Awakened to the Cross – Part 1

Jesus said, What I have against you, you've lost the emotion and the passion and the affection in your relationship with me.

He wants the first love. Welcome to Living in the Light. So glad you can join us for this weekly teaching. Our Bible teacher is Anne Graham Lotz, and her message today is Awaken to the Cross, from Revelation Chapter 2.

Here's Anne. My husband had a heart catheterization. I can't remember. I've lost track.

I think it was his fifth. He had five different stents put in, but they went in to look again because he was having some difficulty. And if you know what a catheterization is, maybe you've had one or your loved one has had one. But anyway, they just put somehow, die through a vein in your leg and it goes up through your heart.

My husband's lying there on the table and he can look at this big screen. In fact, the doctor took me back in one of those sessions in the theater and showed me my husband's heart and the arteries on the big screen over the table. And when the die goes through and it goes up through the arteries, they can see where the blockages are.

And so my husband had the stents put in his heart to open up blockages that were there. And I would suggest to you that what the church today needs, as much as anything, is a heart catheterization. We need to take a good look on the inside of us to see if there's some blockage to the flow of God's Spirit, especially do we as leaders need this. We need to submit to the heart catheterization that we might see what's blocking the flow of God's life and his Spirit in us because he flows in us to flow through us that he might impact those in our congregations, in our ministries that revival might come. So in Revelation chapters two and three, we see Jesus doing a heart catheterization on seven churches. I have no idea how many of these churches we're going to get through, but we're going to start with the first one, which is in Revelation chapter two.

So if you open your Bibles to Revelation chapter two, and I won't take the time to read it to you, but it's been referred to several times. And it was the Ephesian church that had lost their first love. But I want us to go through this and pick it apart a little bit and just see what the blockage was. And each one of these churches had a blockage.

Some of them, two of them, it wasn't readily seen, but I can see a tendency to a blockage in their lives. And as we look at the blockage in their lives, it just helps because then we use their examination to examine our own hearts before God. So this is just between you and the Lord, okay?

But I'm going to see if I can be the one who sort of conducts the catheterization. And in Revelation chapter two, it's the church at Ephesus. And the church at Ephesus was interesting because they had been under excellent leadership. The apostle Paul had founded it. John had been a pastor there.

Timothy was a superintendent. And when this letter was written, it was written to the second generation of believers. So these people in this church had been born and raised in the church pretty much. And so I relate to the church at Ephesus because I was born and raised in a Christian home.

I can never remember not knowing about Jesus. And I've been under some excellent leadership. And I've been exposed to a lot, not just through my home life, but people I've come into contact with, books I've read and such. And so when I identify with the church at Ephesus, what Jesus saw in them, I feel he's seen in me. And I'm going to share with you some of that. But I just want to stop and ask you, can you identify with the church at Ephesus?

Have you been under excellent leadership? But it may not be in a live sense, that you've not been mentored or discipled by somebody, but through their books or their CDs or in some other way, you've been exposed to some terrific teaching. And I wonder if you also came from a Christian home, if you were raised in the church. And in which case, it may be that what Jesus saw in them and what he saw in me, he sees in you.

But it may be also, maybe you weren't raised in a Christian church, maybe you haven't been under excellent leadership, and he still can see the same thing. So look into your heart as we go into this passage. And he begins, all of these letters begin the same way.

And he always begins by putting their focus on him first. Look at me, is basically what he's saying, is he begins every single one of these letters. So look at me, this is Jesus speaking, to the angel of the church in Ephesus.

So that's to the messenger, to the pastor, to the leader of the church in Ephesus, right. These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. So when he's saying, look at me, we know the stars are the leaders of the church, the lampstands are the church itself, from chapter one, and he's saying, look at me, I'm present in your midst, and I hold you in my right hand.

I hold in my right hand the things I want to use, my pencil, my fork, my comb. And he's saying, I hold you, I want to use you, and I'm walking in your midst. And I believe, we could say that today, and he is here in our midst because I believe with all my heart he wants to use you and he wants to use me in this strategic time of human history. So he says, look at me, let me ask you, where's your focus?

So easy when we come to something like this, isn't it? And what's supposed to be sweet fellowship becomes intimidation. Because we have lunch with somebody or we sit next to somebody and we hear about their ministry and all of a sudden ours isn't as thriving. Or maybe we compare ourselves with the next person and we think ours is better than that one poor guy, you know, he's really struggling and thank God I've got a better church than that. And so in the comparison sometimes we get out of focus.

Or maybe you're just thinking about the one who didn't show up and the one that you really wished had been here. And Jesus is saying, keep your focus on me, look at me. And that's the way the catheterization begins, keeping our focus on Jesus and then he says, learn from me because I know the things that you're doing right. And this church at Ephesus was doing plenty right. He says in verse 3, I know your deeds, your hard work, your perseverance, you can't tolerate wicked men, you've persevered, you've endured hardship, you've not grown weary.

Down in verse 6, you hate what I hate. So they were doing many things right and so I believe what we can hear is just heaven's applause. Thank you. Thank you for all of your busyness. Thank you for all of your hard work in a time of apathy and complacency where people are just too busy to invest in the kingdom of God. Look at you, leaders who made the time not only to lead your churches but to draw aside and refocus on Jesus and be awakened in your own heart and life and revived and he would say thank you. And I love the fact that he says I know your deeds.

Because so many times we do things nobody knows about right. We might have to turn on the lights and get the sound system together and call the pianist and arrange the music and put the hymn books out and you know I mean they just arrange the bulletin and there's so many things that a pastor or a leader of a small church is responsible for. If you have a ministry you know you have the same thing so and sometimes our name doesn't show up in a program or we're not the one that's here on the platform and it doesn't matter.

Jesus said I know and if he knows who cares who else knows or doesn't know right. And so he says I know and he wants to thank you and I believe if nothing else he would send me out here to say thank you. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your perseverance. Thank you that you're doing more today than you were last year. Thank you that you have standards of excellence and you don't tolerate the wicked people and you hate what I hate. So it's okay. And he says thank you. So would you just receive heaven's applause. There's no catch to this okay.

He just says thank you. I know what you're doing right many things you're busy busy busy but I know something that needs to be corrected. You're so busy you're losing your love for me. In verse four when he says I have something against you you're losing your first love. Remember when you first fell in love with your spouse? It was emotional affectionate but Jesus said what I have against you you've lost the emotion and the passion and the affection in your relationship with me.

He wants the first love. So let me share with you a word of testimony. I've been teaching my Bible class for 12 years when God called me out of it and the last thing I told my 68 leaders was right from this passage and I said you know as you continue in ministry don't let the mechanics overtake the ministry don't let your work overtake your worship. And at the very same time I was telling myself and you be careful when you go out into this itinerant ministry that you don't become so busy God gets crowded out. So I went out and one of the first things I did was a pastors conference in Fiji I didn't even know where that was I had to look it up on the map to see where Fiji was and it's a long way away and came back and then I was invited to Brazil I did a big pastors conference down there when I was there a youth conference heard I was there so I went down farther in the south to do that youth conference I came back I was speaking and and I knew when I went to church I no longer entered into the worship I thought I was just tired and I knew when I prayed it's like my prayers just hit the ceiling and I thought well you know I just can't concentrate and I knew no longer had really a joy but I thought you know it's jet lag and then I was reading this passage and I felt like the Lord spoke to me and I know your deeds I know you went to Fiji and when I was there I took on somebody else's sessions because he wanted to sit on the beach and so they dumped his sessions on me and I took double the amount of sessions and I know you went to Brazil and then you went farther south and you did the youth conference and you come back and you're speaking thank you for all of your hard work and your perseverance thank you but I have something against you you're losing your love for me I just went on to the next verse because I knew that wasn't me you know I go around telling other people how to love Jesus and but you know how he is when he's trying to convict you of something he just brings you back and back and back and finally I got on my knees and the tears were coming and I said Lord tell me what you see in me and he told me I was so busy that I was neglecting him I wasn't spending time with him I was losing my first love that passion that affection and I said God one reason I went into ministry and one reason I started teaching the Bible was I wanted to get back in your word because I wanted the love that I had for you when I was a girl and you restored it to me and you mean I'm losing it again what do I do so he told me three things to do from verse five all right remember he said and he puts my name in it so remember the height from which you've fallen and I think to be in love with Jesus is the pinnacle of the Christian life all right it's not just leading somebody to faith and it's not just coming up with a good message it's not just increasing baptisms in your church congregation it's being in love with Jesus and if you've lost that it's a long way down isn't it have you ever been in love with Jesus no and you're missing what it's all about but if you have been in love with him have you lost it would you remember the heights remember what it was like when you loved him with all your heart mind soul and strength you couldn't spend enough time in prayer you couldn't read his word enough your heart was on fire to run like those disciples at once and tell other people what Jesus had done for you what he said to you your ministry came out of the overflow of your worship when did you lose that it's in the business isn't it at least it was for me remember the heights he said repent is the second thing repentance means to stop it put it out of your life turn away from it but if a first love is emotional affectionate passionate and how do you control those things so i felt like he was saying and you've got to be willing to put out of your life the lovelessness but i didn't know how to do that so i said lord i'm willing to repent i'm willing to stop not loving you i'm willing to stop not having a first love for you but i don't exactly know how to go about it so after telling me to remember the heights and be willing to repent he said and return to the things you did at first so i said all right what first things and so in my mind he took me back to the cross where i first and i was a girl when i made that decision but when i was first aware of what it cost jesus to take away my sin and bring me into that love relationship with him and his father and his spirit what it had cost him to open the door to that love relationship and so i went back to the cross and i confessed my busyness and my lack of a first love is the sin that it is and i told him i was sorry and then he said and there's something else that you were doing at first when you were in love with jesus can you remember if there was something you were doing then that you're not doing now and i knew what it was i knew what it was for me i had been studying god's word coming up with the fresh messages every week for my class and saturated in the word when i went out into the itinerant ministry i took messages i prepared i just was regurgitating them without studying anything fresh and he was saying ann you need to stop that you need to return to that personal bible study and so i did i picked up a legal pad and a pen opened my bible i started to do the three questions that i shared with you in that workshop what does it say what does it mean what does it mean in my life on the book of revelation paragraph by paragraph the first book i wrote was the vision of his glory based on that personal bible study and as a result of remembering the heights and repenting of my sin and returning to the things that i did at first the cross and putting that bible study back in my life within a week's time even before i finished my study of the book of revelation the love was back and the affection and the sense of passion and the worship was real and my prayers were connecting and oh i never want to lose that again but i've come close and i'll tell you busyness is something we have to guard against people ask me what i think is the biggest challenge today in ministry and that's what i would say it is being so busy busy busy busy busy doing so many good things but somehow in the business jesus gets crowded out and even if we make time for him we're so tired we don't give him our first attention we don't give him our best we give him our leftover emotions our leftover energy our leftover time and he tells us like he said through malachi i just hate your leftovers just in case i didn't get the message he gave me a little zinger and he said if you do not repent i will come to you and remove your lampstand lampstand is the stand on which your lamp is i felt like he was telling me that was my ministry that was the platform he had given me so that i could let my light shine broader than if i was just all by myself he had given me a broader ministry and he was saying and if you don't put love for me back first in your life i'm going to dry up your ministry and there was a time in my life when i was scared that god would call me into service and then there was a time in my life when i was scared to death he would not when you love the lord with all your heart mind soul and strength you just want to do something for him and the more he gives you to do the more you can worship him and say i love you lord and and your service and your work is an act of worship like we saw with those four living beings but it's interesting how we love him we want to do something for him so we do it and we do something else and we do and pretty soon we're right back into that cycle aren't we busy busy busy so he says you need to repent and and put love for me back first or i'll remove your lamp stand and i think that may be one thing that's wrong with the christian church today the lamp stand has been removed it doesn't mean he's going to come bulldoze your church you know he just takes the spirit away i've been in so many churches that have a lot of stuff going on but they just feel devoid of the spirit of god so as he shines the light of his truth into your heart is he revealing the blockage that there's busyness that's crowding out your first love then would you be willing to remember the heights and repents of your business and return to the things at first return to the cross maybe it's not just something that you return to that was in your life that has dropped away but maybe it was something that wasn't in your life that you had put out that has crept back in like a sin a habit an attitude a pridefulness and we'll go through some of these letters so it may be something like that has crept in that needs to then go out so for me it was the bible study maybe for you it's prayer maybe for you it's witnessing maybe for you it's some habit of sin or an attitude somebody has done something and you just can't forgive them or the injustice has made you angry and maybe there's a jealousy over somebody else's whatever it is put it out whatever it is it's not worth the trade-off is it so he says listen to me have a principle for you and this isn't in the scripture i'm just reading into it but i think the principle is this that love for jesus must come first he wants your love for him more than all of your service combined what's the greatest commandment to love the lord your god with all your heart mind soul and strength that's the principle the promise is in verse 7 he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the spirit says to him who overcomes this busyness and puts the first love back i'll give the right to eat from the tree of life the paradise of god the paradise of god is his presence the tree of life is eternal life internal life includes that awareness of his presence and i have that personal love relationship jesus said in john 17 so when you put love for him back first you eat of it you're satisfied in your love for him and his love for you and you live in the presence of god aware of his presence in your life and i don't mean we live by feelings you know that i'm not saying that but there's a deep knowing he's in your life he'll never leave you nor forsake you he loves you and you love him do you have ears to hear what the spirit is saying to you i believe it's time to wake up to the cross and come back and repent of our busyness that would keep us from loving jesus first the church at ephysis did not have ears to hear there's no church there today you can walk among the ruins second church i'll just touch on is that samirna and samirna was very precious he identifies himself as one who is the first and the last who died and came to life again in other words he's relating to his audience he understands persecution not just persecution but hostility even to the point of death and this little church in samirna was undergoing enormous persecution the afflictions the poverty somebody had been put to death and he says don't be afraid of what you're about to suffer and then he goes on to say you will suffer persecution for 10 days be faithful and so this church actually he was telling them to look at him he understands persecution they're being persecuted i know what you're doing right they were doing everything right he didn't find anything to correct them for but i see a tendency to do something wrong when he says don't be afraid and i think there's a tendency when we've shared the gospel with somebody and they're throwing it back in our face we've been rejected for the truth that we've shared the next time we have the opportunity we're not quite so quick to share the gospel we hold back and i think in this area of the country where you're surrounded by hostility and people that live totally different lifestyles and they're all into everything and when you share the gospel and you share the love of jesus and they come at you how intolerant how exclusive you know how radical you are whatever they say to you next time you have an opportunity to share the gospel don't be afraid don't be afraid and the principle is that suffering is temporary persecution it only lasts 10 days i don't know exactly what that means i just know that means it's not forever and there's coming a day when that sky will unfold and everything we've said about jesus is going to be validated and they're going to see our jesus and they're going to know we were speaking the truth and so don't be afraid to share the gospel you can be rejected over and over and over and over again and if it keeps on happening you ask god if you need to be more loving or change some technique or something but you know the gospel is offensive isn't it so don't be afraid to share the gospel and if you're rejected it's only temporary now here's ann with this final word i remember once when i was traveling to south africa i had the opportunity to share the gospel with a european couple i was very taken aback when instead of being polite and respectful as they disagreed they were vehement and angry they verbally pummeled me into a sort of wide-eyed stunned silence that night in my hotel room i got on my knees with tears on my face and i asked god what had i done wrong had i shared too many verses not enough verses did i come across as judgmental or self-righteous and to my heart i heard a still small voice that seemed to whisper and i shared the gospel perfectly and they crucified me and i thought bingo the rejection i received from that european couple was not necessarily because i had said or done something wrong i may have been very clear and done it exactly right the problem if that's what we call it is that the gospel is offensive if you tell a religious person that all of his righteousness is as filthy rags if you tell a good moral person that he must be born again if you tell a person of another religion that there is only one way to god and it's through jesus that's offensive so don't be afraid to share the gospel you may feel afraid especially if you get the reaction i got but don't give into your fear share the gospel just do it scared you can hear living in the light with anne gramm lots weekly and for ways to experience the god-filled life as you pursue your personal bible study go to anne gramm lots.org she'll help you get started with free resources you can use and share with others join us here each week for living in the light