1st October 2023
TEXT : REVELATION. 2 – 1 – 5
Reading:1 Unto 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;
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thypatience, 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:
3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
5 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.
INTRODUCTION : Last Sunday, I preached about church,
What church should be and what church ought not to be,
In the book of Revelation chapter 2 verses 1-5, we read about a church at Ephesus, a famous Church planted by the Apostle Paul (in Acts 19), which was watered and governed by John.
God said He knows their works, and know how they labour so hard, and their patience, this Church did not tolerate evil people, especially those who say they are an apostles, but are not, they are liars, we are warn in 1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
This church at Ephesus was given credit for not supporting what was going on in their mist.
They did well for not growing weary.
They did well in all these areas, their labour, patience, endurance, not tolerating evil people among them,
God was not pleased with them because of this in verse 4 of Revelation
” Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, thou hast left thy first love. “
What God is saying is that, I God, have I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love, in other words you don’t love me or each other as you did at first!
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, think back how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first, If you don’t, I will come and remove your candlestick out of his place except thou repent.
The word of God is talking to me and to you this morning that we have left our first love for Him, We have done well in many areas, but there are still many areas that we have neglected,
You know yourself, think with me in a moment, what things have you been doing that you stopped doing? You Pray for your daily needs and for the Church but you have stopped, you read your Bible but now you have stopped, you help to teach in Sunday school class but now you have stopped, you paid your tithe but you stop, you help in cleaning up but now is the thing of the past. As a result of all these you have neglected, you don’t see the hand of God in your life again, no God’s blessing again, promotion again, you need to quickly look how far you have fallen from your first love for God.
This morning, I want to give you three areas of your characters you need to look at and change.
(1) Your Affection for Christ. The first day you got saved, you are on fire for Christ, you are happy, your enthusiasm for Christ, you go and sing ” I have joy, in my heart
Deep deep down in my heart.
J,O,Y down in my heart .
Deep, deep down in my heart
JESUS GAVE IT TO ME.”
But now what really happened, hardship, Economy situations, Medical bills, School fee to pay and many other things but the word of God says we need to get back to our first love we have for him.
Galatians 6:9 “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
(2) The second thing I want to mention is your attitude towards Christ . Do you think of what Christ has done for you? Think of your salvation. One of our evangelism tracts we use is titled ‘ All these I did for you, What have you done for me? “
Think of Calvary.
What is your attitude towards the house of the Lord, ‘ the church ‘, how did you treat God? Is God the master of your life? Is your attitude mach with what Psalm 3:5-7 is saying? ” Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and……… verse 7 ” Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the LORD, and depart from evil. What we can learn from these verses, in verse 5 says trust in the LORD , Am asking you in who will you put your trust? Lean not unto thine own understanding, will you lean on God ? will you stand on the Christ, the Solid rock, because the other ground is sinking sand.
Verse 7 says be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the LORD, if you fear the LORD your attitude towards Him will change and depart from evil. If you fear the LORD, you will depart from evil, then your attitude and characters will change for good.
(3) Not only your affection for Christ, or your attitude for Christ will be affected for your first love to grow. The third thing is your Action towards Christ commandments,
What are your actions towards coming to the house of God? ‘ Psalm 122:1 ” I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go to into the house of the Lord.’ What is your action of going to the house of the Lord? Sad or glad?
What are your actions to Matthew 28:18-20 ” …
We call it ” Great Commission.” Do you take any action on going soulwinnig? Or you complain about every weather situation ‘ it too sunny, is too rainy ‘ or you believe in one of our Hyme that says “
Rescue the Perishing”
Care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and grave
Let all sing together in stander 4
Rescue the Perishing,
Duty demands it;
It is my duty to go, and it is your duty to go. That is our action to do it. He commanded us to do it .
CONCLUSION : Remember when you got saved, how glad and happy you were, going to church Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Sunday night, Midweek Service, Saturday Soul winnig, your contributions to you Church, tithe and offering to God, cleaning and set up the Church, what has happened? God said He has somewhat against you. Because you have left your first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works before God come after you.
Amen