Following With a Forgetful Faith

Openning Question (option 1)

Can you think of a time when you were doing something and totally forgot why you were doing it?

Have you ever gone into a room in your house to get something and when you get in there you totally forget why you walked in the room in the first place.

Have you ever gotten on youtube to look something up and by the time you begin typing you realize you have no idea what you were going to look up?

Have you ever raised your hand to ask a question in class and by the time the teacher calls on you, you cant remember why you put your hand up?

Have you ever started telling a story to a friend and you get a few words in and totally forget what you were saying?

Have you ever gone to see a movie, watch a few credits, and before the movie starts, forget what movie you are there to see?

Openning question (Option 2)

Pray

What is the book of revelation?

The Bible is God’s word to us. God spoke to humans and had them write down His words and pass it on so that we could know His word and get to know Him through His word.

As many of you know, the Bible is broken up into many different books and they all have amazing stories about God leading people into a relationship with Him.

Tonight, we are going to look at the book of revelation.

Author:

While Jesus was on Earth he has good friends and followers called disciples. Like all groups of people and friends, Jesus was closer to some of them than others. One of the disciples, named John, was one of Jesus’ best and closest friends. He was even known as “the disciple who Jesus loved.” After Jesus died on the cross, was dead for 3 days, and rose from the grave, Jesus passed His ministry onto His disciples and that is why we still meet together like we are doing right now. We are carrying on what Jesus did when He was here on Earth. Jesus passed on his ministry and then went to heaven to prepare a place for us. John continued Jesus’ ministry and was placed in prison on an Island because of it. While John was in prison, Jesus appeared to Him. Imagine that! Your best friend is Jesus, the son of God. Then He dies in a cross, then he rises from the grave, then he ascends into heaven, then he appears to you in your prison cell! THATS CRAZY! When Jesus appeared to John, He gave John a message to pass on to other people. The messages were for churches.

Audience:

So Jesus gives John a message for 7 different churches. Jesus says it and John writes it down. Just think about that. Imagine being the church that receives a letter like this. Imagine having someone come in here right now and give us a letter that is to the CREW from Jesus Christ. Well that is exactly what happened! And and we are going to read one of the letters to one of those churches from Jesus.

Where we pick up today We get to pick up in -7Our main focus: God calls us to repent of sin, refocus our attention on Jesus, and reengage in His mission. Read 2:1-3We are going to go ahead and put these 3 verses up on the screen and I want you all to focus on them and see if you can find the things the Chruch in Ephesus is doing right.

​English Standard Version Chapter 2“ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4

Works

Toil

Patient endurance

cannot bear with those who do evil

tested those who call themselves apostles and found them to be false

enduring patiently

bearing up for my name’s sake

not growing weary

Verse 4 is where the tone of this passage changes in a kind of dramatic way. Let me give you some examples of times when you don’t want to hear this word used. Imagine you are getting ready to ask your parents for permission to go to your friends house for a sleep over. then you remember that your grounded. Well, in a desperate attempt to make things right, you clean the house. the whole house. you vacuum, you clean the windows, you even go wash the cars outside. your parents walk in and you say “mom, dad, can I go to this sleepover. they look around and say well, you did this, this, this, and this,… BUTYOU DO NOT WANT TO HEAR SOMEONE SAY THAT THERE! THAT IS A BAD PLACE FOR A BUT!

​English Standard Version Chapter 24 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

God is sending this message to the church at Ephesus to show them that they have become Distracted. God showed them that they were doing some stuff okay, but they had gotten away from the reason the church existed in the first place. Look at vers 5

​English Standard Version Chapter 25 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Here is where Jesus shows his amazing grace again. He says, even though you messed up AGAIN, I still have a plan for you. First, you have to repent. Read 3:1-4

Response time.

Here is something that amazes me just about every time I read the Bible. The first part is that God reached into human history to save us and show His plan to us by grace through our faith. The second part that amazes me is that God’s word still applies to our lives today. I think this passage applies to us very clearly. Just like these churches in the ancient world, we can tend to act like we have everything figured out. We may even be able to put on a show like we have everything figured out. But, just like these churches, God sees everything we do. Some of those things are okay, and some of those things we do when nobody is watching, some of those things we think even, are not okay. But God still sees them. We can hide no thougths from God. THATS TERRORFYING!

BUT ALSO AMAING.its amazing because God still has a plan to forgive us that starts with our repentance just like we see in 2:5

​English Standard Version Chapter 25 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.