SUNDAY - NOVEMBER 2, 2025 "A Golden Opportunity" Revelation 2:1-7 (James Lewis)

Well, hello to Soda Hills.

It is good to be home.

Amen.

Can't say that I'm sorry.

Grant's had a busy week, but uh I'm delighted to be here.

I've been preaching in Shannon, Mississippi for the past two years on Sunday mornings.

But a couple of weeks ago I told them that I need to stop that and uh they need to move on.

They're still looking for pastors so you pray for Brewer as they seek that, and it worked out good for me to be uh here with you today.

I have missed you.

I've missed this preaching platform, amen.

I've missed the bridge of I've sat there where choir has come down, I have to wait to go up.

I've missed that.

And I tell you what, I have missed your music.

Amen.

You ought to be thankful.

Even in the midst of transition time, and if you're visiting here today, just let me say, Mark Lewis, that is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

Amen.

And so just so you'll know that he goes with me and Kathy.

He's our eldest.

Good to see you today.

It is good to be here.

Uh, I thank you that you gave me the title of Pastor Emeritus.

That sounds so much better when I go to churches than just saying he's a retired preacher.

I've tried to to to not uh to not shame you and to use that wisely.

I know that uh in uh if you've followed the news in the UK this week, uh a certain member of the royal family got his title stripped because kind of some decisions he's made.

So I try to try to use that title wisely and and give uh God glory for what he's done and thank you for that and uh brag on you often as I go.

I've been telling people when you go and you use that title, some people don't know what emeritus means.

And so uh I I I didn't know how to describe it until not long ago.

I was in a cemetery.

And on a tombstone, often it will say this epithet, gone but not forgotten.

Amen.

And so every time I'm in a cemetery, I think about y'all that I'm gone but I'm not forgotten.

And I hope you'll you'll remember that.

Uh it I don't always impact people the way I want to.

I've discovered that.

I uh back last December I went to South Mississippi to do uh a preaching thing.

I thought they wanted me to preach, and I think the lady who called me wanted me to preach, but somewhere they lost translation because I don't think I was what they're expecting.

I don't think there's wanting preaching.

I think there's wanting entertaining.

And I know the preaching can be entertaining, but I didn't go to entertain, I went to preaching.

So I really didn't connect with them much, and when the service was over, uh a few people came kind of out of obligation, said something to me.

Most people were just hitting the door and leaving.

Well, I gathered up my Bible and I headed to the door, and when I got in the hall, a lady ran in there and she said, Preacher, preacher, could I ask you a question?

Well, I thought, there it is.

I have impacted somebody for the glory of God, and they have a theological question for me today.

And I said, Sure.

Here's what she said.

Where'd you get your shoes?

Well, these I had these on, these pretty good-looking shoes, but I had hoped more than my shoes had impacted her.

Then she said this, and I told her where I got them.

Then she said, Could I take a picture of your shoes?

And so she didn't even get a full shot.

She just got my feet, got a picture of my feet.

So today, if if nothing else, if if I don't impact you any other way, I'll be down here at the front, and you can take a picture of my shoes when the service is over today.

Revelation chapter 2, verse 1.

Revelation 2:1

You've heard the phrase, there is gold, and then there are heels.

It's associated with the gold rush that took place between 1848 and 1853 in California.

At that time, it was just a territory.

Some 300,000 people went uh to that gold rush, and in five years it was over, because you know why?

The gold was gone.

But let me tell you what today.

We have enough.

There may be gold and then there heels, but there is gold in this here word today.

Amen.

I hope you know that.

I I know Grant continues to share with you in the years that I was here trying to share with you and show you how important it is that we stay people of the word.

And today, I I I want to I wanna I want to pull a nugget out of Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

If you'll remember, and I know we don't even want to remember that, but but I took you through the seven churches during online church during COVID.

But in preparation for sharing of a series on the seven churches with Brewer about a year ago, I revisited these passages and thought about that today the other day when Grant asked me, and then and then rereading that, a fresh nugget came from here.

And and and here's why.

You look at these seven churches, and and if you look at the demographics of it, it starts at Ephesus, goes up the Mediterranean until it gets to Pergama.

Pergama, it takes a dip down back south till it goes to all seven churches, and you go to Laodicea.

So if you look on a map, Laodicea and Ephesus are across from each other, miles apart, but across from each other.

Now that could just be the demographics.

He starts with Ephesus because of geographically where they are.

But I wonder if there's a deeper meaning to that.

I wonder if he starts with Ephesus because all these other churches' problems is because, like Ephesus, they had lost their first love.

I want to challenge us today.

And I've told you before, the best kind of medicine is preventive medicine.

And I'm not here today to tell you, DeSota Hills, that you have lost your first love.

I'm here to challenge you not to lose your first love.

Let me ask you a question: the answer is yes.

What's the answer?

Yes.

Is DeSota Hills a great church?

Yes.

Does DeSota Hills have some great leadership?

Yes.

Has DeSota Hills had some great leadership in the past?

Yes.

But if Ephesus could abandon their love, it could happen to any of us.

And so we want to be sure today that we learn from the mistakes of Ephesus.

And I think about this.

You think about Ephesus, but the second church he talks to is Smyrna.

And Smyrna is kind of a discouraged church.

They're kind of disillusioned.

So I wonder if that's connected to them like Ephesus being detached.

When you come to Pergama, Pergama is uh is that uh dismissive church, they're not really dealing, they're just kind of ignoring sin that is there and being taught, and and and so they're a permissive church.

You come to Thyre Tower, Thyre Tower is the diplomatic church.

They're not ignoring the sin, they're trying to incorporate the sin.

And could it be that because they have abandoned their love?

Then you come to the church at Sardis, and the church at Sardis uh is this dead church.

He says, you have a name that you're like, but you're actually dead.

So so they become a deceived church, and in some ways a deceptive church.

And I wonder if it all goes back to the fact that like Ephesus, they had abandoned their love.

You come to the church at Laodicea, and the church at Laodicea has become a defiant church.

In fact, Jesus will stay.

I stand at the door and knock.

He's standing at the door of his own church, knocking for access in, and the church at Laodicea had become so defiant that they said, we have need of nothing.

And then I think about this little church in Philadelphia, the sixth church, that he has nothing bad to say about, only good to say about, and he says, I have set before you an open door that no man can shut.

And I wonder if the church at Philadelphia was so a dependable church because they had stayed such a dependent church upon the goodness and grace of the Lord.

So today I want us to look at that at that first church that Jesus deals with, the church at Ephesus, and try to learn.

I want to look at look at several things.

I want to look at the good, I want to look at the bad, I want to look at the ugly, and I want to look at the urgent.

The good, the bad, the ugly, and the urgent.

Listen to what Jesus writes to the church at Ephesus.

Do the angel of the church in Ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and have not grown weary.

But I have this against you.

That you have abandoned your love.

The love that you had at first.

Remember, therefore, from where you are, I have fallen.

Repent and do the works you did at first.

If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

And this you and yet and yet this you do have, you hate the works of the Nicolatians.

One time I was preaching and I called them the Nickelodeons.

That's a channel, not a people.

Which also hate.

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

To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Seven churches.

The one I want us to focus on is the first one, because I believe that if we get this right, if we stay true to him, in love with him, it will help us not experience the discouragement, the dismissal, the diplomacy, the deceptiveness, and the defiance of those other churches.

That we will like Philadelphia.

Be that church that is dependable because we are so dependent on him.

The good.

Jesus says, as he does in many of the churches, with the exception of Philadelphia, he has nothing bad to say about, with the exception of Laodicea, he has nothing good to say about.

But most of the churches he will say, I have something, you're doing something right.

And when it comes to the church, what is the good happening?

The good is really good because the church at Ephesus is a dedicated church.

Let me ask you a question.

The answer is yes.

What's the answer?

Yes.

Do we want to continue to be a dedicated church?

Yes.

We want to be active.

And this church is dedicated.

The good is really good.

But I find it interesting what he says to them in the ways they are dedicated.

These are the same ways we want to be dedicated.

Number one is this their hand is on the plow.

He uses the word toil.

They are toiling for him.

Their hand is on the plow.

It has not been easy, it has not always been successful, but the church at Ephesus is still a busy church.

They're still an active church.

They're still doing the work of the Lord.

Their hand is on the plow.

We want to be a people whose hand is on the plow.

When Jesus comes back, I want him to find my hand upon the plow.

I want him to find your hand upon the plow till Jesus comes back and God's people said amen.

You want to be an active church.

You want to be an active believer.

You want to be a dedicated believer.

And so Jesus here says, I know your toll.

So their hand is on the plow.

Second thing, they have a handle when it comes to the truth.

Their hand is on the plow.

They're dedicated, but they're also dedicated in the sense that they have a handle on the truth.

They are able to test the waters of these prophets because they know the truth.

What part of the scripture they may have, they understand that they are they are in-depth people of the word of God.

And you know, and and uh we've already talked about it.

You've heard about it today.

We we continue to be a church that understands the importance of the word of God.

Grant continues to preach week after week the word of God to you.

And the reality is we want to be a people who are have a handle on the truth because we are handling daily the word of God, and God's people said, Amen.

And so the church, Ephesus, they were uh their hand was on the plow.

They are handling that they they have a handle on the truth because they are ingrained in the word of God.

And the third thing he's complimenting them about, saying it's good, they are handling the situation well.

And the situation is hard.

They are being persecuted.

He will say twice to them, you have patiently endured.

What are they patiently enduring?

Like many of the churches, they are patiently enduring persecution.

But because they are focused on the Lord, because they're focused on the work of the Lord, they are continuing to go on.

And so he is applauding them.

And so those are things that as a church, as an individual, as a believer, we want to be sure that we continue to understand those things.

That we're gonna keep our hand on the plow.

We're gonna have a uh we're gonna be able to look at the word of God and have a hand on what is true, not based upon what the world is saying, but based upon what the word says.

And we want to be a people that in the midst of whatever's going on, as the church may be experiencing some difficulties in our world in which we live, that we were continuing to handle the situation well, because as he says, you have bared up for my name's sake.

But here's the challenge.

You can do all of that and still not be in love with Jesus.

Hear me.

According to what Jesus says, you can do all of that.

He is applauding it.

So the good is really good, but the bad is really bad.

Because here's why.

They are dedicated, but they are dedicated in a detached kind of way.

Jesus uses a very strong word here when he says, you have abandoned your first love.

Here's the challenge.

What we do may be good.

Any church, what we do, and and you are a blessed church, you're a busy church, and that's great, and we want to continue to do that.

Why you're doing it, in other words, you're doing it because you understand the Lord has been good to me, and I want to be a part of the church, and I want to glorify him through what I do.

You you could so so what you do may be right.

Why you're doing it may be right, but the gist is, how are you doing it?

Are you doing it in a spirit of love because you are in love with Jesus Christ?

And the reality is the church at Ephesus had abandoned their love.

They were doing it simply out of a sense of duty.

Let me ask you the question, the answer is yes.

What's the answer?

Do we have a sense of duty to the Lord?

Yes, he has been so good to us, but he doesn't want us to do it simply out of a sense of duty.

I got news for you.

Some of you came to church today out of a sense of duty.

Don't give me those spiritual looks.

I haven't been gone that long.

You know it's it's Sunday.

We have a duty.

Well, do you have a duty to be at church?

Yes.

But I hope it's more than that.

I hope there's a desire in your heart.

You are delighted to be here because you love the Lord Jesus Christ.

And let me tell you what.

Let me ask Chris the answer is yes.

What's the answer?

You love your church.

Amen.

You love your staff, amen.

You love your old staff, amen.

Those are all good things.

But you really ought to be here today because you love the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul.

And the church at Ephesus, while they were a great church, had been doing good things and were continuing to do good things, they had they were not doing it out of a sense of delight, out of a sense of devotion, out of a sense of love for the Lord.

You've been so good to me and Kathy during these days.

But some of the most difficult days of our life because of Kathy's diagnosis.

And uh many of you have asked about her, and then you've asked about me, and my my answer is always the same.

If she's better, I'm better.

Amen.

It's just the way it ought to be.

And I have tried to take care of her, and I'm gonna continue to do that, and I have a duty to do that.

It is my duty because I said 48 years ago, in Ridgeland, Mississippi, at First Baptist Church, Ridgeland, Mississippi, Dr.

Travis did our ceremony.

And I stood before him.

He asked, and I made the vow, as many of you did, in sickness and in health.

Do you do promise in in sickness and in health?

And I so I I I know that, and I've made couples say that.

Well, it didn't make them, yeah.

Some of them had to make say it.

But I'll never ask a couple to say that quite in the same way as I do now.

So I do have a sense of duty.

But let me tell you what.

Simply a sense of duty.

It is my delight.

Because I love her with all my heart, with all my soul.

That's the way it ought to be.

And so tomorrow morning we're going back to West Clinic, round number nine.

And if they have chairs enough in that room where we get the infusions, I'll be sitting right beside her.

We'll be talking and laughing and sleeping.

Do what you gotta do.

Amen.

It's a long time.

Eating, eating.

But I'm gonna be right there.

Not in a sense, well, Kathy's going to Timo again.

Guess I'm gonna have to go over there.

No.

I want to be there.

Let me tell you what.

You ought to want to be here today because of Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, who you love with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul.

And what had happened to the church at Ephesus, they they they have drifted from that.

And I think they drifted.

I don't think it was a deliberate thing.

I don't think they woke up one day and said, we don't love Jesus anymore.

No, I think they drifted, which is the most dangerous kind of getting off the path.

They just, a little every day, they just drifted away and away until suddenly they are doing what they're doing and they're doing it from a detached kind of way.

Years ago, in fact, I think maybe close to one of the last Lord's Supper that I did for you.

I went to Luke chapter 23.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

I was just hit by that.

That it says uh, and all his followers, and the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.

What they were doing, they were standing at a distance watching the crucifixion.

And I challenged us that day through the Lord's Supper to get up close and personal.

Since that time, I've I've developed that into a pretty major sermon and been sharing it a lot of places.

But but I part of it I just say, what's what's the reason?

Why do sometimes we do what we do for the Lord from a distance?

And I got several of those, but the but the one I always end with is perhaps the most dangerous.

Perhaps today you might be doing what you're doing for the Lord because of familiarity.

You're just so familiar with him, with church, with his word, with music.

It's just you've just become familiar.

I will tell you this, I am praying that you get a minister of students and a minister of music, and those are critical things.

But you are blessed that you got people filling in for you, and there are churches that would say, Really?

You better be thankful for what you got.

And God's gonna prepare and he's gonna bring you just who you need, when you need.

But the reality is that the so so my heart is don't come in here every Sunday when when Mark and Sid are leading and go, here we go again.

No, here we get to go again, praising Jesus through an orchestra and a choir, and people who love Jesus and God's people said, Amen.

So the reality is that the the church, the the the the the the bad thing is this very active church had kind of abandoned their love for him.

And so they were doing it from dead.

So that's that's the bad.

That's the good.

That's the bad.

The good is they're dedicated, the bad is they're detached.

The ugly.

The ugly.

It's just an ugly, it's not Jesus trying to be ugly.

He just says something that ought to be an ugly thing for us to even think about.

Because here's what Jesus says.

They are dedicated, but they have become detached.

And here's the danger, Jesus says.

You're about to be decommissioned.

When you decommissioned a chip, a ship, you put it out of service.

When you decommission something, you put it out of service.

And Jesus is saying to them, I'm about to put you out of service.

He says, If you don't, if you don't remember and repent and come back to that first love, then I'm gonna remove your lampstand.

Here's the danger for any church, and we don't want to go there.

If Jesus had done that, we're not sure, and Ephesus, I do believe they'd probably, by the grace of God, turn things around.

But suppose they hadn't, they hadn't listened to him, but suppose they'd been like Laodicea and they didn't listen.

If they'd come back the next Sunday, they could have had church.

But if he removes his hand from us, we're not being the church.

Two different things.

And I wonder today if there are not churches all over the world that are having church, but they're not being the church because they have become detached.

And so Jesus is saying, I'm gonna remove your lampstand.

He says he walks among the seven golden lampstands.

He tells the church at Ephesus that.

So the lampstand there is representing, you know, Jesus says in the in the Sermon on the Mount, let your light so shine that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

And for years I've been telling people that we're not the source of the light.

We're the source for the light.

He's the light, he's the light of the world, but we're to be the source for the light.

And as individuals, we're to be a lamp.

Collectively, as a church, we're all to bring our lamps to the lampstand and put it over so that not only do you have a witness, but the Soda Hills has a witness.

And Jesus is saying to the church at Ephesus, if you don't listen to me, I'm gonna remove, I'm gonna decommission your church.

And you're no longer going to be useful for me.

They're saved, they still have they still have a relationship, but they no longer have a role to serve.

I just don't want to have a relationship.

I want to have the role he has for me.

Amen.

Don't you, DeSoda Hills?

And so the reality is Jesus says, you you you know, you you you better wake up.

So that's the the the the the the good is they're dedicated, the bad is they're detached, the ugly is they're about to be decommissioned.

So what's the urgency?

They need to be decisive.

Let me help you understand that.

We need to learn to rap.

It's just a way to get your attention to say R A.

Rap.

I did spell it right, didn't I?

You never know with me.

Rap.

Here's what I think Jesus is urging us to do.

It's urgent.

That like uh like Ephesus, we understand our condition.

So number one is this.

Let's recognize.

Here's what I say, let's recognize the danger.

That for any of us, we we could uh somehow drift away and be and be busy for the Lord without being blessed by the Lord because we're doing it not out of a sense of love for him.

We have abandoned.

So we we need to recognize.

Second, we need to agonize.

We need to agonize because we need to repent if we've gone there.

And and and let me ask you this if if you don't love Jesus more today than you did yesterday, then you could be well on your way to being in Ephesus.

We need to love him afresh and anew every day.

Every day.

Then we're gonna prioritize.

We're gonna make loving him a priority.

We're gonna love his word, we're gonna love his church, we're gonna love his staff people, we're gonna love his old preachers.

We're gonna love the world, we're gonna love, pray for the world, we're gonna go, but but but the reality is we love, he's we love him.

He is the supreme reason.

I often tell couples when uh I perform ceremonies.

In fact, I did just recently flew to North Carolina to to do a service for my daughter, my sister's uh granddaughter.

And I told them that day, what we used to, as a as a young preacher, I would tell these couples, you know, you need to be enduring.

Amen.

You need to be enduring.

It means you last a long time.

And I used to say to them, when you've been married 50 years, come check me out of the nursing home, and we'll renew your vows.

But at 70, I had been reminded 50 years from now, I'm gonna be in heaven.

So I tell them, you're gonna have to find somebody else.

I can't be checked out of heaven, amen.

But let me tell you something.

You ought to renew your vows to your spouse every day.

Not just special times.

Because you don't know how many days you got.

Amen.

So you ought to renew your vows every day.

And certainly in the Lord, that that not not that you're gonna miss the decades, the 10th, the 20th, the the 50th, coming up for me again.

But but the reality is you you you renew that love every day, not just not just by what you say, but what you do.

And you do it from a heart that says, Lord Jesus, I am so grateful for all you have done for me, and I want to make loving you a priority, and I want to make giving thanks to you a priority.

Let me encourage you, and I've told you this before, when you when you go to the Lord every day in prayer, before you ask him for anything, thank him for what he's already done.

Amen.

I'm gonna say that again.

Before you ask him for anything, let me ask the question the answer is yes.

What's the answer?

Can you ask him for things?

Yes, you have not because he asked not.

But part of you ought to say, Lord, before I ask you for anything, I want to thank you for what you've already done.

I shared, uh Jeffrey had to be out or got here late Wednesday, and so I shared with his class Wednesday night, and I told them this story.

It's just a classic, and so I'm gonna share it with you because it's just a classic about how we ought to be grateful and how sometimes we miss what we ought to be grateful for.

McCager Carver is our only grandson, and if you know it, right now McCager is in New York City practicing to go on tour with a Broadway show of a Christmas story, the musical version of a Christmas story.

He and another child are gonna be playing the role of Ralphie, so it's been a big deal.

He's been gone a long time, gonna be a gone, won't be back till mid-December.

So we're missing him, but uh he's doing what he he uh wants to.

Rodney's there with him, Jamie and the girls are there this weekend seeing him.

But anyway, back in every year at the end of the summer before school starts back, we try to have a little gathering at our house to celebrate summer going back and parents celebrating kids going to school.

Amen.

And so this year was a little iffy because of Kathy's situation.

We weren't sure what we're gonna be able to do or how much.

And and the kids said, Well, Dad, if if y'all will just provide the place, we'll take care of everything else.

And so Jamie got up a water slide, and we had the swimming pool there, and and uh Mark and Jennifer provide uh provided supper that night.

And so when it was all over and they were leaving, McCager was walking, they live right behind us, and McCager was walking by the pool.

And McCager being McCager, he's pretty sharp and pretty at times sarcastic.

And he said, Bobo, that's what we call me, call Kathy KK, Bobo, I would thank you for this, but I don't know what to thank you for.

He said, My mom pointing to the water slide that was still going, my mom provided the water slide.

Uncle Mark and Aunt Jen provided the food.

So I don't know what to thank you for.

Well, he had said that to the wrong person, amen.

I said, Makedia.

His eyes got real wide.

You see that crystal clear water you've been swimming in all summer?

You know who keeps that crystal clear?

Bobo.

At a cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching price.

You see that water slide that's been going since mid-afternoon, probably four or five hours.

You see that hose attached to it?

You see that water coming down it?

You know who's paying for that water bill?

Bobo.

In his classic way, he looked at me and went, count your many blessings.

Name them one by one.

And you will see how good God has been to us and how much he does that because he loves us.

And I want him to know, Lord, I love you.

And when I preach, I want to preach not because I love preaching.

Do I love preaching?

Amen.

But I want to do it because I love him.

And when I give, do I love giving?

No.

Yeah, we do.

God loves a cheerful giver.

But we do it not because we love to give, we do it because we love him.

And what he's saying to the church at Ephesus, listen, don't abandon your friend.

And so my challenge to us to sow the hills.

Somebody asked me, What are you going to do when you're not going to Shannon?

I'm going to my church.

And my church is still to sow the hills.

Amen.

Now, if I get a chance to preach, I'll be long gone.

But if I'm not, I'll try to be here.

But we do it because we love him.

Lord, I thank you today for your word.

I thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to be back home.

To be back on this preaching site that, Lord, I've been so blessed to be on so many times.

Preaching to a folks that I love, preaching to new faces of people who have come since I've been gone.

And I thank you for that, that you're continuing to grow the church and continue to reach out.

And I thank you for granting the rest of the staff who's doing the work here and helping people stay focused on you.

Lord, I do pray that we will receive this in the spirit, but I believe you gave it to us today, that we might not ever be guilty of abandoning our first love.

But Lord, we will hear your response when asked what the greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul.

I pray, Lord, that when people come in this place, when visitors enter these doors, they'll find a people who first and foremost, above loving the music, above loving the preaching, above loving each other, they will find a people who are madly head over heels in love with the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.

For it is in your name I ask it now.

Amen.