Jan. 19, 2025

Background:

• Love is more important than gifts
• The supreme character of a Christian is love
• We should love God with all our heart (Matthew 22:37-38)
• We should make love our highest priority
• Love is everything
• God is love
• We cannot love without God
• Faith is action not just words...we must demonstrate our love for others

Key Sermon Points:

1. The destination of the letter

• This letter is written to the church of Ephesus
• Ephesus was the most prominent city
• It had the largest temple in the world
• It was a hot bed of false religion and cults
• It was in this environment that Paul established a church
• The church is not to withdraw from the world but to be a light in the midst of the sins
• Giants in the faith joined the leadership and became the main teachers at the church of Ephesus
• The angels are the pastors of the churches
• The letter is not to the lay people, but to the pastors leading the church

2. Jesus' praise for the church of Ephesus

• Jesus knows their works
• Jesus sees our hearts and knows our motives
• Jesus knows everything that is known about us (the good and the bad)
• Jesus saw that the church was busy, dynamic, active, doing good works for the Lord, and weary
• They didn't complain because they had a love affair with Jesus
• They were dedicated and would give up things
• They died to self and lived for Jesus
• They were patient in serving and in suffering
• They were steadfast and endured, refusing to give up
• They didn't the enemies get them down or dictate how they should act or treat others
• They were disciplined and still in the Word of God
• They did not tolerate evil
• They condemned those who professed the name of Christ but conducted themselves as unbelievers
• They were a discerning church

3. The rebuke of Jesus

• Jesus' penetrating glaze spots a fatal flaw: that they left their first love
• Their first love was the One that saved us, that protect us, that continues to keep us from the enemies, that provides for us, that heals us when we are sick
• Though they maintained the doctrine and continued in service, they drifted away from the love that they first had
• Zeal without love doesn't make it, but love with zeal does
• We must teach our children to love the One that loves us
• Their love cooled from the generation before
• Love includes:
  • The love for God
  • The love for each other
• If we don't have love for God, then we can't have love for each other

4. The Lord's command

• One of the biggest sins is forgetting God and what he has done for us
• Remember what God has done for us
• Anytime that we leave God, we will go down hill
• Remember what God is telling us to do
• God will take everything in order to get our attention before he takes our life
• Remember and repent (a deliberate rejection of their sin)
• Demonstrate genuine repentance and do the things that they first did
• We ought to be examples
• Men must lead their family

5. The Lord's counsel

• This call is to all of us (not just to one church)
• We must heed the call
• Christ promised the overcomers that they will eat from the tree of life