As I pray to the first of the seven churches, and this one is the church at Ephesus, the church at Ephesus. Now, you should know that I preached on this Sunday morning in the Port Lincoln Church, and I understand that that message you will be listening to this coming Sunday, Lord willing. So you will get the full message that I preached on Sunday. What we're going to do tonight is look for help in prayer, pointers in prayer. Now, there are many things that we can learn. from these very practical letters to the churches. I have called them love letters, the Lord's love letters to his church. And I mentioned on Sunday, just imagine that if you were maybe renovating an old house and you came upon a packet of seven love letters, you'd be very interested to know what the writer wrote to the reader. and what the relationship was between them. And so we can learn a lot from these letters to the churches, and they can be a great guide to us in how the Lord deals with us and how the Lord leads his people. And so we're going to read the first one, that is Ephesus chapter two, Revelation chapter two. and verses one through seven. Now, another pointer before we read, there's a very easy way to learn the seven churches. And that is if you have a Bible map, because if you start at Ephesus, which was the closest to the coast, and you go in a clockwise direction, each of the churches were taken in order. You had Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, then Sardis and Philadelphia. The last one is Laodicea. And if you look on the map, you will see that's like a just a circle in the order of the churches. What a wonderful thing it must have been to have seven churches in close proximity. Now, in Australia, that's a real luxury. It's a bit like Canada, too. To have another church, even within distance, is a luxury. It's very special to have those bonds of fellowship. And I'm learning of the bonds of fellowship that there are between you and the Port Lincoln Church, with family connections, with a background of helping each other. through the years. And then, of course, I've even learned about the ladies meeting up in Commons for lunch. So those are all things that are very special. But, you know, we learn, too, that even though we are the Lord's churches, every church is different. Every church has a particular need and a particular ministry that varies one to the other. And even though we are in the same gospel, doctrine, even all free Presbyterian, and I've learned this moving around from church to church, that you have Christians professing the Lord, love the Lord, but each individual congregation is different. And that's one of the reasons why the Lord starts his messages with, I know thy works. And he says that to them all, I know thy works. And in your group here tonight, the Lord knows every heart, every burden, and the challenges of this ministry to be faithful for the Lord. That's great to know. Let's read this then, we'll get to it. 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, I know thy works, and thy labor, 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 hast borne, and hast 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 I 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 paradise of God. Now, going back just to chapter one for a moment. And at the end of chapter one, you have the angel, you have the Lord speaking to John the apostle to write these things. And you'll see in verse 20, but ye beloved, verse 20, chapter one, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in thy right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. So we need to distinguish between the star and the candlestick. The minister of the church is the star. Now it's the Lord's will that every one of his churches have their own pastor, their own minister. And that was likely the case in every one of these seven churches in Asia Minor. And it was a phenomenal thing. In the first century, at the birth of Christianity, that these churches were established and they had their own pastor. pastor, and that's not beyond what the Lord can do. And I know that you have a special arrangement here as you come under the ministry of the Reverend Graham, and what a great thing it is that you have a man that you can look to as your pastor, and he's accessible, he's up here twice a week, most weeks. He can be reached by phone. He can be called upon in any time of need. And that is the will of the Lord. Now, these messages are primarily to the pastor, because if the man of God in the pulpit is not right, how will the church be right? If his Heart is not right. How can God be blessing? And of course, if he has not that strength to carry on and do the work of the ministry as he ought to, well, the church is going to suffer. The church is referred to here as the candlestick, and that's a great picture as well. Now, the menorah in the Old Testament had seven candle holders, and they were branches that all formed down into the middle stems. You have one standard going right up the middle, that's the Lord. And then you have three branches going out from the side, all feeding out of that center branch. That's a great picture of the Lord's church. We are in Christ and we are drawing our everything from him. Now, the purpose of a candlestick, of course, is to give light and to shine forth the message. And that's the work of the church. And that's perhaps where we ought to start tonight for prayer. Here is a pointer for prayer. The purpose of the church is to shine the light of the gospel. And I can see that you're doing that, but the text that you have outside your door, unashamed of the Lord, unashamed of his word, and of course, praying that this becomes a witness to all who travel up and down this road. And you want to do what you can to reach men and women with the gospel, whether it is sermon audio, whether it is Facebook or literature. And I can see a whole lot of tracks back there behind in the foyer. And you have obviously got a burden to give men the gospel. That's the work of the church. And we need to pray, Lord, make us a bright candlestick. That's prayer number one tonight. Lord, make this church a bright candlestick in lock and further a field. The second thing is to pray for your minister. He is the star. And you'll notice at the end of chapter one that that star is held in the Lord's hand. It says, uh, the mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and they are the ministers of the church, the messengers of the church. And you'll notice how chapter 2-1, it begins with, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus. Now, we don't pretend that ministers are angels with wings or any such thing. We're not talking about an angelic figure here. That is the Lord's way of addressing the minister of the church. because he's the messenger. In the Bible language, the word angel and messenger is the same thing. Angels wear messengers. They bring the word of the Lord, and that's what ministers do. Now, you and we all need to pray for ministers of the church. They need God's grace and they need God's help in the ministry. Now, that ties into the Lord speaking to his church. And we need to pray that this is a church where the Lord speaks and the Lord has a message. Now, of course, for these seven churches, the Lord had seven separate messages. He didn't just write out one message and say, copy, copy, copy to give to all seven churches. Every church had his own message. And the burden of the pastor, the preacher, is that at every meeting, whatever church it is, that he has the Lord's word. Now, I want you to think of your minister week by week toiling in the study of the Bible. And he has got a deadline. Tuesday night is coming. Sunday afternoon is coming. And then, of course, the meetings morning and evening in Port Lincoln. Those deadlines are coming, and I need to have a message from the Lord. I need to be sure that it's not just an academic performance. Yes, these words never change. They are in black and white, and they're all true. And a man can come up and quote this and quote that, but that's not a message. A message from God is a burden. There's a word on his heart that he must deliver. And through the week, he will be seeking the Lord's help. as he reads and studies the Bible, as he makes notes on the message, and sometimes you think you're finished, and then the Lord gives you another part to add to it, or another way of saying it that would be better. And that becomes the burden of the preacher. pray that God will speak through his word and through his servant within the church, because the church is the meeting place with the Lord. The Lord walks in the midst of the candlestick and he promises to be present, but he's present to speak. If I may change the picture a little bit and go back to the tabernacle in the Old Testament, the very first piece of furniture that is mentioned is the mercy seat, right inside the tabernacle. God starts in the center and works out. And God says in Exodus 25, there I will meet with thee and commune with thee. And that ought to be our prayer in the New Testament church too, that the Lord's house is our meeting with the Lord. and that those who come in who perhaps are careless and have no real thought, well, what am I here for? That the Lord will speak to those hearts and those who are perhaps lost in sin, that God by His Spirit will strive with them, convicting of sin and of bringing them to faith in the Lord Jesus. We want to be a church where God speaks to men. and brings them to the knowledge of the truth in the Lord Jesus. In Psalm 28, 1, it says, be not silent unto me, lest I be like them that go down into the pit. A church where God is not speaking, where God is silent, is a church of lost people. Lest I be like them that go down into the pit. And we need to pray that God, in his grace and mercy, will speak clearly. Now, the third thing, I think we're getting our numbers in order here. So we have to pray for the church, that it's a branch, that it's a bright light. The minister, that he's a faithful messenger. that there is a searching ministry. Now take that from verse two, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst bear them which are evil and as born and so on. Nevertheless, verse four, I have somewhat against thee. And here is God searching. searching hearts, searching souls. And we need to pray that there will be a searching ministry, conviction. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has come to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. And we need to pray for that searching ministry. Now, how does that happen in a gospel Bible church. It happens when God's man, the minister, the pastor, studies the Bible, and he explains and expounds, probably verse by verse or truth by truth, and he points out what God says in his Word, and then he applies it So he reads it, he expounds it, makes people to understand it, and then applies it. And that application of the scripture is the searching of people's hearts. I've had it many times over the years where people come to me after a meeting and they will say, how did you know that I was going through that? How did you know that about me?" And of course, I had no idea, but it was God speaking. And that's because we have a living Word, a Bible that speaks to men, and God speaks to His Word. And where there's a church preaching the book, And a man who has a burden to explain and expound that word to the people without fear, fearing the Lord, not fearing men, that will be a searching ministry. And that's what you want. That's what you should pray for. Lord, search my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me. This is what we find in the Psalms, in those devotional passages of the Bible, that people ask, they pray that God will show them the things they need to know and put right. A searching ministry. So pray for that. In verse seven, I would point out, pray for ready hearers. It says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now that becomes now the responsibility of the people in the pew, to have an ear to hear the word. I had a little text message from the Reverend Gardner yesterday. He wanted to know how the meetings went on Sunday, and I was able to respond in saying, it's a great thing to preach to people who have an ear for the word of God. And believe me, I've been in meetings where people don't have an ear for the word of God. You will get that at some kind of national events or public community events, or maybe at a funeral, and people who just don't go to church, and they happen to be in the meeting for a special event, and they're not really there to worship, they're not really there to learn the Bible, and when you get to preaching the gospel and the Bible to them, you can just see they don't have an ear for this. Their head's down, their head's shaking, they're embarrassed, they're not comfortable. But yet when you see someone who is eager, feeding on the Word, how easy to preach to them. And that is the mark of a ministry that is faithfully, regularly expounding the Word. Now we need to pray that also for the children of the church. And I don't know what you normally do here with little ones. Churches do different things. But there are some big mega churches, and the children are hardly ever in the church. They've got so many programs and so many things going on for children that they never hear the sermon. And they might be a teenager before they're brought in to the church service, and they don't have an ear for the sermons. because they have not been raised to hear God's Word. And that's sad. And in the church, we need to pray that our children will have an ear for the Word of God. And that's God's grace, God's Spirit at work in them. It says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith. And again, we're seeing here that God's speaking. The Holy Spirit is speaking. And people in the pew, old and young, need to have an ear to hear. So we should pray about that tonight. That is our next big prayer. Pray for ready hearers. Now, ready in the sense that God is already speaking to them. that they're already exercised about perhaps their sin, or their distance from God, or their need to get right with God, and they come into church and they're anxious to hear. That's grace at work. Now, you remember John, who wrote this book? In chapter one, verse 10, it says that John was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everybody came to church already in the spirit before they come through the door and they come in and they take their seats and they're not dumbed down by the affairs of the world all week, but rather they're in the spirit. They've got a spirit of praise, a spirit of worship, a desire and a hunger for the word. Let's pray for that. that God will give people a ready ear for the Lord's work. The final pointer tonight, pray for more of the Spirit's presence and power to prepare hearts. Verse seven again, 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 paradise of God." There's nourishment. Now, no doubt in heaven we will eat of that tree of life. We will enjoy spiritual life unending, and we will be nurtured and nourished in heaven to the full. but we also desire that now. And it is the Lord's portion for your soul to eat of the tree of life and to have satisfaction in the Lord, to be nourished, to be fed, and built up in your faith. To him that overcometh. And it's a great thing that we can overcome. We can overcome the spiritual apathy of this age, the carelessness of many people. And in our families, we can see our children brought into blessing. We can see our grandchildren even fed and nurtured in the things of God. Let's not give up on that. Let's pray, Lord, make us overcomers in our families and in this church, overcomers. That's certainly the standard that we should be aiming for. And then comes the promise, to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And you know that the Bible begins with a tree, the trees where Adam sinned, and you have the fruit that was forbidden. And because of that, they were put out and brought into misery and death. Well, here is the restoration now. In Genesis, you have man driven away from God by partaking of forbidden fruit. In Revelation, we have God's people brought in again into fellowship, enjoying paradise with God. And that's a great and wonderful blessing. So these are pointers for prayer. And there's no lack of things to pray about tonight. as you can see from our short gleanings in this message. Now, don't think that Sunday's message is going to be the same thing. It's quite different, and it's from a different approach, and it deals with that issue. The Lord said, nevertheless, I'm somewhat against it because you've lost your first love. That was the big issue in Ephesus. They did have the love of the Lord, but to some degree, they left it. And that was a problem, and they needed to repent of that. And that's the big issue in this particular passage.