Wonderful song. What a Savior. So this is always a highlight, one of our favorite days in church every year. And because it's the beginning of revival. And we pray and we ask the Lord to send us revival. And I'm so glad everyone's here today. I'm glad that people have come for the first time. I'm so glad that we have our speaker here today, Brother Fryman. And not only is this a favorite day, but he's a favorite speaker. Don't let that go to your head, okay? I'm teasing. And the blessing is he brings his wife and his grandkids, my grandkids. That's a blessing. So anyway, we're looking forward for this time. And we ask you, if you would, to read Psalm 119. Very important that we get that psalm into our lives. And then also be faithful to the services at night. I want to say this about Brother Freiman. I'm so thankful for his growth in the Lord. He really is a man of God. And we're thankful for that. He has wisdom and counseling, and he's been blessing me personally. And I love him dearly, like my own son. And I'm so thankful for you, Jay. So without any further ado, let's introduce our speaker, Brother Josh Fryman. Come and preach. Thank you. It's a privilege to be here. I'm so glad to see everyone. For those that are here for the first time, let me explain. The favorite speaker has a lot to do with the fact that I am the father of his grandchildren. I think that might play into the favorite part of it, but it is a blessing to be here. And for the benefit of those that are the first time visiting here, I just want to say, as I try to say every time I preach here, that any good that comes out of the preaching. I feel in some part an answer to prayer that I desire to give back to this church for all they've given to me. I'm so thankful for Pastor Graff and what he has meant to me personally and what he has taught me. I'm thankful for this church. I have lifelong friends that are here in this church and I am grateful to you all. In a few minutes, we're going to pray. I want to give you a short challenge before we do that, but I also just would be remiss if I didn't say on behalf of our church back in North Dakota, a greeting from Harvest Baptist and also personally from Nick and Amber Columbus. They asked me to say hello to everyone, but I want to extend not only a greeting from our church, but also gratitude for your partnership with us and the church planning ministries in Berlin and in South Africa. Thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord and to those ministries. It is an honor to be here. I'll say more about that probably on Friday night when we end on a more personal note. Let me just challenge you with something before we go to the Lord in prayer. It is Revival Week, and I know there's been a lot of prayer leading up to it, and I'm so thankful for that. But I want to tell you something I've said at our church back in North Dakota. And I don't mean this in an unkind way. I did it already. I just qualified myself. I promised my mother-in-law I wouldn't do that. All right. No more explaining anything I'm going to say. All right. And that is this. What's wrong with Christians today is that nothing is wrong with Christians today. We view ourselves as fine, we're good. We've examined our hearts, we see nothing wrong. And a lot of that is because we compare ourselves among ourselves, instead of comparing ourselves with Christ, who is who we're called to be like. Instead of comparing ourselves with Scripture, which is the instruction in which we're supposed to live by. And so I want to challenge you as we go to prayer in just a few minutes that you would not enter this revival week hoping somebody else is really paying attention. If you entered this hoping somebody else listens, that is an evidence you need revival. In the Scriptures, in Matthew 26, the Lord says to the disciples gathered around the table that one of you will betray me. And the Bible says that the disciples were exceeding sorrowful. Now, why would they be exceeding sorrowful? They weren't exceeding sorrowful that they had just been accused of potentially being one that would betray Jesus. They were exceeding sorrowful at the thought that somebody would betray Jesus. But instead of saying, oh, I bet I know who it is, you know the question they asked. Is it I? That's the question we need to ask when we're seeking revival. Is it me? Lord, that you would not get glory that you deserve, that you would not get the love and the attention you deserve, is it me? Am I one who's not giving you what you deserve? And you must be careful, because the opposite of that spirit, just shortly after, eleven verses later in the text, but just a short time period, hours after the Lord has observed the Lord's Supper, giving them instructions on that. They sang a hymn, they go into the garden, and Jesus says that Peter is going to betray him, or deny him, I should say. And Peter's answer was this, this is very important, because this is a danger for all of us. Peter said, no, I know others would do that. But I never would. Let me quote you exactly what he said. Though all men should be offended. That means stumble. Though all men should be offended because of thee. Listen, yet will I never be offended. It would never happen that I would allow you to be a stumbling block for me. That I would somehow fail you in any way. Others would. The others could do that. I never will. And the very man who said, I would never be one who would turn his back on you, Lord, is the very one that turned his back on the Lord. Beloved, there's a reason Paul wrote to a church in 1 Corinthians 10 and said, Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. It is those of us who think we're fine, we have nothing wrong with us, you better take heed, because you're setting yourself up for failure if you're not careful. Ask yourself this question, why would the Holy Spirit move multiple times to record things like this in Scripture in 1 John 1 and verse 9? If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The answer is this, the reason the Holy Spirit moves John to say, if we confess our sin, is because sometimes there's going to be sin that needs to be confessed. The reason the Holy Spirit would move James to say, confess your faults one to another, is because, are you ready for this? Sometimes we have faults we have to confess. The very reason that the Holy Spirit moved the writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 12, to say, you must lay aside weight and sin, is because, beloved, there is weight and sin in our lives that need to be laid aside. The Holy Spirit does not just say things arbitrarily. So as we go to the Lord in prayer, I'm asking myself included, I must be a clean vessel. I must be fit for the Master's use. You must have clean ears, if we could say it that way, and open hearts. Not to listen for what those around you need to hear, but for what you need to hear. And so let's go to the Lord in prayer. Let's ask Him to help us, not just today, but this week. That we might experience the presence and the power of our Lord. and that that work that he would do would not only be an evidence of his presence and his power, but it would produce a purity in his church. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come before you, Lord, very grateful. I don't take it lightly that I have the privilege to stand before one of your churches, to open up your Word, to preach not just your salvation, but also your truth, Father, I pray that you would enable me by your grace to preach effectively, that you would help me communicate clearly. I pray, Lord, that you would enable the listeners here to do the same thing those at Thessalonica did, that they would not just listen to a man talk, but they would hear, as it is in truth, your Word. and they would respond accordingly. I pray you'd guide my emotions. I pray that you'd keep me from saying anything I shouldn't. I pray that any illustration I use would be used only to make the point. It wouldn't be distractive to the main burden of the message. I pray also, Father, that you would allow me to stick to what I believe you've given me for today. Please guide my tongue, guide my heart, guide my mind. I pray, Lord, that you would protect me from anything that would cause this message to be a waste of anyone's time. Help me, Father, exalt Christ to where he deserves to be seen. Help me be led by your spirit. Help me be tethered to your word. And I pray, Father, for those that are in the seats here in the sanctuary or watching online, that you would enable them by your grace to listen with sincere, pure and open hearts to what you have for them. We will be quick to give you and you only any glory from any good that comes from today or this week. We commit this to you and ask in Jesus' name. Amen. If you would take your Bible, turn with me to the book of Revelation. As Pastor Graf said a few minutes ago, we will be going through Psalm 119 in the morning sessions, and in today and this afternoon, and then if the Lord allows and continues the direction I believe He has led, then we will stay Monday night through Friday night in the book of the Revelation, going through the seven churches as the Lord wrote to the churches found in Revelation 2 and 3. I want to draw your attention, first of all, to what the Lord says at the end of our first text here. We're going to look at the church at Ephesus. But I want you to notice what He says in verse 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto, what? The church is plural. This was something that was written to Ephesus, but what Ephesus struggled with, churches plural struggle with. And I believe there's application for us, otherwise it wouldn't be preserved in this wonderful book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. And so let's have ears that hear today. Let's ask the Lord to help them as we get into this. With the Lord's help, I want us to see four things. Number one, the head of the church. Number two, the condition of the church. Number three, the remedy for the church. And then last, the invitation to the church. Let's look first of all at verse 1 as we see the head of the church. The Bible says, Under 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." Now, we know who He is because He has been introduced to us in Revelation chapter 1. This is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. This is the Lord Jesus Christ with whom we have to do everything as Christians. It is Christ who saved us. It is Christ who took our place on the cross. It is Christ who resurrected. It is Christ who is our example. It is one day Christ we will see. It is Christ we worship. It is Christ we adore. Everything is about Christ. And one of the great things about the Lord Jesus Christ is He is the head of His churches. And as the head of His churches, He says in verse 1, say, this is what I want you to say to them. And He says, these things say of He. And this will be the first of seven descriptions of Jesus that we'll see this week. He describes seven different attributes of Himself. to all seven churches. And to Ephesus he reminds them, I hold the stars in my right hand, and I walk in the midst of the candlesticks. Now we know from chapter 1 that the stars represent the angels of the church, or the messengers of the church. There are heavenly angels and there are earthly angels. And I believe in context, this is speaking about the pastor of the church. And this would fit for the pastor at Ephesus and for the pastor of any of the Lord's churches. And he calls them stars. But here's what he says, they are stars that he is holding in his hand. These are not stars that have their own orbit. These are stars that are held in the hand of the Lord Himself. That speaks of His protection and His provision for those pastors. It also speaks of the accountability that pastors have to the head of the church. It speaks of light. That's what stars are. But I'm reminded of what God did in Genesis 1 when He put a greater light in the sky and a lesser light in the sky. Make no mistake that pastors are a light. They are a star. But we are the lesser light. The greater light is the Lord Himself. And so he says, I hold the stars in my right hand, and then he says this, I walk in the midst of the seven candlesticks. And we also know from Revelation chapter one, that the candlesticks are the churches. Now this is very important. The churches are not the candles, they are the candlesticks. The churches are not the light source itself, they are what is to hold up the light itself. And there is a difference between being the truth and being a pillar and ground of the truth. Paul says very clearly how we as pastors can be lights in this world, and how Christians can be lights in this world. In Philippians 2, verses 14-16, he says, Do all things without murmuring and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. Now listen, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. And how did they shine as lights in the world? Holding forth the word of life. That's how they shone forth the light. They were not the source of light. They reflected the light. They held forth the light. This is what Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 and 15. He says, the house of God, which is the church of the living God, not the truth, but the pillar and ground of the truth. And beloved, you need to understand that as a church, it is a great privilege to be the pillar and ground of truth. That you would be given the responsibility to lift up truth and to hold it up and to make sure it doesn't fall on the street. And a society and a culture that wants to tear truth down and make you have your truth and my truth, that God would institute something that would say, no, no, here's truth, here's my Word, here's a place that must lift it up high. But you must be careful that you do not confuse yourself with being the truth. You're not the truth. You are a pillar and ground of the truth. Christ is the truth. And don't ever confuse that. And so he says, I walk in the midst, not of the candles, not of the light, but of the candlesticks, those which hold forth the light. Here's what God says. Here's what our Lord Jesus says. If you don't repent, I will remove the candlestick. I will take away your ability and your authority to hold forth the truth, and to be a pillar and ground, and to be a candlestick. So understand what lies before us today is very important. Very important. And it's the head of the church speaking. And once you notice in verse 1, he says, these things saith he, he holds the seven stars in his right hand, he walks in the middle of the seven golden candlesticks, but he says in verse 2, I know thy works. And if you mark in your Bible, you might want to underline the words, I know. It's one thing for a man like me to come in and to make an observation and say, here's what I think. I think what your church needs is, or I think what it needs. That's one thing for a man to say what he thinks. It's a whole nother when Jesus says, I know. Because there's no possibility that Jesus gets his observation wrong. There's no way that Ephesus could stand back and say, well, that's not really true. No, understand this. Jesus sees everything. He walks in the middle of this church. He knows the conversations that happen behind closed doors. He knows the conversations that happen publicly in the sanctuary. He knows what you're talking about in your car. He knows. He's the head of this church. It's His business to know what goes on in the church. The Apostle Paul wrote Corinth, remember this, and he says very clearly, it has been declared unto me by the house of Chloe. Remember that? Hey, I've heard what's going on at your church. He talks about other books and epistles that he writes about having heard about their testimony. Well, here's the thing about Jesus that's different than Paul. Paul may have to hear from Chloe how things are going at Corinth. Jesus doesn't need to hear from anybody how things are going at Ephesus or at Corinth or at Holtsville. The Bible says in John 2 that he didn't commit himself to certain people because he knew what was in man. And here's what the Bible says, he didn't need anyone, I'm paraphrasing, he didn't need anyone to testify of man to him. Lord, wait up, let me explain to you about this church over here. No, the Lord doesn't need anyone to explain anything to him about any of his churches. He's the head, he knows. But not only does he know, he always gets it right. he's never made a wrong observation. And he looks down at Ephesus and he says, as we move on to the condition of the church, he says, 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, that means they've tested them, which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars. and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted." Nevertheless, imagine hearing that as a church, and saying, hey, we received a letter from the Apostle John, he's been given revelation directly from the Lord again! And we have another letter! What a gift! And they start reading about what they're doing, and isn't it a blessing that God sees? They understand what the writer of Hebrews has already said, that neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He sees it all. Everything is exposed. And they're listening, and they hear this wonderful truth that Jesus walks in their midst. And He knows about their works, He knows about their toil and their labor, He knows about their patience. And then there's this word, nevertheless, which means this, and I want you to please understand the weight of this. Having said all those good things about Ephesus, He's saying this, but in spite of all that, meaning this, you can put all that on one side of the scale, but there's something over here that outweighs everything I just said. Never the less. Meaning, this should never be less. In spite of what I've just said, I have somewhat against you. Can you imagine what they must have felt? What? I mean, didn't you just go through all the things that we've done? Haven't you just gone through all of what we have accomplished and all the things that we've been doing? But he says this, I have summoned against thee because, so here's cause and effect, thou hast left thy first love. Now I've been guilty of misquoting this verse. I've been guilty of preaching a message with the wrong title based on this verse. I preached a message one time about losing your first love. They lost their first love. But you know what's interesting? The Bible trumps me every time, amen? The Bible doesn't say they lost their first love. It says they left it. That's different. It means that they were here, passionate, vibrant, fervent in their love for Christ, and they walked away from it. They left it. They moved away. Now, it wasn't right away. Likely, based on what we learned about Ephesus in the coming minutes, it was gradual. But here they are. They're away. They've left their first love. This is the condition of the church. Jesus says, I know thy works. Now because they're a good church, there should be works. There's a lot of confusion today about grace and works and repentance and all that. There shouldn't be. A church, a good church, should have works. They should be doing something. This is what Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and this is important, and 10 say, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ready? Not of works, lest any man should boast. For, because we are His workmanship. That means we're a product of God's work. We're a product of His coming into our life and doing something. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath, what? Before ordained that we should walk in, what? Them. Well, what's the them? It doesn't say Him, it says them. It means this, that you are not saved by works. That's a false gospel. You are saved by Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross and His resurrection, that kind of power. That's what you're saved by, but you know what kind of that power does? Do you know what kind of power the resurrection has? That kind of resurrection power comes into your life and saves you and then enables you to live a life pleasing to God. Where you before fell short of the glory of God, you no longer have to fall short of the glory of God. You are able, this is amazing, to give God glory with your life. We don't say a prayer, live the way we want to live, burst into heaven, and then give God glory for eternity. We get to do that here. And now, Albert Barnes said this, quote, with reference to a holy life, or the design for which we have been created in Christ is that we should lead a holy life. Listen closely. The primary object was not to bring us to heaven. It was that we should be holy. End quote. You say, hold on a second, but when you get saved, you go to heaven. That's true, but that's not the primary benefit. is just going to heaven. Don't take my word for it, take Jesus's. In John 14, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man goes to heaven but by me. Is that what he said? No. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Peter says that what he did, he did to bring us to God. The Bible says that we're going to give an account one day. For what? For our words, what we say, and for our works, what we do. Now, I'm not going to go to heaven because of my works, but brother, you better believe that I want my life to show that Christ did a work in my life. You can't be salt and light without works. Now listen, don't confuse that. I didn't say to get saved. I didn't say that you have to work to get saved. What I said was, after you're saved, you have a responsibility to be salt and light. And you can't do that in the flesh. Walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so when you look at this text, don't look at Ephesus doing works as if that was some sort of bad thing. Like, oh, I know the problem with Ephesus. They were trying to depend on their works. No, no. Christ was commending them for their works. He was saying, you're doing something. You're laboring. And that's the next word He used. Not just for your works, but for your labor. And this is a little more intensive here. This is a little more descriptive of a word. It means this. It means toil. They have found out that you don't just work for Christ and go with the flow. If you're going to do anything for His namesake, which is what He says in the verse, you're going to have to walk against the current. Beloved, they believed right And they behaved right. They didn't give up. They didn't compromise. They didn't say, well, we're not going to do this anymore. They worked and they labored. They toiled to the point of pain, to the point of exhaustion. And he says this, and thy patience. Think with me what Barnes said about leading a holy life. The whole purpose of that, to lead a holy life, is so that you can be used of God. Have you ever heard the word sanctified? Sanctified is the verb form of the word for holiness. There's holiness and then there is the process in which God is making you holy. Why would he do that? To be used by him. Ephesus believed that. We want to serve the Lord. But listen closely, please get this. Ephesus found out that work for Christ is of no greater value than fellowship with Christ. You can get focused on working for Him, you forget to spend time with Him. Now, you need both. You need the labor, but you also need the love. And if you lose or walk away from the love, then the labor part gets really, really hard. and really difficult. And Ephesus is working, and they're laboring, and they're toiling, and the Lord says also that they're patient. He says in verse two, thy patience. So there's their behavior, but then there's their belief. Thou canst not bear them which are evil. That means this, they are intolerant of evil. They're intolerant of wickedness. They know how to discern it. They're not confused by it. They're not deceived by wicked men or evil men. Not in the world or not those in the church that try to cause influence. They don't tolerate it. He says, you can't bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles. Guest preachers come in, thus saith the Lord. And they're sitting there with a discerning eye going, that doesn't sound right. They go to their Bible, like a Berean, and they say, well, that doesn't make sense. Here's why this is wrong. And they found that, well, if you were an apostle, if you're really an apostle, please listen, here's one of the ways they could discern it based on what Paul wrote the church at Corinth. The spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets. If someone doesn't have the spirit that the Bible says they should have, they're likely not an apostle. And by the way, go ahead and put that in with preachers and pastors today, too. The spirit of the pastor, the spirit of the prophet, the spirit of the preacher is subject to the prophets, to what has already been revealed and been given. And so they said, no, we've tested this out, we've tried it, and we found them, they're not real. And here's what he says, you found them liars. So beloved, their behavior was right, their belief is right, they got the right doctrine, and they have the right duty. They're doing the work. They're doing the labor. But there's a wonderful example found in the Gospel of Luke that illustrates, I believe, the church at Ephesus. And if we're not careful, it could illustrate our churches today. It's found in Luke chapter 10. If you take your Bible and turn there, many are familiar with this story. It's about Mary and Martha. But I want to bring some things to light to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. I know you've heard these things before, but for our purposes, I want you to hear them out. Luke chapter 10 and verse 38. Now, it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. So far, so good. Who wouldn't want the Lord in their house? Amen? Hopefully, all of our homes would be a home where Jesus would be welcome. Where he wouldn't be uncomfortable in our home with what we talk about with what we have in our home and all that. He would be welcome in our home. So she's received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus's feet and listened closely, especially to those that need to have an ear to hear. What was she doing at his feet? She heard his word. She was listening to what he had to say. But Martha, was cumbered about much serving. She's weighed down, she's burdened down, she's dragging this responsibility everywhere she goes. You can just picture her and maybe hear her in your mind. There's Mary sitting at the Lord's feet just listening to him talk. And so she comes in the room with a stack of dishes and maybe she puts them down, but that didn't work, so she huffs a little louder. She places the glasses down a little harder than she placed the dishes down. Hello? Anybody want to see? I'm over here working. Does anybody notice this? I'm doing something here. A little help, please? And she's so focused on what she's doing, she did not see the Lord for how He really is. This is very important because it is not Mary's character alone. She accuses, it's our Lord's. Look at what she says in verse 40. Martha was covered about much serving and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Whoa. Now, any married couples here can understand this. When your love isn't right, neither is your perception. You just don't care. And she's saying it to Jesus. If anyone cared, it was the Lord. But you see, the Lord's care for her was not the problem. It was her care for Him that was the problem. Martha, really? You're questioning whether I care about you? That I would allow your sister to just sit over here as if she's neglecting you? Well, Martha was about to find out it wasn't about her. It was about the Lord. She says, "'Bid her therefore that she help me.'" Lord, we can fix this together. Just do what I ask you to do. And before we're too quick to judge Martha, some of my prayers have had the exact same spirit. Dear Lord, do this. But I plug in Jesus's name at the end of it, and so therefore it feels better. But it's no different than just me saying, here's how I think it should go. Bid her, therefore she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, you can just hear the compassion in his voice, can't you? Martha, Martha, come here. Come here. Thou art careful. Thou art full of care. Thou art anxietal. Thou art careful and troubled. You've let this affect you about many things, but listen closely, but one thing is needful. Now, let's go back in our mind to Revelation 2 when Jesus says, Thou hast left thy what? First love. He doesn't mean you have 99 loves, go back to the first one that you ever had. It's a word, protos, that means this. It is the foremost love. It is the most important love. It is the love that is to outweigh everything else. It's not a prominent love. It's a preeminent love. It's not a love that's strong out of many other loves. It's the love that's over all the other loves. You see, it's not wrong to have things that you love, but it is wrong if you allow those things that you love to make you love them in sum and total more than you love the Lord. And when Jesus said this, one thing is needful. He wasn't saying we shouldn't eat and you shouldn't set the table and you shouldn't clean your house. He wasn't saying don't serve. He was saying there's something more important than what you're doing serving. And it's what Mary's doing. This is very important. Mary hath chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her. You say, what does that mean? Well, if you read the Sermon on the Mount, you understand what Jesus is saying. There are things you can do on this earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves can come in and steal. But there are other things you can do in your life, beloved, here and now. There are things you can do for the Lord Jesus Christ that moth and rust can't touch and thieves could never steal. They are of eternal value, not temporal value. And you have that when you set your affection on things above. So Jesus is saying to Martha very simply, I know you are doing this for me, but I would, listen closely, I would rather have you with me than doing all that for me. This is the most important thing. And so this is Ephesus' problem. This is the condition of the church. I know thy works, thy labor, thy patience. You can't bear them which are evil. You've tried them which say they're apostles, and you found them liars. You have borne, it means you've carried heavy things, and has patience, and for my namesake has labored. Nevertheless, in spite of all that, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love, the most important love. You've left it. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 1, Paul says that we could speak with the tongues of men and angels, but if we don't have charity, if we don't have this godlike agape love, then we're just sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. How many of you have ever been to a symphony orchestra concert before? Alright. How many of you enjoyed the cymbal solo? Likely didn't happen. I've been to a trumpet concert, a piano concert. I've never been to a cymbal concert before. Because it's nice in its place, but boy, if it's just up there by itself, clanging around, you're just like, I can't deal with this. And without trying to be irreverent or funny, this is what the Holy Spirit moved Paul to say. He said, if you try to talk but don't have biblical love, you're no more than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. We could have the gift of prophecy. We could understand all mysteries. We could have knowledge. We could have all faith so that you could remove a mountain. But if you don't have charity, you're nothing, Paul says. In verse 3, he says, we could bestow all our goods to feed the poor. We could give our body to be burned. But if we don't have charity, love, it profiteth us nothing. In short, you can be really, really busy, but if you don't love like you're supposed to, there's no profit. Now take that truth that Paul said to Corinth and make it bigger. Because Jesus is talking to Ephesus not just about a love for our neighbor, but about a love for him. And if 1 Corinthians 13 is true, you can do this, but if you don't have charity, then it doesn't profit. You better believe you can be just as busy as 1 Corinthians 13, but if you don't have your first love down, it's going to profit you nothing. This is important to get into our lives. Let me give you an illustration to help you understand. The Lord helped me some years ago with this text in marriage counseling. The Bible talks about marriage being like a husband and a wife, excuse me, a husband and a wife being like Christ's love for his church. And so I think things like that are important, so what better book to go to for some help in marriage counseling than the Bible? And I remember we had a couple in my office, and the lady was saying that her husband, she feels like he doesn't love her anymore. He says he does, but I don't believe him. His actions speak louder than his words. You're probably familiar with this type of thing. And I listened, and the husband said, look, he looked at me like, see what I got to deal with? Like, I mean, I do love her. And you know what he did? You know what he said? I do love her. And he listed off all the things he does for her. He provides for her. She doesn't have to work a second job. He provides a place for them to live. She has a nice vehicle to drive. There's food on the table. There's clothes for the kids. They go on vacation when they can. They even go out to eat. They even go out to eat. So it proves, I love her. So you have a husband who could pass a lie detector test. Do you love your wife? Yes, I love my wife. And I think he'd pass. You have a wife who said, no, it doesn't feel like he loves me. And God used this text to help me, help that couple. And I remember I leaned forward on my couch and I said, here's the thing. I'm going to say your husband does love you. You need to understand this. Your husband does love you. We're not here to talk about love languages and she feels this and he feels that. No, we're not going to talk about that. And just about when the husband was starting to get a little comfortable, like, all right, he's on my side. I looked at his wife and I said, your husband does love you. The problem is, he just loves other things more than he loves you. The husband, what? He wasn't expecting that, was he? But see, that's what happened. She's supposed to be his first love. More than the kids is his relationship with her in the marriage. She should come first. But you know what happened? The job, the career, the hobbies, the kids, the baseball games, the soccer games, the basketball games, busy, busy, busy, busy, and he began to neglect his wife. So, yeah, he did love his wife, but not like he was supposed to. You get the idea? And I believe that that's what's happening in Ephesus. They'd say, wait, wait, we love the Lord, and the Lord's saying this, no, you don't love me like you're supposed to. The love you feel for me should be the most important love. It should be the strongest love. And so there are people in this sanctuary right now, maybe, who the Holy Spirit is saying, no, I see you working for the Lord. I see you labor. I see you work. I see your patience. I see you love Jesus, but not like you're supposed to. And you say, well, how would I know? And this isn't perfect, but maybe this would give you an idea, because the remedy for that kind of condition is two things. It's remember and it's repent. You're in a situation where you're so busy, you forgot the intimacy, the fellowship that you're to have with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you don't have that, beloved, then this will be just a hollow place where they hold services every weekend. You don't want that. You want fervent, passionate love for Christ and His life and His power on evident display. And if you think He's going to enable you to do that by a cold love for Him, He won't, because He'll realize in His perfect wisdom that if things go well, you'll take the credit for it. You'll think it's because of you. You'll forget the One who deserves all the glory and honor and love as He should get. And so is your love right. And I think the remedy is found in verse 5. The remedy for the church is simply this, remember therefore from whence, and this is a strong word, from whence thou art what? Fallen. This is like a one-two punch. They've just been told they don't love like they're supposed to, and now they're told they've fallen from a position they used to have. Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent. and do the first works. That word do is important. It goes back to what we talked about a few minutes ago. You show what you believe by how you behave. Repent and do the first works. And look at these next two words or else. Who wants to hear that? Do the first works or else. Yet Jesus is saying it here. So what are you supposed to remember today? Well, again, this isn't perfect. I'm not suggesting that it's inspired anyway, but I just think it's something that can creep into churches like ours. Remember from whence thou art fallen. Remember when you studied your Bible, you didn't just read it. Remember that? Remember when you could not wait to hear from God by studying His Word? Remember when it wasn't just something you had to check off so you didn't feel guilty by the end of the day, so you just read your Bible, you read a devotion? Remember when you studied and didn't just read? Remember when you came to church to meet with the Lord and not just attend a service? Well, I got to go. I mean, if I don't go, they're going to call me and ask me where I was. And so I'm going to go. And, you know, you walk through, you go through the motions. Listen, beloved, I say this with a burden on my heart. Christ deserves more than us going through motions. Remember when you were excited and you anticipated meeting with the Lord? Remember when you couldn't wait to get in here? Remember when you sang songs to the Lord instead of talking in the entryway? Remember when you treated the song service like it's worship and not just some sort of transition time to get you ready for the preaching? Remember that? Remember when the beginning of the worship service was the beginning of worship? When the hallway wasn't noisier than the sanctuary? Remember when you sang loud because you meant it? This is a burden on my heart today, beloved, and I'm not just here up here with a chip on my shoulder. Colossians 3, if you don't come in here and sing, this is more than just an opinion. You are disobeying God. In Colossians 3, he says to a church that you are to teach and admonish one another. in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And you are robbing yourself of a blessing if you think it's better to be out there chatting it up with other men or other women. I'm not trying to be mean, but I am trying to be biblical. Jesus deserves you in here singing to Him. That's what it's worship. And I want to tell you from a testimony. Just two weeks ago, I was struggling hard I was in my office, the deacons had come in, we prayed before the service. God has blessed us with great men to serve our church's deacons. We prayed, and I felt like I went through the motions. I felt like I'm not ready for this. But I'm the pastor. I gotta get up there, and I've gotta be on. But I just felt like I was all by myself. If I'm being honest, I did. I felt like I was all by myself. That's a scary thing to do, walking down to church. So I went in there and I sat on the front row like I always do, and God had moved our song leader to begin our service with this song, The Comforter Has Come. And the last verse of that song, I'm going to just paraphrase it, but it says, how can I Just who I am. How can I communicate to people? How can I teach and preach? How can I say what I'm supposed to say? And then, of course, the answer comes back in the song, The Comforter Has Come. And God used that song to flood my heart with such strength and confidence in saying this, is that that's why you need me. You don't have to be on. You just have to be obedient. That wouldn't have happened. if I wasn't in there. There are other times, I give you examples on a Christmas service once of how God uses. All I'm saying is this, and please hear my heart on this. You listen to how a church sings. It tells you a lot about how a church feels. And there is no reason that you should not be singing out to the glory of God. Maybe it's not that the piano's too loud. Maybe you just don't sing loud enough. Maybe you have a contest. between you and Lila. But you could soften it up too if you wanted to, all right? But anyway, that was just a joke. But this is something I'm passionate about, beloved. It's in the Bible. We're gonna see it this week in the Psalms. And if you don't let the beginning of the worship service be the beginning of your worship, you might wanna check your love for the Lord. Remember when, remember when it wasn't just the song service. Remember when you sang songs to the Lord instead of just talking in the entryway? Remember when the Lord spoke to your heart so directly that the service was over, but your time with the Lord was not? I remember being in this church. The pastor would preach, and we'd have a service, and he would end in prayer, and none of us would move. Do you remember those days? I remember that. Nobody would move. We'd just stay still, and we would just pray. You remember when you would just sit and just be still because you knew God had talked to your heart and you didn't want to be irreverent and not speak back? You wanted to pray and give him what he was worthy of? Remember when you praying and telling God all your heart was easy? I can do that. I can tell God my heart. But remember when you knew that praying wasn't enough? Because you knew your real answer wasn't you talking to God. What you really needed was God talking to you. And so prayer wasn't enough. You got your Bible out, and you studied your Bible, and you read your Bible. You couldn't wait to read your Bible because you so desired to hear from Him. I don't need man's opinion. I don't need woman's opinion. I need to hear from God. And so you got by yourself. in the closet, in a room, at your table, in your car, and you opened up the Lord's Word and you read it because you needed it. Remember when you would feast on it? Remember when you hungered for it? Remember when you craved it? What happened? You got busy. Other things took your attention. Remember when you used to come to church with pure joy? Remember when you would come to church with anticipation? Or maybe I could say this, remember when you just came to church? Remember when you didn't have six excuses why you couldn't be in the Lord's house, with the Lord's people, on the Lord's day, taking part in what He designed? He didn't design just an assembly. He designed the assembling of ourselves together. You know why? Because we need it. Remember when you knew that? And so instead of rearranging your church to fit your schedule, you rearrange your schedule to fit church. Now I'm not saying that if you have a job and some capacity you're required, but what I'm saying is it shouldn't be the pattern of a believer. It shouldn't be the pattern of someone who's in love with Christ to find ways to miss church. You want to be... Here's why. When you love the Lord, you love who the Lord loves. And the Lord loves His church. So remember when you were filled with anticipation and joy? Remember when you came to church with gratitude? And because you came to church with gratitude, you couldn't wait to give your offering? You say, OK, here we go. We're going to talk about money. No, no, we're talking about worship. There's a lot more things you can give than just money. One of the things you can give God is your attention. But God doesn't just say He loves givers, He loves cheerful givers. And this is a big thing at our church. We don't take an offering at our church. I'm not saying you have to do this, by the way. I'm just giving you testimony. We don't take an offering at our church. Do you know why? Because we believe that churches give offerings, they don't take offerings. You say, well, that's just semantics. No, it's not. It's real. The Bible says in Revelation, Christ is worthy of our riches. And do you know why we call it worship? You know why? There's that box in the back of the sanctuary with a little slot in it, and people put their money in there. Do you know why we do that? At least our desire is this. It's what I tell our church back home. Don't write your check for your offering like you write your utility bill. It's the same amount every week, everything. I pay my energy bill. I pay my internet bill. I pay the church. That's not how you should give your offering. You ought to be giving cheerfully. But listen closely. You won't give cheerfully. Ready for this? Unless you know why you're giving. But when you know why you're giving, gratitude comes in the heart. Lord, thank you for what you've done for me this past week. Thank you for the opportunity you gave me, Lord. This is what I have. Here's my desire to worship you and praise you. Let me give this to you. And God blesses that. And here's what happens. If a church is filled with people who worship God in that way, this church will never have a financial need. Never. You know why? Because God would never lead us to do something that wasn't enough. If I'm being led by the Lord, and you're being led by the Lord, and everyone's being led by the Lord, is He going to lead us incomplete? Insufficiently? No. So let worship be worship. Give God what He's worthy of. Give God your attention. Sing out when you're singing to the Lord. And when you give, give with joy. Give cheerfully. Remember why you're giving. Remember when you gave because you wanted to, not because you had to. back when you knew what it meant to be a cheerful giver. Remember when you weren't embarrassed to talk about Jesus? Remember when you loved the chance to evangelize? Remember when you prayed for your wife? Remember when you prayed for your husband? Remember when you prayed for your kids? Remember when you knew that without the Lord, you could do nothing? Do you remember that? Do you remember what that was like as a Christian when you knew that without Him, I can do nothing? And so every day you were utterly dependent upon Him. Remember that? Remember when you understood that the Lord doesn't need you, but that you desperately need Him? Remember the gratitude that you felt when you realized that? That God doesn't need me, but I need Him. And even though He doesn't need me, He has chosen to use me. Gratitude. He doesn't have to be that gracious. Remember? Remember, beloved, when you loved the Lord so fervently, everything else paled in comparison. It didn't matter what people said. It didn't matter what you were called. He was worth it. Well, beloved, if you remember, then repent. Repent and get back to it. Repent and do the first works. So is that the fix? Just start doing it? Well, I didn't say it, Jesus did. Why would Jesus say that? Well, maybe it's because Proverbs 16 teaches us this very important principle, that if you commit your works unto the Lord, thy thoughts shall be established. If you start doing what you know you're supposed to do, God uses in some spiritual, miraculous way, he uses that to help us get back to where we need to with our perception and to think right. We'll be less like Martha, we'll be more like Mary. Where what we're doing isn't the focus, but who we're doing it for is the focus. Last summer, I gave Jen a gift. I had known for over two years what I wanted to do for her. And so I did what I had to do. I went and I purchased it and made all these arrangements and I got this gift for her. And I want to tell you something. The gift itself is not the big deal to me. It's what it means to me. I gave it to her on the day that represented the first day in my life where I could say I have lived most of my life with Jen. I tipped the scale, all right? I'm that young where I can say that. But I wanted to mark it. I wanted to mark that day. But it wasn't because of the, it was because of her. She's such a gift from God. I wanted to do something to just show that. I don't have an illustration that's good enough to explain. We have to get away from what we're doing for Christ and start remembering why we're doing it. It's for Him because we love Him. But that only flows from a heart that's in love with Him. And this is what Jesus said. He's not really impressed with a church that's busy. He's not impressed with a church that believes right only. He wants a church that loves him. So remember and then repent. Do the first works. Commit your works to the Lord. Thy thoughts will be established. He says if you don't, he'll come quickly. That means like this. It doesn't mean the rapture. It means like this. Now that you know what you're supposed to do, if you don't do it, I'll take care of things quickly. It's on his timetable, not ours. But because that's true, isn't it good of him to give us a warning? Isn't it good of him to tell us? And that's the invitation to the church. And thank you for your patience with me this morning. We'll be done with this. But it says in verse six, But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. And we're going to get more into that when we look at Pergamos. But it's interesting to note, before we go any farther, that in Ephesus, it was the deeds of the Nicolaitans, but by the time you get to Pergamos, it's the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. That's how important doing the right thing is. Because if the wrong deeds continue, it'll turn into doctrine before too long. Ask the Pharisees how that goes. But Jesus says, but you have this, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate, and Lord willing, Monday night we'll see why the Lord hates that. But then here's the invitation. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto Long Island Baptist Church. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Isn't the Lord good to warn us, but then promise us a blessing if we obey him? You see, Jesus didn't say all this to Ephesus just to show Ephesus how bad they were. He did it because he loved them and he wanted them to repent and get right and fix it. And so I don't know where you're at with your love for the Lord, but I can tell you this, there's going to be some symptoms in your life that the Holy Spirit hopefully has shown you. And if you aren't. with Christ right now being your first love, the most important love, then you need to repent, make that right today. There could be someone here today who doesn't know Jesus as Savior, let alone the head of the church. You don't know him as a personal Savior. I want to tell you there's no reason you can't know him as your Savior today. The Bible is very clear. Now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. That's not there as a promise because of you. It's there as a promise because of him. He can save anyone, anywhere, anytime. So I encourage you to turn to him. But the message this morning was primarily to the church. We want revival. It ain't going to happen without our love being right. Revival isn't getting busy. Revival is acknowledging our love for the Lord being right. So where's your love today? Do you love the Lord like you're supposed to love Him? Can I say, and I'll end with this, do you love the Lord like you're supposed to love Him? He's worthy of you loving Him that way. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your goodness to us, Lord. Thank you again for your word. I do pray that something said this morning and into the afternoon was a help to your people. I pray that You would take what was said and apply it in ways that only You can. I pray that things brought to hearts would be quick, that they would be quick to recognize only You could do that. And I pray that they would respond accordingly. We'll be quick to thank You, Lord, for all that You do. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.