REVELATION 2:1-7 ENJOY JESUS2014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Revelation 2:1-7 Enjoy Jesus

As we look at Revelation chapter 2 this morning, I see this as the Lord desiring to bring some balance to the past few weeks.

We have spent the previous six weeks really digging deep into being a servant as we looked at the course Equipped to Serve. And we talked about the importance of serving, the value of serving, and a strong focus on serving the Lord and being involved in a local gathering of believers and the importance that there is in that.

And as we concluded that last week, we talked about faithfulness and the need to serve faithful all the way till the end. And all of those things are important. They are crucial. And I would not take back anything that I said, you know, over those past six weeks. However, I do believe God wants to add on some balance to the whole perspective on serving the Lord.

Because although serving is essential and good, serving the Lord is not all there is. It's not all about the works or the doing of things. There's much more to the Christian life than that. And God wants to remind us this morning of our need to love him.

In verse 4 here in Ephesians, I'm sorry, in Revelation chapter 2, the letter to the church of Ephesus, Jesus says to the church, And so he gives them some commendation. You're doing well in some things.

But there's this area that has been neglected, and it's the area of love, or specifically, loving Jesus. Now, as we talk about love, we could look at many different aspects. Love is not one thing. It's many different things. But there's one particular aspect to love that I really believe God wants us to remember this morning and be focused on for us to draw near to Him in a specific way or a specific focus.

And that is the aspect of enjoyment in love. And this morning, I'd like to encourage you to enjoy Jesus.

As he called out to the church and said, you've left your first love, I would suggest to you that Jesus is saying, you know, there used to be some enjoyment in your relationship with me. And that's an aspect that's missing. That's an aspect that needs to be, well, focused on and not neglected.

You know, when you think about something that you love, of course, we use love across a broad variety of things. You know, foods that you really like, you say that you love them. You know, you might say, well, I love fishing. And what always amazes me about a person who loves fishing is how easy it is for them to wake up early, right? Someone who loves fishing, 4 a.m.,

Oh yeah, that's sleeping in, you know, because it's time to go fishing. It's not easy, but you know, 4 a.m. for work or 4 a.m. for church or for something else, like that's really hard to wake up at 4 a.m. then, but

But for fishing, oh, because I love it. I'm speaking for somebody else. I don't like fishing. But some people feel that way. They have this love. And for them, it's a joy. Now, I get up at 4 a.m. to go with somebody who's going fishing. It's not a joy. It's not easy. It's not something I'm just like, you know, happy about. It's something I do if I have to do it. But I don't volunteer for it.

But it's also possible to love something and not really enjoy it. Maybe think about golf. Now, this is another thing I don't do, but some people love golf. And so they go spend time on the course because it's easy and they enjoy it.

But then there's also those who spend time on the course and they're not really having any fun, you know. Maybe it started out that way, they were enjoying it, but now they're preparing for a competition or they're frustrated because, you know, it's taking too many shots or whatever. I mean, my family knows I don't play golf, but when I play miniature golf, like I gave up a long time ago trying to like hit it in the hole, right?

I do what I call abstract golf. I figure it's just as likely for me to make it in the hole if I shoot for that wall over there. And it's pretty accurate. I do about the same as everybody else. And it's a lot less frustrating than trying to hit it in the hole and missing. And so I have a lot more joy if I do abstract golf. You could do something because you love it. But when you love to do something, you do it simply because you enjoy it.

It's not a grudging thing. It's not because you have to. You could also think about when you love a person, perhaps your spouse. And so you love a person, and so you spend time with them because you enjoy it, at least at first, right? And then you get married. And then you spend time with them because you're married. And it's not always that enjoyable. Sometimes you have to work out bills together.

And it's not that you're spending time together because you just enjoy it, but because, well, this is part of life. You have to handle business and take care of things. Sometimes you have to fix, you know, things that break in the house or you have to deal with problems. You have to address things. And so there's not always, you know, that enjoyment in the relationship. Even though you love one another, sometimes you miss out on that joy, right?

And same thing we talk about with Jesus, we could also apply to marriages. I would encourage you, those who are married, that if all your time together is just business, then also make some time to just have some enjoyment together, to just enjoy each other's presence. When we talk about loving Jesus, again, focusing on this idea of enjoyment, I want to encourage you this morning to do things with Jesus that

simply for the joy of it, just because you enjoy being with him and spending time with him. Yes, there are things that we must do as followers of Jesus. There is duty that you have. You are responsible. You are commanded to do certain things. You need to do certain things. But what do you do for fun with Jesus?

What do you do in regard to your relationship with Jesus just because you enjoy him? And that's what I want to kind of dig into here in Revelation chapter 2. Five points that I'll walk you through in this letter that Jesus writes to the church of Ephesus. And we'll take these things and say, Jesus is speaking to us. And I think a lot of these things apply to us as a church. And so there's some, well, there's some things that God wants to draw us forward in and call us to.

The first point, as we look at verse two and three, is to enjoy Jesus and serve faithfully. And kind of the point, as we look at this, is we need both. It's not one or the other, but both are necessary in our lives. Check out verse two and three. He says,

And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. And you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary. Here is Jesus writes to this church. You can see here his words dealing with serving. He says, I know your works, specifically your labor.

The word labor is talking about physical activity. It's exerting energy and specifically the weariness that comes because you're exerting energy. And so he says, you guys are doing things. You're working and you're tired from working. And I know that, Jesus says, I can see that you are giving yourself in this way and you're weary from serving.

And essentially what Jesus is saying here is, good job. Two thumbs up. Well done. You've wearied yourself working hard for the kingdom of God. And you've kept on working even when you have become weary. That's called faithfulness. That's what we talked about last week. God requires faithfulness. He says there at the end of verse 3, you've labored for my namesake and have not become weary. Now,

It means to be weary from working. And so he says you've worked to weariness and yet you've not become weary, which he's saying you haven't quit. You haven't given up. You haven't stopped working just because you're tired, but you've been persistent. You've been faithful in working even when you're tired from working so hard on the things of the kingdom of God. You've been serving a lot, doing much,

And you've been faithful in it. And Jesus here is saying, good job. He's saying, you are called to serve God like that. This is a good thing. At the same time, we're looking at this passage and we're seeing that working hard for the kingdom of God is not the only thing. Because then in verse four, Jesus is going to say, I have one thing against you.

There's something that needs to change. You're doing really well. You're serving faithfully. Good job. But in addition to that, he's not saying you should stop that. You should reduce that. He's saying in addition to that, there's something else that needs to happen. He says, you've left your first love. You're working really hard, but you're also missing out on something. And Jesus here is saying, you need to do something about that. It's not acceptable to...

have lots that you're doing to have this faithful service, but miss out on this first love, on this love of Jesus. That's not okay. You can't just let that go. He calls them to repent. Now you and I, I think many times we would look on a church like that, or we would look on our own lives and we would expect, you know, the Lord to commend us. We wouldn't expect for the command to repent.

Because a lot of times we look at the things that we're doing and we value that highly. But the problem with that is, well, it becomes really all about religion if we're not careful. You could kind of think about the Pharisees in Jesus's day, those religious leaders that he went toe to toe with so much because they were religious in that they did the best they could to

to serve God in the way that they thought that God needed to be served. And so they were meticulous about keeping the law and following all the rituals. And they were very careful to do much more than what God's word actually said, but they followed all their traditions that they had built on top of it.

And so I think even the things that Jesus is saying to the church of Ephesus could be said of the Pharisees. They were serving God. They were laboring hard. They were exhausting themselves. Sure, there were some other cases I'm not going to get into, but just speaking generally, they were very religious. But the problem was that they had lost their connection with God. And their relationship with God consisted only of these religious duties that they followed, these things that they did.

And they had no real relationship with God. And that's where the church of Ephesus is at. They've been disconnected. They're very faithful, hard at work, but they're missing this love of the Lord, this relationship with the Lord that is essential, that is necessary. And we cannot go without it and expect to be okay. Now, there is the issue of faithfulness, again, as we discussed last week, where you need to serve God

And you need to do what God's called you to do, whether you're enjoying it or not. And so I'm not suggesting that you should never do anything that you don't enjoy. No, there is faithfulness. And God calls you to do things that are hard and difficult and to weary yourself from working so hard for his kingdom and doing what he's called you to do. But here's what I would suggest. If you are in that case where God's called you to do something, you know you're doing what God's called you to do, but it's not one of those things that you enjoy that much.

You know, sometimes you wake up and you're on the schedule for Sunday school and you have a headache and you're not going to enjoy it. But you got to be faithful. You got to do what God's called you to do or whatever. Just throwing out one example, right? But when you're in that spot where what God's called you to do is not that enjoyable, when you don't enjoy serving, here's what I would suggest. Make sure that you have something else that you do with Jesus just because you enjoy it.

Sometimes you can be involved in serving the Lord and do all this service and even wear yourself out from serving so much, but it's enjoyable. And you do it because you love it. And it's just sheer joy to serve the Lord and to exert yourself in that way. But sometimes what God calls you to do, you don't enjoy that much. And so I would encourage you, make sure that you also then do something else with Jesus just because you enjoy it.

that you serve and do what you're called to do. You can't neglect that, but also that you don't neglect this love of the Lord. And this specific aspect that I'm focusing on is this enjoyment of him, enjoying your relationship with him, enjoying talking to him, hearing from him, spending time with him. You need to make sure that that's a component of your life with Christ.

And so we need to enjoy Jesus and serve faithfully. It's not either or, it's both. We need to do both. Going on in verse, well, looking at verse two still, but the second point is to enjoy Jesus and have good doctrine.

Again, looking at verse 2, he says, I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil, and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. Here's another good quality of the church of Ephesus. They had good doctrine. False teachers tried to come in and deceive them, but the Ephesians, they didn't put up with it.

In contrast to, remember the Galatians? Paul wrote to the Galatians because false teachers had come in and they fell for it. And Paul wrote to them and says, I can't believe that you're turning away so quickly and you're turning away to something that's not even the gospel. You're turning away to this false gospel. Well, that continued on. And now false teachers tried to go into Ephesus. And the Ephesian church heard these false apostles say,

They checked it out with the scriptures. They examined the doctrine. They tested what was being said. And they said, that's not true. And Jesus says, you found them to be liars. They didn't fall for it when these false teachers came in. And Jesus points this out and he says, good job.

Well done. You have good doctrine. You're being faithful to the truth. And that's really important. It is necessary to know the truth, to know what the word of God says. Because even until still today, we have false teachers, false apostles. And we need to check out what we hear with the word of God and make sure it lines up with and matches what God says.

And so as believers today, we need to have good doctrine. But let me remind you, we also need to enjoy Jesus. Again, it's not an either or, it's both. You are called to have good doctrine. You are called to know the word of God, to study, to show yourself approved to God, rightly dividing the word of truth. But having good doctrine is not the only thing.

Think about the words that Jesus shared with the religious leaders in his day. In John chapter 5, verse 39 and 40, Jesus says, But then he goes on to say, The religious leaders knew the scriptures.

They didn't have the New Testament that wasn't written yet, but they had the Old Testament and they knew the Old Testament really well. They didn't just casually search the scriptures like, you know, like you casually Google something to find out, you know, if it's there. But they memorized chapters and chapters and chapters. One religious leader in that day probably had more scripture memorized than all of us combined. They were serious about knowing the scriptures. Right?

But Jesus points this out and he says, you think that you have life because you know the scriptures so well. But the problem with that, he says, is you're not willing to come to me. The scriptures talk about me. And even though you know the scriptures really well, you're not willing to come to me. And this is an important point about the word of God. It's living, it's active, it's essential for us. We need to know it, but you can study the scriptures and miss Jesus completely.

And that's not the way that we're supposed to use the word of God. That's not what it's for. We can be really solid on our doctrine, but miss the connection with Jesus. Miss the point where we go to Jesus that we might have life. And we think we have life because look how well I know the scriptures. Look how well I can quote these verses. Look how well I can defend these arguments or whatever. And we can look at that and start to trust in our good doctrine and

Instead of using the scriptures to point ourselves to Jesus, that we might have life. You guys know me, okay? In no way would I ever say the scriptures are not important. In no way would I ever say it's not that big of a deal if you read the Bible or not.

You guys know that. I pray that you know that. That's why we encourage people to read the Bible regularly. It's why we have the Bible in three years. It's why we devote so much time to the word in our services. The word of God is essential. It's important. It's crucial. But we can take it too far if that's all that we do, if that's all that we focus on. And if we don't allow those scriptures to then point us to Jesus, that we have life in his name.

And we can miss Jesus. And we've seen it happen. And maybe you've been there too, where, yeah, you can quote the verses, but you're really grumpy about it. You've lost the joy. And so then having a discussion with somebody is, it's not a joyful discussion about Jesus, but it's like these bitter words that come out because you're upset because they don't have the same doctrine that you have. And Jesus would be like, hey, Jesus,

Take out those sour grapes. Have some joy. Find me in the scriptures. That's what they're about. The scriptures need to point us back to the Lord. It's possible to be right on doctrinally, to be accurate in the truth, but to have a wrong heart and attitude in the midst of it. And we need to be careful about that. If you're not enjoying Jesus in your study of the scriptures, you're doing it wrong because the scriptures speak of Jesus.

Now, please understand, there are times in our daily devotions where we are just trying to be faithful. We're just trying to be faithful. We know we need to spend time with God and His Word. And so we open up the Scriptures, we read, we spend time with Him. It's not that exciting. We're not super happy about it, but we want to be faithful. And I'm going to suggest to you, that's okay. It's okay that sometimes it's just a matter of wanting to be faithful that you open up and spend time in the Scriptures.

I'm not suggesting that you should be giggling through the book of Leviticus. There are those times where, yeah, it's about faithfulness. But listen, that shouldn't be all the time. It shouldn't be the majority of the time. It's not that reading the scripture is meant to be a chore. And it shouldn't be that we only spend time in the word because, well, I got to get ready for this devotion I need to share or I need to answer this question that somebody asked. There needs to be time of just enjoying it.

Jesus in his word. You know, Peter talks about desiring the milk of the word. It's just receiving from the Lord by spending time with him in the scriptures. And so, yes, we need to have good doctrine. We need to learn how to rightly divide the word of truth, to know right from wrong, to know error from truth. But we can't take it so far that we miss Jesus, that it's all about answering arguments, correcting falseness,

But the scriptures speak of Jesus. And so let's allow the scriptures to point us to Jesus that we might have life, enjoy Jesus, and have good doctrine. Well, the third point, as we look at verse three once again, is to enjoy Jesus and persevere. Verse three, he says, and you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary.

Have you noticed that believing in Jesus doesn't automatically make your life problem-free? Have you noticed that? You believed in Jesus and then all your problems went away. No. In fact, believing in Jesus usually adds more problems to your life. The Christian life is hard. What God has called us to is not

You know, come to Easy Street. You'll never have any problems. It's just flowers and cotton candy and rainbows. And it's just going to be awesome all the time. That's not what the Christian life is. No, part of the Christian life is serving. And you're going to be tired from serving because God's called you to serve. And he's called you to step out of faith. And you're going to be stressed about it. And you're going to be tired from it. And he's called you to keep on doing it regardless. The Christian life isn't void of normal difficulties of life either.

The same difficulties that the whole rest of the world faces, we face. We have cars that break down. We have things that fail. We have issues. We have loss of loved ones. We have the normal difficulties of life on top of the things that we face in serving the Lord.

We also have the spiritual attacks that go on top of that. The enemy comes against us greatly and there's emotional battles and mental battles that he brings right to us and we're on the front lines of that battle. There's no one that can fight that for us. On top of that, we have, in some instances, persecution, the outward forces, people around us who come against us as a result of believing in Jesus.

The Christian life is not problem-free, and so there is a need to persevere. The Ephesians here in Ephesus, the church there, they learned that the Christian life wasn't super easy, but that it was difficult. But Jesus here commends them and says, good job, you've been persevering. The word persevere, it means to bear what is burdensome. You've had this burden, this weight,

And we all know what that's like to have weights on you, this burden. And he says, you've borne it. You've persevered. You've carried it. You haven't given up. You haven't quit. But instead, you've been patient. This word patient, it means to endure through circumstances. So the circumstances of life are rough, Jesus says to this church. You've been having some real tough times.

But you've endured. And there's an element of hope in this word as well. You've endured because you're trusting in the Lord. You've endured because you're hoping in him and knowing that he's going to work things out. And so Jesus says, good job. I like the way the New Living Translation puts verse three. It says, you have patiently suffered for me without quitting. Good job. You haven't quit. You've suffered. You've endured.

and you haven't quit. We have lots of great examples in the scriptures of men and women of God who've done that, who've suffered, who've had to bear affliction or bear some burden. And even though it was very difficult, they did not quit. You can think about Joseph, right? They're in the

The betrayal, you know, his brothers selling him into slavery and then being falsely accused and imprisoned and all these things that happened to Joseph. But he didn't give up on God. He persevered. Or I think about the apostle Paul in prison. And I think it's interesting that from prison, he writes the book of Philippians, which we know Philippians as the book of joy. Because over and over and over again, Paul talks about his joy and he calls us to rejoice.

Isn't it amazing that from prison, Paul could have great joy and call us to rejoice as he rejoices? How is that possible? How could he have such joy in the midst of such affliction? How could he enjoy Jesus in the midst of perseverance? Well, he gives us a lot of insight in the book of Philippians. I'm not going to go through the whole book, of course, but in chapter one, he says, you

If I stay here, I'm with Jesus. And if I die, I'll be with Jesus. And actually, it's much better if I die because then I'll really be with Jesus, not personally like I am right now. It'll be with Jesus without limits. And so either way, I'm with Jesus. He was enjoying Jesus even in the midst of difficulty, even in the midst of persecution and prison. I'd like to encourage you to follow the example of Paul. When life is miserable...

Learn to rejoice in Jesus. You can rejoice in what Jesus has done, no matter what you're going through. Learn to appreciate the cross. Learn to appreciate what he did for us in becoming man and dying upon the cross for our sins. No matter what I go through in my life, I should be able to look and what Jesus did for me is worthy of rejoicing over, no matter what's happening right now.

But then also I can take joy in what God's going to do. And that's, Paul talks about this in Philippians as well. He could take joy knowing that even though he's in prison, that God is using this and he's accomplishing his work. And there's, well, there's great things that God has in store in eternity as a result of the present. And so we can enjoy Jesus even in the most miserable of circumstances.

Even when it's just, we're just trying to persevere. We're just bearing the burden, but there's still the opportunity. And the church of Ephesus was doing that. And Jesus says, good job. You need to persevere. But it's also possible to persevere and not enjoy Jesus. And you're grumpy and you're bitter and you're miserable. But here's the apostle Paul who writes the letter of joy. That's the example for us. Enjoy Jesus in addition to your perseverance.

Find him in the midst of that. It's amazing that it's really in those times of perseverance that you have a connection to Jesus incomparable to any other time in your life. He shows up when you need him the most. We got to look to him and let those times of perseverance, of trouble, bring us back into the arms of Jesus.

Well, going on in verse 4 and 5, the fourth point is to repent and enjoy Jesus. Here's verse 4. He says, nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love. Now, again, up to this point, Jesus has been saying, good job. You've been serving faithfully and

You've been wearied in the work, but you keep on working. You've been holding fast to good doctrine, even though false teachers try to come in and teach you bad things, bad thoughts, things that are not of God. You've been persevering, even though you have this burden and there's this oppression and affliction and persecution, but you haven't quit. You've pressed on. Really good job in these things, Jesus has been saying. But now he's saying, but that's not enough. That's not sufficient enough.

Those things are good, and Jesus would say, I wouldn't take away any of those things. He's not asking them to do any of these things any less. He's saying, good job. Now, in addition to that, there's something else you need to pay attention to. He says, you've left your first love. In verse 5, he says, remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

And so Jesus calls out this issue. He says, here's what's lacking, your love for me. You've left your first love. Now, this word first, a lot of times I think as we read this, we think of timeline. And oftentimes we share it like that. And I don't think that that's necessarily wrong, but I think there's more to it than just timeline. So it's not just think about when you first got saved and make sure you love Jesus like that. I don't think that's what Jesus is saying here.

The word first, it also means most important. It's first, not just in time, but first in importance. When Jesus says, repent and do the first works, I would suggest we think of it this way. Jesus is saying, get your priorities straight. Repent and

and reorganize your priorities. Reorganize your life to make sure that first things are first, to make sure that you have things in their proper order. Your first love is your most important love. Now, who is the most important person in your life? It needs to be God. That's his rightful place, that he's most important, that no matter what happens with anybody else, you love God.

And it's not just about how you loved him at the beginning because, well, as new believers, we love God, of course. But as we're walking with the Lord, we grow in our love for God. And so it's not just about like how you loved God at first, but it's about making sure that God is first, making sure that he is most important in your life, making sure that you have time in your schedule to enjoy Jesus.

Yes, then you also serve. Then you also study to have good doctrine. Then you also persevere. But first things first, do you have time to enjoy Jesus? He says, that's what you've left. You've lost the priority. And you've put these things of serving and doctrine and such, you've given them a greater value than you've given your connection to me, your walk with me. The most important thing for us needs to be enjoying Jesus.

Remember the command that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 22 when the lawyer came and said, what's the greatest commandment, the most important commandment? Jesus responded and said, here it is. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. He said, this is the first and great commandment. That's priority number one. Then he says, the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Priority number one, love God.

Then after that, well, then we serve one another. But first things first, first priority, it needs to be loving God. You will never enjoy Jesus if you don't put him first in your life. If he's somewhere down the list, you're not going to experience the relationship with him that he desires and requires.

And so he calls us here to repent. If Jesus is not first in your life, he says, stop. Whatever you're doing, stop. Rearrange your schedule. Evaluate your priorities. Make sure, first of all, you get time with Jesus. Make sure that you have things that you can do just because you enjoy being with Jesus.

And once that's in your schedule, then fill in everything else. Once you got that in order, then everything else falls in line. But that must be first. And so if that's not first, then he says, stop. Stop what you're doing. Get your priorities straight. He says, remember the first works. Again, not necessarily first chronologically, but what's first and foremost? What's most important in your life? And go back and do those most important things because you've neglected the important things first.

Because you've been so caught up in serving and being doctrinally correct and persevering, and you've neglected the most important things of your life. Well, finally, point number five found in verse seven is that life is given to those who enjoy Jesus. Verse seven says this, "'He who has an ear, "'let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. "'To him who overcomes, "'I will give to eat from the tree of life, "'which is in the midst of the paradise of God.'"

Jesus calls us to pay attention. Listen up. He who has an ear, let him hear. And then he says, to him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. He's calling our attention back to the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter two, when God created the heavens and the earth, and then he planted the garden there in Eden and placed man there in the midst of the garden was the tree of life.

The tree of life in the paradise of God. That's God's original design for humanity. Paradise, perfection, perfect relationship between God and man and life, everlasting life. Now that was lost there in the garden when man disobeyed God and partook of the fruit that God had said, don't partake of that fruit. And we lost that connection to God. We lost that perfection with God.

but that will be restored. And so Jesus says to the church of Ephesus, look, if you overcome, you'll be part of that restored. You'll be part of that everlasting life and perfect fellowship with me. That's given to those who overcome. And I like that word overcome. I like that idea. It kind of gives me the picture of a hurdle and you got to get over that hurdle. If you don't get over that hurdle, you don't get life.

It's a standard. You got to measure up to this standard. You must be this tall to ride. You must be this tall to get into heaven, to have everlasting life. The problem for us is we use the wrong things to try to reach that standard. So we say, okay, look how much I'm serving and I'm serving more and more and more and more and more. And okay, now finally I've served enough that I can have life in heaven. But that's not the standard. That's not what God uses to measure whether or not we overcome.

And so then we focus on doctrine. Look how good at doctrine I am. Look, I know this doctrine. I know that doctrine. I could defeat that guy. I can have those arguments. I must have life. And that's not the standard that God uses. Sure, it's an important aspect of our life, but that doesn't give us life. We go, I'm going to persevere. I'm going to be faithful. I'm not going to quit no matter what. That's not the standard that God uses. What does God use? What does he tell the church of Ephesus? You've left your first love. And if you overcome, I'll give you life.

If you overcome this obstacle and you love me, that's the standard. That's the measure. It's your relationship with God. Do you have a right relationship with God? Do you measure up? Because it's those who have this right relationship with God that are given life. It's not about us being religious. It's not about us doing good works. We do all that in response to what Christ has done for us, in response of the life that he's given to us.

not in order to obtain the life that he promises. So this is a promise for those who love Jesus, for those who enjoy Jesus. He says, I'm going to give you life. And there are some who used to love Jesus, like the church of Ephesus. You used to have that priority in your life where Jesus was number one. He was first and foremost. And you enjoyed that relationship with Jesus, that time with Jesus.

And perhaps like the church of Ephesus, you've left those priorities. They've fallen down on the list and now you get lots of things done. You've got great doctrine. It's not like you went out and became a Satanist, abandoned the faith. No, no, no. Like you hold them fast to the truth. But where's Jesus in your life? Where's your connection to him? Where's your passion for him? Where's your enjoyment of Jesus? Jesus says, if that's you, you need to repent.

You need to rethink your priorities and come back to the right priority. First and foremost, your relationship with Jesus, your relationship with God by faith in Jesus. Maybe you're here and you're saying, well, I've never loved Jesus. And Jesus would say the same thing to you. Repent. Yeah, you've pursued all kinds of things in your life. You've chased after all kinds of things. Listen, we're living right now in December.

It's the Christmas season. We know what it's like to pursue all kinds of things and forget that the whole point is to celebrate the birth of Jesus, right? It's a great illustration right in front of us. And for many, that's how the whole life is lived, pursuit of all kinds of things. But Jesus isn't the priority. And Jesus would say to you, look, I want to give you life. I want to bring you back into that right fellowship and have the promise of eternity and the great things that I have in store.

You got to overcome, though. You got to measure up. And the standard isn't religion. It's not good doctrine. The standard is your relationship to Jesus. The standard is believing in Jesus, receiving what he says, and living out, turning from our sin to follow him and to live our life in pursuit of knowing him. That's the standard. And so Jesus would say, get first things first. Put things in their proper order.

And make sure I'm the most important person in your life. I'm the most important thing in your life. Jesus invites us to come to him and receive this forgiveness in life. And so I want to encourage you this week, do something with Jesus just because you enjoy it. Work out something, somehow, someway, find some time, carve out your schedule, and do something with Jesus today.

just because you just enjoy spending time with him in that way. And it might look different for you than others. So maybe you pull out your old instrument, you kind of dust it off a little bit, and you spend some time in worship. And maybe you don't have an old instrument, but maybe you have a worship CD or a worship playlist or whatever, and you just spend some time

distraction-free worshiping Jesus. Or maybe for you, something that you enjoy with Jesus is, well, you can take a walk and you can pray. And you spend time talking to him. You spend time hearing from him. But you do it not because you have some duty or obligation to fulfill, but just because you enjoy being with Jesus. Or maybe for you, it's, you know, you should take some time to sit down and read through a whole book of the Bible.

Not a little snippet here or there, not just a chapter, but really just kind of dive into the word of God and just allow God to speak to you just because you enjoy spending time with God that way. There's a variety of things that maybe you do because you just enjoy being with Jesus. But the point is, do something this week just because you enjoy it. Not because you have some obligation, not because you're on the schedule, not because you have some duty, but

But just because you love Jesus and you want to spend some time with him. And that's my exhortation to us as a body, especially as we head into this final 10 days before Christmas. Are you sad I reminded you it's 10 days? Yeah. We know what it's like. There's a lot to do. Let's make sure first things are first. Amen.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you put us first and that you made us the most important in that you were willing to give of yourself to die upon the cross for us. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to respond appropriately, even as your word says, to love you because you first loved us. And so, Lord, I pray that you would show us those areas where our priorities are out of line. Lord, that you would show us those things that we might turn from them, repent, and

and make sure that you're first. And I pray that you would flood our minds and our hearts with ideas and ways that we can just spend time with you and enjoy your presence and enjoy our relationship with you this week. And I pray as you show us those things that you would help us to be diligent in them. We know the enemy will come and try to distract and there will be attacks, but

Lord, I pray that you would help us to put you first, to enjoy your presence. And Lord, if there's any who do not know you, who have never loved you, I pray, Lord, that you would bring them to right relationship with you, that they would believe in you and trust in the finished work that you accomplish for us by dying for our sin. And so, Lord, may they experience your life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.