Spiritual Health Check

And if you have a a Bible, you might wanna grab that now.

And we've got 2 readings this morning. The first is 2 kings chapter 6 verse 8 to 17, and then, you would want to finger in Revelation chapter 2 verse 1 to 7, and Emma's gonna come and read that now. Okay. Starting with 2 kings chapter 6, starting at verse 8. Now, the king of Aram was at war with Israel.

After conferring with his officers, he said, I will set up my camp in such and such a place. The man of god sent word to the king of Israel. Be aware of passing that place because the Arabians are going down there. So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of god. Time and again, Elijah warned the king so that he was on his guard in such places.

This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel. None of us, my lord, the king, said 1 of his officers, but Elijah the prophet who is in Israel tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom. Go, find out where he is the king ordered so that I can send men and capture him. The report came back.

He is in Dothan. Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of god got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. Oh, no, my lord.

What shall we do the servant asked? Don't be afraid the prophet answered. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elijah prayed, open his eyes, lord so that he may see. Then the lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elijah.

So then turning to Revelation chapter 2, starting at verse 1. To the angel of the church in Ephesus Wright, these are the words of him who holds the 7 stars in his right hand and walks among the 7 golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles, but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered, and have endured hardships for my name.

And have not grown weary. Uh-huh. Yet, I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love that you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen, repent, and do the things you did at first.

If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lump stand from its place. But you have this in your favor. You hate the practices of the nicolations, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches. To the 1 who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of god.

Well, good morning. My name's Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the pastors of the church here. We started a series last week in the 7 churches that Jesus writes to, the 7 churches of Asia found in the first 3 chapters of the book of Revelation. And last week, we were looking at the Jesus, who he is, who's gonna come to these churches and write these letters and speak to the churches.

And this week, we're on the first church. So let's pray. Father help us now, please. To hear, but not only here, please move our hearts, our minds where they need rethinking, that we may be not just heroes of the word, Not people that just know stuff, but lord by your spirit that we'd be doers of what we hear in Jesus' name, amen. Right.

See if you recognize these lyrics you can put your hand up if you like, or I'll ask you at the end. You know, where where do these come from? I sit and wait. Does an angel contemplate my fate? Or do they know the places where we go?

When we're gray and old. Cause I've been told that salvation lets their wings unfold. So when I'm lying in my bed, thoughts running through my head, and I feel that love is dead, Everybody? Do you wanna sing it? I'm loving angels instead.

Yeah. Anybody know what that is? Pym, you wanna sing it? Tim thinks he's Robbie Williams. It's, angels by Robbie Williams.

Now there's some interesting things, isn't it? You know, that salvation lets the wings unfold and so forth? You know, do they follow me wherever I go? What about this? Do you know this 1?

See, more or know this 1? I believe in angels. Something good in everything I see? Yes? Abba.

Do you want to sing it? I believe in angel. They're 2 earworm songs. You've got them in your head. It's a really annoying, because they're more of an ear worm than the songs that we're singing about Jesus, which is really annoying.

But nevertheless, I believe in Do you believe in angels? Do you actually believe in angels? The Bible does. The Bible believes in angels. There are about well, I I did a very rough survey.

There are about 300 references in the Bible to angels. And what is really interesting and it surprised me is that a hundred and 82 of them, so more are in the new testament references about angels. So if you believe the Bible you need to believe in angels. Now they're not the sort of pictures and portraits and descriptions that we often see. An angel in the Bible is not a little fat cherub that you have on Christmas cards or in some of those religious paintings or in some church buildings.

They're much more like god's holy warriors. That's what the ancients are more like. And when we do our nativity plays, I hope we don't just get kids dressed up in white robes with a glittery sort of, tinsley crown thing on their heads. I hope we have them dressed up as sort of ninja warriors because that is more like an angel in the Bible. The book of Hebrews, which is in the new testament, calls Angels ministering spirits.

Are they not all ministering spirits? Listen, sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. So, actually, Robbie Williams, Robbie. Robbie, yes, it is Robbie. Robbie Williams, isn't isn't too wrong when he says, do they know the places where where we go?

They do. They're sent out as ministering spirits, and those of us that are Christians, they're to attend to us and to minister to us. Psalm 91 says for god will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. And even Jesus had ministering angels helping him after the temptations in the wilderness, the 40 days in the wilderness. It says the devil left him and angels came to attend him.

So he has ministering angels. In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus seems to suggest that we all have, guardian angel, some people call it. Listen to what he says. See that you do not despise 1 of these little ones Now the little ones there are not just children. Jesus, uses that term little ones to describe his followers, Christians.

See to it that you do not despise 1 of these Christians For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my father in heaven. What an extraordinary sentence that is, isn't it? It seems that there is an angel Jesus is saying that every little 1 seems to have, and he's facing the father. And it's almost like you get the impression that it's he's that the angel is looking at the father, looking at us, looking at the father. What do you want me to do, father?

I'm ready to go. On your your command, I'll attend to them. Where where what do you want me to do? There are tentative angels. Paul, when he writes, to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 5, who is an elder of the church that we're gonna look at in a minute, an elder of ephesus, Paul writes this.

I charge you, listen, in the sight of god, and Christ Jesus and the elect Angels to keep the things that I've told you to keep. And then when Paul is trying to show in 1 Corinthians 11, the difference between men and women in the church, and I won't go into all of the con the controversies there. But when he's trying to show the differences between men and women in the church, He says that women should act like women and men should act like men because of the angels. So they seem to be looking on. And then Peter, lastly, in the Bible, Peter writing in his letter about the glory of salvation.

He says concerning this glory of salvation, then he goes on and says, even angels long to look at these things. So there's these angels, angels clearly love worshiping when you read through the book of revelation. They're singing holy, holy, holy lord god almighty who was and his and his to come. They're worshiping beings. And Peter is saying, Hey, these worshiping beings look at us and see this amazing salvation that this thrice, holy god, holy, holy, holy god, would have anything to do with sinners like us, would have anything to do with cleansing us and bringing us into the family of god.

And the angels are longing and leaning over and crowding in. What's going on? Some of us need our eyes open or at least the eyes of our faith open. Just like Elijah said to his servant, look, see, on the hillside, the mighty army. There are angels crowded in here, today, longing to understand why god would save you and me.

Now why am I telling you all this about angels? Well, very simply because when the lord Jesus Christ writes to the churches, he addresses his letter, first of all, to the angels of the church. Look at it. Verse 1 of chapter 2 of the book of Revelation. To the angel of the church in Ephasis right.

We must never forget when we come here that we meet here with each other and with angels. An extraordinary thing. What we're doing here is not just a club. It's not just a sort of bible reading society where we get to the next passage and there's a bloke who explains stuff up the front. This isn't sort of a lecture at a university so we can get an understanding of the Bible and pass some test.

This is a supernatural occasion. Out of all the places in Kingston, Angel are crowded out of here. They may well have got here really early. There may be a seat next to you. There's 1 sitting there.

Angel are crowding in. The ones that sing holy, holy, holy, wonder what they think of our worship. Angels are here. That's the privilege we have of coming to church. We're meeting with supernatural beings.

Now, some churches, they try to guess what the name of their angel is. So you get like Saint Michaels, and you get like Saint Gabriel's, and you get even this. I've seen this as a church, the church of all angels. How dare they? What?

Surely, we got 1. I don't know the name of of of the Cornerstone church angel. Do you? Although a lot of people think when it says to the angel. They're actually really not talking to angels.

They're simply talking to the pastors of the church because the word angel means messenger there. Now I used to think that until this week. But I've changed my mind. I think it is to angels, but in their reasoning, that means I'm an angel. Yeah?

So the angel of this church is Angel Pete. Yeah? So you know, be careful. Right? And if I'm a ninja warrior, which I clearly looked like 1, then be be careful.

Or you got Angel Tom, yeah, or Angel Dean. I mean, that's the oh, come on. Of, I didn't really say it. Or Angel Rory. Yeah.

Well, yeah. I used to think that, but actually I think it means both the pastors and the leaders of the church, the elders, but also this supernatural being. The angels in other words are involved with us. They're watching our worship. They're cheering us on.

There's an old hymn that we haven't sung for years, if ever at Cornerstone. Come let us join our cheerful song with angels round the throne. Have we ever sung that? There we go. That's an old hymn to put on the list, isn't it?

Come come let us join our cheerful song with angels round the throne. So verse 1, then to the angel of the church in Ephasis right. The angel represents the church, and as the representative of the church, this letter is for all of the church. So here's my first point then, the Church of Ephasis. To the angel of the church in Ephasis.

Now Ephasis was a very famous city. I don't need to go into all the details about it. It's right it was right on the coast. It's not now because the case, the river is all silted up and it's mile, a sea port all of the stuff, you know, the the trade would come from the east. It would go through, Ephasis and then go, you know, to the Mediterranean and to the West and so forth.

So it's very famous. It's very rich town. It was a very religious town. It had this massive temple, to artemis and Diana that, overshadowed the whole town, and it was 1 of the 7 wonders of the world. This was a rich town because that that actual temple was used as a bank as well for international bankers to put their money in to the temple and for the gods to look after the money and so forth.

So it was a rich town. It had games there. It was a very pagan town. You know, lots and lots of, dark arts and stuff were going on there. And right in the middle of the town is a church, a church with great history, and you can read about it in acts it it acts of the apostles where Paul came and preached the gospel and it disturbed the false teachers and the idol worshipers and there was riots and all of that sort of stuff was going on.

But Paul was the founder of the church in ephesus. And he stayed there for 2 and a half years. He was the first pastor of the church for 2 and a half years longer than he stayed anywhere else. Then we have Priscilla and Aquila, if you go through Acts gospel, the the book of acts, you'll see They were there, very important couple in the early church. Then you had a polish, this wonderful preacher who was there in ephesus.

Then you had Timothy was a pastor there, and then John himself The 1 that writes down the words of Jesus in the book of Revelation attended there, so tradition says. So, you know, this this was a church with a great heritage. Imagine having as your founder, Paul, and Timothy, and John and Apollo to the angel of the church in Eversus. Right. So that's the church, and then there's a description of Jesus.

And in every church that we see, there's a description of Jesus, and it comes from chapter 1 that we were looking at last week. So if you weren't here, it may be worth listening to that. Verse 1 then of chapter 2 second half, These are the words of him who holds the 7 stars in his right hand and walks among the 7 golden lampstands. We saw last week, the 7 golden lampstands they're the churches. He holds didn't notice that word.

He holds the 7 stars, which are the angels. He holds the stars, the angels in his hand, and the word hold there means to completely surround hold. So it's like me putting this watch in my in my hand and completely gripping it. So the whole hand surrounds the watch. That's the word, and that's what what it means.

So he holds the stars and the angels. No 1 can pluck them out of his hand. Now that is how Jesus holds Cornerstone Church. With all our faults and failures, that is how precious to Jesus this church is. So let's be very careful in how we treat people in the church, the members, the stars.

Jesus holds them in his hands. He holds them in his hand. The whole world, yes, but Cornerstone church. And not only does he hold the church in the sense that he protects them. He walks among them.

So we have an expression in English. I don't, I guess, I guess every nation has its own version of it. If you wanna know how someone if you wanna if you wanna know someone, you have to walk in their shoes. This is the sort of expressions like that, doesn't it? Or you gotta walk a mile in their shoes?

Do you have that? Do you have that in Korean and everything? If you wanna know someone, if you really wanna understand someone, you have to walk a mile in their shoes. In other words, you've gotta you've gotta really, to understand them. You gotta walk the way they walk under stand the difficulties they go through, the terrain and the up and down that they have to walk through.

Here is Jesus, and he's looking around, he's walking around the churches. He absolutely understands the terrain and the difficulties that the church is in. And as he walks around, he begins this letter verse 2, I know I know. I know. I know everything.

I've walked your shoes. I've put your shoes on. I know exactly what's going on. I know your disappointments. I know your battles.

I understand your motives. I know your tears. I know your joys. I know your encouragement. I know.

I know. Jesus knows. He knows how we relate to others or not relate. He knows what we do or don't do. I know.

Here is Jesus with all the angels looking on. Holy, holy, holy, they're singing. Can you hear them? And as they sing, Jesus is walking now amongst us, down the aisle through the chairs. He knows.

He comes past you. He wants to whisper in your ear. I know. I know. I know you.

I know you. I understand. I'm walking in your shoes. Suppose your work in the church is just not prominent. It's hardly seen.

Is it even appreciated it? You know, is it is it worthwhile? Jesus knows? Jesus knows. I know.

And that leads us on then to what does he know about this church? So my third point is that he commends the church that he knows. He absolutely loves it. He loves this church. I know I know what you're doing.

Look at verses 2 and 3. I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. Now the words, their deeds and hard work, and perse they're all strong words. They're all like laboring, you know, like a bloke who's digging up the road and sweat is coming off He has to take his shirt off because he's he's he's sweat and toil and harden it hurts.

It's laboring. If you wanna, you know, a woman in labor. Push it. Yeah. Push.

Come on, push. Yeah. It's awful. Yeah. That's what's going on.

There's there's pain, there's I know your deeds, your hard work, your sweat. I know you're not afraid says Jesus of a hard graft. You you you you you don't put off the challenges of the task. I know that. I really love that about you.

You're laboring for the gospel. I I can smell you sweat. And as he walks up and down the aisles, he says, I know I know you. And I know that you know that you're not saved by good deeds. And I know you know you're not saved by good deeds, but I know you know you're saved for good deeds.

Paul writing to the church of ephesus that he was a pastor of says, not by works so that no 1 can boast. For we are listen to this, we are god's handy work created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do. It's an amazing sentence that we could spend a long time on. We're created by god's handy work. God, we were seeing a few weeks ago.

Stitching us together, bringing us together. But he created us in Christ, those that are Christians, and he prepared works for us to do. And these Ephesians have taken up that. And he says, I know you're doing the very works that were created by god the father for you to do in advance, and you said I'm gonna go for it. And Jesus said, I know you're doing that.

It's wonderful. You're doing what god made you, your character, your your body size, your abilities, your muscles, you're using them for the glory, and I know you're doing that. Spurgent just is so outstanding, a Victorian preacher. He talks about some Christians that do so little in their lifetime that even a butterfly would be exhausted or not be exhausted, rather. By the work that they're they're doing.

That even a butterfly would not be exhausted by the work that some Christians are doing. Now we were seeing a few weeks ago that if I were a butterfly, I'd thank you lord for giving me wings. But at least the butterfly is, you know, taking off and doing something that it should be. But people aren't lifting as much as a butterfly can lift, but it's not the case with this church. They're busy bees.

They're a busy beehive, and it's costly in time and energy. And they give themselves to this labor. I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. They're committed to good works. They stick at it.

There's not duvet days for them. They don't leave it to someone else, and I have to say that there's great joy when you see commitment to the lord Jesus Christ, isn't there? It's so wonderful. When people are tired, that's actually why we use that word tirelessly committed. Actually, we're very tired committed.

We're tired committed, but people go on there. They They're like an ant. They they they carry burdens bigger than the size of them. You know, they're lugging things around. And when you look at these Christians, committed to hard, sweat, and grind, you wanna thank god.

Or at least we should do. Thank god for those who toil in labor. There are people in Cornerstone that work very, very, very, very hard, and Jesus smells you sweat and he likes it. Good. He says.

We should thank god for those people. I mean, just think of 1 now. Think of someone you know in this church that really works hard, and thank god for them right now. My friend years ago, used to describe his church like people on a crowded double decker bus that had broken down. And he said a few get off the bus and start pushing the bus while most of the people are sitting on the bus moaning about how slow the bus is going.

Right? Now what is interesting, he used to give that illustration about his church back in the 19 eighties, and he described the people coming the few that came off the bus as men and women. Pushing the bus. Do you know there's a crisis in our country today in churches like ours? Of men doing anything.

There's a crisis in our country. Right across, you can go all the way if if you, know the group that we're in, in commission, men are sitting on the bus and allowing the women to get off women are stepping up and pushing, a men are stepping back. It's all up and down this country. Every pastor is talking about this. How do we get men involved?

Well, don't be butterflies, man. If god has called you to Christ, he's gifted you, there's something about you, your muscles, your abilities, There's something about you to work hard. And if we take 1 Corinthians 11 properly where women should be women and men should be men, we're doing it because of the angels. I wonder who our angel is, this ninja warrior, I wonder if he's saying to other churches, come and see the ninja warriors at Cornerstone. They're men.

Like, we have a lot of, sorry, internationals here, and I've now, done everything politically wrong, but I've never been politically right. So I'm too old to change, but come on, you from Asia. You love the old ninja warriors. Anyway, let's move on. I know your deeds.

I know your words as well. I know your deeds. Your hard work and your perseverance. But there's a second thing. Look, I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people that you have tested those who claimed to be apostles and are not and have found them false.

You have persevered and have endured hardships for your for my name and have not grown weary. And then you go down to verse 6, but you have this in your favor. You hate the practices of the nicolations, which I also hate. Now some people find this a little sort of worrying because Jesus is happy with a church that hates. But as we're gonna see in a minute, if you're gonna really love, you have to hate If I love my wife, then I hate the adulterer or the adulterous.

And he says, you've gotta hate. See, they're not gullible, They're not susceptible to any wind of doctrine that comes, all the new stuff that pours in from wherever, particularly America. They're not just on the YouTube, looking at the latest thing that comes along. They're checking these people out. They're having to listen to what they say.

Is this what the lord Jesus Christ loves? Is this glorifying Jesus or the preacher? This is very important that we get this right. You have checked these people out says Jesus in verse 2, and you've found them false. Now some people, they don't like it when we start saying there are there's liars out there and they're false teachers but we have to say this if we're gonna keep pure and love the lord Jesus Christ.

They hated the error of the nicolations. Now we'll find out about them next week. I think, Rory, you're gonna deal with that. You'll find out about them next week. But basically There's some kind of, you know, god's, the grace of god, gives us license to sin.

So if god loves me, then I can do anything I like in the sort of sexual area. That sort of stuff is going on. But they hate that. They hate young people not living under the grace of god and for the lord Jesus Christ. They hate evil in its members, and they deal with it.

They hate false doctrine and false preachers. And they deal with it. They hate any new movement that comes along like the nicolations that causes people to have bad behavior and not live for the lord Jesus Christ. They hate all that stuff. And Jesus says I like it when you hate.

That's right. What do we hate at Cornerstone? We are hating church. Or we need to be. We need to say no.

There's wrong things that we won't follow. Now with that in mind, we go to my fourth point. What he condemns them for? So he's he's over the moon with them. He's walking amongst the church.

He's saying, what? How? I can smell the hard work here. Oh, it's brilliant. Oh, they really stick to truth.

They really don't like false teaching. That's great. Verse for what yet I hold this against you. And he goes from hate to love. If you're really gonna hate, you've gotta love.

He knows all of the good things about them, but despite the good things he says in verse 4, yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love you had at first. You forsaken the love you had at first. They'd forsaken their first love. The most terrible thing a church could do.

This church had probably been around about 40 years. It's long enough for the second generation of Christians to come along. Now not always, but often second generation Christians can so easily take for granted the blessings that they've come into from the first generation. Very often happens like that. So it's been around for about 40 years, second generation come, and if you're not careful, the second generation, just take for granted.

What the first generation had fought for. It's tragic to see that in a church. It's tragic to see that in a marriage, isn't it? You know those marriages. You've seen them.

Where the couple are just tired of each other. They're committed. They do the duty. He does what men are meant to do in that particular marriage, and she does what women are meant to do in that marriage, but there's no love there. There's no passion there.

There's no new discoveries of freshness. There's no let's go away and find something new. There's there's nothing there. They both do right, but they're empty. I remember a couple that none of us, you will know, that they were young.

They had kids, but they put first their house. Their house was the big thing. And they wanted to buy all of the good stuff, the right sofas, the right paint, the right, you know, carpets, the right, pictures, and they put all their money into the house And when you went round there, it was not a home. You didn't wanna sit anywhere in case you your bottom, you know, disturbed or brought something nasty in, which bottoms are prone to do, and sit on the sofa. You know, you had to take the dust sheet off.

Dust in that house was banned. You weren't allowed in. The the the the woman that was standing there with a cross, no dust in my house, and it wasn't a home It was a house and it was empty, and all of the things were in place when a church is like that. It's terrible. You can't put your finger on it.

Everything's in order. They hate evil, but there's no love. You've forsaken the love you had at first verse 4. You forsaken the love. Notice they forsaken They've not lost the love.

They've forsaken the love. They've walked from love. Who's love? God is love. And what is it?

That has gone. Perhaps it's love for their neighbor. They're not caring anymore because they've had a bit of persecution going on, and they've had, you know, riots of people that don't like them in ephesus Perhaps they're they're they're wary of going out and telling people about the love of the lord Jesus Christ because they've had it so bad and they've got comfortable just meeting together. Perhaps their love for for the gospel, for seeing people converted as gone. Perhaps it's love for each other that's flagging, brotherly love.

They're doing stuff together, but there's no love there, like that marriage. But I think the first love has gotta be dealing with Jesus love, loving Jesus. Because when you love Jesus, you'll love the world. However, painful it is and take the gospel to them, and when you love Jesus, you'll love your brothers and sisters. So the first love It's gotta be a love for him.

This church is doing all this stuff and keeping from error, but for what purpose? What's the point? The heart It's for safety. It's sterile. It's a sterile church.

They hate the right things, but they don't love the right things. Here's spurgeon again, because I've noticed this with lots of people that go on about doctrine and truth, and are we doing it exactly right? I've noticed this, and this is spurgeon. When love dies, orthodox doctrine, in other words, sound teaching, teaching about the Bible. When love dies, Orthodox doctrine becomes a corpse, a powerless formalism.

Adherence to truth sours into bigotry when the sweetness and light of love to Jesus departs. That's absolutely true. You get young men particularly that wanna go on about doctrine. I'm a Calvinist. I'm this.

You this. What about this doctrine? And that's lovely. We want truth, and we want good doctrine. But there's no love.

There's no love. I remember a young man coming to me, complaining about the elders, And he said, the elders, they don't know their doctrine. Are they really calvinists? This young man was totally and utterly and completely taken up with the worst pornography you could ever think of, and he came to tell us off. And there was no love in that man at all for Jesus, and therefore no love for anyone.

You can have sound doctrine without love. That's not what John wants or Jesus wants. You know the story, and it's such a good story to illustrate this of Mary and Martha in the gospels in Luke's gospel. Mary and Martha, the sisters of lazarus who had died, and Jesus had come and raised lazarus from the dead. Well, there's another story about those 2.

And Martha Mary's sisters, Jesus has come to town, and Martha is wanting to create a lovely dish for Jesus. You know, some beautiful dish to say I love, I wanna show my love And she's in the kitchen and working hard, and the steam of boiling fish, and, you know, she's frying up stuff, and she's got special salts in that she's got in from from, you know, north, you know, galilee or wherever, or the, or the, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, Dead Sea, you know, where all the salt is. She's brought that in. Special spices. This is gonna be the best if Jesus has ever tasted.

You know, and she's in the kitchen, worrying, and but Martha, her sister, is sitting in the other room at the feet of Jesus, enjoying a talk from Jesus. And Martha is furious at Mary. Did I say, I wonder where is all the way around is. Mary is sitting at the feet. Martha's in the kitchen, mary's at the feet, and Martha is annoyed.

And Jesus says Martha Martha, you're worried and upset about many things. Doing all these good deeds, but few things are needed, or indeed only 1. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. She's sitting, listening to Jesus and loving it. Now I don't think that is to tell us that we shouldn't be doing good deeds.

Jesus is happy with good deeds, but if we're doing good deeds and there's no time for Jesus in our good deeds, Listen to this. I read this, in January, and I wrote it in my diary, and I it just really struck me when I was flicking through it the other day. The result of busyness is that an individual is very seldom permitted to form a heart. That just blew me away. Yeah.

Just read that again. The result of busyness is that an individual is very seldom permitted to form a heart. Now we preachers, we need to take that as a warning. We need time. We need time for our hearts.

So we're not declaring to other people, stuff that hasn't hit her own heart. This is 1 of the biggest and let me let you in to the life of a preacher. I I've got such a hard heart. That when I read a passage, I don't care about it. I know nothing about it.

I don't even know what it means. I always start like that. So with this sermon, You know? What is that all about? Angels.

I have to have time to think and dwell and do some research and get into the word And then it becomes alive and living. It's not that we don't do the good deeds, but if we're doing the good deeds without the heart, if we're a Martha without having a marianist, then there's problems. And preachers need time. We don't just write sermons. They're not to move other people.

They should move our own heart. Never do I ever want to stand up to preach until this has already hit me? And then maybe it'll hit you. The thing is I wanna tell you that pastors and angels are constantly told to seeks self improvement through greater organization. There's tons of this that we have to sit through when we go to pastor's conferences that if we could organize better, we'd be a better church.

Now there's stuff true to that, but it often removes relationships, which is where love grows. All these time management things that I think I've sucked through in my time as a pastor and church strategies and and structures, and they all need to be put in place. Well, there might be good stuff about them, but most of it takes away from a love of the lord Jesus Christ. Because what it does is it makes me believe that I can do something, and that makes a church dry because my first love isn't Jesus then. They remove relationships and relationships have baggage to go with them and problems, and there's all kinds of relationship issues and confusions, and we get each other wrong.

And all of that baggage is all good because we learn to love. And bring Jesus into our lives. But this time management and structure and 3 60 sort of things that you have to go through to look at itself. They they make us self dependent. There was a bloke called Charles Finney, and in many ways, he was a very good bloke, and you can read his stuff, and I've read a number of his stuff and been very help.

But he had this idea that do this and revival will happen. Do these 10 things, and god will come with mighty power. And he reduced god to just a formula. And then you don't love. The business world coming into the church can kill love, relationships, walking with the lord Jesus Christ.

So that moves me on to my fifth point. I need to hurry. He commands verse 5. They've lost their first love. Consider how far you have fallen.

Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Right. Here's a number of things just quickly. Consider or remember is the word.

Remember. Remember your first love? Remember remember the first steps of your first love with the lord Jesus Christ? Can you remember? A time where you were in his presence for an hour or 2, or was it a day?

I don't know. Do you remember that? Do you remember when I was 21, I was a Christian. On my 20 first birthday, I asked for for a commentary, Matthew Henry's commentary. I remember.

I don't know that week. I can't remember. I just remember reading very badly because I could hardly read when I first became a Christian, reading Matthew Henry about Jesus and just 1 book after the other. Remember, it's the first step of coming back. The prodigal son, the lost son, when he walked away from the father, and then he was in the pig pen, he remembered his father's house.

Was there a time in your life that you just could not be kept away from the prayer meeting? Someone said, pray. Yeah. Someone said, finish it, where? Where?

Someone said sing the praises of god even though they were ridiculous when I first started out. We only had a few. We had it if I was a butterfly. Bined us together or bind us together. Even the songs we had, we only had these rubbish songs, but we would sing them with vigor as if the holy angels amongst us.

Now I know more doctrine am I cold? How far have I fallen? How far have you fallen from your first love brothers and sisters? Then remember, then repent Turn back. Don't just say sorry.

Don't just sit here and say, oh, yeah. I remember those days. They were wonderful days. No. No.

No. Make a clean break. Do something to bring your first love back. And then repeat. He says recommit.

Do the things you did at first. Don't just say sorry, but go and do the things you did at first. Yeah? Go back to the place of your honeymoon if your marriage is falling apart. Go and go back to the same hotel.

Remember and do the things you did at first. Do those remember how you used to spend time in the word. Remember how you used to pray. Remember how how, the joy you had with other Christians and telling people about Jesus and there's a day at by without giving a leaflet out or telling someone about Jesus if it was a day that was wasted. Remember that.

Those of you in Sunday school, thank you for your hard work. Hard work and you and I know that you've something's called teachers here do hard work and research and bible and cut things out and learn what the Bible says. But, hey, are you just doing this without love? Remember to love. Don't stop doing it, but love.

Thank you for youth work. You youth workers. Are you coming to the prayer meetings? You're giving up on that? Are you just doing youth work?

Remember remember what you used to do? I wouldn't be able to do this work without loving the lord Jesus Christ, without being a Mary and hearing what he says. And when I've been a Mary, then I can go and be a Martha. But remember, remember, elders of the church, us elders, me, preachers. It's hard work writing sermons.

I wanna tell you, it is hard work. It's hard graft. But am I just doing this because I'm paid or I'm waiting for my pension? Or is there love in it? Remember remember.

So they're hard workers. They hate false and evil. They don't tolerate wrong, but they need to love. And then the very last thing, he promises them, he covenants. Look at verse 7.

Whoever has ears, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Have you got ears to hear? He's walking amongst us, remember. He knows. He's whispering into our ears.

This is some stuff you need to work on here. You need to love. Do you need to love? Are you lacking love? Come on.

Come on. Sit at my feet and see me as the greatest lover in the universe and learn to love. And to the 1 who is victorious, see the 1 who is victorious, it suggests a battle going on here. Don't just be a Martha. You battle to be a Mary.

He says I give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of god. The tree of life. It's paradise means god's garden. What's stopping us by the way in the book of Genesis going into that garden? Does anybody know?

What? Angel. Now here He's saying you'll be able to go into the paradise. Wouldn't it be great if the angel at Cornerstone was so chuffed because as a church, We've gone through the other big angels into the paradise of god. And then we sing, holy, holy, holy for the lord god almighty was and is and is to come with great figure and love in our hearts.

Let's have a moment. It's quiet. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches. It'll be easy now to just forget what we've heard. And so maybe just reflect on some of the things that we've seen from Revelation 2.

Maybe ask yourself, what is it that Jesus knows, about you, about Cornerstone? What does he know about your deeds? You might wanna ask yourself how may I use the gifts that god has given me to serve as people. Am I slacking in an area? Maybe you want to ask yourself, have I forsaken my first love?

Have I departed from the glorious, beautiful, gorgeous lord Jesus Christ? Have I drifted from the lord Jesus? I'm just going through the motions. Have I got doctrine but not love? And as we think through those things, maybe maybe you want to recommit yourself to Christ.

Think about that time, where you first fell in love with Jesus. How attractive he was. Remember how lovely he is. Go back through the pictures. Go back through the the first dates.

Go back to all those things. Remember what set your heart on fire. And recommit your life to Christ. Love him and love his people. Father, we thank you.

For the things that you have shown us in your words, this morning. We thank you for the reminder of just how incredible you are in many ways. We thank you for the reminder that right now we are in the presence of not just your people, but The angels as well, who are administering towards, who are helping us see your glory. We thank you for the Holy Spirit who who convicts us and encourages us and shows us the truths of your words. And as we've listened to your word, we pray father that we will be those who are doing good deeds, not because we're saved by them, but because we have been saved for them.

Let's be those who who hate any sort of false teaching and and things that may take us away from the lord Jesus Christ, but we do pray as well father that it will not be cold duty. We don't wanna be corpses, but help us be reminded daily, minute by minute that we are loved beyond imagination. That Christ is the great lover. And we pray father that that's which helped us fall in love with him in the first place will be the thing that brings us back if we have drifted away. Forgive us if we have done this.

Let us have our heart reignited with love for the lord Jesus. And as we are reignited, help us to go and to serve 1 another, to pray with 1 another, to fellowship with 1 another. We pray that you'll help us with all of these things in Jesus' name, our,