Do the Works You Did at First

Revelation 2:1-7 | Key Verse 2:5

“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.”

Last week we finished chapter one of Revelation. And if there's two words that we should remember from the first passage and then one word from the second passage it's this, from the first passage, the word witness. Jesus, the faithful witness of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. And then from the second passage, [00:05:00] which we did last Sunday, what might be the one word to summarize it all?

William: Lampstand, exactly. Jesus is the one who walks amidst the lamp stands the seven churches. Today, we're going to add a third word. Now, I'm not going to tell you now what it is, but if I forget to mention what the third word is, remind me at the end of the message and I'll tell you. So [00:05:30] since today's our first day studying the first church of seven churches, we need to become aware of a particular pattern that Jesus uses when addressing all seven of His churches.

Jesus' pattern in addressing each and every church follows the same seven step pattern. So we're going to use this as our framework to study this [00:06:00] first church, the church of Ephesus. So the first pattern is Jesus always begins by saying to the angel of the church in, fill in the blank. So looking at verse one, it says to the angel of the church in Ephesus write. So I copied all the different versions. He says this to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, [00:06:30] Philadelphia, Laodicea, every time Jesus begins by saying to the angel of the church, this begs the question, why write to an angel? Why not write to the believers in the church of Ephesus?

The answer can be found in the previous passage. In last week's passages, we saw the glorified Jesus in His majesty [00:07:00] and immense power. And there was something that He had in His right hand and He explained what that was, as for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in My right hand, the seven stars are, let's say it's together, the angels of the seven churches. These seven stars in Jesus' right hand were like a tool [00:07:30] that He uses to keep, maintain, and work on the seven lamp stands. There's many passages that talk about the right hand of God, it's His mighty hand to get things done. But these angels, these seven angels of each church had a very specific job as Jesus' tool. In [00:08:00] a lot of ways, they were very much akin to a mailman. The carriers of Jesus's important and critical message to His people.

When I was a kid, I loved the mailman. The mailman was so friendly, he brought the messages, the letters, the packages that oftentimes came from a grandma or a grandpa with [00:08:30] a little bit of money or some cool toy in a package. So I loved to run out and see what the mailman brought. In the same way, the seven angels in Jesus' hands or in His right hand brings the message of God to His churches. This message of God if received by the [00:09:00] church has profound impact and clarification and instructions on how they can keep that lamp burning. But the key about receiving a message is not to ignore them. When the message is given, you have to open it up quickly, read it, consider it, have an ear to hear and take it to heart. [00:09:30] So Jesus always begins His messages to each church with this starting point to the angel of the church in, this case, Ephesus.

But let's look at the second pattern that Jesus uses, the words of him who, blank. In today's passage Jesus says the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks [00:10:00] among the seven golden lamp stains. This description of Himself references, the last passage that we studied, but this asks the question why star each of His addresses to the church by revealing an aspect of who He is? The answer is this, the problem of any church, Ephesus, [00:10:30] Sardis, Laodicea, [Downey 00:10:34], LAUBF, every problem even personally, is kind of fuzzy, hard to know what exactly is the problem. In His letter to each church, Jesus, and how He describes Himself, brings clarity, some focus of the problem or challenge each church is [00:11:00] having. Later on, we're going to see at the end of every letter, Jesus talks about His reward. That reward also brings further clarity into the problem or challenge each church has.

So we're not going to quite get to it yet, but let's understand that the problem and challenge that the church of Ephesus was facing [00:11:30] is related to Jesus who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands. Remember that Jesus is the keeper of the lamp stands. Jesus is the owner of these lamp stands. And Jesus is the authority over the church of Ephesus. [00:12:00] He holds the seven stars in His right hand. He walks among the seven golden lamp stands, but we'll return to this in a couple more sections. Let's look at the third part of Jesus' pattern in addressing the churches. I know your, blank. In the case of the church of Ephesus. Jesus says not [00:12:30] just one time, actually, it's kind of unique, He says two times that He knows something about them. Here Jesus says, and maybe we can read verse two and three together. Actually, you read two. I'll read three. Okay, ready? Let's go.

Church Congrega...: 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.

William: [00:13:00] I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. Jesus said seven attributes of the church of Ephesus that He knew and that was very happy about. He knew that they had toiled, that they had worked hard, and then a little bit more. That they had patient endurance, that they could not bear evil people, that they tested false apostles, [00:13:30] that they were enduring patiently and bearing up for Jesus' namesake. And that they had not grown weary in the process. When we look at their good attributes, the good things that they were doing, it's really qualified by a love of the truth. This church did not let themselves become invaded and infected by false teaching [00:14:00] and false apostles. They love the truth and they made sure that the truth of God was the only thing that was sustained and established in their midst, this was a great point.

Later on, Jesus is going to say that they had another thing good about them, which is that they hated the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus also hated. [00:14:30] So this church was really great at holding on to the truth, keeping and maintaining the truth and not letting it fall to the ground. But let's look at the fourth part, because this fourth part is the very serious part. Jesus said... Oh, let me make one [00:15:00] point here. Not every church has [this 00:15:04]-

William: ... point here. Not every church has this fourth part. Most do, but not every one of them. I have this against you. Despite so many good points, Jesus had something against them. That expression against you means that there was some major disconnection between himself and this church, [00:15:30] His lampstand in Ephesus. What was the disconnection? Let's look at verses four to five.

"But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first." That you have abandoned the love you had at first. What's the meaning of abandoned [00:16:00] the love you had at first? What was this problem that Jesus had against this church? Let's first think about it by thinking about the word abandon. What's the opposite of abandon? The opposite of abandon to use a biblical word is to abide. Abandon means you leave [00:16:30] someplace. Abide means you stay someplace and you live there and you even dwell there. Abandon means that you depart, but abide means to dwell or to remain, to live in a place. They had abandoned what? [00:17:00] They had abandoned not some regular thing, some material thing. They had had abandoned the love. They had abandoned the love that they had at first.

Of course, I know many of us know that there's many different [00:17:30] words for love. In English, there's only one word for love and that's love, but in the Greek, and it's probably the work of God that the Greek has so many different versions of love, the highest version of love is agape love. This is the love that is always ascribed to God and Jesus. What is agape [00:18:00] love? Agape love can be defined like this. Agape love is an unconditional love that seeks the highest benefit of others, even at the cost of personal sacrifice. It is hallmarked by action and is independent of feeling.

Another word in Greek for love is eros. [00:18:30] This is a love where you really love how somebody makes you feel. When you're around that person, you feel like a million dollars and so you love them. But the love that the church in Ephesus had abandoned was agape love. [00:19:00] Jesus says that they had abandoned the love, the agape love that they had at first. This makes us think about an abandoned house. At one time, the church of Ephesus lived in a house with Jesus called agape love. And in that house that they abided in, [00:19:30] that they dwelled in, they had joyful music coming out of the windows and out of the front door, and inside was laughing and joy and prayer, and a welcoming spirit to anyone who would walk by the house of agape love that they were dwelling in.

John chapter 15 [00:20:00] shows us how important it is for His disciples, His people, His lampstands to abide in agape love. Let me read these couple of verses for us. As a father has loved me... Wherever you see the word love or loved, flip it around in your mind to agape, [00:20:30] sacrificial love that seeks the highest benefit of others, even at the cost of personal sacrifice, hallmarked by action and independent of feeling. "As the father has loved me, so have I loved you? Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, [00:21:00] you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

The church in Ephesus used to abide [00:21:30] in this sacrificial agape love that comes from God, but for some reason or another, they abandoned this wonderful house which is Jesus himself. Why did they abandon the love that they had at first? There could be two really strong reasons for this. The first reason is that [00:22:00] the cost of agape love was very expensive. You know, agape love is not easy to show to other people for two reasons. One is that it is so unnatural to us. When we were in the world and before we knew Jesus, we were completely incapable of agape love, but when we became Christians, when we became Jesus' [00:22:30] lampstand, we were capable, we became capable to show this agape love that comes from God to each other and to this fallen world. But still, it's unnatural to us.

And one of the shocking things about agape love whenever we try to practice it is, man, is it expensive to show [00:23:00] to other people. Just think about the expensive costs that father and the son paid for us? You know, the John 3:16 I think is rightly... As time goes on, I find that John 3:16 is really the true key verse of the Bible. I used to wonder, yeah, it's obviously a great verse but it says that [00:23:30] God so loved, God so agape loved the world that He gave His one and only son. I have one son and five beautiful daughters, but God had just one son whom [00:24:00] He loved, and He had a world of lost fallen sinners, and that the only way to bring them back to himself was to make His son a sacrifice for sin. What father is willing to sacrifice his only son for the sake of a bunch of renegade sinners?

[00:24:30] Our Father in heaven loved, not in a feeling but in action, by sending His only son to take away our sins. This pain of God, to send His son to die on a cross is so immense. His sacrifice and His love is so great because He [00:25:00] did think about himself or the pain that sending His son to die on a cross for our sins would be, but he did it because He agape loved us.

And for Jesus, He was willing, He was willing to lay down His life and come to this world as a worm of a man. You know, He was glorified in the same glory that we saw in [00:25:30] the previous passage before He came. He left that glory above and came to this fallen, broken world as a man, as a worm of a man, as the Old Testament says, and then He laid down His life for us and died on a cross and experienced disconnection from His heavenly father so that we would not have to experience that type of disconnection, the punishment of sin. [00:26:00] What immense love Jesus showed to us, to die on a cross so that we could have an eternal life, and even a new life here on earth, not dominated by sin and death, but instead filled with light and life. Jesus loved us, even to the point of shedding His blood for us. [00:26:30] He paid the price and the father did as well.

So the church in Ephasus knew that God loved them, but they also knew that to show the same love to others was very, very expensive. And so when you have to pay a high price for something, sometimes you look at the price tag and you're like, "Oh my [00:27:00] gosh, that is way too much." And then you just forget about it, right? It's just not possible.

The second reason why they could have abandoned the love that they had at first was that agape love maybe seemed optional, like it's an ideal thing to be doing but not a requirement. They held onto the truth so [00:27:30] well, but for some reason, this lie came into to their church, which is that agape love was not a required thing, a thing that Jesus was looking for and required for His lampstands, but maybe somewhere along the line, it just seemed like an ideal but not something more than that. So [00:28:00] Jesus had this against them, that they had abandoned the love that they had at first.

The fifth part of Jesus's pattern to His churches is the therefore part. The therefore part is the remedy, the way to fix the problem. So let's look at verse five. "Remember therefore from where you have fallen. [00:28:30] 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, Jesus says something very shocking. He says that if they don't repent and do the works that they did at first, He was going to remove their lampstand from its place. Why warn them that He was going to remove their lampstand from its place? [00:29:00] This is, I think, a really important topic to discuss. What does the lampstand here look like? If you were to compare it to anything in creation, what would you say it looks like?

Speaker 3: A tree.

William: A tree. Amen. Literally, every lamp [00:29:30] is called a branch, that's what it's called, the branches that come out the side here. Jesus said something very important in that same chapter of John 15, and obviously, I just want to make a reference that I believe that there's a strong connection between John's gospel and the Book of Revelation. There's a lot of passages that are hard to maybe understand, but by [00:30:00] reading John's gospel, we can really see...

William: ... reading John's gospel, we can really see what message he was sending through the apostle John. In John 15, there's another part here that says, this is at the more at the beginning. He says, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Abide in me, and I in you. [00:30:30] As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a brand and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned."

I'm going to go back to this previous slide here. Every [00:31:00] branch had to abide and stay connected to the lampstand. If it didn't, it wasn't a part of the lampstand anymore. And so when Jesus says abide in me, he's really talking about abiding in agape love. Now I mentioned that this church and emphasis maybe thought agape love was optional. But Jesus said [00:31:30] if they didn't abide and go back to the love that they had at first, he was going to come to them and remove their lampstand from its place unless they repented. So I did a little Photoshop for you guys. What would this look like? Well, you can imagine that if Jesus took away their lampstand, and if we were to use the menorah, it might look something like that. It was there one second, and then it was removed, [00:32:00] and then Jesus would simply grow another lampstand to replace it. This is the case that we see throughout the Bible. That there's a great work of God. But then for whatever reason, the people that were part of that work stop representing and shining the light that God wants them to shine.

And so as a result, [00:32:30] God starts a new work through a new people. This is the most evident in the case of the Jews and the Gentiles. Jesus said that since the Jewish people were not going to do the work of the vineyard, then he was going to give the vineyard to somebody else who would do the work. So this is what we see throughout church history is the life cycle of a lampstand. And it usually looks [00:33:00] something like this. It starts with a man. God uses a special person to start what then becomes a movement. For instance, John Wesley. Does anybody know what church, what powerful church was started by John Wesley? The Methodist church. What about William Booth? [00:33:30] Does anybody know what powerful church? The Salvation Army. And we could see even in UBF, there was not just a man, Samuel Lee, but also a woman, Mother Barry. And it became a movement. But we see that in time, a movement can stop shining the [00:34:00] light of Jesus into this world.

And instead of thinking and praying and doing the work of salvation and abiding in Jesus' love, they can start thinking about what they did in the past, and enshrining that in a monument to themselves and talking a lot about the legacy and the heritage and whatnot. And after doing that for too long, eventually [00:34:30] a lampstand becomes a mortuary, the place where the dead go. If you don't know what I'm talking about here, I'll give you an example. Well, actually you should read church history because this is repeated all the time. [00:35:00] So what was the remedy? How could the church of Ephesus avoid becoming disconnected from Jesus and their lampstand being removed? Verse five says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. First, remember." Remember what? "Remember from where you have fallen." It's so important for the [00:35:30] church of Ephesus to remember what it was like when they dwelled in the house of agape love. Loving one another, sacrificing for one another, doing the work of shining the light into the dark world.

What was it like? They should remember. What was it like? I can't remember that well, but it was joyful, I remember that. I remember I felt so [00:36:00] close to the Lord. I remember it was amazing to see God working, not me working. Jesus says, "Remember from where you have fallen." In the past, they were experiencing heaven. But now because they had abandoned agape [00:36:30] love and stopped abiding in Christ, they had fallen to a level of just being a church that focused on doctrines and important things. Because the truth is important, but had abandoned the love that they had at first. So Jesus says to them a simple solution, It's not burdensome, it's [00:37:00] not so hard. He says what? Do the works you did at first. They knew what to do, because they had done it in the past. Do the works you did at first. That action of showing sacrificial love to each other. To love one another, to love their neighbor as themselves. To shine [00:37:30] the light of Jesus into this world. They knew what to do.

But then the question is, were they going to do it? If not, if they were not going to do it, Jesus was going to come and remove their lampstand from its place. This was an important inflection time for them. This was a critical, [00:38:00] critical moment. Were they going to repent and do the works that they did at first? Or were they going to persist in abandoning the love that they had at first and have their lampstand removed? I think that [00:38:30] it's pretty evident that God is doing a good work amongst us. As I was praying for our church, I'm just going to be honest. I was struck by this verse. Do the works you did at first. We have many wonderful missionaries and shepherds in our church. I've always been impressed by our [00:39:00] missionaries, because I really do not like going to foreign lands. My wife, she loves to go to foreign lands. I really do not like foreign lands, especially because of the language barrier.

I can't imagine how hard it is to come to a place where you can't speak the language very well, and that the customs and ways of life are completely different. So I'm always so thankful to Jesus, [00:39:30] and so impressed by the love that our missionaries showed, the agape love to come to this foreign land like Jesus came to this world that was foreign to him to shine the light. In group Bible study, I was, I shared a quick story about missionary Augustine. When I was living in common life with Robert and Jason [00:40:00] and missionary Young James, missionary Augustine came as a missionary from Korea, and he stayed at our common life for, I think like a week or something like that. And I never, I was like, "Oh hi, Augustine." "Hi shepard William, it's so good to meet you." [00:40:30] And and as I watched him and talked to him as he unpacked his clothes and hung up his clothes, I was struck by this bright red brand new polo shirt he had. We were just chatting, and I don't know what it was about the color, it was so red and beautiful.

And so I say, "Wow, that is a beautiful shirt." [00:41:00] And then without even thinking for a second, he took that red shirt that he was about to hang up, and he handed it to me and said, "It's for you." I'll never forget that red polo shirt. And I'll tell you the truth. I felt God's love, Jesus' love through that small, but so heart-touching [00:41:30] gesture of giving. So I mentioned this in Bible study this Saturday, I told the story to the people in the group Bible study. And I think Augustine said something like, "I'd forgotten about that." But I didn't forget. And that's the power of agape love in a very small, small thing, it's such a big thing. [00:42:00] Remember from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. Last night, we had the Saturday night testimony sharing. While I was listening to everyone's testimony and after I'd shared my own testimony, I tell you, I felt like I was drinking living water.

[00:42:30] I wasn't doing anything fun like playing a game or going somewhere spectacular and exotic, but I was completely satisfied in my spirit as I was listening to my brothers and sisters share their testimony. And as my heart was focused on the word of God and Jesus himself, I was drinking, gulping living water. [00:43:00] I felt so good. And as I was sitting there, I'm like, I remember this. I remember this. I remember when I used to sit in our Friday night testimony sharing. Once again, humanly it's not tantalizing or exotic or looks cool or fun, but I [00:43:30] remembered the joy, because I was having it again. And then, when we sang the hymn Send the Light, oh my Lord, Jesus, that was great. Send the light, the blessed gospel light. Let it shine from shore to shore. Oh my gosh, I felt like I [00:44:00] was five feet above the ground like I was going to heaven or something. It was great.

During that time, Robert shared about how they had the first group Bible study in a long time at [CSUOB 00:44:22] this last week. And as I was listening to him describe it, I had my eyes closed and I was praying, [00:44:30] and I felt like I was transported to their Bible study, because I was experiencing the joy that I knew that they had when they had that Bible study. It was glorious. And I was thinking to myself, I remember this, I remember what it's like when LAUBF is full of the holy spirit, the word of God [00:45:00] and agape love for each other and for the college...

William: ... and agape love for each other and for the college campuses of America and the world. I remember what it was like. And then I thought to myself, I can't wait to talk about this tomorrow when I give the message. So my question to you is, do you remember?

[00:45:30] Do you remember what it was like to be loving with Jesus' agape love, sacrificially, loving your brothers and sisters, and to be laying down your life for your friends? We're at an important inflection point in our church. We need now more than ever to do the works that we did at first. [00:46:00] This is the clear message. Not from me, not from some man, but from the owner, the keeper of the lamp stands. The owner and the keeper of this lampstand in LAUBF. Do the works you did at first. And what are those works? To live in Jesus' [00:46:30] love and to show Jesus's agape love to each other and to the world. Amen.

We have to be honest with ourselves. If we do not do this, Jesus cannot condone a church that does not shine the light. Jesus' love is the light. And we have [00:47:00] to be honest that if we do not do this work of loving one another and loving the world, and shining the light into the world, our lampstand will not remain. But that's why he gave us this word. Do the works you did at first, love one another, abide in his love, and shine the light.

Part six. We're almost done. [00:47:30] He who has an ear, let him hear. "He, who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches." You know, I mentioned at the beginning, the angel who brought the message, but in a lot of ways, the message is really the letter, if you will, or the message is really comes to our heart through the spirit. The spirit of God does not yell [00:48:00] at people. The spirit of God is not overbearing. The spirit of God is looking for people that are willing and who have an ear to hear what the gentle whisper of the spirit says.

If we're determined in our own flesh and in our own way to just do what we want to do, we can't hear what the spirit says to the churches. If we hold grudges [00:48:30] or our sin, we can't hear what the spirit says to the churches. If our mind and heart is filled with worldly desires, the love of money, the worries of this life, we can't hear what the spirit says to the churches. But when we hear what the spirit says to the churches, it's fabulous. Because it's so clear and so encouraging what we need to do [00:49:00] or what we need to change. And it's never burdensome. Although the word might be very direct. It doesn't hurt. It's not burdensome. But it's even great to hear. When I prayed, I said, "Not by power and not by my might, but by my spirit, says the Lord." [00:49:30] I have a problem about trying to be persuasive with people. I like to shake people and be really over the top. I used to even read articles, how to be a persuasive speaker.

But then as I studied the Bible, God gave me this word, not once, but even twice, not by power or not by might, [00:50:00] but by my spirits, says the Lord. This happened a week and a half ago. I got this word of God as I was reading the Bible. And then something interesting happened. This morning I got on my watch, like from biblestudytools.com. It's like verse of the day, Zachariah chapter four, "Not by power and not by a might, but by my spirit, says the Lord." I was like, "Oh Lord, thank you so much for that reminder." [00:50:30] So the spirit tells us what our church needs. The spirit tells us what we need. And it's a very beautiful thing, if we have ears to hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Part seven. To the one who conquers. To the one who conquers, this is something that Jesus, in every single church. "To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." [00:51:00] Now, if you remember earlier, I said, Jesus's reward also helps us to see the problem or the challenge that the church was going through. I want to just focus on this, because I had this question, Lord, why did you talk to the Ephesians and talk to them about the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God? Why did you mention this? I don't know why. And then I came across this one part. " [00:51:30] To the one who conquers, I will grant." And I thought to myself, that reminds me of something I... I think I remember in Revelation 22. So I flipped over to Revelation 22:14. Which says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates."

Jesus said, I'm going to go back a slide. " [00:52:00] To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Grant. And then here it says, "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life." So then I said, Lord, what does it mean to wash my robe? What is that? And then I came across 1 John chapter 2:5. I'm going to read these verses quickly for us. [00:52:30] You can see that I've highlighted the word perfected, take notice of that.

"But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God, the agape love of God is perfected. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment." [00:53:00] Jesus said to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. He also said that to those who wash their robes. To live a life of love is to wash our robes.

I'm going to go back again. One thing came to my heart as I was having bibles study with many of you, [00:53:30] and other people said this. Is that, sometimes when we are challenged to live a life of love to show God's agape love, we can think to ourselves, how can I love of people? I can barely take care of my own life. I can barely manage myself. How can I possibly love others? Well, we have to just simply go in the [00:54:00] strength that we have. We have to understand is that God's agape love is not something that we have a lot of it immediately, but it's something that's perfected.

You know, if I went to a golf course right now and try to swing a golf club, I would be horrible at golfing, because I don't practice it. But if I practice golf every day, maybe after a couple years [00:54:30] I would be well on my way to perfecting golf. Jesus's love is the exact same way. We're not going to be able to love at the high levels of Jesus at the beginning. But as long as we practice it and not abandon the love that we had at first, over time, this love will be perfected in us as we practice it.

[00:55:00] So to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. And as we can see at the very end of Revelation, this tree is given as a right to those who wash their robes in the blood of the lamb, and really show the love that Jesus had.

So in conclusion, we can see that Jesus really loved the church in Ephesus. They held to the truth. They had a great [00:55:30] point, but they had abandoned the love that they had at first. Likewise, we have an important decision to make both personally and corporately. If we will do the works that we did at first and remember the great joy that this church has had when we meditated on the word, day and night, and did the work of loving the loss and loving each other. So let's read a key verse together. Verse two, verse five. Okay. Let's go. " [00:56:00] 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." One word, do the works you did at first. Let's pray. Yes.

Congregation : [crosstalk 00:56:21]

William: Wow. Wow. Wow. Our first word was what? [00:56:30] Witness. Our second word is?

William: The third word is love. Love. Thank you, Pastor John. That was glorious. I thought to myself, "What's going on." Love. Agape love. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this time that we can meditate on your words and see that you really [00:57:00] loved the church in Ephesus. You were very pleased with them in so many ways, but you did show them that they had abandoned the love that they had at first. May really help this church that we can really, in our own personal time, really reflect on this passage and think about our lives. And if things have changed, how we can do the works that we did at first. We thank you so much [00:57:30] for Jesus, who is the one who tends this lamp in LAUBF. This church belongs to Jesus. It's maintained by Jesus. So help us to have ears to hear what the spirit says from Jesus. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.