When the relationship becomes secondary to the program, you're living in sin. Dr. Tony Evans says Christian activity alone can't guard against letting the world crowd out Christ.
There's pressure not to put him first, so you got to overcome that pressure. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Dr. Evans says what we do with Christ is even more important than what we do for Him. Today he talks about the importance of keeping that love at the top of our priority list.
Let's listen in. God wants you to win, which means there's something that you need to overcome, something that is seeking to defeat, oppress, to make you a victim and not allow you to be a victor. The number seven in the scripture means to come to completion. So when we unpack each one of these seven messages to the seven churches, you will have enough to overcome.
You can overcome in a number of different ways, but the principle should be operating in your heart and in your life. The first church we come to is the church at Ephesus. To appreciate and understand Ephesus, all you have to do is understand New York.
Ephesus was the New York of Asia Minor, now known as Turkey. But here in the book of Revelation, he is not writing because all is well. He is writing because of a situation that needed to be addressed for people who wanted to be overcomers, as I hope that we do. He makes it clear in the first verse that this was written for the angel of that house, that is God's messenger.
The word angel from the Greek word angelos means messenger. That the messenger, the pastor if you will, was to proclaim this message to the congregation at Ephesus Bible Fellowship. And if you and I will hear what he has to say, he that hath an ear let him hear, verse 7 says, then you are on your way to being an overcomer, an overruler of that which is ruling over you. He starts off with a compliment, a commendation if you will. He wants to congratulate the church first. He says, I know your deeds. I know what you do. I know that you are a serving church. I know about your programs, your ministries, your outreaches, your small groups. I know about your Bible classes.
I know about the support systems you have to help people get victory. I am well aware of all of the programs that you do. I see what your deeds are. I know what you do.
You are a model congregation, and I know it, but, but, the commendation now turns to a criticism or a condemnation. But I have this against you. You have left your first love.
So evidently you can be doing right stuff and be in a wrong relationship. Suppose the husband would say to his wife, now look, I want you to know you're not going to be first. I'm gonna fit you in where I can, but nothing's gonna change. I'm still gonna go to work.
I'm still gonna bring my money home. I'm still gonna do what I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna fulfill my job, but you're not going to be my priority. I'll get around to you when I can. When I got a little extra time, I'll give you some of it.
When I got a little extra resources, I'll give you some of it. When I got a little extra attention, I'll give you some of it, but I'm gonna do my duty. See, this church and these believers were doing their duty. He gave them five compliments, but God was no longer first. In other words, the duty had trumped the devotion.
The regulations was ruining the relationship. So what do we do about this, and why will it matter? Verse 5 tells you what to do, three things. He says, remember from where you have fallen.
The three R's. The first one, he says, I want you to remember. Remember. Remember how it was, old Cliff, when you didn't have all these buildings and all these programs and all these members, and remember back there when you were just in a house, and you had to depend on me for everything. I mean, you didn't have two nickels to rub together.
You couldn't afford the paper to print something on. All you had was me, so I mattered most. You remember. You go back to that time when you didn't have to manage all this and have all this, and all you had was me. You remember that.
Remember when you were as a couple in that apartment when you couldn't afford a house, and all you had was each other, but that was enough. He says, remember from where you have fallen. Remember where you came from, because you ain't always been up here. You haven't always been doing this. You weren't always blessed like you are now. He says, remember.
Remember when I'm the one that mattered most. Second R, he says, repent. Okay, there's only one thing you repent of in the Bible, and that's sin. It's the only thing you ever called to repent of, and that's sin.
So guess what? Leaving your first love is sin. It's not just a bad habit.
It's not just a mistake. When the relationship becomes secondary to the program, you're living in sin. I'm living in sin. We collectively are living in sin when the relationship is secondary to the program.
He's not just calling it, oh, I gotta get my priorities together. No, you got to get your sin fixed, because he says, repent. You only repent of sin. So he doesn't review this just as a scheduling issue.
He views it as a sin issue. He says, and then you must repeat. Do your first works over again, verse 5 says. Do what you did when all you had was me. Because when all you had was me, you had time for prayer. When all you had for me was me, you had time for spending time in my Word.
When all you had was me, you found out that I was kind of all you needed, because I kept coming through for you, and you found out how real I could be. But now, you're a little spiritually saditty. You can do it without me. You can do it on your own. You can be your independent self while carrying on the program.
Repent and go back and do your first works over again. You remember when you were first married, if you're married, how hot the relationship was. You on the phone, don't want to hang up, nobody talking, but nobody wants to go. Just on the phone, just hang out on the phone.
Can't wait to connect the next day or whatever. I mean, you know, you're talking about, you know, you didn't have to be begged to talk about that person. You whipping out pictures when folk don't want to see it. Why? Because the connection was hot. You couldn't afford McDonald's, but it didn't matter, because the relationship trumped the location. First love is where there is a fire for him, and everything else surrounds that.
He's not just fitted in when we have an extra moment or two. John 14 21 is a powerful verse. He says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, and to the one who loves me, watch this, I will disclose myself to him.
Whoa. I will talk to him. I will show him or her. I will reveal myself. The reason why we're not hearing from God, the reason why we're not getting guidance from God, the reason why we're not experiencing victory from God, is cuz he doesn't feel free to disclose himself to somebody who gonna treat him second.
He drives it home now. He says, now I do have to compliment you, because verse 6, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Now they're gonna come up again, and so I'm not gonna spend time on them now. The Nicolaitans were professing Christians who were abusing grace. They thought grace was an excuse to sin. Because I have grace, I can just go do anything. He says, I know you hate that, so I want to commend you.
I want to commend you, but this first love thing, watch this, he that hath an ear, let him hear. Pay attention now. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
So I'm talking to the churches, but are you listening as an individual? He that hath an ear. She that hath an ear. So forget your neighbor right now.
The question is, what are your ears picking up? Dr. Evans will explain how to make what's coming into our ears come out in our actions when he returns in just a moment. Stay with us. We pray you're encouraged every time you connect with The Urban Alternative, whether it's online or on the air. And right now we're asking for your very best year-end gift to help keep that encouragement coming your way. Your financial support will help cover the rising cost of broadcasting production to ensure nothing needs to be cut back, and that more people like you can continue to be encouraged by God's Word in the year ahead. Please visit tonyevans.org to give today. When you support the Alternative Broadcast Ministry with a year-end gift, we'll say thanks by sending you the Top 24 of 2024, an exclusive collection of our listeners' most requested messages focusing on living faithfully in a faithless culture, biblical ways to beat depression and discouragement, how to approach life from God's perspective, and much more. And as an added bonus, we're also including a captivating new Christmas album from Anthony Evans called The Greatest Gift, featuring fresh takes on beloved holiday classics and original songs he's crafted to help bring the Christmas spirit into your home. So get in touch with us today, make your generous year-end contribution, and let us send you the Top 24 of 2024, along with The Greatest Gift. Make the arrangements at tonyevans.org or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222. For a limited time, you'll also have an exclusive opportunity to add the Tony Evans Study Bible to this special year-end offer.
Look for the details online or ask one of our friendly team members how to add it to the package. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Well right now, let's get back to more of today's message. He wants to know, are you paying attention to what is being said here about the primacy and prioritization of God in your life? And if you have an ear that is willing to hear and to reprioritize relationship over religion, devotion over duty, he says, if you have an ear, this is what happens to him who overcomes. To the one who overcomes.
Overcomes what? Overcomes the pressure to not put me first. Because there's pressure sometimes to put God first. You got to go against your inclinations. You got to go against other people. You have to go against your schedule. You have to go against your— there's pressure not to put him first. So you got to overcome that pressure.
You got to overcome that schedule. That may mean getting up a few minutes earlier and not just praying at bedtime when you know you're gonna fall asleep after one minute. We're putting God last while still expecting him to show us something. You got people all over the place waiting for that blessing while they make God last. Pick him up as needed.
Make him Santa Claus. He's not first in the time, first in the talent, first in the treasure, first in the allocation of focus, and he does not request to be first. He demands to be first because he says, if I am not going to be first, verse 5 says, I will remove your lampstand out of its place. I will shut that mama down. You'll go to church, but I won't be there. No love, no light.
You'll run your life, but I won't be hanging with you. Who else died for you? Who else paid for your sins? Who else has given you eternal destiny? Who else do you call on when life shuts down on you? Well, if you think that they're your Savior, go to them.
Go to them. But if you really want me to be all that and a bag of chips, I need to be first. And to him who overcomes, the pressure not to put me first, to that one, to he, because he says he who overcomes.
I'm going to reward him, her. He who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. He's speaking about a future reward that will come, but that future reward receives a down payment in this life.
It's not all experienced here now, because we live in a sinful world. Whenever I go to speak for a pregnancy center—I speak for a number of pregnancy centers around the country who are promoting life—they always ask me, would I come an hour earlier? So if it begins at 7, they want me there at 6.
All of them ask this. And the reason they asked me to come at 6 is because they have a special donor reception. This is a reception from major donors to the pregnancy center to thank them for their support of their center.
These are people who have gone above and beyond to make sure the center operates with strength. So they asked me, because I'm the guest speaker, to come and to meet the special guest at the reception. The reception is held in a separate room from the general banquet. The banquet may have a thousand people, but there may be just a hundred people who are the specially invited guests to the reception.
They have their own special food. We stand up and we take pictures with the various guests. They give special gifts and special recognition because they are special people, although they are among the bigger crowd. God says, I have a private reception in a private hospitality room called the Paradise of God, with a special tree called the Tree of Life. But only the invited guests get in there. Now yeah, you're gonna go to heaven if you've accepted Jesus Christ, but you don't get to the reception where you get this private audience and this private participation and this private interaction when you've lived your life making me second, third, fourth, and fifth, and I've given you eternity. No, the reception are for those who buck the pressure to make me anything less than the risen Lord that I am, who buck the temptation to yield to the walls exclusion of me in order to be safe, secure, and popular. He says for that believer, oh no, they get a private audience. They get special consideration. So the question is, do you want special consideration?
Ultimately they are, but he will disclose himself beginning now. John 14 21 says to you and me. When I first went to seminary, I remember how excited I was. I mean, I jumped out of bed cuz I'm just blown away by learning the Bible like this and all the stuff it had, and I'm just loving the Lord more, but as the years went on and the work piled up, I got to learn Hebrew, Greek, German, French, all Bible, but now I got to read all this stuff. I got to learn all this stuff. I'm up all night trying to study this stuff, and so I want to do good.
I want to make A's. I want to graduate with honors, so I'm working like crazy, doing papers like crazy, getting a headache, getting bad health, all that cuz I want to make A's and I'm gonna get all this stuff, and after a while it was no longer loving the Lord through his word. It was making A's by passing tests to finish the program, feeling good, and smelling myself. The problem was I was getting deeper in the Word and further from the Lord. I was getting deeper in the Word but loving the Lord less. It wasn't that I wasn't going to class. I never missed a class. It wasn't that I wasn't learning.
It wasn't that I wasn't making A's. It was that I had left the purpose of the Word, and the purpose of the Word is not to become a Bible scholar. The purpose of the Word is to get to know the author who wrote the Word by looking and seeing him through the Word. That's the purpose of the Bible. Not so you can quote verses, but so you can know the master who wrote the verses. So don't even let your knowledge of Bible teaching cause you to lose your first love.
Dr. Evans will return with a final story for us in just a moment, but if you've never experienced that first love he described today, there's no better step you can take than to learn what it's all about. You can do that right now. Just visit tonyevans.org and click the link that says Jesus. Tony has shared a video there explaining what it means to become a real Christian, and you'll find some free resources to help you take the next steps to follow up on your decision. Take a moment to stop by today. Now before we hear that closing story from Dr. Evans, don't forget you can get a copy of Anthony Evans' Christmas album, The Greatest Gift, as well as this year's special audio compilation, The Top 24 of 2024.
This exclusive bundle is available for a limited time as our gift when you make a year-end contribution to help us keep the alternative broadcast coming to this station. Get more details and make the arrangements today at tonyevans.org, and look for details on how to add the Tony Evans Study Bible to your package when you give. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are standing by to help with your request day and night.
Again, 1-800-800-3222. When we're stuck in difficult circumstances, we often call on God to deliver us. But even when the storms of life are getting worse, we may be right where God wants us. Next time, Dr. Evans will help us identify and embrace those divine opportunities.
But right now, he's back with this final illustration for today. One year, we went on a family vacation to Niagara Falls. They had lights on the falls, and even though I was a long way away in the hotel room, I was just awed by the sight, even from a long distance.
I just went, whoa. The next morning, we got up and had breakfast, and we went to the Canadian side of the falls. And on the Canadian side of the falls, there's a park. So we stood in the park. Oh, this was different than the hotel room. Hotel room, I couldn't hear a thing.
I could just see it. But now I'm staying on the Canadian side, and that water is going over the precipice and going into the basin of the falls, and I could hear the thunder of the roar as the water splashed down in the falls. And as the wind blew up the water, it actually crossed the street, and I got dots of water on my face from the fall. You see, when I was in the hotel room, I could just see it and be impressed by it. But once I got a little closer to the park, I got affected by it, because I could hear the sound, and I got little drops of water on me.
So I felt a little something something, because I had relocated myself. Oh, but there's another way you can see the falls. It's called the Maid of the Mist. These are little boats down in the basin of the fall.
If you decide to get on the Maid of the Mist, they're gonna give you a raincoat, and they're gonna give you an umbrella, because you about to be drenched by the falls, because you are so close. See, some Christians are satisfied to see Jesus from their hotel room. They look out. They never hear from Him. They never get to see Him up close. They just impressed from a distance, and every now and then they look His way. But then there are a few Christians who will come to the park, and they like the sound, and they will be a little closer, and every now and then they'll feel a little something something. But then there are those few Christians who are not satisfied to look at Him from the hotel room. They're not satisfied to look at Him from the park. They want a raincoat on. They want an umbrella over them, because they want to be drenched by His glory. May God raise up saints who leave the hotel room not satisfied with the park, but want to be drenched with His glory and overwhelmed by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!
