want

because God loves you.

That if you're a Christian

you can do anything you want

because there's grace

and there's forgiveness

and so they started this cult

and it all centered again

around sexuality

and so the followers

of Nicholas

were about sexuality

and sensualness

and John looks at them

and Jesus looks at them

and says

I'm so glad

you don't follow those people.

I'm so glad

you don't follow your flesh.

I mean they were

the pastor's dream

as a church.

I mean they did everything right.

They had good theology

and in theological terms

we call that orthodoxy,

ortho straight,

doxy teaching.

They had orthopraxy,

ortho straight,

practice right on.

So this church

did everything right

and they studied

and thought everything right.

I mean is that amazing?

I mean most churches

they spend all their time

studying their Bible

and doing all these

different programs

and they're so busy

with their head stuck

in God's word

that they don't look

at people around them

and they're not serving

and taking care of people

and then other churches

are just caring

and taking care of people

and doing things

but they don't have theology

and they just go by

their feelings

and their emotions

and you ask them

what does God's word

say about that

and they go

I don't know

but I feel like

this is the right thing to do.

But in Ephesus

they did both.

They knew the word

and they did the word.

So I have a question for you.

Would that be

a church you'd want

to be a part of?

Come on.

I mean that's your dream

isn't it?

As a pastor

that is my dream church.

I mean they're doing

everything

they're listening

to everything you said

hopefully you're not

the bad

immoral teacher

but you're the good teacher

but they're doing

everything you're doing

and I mean

they're out there

serving and they're

feeding people

they're doing everything.

They're perfect.

I mean doing everything

that God expects of them.

And then in verse 4

he says this

but

I had this against you

you've left

your first love.

You've seen the words there

what he's saying?

I mean Jesus is saying

you did everything.

You did everything

I've asked you

but you've lost

your first love.

I think in Chinese

one of the translations

actually says

you threw away

your first love.

Who's your first love?

Jesus.

So this first church

that John is writing to

because Jesus wants him

to write a message

I mean they did everything.

They had all the programs

they had all the buildings

they had everything going on

they did it all right.

But when Jesus looks at them

he looks at their heart.

And he realizes

they've lost their first love.

They've had no relationship

with Christ.

I mean Paul warned

the church at Corinth

of the same thing.

Remember that?

The church at Corinth

had all the spiritual gifts

they had everything

they had all the teaching

I mean they were

an amazing church.

And Paul said to them

he says

you know in 1 Corinthians

we read it all the time

in wedding services right?

We read it in wedding services

that love is patient

love is kind

and we think

well that's such a beautiful thing.

But in scripture

it was a rebuke.

Paul was looking at the church

and they weren't doing that.

And so he's telling them

this is what love is.

And he ends up saying

you can have all these gifts

you can have all these talents

but if you don't have love

you're

nothing.

And so the passage says

in this center

this thing

that these people

did everything

but they didn't

love Christ.

And the Bible says

that what Christ wants

most out of all of us

is our love.

He wants our relationship

with him.

Guys this was

blew my mind.

As a young Christian

all I thought was

God wanted my obedience.

And so I did

I did

I did

I did

I did

I did everything

I was told to do

I did all those things

I did it all.

And if someone were to ask me

did I do it right?

I'd say yeah

because I did everything

that God has asked me to do

but what he says here

is he doesn't want that.

He wants a relationship

with us.

I mean I think it's why

the Bible

does this make sense?

I think it's why

the Bible talks about

marriage so much

when it talks about

our walk with God.

I mean you think about it

you know you see it

in marriages

you see it in families

you see it in churches

and relationships

I mean when you fall in love

when you see that person

I mean you just

you go crazy right?

I mean you're just

loving them

you're thinking about them

you want to date them

every moment

you're just talking about

what you want to do with them

you want to be together

I mean Christina

couldn't take her hands

off of me

she just had her hands

on me all the time

because she just wanted

to be with me

and yeah why not?

but I mean that's

that's what happens

when you're in love

right?

Love consumes you

when you're in love

you want to be with that person

you want to give them

your heart

you want to give them

your time

you want to give them

your money

I mean you become

diligent

you become passionate

you become disciplined

you forgive

I mean Christina

had all these conversations

about trying to save

our money

and she was in Austin

I was in Dallas

and you know in America

telephone calls

are more expensive

if they're in the same state

it's cheaper for me

to call Hong Kong

than to call Austin

and every week

every month

I'd get this phone bill

it was like 500 US dollars

and I was a seminary student

I had no money

and I would call her up

that Sunday night

and say hey

I just got this bill

she's laughing

I would say

we cannot talk anymore

I mean this bill

I don't even know

how we're going to pay

these bills

it's 500 US dollars

I can't eat

for the next week

I don't know

what we're going to do

and she goes okay

so okay

what do you want to do?

I said well let's don't call

for at least three weeks

let's don't talk

for three weeks

we'll save the money

just don't talk

for three weeks

okay okay okay

that night

hey how you doing?

I thought we weren't

going to call

yeah but I just

want to hear your voice

I want to talk

how was your day?

and you're like okay

just give my wallet

give it to AT&T

here you go

sorry Bernard

but that's what it is

when you're in love

right?

you don't become disciplined

you become

you're giving

you're grace oriented

you can't wait

the next moment

I mean we had

these discussions

like okay

it's going to take

two hours to drive

down there

and you take

two hours for you

to drive down here

and we're going to

15 minutes together

is that enough?

that's enough

let's do it

you drive four hours

to spend 15 minutes

together right?

but that's what you did

when you're in love

that's what you did

when you wanted

to be with somebody

that's what you wanted

to be about

that's who you were

the question is

when was the last time

we felt that way

about Jesus?

when was the last time

that spending time

with him

was all consuming?

when was the last time

you were going to drive

two hours

so you could spend

that 15 minutes?

when was the last time

you were willing

to sacrifice

all these things

because the most

important thing for you

was to be with him

to pray

to be in his presence

guys it happens

to all of us

it happened to this

amazing church

in Ephesus

and I'm not speaking

at you

I'm speaking to my heart

this has been

an incredibly hard

week for me

as I go through

this passage

and keep continually

examining my heart

I mean what I realized

in my life

is sometimes

I start to lose

this joy

I lose this joy

in the joy

of being with God

or being with the person

that you love

and everything

becomes normal

everything becomes

mundane

everything becomes

dull

everything becomes

your duty

you just do it

it's a chore

you just do it

and you lose

your joy

and the next thing

that happens in my life

often is I start

to lose my ability

to love other people

I mean I lose my joy

and I lose my joy

of being around people

I mean the Bible

says that the only

reason we can love

each other

is because God

first loved us

and the moment

we lose our awe

and wonder

of Jesus' love

for us

we lose our ability

to love people

did you hear

what I said

because I've been

saying that over

and over to myself

the moment

we lose our wonder

and awe

of Jesus

and his love

for us

we lose our ability

to love people

people just become

a distraction

we become critical

we become judgmental

we complain

we argue

we're no compassion

I mean if you're

in that place

if you feel that

if you see someone

who's a believer

and they're

nitpicky

and they're arguing

and they're complaining

and they're judgmental

and they're

tough to be around

you think in your mind

I wonder if they're

in awe

of how much

God loves them

you know

I lose the ability

to love people

I mean I lose my joy

then I lose my ability

to love people

and then the last thing

that finally happens to me

is I just get this weird

perspective of myself

I don't know

if it ever happens to you

but I start thinking

of myself more importantly

than I am

I just start thinking

thoughts like

why I deserve this

and you know

I know

I start thinking

about things

that I deserve

and what's good for me

and I think about

myself being more

important than other people

and the scripture says

we're to think of other people

and how we're to please God

but when we get down

this road

and we slide from joy

into disliking people

we start to think

about ourselves

and we put ourselves

up on this pedestal

and we say

what do I deserve

what do I need

and our world

becomes self-centered

self-reliant

and instead of pleasing God

we think about pleasing

Tobin

have you ever been there

if you ever wonder

this is you

you could ask yourself

some questions

here's one of the questions

I ask myself

how long has it been

since I've been in awe

of God's grace to me

how long has it been

since I've thought

about God's grace

and I go wow

how could he do that

because I'm a sinner

when was the last time

you felt God's presence

in your life

when was the last time

you felt that God

was close to you

I mean how often

do we think we need grace

in our life

do we pray before

our day begins

do we pray before

we head into the big meeting

do we pray before

we come home

to be with our spouse

and our kiddos

when was the last time

that you had joy

praying

and reading God's word

when was the last time

we cried

when we thought about

how God

was so gracious

to us

when was the last time

we cried

when we thought about

how gracious God

Mr. Tobin

are you

if you can't answer

those questions

or if you have a hard time

answering when those things

happen

it probably means

that you like

the church of Ephesus

have lost your first love

and you started to love

something else

and this is a big deal guys

in verse 5

Jesus says

hey come back

turn around

I want to be your lover

I want to be in your life

I want to be your first love

and he says

he sings

he gives us these ideas

of how we come back

and so if we're sliding away

if we've gone away

we've lost joy

we think differently

of people

we think differently

of ourselves

he says

here come back

come back

come back

I want you

I want a relationship

with you

he says

this is how you do it

in verse 5

he says

remember

remember where you were

remember where you fell from

remember what it was like

before Jesus opened your eyes

and you walked in darkness

do you remember that?

do you remember the darkness

that you walked in

and the confusion

and the agony

and the pain

and the frustration

and the guilt

and the shame

remember the joy

of your first Christmas

as a Christian

do you remember that?

I remember that

do you remember

when all the songs

finally made sense?

I mean you heard them

in the shopping malls

and all these other things

but then

I mean some of them

still don't make any sense

like the little drummer boy

and some of those songs

I'm still trying to figure those out

theologically

but they sound cool

but I mean

do you remember

when all those songs

made sense?

do you remember

when Jesus loves me

this I know

for the Bible

tells me so

little ones

to him belong

we are weak

but he is strong

do you remember

when that made sense

to you

for the first time?

do you remember

the first time

you prayed

and you knew

that Jesus was there?

do you remember

the first time

you had a Bible study?

do you remember

the first time

you went into a Bible study?

I remember

I had to go to this Bible study

these guys

I wanted to be there

I wanted to study

but I didn't have a Bible

and I was so ashamed

because I didn't have a Bible

I told my parents

I want to go to this study

I'm a new Christian

but I don't have a Bible

and there wasn't a Bible

in our house

because our parents

my parents weren't

Christ followers

they followed themselves

and so my parents

went out

and bought me this Bible

it's this big

King James Bible

it's like this big

so I walked in

okay I'm ready

for Bible study

boom

and people were like

what?

but do you remember

that time

you first bought

that Bible?

I mean I think

some of us

we go into our house

there's probably

50 Bibles

but do you remember

the joy of seeing

God's word

for the first time?

Do you remember

the first time

you saw the cross

and you knew

it was for you

but Christ took it instead?

Do you remember that?

I do

do you remember

the first time

you shared the gospel

with your friends?

They saw the changes

in your life

they wanted to know

what was going on

they asked you

what happened to you

and you shared

about what Christ

did in your heart

some of them laughed

but some of them said

I want that

do you remember that?

Paul says

and John says

hey if you've gone off

if you've forgotten

remember

remember where you came from

remember God's grace

in your life

he says in verse 5

repent

ask for God's forgiveness

turn away from the actions

turn away from the thoughts

turn away from the things

that pulled you away

from Jesus

turn away from the things

that pulled you away

from him

when you first loved him

what are the idols

in our lives?

what are the things

we need to turn away from?

I think we struggle

sometimes

because we want

to keep them

and we just say

we won't pay

as much attention

to them

as we used to

but God is jealous

he's a jealous lover

just like your wife

or your husband

or your spouse

doesn't want anybody else

to have a part of you

God doesn't want

anybody else

to have a part of you

and John is saying

hey remember where you came from

and all these things

that dragged you away

all these things

that made you prideful

all these things

that made you selfish

all these things

that made you arrogant

self-sufficient

all these things

repent

beg for forgiveness

ask God to take them

away from you

and then he says

return

return to the things

that you did

in the beginning

what were the things

that you did

in the beginning

what were the things

that you did

when you first came

to Christ

what were the things

that overwhelmed

your heart

when you understood

God's grace

what were those things

do those things

for me it was

reading my Bible

for me it was prayer

for me it was

talking to other Christians

about what they were learning

and the things

that God was teaching them

for me it was

I know this is going

to sound terrible

and I'm not going

to do it

but singing songs

I always know

what I'm doing

good spiritually

because I can sing

to God

and when I'm not

doing good spiritually

I have a hard time

singing

and Paul is

and John is saying

all these things

hey remember

remember

repent

repent

return

return

and listen

to me

he's saying

guys

God's love

is important

and your love

to God

is important

and he's saying

here in his passage

that if you don't

turn around

if we don't

as a church

turn around

if we don't

do these things

he says

that Jesus

is going

to come up

take away

our light

take away

our relationship

and we don't

want that

to happen

to us

as a church

we don't

want that

to happen

to us

as his people

we want

to be

in the midst

of his

relationship

with him

verse 7

John finishes

with this

church

remember

this is

the church

that did

everything

but they

had nothing

and he says

he who has

ears

let him

hear

it's

Hebrew

it basically

means

God opens

the ears

of his

people

true believers

and true

believers

hear God's

word

and he says

if we hear

God's word

God will

grant to us

all the

privileges

all the

things

that Adam

and Eve

forego

forego

forewent

gave up

all the

things that

they gave

up in the

garden

because of

their sin

he says

in this

passage

that Christ

wants to

give those

things

to us

if we

find

ourselves

lacking

love

if we

find

ourselves

lacking

joy

if we

find

ourselves

thinking

of other

people

as

distractions

if we

find

ourselves

thinking

of ourselves

as more

important

remember

return

continue

doing

the things

repenting

that God

has done

in the

past

and Christ

has something

special for you

as a church

does this make

sense

I mean this

isn't a church

and remember

this church

this letter

is not just

being read

to one church

it's being read

to all the

churches

and the

question

amongst this

letter

is

how's

your

heart

I'm not

asking you

how you're

doing

I'm not

asking you

what you're

doing

I'm asking

do you

love

God

is he

the center

of your

life

Ephesians

was an

amazing

church

but I

think they

struggled

with the

same

things

that

watermark

is going

to struggle

with

and the

other

churches

in Hong

Kong

are going

to struggle

with

because after

a while

what's going

to happen

is we want

to be

great

we're going

to want

to be

amazing

we're going

to want

to be

excellent

by worldly

standards

we're going

to want

to have

bigger

crowds

we're going

to want

to have

more

programs

we're going

to have

bigger

buildings

we want

to have

more

staff

we want

to do

all these

things

so that

people can

look at

us

and go

wow

and we

can do

the things

that people

expect us

to do

but John

says if we

do that

and Jesus

isn't our

lover

then it all

means

nothing

it's all

worthless

he who

has ears

let him

hear

John

Newton

the

ex-slave

trader

he's a

wicked

man

talk about

wicked

men

John

Newton

read his

biography

he was

a bad

bad

man

he's a

slave

trader

killed

thousands

and thousands

of people

responsible

for the

imprisonments

of thousands

and thousands

of people

God's

grace

poured

out on

him

God

opened

his

eyes

he came

to Christ

and he

wrote the

most amazing

song you've

ever heard

I mean even

if you're not a

believer here

today you've

heard it

amazing grace

how sweet

the sound

that saved

a wretch

like me

I once

was lost

but now

am found

was blind

but now

I see

he wrote

this poem

I love

poems

I hardly

ever read

them from

up front

but I want

to end

with this

poem

in evil

long

I took

delight

unawed

by my

shame

or fear

till a

new object

struck

my sight

and stopped

my wild

career

I saw

one hanging

on a tree

in agony

and blood

who fixed

his saddened

eyes on me

as near

his cross

I stood

sure

never to

my latest

breath

can I

forget

that look

it seemed

to charge

me with

his death

though not

a word

he spoke

my conscience

felt

and owned

the guilt

and plunged

me in despair

I saw

my sins

his blood

had spilt

and helped

to nail

him there

a second

look he gave

me

which said

I freely

all forgive

this blood

is for your

ransom paid

I die

that you

shall live

so while

his death