Don't Forget | Revelation 2:1-7

My name is Joel Hastings, one of the pastors here. And that. Hey, happy Memorial Day weekend to you guys. As you can tell, both by so far the order of the service. And then also because we got lots of kids in here, it's a special weekend for us, a Labor Day weekend. And so hey kids, I am so thankful that you are in here today and I want to know where my children are at.

If you are a kid in here, I'm going to give you permission to be very, very loud. All right. So I want you to say, if you are glad you are here today, kids, I want you to scream out on the count of three. Amen. Can you do that for me? All right, so, kids, are you happy to be here?

One. Two. Three. Amen. Hey. Well, we are happy that you are in here as well. We're going to we're going to do it a little bit different here today. I'm actually going to preach a little bit of an abbreviated message. And all God's people say Amen, right. And and then because the kids are in here and we're going to take a little bit more time at the end of this worship service and actually spend time in praising God and worshiping and responding to him.

You know, my wife and I, we weren't high school sweethearts, but we were close. We were a freshman in college sweethearts. And so 18 and 19 year old is when we started dating there. And as I remember, like looking back or thinking back on that time when you were 18 or 19 years old and you start to date and it starts to get a little bit more serious, and you start to dream about what life will become after you get married and all of that.

I can confidently say Arkansas was never in the plan, but it's like, let's move to Arkansas. But nevertheless, we're glad we're here. We're thankful we're here. We're we weren't quite expecting it, but but thinking back, like, do you remember that time as a young person, whenever you would think like, I wonder where I'm going to be in 20 years, I wonder why I'm going to be in 30 years.

I love talking to teenagers because one of the things that I love to tell them is that in 20 or 30 years, you're going to look and act exactly like your parents, you know, and they hate that so much. And so I like to the young man, I'm like, young men, look at your father. However much hair they have on their head and their back is exactly how much hair that you are going to have as well, in both of those places like you are going to become then.

And it's a good practice to look ahead. Now, the reason why I bring that up is the last few weeks we've been in acts 18, 19 and 20, looking at the start of the church of Ephesus, right in preparation for us to actually do a longer study through the series of Ephesians here. But but it's a good practice, because what's happening in acts 18, 19 and 20 was how this church started.

But today, for just a few minutes, I actually want to go ahead and look to the end of the story, look past the the letter of Ephesians, and look actually all the way to revelation. We're going to be in revelation chapter two this morning, revelation chapter two, and in revelation chapter two here. It's actually about 40 years or so, give or take, after the events in acts 18, 19 and 20.

So, so what we're seeing now is, is we saw how this church started. Let's go ahead and start to flash forward to say, where are they going to be a few decades from now? And it's a good, insightful practice for us, because what if we could look ahead 30 years into the future, 40 years into the future, to see where you and your life and your family is going to be?

If you knew that, it would probably dictate how you behave right now. If you knew what pitfalls were lying ahead, it would probably change some things and some attitudes and some actions that you're doing right now. If we could know where Grace Point Church was going to be in 40 years, it would hopefully shape what we do now.

And that's what we get to see here today. They get a letter from Jesus in Revelations chapter two, verse one, going to jump into it. Here. It says to the angel of the church of Ephesus, write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Now there's a lot of symbolism in the book of revelation, but what this is actually saying is to the angel of the church, and that word angel is actually the word messenger in the Greek, and it can be translated messenger can be translated angel.

Most people actually think that word angel. And also the seven stars, both the angel and the star is actually referring to the pastor. So, you know, sometimes I get questions like, Pastor Joel, do you want to be called Joel or Pastor Joel? I prefer Angel. I know, just kidding. My wife would not not agree with this.

But it's the messenger. And so what this all is saying? I know it's like there's a lot of symbolism in the book of revelation, and so I'm not going to fully get into it. But what, what what this verse is just saying is that there's a message from the one who holds the lampstands, which is Jesus. So he's saying, I have a message for the church, the lamb saying, which is the church.

I have a message for some churches, and this is a message from Jesus himself. Alright, so imagine now with me that if we were able just to open up the God's Word and it says, hey to to the the pastor of Grace Point Church, here's a message from Jesus. Like we'd want to pay attention. We would want to know what Jesus says.

This would be a vital importance for all of us. And so what does he say? The message from Jesus, verse two. It says, I know your works. Your toil, your patience, endurance. I know your work. I know all the things that you have done for the sake of the gospel. I know how hard that you have dedicated yourself.

I know you're toil. The toil, work is just talking about the energy extended. The toil is actually the hardship and the patient endurance. Listen, if you have to patiently endure something, it isn't going well, right? Like I've never heard an Alabama football fan say that they had to endure the football season. Razorback fans though, you know, we had to endure it sometimes.

And he's saying here that if you have to patiently endure something, if you have to toil over something, it isn't going well. It was probably a hard season. If we got a letter from Jesus in 40 years from now, and that letter says, hey, Grace pointers, I know how hard it was that would show us what type of season is coming up.

And that's what they have just walked through for the last 30 or 40 years. They had to go through work and toil and patient endure it. And how you cannot bear with those who have who are evil and saying, I know that, that there have been people that have come in and try to try to get you off.

I know that they have tried to pull you away, and yet you have not Baird with them. You have not joined with them, but have tested those who have called themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false, which was not an easy thing to do, by the way, because back then the whole New Testament wasn't written yet, and so there'd be people that would come in and say, hey, I knew Jesus.

Let me tell you what he actually said. Well, let me tell you what he actually meant. And they would have to do the hard work of looking in the Old Testament to see if that actually matched up. They would have to do the hard work of finding out from Paul if this is actually what was proper teaching for that time.

It was hard work. They were tempted to be swayed. And Jesus is saying, I know, I know that that was hard. I know it was a hard season. And that's encouraging to me, by the way. See, for instance, like if I do something in my own flesh, my own humanness, like if I do something hard, I want to give credit for it.

If my wife goes to the ladies Bible study and she comes back and I've cleaned the whole kitchen just because, like, that's what I should do as an adult in my house. But like, if I do that, you better believe I'm going to be like, did you notice? Right? I don't want that credit. Jesus saying, I know I saw it, I know it wasn't easy.

Then he goes on, even in verse three he says, I know that you are enduring patiently again in bearing up for my name's sake, for his glory, and you have not grown weary linguistically. It's actually kind of interesting that that enduring patiently in the Greek literally means that you are weighed down underneath something, but then when you bear up, that means that you're lifting up.

So there's a weight that's been put on you, but they are bearing it, they are holding it, they're holding strong, and they haven't even grown weary in it. And that's impressive, because sometimes I grow weary. Sometimes there's times even as a pastor where it's like, man, I don't want to go to church today, right? I don't want to do the things.

I don't want to keep being kind to my wife. I don't want to be the best employee that I can. And but yet here they were, they were doing all these things, and they have not even grown weary. They're still doing it. If we read this and as we read it, it's like, this is a good church. Like, this is the type of church that I would want to be a part of.

But then in verse four it says, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love that you had at first. I have this against you that you have abandoned, you have left, you had it, and yet you walked away from it that you had at first. And here's the main point of this short sermon is don't forget your love for Jesus.

So because as Jeremy already brought up, here's what's going to happen over the next month or so before we actually get into the the the verse five verse study in Ephesians, before we actually get there, here's what's going to happen for the next few weeks, we're actually going to talk a little bit about not only the foundations of the the church in Ephesus, but we're also going to talk about the foundation for for Grace points.

And we're going to talk about some of those things that he just mentioned, that we ought to become like Jesus, that we ought to belong in community. We all live saying, we're going to flesh this out to to help shape us for the next few decades as well. We're going to we're going to talk about this. And let me just tell you, it is our heart, as the leaders of this church, that we go deep into God's Word, that we are people formed to look like him and belong in community.

And we're going to do those hard works. But here's what the temptation will be as we start to go deeper and deeper into God's word is going to be real easy to get. Focus on all the things that we're doing for Jesus, that we forgot Jesus. So easy to do this, this ultimately, by the way, like this is the people that killed Jesus.

This is this is them. The Pharisees, they mastered the Old Testament. They knew the Bible. They knew exactly. They followed the law perfectly. Except for when Jesus walked in the room. They didn't even recognize him. And I don't ever want to get to a point in any one of our walks where we get so busy doing the works of Jesus that we walk right past them.

So what do we do in verse five? It says the start of it. Remember therefore, therefore that it says, because you have abandoned, you walked away from your first. Remember that from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. Remember from where you've fallen, you know that word repent. I talked about a lot here recently, but it literally means to change your mind or to change your direction, right?

So if you're going one way and repent from that, you're going to turn around. But but I want you to get a picture of what this is actually talking about in verse five. Because notice here he's saying, remember from where you have fallen. So what is the direction that they are going? They're going down right. Remember when where you have fallen that you once where at a high place now you have fallen down to a very low place.

And if you have fallen and it's time to repent. What does that mean to do? It means to turn around and look up. And that's what repentance is. He says that you have fallen, but it's now time to repent, which means to turn around, point your eyes upward, and then notice here it says, and get goosebumps whenever the worship band plays.

No, it doesn't say do something emotional. It doesn't say to to just really feel it this time. But he says, go back and do the works. But we say, but I thought the works like that was kind of the bad thing. And the motion. No, no no, no. He's still saying do the do the works that they did at first, last few weeks.

What was the work that they did at first? Do you remember back in chapter 18, it said that they so shared the gospel, that all of Turkey, all of Asia knew the gospel because of what they did. They so shared the gospel that that ended up that a riot got caused because they ended up taking $5 million worth of witchcraft and material and going, throwing it in the fire, repenting from all of that.

They did all of those things. And because they did all those things, they started to love Jesus even more. See, when work flows from love, it becomes a joy. When work flows from love, it becomes a joy. My, I'm in beer back. Whenever I was in college and Beth and I were dating for most of the time, we would spend a lot of time together, as you do in every year in college, and you're dating somebody.

And we eventually got engaged in college. And, and I remember just so often, like, we just want to spend every moment of the day with each other. You probably remember that if you're if you're married going back and, and there was one semester there, we'd see each other six days a week. But then on Tuesdays, for whatever reason, the schedules just didn't line up because work and classes and all that, we just couldn't see each other.

But I was young and in love, and I figured out that I had about an I had a break. I had one class period off. And then Bethany, she didn't have the break during that time period, but she'd have 20 minutes between the end of one class period and the start of next class period. And so I figured out, like, this is the only time that I'm going to be able to see my girlfriend during this time.

And so what I'll do is as soon as my class was done, I would throw on my backpack. I would run literally a mile across campus in through traffic and all of that in order to try to get to her as soon as she was also getting out of class so I could walk about ten minutes worth the time from her one class to the next class, because that's all the time I got to see her that day.

As I was doing that, it didn't feel like work to me because here's that girl that I love that I'm trying to pursue and it wasn't work. See?

As time has gone on, I'm about 15 minutes drive from home from from work right now. And as I as I look at my schedule for the week, most of the time, I'm usually meeting with people with lunch and and giving, doing coffee. And I don't get a lot of time during the day, but oh, probably about once a week or so.

I have a lunch free. Can I be honest with you? Never once, after 14 years of marriage, never once have I thought, man, I got an hour right now I'm going to drive 15 minutes home and then drive 15 minutes back. Also, I get 30 minutes with my wife. Why is that? Why is it that after 14 years and I think everybody in here that's been married can understand this?

Like, why is it at a certain point you stop getting those butterflies in your stomach, right? Why is it that I sometimes have to sit inside of an office with some of the couples that have come in who have, in the same way they stood up here on the stage in front of everybody, made vows that they're going to love each other till the day that they die.

And then now, a few years after they're married, they're sitting in my office saying, I fell out of love with her. I fell out of love with him. Why is that? That we could abandon in this case, not Jesus, but. But we could abandon the love that we had for our spouse. And I can't just tell that couple like you just got to really feel it.

Gotta feel it in your gut. No.

If I were in that situation, if I were in that room with you and you and your spouse and you know what I would tell you? It's like, hey, do you remember? Do you remember how I used to buy her flowers? Do you remember how you used to pursue her? Hey, Joel, do you remember how you used to run a mile to spend ten minutes with her?

What if you started doing that again? See, here's the amazing thing about love. When you actually start to act loving, then the feelings start to catch up with it. When you actually start to do the works in your marriage, then you'll be overcome with love for your spouse and in the exact same way for Jesus Christ as well.

For some of us, it's so easy to sometimes get caught up in the mundane, get caught up in just what we got to do, just get caught up and I gotta go to church again. I gotta do the Bible study, I gotta serve. But in reality, as we start to do the works that we first did, do you remember when you first got saved, how you were so overwhelmed with joy that you just had to tell everybody that there's a savior, that I was a sinner, that Jesus Christ died for me.

And you need to know this. The more that we start to pursue that, the more that we start to do the works that we did, the more that we start to say, yeah, I got some stuff in my life and I need to lay that down at the altar, because he's the only one that can save me. The more that we can do that, the more that this love starts to overwhelm all of us.

So here's what we're going to do today. We're going to move into a time of worship at the end of the service, and it's a time for all of us to respond, to do the works, to do the works inside your heart, to do the same things that the people and acts did whenever they started to confess their sins, to lay those things down at the foot of the cross, to devote themselves to the love of God.

See? Because when work flows from love, it becomes a joy. And so the band's going to come out here in just a moment. And as they do, we're going to sing songs and I'm going to encourage you, whatever posture that you need to take, we're going to have a few different songs, not just one. We're going to have a few songs here today and whatever posture you need to take, if you need to come down here and you need to pray, then come down here and pray.

If you want to stand and rejoice and stand and rejoice. If you need to, just sit down for a little bit and spend some time with the Lord. I encourage you to do that on this special Sunday for us, because it's going to be an important thing for us as we now start to set the foundation for for Grace Point Church.

Let make let's make sure it's a foundation that's built on the love of God. Let's pray. Father.

Lord, I thank you that you care enough to call us back to you, that you love us enough to continue to pursue after us. Lord, help. I'll be the first one in this room to confess how often it is for me to walk away. Walk away from the love that I have for you.

It's the Lord. I pray that you draw me back to you today. That you draw all of us back to you today. Lord, I pray that we'd be filled with the type of works that we did whenever we first knew you. That confession, that desire, that longing to know you more and to become like you.

Lord, I pray that you would move in this place. Now, in Jesus name we pray.