Don't Give Up

The first letter to the seven churches of revelation is the letter to Ephesus. Now before I read this letter remember that Paul ministered in Ephesus and wrote a letter to the Ephesians. From this letter we get the armor of God and teachings on marriage and child rearing. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul stressed unity in the church and the purpose of the church. This church was in the middle of a society that was overrun with idolatry.

It was a wealthy city that had little interest in God and almost no interest in morality. Can you imagine living in a place like that, a land where people had no respect for God and very little respect for one another. What would it be like to live in a place like that? Ephesus was known as a place where sexual immorality was everywhere and Paul warns the Ephesian church about it. Many believe that the Nicolatians that this letter refers to had huge orgies related to pagan worship. This is the environment that this letter was written to. Perhaps it applies in an environment such as ours

Revelation 2:1–7 NASB95

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

The church in Ephesus had begun as a beacon of morality and love for God and each other in a place where there was precious little of either of these things. Maybe they were tired of the lives they had led and the things they had been involved in, maybe they were ready for a change. These people were sinners, they knew they were sinners, they knew where they had come from and what they had done. They didn’t have to wonder if they had a problem, they didn’t have to be convinced that they were not righteous people, they knew it from the first.

When they accepted Christ they turned their backs on their old life and began living in a radical new way. They worked hard at living new lives and following the example of Jesus, the bible says that they toiled at it. It was not easy and they did not expect it to be. They put in the time and the effort to change their lives and be a light to those around them.

We know that it was not easy because the bible tells us that they persevered. Perseverance means to continue to do something or try to do something even though it is difficult and takes a lot of time and effort. It implies that not only did they have to work at it but they had to work at it for a long time. They toiled and they persevered and eventually they became a church that you could hold up as a model church. All of their hard work and all of their time and effort had paid off. They had arrived. So they stopped working.

The Scripture says that they left their first love. They stopped doing what they had done at first and they relaxed. They had reached their goal, they had achieved their mark and now they slacked off for some much needed rest and apparently once they were rested they rested some more. All of the habits they had worked so hard to build up were left behind for new habits. The things they had built up and worked for were there and they could finally enjoy the fruits of their labor. so they did.

Do you remember when you first moved into the house you are living in. Maybe there were some things that needed to be fixed. The house we are living in now was a new house when we moved in, even so when we did our home inspection there were some things that needed to be fixed. There were some places in the paint that had been missed or damaged. Before we moved in we had these things fixed. After we moved in we found a few more things that needed to be fixed but eventually everything was working the way it should and we could relax. Of course it didn’t last. Eventually things got broken or scratched or needed to be repaired. That’s just the home ownership is. We may get a chance to rest for period of time but sooner or later we will need to get back into the game and keep up the maintenance. It will never end. Then there are the things that we never thought of when we bought the house that later on we want to do to improve it or make it better suit our own changing needs. Like when six more people moved in with us we had to make some changes. After all, life happens.

I also remember that when we moved in we spent a lot of time arranging furniture and hanging pictures and getting the house set up. Of course after a period of time we got it all set up but still Tina would buy something new to hand on the wall or decide to move the couch around. We just rearranged furniture to put up the Christmas tree. There was a time when we had everything set up and arranged and we could relax. We didn’t have to spend every spare minute unpacking boxes and setting up the house, but even after we were done there were still things that popped up from time to time that needed to be done, we could rest, but we couldn’t quit.

What happens if you don’t do your home maintenance for a while, what if you rest for a year, or two years, or more. If you let it go too long it is like starting over. The amount of work it takes to restore something that has been neglected can be as much work, or even more work, than it was to do it the first time. You can end up in worse shape than ever before. Not because you suddenly turned destructive or some catastrophe destroyed everything you had done but simple because of neglect. A house is like that. And so is a church.

I don’t mean the building, although that is true as well, I mean the church. A church, a fellowship of believers has a beginning. There was a time when this church was not here, it didn’t exist. Someone had to begin it. A group of people had a vision to start a church in this community. They worked to get the land and build the building, they worked to build up the church and to make it better and better. I was not there but I imagine that it started off with some struggles. Maybe they were short of funds, or workers, maybe they had to get by without enough hymnals or without a music leader. Maybe they struggles to find enough classrooms or enough teachers. I don’t know exactly what their struggles were, but I have been in enough churches to know that they had them.

The fact that we are still here proves that they persevered, they overcame their struggles at least to some degree. I am sure that the church has had times when things were going along pretty well and times when the church was struggling. That is the way of churches, it is the way of life. I have been told that before Covid this church was doing well, it was larger and had more programs and more workers than it does now. Things seemed to be working well together. And then they weren't.

Now if when that happened to the furnace we fixed it. We had a furnace go out and we called someone and had them come and put in a new one. We had another furnace develop a leak that soaked the carpet so we called a repairman and dried out the carpet and got everything back working as it should be. But what about the rest of the church. What about the really important part.

You see we could have a church without a furnace, we could have wood heat or electric heaters. One would be more expensive and one would be more work but either could be done. What about the parts that cannot be substituted. What about worship and fellowship what about unity and community. Without these things it doesn’t matter what our building is like we are not a church. Do we work as hard at those things and the other essentials as we once did? Has the church been united before, apparently it has. Has the church worked and lived and worshipped together before, history says it has. Have we had more workers and more fellowship, more teaching and more teachers, more of everything that makes a church and grow in faithfulness and it true worship? Have we had more and worked harder in the past. Of course I cannot say that I have, but I can say that it looks like my predecessors have. It looks like this church has. It looks a little bid like we have left our first love.

What a wonderful way to express that thought. Not that we have quit working as hard as we used to, although it is obvious that hard work is a part of it. Not that we have quit persevering through the tough times, although it is obvious that there have been tough times that required perseverance. Not focusing on those things but focusing on love. On the leaving or abandoning of our first love.

Why is it do you think that someone would work hard or toil as the bible says. To get a better life, to provide for or support our family, to show our love for them. Why would you work hard for Jesus or for his church. You really can’t do it for very long because you think you should, or because it is the right thing to do. It is difficult to work hard for money or for fame. It is almost impossible to work hard and have a good attitude unless you are doing what you love or doing something for someone you love.

When you love your hobby or your job you really enjoy doing it. You can work for hours and hours at something you love without getting bored or frustrated. When you work for someone you love you can put up with a lot. You can do tasks that no one really wants to do or enjoys and still get enjoyment from them because of the love you feel for those involved. I may have told you once or twice that I have enjoyed the Iliff kids over the last couple of years. They are loud, they always want to eat or always need something, they interrupt me in everything I do and seem to always want to be the center of attention. It would be horrible except for one thing, I love them.

Rhea loves me and can’t wait to come to see Pop Pops and always wants to be picked up. She smiles so big when I pick her up that it warms my heart. I love it when she visits, but I have this against her. She is a tar baby. She poops her britches and it is the consistency of roof tar. I am sure it could patch a hole in the roof if you could stand the smell. I mean it reeks. Some of her diapers should be disposed of in a toxic waste dump. I have changed a lot of those diapers. No human being should be forced to do that, it is cruel and unusual punishment. But I do it because I love her. I don’t want her to get a rash or have to walk around wearing that. Not only that I want to be around her and I don’t want to be around that. So I change her. I do this nasty disgusting job because I love that little girl, and sometime I smile when I do it. Love can make the worst tasks almost enjoyable. Love is funny like that.

So I ask you today, in your church and in your life have you left your first love. Remember when you could not get enough of God and the things of God, has that changed. Have you come to the point where serving God, praying, reading the bible, going to church, worshipping, serving has become a drudgery rather than a source of joy. Have you coasted into maintenance mode, not putting in the effort you once did, not having the desire you once had. If so, why? Is God just not as awesome as he once was, is salvation not as wonderful a gift as it used to be. Has God become boring. Is he just not as interesting as he used to be. Do you think God has changed. Is he less awesome, less wonderful, less perfect? What has changed? Is it possible that you have been saved for so long that you have forgotten to be grateful. Is it possible that you have worshipped or prayed so many times that you just got used to it, or even bored with it. Have you forgotten that you are talking to the creator God of the universe and how awesome it is that he lets you walk right into his throne room to pray and worship? Have you let service to the father transform from something that he gives you the privilege to do, the privilege to work with the master creator and master planner on the greatest plans and greatest works in the universe, the redemption of mankind, the restoration of God’s perfect plan and his perfect vision of what humanity should be. Have you forgotten that God has given you, an imperfect, flawed, and broken human being the chance to work with him on the greatest project ever undertaken? Have you forgotten that service is a gift given to you by your first love. Have you forgotten that love.

What would your life be like if you remembered your first love? What would our church be like if we all remembered him? How would it change our lives, our attitudes, our outcomes. Maybe it is time for all of us to remember our first love, the love of Jesus Christ.