SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you would grab a seat uh for me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me introduce myself.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Aaron Cotton, and I'm the student pastor here at Grant Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: Uh today is a unique Sunday uh in the life of Grant Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: Uh each year we take a Sunday and have uh what we call uh our senior Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and one of the ladies uh pulled me beside and said, Hey, we're recognizing our seniors this morning.
SPEAKER_01: How nice of us uh that that we would do we would do that.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yes, uh, but we're also uh gonna speak some truth over them as we send them out uh hereafter uh into the next to the next service.
SPEAKER_01: Um and the word that the Lord has put on my heart uh for this morning, uh I could not get uh the Ephesian church out of uh my head and my heart as I was wrestling with you know what how how do we go about going and doing uh and and conducting this morning of our time here?
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bibles, open up with me to the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and maybe all the end time nerds are kind of geeking out right now, thinking, man, yeah, let's get some crazy stuff out there to tell our seniors as we get them out.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we can read those at a later time.
SPEAKER_01: We're actually gonna be at the beginning uh in Revelation chapter two.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to talk to you this morning, church, uh, about the day when love goes cold.
SPEAKER_01: The day when love goes uh cold.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because here within this Ephesian church, uh, we're gonna see they were a busy people, um, but but we're gonna see the words of our Lord say that he has something against them.
SPEAKER_01: Uh before I came to Grand Parkway, uh, I grew up right down the road, uh, known in known as Katie, or we call it K Town, uh, if you're from there.
SPEAKER_01: And I worked at a place called Lubies.
SPEAKER_01: I've talked I talked about it before uh with you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my first job, uh wait waiting tables.
SPEAKER_01: I say wait waiting tables pretty loosely uh because all I did is walk around with my red shirt and my apron and filled up tea uh and made money off of it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Those old people loved me, right?
SPEAKER_01: Bank went through college.
SPEAKER_01: Uh there were some days when I first started uh working, uh when I first started making money, how much of a big deal that was.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I remember thinking, I'm filling up tea, I'm just loving on people, and I'm getting paid for it.
SPEAKER_01: This job is sweet.
SPEAKER_01: And then after a while, about two weeks in, uh after all the jello and all the macaroni and all the carrot salad and all the kids that come in, and not only are they eating their food, but they like to take their food and like mash it in the carpet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, your legs don't even touch the ground.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world is this macaroni carved into the carpet right now?
SPEAKER_01: I remember sweeping those things up, saying late hours, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because my life is so hard working at Lubies.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember going through, getting through, and I remember about two weeks in, I'm thinking, God, what am I doing?
SPEAKER_01: Here I am serving macaroni and cheese, just some ungrateful people, some ungrateful kids who are just gonna ground it out into the table, and I gotta clean it up later.
SPEAKER_01: Like, is this really, is this really what I'm supposed to be doing?
SPEAKER_01: And the cloud clear as a bell, the Lord's like, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: During this season, you it's time to work.
SPEAKER_01: It's time, uh, it's called being an adult, right?
SPEAKER_01: My when I get my seniors in here uh next service, the word for them is hey, get a job.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that that would be a great preparation for what uh is in store uh for you.
SPEAKER_01: But in that moment, I mean I just had a bad attitude one day, and I came in uh to work, and God said, just in that moment, hey, remember that you represent me here.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the midst of you not doing what you want to do, hey, you are my ambassador.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, so go clean up some macaroni and cheese.
SPEAKER_01: Go clean up some carrot salad, and hey, this person wants some liver and onions, go get that too, even though it reeks, right?
SPEAKER_01: Go get that for them and put it on their plate because that's what they they want.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be inconvenienced.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the sweet deal is you're gonna get paid for it too.
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna represent me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's just a side note for our jobs, our schools, wherever we are at in life, our occupation, our identity first comes from the fact that we are an ambassador of the king.
SPEAKER_01: And that changes, that changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: And for this Ephesian uh church uh that is right there uh in the midst of going through life, uh John, who is the author, as he's writing the book of Revelation, uh it well, history tells us that John was on this island called Patnus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and if you go to Google Maps right now, it's just a speck.
SPEAKER_01: Like you've got to zoom in like crazy uh just to see this thing because as he was proclaiming the gospel, as he was living out his faith, these Romans were like, hey, Caesar is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And John's like, No, Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so what they did is they banished him out uh with them with all the other criminals to do away with this guy named John.
SPEAKER_01: And in the midst of an island, in the midst of this being on this small, rocky, barren area where they're surrounded by criminals, Jesus shows up.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna submit to you this morning, uh, church, that anything pursued out of obligation is not love.
SPEAKER_01: Anything pursued out of obligation or routine is not love.
SPEAKER_01: How you love Christ directly affects every area of your life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying discipline isn't important and needed, but what I am saying is that even in those things we don't care to do, we embrace the fact that Jesus was first inconvenienced for us.
SPEAKER_01: So therefore we can expect to be inconvenienced.
SPEAKER_01: And there's John on the island of Patmos, right?
SPEAKER_01: No family, no friends, hanging out with some criminals.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus shows up.
SPEAKER_01: Which begs the question maybe some of us feel like we're on an island this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe instead of God, get me out of this island, like we're like castaway with our friend Wilson just going crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, God, what am I doing in this circumstance?
SPEAKER_01: I'm here at Lubies, I'm just here going through life.
SPEAKER_01: What is going on?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe instead of praying for deliverance, maybe we would pray, God, what do you want me to learn about you?
SPEAKER_01: Even in this situation, because amongst all the excuses John could have pulled out, Jesus shows up.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me in Revelation chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: John writes this.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Then, Revelation chapter one, verse 12, then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.
SPEAKER_01: And turning I saw seven golden lampstands, in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, Daniel seven, clothed with a long robe and a golden sash around his chest, and the hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
SPEAKER_01: And in his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
SPEAKER_01: Get John's response when he sees this resurrected Jesus, and when I saw him, when I saw Jesus, I fell at his feet as though dead.
SPEAKER_01: Church, anytime we see uh God for who he is, and you're saying we we see this resurrected Jesus, I don't get the hallmark picture in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I don't get the the cuddly Jesus as we embrace him, but when we see the resurrected Christ, when we see God in all his glory, the people fall before him.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're gonna see later on in Revelation the angels and the multitudes, and you know you're you're at the ballpark and someone wants to do the wave.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let's start the wave, let's let's let's do the wave, and we're like, yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden you get this constant and you see across it and it starts going across the stadium, and you're all proud of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: But in the kingdom of God and in the heavenlies, Jesus is at the center, and the holy wave is people bowing down before him.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you see the king in all his glory, as Isaiah says, Woe to me, for I am ruined.
SPEAKER_01: I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among some people of some unclean lips.
SPEAKER_01: But who's gonna go for you?
SPEAKER_01: I will go for you, because I have been set aside in ruin for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And if you come here on us uh for tonight on this Sunday night at 5 30, as we uh ordain myself, you're gonna see a dead man before you.
SPEAKER_01: You're you're gonna see someone who has embraced the call to ministry, to lay my life down for the sake of others, which is all of our calls.
SPEAKER_01: Because have your eyes seen the king church?
SPEAKER_01: Has your eyes see the king?
SPEAKER_01: Because number one of the point this this morning is when the day when the love goes cold, number one that we need to understand and embrace is the fact that Jesus is in charge.
SPEAKER_01: His hair white like wool, like snow, his eyes like fire.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells John in verse 19, write therefore the things that you have seen, and those things that are, and those things that are going to take place.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, fear not, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 2, verse 1, John continues to write about this Jesus who's in charge.
SPEAKER_01: He says, To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, and who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
SPEAKER_01: John he's writing to uh uh a church who is I mean centered on idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he he is centered, uh he's writing to the church who is right in the midst of a city called Ephesus, uh, which is all which idolatry is all around the place.
SPEAKER_01: The the city of Ephesus was a port city.
SPEAKER_01: It brought in so many different people, and and the main worship that happened amongst there uh was this was Artemis worship.
SPEAKER_01: And criminals could find refuge, and sexual idolatry was prevalent throughout the entire town in order to please this deity.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the church literally is existing amongst Las Vegas in our vernacular.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of the darkest places, but yet John writes that even in the midst of darkness, Jesus walks and he holds, according to verse one, the seven stars in his right hand.
SPEAKER_01: He walks among the seven golden lampstands.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have an intro to Jesus and who he is so that we can keep on going as we should.
SPEAKER_01: Church, Christ is present now in the halls, he's present in the buildings, he's present out in the warehouse, which I hope I hope I hope he's there because I'm not there.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, they're not tearing down the building.
SPEAKER_01: He's out there at the warehouse, he's out in the children's building, he's in this building, he's present now amongst the rows.
SPEAKER_01: He's are you taking notes, by the way?
SPEAKER_01: He's present here amongst us.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who walks.
SPEAKER_01: And because of Jesus' walking and his availability, it makes this possible.
SPEAKER_01: It makes life possible, it makes church possible when we first embrace the fact that number one, Jesus is in charge, and number two, the Christian life, it involves work.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life involves work.
SPEAKER_01: John writes about this church to this Ephesian church.
SPEAKER_01: I know your works, I know your deeds, I know your toil, and I know your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but attested to all those who call themselves apostles and are not.
SPEAKER_01: And you have found them to be false.
SPEAKER_01: I know you are enduring patiently and bearing it for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.
SPEAKER_01: Jump down to verse six.
SPEAKER_01: Yet this you have.
SPEAKER_01: You hate the work of the Nicolaitians, which I also hate.
SPEAKER_01: That in the midst of the of this Ephesian church, there's this group called the Nicolaatians who were coming in and they were wanting to take pagan freedoms and pagan liberties, and they're trying to integrate that into the life of the church, and the Ephesians are saying, Hey, we can't have any of that.
SPEAKER_01: God has called us to be a kingdom of free of priests and a holy nation.
SPEAKER_01: We're to be pure within the body, and yet these Nicolaans, with their intent, is to spread not the gospel, which we know in Galatians 1, Paul takes that pretty seriously.
SPEAKER_01: Let them be a curse who doesn't proclaim the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And God takes sin seriously.
SPEAKER_01: And so these Nicolaans, the Ephesians have said, hey, we can't have anything uh to do with these people, but these Ephesians not only are doing that, but they they they've got they're doing works, they're toiling, and they're and they're patiently enduring.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say that the Christian life involves work, I'm reminded of Ephesians 2, which says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
SPEAKER_01: If there's any words that I would love for this generation or these graduates as we're sending them out, I would love for them to just get their pens and highlight, star, smiley face, whatever they gotta do, to see that there is work and there is toiling and there is enduring in the life of a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Not a work that justifies us so that we can stand approved by God.
SPEAKER_01: No, nothing that we can do saves us, only is based upon Jesus and what he has done is what justifies us, but because we are a justified and saved people, therefore we do.
SPEAKER_01: According to Paul Ephesians 2, there is works prepared in advance for you to do.
SPEAKER_01: So my word for them is to develop a work ethic.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to get a job.
SPEAKER_01: Not only are these if these Ephesians are they really good at work, not only are they really good at enduring, but they're also, they don't tolerate sin.
SPEAKER_01: They don't tolerate uh sin that says, How can you bear with those how can you not bear with those who are evil?
SPEAKER_01: But you've tested those who call them apostles and are not, and you found them to be false.
SPEAKER_01: Church, don't put yourself in a situation where people can assume the worst.
SPEAKER_01: Don't put yourself in a situation where people can assume the worst.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my students all the time, hey, don't hang around idiots.
SPEAKER_01: Just don't.
SPEAKER_01: Just don't hang around foolish people.
SPEAKER_01: More biblical term, right?
SPEAKER_01: With Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hang around uh people who are making some bad decisions and investing in those relationships because eventually, because most of them turn to me and they they got some church in them, they got some religion in them, and they've read some Bible, and the hey, I'm gonna go out there and save my friends, or I'm gonna date this person so I can present the gospel and hopefully they will come, they'll they'll be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, hey man, you're fool.
SPEAKER_01: Like you you you think that you're gonna go in, go into this thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying not share the gospel, I'm not saying share the good news, I'm not saying love them, but when you invest so much in a relationship and they're not on the same page as you, they'll bring you down.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says, hey, don't be unequally yoked.
SPEAKER_01: That we there's there's a partnership that goes on.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've ever seen a team that plows, but if one falls over, that's that's that's bad news.
SPEAKER_01: Not to keep and not to tolerate, not to put ourselves in foolish situations, because this Ephesians church, they they no way.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no way.
SPEAKER_01: Not only were they would they not do that, but they also they could identify falsehood pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: These were people who were theologically trained.
SPEAKER_01: These were the people who had great uh uh staff, had great teachers, had great pastors, had great classroom settings, they were aware of the truth, they knew the truth, and they were able to identify what was false and what was true.
SPEAKER_01: That's why John says in 1 John in his epistle, which he writes earlier, he says, Test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is to be expected that we are to test what we hear.
SPEAKER_01: In the classrooms, when we're with our in our co-workers, and we're in the locker room or or wherever we may be, because people always got an opinion.
SPEAKER_01: They always got an opinion, they always got something that they believe to be true.
SPEAKER_01: And what I'm uh what is being submitted to us is hey, what is this truth line up with scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Does it line up with what God has revealed?
SPEAKER_01: Because these people, they knew, they knew, they knew the truth.
SPEAKER_01: This past Friday, uh I came into the office and uh it was just a a normal Friday for me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh got here as early as I could.
SPEAKER_01: I rolled in uh in about I was here about 15 minutes uh in my and my phone rang.
SPEAKER_01: And there's just some days that uh distractions happen, and I I've learned to kind of embrace them and think, oh, okay, yeah, God, you're this is an invitation, you're inviting me to uh be inconvenienced, right, Aaron?
SPEAKER_01: You just said that, so I'm going through all this, my phone rings, I pick up.
SPEAKER_01: It's our uh our child care director, and her name is Jennifer Pennington, and she says, Hey, Aaron, uh, I got something to tell you.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you if you're on the phone with somebody, you know when something's up, like you know someone's in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately, like, I unbuttoned my shirt and I had my Superman shirt on.
SPEAKER_01: Like, immediately I just became Superman.
SPEAKER_01: I began to think, what's what's wrong?
SPEAKER_01: What what what what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: She says, Hey, there's an alligator in our pond back behind the playground.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, I know you got your own children's building, you got your own program.
SPEAKER_01: Like, did y'all bring in the zoo?
SPEAKER_01: Because whatever I'm doing, I want to go out there where where it's happening, right?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, No, there's an alligator for real.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, for real, for real.
SPEAKER_01: So I go out there, I'm looking in, I'm looking at this pond.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in Texas my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: Texas boy, country boy, been out, grew up on a farm somewhat.
SPEAKER_01: Go out there, I've never seen an alligator.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I've been to the zoo where they got like glass, and you can kind of poke at them and like, hey, cool, an alligator.
SPEAKER_01: It's here, but I'm safe.
SPEAKER_01: I'm good, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: But no, I've never been like out in the wild, like wild wild, right?
SPEAKER_01: But right here, back behind our church.
SPEAKER_01: And I look back there and I'm looking at the pond, and I'm looking, I'm like, because I still don't believer, right?
SPEAKER_01: I've never seen anything like this.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking, I see what looks like a log, and then and then the log, the log starts moving.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, is the wind blowing?
SPEAKER_01: Is it nope, not blowing?
SPEAKER_01: It's and then all of a sudden this log turns, and then the log has eyes, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then the eyes look, and then it blinks at me to give me a little wink, like, what's up?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, and immediately I like that there's an alligator right there in in our pond.
SPEAKER_01: Where's where's my where's my buddy Charlie Williams?
SPEAKER_01: Let's get the let's get a gun out, man.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just shoot this thing and skin it.
SPEAKER_01: I need a wallet.
SPEAKER_01: Like we could we could do this, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I and I look out there in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: I say, everybody clear out immediately.
SPEAKER_01: I just became like the security guard, like student pastor, security guard, everybody out for everybody's safety.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody back behind me, because we got mops going on.
SPEAKER_01: We got about 70 kids on the building and a bunch of moms, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm the only dude on campus, so they have nowhere else to turn, to be honest.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going there, get behind me, people.
SPEAKER_01: I call, I get online, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: I first go to my seminary education, right?
SPEAKER_01: Do they teach you in seminary what to do with an alligator in the back of their pond?
SPEAKER_01: No, they don't.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that education.
SPEAKER_01: Check.
SPEAKER_01: So I go in there, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: Google.
SPEAKER_01: Like, so I go to Google.
SPEAKER_01: How do you get an alligator out of a pond?
SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, I found this guy named Gator Chris.
SPEAKER_01: Like, first and last, first name Gator, last name Chris.
SPEAKER_01: Gator Chris shows up in a truck, lifted up, big old tire.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: We got we got that we got the right person with the four-wheeler on back and on these wheels.
SPEAKER_01: He he had these things where he could go out into the water and float.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm just nerding out, like, you can do whatever you want, but I want to ride that four-wheeler uh as soon as you get that thing down, get that thing down.
SPEAKER_01: He's he's all looking out, and like the guy is just like secret agent on this alligator.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, hiding behind stuff, like look, looking over, hiding it, and then he's crawling.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, anybody else see this right now?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else looking?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to look out, and he's like, hey, hey, step back, step back.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, professionals only.
SPEAKER_01: I get it, I get it.
SPEAKER_01: Long story short, this happened Friday, and then Saturday morning happens because to be honest, I ain't gonna miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I I I've I've hunted a little and I've done things, I've been, I've never caught an alligator.
SPEAKER_01: Like, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like, and I'm thinking, sermon prep, this is the best sermon prep ever, right here.
SPEAKER_01: So I get out there, he catches the thing, we bring, we bring it up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that he makes an alligator just tap.
SPEAKER_01: Like you just got up onto it, slapped it right on its nose, the thing rolled over and said, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: And he just laid there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is it?
SPEAKER_01: This is all and he goes, Aaron, I want you to tape its mouth.
SPEAKER_01: You want me to do what?
SPEAKER_01: You hey, do you not know?
SPEAKER_01: Like, I I love kids, but uh, okay, I'll get down.
SPEAKER_01: He pulls out some electrical tape, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Wrapping around this alligator's mouth, makes that thing cement, sit still, and then I remember how chuckling and laughing because I never experienced anything like this.
SPEAKER_01: But but the thought went through my mind, here we are, we're doing life, we got mops going on, we got children's uh program going on.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here in my aunt, we're just doing life and we're kind of going, but yet in the midst of all this, there's a stinking predator on our campus who has claws and a big mouth and lunged at me a little bit, and I TT'd my pants, to be honest, right?
SPEAKER_01: But here we are just going about our lives and going about and then and yet in the midst of that, like there, there's seriously an animal that could do a lot of damage.
SPEAKER_01: Aaron, why would you go on and tell us that story?
SPEAKER_01: Number one, because it's a cool story, and I'm gonna continue to talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: I think the next student ministry calendar is gonna be me next to that alligator, right?
SPEAKER_01: All ten feet of it.
SPEAKER_01: But I tell you that because in the midst of us going throughout our lives, there can be an e there's an there can be this tendency to overlook things that people say and just say, you know what, yeah, that's what they believe.
SPEAKER_01: That's good for them because that that's where we're at, church.
SPEAKER_01: We're at a point where truth is relative.
SPEAKER_01: It's not, hey, whatever's true for you, it doesn't really apply to me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said he's the only way, he's the only truth, and he's only he's the only one that you can gain access to God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he he he lays it out really clear.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul said this: hey, there's gonna be wolves that come in.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells the church, hey, therefore, be alert.
SPEAKER_01: Be alert, be able to identify predators, be able to identify and be on guard for the purity of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Not only does he say they're able to identify falsehood, but they live their lives in a in it with a mindset that they got the glory of God before them.
SPEAKER_01: And because the glory of God is before him, they are able to endure in the midst of persecution, in suffering, and even in false teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And they they that because of this, he's the the church is written, says that they did not grow weary.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul writes in Galatians 6 Hey, let us not be a people who grow weary in doing good.
SPEAKER_01: When we live for God's glory, when God's glory is embraced and is set before us, there's a weariness that does not come and overwhelm us.
SPEAKER_01: Because we know God is in control.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we can endure.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you don't have to be weary in your singleness.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you don't have to be weary in loving your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you don't have to be weary in raising your kids.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be weary in all your finals and homework and job and all these things that we got going on, is because God's glory is what matters.
SPEAKER_01: And when we embrace that perspective, I pray that it put a little more pep in our step.
SPEAKER_01: To continue to move on.
SPEAKER_01: This Ephesian church, they had it down.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is the church that you'd want to go to.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they had it rocking, they had all the right youth programs, they had all the right children's programs, but above all these things, they missed it.
SPEAKER_01: They missed it.
SPEAKER_01: Read with me in Revelation 2, verse 4, the Bible says, But I have this against you.
SPEAKER_01: Amongst all the things that you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: One of the most troubling and disturbing things.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I got I got spanked as a kid, and I got whipped, and I needed it, all of it.
SPEAKER_01: And it hurt, and I learned.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing that my dad would say to me that even was worse than even sometimes a spanking was, hey, I'm disappointed in you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus looks at the church and says, Hey, I'm disappointed in you.
SPEAKER_01: I have this against you.
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: That you have abandoned the love you had at first.
SPEAKER_01: You haven't only lost it, but you have abandoned it.
SPEAKER_01: And all your religious busyness and all your discipleship programs and all the things that you're teaching, all the classes that you're doing, and all your church attendance, and all the Sunday mornings you can mark off and say that you attended all that is like is like a whitewashed tomb that is beautiful on the outside, but yet like dead men's bones on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: This church had lost their fervent love for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They've fallen into a routine and a rut of just going and going and coasting and yet lost their first love.
SPEAKER_01: They've missed the greatest commandment.
SPEAKER_01: Church, if there's any commandment that we could just embrace, it would be this one, because Jesus says it's the greatest one.
SPEAKER_01: He says this in Matthew 22 you shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_01: This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it.
SPEAKER_01: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Church, if we continue to come to this place and fill our minds with glorious truths and glorious theological doctrine, we go to classes on Wednesday night and talk about the essentials.
SPEAKER_01: If we continue to go through these things and our hearts aren't stirred and jolted by the things that we are hearing, and it develops a love, a more love for Christ, then we've missed it.
SPEAKER_01: We've missed if we come to this place and hear things, things that we can memorize and things that we can say, yeah, I did I did this, but yet there is not a lot of love for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We've missed it.
SPEAKER_01: We've missed the greatest commandment.
SPEAKER_01: In all our religious busyness, the Ephesians church had grown cold.
SPEAKER_01: According to Matthew 24, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: The love of many will grow cold.
SPEAKER_01: Church, are you complacent this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Are you apathetic this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Just kind of like, I'm just kind of going through the motions, kind of coasting, I'm pretending.
SPEAKER_01: And are his commandments burdensome?
SPEAKER_01: It says this in 1 John 5.
SPEAKER_01: It says, this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and they are not burdensome.
SPEAKER_01: I was with my discipleship group group guys on Wednesday night, and I asked them, I said, hey, uh, are are God's commandments burdensome?
SPEAKER_01: Or which ones are which commandments of God are burdensome?
SPEAKER_01: And one of the one honest guy raised his hand because all of them are like, well, you know, all the Pharisees in the house, they're trying to excuse their behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I know this, I know this commandment.
SPEAKER_01: The one guy can raise his hand and goes, E, all of them are burdensome.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm like, yes, let's start, let's, let's start there.
SPEAKER_01: Because John talks about that there is a life and there's a love and a devotion for God to where his commandments are not burdensome.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us are thinking, how is that even possible?
SPEAKER_01: I think because for some of us, we have a compartmentalized faith.
SPEAKER_01: We come on Sunday, hoorah, yea, Jesus, hear all the right worship songs.
SPEAKER_01: We come on Wednesday night, we're the theologians, but yet throughout the week we're living a totally different life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not on the outside, but on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: Brian Haynes says this.
SPEAKER_01: This is a quote from a pastor right down the road.
SPEAKER_01: He says this, in a world of convenient Christianity, we are certainly, we certainly do not naturally embrace an all-consuming form of faith.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, our Western version of Christianity has influenced a generation of Christians to live with a compartmentalized form of the faith that does not reflect the essence of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: When we allow Jesus' kingship over only certain compartments of our lives, we're able to justify a way of life.
SPEAKER_01: That is appalling to our Lord who gave everything.
SPEAKER_01: This is how we can go to church every Sunday and yet refuse to love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: This is how a person can memorize the Ten Commandments and yet cheat on their income tax or commit adultery.
SPEAKER_01: In my view, compartmentalized Christianity allows the individual to be king or queen and removes Christ from the throne of our lives in a sinful exercise of free will.
SPEAKER_01: As followers of Christ, we must walk as he walked.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Church, if we ever have an attitude of we need a break from God, we've missed Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: We've missed it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a compartmentalized faith.
SPEAKER_01: But living and thinking one way on Sunday and different throughout the week is not a love devoted, not only just on Sundays, but also every day of the week.
SPEAKER_01: I'll never forget spring of 2013.
SPEAKER_01: That was a semester uh in my life, a chapter uh where I met a girl named Chloe.
SPEAKER_01: I've known her uh a while and she was always there, uh, but I never really got to know her.
SPEAKER_01: And once I did, uh things started happening.
SPEAKER_01: Uh things inside me started happening, things inside her started uh happening, and we I decided I finally uh got I was man enough to say, hey, why don't we go out on a date and let's uh let's let's just I just want to get to know you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to get to know what man what makes you tick, man.
SPEAKER_01: How is your relationship with the Lord doing?
SPEAKER_01: And we would uh go on dates and we go consistently as I got to know her, and we about went on three or four, and I could tell the moment it was like a snowball uh as it was going down.
SPEAKER_01: It was just this momentum, and I began to look at it, I think, uh, okay, this is uh this is kind of getting out of hand.
SPEAKER_01: This is unfamiliar territory.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I and we get to this point, we're hanging out over uh in Cinco right here in KD, and we're just hanging out, having a conversation, about to grab some Mexican food, which my mind was on uh uh on some fajitas and some tortillas and some queso.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so my mind's on that, and then all of a sudden we're just hanging out, we're talking.
SPEAKER_01: No DTR, no define the relationship.
SPEAKER_01: We're hanging out, and she looks over at me and she says, Aaron, there's no one else for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked at him, I said, Yeah, there's no one else for me either.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, these nachos, you know, they're pretty good over here at the fajitas.
SPEAKER_01: Uh they got some beef in here, and then for a second I was like, wait, what put timeout and full time out on this one.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know we just we just you just said that there's no one else for you?
SPEAKER_01: And I literally just said the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Like, you can't just go back to that moment and say, just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: I was just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: On uh when I when I when I said that, and I remember literally I stood up from the bench, right?
SPEAKER_01: Just as a little dramatic little boy, and I just started pacing because commitment scared the junk out of me, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going there, I'm thinking, I'm like, we just we just said this, and she's like, yeah, and in that moment, I knew that I loved her.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't I can't explain it, and this isn't Disney Channel, and I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not getting all but this is just a moment where there was something so big and something so much bigger than me that I I couldn't forget it.
SPEAKER_01: I knew that I loved her, and I knew where we were going, I knew the plan that God had for us, but I wasn't gonna tell her until I hit my knee and said, Hey, marry me.
SPEAKER_01: And church, love drives us to it drives us to do crazy things.
SPEAKER_01: Like go buy an engagement ring that it's just take out all my savings, right, that I've been saving for all these different years.
SPEAKER_01: But why it was worth totally worth it.
SPEAKER_01: But love a love would drive us to do crazy, crazy things.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to this church, hey, you've abandoned your first love, but remember.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to remember the moment where you placed your faith and trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And your life was forever changed when your eyes saw the king.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that moment.
SPEAKER_01: There is a power in remembering.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we got the book of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we got books of the Bible like Acts chapter 7, where Stephen just vomits all over the people of how God has acted before from the ways of old to the ways of Jesus and to his coming.
SPEAKER_01: There's a power in remembering.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in charge.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life, it involves work.
SPEAKER_01: A love for God, church is primary.
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, restoration is made available.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, therefore, according to verse 5, remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.
SPEAKER_01: If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.
SPEAKER_01: If we're not a repenting people, church, if we don't change our mind and our thoughts about our sin to turn away from it and towards God, God says to these people, hey, I'm gonna remove your lampstand.
SPEAKER_01: God said that you're you're to be a light into a city, you don't put a bowl over this light, but you're like to let your light shine.
SPEAKER_01: And if we are not a repentant people, Jesus says, Hey, I'm gonna rem, I'm gonna remove the lampstand.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna remove, I'm gonna remove it.
SPEAKER_01: So therefore remember where you came.
SPEAKER_01: Remember restoration is available.
SPEAKER_01: Because he says this in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: He who has an ear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: Parents in in in the house, there are things you're going to say to your students.
SPEAKER_01: There's going to be same things that you say to their kids that's going to make absolutely no sense at the beginning until later.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has got to do a work on them.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit has got to move among them.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he would say, He who has an ear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: Does that sound familiar from the gospels when Jesus would have conversations with people?
SPEAKER_01: Be like, Yeah, I got I got an ear.
SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: You know, because when the Spirit shows up, he brings, he brings hearing.
SPEAKER_01: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
SPEAKER_01: To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is the paradise of God.
SPEAKER_01: God's calls people to remember, He's called us people to repent and return.
SPEAKER_01: How does this happen?
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 51 says, Create in me, God, a pure and clean heart, a right spirit within me.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe for some of us, when we talk about a religious busyness of going and doing and going through the motions, you maybe you find yourself in a routine of being complacent, kind of just coasting, maybe in neutral, kind of hope I get to a top of the hill so I can just coast that thing down.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died and went and gave his all so that we could be a freed-up people who are passionately in love with him.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest commandment.
SPEAKER_01: That this world can have it.
SPEAKER_01: If just give me, give me Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He says there's a paradise to come.
SPEAKER_01: Where Adam and Eve failed in Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_01: When they failed miserably, I'm going to restore.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to make things right.
SPEAKER_01: It's not here now.
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about a paradise.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us may be thinking, yeah, not now.
SPEAKER_01: But we're here this morning to say, one day, there's a paradise before us because Jesus has come and lived and conquered death and rose from the grave so that we could have life.
SPEAKER_01: It says this in 1 John chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: It says, For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: Church, our victory is a participation in what Christ has already done.
SPEAKER_01: That He is victorious.
SPEAKER_01: As Neil said a couple weeks ago, that Jesus is one.
SPEAKER_01: This is the game changer.
SPEAKER_01: This changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one in charge.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life involves work.
SPEAKER_01: Love for God is first and foremost, it's primary.
SPEAKER_01: And restoration is made available for those in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Would you do me a favor, stand your feet?
SPEAKER_01: I want to speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a visitor here, we hold our hands like this.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason why we hold out our hands like this is because uh we're expecting to receive something.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time I came to Grand Park away, and all of a sudden all the people went like this.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what are we, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_01: But this is just a symbol of I'm gonna walk out of here receiving and receive this church.
SPEAKER_01: You're overcomers.
SPEAKER_01: That Christ has come and lived a life that me and you can never live.
SPEAKER_01: He who is in you is greater than he is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: This makes this possible, it makes this doable.
SPEAKER_01: So depart out of here freed up, passionately in love with our Maker and our King.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Holy Spirit, bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.