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Message To The Church At Ephesus:
There Is This One Problem,
You Take For Granted Your Most Important Love,
The
Lord Jesus Christ
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In the
Bible, God tells us about seven churches which show seven
different types of believers that live in every generation:
- The Ephesus type believer who has
some divine good production but has left his first love. Rev.
2:1-7
- The Smyrna type believer who is
willing to accept suffering for blessing. Rev. 2:8-11
- The Pergamum type believer who is
warned about compromising and becoming a stumbling block to
others. Rev. 2:12-17
- The Thyatira type believer who
tolerates false doctrine and false teaching even though he has
love, faith, service and perseverance. Rev. 2:18-29
- The Sardis type believer who needs
to “wake up, and strengthen the things that remain.” Rev. 3:1-6
- The Philadelphia type believer who
has kept with doctrine and has not denied the Lord’s name. Rev.
3:7-13
- The Laodicea type believer who is
lukewarm. Rev 3:14-22
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Revelation 2:4 But I have this against you [concerning you, Church
at Ephesus], that you have left [taken lightly, taken for granted]
your first Love.
First we’ll talk about the
believers in Ephesus. God was not against the believers at
Ephesus, as God is never against us but always for us. But, He was
thinking something that was concerning them, that they were taking
lightly the correct reason and motivation for living. They were
taking lightly their First Love which means their most important
Love, the Lord Jesus Christ. They were still positive believers,
but they were taking the Lord Jesus Christ for granted. When we
take someone for granted, we don’t appreciate who they are and
what they do. For instance, we can take our parents for granted.
This means that we don’t appreciate that they are our moms and
dads, and that they do soooo much for us. However, they still
remain our moms and dads and they still do soooo much for us. The
Lord Jesus Christ was still faithful to the Ephesians, even though
they took Him for granted. God could be saying the same thing to
us, “Yet concerning you this is true; you have forsaken [taken for
granted] your first Love.” What is our reason or motivation for
the way we live?
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Our motivation for studying
the Word of God is to be love for the Lord Jesus Christ. When this
is our motivation, we are giving back or reciprocating the love
God gave to us on the cross. Our pastor-teacher pours out light
when he is teaching Bible doctrine, the Word of God. We believers
receive the light, God’s Word, and apply doctrine. When we do
this, we reflect the light of Jesus Christ in our lives. Learning
more and more about Jesus Christ will increase our love for Him.
It keeps us moving in God’s plan. We need to have Jesus Christ as
our most important Love! He is our Light!
John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the
light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in
darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Psalm 18:28 You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my
darkness into light. With Your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall.
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When we have the light, Bible doctrine,
in our souls, we can have functional virtue. This means that we
can function or act with God’s thinking. This is because we have
proper motivation, love for the Lord Jesus Christ. We can let our
light shine. The world is filled with darkness and we can bring
light, Bible doctrine, to the world. The more we grow in the grace
and wisdom of God, the more we can show love, mercy, and the fruit
of the Spirit.
Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city on a hill
cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under
a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to
everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine
before men, that they may see your good deeds [virtue, knowledge
producing action] and praise [glorify] your Father in heaven.
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Revelation 2:1 To the messenger [pastor-teacher] of the church in
Ephesus write: The One [Jesus Christ] who keeps on empowering the
seven stars [teaching pastors in the Church Age] in His right
hand, the One Who walks among the seven golden lampstands [the
Church-Age believers],
Stars, pastor-teachers, send out
light from heaven, God’s Word; lampstands, positive believers,
learn the Word and shine that light. There will always be someone
somewhere who can teach us Bible doctrine so that our lights can
shine. God makes sure of that. There will always be stars,
pastor-teachers. Our Lord has given everyone a correct
pastor-teacher. He has given the pastor-teachers authority and
power over their students. It is God’s responsibility to bring the
Word to those who have positive volition. We just need to be
available for our pastor-teacher to teach us. Our I.Q. doesn’t
even matter. What matters is that we are filled with the Holy
Spirit, and He will make the Bible doctrine clear to us! He gives
us the light!
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Revelation 2:4 But I have this against you [concerning you], that
you have left your first love.
Let’s say that things
are going well in our lives. However, we lightly esteem God. It’s
not that we are against God, but we really don’t appreciate that
we are royal priests and that we have a responsibility to
represent ourselves before God. We don’t appreciate that we are
royal ambassadors and that we are to represent God to mankind. We
don’t take into consideration that we have been given spiritual
gifts and that we are to use our time, talents, and treasures to
bring glory to God. We’re not taking our calling seriously. We’re
not making Jesus Christ our #1 Love!
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There is a secret agent of Satan in
our body called the old sin nature. This secret agent wants to
drag us away from the plan of God and from our #1 Love. YIKES!
However, our volition is the captain of our soul, and the captain
can say “NO” to the temptations of the secret agent, the old sin
nature. Our volition can say “NO” to tests the old sin nature puts
in our thinking. God gives us all of the tools that we need:
filling of the Holy Spirit, Bible doctrine, and the ten problem
solving devices. If we really have love for the Lord Jesus Christ,
we will be willing to pass the old sin nature tests. Daily we face
the tests. The battle will be going on in our souls until the day
we die! Sometimes we will win, and sometimes we will lose. But
what if we don’t resist the temptation? Then we commit a sin.
However, there is a solution. We can REBOUND!
Galatians
5:16-18 So I say, live [walk] by the Spirit, and you will not
gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each
other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by
the Spirit, you are not under the law.
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The secret agent will also bring in
people testing and thought testing. Satan wants us to become
distracted by people and our thoughts. People can disappoint us
and then our thoughts can be very negative towards them and
towards ourselves. NOT A GOOD TRAIN OF THOUGHT! This will only
drag us down. God wants to pull us up to see His Person and
thoughts! If we keep Jesus Christ as our #1 Love, we can pass the
people and thought tests.
2
Corinthians 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh [in a body] we
do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare
[conflict] are not of the flesh [human attributes] but divinely
powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying
speculation [cosmic thoughts] and every lofty thing [arrogance]
raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every
thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready
[doctrine in the mind] to punish all disobedience [human
viewpoint] , whenever your obedience is complete [when we continue
using Bible doctrine].
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1Peter 1:8
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do
not see Him now, you believe Him and are filled with an
inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of
you faith, the salvation of your souls.
The way we come to love Jesus Christ is to come to know
Him. In knowing Him, we come to know ourselves better.
 We
do this through learning, believing, and applying doctrine. This
gives us a good mental attitude in our souls. Then we are
motivated by our love for Jesus Christ. We are never to forget the
humility we are to have toward God and His Word. We can fall into
the cosmic system even after we reach maturity. Anytime we fall,
all we have to do is repent, change our mind. We rebound and keep
our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, our most important Love!
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God will change and control
the pace of our spiritual lives. He
will make us what He wants us to be.
He will give us what we need to do His will. Are we willing
to let God strip us of our human viewpoint? Do we really want to
know Him? Do we want to lose our life and have the life of Jesus?
When the pressure is on, will we leave our #1 Love, or will we
take the challenge from God? God
will challenge us not to lose our #1 Love and He will give us
support to carry out His plan. Let’s make Jesus Christ our most
important Love and accept God’s challenge!!! Let’s remember the
lesson from the Church at Ephesus.
2Tim
4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
course, I have kept the faith [Bible doctrine]; in the future
there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not
only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
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Revelation
2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To Him who overcomes [the winner, and you can be one], I
will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of
God.
So, if we accept God’s challenge and put Jesus Christ
as our #1 Love, with God’s power we can overcome our obstacles. If
we eat big time from His tree of life on earth, metabolize God’s
Word, we can be winners in the angelic conflict! Then God will
grant us the special privilege of eating of the tree of life in
His special garden, the Paradise of God. The believer who goes
forward in God’s plan despite the distractions of the cosmic
system, will feast on the very best in eternity. Let’s grow in
God’s grace and knowledge so that we can enjoy His garden to the
fullest! Let’s choose to eat from the tree of life and party with
Jesus and winner believers in the Paradise of God!!!.
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Connect the dots.
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Remember to use the
assets or gifts God has given us so that we can keep Jesus Christ
as our #1 Love. Add some color to the picture! Maybe you’d like to
put more in the picture.
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Message To The Church At Ephesus:
There Is This One Problem,
You Take For Granted Your Most Important Love,
The Lord Jesus Christ
References used:
Robert R.McLaughlin Bible Ministries
www.gbible.org
Lessons: Florida Conference 3/5-3/7, 2002
A warning about losing your first love, parts 1-3.
Tree of Life, 1-10-1999
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