Welcome to the Liberty Baptist sermon archives.
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.
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
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.