(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The church at Ephesus had basically minimized the importance of preaching the gospel of the Great Commission. This is what it means when it says they've left their first love. That first love being love for people, love for sinners, a love that moves us to give them the gospel, a love that moves us to pull them out of the fire, the Bible says, okay? This is the love that they forsook. And the remedy to that was that they were supposed to do the first works, okay, which is preaching the gospel. But as I mentioned before, he threatens them, he says, look, if you don't get back to the first works, I'm going to remove your candlestick. Now what does that look like? When a church gets a candlestick removed, what does that look like? Well, as I mentioned, the candlestick is just the vessel that holds the candle, the actual soul winner itself, right? So if you have a church, a candlestick with no soul winners, no one's preaching the gospel, that thing's worthless. It has no purpose. It has zero purpose. What does John 15 tells us? If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they're burned. What does that mean? It means they become worthless. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is therefore good for nothing, but to be cast down, to be trodden under the foot of men. Did you know Christians can become worthless? Or as the Bible puts it, good for nothing. So when a Christian decides not to preach the gospel, not to partake in the ministry of reconciliation, the Bible tells us they're good for nothing, they're good for nothing. And when a church has full membership, a hundred people in the church, 500 people, 700 people, 800 people, a thousand people, if none of them preach the gospel, it's a worthless church. It's a candlestick that will be removed, it will cease being a church. Now look, this church here had a lot going for them. They knew the Bible. The Bible says that they tried then to say they're apostles and are not and has found them liars, the Bible says. These guys knew the word of God. They knew doctrine, but you know what they lacked? Love people, love for lost people. And what does the Bible tell us about that? It tells us if we have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge but have not charity, we're nothing. If we give our goods to be, if we restore our goods to feed the poor, if we give our body to be burned, but we have not charity, we're nothing. Do you know what God sees us as? Yeah, you guys did a lot of good, but you're nothing because you don't do the first works. That's a wake up call. You know, I chose the name First Works Baptist Church, not because I think that we're the best soul winning church, not because I think we have the best program of how to disciple people and how to preach the gospel, not because we're getting a lot done, but as a reminder, as a reminder of what is the most important ministry to God, which is preaching the gospel. Other work is important. Hey, why are you becoming a better husband? Why are you becoming a better wife? Why do we want to raise godly children? Why do we want to be great employees? Why do we want to live godly lives? Are there benefits that come attached to those things? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, it's to be a better soul and to reach people for Christ. It's to see people saved because the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We need to take responsibility for our actions and say, I cannot leave my first love, therefore I need to maintain the first works. You