Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7; Matthew 22:36-40
Theme: First Love
Sermon: Do You Need A Spiritual Marriage Counselor?
INTRO:
Grace and peace this morning from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I hope you are enjoying your walk with the LORD this morning. I also hope you are relishing your time in God’s Word; studying and meditating on various Bible passages. And I trust you are growing from your quiet time with the LORD as you mature more and more in faith.
Like the Apostle Paul as he prayed for his different churches it is my prayer that “your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and in understanding” (Philippians 1:9)
This past week I believe that I received a wonderful revelation from the Holy Spirit. It is a rather interesting revelation. As I was working on the passages for this Sunday it occurred to me that two of the responsibilities and privileges of all Christians are
1. To be a Match Maker between the LORD and human beings (people)
2. To do the Work of Being a Spiritual Marriage Enrichment Counselor
I. Being a Match Maker
As we look at what John shares with us in Revelation 2:1-7, we see that the messenger of the Church of Ephesus is doing their best to be a Match Maker. That is to say, that they are doing their best to get as many people in Ephesus matched up with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. They want people to experience what it means to be relationship with the LORD; to be Born Again and filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
Now, in our world there is a great deal of talk and discussion on how to we can experience the best love life. In saying that, we understand that the ultimate human love life is to be one experienced between a male and female in the covenant of marriage.
What the pastor (messenger) in Ephesus is trying to do is to help people understand that there is a love experience that is able to supersede the love experience that can happen in a human to human marriage. That love experience being the love relationship that can exist between God and a human being that involves a rescue, redemption and a restoration.
+That love experience begins when a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior and LORD and has their entire being transformed from the inside out through the power and presence of His Holy Spirit.
+That love experience transforms a person from being a sinner eternally bound for the pit of Hell to a person who the Bible calls “a citizen of Heaven” and is bound for everlasting life on the New Heaven and New Earth.
+That love experience continues as God’s Holy Spirit becomes One with a person. The Bible tells us that the Oneness with the LORD supersedes the Oneness that can happen between two human beings.
Now, that may be difficult to understand or even to believe.
But the fact remains that while two people can truly love one another their love can never match the love that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY has for us this morning. We have a limited capacity to love. But the LORD has an unlimited capacity to love.
We human beings do our best to love one another, understand one another and be there for one another. But the fact remains we can never love as deeply as the LORD loves, we can never understand as deeply as the LORD understands and we can never be there for one another as much as the LORD can be there for us.
The greatest love experience we can have this morning is with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. That is why the relationship that Jesus says that He has with us – His Church, is best symbolized as the relationship that exists between a Groom and a Bride. And that is why in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament the covenant of marriage is the symbol used most to describe the relationship between God and His People.
Isaiah 54:5 New International Version (NIV)
5 For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.
Jeremiah 3:12-14 New International Version (NIV)
12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north:
“‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord,
‘I will frown on you no longer,
for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord,
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt—
you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
you have scattered your favors to foreign gods
under every spreading tree,
and have not obeyed me,’”
declares the Lord.
14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.
Revelation 19:7 New International Version (NIV)
7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
Now, if you are like me all of this can be kind of difficult to grasp. And yet, the LORD called His People His Bride time and time again and over 20 times in the New Testament our relationship with Jesus is symbolized by us (the Church) being His Bride. The truth of the matter is that you and I are to share an agape love experience with the LORD that is deeper than any human marriage could ever hope to experience.
So, our responsibility, our privilege and our commission this morning is to be that of a Match Maker for the LORD and people. We are to do our best to help people fall in love with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We are to be more in the Match Making Business than we are in the Saving Business. The best advertisement for marriage in its human form is when two people who are married truly love one another.
When you see a couple that has been together for 20, 30, 40, 50 years or more and you see firsthand their love for one another it is a great advertisement for marriage. When you read a story about such a couple it is encouraging. When you see a movie about such a couple it is inspirational.
By just seeing them, by being around them, you just know that you can have that kind of relationship. That two people can share a deep agape love for one another. There is no greater advertisement for marriage than to see wonderful marriages.
The same is truer when we talk about our Bridegroom – Jesus.
-We are to talk about our love relationship with Jesus.
-We are to talk about His Love, His Care and His Power and Presence in Our Lives through His Holy Spirit.
-We are to talk about how His Holy Spirit brings us Comfort, Peace and Joy.
-We are to talk about what it means to be Born Again and living a life of Holiness.
You see, there is no greater advertisement for a life in Christ than being around a passionate Christian. There is something supernatural about reading about King David and the LORD, Moses and the LORD, Ruth and the LORD, Mary and the LORD and the Apostle Paul and the LORD.
Most of us were privileged to be able to see, hear and watch a part of the love relationship between Billy and Ruth Graham. It was a love relationship that lasted 63 years until Ruth went home to heaven. The more you read about their marriage the more you understand just how wonderful and special a marriage can be.
But their marriage only mirrored their own personal love relationship with the LORD. Both Billy and Ruth deeply loved the LORD, they lived out a love relationship with not only one another but a love relationship with the LORD. As much as they were committed to one another they were more committed to the LORD.
Neither Billy nor Ruth were perfect. Neither one always did or said the right things. But as best as they could they loved one another they loved the LORD.
People like them and others inspire us to not just love our spouses but to love the LORD. And the more we love the LORD and the more we show our love for the LORD the better we will be able to help others come to love the LORD as well.
We are to be match makers. We are to help people fall in love with Jesus. We are to help people not just escape the fires of Hell but be able to live out an abundant life here on earth as Spirit-filled and Spirit-led people.
And the best way for us to do that of course is to be in love with the LORD ourselves. “To love the LORD Our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.” “To present ourselves – our bodies, our minds, our hearts and all that makes us who we are as a living sacrifice that is pleasing to the LORD.”
There is nothing as encouraging as seeing two people in love and there is nothing as encouraging as seeing someone who loves the LORD with everything that they possess.
II. We are to Do the Work of Being Spiritual Marriage Enrichment Counselors
Not only were the pastors and messengers doing their best to match up people with the LORD they were also doing their best to be Spiritual Marriage Enrichment Counselors.
Now, what do I mean?
Well, it appears that there were some relationship problems that were going on in the Church at Ephesus.
Namely, there were some love relationship problems they were experiencing with the LORD and some love relationship problems they were experiencing with one another.
+How much we love the LORD will always be reflected on how much we love one another.
+The more we love the LORD the more we will love other human beings.
+The less we love the LORD the less we will love other human beings.
The Apostle John says this a little differently but the meaning is the same:
1 John 4:7-17 New Living Translation (NLT)
Loving One Another
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.
At one time the Church of Ephesus was more a reflection of the Early Church that we find in Acts 2:42 – 47. That was a Church that was overflowing with Love for the LORD and for One Another. Listen to what Dr. Luke writes about that Church:
Acts 2:42-47 New Living Translation (NLT)
The Believers Form a Community
42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— 47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
But something had happened to the congregation at Ephesus. They no longer united. They were no longer spending great quantities of time with one another. They were no longer pushing things off their agenda list to spend time eating together, worshipping together, praying together and sharing life together.
They were still working hard as a team when the chips where really down. They knew that if they had to do something important they could pull together and get a job done.
Apparently, they were holding up under some difficult times; that is to say they possessed this amazing patience and endurance. The Church at Ephesus had Stamina and Grit.
They knew the difference between right and wrong. No one could accuse them of incorrect theology. But having the right theology without deep love doesn’t cut it with Jesus. We can be as right as rain but without love it is just not enough.
You could say that they were still in the game. They had not given up. They were steadfast.
But they no longer had a deep growing love for One Another or for the LORD.
+What had happened is that they had taken their love and made it into a LAKE rather than allowing it to continue as a RIVER.
They had put parameters around their love for the LORD and for one another. Just like a normal lake has boundaries and is built to have a definitive volume of water so too had they done that with their love. They would love the LORD but only just so much. They would love one another but just so much.
The Early Church had broken all the barriers – gender, race, economic and social to the point where everyone was sharing their homes, their lives, their incomes and their properties.
Rather than do that, the Ephesian Church had opted to pull back. They had created an inner circle; a membership and even within that membership an inner core. Similar to a Lake, the closer to the middle the love was deeper but out near the boundary lines the love was quite a bit shallower.
They had created a lake of love. No longer could that love run like a river spilling out over its banks. No longer could it reach out and grab new territory. It had to stay contained. It had to be protected. In doing so, their love for God and others became insulated and isolated.
+It was a Church that had decided that it would live on what it already possessed.
The Ephesian Church didn’t need anything or anyone. There was no new hunger for more of the LORD or more of one another. There was no new hunger for more worship, prayer, community or evangelism. It had decided that instead of hungering for more it would just live in its traditions. It would sustain itself on what it once was instead of what it could be.
+It was a Church that no longer pursued spiritual gifts or the exercise of spiritual gifts.
One of the greatest collections of Paul’s writings can be found in 1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13 and 14.
In chapter 12, Paul takes great pains to explain to us all about the Spiritual Gifts. In chapter 13, Paul takes great pains to explain to us about the true meaning of love. And then in the beginning of chapter 14, Paul reminds us that we are to be constantly pursuing God’s Spiritual Gifts and then exercising those gifts in love towards God and one another.
The Ephesian Church had decided that it no longer needed to be passionate in its pursuit of God, of God’s gifts, anointing and blessings. It no longer had to put in the hard work of relationships. It was enough to just do Church. It was enough to merely gather together, sing a few songs, listen to someone speak and go away only to come back again a few days later and do the same thing over and over again.
+The Ephesian Church had quit digging and redigging spiritual wells.
If you remember one of the ministries that the Patriarch Isaac does for the People of God was to go around and reopen the wells that his father Abraham had dug. Some of those wells had become filled with debris and dirt making them useless. Others had been purposely damaged by Abraham’s enemies and had become useless as well.
Isaac knew that without water there couldn’t be life. And without life there would not be another generation. There will be no Jacob and his 12 sons or Esau with his 5 sons. Without water everything would die.
And so, the Bible tells us that Isaac went around doing all that he could. He and his men put in the hard work of repairing Abraham’s wells and digging his own new wells. It took him quite a while but he brought back water in abundance. Now, not only could his generation have water but there would be water for his children, grandchildren and great-grand children.
In like manner one of the problems with the Ephesian Church was with their spiritual water wells were drying up. Their worship services, their spiritual maturity and their fellowship were drying up. Their wells of prayer and fasting, their wells of revelation and insight were drying up. Their wells of anointing and blessings were drying up.
They were in need of some people to go and do the hard work. They needed people who were willing to do the hard work of redigging some spiritual wells getting rid of the clutter of selfishness, greed, envy and rebellion that had crept into them. And they were in need of other people digging new spiritual wells. They were in need of people who were willing to do all that it took to make sure that there was always a well of living water – refreshing water – forgiving water – Jesus water in the Church for their generation and the generations to come.
+Finally, they had decided to just be happy to bring Earth to Earth instead of bringing Heaven to Earth.
In the LORD’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to pray and commit our lives to these words:
“May your Kingdom come soon, May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Those words of Jesus were to be more than simple words to recite everyday or on different occasions. They were words He wanted put into action. They were words that were to give both the Ephesian Church and everyone His mission.
It is our responsibility each and every day to do our best to bring Heaven to Earth. By our actions and by our lifestyle, we are to do all we can to have Heaven touch Earth. We are to be like the ladder in Jacob’s dream back in Genesis 28. We are to do to all we can to make sure that Heaven; that God’s Holy Spirit can invade earth; can invade the places we live, we eat, we play, we work and enjoy.
+We do that every time we pray in faith.
+We do that every time we passionately worship.
+We do that every time we gather together in agape love.
+We do that every time we obey the LORD.
+We do that every time we help someone grow in grace.
+We do that every time we strive to bring God’s miracles, God’s anointing and God’s will to earth.
+We do that every time we intercede for someone.
+We do that every time we do our best to make our place look like, feel like and smell like Heaven.
So, knowing all of that you can see that the Church in Ephesus was in desperate need of some Spiritual Marital Enrichment Counseling. It was in need of someone to remind them that:
+Their love was to be like a river – doing it is best to spill out and take new ground instead of being like a Lake – Insulated and Isolated.
+Their love for God was to be #1 on their agenda.
+Their love was to be passionate for One Another. And as citizens of Heaven and like the Early Church they were to be eager to worship together, pray with one another and experience supernatural miracles and anointing with one another.
+Their love was to be immersed with fresh living water; water that was refreshing to the soul and that brought comfort and peace.
+Their love was to be the way Heaven invaded earth. Their love was to be the way that God would be able to break through and touch lives in amazing ways.
Just as Billy and Ruth Graham told over and over again how they had to rekindle their fires of love for one another to have a great marriage a church has to rekindle its fires of love for one another for it to have a great fellowship.
The Ephesian Church was in desperate need of some help.
It had been matched well – it had people who started off loving God and one another. It was still a place of truth, endurance and patience.
But it was weak in its love for God. It was weak in its love for one another. It was weak in its worship. It was weak in its fellowship. It was weak in its prayer for one another. It was weak in its people skills. It was weak in its evangelism or even its desire for evangelism.
It had become a Lake Church instead of a River Church.
It had become a church that was living on its past, what it already possessed instead of reaching out for new vision, new revelation and new insight.
It had become a church that merely had church.
And all of that would be okay if it was okay with God, but it wasn’t and it never will be. For without renewing our First Love for God and for one another the time could come that the final light could go out. That is what happened to the Church of Ephesus.
Slowly the Church of Ephesus allowed its love to go colder and colder until it finally closed. Today, the city of Ephesus is 99% Muslim and there are no vibrant Christian Churches operating anywhere around.
That was not supposed to happen. Ephesus had such great Christian leaders. People like the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John, Timothy and Polycarp were some of its pastors and leaders.
It is a fact that the most important thing for any church can possess is to have a vibrant and passionate love for the LORD and for one another. That is so more important than having great leadership.
Today, all around us are people that are in need of
+Being matched up with Jesus.
Their lives are a mess. They don’t know what to do or where to go. They don’t know who they are or even what they are. They are looking for something that the world cannot give. They are looking for something deeper than this life. They are looking for a reason to exist. They are looking for answers.
It is our privilege to serve as Match Makers. We are called to help them Match Up with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
We are to help them understand what it means to be in love with Jesus. What a change it has made in our lives. What it means to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. What a joy it is each day to be with God and with others. What it means to be living the Amazing Life; the life of bearing the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit.
+We are to provide Spiritual Marital Enrichment Counseling
We are to help those who Church has become just Church.
We are to help those who have lost their passion for worship, for prayer, for fellowship and for evangelism.
We are to help them go from the lake back to the river.
We are to help them redig some spiritual wells in their own lives.
We are to help them experience what it means to bring Heaven to Earth; to have Heaven invade Earth through prayer, signs and wonders, anointing and miracles.
We are to help them experience what it means to exercise God’s spiritual gifts.
We are to help them feel alive again – feel the flame and the fire – feel the wind of the Holy Spirit at their back and feel what it means to live an Abundant life in Christ.
This morning, that is our mission – are we up to it? Are we up to the challenge?
Or at times do we find ourselves being a member of the Church of Ephesus?
+Feeling a little love lost – both for God and for others?
+Feeling very little passion for worship, for prayer, for reading God’s Word?
+Feeling like the spiritual water wells around us are more filled with junk than being deep wells of spiritual refreshment?
+Feeling like we look more like a spiritual lake than a spiritual river?
The Good News is that doesn’t have to be either our status or other people’s status. All we have to do is recognize we need help and go to the source of all help – to the LORD.
All we have to do is ask God to relight the flame. All we have to do is commit to allowing God to refresh us and commit to spending more time with Him and with others so that our fellowship and love can continue to grow more and more. If we do that then we can make sure that we and those that we know will never suffer the fate of the Ephesian Church.
Let us pray this morning:
