There is a story that has been going around social media for years and when it comes around, a lot of well-meaning people forward it on to everybody they know and it drives me crazy. The story is that a pastor of a large church dressed up like a homeless man and waited at the church one Sunday morning for people to show up.
He was dressed in worn out clothes and had a fake beard and a dirty hat and when people saw him, the story says that only three of the 10,000 people greeted him, nobody helped him and when he went inside and sat down, the ushers came and asked him to go sit in the back. The problem I have with this story is that it is completely made up. Nothing about it is true. Somebody just came up with this story for the sole purpose of making the church look bad and lots of church members perpetuate the story thinking it will motivate the church to do better or something.
What is ironic is that in my search for this story online, I found a similar story that is true where a pastor dressed up as a homeless person in the Chicago area and he said that he just cried the whole time because so many people helped him and gave him money, and prayed with him over and over again until it was just too much and he couldn’t keep it up any longer. But that story never made the rounds like the untrue story did.
I think I know the answer to this, but what would this church do in that situation? I say I know the answer because we have seen that very thing happen here more than once. Our favorite story happened six or seven years ago when Eddie “the Angel” walked in right back there and asked for help and the service actually stopped until we could get him something to eat and drink and some clothes to wear and some gas for his van. Some of y’all remember that. We call him Eddie the Angel because after we helped him, he disappeared and we never saw him again and we all wondered if that wasn’t what Hebrews 13:2 meant when it said, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
Our church has proven over and over again that we have a love for people and a love for Jesus but let me ask you a question. Can you do all the right things and still be wrong? Can you feed the hungry and give clothes to the poor and help widows and orphans and still not be right in God’s eyes? Yes, you can.
Is it because God is never satisfied and is such a harsh task master? No, it’s because God sees the heart. He knows our motivation for what we do and motivation is everything. A couple of weeks ago, Terri Perry called me up to the grocery store where she works to get some food for the food pantry and when I got there, she said that when the manager of the store found out what she was doing, the manager insisted on paying for it. I told Squirt that in God’s eyes, they both paid for it because God saw her heart and knew she had intended to pay for it. Jeremiah 17:10 says, "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways.”
Let me ask you a question. How would you feel if we got a letter from God, addressed to Christ Fellowship at 1301 North Main and the very first sentence said, “Dear Christ Fellowship, I know what you did.”? What would you think? Would you think we were in trouble or would you think He was pleased?
I ask that because there was a church that got a letter like that one time. In fact, there were seven churches that got letters like that in the Book of Revelation. Turn to the last book of the Bible and put a bookmark in there because we are going to camp out here for a while. The churches that are mentioned in the second and third chapters of Revelation were actual churches not too unlike this one. I doubt if they had dogs walking around during the worship time but I don’t know. We aren’t told anything about their canine situation.
But we are told of their spiritual situations and some of them were okay spiritually and some were not so much. But all seven got letters, written by John, who is the author of the Book of Revelation but the letters and the whole book were all inspired by God. John was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the truth of Jesus Christ and while he was there, God revealed Himself to John in an incredible way and told John to write down what he saw and what he heard.
He was told to write seven letters to seven different churches. The first letter was written to the church in Ephesus. This church was planted by the Apostle Paul and he visited them a couple of times and loved the people there. Timothy (1 Timothy 1:3-4), Acquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:25), and Apollos had all spent time preaching and teaching there and in its day it was a wonderful church.
Let’s go to the last book of the Bible and read Revelation 2:1-7 and see what Jesus thought of this church.
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: Now, hang on right there for just a second. The word “angel” means “messenger” and this letter was written, not to an angel like we think of with wings and a halo, but the angels of these churches are the pastors or leaders of the church who were the messengers of God’s word. I bring that up just thinking that maybe that should be my new title. What do you think? The Angel Todd of Christ Fellowship. Huh? No? He also calls them “stars” that He holds in His right hand but that doesn’t fit me very well either. Oh well. Let’s continue.
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. (He’s referring to Jesus among the churches here.) 2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Let’s stop right there. I bet the church at Ephesus wishes the letter stopped right there because Jesus gives them great commendation for their works in this part of the letter. The seven golden lampstands are the seven churches and Jesus knows what is going on in these churches. The church is His bride and Jesus is well aware of everything going on with His bride.
He tells them how proud He is of them for their good deeds. They have worked hard. Paul and the others would be proud of what they have done and what they have stood up against. Jesus first commends them for their hard work. The Greek word is “kopos” which describes an all-out effort.
The father of this church, Paul, said in Philippians 3:14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. The Ephesian church was doing just that. They were straining toward what is ahead and pressing on toward the goal of leading people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s hard work and they were doing that hard work and continuing to persevere in it.
Every week I see a bunch of people work in and around and through this church, not just in this building and not just me but it takes a lot of people and a lot of effort to do what this church does every week. It takes a lot of time and effort to get the music and slides together for the screen. It takes a lot of time and effort to be ready for the little kids’ worship, count and deposit the offering, keep the books, mow the lawn, pay the bills, teach Bible study, lead the music, straighten the food pantry, clean and everything else that is needed. And I see y’all do it over and over, week in and week out and I see you do it with a smile on your face because you see how God has blessed this church.
But you know what happens when the church is obedient. God blesses it. And you also know what happens when God blesses something. Satan attacks, right? And Satan has attacked this church over and over again. We have had sickness and trials, attacks on out unity and attacks on our finances. Yes, we may have seen angels walk in and disrupt our service but we have also see the cops walk in and disrupt our service. We have had stuff stolen and vandalized. We have drunks and druggies test us at times. Satan tries all the time to discourage us with what we have or don’t have but through it all, God has protected us and this church, this small group of like-minded individuals continues to persevere. So, I think we have some idea of how the church at Ephesus persevered.
But, I go back to my earlier question. Can a church do everything right and still be wrong? Can you do all kinds of good things and still not be right in God’s eyes? I’ll let the Lord answer that question as we continue in Revelation 2, verse 4. He has just told them how He sees all the good things they are doing but there is a problem.
4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
You have forsaken the love you had at first. Some translations say, “You have forgotten your first love.” That’s so ironic because Paul wrote them quite a few years before in Ephesians 1:15 and commended them for their great love. He said, “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the LORD Jesus and your love for all God's people, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” So, what happened?
Last year in the fall I went up to Colorado and New Mexico with the dogs on vacation. On our way back I stopped on Sunday morning for church at a First Baptist of whatever city I was in. I left the dogs in the car and, as you can imagine, they did not understand why. But when I got in, I had several people greet me including the pastor who was very friendly. The building was nice and clean and pretty. The music was well done. Everybody did their part just right and on cue. The pastor preached a fine message. I even said, “Amen” a few times. It was real nice and then we all waddled out just like we had waddled in.
The problem was they had gotten this “church” thing down. It was slick and nice and pleasant and didn’t take too long. Nobody said anything uncomfortable. It all went off without a hitch, like a well-oiled machine. They mentioned in their announcements and in the bulletin all the good things they were doing in the community and I’m sure they were. But there was no passion for Jesus; no passion for other people. Nobody was desperate for God to change them. Nobody had been blessed and was dying to give God glory even if they weren’t well-spoken or well-dressed. It was an efficient church but not an effective church. I think that is a lot like the church at Ephesus and it is easy to fall into that trap.
That’s one of the ways that Satan attacks. He gets you busy with good things and you forget the best things. It’s easy to be so focused on your job or what you are supposed to be doing even at church. It happens to pastors all the time. Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, “Consider how far you have fallen!” He means to remember, literally keep on remembering where this relationship has been.
Do you remember when you first fell in love with your spouse? Do you remember when you were away from them how much you missed them? You would be at work and find yourself doodling their name on a piece of paper. When you got to be with them you just wanted to make them smile. You wanted them to be happy, not because you were supposed to; not because it was your job. You did nice things for them just because you loved them and wanted them to have the best.
Maybe in your relationship with your spouse, you need to consider how far you have fallen but Jesus is warning all of us that we need to remember our first love of Jesus and what our relationship with Him used to be. In our relationships with each other, our love matures and we don’t expect our loved ones to treat us like they used to. But we do expect them to love us just because of who we are and we expect to not be taken for granted. God feels the same way about our relationship with Him.
In Luke chapter seven there is a story about a woman who quietly went to Jesus while He was eating dinner at a man’s house and the woman started crying as she lovingly put perfume on Jesus’ feet. She cried and cried and wiped her tears from the feet of Jesus with her own hair and she poured a whole bottle of perfume on His feet and never said a word. She didn’t want attention. She didn’t want anything from Jesus. She just wanted to show Him how much she appreciated Him and loved Him and all she could do was what she did. She loved Jesus and just wanted to be with Him and just wanted Him to know it.
Do you think when that woman died and went to Heaven that she looked back on that event with any regret? Do you think she got to Heaven and thought, “Yea, these rewards are incredible but I probably should have used just half of that bottle and sold the rest”? I mean that would have been more efficient, wouldn’t it? Using the whole bottle to anoint His feet was just wasteful. What a shame, right?
Oh, don’t you know she wishes she would have had ten bottles to pour on His precious feet. Yes, let it be wasteful! Let your sacrifice be wasteful. Let your time, talent and treasure be wasted on the glory of God. If God tells you to give, give big. I’m not talking about giving money to the church necessarily. If God calls you to give to the church give big, yes. But what about giving love to your neighbor that bugs you? What about giving big to the food pantry to help people you may never meet? What about giving big forgiveness to somebody that has done you wrong and would never forgive you? Waste your forgiveness on them. If God tells you to do something, go big or go home. Who cares about efficient? Jesus wants us to be effective.
I think it boils down to faith. Do you truly believe; do you truly have faith that God is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine as Paul encouraged this very church in Ephesians 3:20? Do you truly believe that God is faithful? If He asks you to give your money or your time or your talent to something that the church is doing, do you think His reward will be worth it? Do you love Him enough to do something big for His name even if you aren’t rewarded; even if you get no glory or recognition; even if you go broke doing it?
I don’t care what the preacher on TV says, your reward for being an effective disciple of Jesus may NOT be health or wealth. You may lose all you have. You may not get well. If that is why you serve God, then you need to “Consider how far you have fallen!” and repent. Remember your first love and how He loves you and what He has done, is doing and is going to do for you and serve Him big just because you love Him.
D.L. Moody wrote in his book Moody’s Anecdotes (pp. 71-72) these words. Show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community. In Chicago a few years ago a little boy attended a Sunday school I know of. When his parents moved to another part of the city the little fellow still attended the same Sunday school, although it meant a long, tiresome walk each way. A friend asked him why he went so far, and told him that there were plenty of others just as good nearer his home.
"They may be as good for others, but not for me," was his reply.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because they love a fellow over there," he replied.
If only we could make the world believe that we loved them there would be fewer empty churches, and a smaller proportion of our population who never darken a church door. Let love replace duty in our church relations, and the world will soon be evangelized.
Our church website says we have a passion for Jesus and a passion for others. I believe that. I see that and I want to encourage you to continue in that. Be big with your love. Be wasteful with it. When people talk about the members of Christ Fellowship they ought to say, “They love big over there!”
But we only do it by God’s grace and for His glory. We have a loving relationship with God through His Son Jesus and you can too. Ask God to forgive your sins. Repent of those sins and allow Him to change your life today. Do it right now as the music plays.
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