Do You Really Love God? Pt. 2

Last Wednesday we began a study on the 7 churches in the book of Revelation. We looked at the church of Ephesus which on the outside looked like a great church to belong to, but it was the inside that God cared about. God cares about the inside…meaning our hearts.

1st Samuel 16:7
“⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” – NIV

Jesus said to the church of Ephesus,
Revelation 2:4
“⁴Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” - NIV

The first love of any Church should be Jesus. He was the first love of this church, but something happened. They lost their wonder and awe for the Lord. He became another fixture in the church. Something grew cold in the hearts of these Christians. No longer were they secure in their relationship with Jesus. No longer did they carry that "first love" feeling inside of them. First love makes one unavailable to another suitor; the loss of it opens a person up to new love interests. These people let the world pull their emotions away from where they should have been focused.

If we are not careful, as a church, as Disciples of Christ, this can happen to us as well. We must remember where God brought us from and repent on a regular basis.

What does "repent and do the first works" mean? Jesus wanted Ephesus to renew their experience with Him. He desired them to live as they lived when they were newly converted. Most can remember their first year as a Christian - how they acted, spoke, thought, read the Word, and went to church. It was with a zeal and vigor. Jesus only wanted them to become as they were.

Destiny Removal

If we choose to disobey God and we choose to do things our own way, we have to be willing to accept the consequences that come along with our choice. Some people think and believe that there are no consequences for our actions. That we can do whatever we want and receive no repercussions. That we can live our lives the way we want and still be blessed by God.

Romans 6:22-23
“²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – NIV

This church was in sin. They looked the part, but somewhere down the line the inside quit changing and soon their hearts were far from God. They abandoned their first love Jesus Christ. This was a sin because Jesus told them to repent.

Matthew 12:30
“³⁰ He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” – NKJ

Listen, if Christ is not the love of your life, if He is not first and foremost in your life, then you are against Him. If we do not repent we will miss the mark.

Revelation 2:5b
“If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” - NIV

He explains to these people that they are at risk of losing their destiny. They were in danger of losing His will for their lives. This same type of warning was given to the Children of Israel in the book of Malachi.

Malachi 1:6-14
“ ⁶ A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. "But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?' ⁷ "You place defiled food on my altar. "But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' "By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. ⁸ When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty. ⁹ "Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?"-says the LORD Almighty. ¹⁰ "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands. ¹¹ My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty. ¹² "But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' ¹³ And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously," says the LORD Almighty. "When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD. ¹⁴ "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.” - NIV

The Jewish nation had forgotten God. They had left their first love. It showed by their sacrifices they gave to God. They gave blind, lame, diseased sacrifices. Sacrifices that were meant for the garbage, not for the King of all Kings. Love is an action. What we give to God determines our love for Him. I believe today is no different than the times of Malachi. Do not some Christians today bring God faulty sacrifices? I mean we do not sacrifice animals…but the way we live our own lives is a sacrifice. This is what is meant in Romans:

Romans 12:1-2
“¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – NIV

If we only give God only part of our lives, is this truly a holy sacrifice? Is this truly pleasing to God? If we do not give to God all that we are, do we truly love Him? Do we just love the idea of “God” or are we in love with Him? Crazy in love. Head over heels in love. That anything He asks we will do, no questions asked. God deserves the best because He gave His best. It is time that we as a church as individuals repent before a Holy God and start to give Him the best sacrifice that we can.

If we do not give to God our very best, we are then cheating Him and we are cheating ourselves as well.
Malachi 1:14
“¹⁴ Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.” – NIV

Jesus said to repent.
Revelation 2:5b
“If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” – NIV
God says if you do not repent I will remove what I have for you. I will remove the plans I have for your life. God does have a plan for our lives, but we can divert those plans. I believe there will be those who stand before God and God will look at them and say, “This is what you did with your life, but this is what I could’ve done if you only listened.” I don’t want to miss what God has planned for me so I am going to do my very best to make sure my life lines up with His Word.

Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.

Now this may be severe but when you are on the trackless desert of Arabia and your life is entrusted to a horse, you had better have a trained obedient horse. We must accept God's training and obey Him.
When we obey God, when we live in obedience to God, He blesses us. Just like the horse who obeys his trainer gets a cool refreshing drink of water, we too get a refreshing in our lives. Jesus was correcting the church in Ephesus and trying to bring them back to obedience. When we lose sight of Christ in our lives, not only do we lose sight as to why we are here, but we also start to slip away from Jesus and we start onto our own path. But when we listen to God when He calls us back to obedience we are blessed.

Job 5:17
“¹⁷Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.” – NIV

Now I know that some people have a hard time with correction. Nobody likes to be corrected. Not by man and certainly not by God. My daughters throw a fit when my wife or I correct them. They start to scream and cry and whine. We do the same with God, but God says we are blessed when He does!

Proverbs 3:11-12
“¹¹ My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, ¹² because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” - NIV

Because God loves the church of Ephesus and because He loves us today, He still corrects us and calls us back to obedience. We are His children and if He did not call us back to obedience then He would not love us the way He does. If God his not correcting us, or if we have not felt His correcting in awhile, then we need to evaluate where we are with Him, we might not be as close to Him as we think we are and that poses a real issue. If you have not been corrected by God then it seems that you have everything figured out. You are then perfect. But that cannot be, because God said:

Romans 3:23
“²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” - NIV

When we live in disobedience to God, He cannot do through us what He wants to. He cannot use us the way He intended us to be used. His plans for our life, what He wants to do in our lives, can be altered or delayed if we are in disobedience to Him and His Word. Sin separates us from God and separates us from His plans in our life. Remember it is His plans…not ours (Jeremiah 29:11).

Deuteronomy 11:1; 8-15
“ ¹Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always… ⁸ Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ⁹ and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. ¹² It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

¹³ So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul- ¹⁴ then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.” – NIV

God is stating here that if you put Him first, if you obey His commands, if you live your life according to His Word, He will bless you! He will take care of you! He will be your provider! When you follow the stipulations of God’s promises He will honor His promise! Praise the Lord!

Are You Listening?

Jesus closes this letter to Ephesus with this statement:

Revelation 2:7
“⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” – NIV

Not everyone who hears this message from God or even the rest of the Word of God will receive it. Not all will pay attention to what God is saying. The Spirit speaks in this passage, but not all will receive it. There will those who reject what God is stating to the 7 churches in Revelation. God is a gentleman. He does not need to shout and yell and scream at us to get a message across. We have to be willing to listen to and willingly be attentive to what the Spirit is saying.

1st Kings 19:11-12
“¹¹ The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” – NIV

Sometimes we look for God in some huge blast or booming voice from Heaven when in fact He is trying to speak to us every day. If you listen to the Lord you will overcome. If you put Him first you will overcome. If you love the Lord you will obey His Word and live a holy life before a holy God.