REVELATION 2 RECHARGE YOUR LOVE FOR GOD2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Revelation 2 Recharge Your Love For God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

Jerry, I am super excited to be with you this morning and this weekend. It's been fun watching you guys get all crazy and do crazy things that I could just sit back and not have to think about or do or embarrass myself in. But it's been fun watching you guys do those things and have a good time. And I love youth retreats because when I was 15, I attended a youth retreat.

And God used that to change my life. And it radically changed my life. It was a long time ago. I won't give you the year. But we attended a youth retreat down in Long Beach. And it was an overnight thing. And there was a bunch of us from Living Water that were there. And I was a weird kid. I don't know.

I'm now grown up quite a bit and I'm just a weird adult now, but I was a weird kid and Jonathan was there. He was at the retreat there. He was part of the youth group. We grew up together, but he was the cool kid and I was the weird kid. So, you know, he was pointing at me and laughing and making fun of me and stuff like that. Wouldn't let me hang out with him. And most nights I would cry myself to sleep because of how Jonathan would treat me. Um,

Sometimes it still happens. But at that retreat, God changed my life. He spoke to me more clearly than I'd ever heard before. And there's been lots of victories and lots of defeats in my life since that time. But I look back at that. That was a defining moment for me where my life was radically changed.

And I was reminded of that last night, too, as as you guys were coming forward for prayer and God was doing a work in your hearts and and the worship team was singing to break every chain, break every chain. And it struck a memory. I had forgotten about it for a long time. And that is that night at the youth retreat. When I was 15, there was a song playing that as I was standing and worshiping the Lord and surrendering my life to the Lord, there was a song that said, break through the chains in my life and tear down the strongholds and the walls.

And that became the cry of my heart and the theme for the next few years, asking God just to do a work in my life. And I really believe that as you are up here this weekend, that this can be one of those moments for you. That many years from now, when you're talking about when you were 15, anybody 15 in here? We have any 15 year olds?

All right. We've got a few. You're kind of quiet, though. Any 15 year olds in here? Wow. OK. Any 14 year olds in here?

There we go. Okay. So this can be you looking back later on in your life. You could possibly look back at this retreat and it have a significant impact on your life and say, that was a defining moment for me. That is the moment from there on out. My life was different and God got a hold of me at that retreat. And I pray that for you guys. And if he's not done that yet for you this weekend, this is your last opportunity. This is our last time together here in the word and in worship. And I pray that for you guys.

And I would encourage you to tune in, to pay attention. I know you're thinking about, well, is it snowing outside yet? What's the drive going to be like? What are we going to have for lunch? Is that girl still looking at me? You might be thinking about all those kinds of things, but...

You have this opportunity. I would encourage you to engage with God right now. As we start out in Revelation chapter 2, we're going to jump around a little bit. But let the Lord speak to you, and I encourage you to let God do a work in your life. Well, we're finishing up this retreat. What's the name of the retreat? Intentional Love. Now, who is excited about God's love? Is anybody excited about God's love in here? Just a little bit, right?

Just a little excited about God's love. Man, we were singing, oh, how he loves me last night. And it was just like, oh, powerful, overwhelming. Yeah, how he loves us. And it's awesome the way that God loves us. And for the past couple of days, you've been hearing about the different ways that God has expressed his love for you. The things that God does for you on your behalf because he loves you.

And as we start out here in Ephesus, or I'm sorry, in Revelation chapter two, we're looking at the church of Ephesus and we're looking at a church who knew about God's love. They were at one time excited about God's love. Check out what Jesus says. This is Jesus writing to the church of Ephesus, Revelation chapter two in verses one through three. It says to the angel of the church of Ephesus, write, the

These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. 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.

Verse three, and you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary. And as you read those verses, Jesus talking to that church, you think this is an awesome church. I mean, they're doing lots of stuff for God. They've got good doctrine. They sound like they're right on.

But the Lord has a problem with this church. He tells them in verse 4, Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Now this is staggering. If you go back and read the book of Ephesians that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, you could see they were right on. There's no correction in that letter. They were doing well, but then some years later,

The Lord writes to them and brings this correction. You have left your first love. At one time, they were excited about the love of God, like you are this morning. They were excited about the love of God and they loved him back. But over time, their love has faded away. And now they just have the shell of a religion.

They're doing all the outward stuff. They've got all the good works. They've got all the right rituals. They've got all the right things in place. So they look good on the outside. They're keeping lots of commandments. But the Lord says, that's not enough. You've left your first love. You've left the core of Christianity, the core of a relationship with God, is that love relationship with God the Father by faith in Jesus Christ.

I know how it is for us. There are many times where we're overwhelmed by the love of God, where we're excited about the love of God, and maybe it seems impossible that you would ever leave a love relationship with God. But I need to share with you this morning that it's natural for us to leave a relationship with God. It's normal. In fact, if you don't do anything about it, you will become like the church of Ephesus.

Even if you're still going to church, even if you still come to the retreat next year, even if you still go to youth group, you can be going through the motions and look fine on the outside and say the right things and act the right way and yet have your heart far from God. That's the natural pull in our lives that our love begins to die. I would say it this way. Love fades like a cell phone battery. You guys know how a cell phone battery fades?

What do you do when you run out of juice? You cry. You charge it, right? You plug it in and you have to recharge your phone. Now, just by a quick show of hands, how many of you have cell phones and you have to charge them every night, right? You're using them all day long and you use out the battery. The battery is dead. If you don't charge it that night, what's going to happen tomorrow?

You're going to cry. You won't have a phone. You won't be able to play your games. You're not going to be able to talk to your friends. You're not going to have that available to you. Like the cell phone battery, our love, it fades. And if you don't recharge it, it will dwindle down to nothing. Now, right now, you might be thinking, hey, I love God. God loves me. I mean, we're at like 100% right now.

But what are you going to do to maintain that? And that's what I want to encourage you with this morning. I've titled the message this morning, Recharge Your Love for God. And I want to encourage you in some things that you can do to maintain this love relationship with God.

As you recognize the love that he has for you and respond by loving him in return. And some of you this morning, you do love God. You're excited about the love of God. You've been blessed. You've been blown away by the teachings and by the way that God loves you this weekend. Some of you are maybe like the church of Ephesus. And sitting here this morning, the Lord would be looking at you and say, you've left your first love. You used to have that kind of relationship with me, but something's happened and you

You don't love me like you used to. There's been a departure. You've left that love for me. And then perhaps there's some in this room who have never loved God. You've never really cared about God. You've never really turned your life over to live for him. And these things that we'll talk about here in first John, if you want to turn, you can jump to first John chapter four, three points I'd like to share with you this morning to help us recharge our love for God.

And these things will help us. For those of you who love God, it will help you maintain that love. For those of you who left your first love, this is a good opportunity for you to get back right with the Lord and begin again to have that love relationship with him. And if you've never loved God, this is an opportunity for you to begin to do that.

Well, in first John chapter four, we're going to see point number one, and that is love God because he loves you. First John chapter four. Let me read to you verses 17 through 19. Here's what it says.

Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. Verse 19, we love him because he first loved us.

And verse 19 is the key right there. Verse 19. We love him because he first loved us. What is verse 19 say? Could you read it, please? What does it say? OK, I'm going to need a little bit more synchronization. Let's kind of like get into this a little bit. Verse 19 says we we love him because he first loved us. Here is the key to Christianity. This this is absolutely true.

key to Christianity. This is essential to who we are as believers in Jesus. That is that we love God because he loved us. He loved us first. God doesn't love you because you love him. He loves you whether or not you love him. He loves you as you've been hearing about for the past couple of days with all your junk, with all your slop, with all the muck and the mire that you bring. He loves you

In spite of all of that, and no matter who you are or where you've been or what you've done, God loves you. And when we love God, it's always a response to his love for us. But it is something that we are called to do, to love God. In fact, Jesus told us it's the greatest commandment.

The greatest commandment, all scriptures, all the Old Testament, all the New Testament, Jesus said, this is the most important thing for your life. Actually, he said it in response to a question. What's the greatest commandment? And Jesus said, it's to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And then he said, the second greatest commandment is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

And so you can summarize that with love God and love people. Jesus says that's the two most important things in your life. That's the command that God has for you and for me to love him and to love one another. Now, you and I know it's impossible to keep the Ten Commandments, right? It's impossible to be perfect and flawless and without sin. That's why Jesus died.

But these two commands are the summary of the Ten Commandments and all the commands of the Lord. All commands of God can be summed up into love God and love people. These are commands that we cannot keep in our own strength. But instead, we keep them in response to and with the resources that God has given to us. Again, verse 19 says, we love him because he first loved us. He first loved us.

I heard about Friday night you considered the prodigal son and the father's love for his sons demonstrates our father's love for you. He loves you. And the prodigal son responded to that and he said, I don't have anything and maybe I'll just go be a servant. I'll just go be a slave at my dad's house. But it's better than the muck and the mire that I'm in. It's better than the slop that I'm eating right now. And so he went back.

To his father a great picture for us of how we can always go back to our heavenly father No matter what it is that's happening in our lives and no matter what it is that we've been going through Because he loves us and we can have that security and that confidence to know that no matter what has happened God loves me and our response to that is to love him Back i'm sure you've heard the saying christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship

And I think we say it so much that sometimes it loses its meaning. But that's what this verse is about. It's about a relationship because God loves you and he desires relationship with you. He wants to spend time with you. He wants to speak to you. He wants to encourage you. He wants to build you up. He wants to lead you and guide you. He wants to hear from you.

And there's this interaction that we can have in this relationship with God. It's a love relationship where we love him because he first loved. And so as I shared a few moments ago, as our love fades like a cell phone battery, our love for God, it might be really high. It might be 100% right now. But if you don't do anything about it, it's going to drop. And pretty soon you'll be at 50% and then at 20%.

Then at 10%, that's the way it works. We will grow cold in our love for God. And so what we need to do is we find ourselves lacking in love for God. We need to get plugged back in. We need to recharge and spend some time like we've done this weekend, remembering God's love for us because our love for him is only possible as we recognize and realize and receive his love for us. If you try to live the Christian life in your own power,

you're going to find that your battery is on empty. You're not able to do what God wants you to do with your strength. You're not able to do what God wants you to do with your power, with your intelligence. You might be brilliant. You might be super clever. You might be super awesome or popular or whatever. But all of those things, you can't do what God's called you to do with those resources. You're going to find that your battery is empty and you're going to need to recharge. God's love for you

Is what gives you the power to serve him to walk with him to know him to love him? And to love the people around you and so the rest of our lives as believers in Jesus. It's going to be a pursuit So love God

Because he loves you. Secondly, let's jump now to 1 John chapter 5. And in 1 John chapter 5, I want to encourage you to love God by obeying him. One of the ways that we recharge ourselves and our love for God is in obedience. In our obedience to God, we express our love to him. But it's only by receiving his love and in our love for God that we are able to live a life of obedience.

Check out 1 John 5, verse 3. It says, for this is the love of God. Right? So that's what we're talking about. We're talking about the love of God. John says, all right, let me lay it down for you. Here's what it is. That we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. The love of God, John says, is that we keep his commandments. Sorry to interrupt. Hey, sound guy, can I get the monitors dropped on my mic? It's kind of, I'm yelling at myself.

Usually only Jonathan yells at me. There you go. Thank you. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. John says you want to know what the love of God looks like. What does it mean to love God? John makes it crystal clear. You can't get more clear than this. To love God is to obey God. And that needs to be clear. I need to make sure that's clear because we get so confused.

And the enemy is so good at deceiving us and deluding us so that we are convinced that we can disobey God, but still love God. And John says, you know, that's not really possible. That's not loving God. Disobedience to God is not loving God.

But to love God means that you will obey God. Jesus said this as well in John chapter 14, verse 23. He says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. These two concepts are inseparable. Love and obedience. You cannot separate them. You cannot take them apart. You cannot have one without the other. If you try to obey God without loving God,

His commands will be burdensome and you're going to be bummed out because you have to do this and you have to do that and you can't do this and you can't do that. That's burdensome because you're trying to obey God without loving God. And if you love God, the obedience is going to come naturally. That's the natural flow to love. God is to obey God.

Now, Jesus said in John chapter 14, in the next verse, in verse 24, he says, he who does not love me does not keep my words. And so he shows both ways. If you love me, you keep my words. If you don't love me, you don't keep my words. To make sure it's clear, this is the reality. If you love God, you will obey him. And if you don't obey him, you don't love him.

There are so many people who are convinced that they are fine even though they live in sin. I have a friend right now. I've been talking to him, reaching out to him, living with his girlfriend, going to church, convinced he's fine. If I ask him, he says, yes, I love God. If I ask him, where are you going to go if you die today? He says, well, I'm going to heaven because I love God. I'm going to church. And I challenge him, but you're living in sin. Well, we plan to get married today.

And so there's an explanation. Well, as long as you plan to get married, then OK, well, then it's OK. No, absolutely not. Listen, the Apostle Paul said something very important in First Corinthians, chapter six, verse nine. He says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? He says, do not be deceived.

And he goes on to list some things. He says fornicators and idolaters and adulterers and homosexuals and sodomites and thieves and covetous and drunkards and revilers and extortioners. He says they will not inherit the kingdom of God. But he says, don't be deceived, because many times we are deceived in thinking I can live how I want to live as long as I love God. And there are many people who say, I love God.

But they live in disobedience to God. And Paul says, don't be deceived. Don't be fooled. Don't be tricked to think that you can live however you want to live. And just because you say you love God, everything's OK. Listen, God's love for you gives you the power to stop living in sin. All those things that I was talking about last night, the list of things that God wants to deliver you from. It's awesome. The deliverance that God provides. But, you know, as you get delivered from those things.

It doesn't mean that you'll never be challenged by them again. As you are forgiven of those things, it doesn't mean that you'll never have to deal with those things again. It's the love of God that gives you the power to continue to turn from sin and to follow God and walk in obedience to him. And John says his commands are not burdensome. And this is the key here. If you love God, obeying God is just something that you do because you love him and you want to please him.

If you're trying to obey God because you know that's what you're supposed to do or because you have to or because you're afraid of the consequences, it's going to be a burden, son. It's going to be a burden to you. Listen, speed limits are a burden to me. I don't love to keep the speed limit. I hate it. It bothers me. It bugs me. I disagree. I don't know how they come up with the numbers.

I can go so much faster and be safe and stay within the lines than that number says. I obey that command, but it's a burden because I don't love whoever it is wrote that speed limit. But when God gives you commands, number one, you can know it's for your good. It's what's best for you. And number two, you can know that if you love him, you'll be able to keep that command.

Not perfectly. We all sin and that's why we have the grace of God and we come back in repentance. But you understand what I mean? You're not going to be living. You're not going to be choosing to continue to live in sin if you love God. And so when you find his commands burdensome, that's when you know your battery is dropping. Your love for God is waning. You're almost on empty and you're going to need to recharge. When you find his commands burdensome, you need to take some time.

And dig back into who God is and what he's done for you. That you would remember his love for you. Because we love him because he first loved us. And when we love him, we obey him. And his commands are not burdensome. Well, the final point. Jumping back to 1 John chapter 4. We love God by loving people. We love God because he loved us. We love God by obeying him.

Part of that obedience includes loving the person right next to you. Now maybe that's easy because you strategically place yourself next to people that you already kind of like. So loving them is not too hard. But loving God means that you also are going to love the people in the back row or the people in the front row or the people that you spent this whole retreat trying to avoid. Someone said preach it. Struck a chord.

Check out 1 John 4, verse 19. Again, it says, we love him because he first loved us. Verse 20, if someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. What is he? If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this is the commandment that we have from him, that he who loves God must, not an option, you must love your brother and sister also.

John makes it real clear for us, doesn't he? He's really good at just like cutting to the core, laying it open for us. There's no ambiguity here. It's crystal clear. If you love God, you're going to love people. And if you say you love God and you don't love people, what are you? There's a lot of people who say they love God and they live in disobedience.

There's a lot of people who say they love God and they hate people. But loving God and loving people are inseparable. You cannot take them apart from one another. Last night, I shared 1 John 4, verse 10. And this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And then the next verse says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. See, it's it's inseparable. It's permanently connected. If you love God, then you're going to love one another. That's the reality. And if you say you love God and you hate your brother, you're a liar. Now, what does it mean to love people? I would summarize love in this way. Love is doing what is best for people.

It's doing what is best. They may not even like what you're doing for them. But if you're doing what's best for them, you're expressing love because you want the best for them. And that is the standard that we are to hold ourselves to, that we are to love one another, to always do what's best for the people around us. In John chapter 15, verse 12, Jesus said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

You see, that's what Jesus did. He did what was best for us. That's why he died upon the cross. That's why he lived the life that he lived. And now Jesus says, now you follow that standard and do what's best for the people around you. And so Jesus gives himself as the model for us. Listen, if Jesus would treat people the way that you treat people, well, then you know you're doing what's best for them. You love them. But if Jesus wouldn't treat people the way that you treat people,

And I'm talking about your best friend and I'm talking about your worst enemy. If Jesus wouldn't treat them that way, it's not love. It's not love. We are to relate to one another, to love one another in the way that the Lord has loved us. And he's put our needs ahead of his own. And he died upon the cross for our sin. Again, we love him because he first loved us as we receive and recognize what he's done for us. Not only does that prompt us to love him personally,

But it prompts us to love people around us. Love is forgiving. It's patient and kind. It's humble. You can check out 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Love. It's supernatural to love the way that God has called us to love. And we can't do it in our own strength. If you try to love people the way that God wants you to love people with your own resources, you'll find that your battery's on empty. Roman came up to me today. He said, my phone's on 2%. Do you have a charger I could borrow?

That's how you're going to be. I'm like at 2%. I'm trying to love this person. I just can't. But if you receive the love that God has for you, you'll have the power from God to love others also. When you're not doing what's best for people, when you're finding it hard to love people, it's an indicator. Your red light's flashing. Your battery's low. You need to recharge. You need to get plugged back in with the Lord and receive His love and experience His love and walk with Him and worship Him.

Because this is the commandment that we have from God. He who loves God must love his brother also. And so this morning, I want to encourage you to recharge your love for God. Love God because he loves you. Love God by obeying him. And love God by loving people. Again, in Revelation, we saw the church of Ephesus. Sounds like an awesome church, but they had left their first love.

They've been disconnected from the love of God. They just had the outer shell. It looks good. But God saw the heart and said, there's no love there. You're not doing any of these things because you love me. And pretty soon these things are going to be burdensome and you're not going to do them anymore either. Because it's love that enables you to live the life that God has called you to live. Well, this morning we're going to partake of communion together to finish up the retreat.

And as I talk about receiving the love of God, here we have the great picture for us that Jesus has given to us. The bread and the cup represents his body being broken for us and his blood that was shed. And Jesus said, do this often, do this and remember me. Recharge, get plugged back in. Remember the cross. Remember what I've done for you because he knows this is what we need the most.

to experience his love, to remember his love, to not forget all that he's done for us. And so this morning, as communion is presented on the table before you, this is Jesus standing before you saying, I love you. And what we're going to do is we're going to invite you to come and partake of communion.

The worship team is going to lead in a couple songs and they can come out and get ready, guys. Come on. Yeah, they're going to lead us in a couple songs at any time during these songs. We want to invite you to come and take the bread and take the cup and you can take it back to your seat. And you can between you and the Lord have some time receiving his love and responding and saying, yes, Lord, I love you, too. And I would encourage you this morning to make sure that's your response.

If you come up here and partake of communion, recognize what you are saying is, I love you too, Lord. I receive the love that you have for me, the forgiveness, all that you have for me. And now I'm loving you too, because you first loved me. And as you do that, God is going to give you the power to live for him, to obey him. You're going to need frequent recharging. You're going to have to get into the word. You're going to need to spend time with God. God's going to speak to you. Let this be the beginning.

And if you are here this morning and you have left your first love, you know you're not where you should be, where you used to be. As you partake of communion this morning, do so in a heart saying, Lord, I'm getting right with you. And I'm turning my life back to you. And I want you to have full control. I want to love you with all my heart. If you're here and you already love God, you're already saying, well, yeah, I feel like I'm at 100%. Great. You know, if you plug in your phone and it's at 100%, you know what it does? It keeps you at 100%. Maintain that.

So partake this morning, receiving what God's done for you and expressing back to God, yes, Lord, I love you too. But you know, there may be some who are here that have not received God's love for them. Have you never been forgiven of your sins? Have you never been born again? Listen, this is an opportunity for you as well. And I would encourage you to make your way up here to grab the communion elements and to partake. And in doing so, you're saying, Lord, I believe that you died upon the cross for me.

that you paid the price for my sin so that I could be forgiven and have everlasting life. Lord, I receive your love and I want to choose to love you back. And so as they lead us in worship, you have the opportunity to partake. We are short on time, so don't dilly-dally, don't delay. Come on up, get the elements, receive the Lord's love and express that love back to him. Let's worship the Lord together.

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.