Revelation chapter two.
Revelation chapter number two, if you don't have a Bible,
there should be one under the seat in front of you.
We're in Revelation chapter two.
Revelation two, the Bible reads,
"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.
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 which say they are apostles
and are not, and hast found them liars,
and hast borne, and hast patience,
and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee,
because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly,
and will remove thy candlestick out of his place,
except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds
of the Nicolaitans which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to Ede of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write,
These things sayeth the first and the last,
which was dead and is alive.
I know thy works in tribulation and poverty,
but thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them
which say they are Jews and are not,
but are the synagogue of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shall suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you in prison,
that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days.
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write,
These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.
I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is,
And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith,
Even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr,
Who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them
That hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel,
To eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone,
And in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.
And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God,
Who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.
I know Thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and Thy patience, and Thy works,
And the last to be more than the first.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
Which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication,
And to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation,
Except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know,
That I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts,
And I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
But unto you I say, and unto the rest, Synthiatar, as many as have not this doctrine,
And which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak,
I will put upon you none other burden,
But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end,
To him will I give power over the nations.
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron,
And the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers,
Even as I received of my father.
And I will give him the morning star.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Brother Timothy, will you pray for us?
And we're in chapter two, Revelation chapter two.
And last week I did finish off the chapter.
But this week, like I said, I'm probably not going to finish off the whole chapter.
So if you're expecting that to happen, then your expectations are going to fall short.
But this evening I want to preach about what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
And there are seven churches here that Jesus has told for John to write these letters to.
And of course we have the whole book of Revelation.
We have all the letters that are written to these churches.
And you know, I tend to think that all the letters were not separate letters in the sense
that they were, you know, that they each got their own private letter necessarily.
But I think that they probably got the whole book sent to them.
And each part had an address to that specific church.
And that way you can't corrupt those things and so on and so forth.
But I also think it's also, this is scripture.
And this is the last book of the Bible.
And so everything was probably written to a complete form.
But obviously there are certain portions that are addressed to the certain churches.
So let's look down at verse number one.
It says, "Unto 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 golden candlesticks.'"
So, and that kind of alludes back to what was said in the last chapter,
the very last two verses.
So, in the key to unlocking what he says there in chapter two, verse one,
remember the chapters and verses weren't put in until well after the Bible was already penned down.
But if you go back to Revelation chapter one, verse 19 and 20,
the key here of what he's saying here, and it's not a hard key to figure out,
he says this early on in chapter one.
And then he gives us the clue to unlocking it, because this is the book of Revelation.
Jesus isn't really trying to hide things from us.
He's trying to help us to understand things.
And so things might be cryptic, but then he also gives us the key to unlock them.
So write these things, verse 19, which thou hast seen.
So what would that be?
Things in the past, right?
And the things which are, that would be what?
The things that are in the present.
And the things which shall be hereafter, that would be also future things.
So you have past, present, and future, and who's telling him to do this?
Jesus Christ himself, right?
And it says the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand,
and the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
So, and again last week I believe personally that this is the actual pastors of these churches.
Because if you're writing it to an angelic bean, when's the last time an angelic bean came here and read a letter to you?
Probably never. I know never because it's never happened, okay?
And messenger and angel mean the same thing.
Now obviously context will tell you whether it's talking about the angelic bean or whether it's talking about just a messenger that's a man.
And I kind of went a long time into showing you that last week.
John the Baptist is called a messenger, the messenger of the covenant, right?
And then let's see, so it says, "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."
So he makes it real simple, you know, those cryptic things that you saw, they're not really that cryptic.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, the seven candlesticks that thou sawest are the seven churches, okay?
And we talked about the seven spirits of God, how that represents the Holy Spirit.
The seven spirits of God are before the throne.
And then so, you know, obviously the number seven is kind of a number of completion.
There are seven days in a week.
You know, God created the heaven and the earth and rested on the seventh day.
So seven, you know, usually is a good number.
So it's one I always pick when someone says pick a number between one and ten, I always pick seven.
So I think a lot of people do.
Anyway, it's not like some lucky gambling number or something that I mean, people do say lucky number seven.
But I mean, that's not how we should view that.
So I think God, it's just used symbolically to to show completeness or whatever.
So and again, what the Lord Jesus Christ is asking John is to write three different in three different tenses.
And this is how Bible prophecy works.
There are layers to it.
There are things that are fulfilled already and there's things that are sometimes currently being fulfilled that are profit rights of the Old Testament.
There's things that are going to be shortly coming to pass.
And then there's things that have come to pass and there's going to come to come to pass again.
Like, for instance, the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple.
These things that Jesus said that, you know, that the Jerusalem is going to be compassed about with armies.
Of course, we know that happened in 70 AD, but it's also going to happen again because the apostle Paul talked about that.
And then, of course, John is talking about it after the destruction of the temple has already happened.
So Jesus talked about it in Matthew 24, alluding to the time that John is talking about here in Revelation chapter 13.
So, I mean, there's layers to Bible prophecy and there's shadow fulfillments and then the ultimate fulfillment.
And I think about when it says they shall look on him who they pierced.
That's fulfilled multiple times in the Bible.
So that's actually talked about in the book of Zechariah and then it's talked about when Jesus was on the cross.
It actually said this scripture is fulfilled and it says it when Jesus was dying on the cross.
But then it says it in Revelation chapter 1 that we just saw.
So it says every eye shall see him and they that pierced him.
So if it says it was already fulfilled in John chapter whatever 19 or whatever it was
and they shall look on him and who they pierced.
So there's another fulfillment of it coming because Jesus has not come back yet.
So it's yet to be fulfilled but yet it said it was already fulfilled.
Just like when Jesus said that if you'll believe, if you'll take it, John the Baptist was Elijah.
But there's also another Elijah coming which he'll probably be one of those two witnesses.
I mean I'm 99.9% sure that's going to be one of the two witnesses.
So I mean the Bible says that he, because he said surely Elijah will come and restore all things.
So I mean he's going to come back.
You know everybody just kind of disputes on whether it's actually Enoch or Moses as to who the other witness is.
Or if it's just somebody else completely different but you already know who I think it is.
And I would agree with you about Moses but then we'd both be wrong.
Anyway, so you know dispensationalists will say that there are seven churches mentioned that represents the seven different church what?
Ages. The different church ages. We're in the age of the churches or whatever.
It's like you know this is just something that's made up. It's not really true.
Now what I will say is that some of the things that you see in the churches in Revelation that you can probably get something out of that.
The state of different churches but like as far as it being like the church of Laodicea is how the church will be when Jesus comes back.
Well I mean speak for yourself. Not all churches are necessarily going to be weak like that.
And not all churches are going to be sad like that. Maybe a predominant amount.
But there's been times throughout history where churches were weak and where they weren't necessarily thundering forth new IFB doctrine or whatever.
There's been times when there wasn't a great church anywhere to be found.
And people were hiding from the Catholic Church because they were just killing everybody because they were in charge.
So, I mean, there's been times that we have not lived in in the last 2,000 years where the church attendance was probably pretty paltry.
And Baptist churches weren't really a thing. There's more Baptist churches now than there ever was in history right now.
I mean, that's just a fact. And, you know, there's more places to go to church in America than there ever were probably in medieval Europe that were, you know, solid foundational churches, I'm sure.
So, but of course I didn't live during that time. So, but I would venture to say that's true.
So, but anyway, I think it's, you know, the whole dispensationalist, you know, we are like the Church of Laodicea.
And like basically you're trying to self-fulfill some stupid prophecy that you're just weak and this is why we are weak and lacking all these things.
Well, it just kind of pigeonholes you into that belief system, doesn't it?
Like, well, let's just be weak and soft and just be weak on doctrine and not, you know, be powerhouses for someone because, you know, we are part of the Laodicean church age or whatever.
And it kind of just, you know, we don't want to have that attitude. We want to be able to be, you know, hey, despite the fact that there's a lot of weak churches out there right now, we don't have to be like the church at Laodicea.
And we can be fired up and on fire for soul winning, on fire for hard preaching, and just standing in the gap and, you know, keeping the faith and that we're passing on that faith to the next generation.
We don't have to be like them and we don't have to just pigeonhole ourselves into that self fulfilling, self, you know, their whole church age mentality.
So I think that's rubbish.
And but Jesus does here give a report card basically on these churches that are existing at the time.
These are churches that existed at the time.
And he's kind of given them a report card.
And some of them have good qualities about them.
There's great qualities.
But then there's some of them that have some really crazy things that are going on.
I mean, some of the things that are going on in the churches at this time,
which is 2,000 years ago, that are definitely not going on in our church.
I mean, Jezebel is not in our church teaching people these crazy doctrines
that you can commit fornication.
And that's pretty wild, right?
I mean, so is our church as bad as that church was back then?
So how are we in the Laodicean church age?
And what this also tells you, though, is that churches can get pretty bad
and still be considered a church in Jesus'.
You know, because he's addressing these churches as that he loves them.
He wants, you know, there's problems, but he wants them to be fixed.
He's willing to give them chances. He's willing to give them time to repent.
And so churches can get, you know, pretty bad
before he finally just takes that candlestick away
and they stop being what you would consider a New Testament church.
Because there are lots of churches out there that are churches in name only,
but that candlestick either never existed,
it never was a real church,
or it stopped being a real church a long time ago,
and they just don't realize it, you know?
And so, and the first clue is in the Ephesian church
when he says, "I will take your candlestick away. I'll just take it from you."
And what is the candlestick again?
The candlestick is the churches.
So if he says, "I'll take your candlestick away,"
but there's places around this whole city right now
that are called whatever whatever church.
And is it really a church though?
Well, again, it might not ever have really been a church
when it comes to Jesus' definition of a church.
But it also could have been a church a long time ago,
and he removed that candlestick a long time ago,
and they're just going through the motions calling themselves a church.
But what it really is, is a club.
It's a hangout.
It's a place to get together and whatever.
Sing songs about Jesus.
Talk about Jesus.
But in reality, they're not doing what Jesus told them to.
They're not obeying him.
They're not doing what they're supposed to be doing.
Because look, you know, what he's talking about,
about why he would remove you from being a church,
is when you lost your first love and you're not doing the first words.
And I'll get to that later on, but let's look at our first church of the night here.
Like I said, I'm probably only going to get to two churches tonight,
but I really want to emphasize a big emphasis on the church of emphasis.
So my first point is the emphasis on emphasis.
So let's turn to Acts chapter 18 though,
and I want to kind of give you a little bit of a background about this church,
because if you remember reading the book of Acts,
and if you're reading through the New Testament, you probably should be through Acts by now.
But if you're going through it super fast, you might just have skipped over this portion.
But in the book of Acts,
Paul, it kind of gets to the point where it's just telling about Paul's missionary journeys.
And he's responsible for kind of starting this church in the sense that he left people there
to get it going, and then he comes back to it.
Look at verse 18 in Acts chapter 18. It says,
"And Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while,
and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria.
And with him, Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Sentria,
for he had a vow. And he came to Ephesus, and left them there.
But he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews."
So what did he do? He left them there to do the work, basically.
And it says in verse 20, "When they desired him to tarry longer time with them,
he consented not." So did he stay in Ephesus? No, he didn't.
He didn't stay there. He left them to do the work there.
It says, "But bade them farewell, saying, 'I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem.'"
So he's kind of, you know, doing the Jew thing there for a minute.
He's kind of reverting back to his roots, his Hebrew roots, so to speak.
But it says, "But I will return again unto you, if God will." And he sailed from Ephesus.
And when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.
After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia
in order, strengthening all the disciples.
So he's doing good stuff here. He's trying to just, you know, bolster up the churches that already started
and, you know, going around and just strengthening them. It says,
"And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord,
knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue,
whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly."
So, you know, they're there doing the work already, and then this guy comes, Apollos, and he's eloquent in speech,
which God said he wasn't going to send that many, you know, he's not going to call that many people that are eloquent.
He's not, you know, people that are mighty like this in speech and in doctrine.
He's not necessarily going to call that many people that are great speakers like this, but Apollos is that guy.
And maybe that's the guy that Ephesus needed to turn things around there and to make things really take off.
But it says, "And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him,
who, when he was come, helped them much when he had believed through grace.
For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures, that Jesus was Christ."
So he mightily convinced the Jews. Who? Apollos.
So is Paul involved in this right now? He's involved in the sense that he left the right people there.
Then Apollos comes, Aquila and Priscilla who are disciples of Paul, they're helping Apollos become more perfect of a Christian.
And then with that perfecting, Apollos is used as a tool by God to just convert all these Jews that are there.
And Ephesus is becoming this powerhouse.
But here's the thing about Ephesus is that Ephesus was a huge idolatry center in the New Testament.
Remember the big tumult that happens where they're saying great is Diana of the Ephesians for hours upon end?
I mean, have you ever ran into that when you're out soul hunting where people are just, you know, just like pumping up their idolatry like that?
I mean, they're just like shouting it for hours on end.
And so but anyway, so chapter 19 focuses almost solely on the Church of Ephesus, that whole chapter and the riot that happened over their idolatry.
And they don't want to give up their idols.
And so then in chapter 20, Paul calls for the Ephesian elders and specifically tells them that grievous wolves are going to come in, not sparing the flock.
Because Paul does go back there, obviously.
And remember, you know, he tries to go out and talk to them and try to calm them down.
But they say, don't don't go out there, Paul, you know, don't even don't even talk to them because they probably would have ripped him to shreds.
So Paul doesn't go to Ephesus to talk to the Ephesian elders.
He goes close to there and then calls them to come to him so that he can give them the speech.
He's like, hey, you're not going to see my face anymore.
I'm going and I'm not going to, you know, he's not coming back.
And so they're all sad and they're weeping and all that.
But then he says, you know, I've not ceased to warn you night and day.
Grievous wolves are going to come in and then men are going to rise up amongst you.
And so it seems like, you know, Ephesus had always just these people trying to rise up
and take over and spring up and cause problems at this location.
So the first church in the book of Revelation that it speaks about,
the one that Jesus sent, the first church mentioned is this church at Ephesus.
And it's probably because it's a super important area, one that Satan really wanted to get a hold of,
so much to the effect that Paul comes and calls the elders and says,
"Hey, this is what's going to happen. Pay attention to what I'm telling you.
Grievous wolves are going to pop up. They're coming after you guys."
And I've tried to tell you this night and day with tears that these things are going to happen.
And so he says all this and that they're going to rise up and try to destroy the church.
So again, and then Paul writes that famous letter to the Ephesians, and you know, Ephesians has a lot of great scriptures.
And the most famous passage that we would probably say would be Ephesians chapter two, verses eight, nine, right?
And so the salvations by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
So let's go to Revelation 2.1. And so the church was established by Paul and his friends that were ministers with him.
But I mean, it seems like it's a super important church because this is the first one that Jesus mentions in Revelation.
And so he wants them to hear the message that the Spirit says unto the church.
And look, we can get things out of this ourselves for our church.
And I think that every single church that's mentioned in here, our church can get something from these seven churches in the book of Revelation that we could probably apply personally to ourselves or just to our church in general.
So look what it says in verse number one, it says, And unto the angel of the church at 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.
So here's something that we should just observe right off the bat, that Jesus knows all these churches. He knows our church.
He walks in the midst of these seven golden candlesticks, but like not just those seven churches, any church that's one of his churches, he walks in the midst.
Isn't that what it says? And so he walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks and he says, I know thy works.
Do you think he knows our works? Of course he does. He says, I know thy labor. Do you think he knows our labor? Of course he does.
And thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them, which are evil. And thou hast tried them, which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars.
So, you know, Jesus doesn't like people to try to call themselves apostles either. You know, like people that say, I'm an apostle so and so.
It's like, no, you're not. The apostle Paul was the last apostle. So when we can't stand people calling themselves apostles, you know what? Jesus can't stand it either.
So we're on the same page, right? So, I mean, there's things that Jesus says here that we should take notice of.
You know, people are like, "Oh, you guys are so judgy." Well, is Jesus judgy, too? Is Jesus judgy? Yeah, he is.
And so when we're on the same page with him, we're okay, right? So it says, thank you.
It says in verse 3, "And has born, and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored, and has not fainted."
So they have some great qualities about them. They're workers. I mean, that's what I would say.
He's like, "I know your works. I know your labor. I know your patience. You know, you're doing good with these things.
And I know that you can't stand people that are evil and people that lie and say they're apostles that really aren't.
You know, quit lying." And then he says, "I know that you," you know, "and that's born."
Born is not talking about like that you bore a child. It's talking about that you're bearing burdens and that thou has patience.
You know, you're able to get through these trials and that has labored the hard work that you do and has not fainted.
And that's important. The Bible says that we're supposed to labor and not faint and we will reap.
So, you know, lots of good qualities so far, but it says, "Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love."
Oh, there's a problem here. So, and this is a huge problem. This isn't just a small problem.
But again, this is a church, a church that God loves.
But again, let me just remind you about something that the Apostle Paul had to deal with.
All of Asia turned against him. Remember that in 2 Timothy that we just went through?
He said, "All Asia turned against him." That includes this church right here.
Because these churches here are in Asia. They all turned against him. They all forsook him.
And so they're already starting down a bad road.
And if they all turn against the Apostle Paul, you know, do you think that Jesus loved the Apostle Paul?
Of course he did. And think about all the great works that were done in these churches.
And it's like the Apostle Paul, they have the Apostle Paul to thank for it.
I mean, we just saw that he went to all these other churches to strengthen them.
It's not like he was doing that for his own purpose.
He loved the churches. He loved the Galatians.
That's why he wrote letters to them saying, "I'm afraid of you lest I bestow labor on you in vain."
So he left his, he said, "But I got a problem with you people. I got some grievances that I want to bear out to you.
Here's my problem. You've left your first love."
And so people will, you know, people will dispute about what this means.
But I think this is really cut and dry and really easy to figure out.
Because our first love is supposed to be God. Our first love is supposed to be Jesus.
And whether it is or not, that's totally up to you, but I just know what it's supposed to be.
What is the first commandment? Let's look, hold your finger here, let's go to Matthew chapter 22.
Flip over there real quickly, because it's asked, this is in a few of the Gospels, it might be in all four of them, I'm not sure, but I know it's in at least three of them.
But it says in Matthew 22 verse 36, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?"
He's saying, "What's the biggest one? What's the most important?"
And Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."
So that's, and he says, "This is the first and great commandment."
So, your first love is supposed to be who? It's supposed to be Jesus. It's supposed to be God.
And it says, "And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
And it's like, how is that close? Like, sometimes I think, like, how is it so close that we're supposed to love our neighbor as our self,
and that's really close to the commandment of loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength?
How is that, how is that close? But it's not close, it's just like unto it.
And it says, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
That's a powerful statement. It means that those are super important to God.
The most important commandments in the whole Bible is that we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, strength,
and everything that we have, which we lack in all the time, I would say, and that we love our neighbor as our self.
And that's why it says, "And on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Because, look, if you're loving your neighbor, you're not doing ill to them.
If you love God, you're not doing ill to your neighbor, you're not doing ill to him.
I mean, so really everything just kind of hangs off those two commandments, right?
So it cannot be emphasized enough how important that this passage actually is.
How deeply connected our love to God is measured by the love for our fellow man.
And you can really tell a lot about people and a lot about Christians
by how much they actually do love their fellow man.
Because none of us have ever seen God before,
but we've all seen how people interact with other people before,
and how people treat other people before.
And the Bible says in the end times that the love of many will wax cold.
There's a lot of cold-hearted people out there,
there's a lot of cold-blooded people out there,
there's a lot of people that just don't care about other people.
But God forbid that Christians should be named among those people,
but yet you do see Christians being like that.
And we shouldn't be like that.
We should be loving and not just fellow Christians,
of course we're supposed to love fellow Christians,
and that's the true sign basically that we are His disciples.
How we love our brothers, that's how we are known that we are disciples of Him.
Anyway, I'm paraphrasing that.
So Matthew chapter 4, turn to Matthew chapter 4.
Because He says you've lost your first love,
and then He says for them to do the first works.
And so the first love is supposed to be that we're supposed to love God.
So what's He saying?
You've lost your first love.
You're not loving God like you're supposed to.
And the reason why is because you're not doing the first works.
And people will be like, "Nah, that's not what He's talking about."
Yeah, only people that don't like going soul-winding say that.
Because they don't want to go soul-winding.
So that's not what He's talking about.
Okay, well, look at Matthew chapter 4 verse 18.
And the first thing that Jesus said to the disciples when He called them,
He just simply told them to stop doing what you're doing
and come and follow Me and do what?
Look at what it says in verse 18.
And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren,
Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea,
for they were fishers.
And He saith unto them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
And they straightway left their nets and followed Him.
So what was the first thing He told them to do?
What's the first works that He told them to do?
"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
So your first love, you're supposed to love God with all your heart
and all your mind and soul and strength.
And when you've lost that first love, it's because, you know,
you're basically, you're also kind of, those two things go hand in hand.
If you've lost your first love for God,
it's probably because you're not loving man either.
And so those two things can really show themselves together,
and that's why He said, "Hey, why don't you just go and do the first works?"
Hey, go back to the thing that made you what you are, that made you, you know,
and the fact that this church is having problems here,
they probably are starting on the trail of decline in soul winning.
And look, this is the problem, this is why churches disappeared a lot of ways,
because they get away from what made them great.
You get away from what made you great, and then you're not going to be great anymore.
You know, it's like restaurants that open up and they have great food that they buy from great sources, right?
And they have a great menu, and then they get cheap, and they start buying food from different sources that suck,
and their food quality sucks now, and then people notice that.
And they're like, then they change the menu, and then they raise the prices.
They raise the prices, they change the food quality, and then they change the menu.
Look, you've got to stick with what makes you great.
You know, don't try to be a burger place when you started out as a steak place.
If you're at a steak restaurant and you order a hamburger with me, just know right now I'm a suspect of you.
If you order JoJo's at a steak and seafood restaurant, something's wrong.
You don't have to be spiritual with me, get the steak.
That's what we're there for.
There's certain places that are burger places.
If you're at BurgerFi or Burgerville or Burger King or McDonald's, by all means order a burger.
But if you're at a place that's like chicken specifically, obviously if you're on a special diet, I understand that.
But I'm just saying we've got to stick with what makes us great.
That's what Jesus is saying.
He's like, "Hey, why don't you stick to what made you great as disciples in the first place and stick to the first works?
And then you're going to get your first love back.
Because if you're loving your fellow man, then that love for God is going to come forth in you."
And that's what he's saying.
Follow me, if you're not following me, then you're not fishing for men.
And if you're not fishing for men, then you're not following them.
It's just that simple.
So look at 1 John chapter 4.
Look at 1 John chapter 4.
We'll get back over to Revelation here in a minute.
But 1 John chapter 4, verse number 20.
And because, you know, a lot of people will be like, "Oh, I love God."
But then they just refuse to preach the gospel to anybody.
And they act like that's not what that's talking about.
"I'm not gifted in this area."
"I'm not called to be an evangelist."
That's what evangelists do or whatever.
It's like, you're just full of excuses, aren't you?
Because Peter could have said, "Well, I was called to be a fisherman, not that kind of a fisherman."
What are you talking about, Jesus?
They could have all said the same thing.
But all of them did some different...
I mean, a lot of them were fishermen that he called because it kind of relates.
They understand it. It's a really easy concept.
But Matthew was a tax collector.
And then he was like, "Well, instead of collecting taxes, I'm going to collect souls."
So it kind of translates to also a little bit there.
But, you know, he was despised by people.
But, you know, he started to collect souls instead of collecting taxes.
So, I mean, I guess it does translate well, doesn't it?
So Jesus probably carefully chose the people that he liked or whatever.
He's like, "Instead of collecting people's coins, I'll collect people."
So anyway, it says in 1 John 4.20, it says,
"If a man say, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother, he is a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,
how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"
And, you know, John, I like the way that John just plainly says things,
because it's true.
How can you, if you hate your brother,
and this is, I believe this is talking about your brother in Christ, obviously.
If you hate other Christians, how can you say that you love God
when you hate your brethren that you've seen?
How can you say that you love God who you've not seen?
It's a true test.
In this commandment, we have from him that he who loveth God
love his brother also.
But I would also say if you apply this to your fellow man,
it's similar, maybe not 100%, exactly the same,
but it's the same ballpark, you know.
And it's harder to love strangers, obviously,
but we love strangers all the time when we go soul-winding.
We don't know those people.
And a lot of times, we're begging them to get saved.
We're pleading with them to get saved.
We're practically putting our foot in the door to get them to get saved.
We're trying to just get one last thing out to get them to get saved
while they're just, like, rushing back to their video game
or rushing back to their list of laundry or whatever they have to do
or just anything that they can do besides talk to you at the door.
They thought you were the publisher clearing house sweepstakes
and that they won a million dollars or something,
if anybody knows what I'm talking about.
Anyway, it surprises me, too, like, how people will answer the door
and then they get upset that it's us that came to the door.
It's like, well, I mean, just like,
this is the best door answer you could ever have.
This is salvation, friend.
This is the gospel.
And then you're just turning it down as if it's nothing.
But, you know, that's us loving our neighbor.
And that's, look, nothing feels better than to see someone get saved.
Nothing feels better than that.
I mean, people, you might say that, oh, no, this feels better.
I'd rather do this. This makes me feel better.
But I'm telling you, if you've ever won someone to Christ,
you know that it feels really good when someone gets saved.
And so let's go back to Revelation chapter two, verse five.
So he's saying, I got something against you people.
Here's what I got against you. You don't even love me.
You lost your first love.
You've forgotten the whole reason why you're even, you know, why you're even doing this.
It's like to say that, you know, and obviously it's not saying that they're not saved.
It's just saying that they've, they've, they're basically have forgotten the reason why they're even doing all this
because they're not even loving God first.
You know, and it's a bad place to be.
It's a, and so this is something that we need to think about the reason why we do things
because we won't self look at why we're doing things.
We won't even notice when we're back split in.
We won't notice why we're doing something that we normally wouldn't do until it's too late.
And so this, these are good passages to self reflect.
Hey, what am I doing wrong?
Am I really doing what I'm supposed to be doing?
Do I really love God?
Well, am I really doing the first works?
And this is a test to say, hey, are we doing?
And obviously our church is still going soul winning,
but the warning here is if the church stops doing this,
you know, the church is gone.
It's no longer going to be a church anymore.
This is the prerequisite for being a church,
is that you actually, your church actually does the first works.
Look at verse five.
"Remember therefore, for whence thou art fallen,"
and believe me, if our church stops soul winning, it is fallen.
That's what it says, right?
"Remember therefore, for whence thou art fallen,
"and repent and do the first works,
"or else I will come unto thee quickly,
"and will remove thy candlestick out of its place,
"except thou repent."
This is something that needs to be repented of.
This is something that needs to be fixed.
You know, and sometimes, you know,
and obviously back in the day, when we first started,
this movement really started to take off.
You know, we would go to these old life beat churches
and be like, "Hey, we want to get this soul winning going.
"Let's go."
And then a lot of these guys would resist
and act like we're bad people or something
for wanting to get a soul winning program started.
It's like, what's wrong with you?
You know, it's bad that these Andersonites are here.
They're tithing, they're coming to church three times a week,
and they want to start soul winning.
What's going on here?
We need to get these people out of here.
It's like, how does that mentality even work?
I mean, we were going to a church where it wasn't like that,
but it's like a lot of the testimony of other people
I knew were like that.
So, I mean, it's just a strange behavior.
But there's people that never built their church solely.
They didn't even build their church at all.
They just, you know, that that pastor just came in
and got inserted after a church was already built
long before they ever got there.
And they came to just ruin it further.
They just came to make it suck worse.
And, you know, when the people start to suck with it,
then they're going to bring some other suckwad in
to make it suck worse than that.
And it becomes, you know, a perpetual suck fest there.
And it's sucky church, sucky Baptist church or whatever.
But especially when they resist,
like when the agent of repentance comes in
and they're like, "Hey, let's go sewing, pastor!"
It's like, take your ball and bounce it someplace else.
It's like, no, why don't you take your ball and bounce it
to someone else and let's get another pastor in here
that actually wants to get stuff done,
wants to get the work done.
Turn to Luke chapter 7, Luke chapter 7.
So, what's the remedy that Jesus gives?
Because, you know, he's rebuking them.
He's rebuking this church that was a super important church.
Obviously, Satan is wrestling and trying to take this church away
and there's things that are going on behind the scenes
that people don't see, obviously.
And Jesus said, hey, here's your problem.
You stop loving me and you stop following me.
Just repent. Just start going somewhere again.
Start doing the first works and then your love's going to come back for me
and then things are going to be fixed.
And I won't have to come and nuke this church and take it away.
But where's the church of Ephesus now?
Can we go visit that church now?
No, we can't because it's not there anymore because they failed.
They failed. They didn't do it.
At some point, you know, maybe they did do it for a while,
but at some point they didn't do it anymore.
But anyway, Luke chapter 7, verse 36 says,
"And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him,
and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet.
And behold, a woman of the city, which was a sinner,
when she knew that Jesus had sat at meet at the Pharisee's house,
brought an alabaster box of ointment,
and stood at his feet behind him weeping,
and began to wash his feet with tears,
and then wiped them with her hairs of her head,
and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it,
he spake within himself, saying,
"This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman
this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner."
And so on the outside, yeah, she's a sinner.
She shouldn't be touching him.
He shouldn't be allowing her to touch him and all this other stuff.
And so this is how, you know, certain people would view this person.
Hey, this person isn't a real person.
This person is just a piece of garbage that shouldn't be around us.
She has no business being with us.
She shouldn't even be here.
Why is he even letting her around him?
Well, because Jesus loved people, and Jesus cared about people,
and Jesus wanted people to get saved,
then this is his attitude about it.
And he rebukes this guy and rebukes his mentality.
It says, "And Jesus answering said unto him,
'Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.'
And he saith, 'Master, say on.'"
And this is not Simon Peter, this is Simon the Pharisee, by the way.
And it says, "There was a certain creditor which had two debtors,
and one owed 500 pence and the other 50.
And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.
Tell me therefore which of them will love him most."
Simon answered and said, "I suppose that he to whom he forgave most."
And he said unto him, "Thou hast rightly judged."
And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon,
"Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house; thou gavest me no water for my feet;
but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman since the time I came in had not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head with oil, thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins which are many are forgiven; for she loved much;
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
And he said unto her, "Thy sins are forgiven."
And they that sat at meet with him began to say within themselves,
"Who is this that forgiveth sins also?"
And he said unto the woman, "Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace."
So the moral of the story here is that one person cares about people, Jesus Christ.
This is the mentality that we should have.
We shouldn't have this mentality all that person's not going to get saved.
We shouldn't care about that person.
This person's of lower society.
This person nobody cares about.
She's just a stupid woman or whatever.
No, Jesus didn't think that.
He didn't think that at the well with the woman at the well either.
Even though she had five husbands or whatever.
A lot of people just be all, she's just a dumb whore or whatever.
And now she's not even married to the person that she's with now.
Jesus knew all those things.
And how did his disciples act when they came back?
They acted the same way.
It's not the right mentality.
So that's what he's saying.
And we should have the mentality where we want people to get saved.
We think people are going to get saved.
And we shouldn't just have this doubting mentality all the time that people aren't going to get saved.
People will get saved.
And people do get saved.
And it's the mentality that we should have that people are going to get saved because the gospel saves people and Jesus saves.
Amen.
Not that we just shouldn't talk to people, shouldn't get them saved.
We should be in a mindset that Jesus wants to be.
Hey, go out and fish for people and people are going to get saved.
Verse six in our text it says, "And this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."
And there's a lot of debate about who the Nicolaitans are. If you ask like ten people in a room, ten people are probably going to give you ten different answers.
Okay? And I'm not saying that I have a hundred percent the right answer here.
And there's no like, I mean, you know, you can like piece the Greek words together, but I don't speak Greek.
So, you know, I mean, I don't really know. I saw a couple theories online.
There's one that I heard that Nicholas, one of the deacons that was picked in Acts chapter six, verse five,
Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, basically kind of broke loose and that he went bad.
And his disciples became the Nicolaitans and that they were kind of a bad faction within the church.
I mean, that's not what the Bible says, though.
So, I mean, I don't want to throw shade on Nicholas if that's not really true.
But Nicholas, Nicolaitan, I mean, just because the words have similar, you know, they sound similar or whatever.
I mean, this is what early historians apparently say or whatever.
But I don't, again, I don't know if that's true.
But what do we know is true?
Well, there's a connection in further down in verse 12.
Let's go down to verse 12 to the church of Pergamos.
Now, the church of Pergamos had a lot of problems also.
And literally it says this is where Satan's seat was.
Like, and they have a lot of similar problems with the idolatry and things like that that the Ephesians had.
So there's, you know, there's a lot of satanic connections going on here.
So much to the fact that it says that I know where Satan's seat is, is like literally where like the throne of the devil was.
I mean, I don't think he's just being hyperbolic here.
I think he's actually saying this is, you know, like where he's like kind of setting up his camp or whatever.
But anyway, it says in verse 12, "And the angel of the church in Pergamos write,
'These things saith he which hath a sword, a sharp sword with two edges.
I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.
And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days,
where Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.'
So again, he says where Satan's seat is, and then he's saying where Satan dwelleth.
Like, I mean, out of all towns you could have picked to be born in, which they didn't pick it, they just were born there.
You've got to be in the one where Satan actually lives in that town.
I mean, that's pretty bad, right?
It's probably, you know, the bad spot to have been, you know, born or whatever.
Because it sounds like people are getting killed there for their faith.
I mean, Antipas was a faithful martyr there.
So it sounds like, though, that they have some good things about them, too.
It says, "But I have a few things against thee,
because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam,
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel,
to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication."
So, I mean, there's a lot of talk about the whole eating things sacrificed to idols,
but what does Jesus say?
If you're teaching someone to eat things sacrificed to idols, is he okay with that?
No, he's not.
To commit fornication, is he okay with that?
No, he's not.
And what is the doctrine of Balaam?
To cast a stumbling block, he got a bunch of people killed in the Old Testament,
in the book of Numbers, because he couldn't curse them.
God wouldn't allow Balaam to curse them.
And so he cursed them by allowing their deeds to be where they got all the whores and Moab
to basically entice them, and then they joined themselves unto Baal Peor,
if you remember that passage in the Bible.
So he made them fall by enticing them to sin instead of just being able to outright curse them
because he couldn't curse them because God wouldn't allow it to happen.
And it's just like when witches try to curse us and curse the neighborhood or whatever so we can't go in there.
It's like, it's not going to work, dummy.
We're children of God.
Your little spells don't work, Gandalf, because we will pass.
Those things don't work on us.
Your little lucky charms and all that magically delicious stuff is not going to work.
But it says, "Who taught Balak to cast?"
So what do you have against them?
That they hold the doctrine of Balaam.
They have people in their church that hold the doctrine of Balaam.
They're false prophets in this church.
What did Paul say was going to happen at the church of Ephesus?
Because Paul's probably dead by the point that John's writing this.
I mean, Paul wrote those in 66 AD or somewhere around those things.
This is written after 90 AD.
So we're talking like 30 years later.
So John's an old man at this point.
Paul's probably dead.
And he prophesied that stuff before he went to Rome, before he got captured and all that stuff.
So anyway, it says, "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans?
Which thing I hate."
So there's a connection between the church of Ephesus and the church of Pergamos.
That much is true.
And so what's the connection there?
Well, they're both idolatrous because idol worship is just like one of those things that God really hates.
And for some reason, it's kind of one of the things that begin the downward spiral into a reprobate person or even a reprobate nation.
And so God really hates it.
He hates idolatry, but two things that this place has in common is idolatry.
And how do I know that? Well, let's just keep reading here.
First of all, we know that the city of Ephesus had a huge Diana of the Ephesians, a problem with worshipping idols and making idols.
And then you have here the doctrine of Balaam, which cast a stumbling block before the children to eat things and cause the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols.
So here you have the idolatry connection here and to commit fornication.
So, you know, what is it? Teaching people it's okay to still continue to sin.
And if they're in the church teaching this, then what are they doing?
They're not only teaching compromise, they're teaching just that it's okay to sin and nothing's going to happen to you.
That's what they're teaching, right?
So this is the problem that Jesus has with them.
It's like, oh, it's like free grace or whatever.
Just do whatever you feel like doing.
It's kind of what it seems like to me.
So maybe that's the doctrine of the Nicolaitans that, you know, it's compromise.
It's, you know, go ahead and do these things because nothing's going to happen to you.
But what is Jesus? I mean, that's just my guess.
I don't know that that's a hundred percent true, but it seems connected, doesn't it?
It seems connected in the fact that both of them had, well, you know, the Ephesians, though,
they hated the Nicolaitans, whereas these guys embraced them.
But there is that, there is the point that in both places, it's an idolatry center.
And so the Nicolaitans are in both places, though. That much is true.
So it says, "Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."
And, you know, what does that mean?
Well, I mean, it sounds like he's going to come and tear some stuff up, right?
He hates the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
It says, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone.
And in the stone a new name written, that no man knoweth saving he that receiveth."
So it's kind of a little bit of a cryptic saying, but it kind of sounds like, you know,
that people to get, because "he that overcometh," you know, people kind of take that and run with it,
especially false prophets like to do that, and talk about "he that overcomes,"
thinking it's like some kind of works that we have to overcome and do works for something to get saved.
But it's actually quite the opposite of that.
When the Bible talks about overcoming in regards to salvation,
it's not talking about doing works and overcoming by our works,
battling and fighting against our flesh to get saved or something,
which is what a lot of false prophets would teach.
But let's look back at verse number seven and see what it says in verse number seven.
It says, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, to him that overcometh.
Will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
So, and people will take that and be like, "Well, I mean, we've got to overcome.
We're going to have to do some works to overcome all this," or whatever.
But let's define what overcome actually means.
So turn to John chapter 16, John chapter 16.
Because generally, if you think about the word overcoming,
you might not think that believing in Jesus is what's overcoming.
But that's exactly what it means in regards to salvation.
When it's talked about in the Scriptures here, that's what Jesus is talking about.
And you're like, "Well, I doubt that, Pastor John."
So we'll look at John chapter 16, verse number 33.
Actually, that's not the right verse, is it? Oh, yeah.
Well, yeah, let's look at verse 33. It says, "These things I have spoken unto you,
that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
So Jesus overcame the world for us. Jesus overcame the sin.
He overcame everything so that we could be saved, right?
Now turn to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5.
And John will define what that means.
He's going to define what overcoming the world actually means.
Because Jesus has overcome the world for us.
And so in 1 John 5.4 it says, "For whatsoever is born of God overcomeeth the world."
And this is the victory that overcomeeth the world, even our faith.
So how do we overcome the world? Even our faith.
Who is he that overcomeeth the world?
But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
So how do you overcome?
Well, it's not by trying to do a whole bunch of works to get your way to heaven.
No, it says he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
That's how you overcome.
So when Jesus says in verse number seven, back there real quick,
he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
to him that overcometh while I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
What's he saying?
Well, if you overcome, that means that you've believed in me and that you're saved
and that you're going to eat one day in the midst of the paradise of God.
So, that's pretty cool, right?
But, you know, let a false prophet get a hold of that passage and see what he does with it.
I'm sure that if you even read commentaries about it, it'll probably say some weird stuff.
So, be careful when you're reading commentaries because they can lead you down a wrong path.
So, let's get some application and we'll close off here.
So, I feel like I've done some application, but, you know, just kind of, I guess, some things up here.
Jesus Christ does walk in the midst of us and he does pay attention to what we're doing.
He does probably say about our church, "Hey, there's some great things that we do,
but are there some things that we could do better?" Of course there are.
And, you know, only we know personally the things that we're failing at.
And I think, you know, I say this from time to time, that there's some things that we could probably be doing better personally.
But, you know, when we come together as a church, we're a corporate, we're one big church, right?
And when we individually do better, when we individually work on things, you know, it makes the whole church better.
And so I would just say this, you know, I mean, obviously the New Year's passed and everybody's already broken all their goals and stuff.
But make this a goal, you know, for February.
You know, maybe just do like, just do a, you know, here's how I'm doing spiritually. Is there some stuff that I could work on?
You know, if Jesus walked in right now and sat in our church service, what would he observe?
What would he think that we're doing good? What would he think that we're not doing right?
And just kind of, is there some things that you can fix? I know there's some things I can fix for myself.
And I'm sure there's things that you can fix, too. And let's act accordingly, right?
And Jesus is pleased when we obey him. It says, "I know thy works."
And so he knows the works that we do, and he likes that.
People that say, "Well, he doesn't care whether we do things or not." That's not true.
He knows our works. He likes the labor that we do.
He likes that we do things in his name and that we take ownership of things.
And he wasn't even talking about soul money because the soul money he was saying was basically lacking.
If they don't continue, if they don't love God, if they don't do the first works, he's going to take the candlestick away.
So obviously he's talking about other things because there's other works that we do.
There's cleaning, there's organizing, there's just all kinds of different things that we do at this church that's not soul winning.
So he's happy with that.
But like, you know, there's churches that are like, oh, choir and choir becomes the big thing at that church.
At a church that we used to go to, choir was the biggest thing there or whatever.
And the pastor would never go out with us because he spent most of his time going over the songs that people wanted to sing karaoke to or whatever every week.
And he wanted to make sure there was no drum beats in the songs.
And then people would always be submitting things that were like, almost to the line, you know.
It's like, really? That's what you're going to spend your time doing? Carrying what kind of songs?
I mean, obviously I would care about that too, but how about we just cut the karaoke?
You know, why don't you just make everything to a piano or something?
And then, you know, make them just, how about we just do congregational singing
and you don't have to worry about it at all and just have everybody go soul-wanting?
Because he never wanted to go soul-wanting with us, ever.
And when he kind of got his feet held to the fire, he bucked and told us to go bounce our ball someplace else.
Because he never, he just didn't want to go.
He'd rather sit in his office and listen up close to the speaker to make sure the drums weren't too loud.
It's just like, that's lame.
And so when the music program becomes bigger than the soul winning program, you've got a problem.
So it's important that we obey him in the things that he cares about the most.
The main thing, as Remy was preaching about this morning.
So, and then once we cease soul winning as a church as a whole, our days are numbered.
That's why Ephesus is no longer there.
That's why there's many churches that are just not what they used to be because they stopped making the main thing the main thing.
And the Lord is pleased with our obedience, our labor, but not at the cost of soul winning, not at the cost of soul winning.
And then if you stop soul winning and left your first love, the good news is, is that he gives us room to repent.
He says, "Repent and do the first works."
So it's not like he didn't say, not like he said, "Okay, you stopped loving me as much as you should have.
You stopped doing the first works. You're dead to me."
No, he says, "Repent." He wants us to do better.
He gives us chances, and that's what's so great about God is that even though
we're some of the dumbest people on the planet sometimes, he still loves us.
He still wants us to do right. He still gives us chances.
He's very long-suffering, and he knows we're idiots, and that we just do things that are dumb sometimes.
What I'm saying is he just gives us chances after chance, after chance, after chance.
And we have a lot of problems. He knows that we're but dust.
But hey, if there's some things we can turn around in our lives, let's do it.
Let's do what Jesus said and repent and do the first works.
And whatever we're lacking in our life, let's just change it, alright? Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the letters to the churches, Lord, that they can help us in our spiritual life
and see what you said all those years ago and help us apply it to our lives here in the future.
I pray you'd help us to be prepared for the things that are going to fall upon the earth
and that, Lord, we wouldn't be terrified of those things, but we'd, excuse me, that we would know
that, Lord, these things must come to pass and that they shortly come to pass to you.
It's like a short time, but to us it might be a long time.
But I pray, Lord, that you just help us to be prepared either way
and that we would continue to do the work as we wait for your return.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.