Let us not faint, let’s live in first love. Hold fast to the living God. The way of ministry goes like this: Man, Movement, Machine, Monument. A man or men are raised up and so begins a move of the Lord. That work can lose its life and began mechanical. Lastly, all that’s left is a memorial marker. Paul taught doctrine that brought life to a pagan culture. Let us not grow cold. Revelation 1:20-2:6

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon #13100
Date: 2026-3-29
Time: Sun 11 AM

P. Schaller –

Great song. Wasn’t that good? It was awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Would you stand with me, please? Stand up. Thank you. Praise the Lord. It is written. It is good. It is God. The tomb is empty. He is risen. Praise the Lord. Christ is alive. He overcame death and sin and the devil. Would you turn to your neighbor and say, he is risen. And let’s bless them. 

 

All right. Amen. Amen. One last thing before you sit down. Are you going to be able to go to the play that we have? There’s Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Do you want to invite your neighbor, the person standing next to you and say, I want to invite you to the play. Would you go with me to the play? 

 

All right.  You may be seated. All right. So, we are studying the book of Revelation, and this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And we have studied that we have God the Father who gave to the Son an inheritance. And we see in chapter 1, the glorified Christ. That he came into the world as a human being, yet he was always God. And he was, he is alive. He was dead, but he’s alive forevermore and has the keys of death and hell.

 

There is a mystery in his right hand, and that is the seven stars. And the seven stars are seven pastors who are the pastors of the seven churches which are the seven golden candlesticks in vs. 20. So, if you could put up for me Revelation 1:20, and put it up on the screen behind me. We don’t have the iPad, so I’m struggling to preach without making pictures. My hands are tied. I can’t talk unless I draw a picture!

 

But that’s fine because you can follow this teaching as we look at the whole phenomena of church life. Because in the book of Revelation, we have chapter 1, the glorified Christ. Chapters 2 and 3, we have seven churches. They are in a part of what’s today Turkey called Asia, Asia Minor. It was an area in the Roman Empire where the seven cities are located, and the key city that we look at today is Ephesus. 

 

Now, you have to have a certain attitude as you are listening, because if you can follow this with me, it relates to your life. Because these seven churches are being spoken to by Christ from heaven. And he gives a message to the pastor, and the pastor is to give the message to the church. And this was written down, so that actually we have seven churches, seven cities, each having a church in them. 

 

Of course, maybe the question is, Were there other churches? There were many other churches such as Colossae, Magnesia, Trails, and some of these churches were even larger than the seven churches mentioned here in Asia Minor. 

 

As the context of the letters are analyzed, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re reading a message from Christ to the church at Ephesus today. We analyze the letter. But in analyzing it, we need some background for context, because it’s an actual historical place and an historical church and it actually has context. The context is Judaism and paganism, the culture of the city at Ephesus.

 

So, I want to do a little, just a few comments on it. There’s endless amount of information on it. But one of the things I want you to notice is that in the world of paganism, there were many gods and goddesses. And I have a graph – not a graph – but a list of the temples in the city of Rome during the time of the Apostle Paul. 

 

So, that list they’re going to put up for me. You may not be able to read it. It’s not the clear. But number of known temples devoted exclusively to a major god in the city of Rome around 100 A.D. Isis, the name of the God is Isis. The number of temples in Rome: 11. Cybil, 6. Jupiter, 4. Venus, 4. And down the list it goes. 

 

So, what is a god in the pagan world? You can read about them. You can actually make up stories from your own heart, because that’s frankly where these stories are coming from, the hearts of men. Superstition. The god of peace makes war. The god of love has hatred. There’s jealousy, envy, murder. Many different kinds of stories with the gods.

 

What’s the essential element of worshipping the gods? It’s basically you live as you please. You just give devotion to them, and basically you can feed your own appetites. If you have an appetite for sex, then you have a god for that. You have an appetite for money or success or fertility or blessing or family blessing or devotion, you have a god. So, in the pagan world, with polytheism, there was actually a growing desire for monotheism. 

 

There was a desire in the pagan world for the knowledge of one god. You could say the Almighty God. But where do you find that in paganism. They don’t have it. So, where is it? It’s in Judaism. The Jews had one God. And he’s the God that brought them out of Egypt, and the God that gave them the Bible. And the God that gave them doctrine. 

 

And the pagan world kind of paradoxically like all of us, we want to have our own way. I want to have my own gods. I want to have my own way. I want to live my own life, but it doesn’t answer my greatest need. It’s not satisfying. Where is there satisfaction? 

 

And the Jews would say we don’t have idols. We don’t have any gods. We have God. And our God appeared to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and we have the Bible. So, there were pagans that turned to Judaism. But there was something about the pagan that they didn’t like about the Judaism and it was their law. They didn’t like the dietary laws. 

 

They didn’t like – there were things about the Judaism that they didn’t like. And so, they are seeking. They were pagans that are seeking God and also becoming Jews. Some of them not becoming Jews but becoming God-fearers. People that feared God. People that were looking for God. 

 

Then comes Christianity. And Christianity gave the pagan the possibility of having God and the Bible, but not living by law. But the message of grace. The message of power. The message of satisfaction. And this actually happened in Ephesus in that city. In a pagan world when Paul went there in 53 A.D. – now the dates are important, because there’s a sequence regarding Ephesus as a church. 

 

Because it was founded in 53 A.D. somewhere around there when Paul went there. And then he realized there’s really a moving of God in this city, and it’s the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. It had one of the seven wonders of the ancient world which was the temple of Artemis. We have a picture of that temple to put up. Okay. 

 

This temple was incredible. It was one of the seven wonders of the world. It’s pure marble. The columns are like 60 feet tall. There’s 127 columns on a foundation of marble. Thirteen steps here. Inside there was the goddess Diana or Artemis, and legend has it that she fell out of heaven. It might have been a meteorite that came down and they made a god out of that meteorite connected with her and the worship. And they had this ideology. 

 

You can read about her and who she was and what the blessing was. Fertility. There was prostitution going on. This was a commercial center. There was business. This was amazing, because this was right there by the sea. There were rivers there. There was a seashore. There were ships and boats and roads. It was wealthy. It was popular. It was famous in the Roman Empire. 

 

This is important for our context, because what happened in this city is a great missionary story of how people came to Christ. When Paul went, he would go to synagogue, and teach and preach from the Old Testament. Some of the Jews would believe in him in what he was saying. They were convinced that Christ was the Messiah. And some of them did not. 

 

Usually he is driven out of the synagogue. It wasn’t a safe place for him to be. He was beaten terribly, at least eight times. Like beaten to death. He didn’t die. Maybe once he did when he was stoned. But like terrible beatings. 

 

And by the way, in the Roman Empire, the lifestyle, the standard of life was very poor. Half of the population was below subsistence level. Like abject poverty, hardly clothing and food or about I read there was 45% of the people or 30-40 percent of the people were slaves. Three percent of the population owned 25% of the Empire’s wealth. 

 

Regarding health, a child that – there was a 50% chance that a child would live to be five years old. So, if you lived to be five, half of the number died. Childhood diseases and so on. If you made it to ten years old, it was unlikely. There were high numbers there, and then if you were old, you were 50 years old. So, people died. The families are heartbroken. There was poverty, and they had these temples but no satisfaction. 

 

Well, I’ll not say that. There just isn’t satisfaction without the living God. What do I do when somebody dies? If I go to a temple like this, will it answer my need? And that’s why they died out. Paganism died out, because there’s no message. There’s no doctrine. There’s no teaching. 

 

So, when Paul is here teaching, and who knows. Maybe he’s on the steps with a group of disciples having a rap session and teaching. But we do know that after he went to the synagogue and he no longer went there, he hired a school called Tyrannus owned by Tyrannus. It’s the school of Tyrannus. And he was there in the afternoons teaching for hours. And he was so good at it that the people came from different areas to listen to him. It says that in Acts 19. And he made disciples. 

 

And what did he teach them? Well, you read that in the book of Ephesians. If you’re a student of the book of Ephesians, you know what he taught them. Because the movement started in 53 A.D. in Ephesus with an amazing growth of people that are coming to Christ in that city cuz of satisfaction. It’s the same thing that is happening in our culture today. 

 

There’s a lot of talking, and there’s a lot of these kind of things that are being presented to people. But when my child dies, what are you going to do for me? Christ will comfort me. When I have a philosophical question about the meaning of life, who’s going to answer me? Ephesians 1 will answer me. What about my temptations in life? Who will answer me? 

 

Will this goddess answer me, or will Ephesians 2 answer me and say, “you who are dead in sin has he quickened and made alive and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Are those just words or are they reality? Christ came so we could have a new life by the new birth, and by the finished work have a satisfaction in life that you can’t find in these temples. There’s no message there. There’s a story but what does it mean to me, you know. That’s the idea. 

 

So, what can we say? The church at Ephesus, 53, Paul now is arrested. And he’s in house arrest, and he writes an epistle in 62 to Ephesus. And that’s the book of Ephesians. Then a couple years later, there’s a pastor in Ephesus, and what’s his name? What’s the name of the pastor in Ephesus after Paul? Timothy. He writes 1 Timothy in 65 A.D. And then before he dies in 68, he writes the second epistle to Timothy. Maybe it’s in 67 or at the beginning of 68 A.D. He writes the second epistle to Timothy.

 

What is he saying to him as the pastor of the church in Ephesus? He’s saying you keep walking with God, because it’s God’s will that the church would be healthy. It’s God’s will that the church would have joy. That the church would be grounded in the truth. That they would know the finished work. It’s God’s will. It’s the pillar and ground of the truth, 1 Timothy 3:16. “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, seen of angels, justified in the Spirit, believed on in the world, and received up to glory.” 

 

Paul is writing to Timothy to reinforce in his mind that the ministry is very important and don’t give up. Don’t back off. Don’t quit. But evil is coming, because that’s what happens in life. When you have the work of God, you also have the work of evil. So, Ephesus is going to face that or is facing it. That’s why he’s writing the epistles, and before he leaves town, he has the school of Tyrannus. We don’t know where it was located in the city of about 200,000 people. 

 

And people are coming in from other cities to hear the Apostle Paul. Cuz when you have a man of God and you have the Word of God, you have a message from God, then you have the people responding and being built up and being delivered and being encouraged in their heart and mind. And that produces an ethos in the community church, the Spirit of God in the church. A way of thinking about life and that’s important that we would be healthy in Christ. 

 

We have joy in him. Faith in him. The truth. The Bible knowledge. Bible school. Have a mission. Bring the message. Love people. Forgiveness. A lot of forgiveness. More forgiveness. More grace. More joy, faith. God is in our midst. That’s the Spirit of God in the church. We did a Wednesday night message. If you go home you can look at that online. Wednesday night’s message is very good regarding that. Okay. 

 

So, we have second epistle of Timothy is written in 67. Paul dies in 68. So, now we are in 96 A.D. and this is when the Apostle John is on the island of Patmos, and Jesus gives him a message to give to the church at Ephesus. And here we see about 40 years later, we see that they have left their first love. They have changed. 

 

But he commends them like he does in every one of these church profiles. He’s commending them except the church at Laodicea he does not. He is commending the church at Ephesus and saying actually you’ve done a good job, but I have something against you. You’re doing a great job, but I have something to say to you. 

 

You’re a great fellowship. Great church, but I have something to say to you at Greater Grace World Outreach, 6020 Moravia Park Drive. I got something to say to you. So, what do we say? Bring it on. Tell us. Tell us. We have a weak spot. We have a blind spot. We have something we need to learn from you. Tell us. Here we are. We want to hear the truth. Come on. You are Christ. You are the answer. You’re the head of the church. 

 

And if we align ourselves with you, we have a movement. We have a man – these four words you can remember – man, movement, machine, and monument. Monument. There it is. The statue. The statue of who? John Wesley. John Wesley. He’s a statue. 

 

But hundreds of years ago, he was alive. He was the man that brought a revival to England. He’s a man that produced a movement called the Methodists, the Wesleyan movement. He’s a man who had the fire of God. A man that had the message. He was in the right hand of Jesus. He’s in the right hand of Jesus giving a message to the church. And that started, and that was a movement. The holiness movement you can read about. 

 

And in time, it became a machine, that people just going through the motions and reading their Bible and doing the things that John Wesley used to do, but there’s no life in it. There’s no power in it. No changed life. And it becomes hypocrisy, and eventually the movement is monument to history. Church history says that. That’s how it goes. Generally. Generally. 

 

So, Greater Grace World Outreach, we had pastor who loved God, loved the Word. Dr. Stevens, and many of us were trained by him, and he put in a lot of time. Put him here on the steps here. Put him here on the steps. P. Stevens. Put him there. What’s he talking about? Jesus. What’s he teaching us? Prayer. What’s he saying? We can go into all the world. What does he believe in his heart? The finished work of Christ. 

 

Are we guilty when we listen to him? No, we were encouraged. We are edified. We’ve been forgiven. We are God’s children. We have the Spirit of grace. We have the Spirit of God. That’s the Spirit of God. That’s how it was. That’s how it was. Was. Past tense. Was. But is it today? 

 

We hope so. We hope so. And if we don’t have, let’s go to Christ, and listen to what he has to say to us. Let’s go to Revelation 2 and read about Ephesus. Cuz they’re losing something. Forty years later, they’re losing something in their ministry. What are they losing? And can the same thing happen to us? Or any church anywhere? Yes, it can. 

 

And I’m on a track right now, but I want to digress for a minute, because I want to say something here about these seven churches. I’m reading from a commentary. “The content of the letters are analyzed. It is clear that they are first messages to historic, local churches in the first century.” 

 

Do you happen to know the names of those cities? Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Philadelphia, Laodicea. Okay. “Second, they also constitute a message to similar churches today.” Like the Smyrna church is being persecuted. So, is there a church today that could be parallel to that church, Smyrna, and we could say North Korea. The churches in North Korea are persecuted. The churches in Nigeria are persecuted. 

 

Then you go to the Laodicea church which is wealthy but they are poor. They are materially wealthy, but they are spiritually poor. They say they can see, but they are blind. The Laodicea church. Is there a church parallel to that today? Maybe we could say in Europe, there’s some wealthy church, but they’re spiritually poor. The building is empty. Five people. Five people are attending a service in a big cathedral. 

 

Or in the United States, we have money and we have programs and systems, but do we have spiritual power? No. No spiritual power. We got the smoke machines. We got the entertainment. We’ve got every other thing we have, but we don’t have. These people in Ephesus in the temple, they had a big, beautiful temple but it’s rubble today. There’s nothing there. Nobody is following it. Nobody cares about it. It’s empty. 

 

But Christ preached that’s the power of God unto salvation. Christ presented to people. That will change a life. Christ will take my drug away. My lust for women. It will be in its right place. Like a fire in a fireplace is a beautiful thing and sex in marriage is a beautiful thing, but outside of that, it’s dangerous. It’s destructive. How do you learn that? In the church. In the doctrine, in the Bible, in the teaching, and in the nature of the anointing of God, the Spirit of God. Okay.

 

“Thirdly, these individual exhortations to the seven churches apply to persons or groups in the churches. They make it clear that the messages are intended for individuals today.” I can take it as an individual, the message. “Fourth, some believe that the order of the seven churches follows the order of various eras in church history.” 

 

Like Ephesus is the first century. Smyrna is the next two centuries of persecution. And then Philadelphia, the evangelical era. And Laodicean era at the end or that’s what we’re living in today. The Laodicean period of wealth but carnality. Okay.

 

So, now let’s go to the text. We’ve said all of that, and we haven’t read it yet, so let’s go. And still more could be said. Revelation 2:1, I love to think that Jesus today is walking amongst us in our – this is a candlestick, and how many of them are around the world. Millions of them, I’m sure. 

 

But there are seven different churches mentioned here, and in his right hand are the messengers. And he says to them, Revelation 2:2. You cannot handle it if you have evil in the leadership, if you have evil in the government of the church. You cannot bear it. It doesn’t fit. It’s not the Spirit of God. 

 

Like you could have people in the church that are evil. And that word is important, evil. What that is. But you cannot have an evil person that’s sitting in the pew be also in the pulpit. When an evil person is in the pulpit, that’s not good. God holds us accountable to who we are listening to. Who is teaching us? And if that person is embracing something that’s not doctrinally sound, embracing some teaching that is heresy or is evil, then I cannot endure it. I’m not called to that. I want to know who I am listening to. I want to know what is being said. And by the way, I have my Bible open to see if what he is saying is biblical. Like where is the chapter and the verse? What he just said, I want to write it down, and I want to write it down when I get home and see what is being said that this is biblical. Because I cannot endure that which is evil. 

 

Homosexuality is sinful. I don’t care what our culture says. Same in the time of the first century. They said any number of things. That’s not going to deliver people. What delivers us is to recognize what is true and embrace the truth. And God will make all the things that are bad in my life, he will show me or lead me and I will – this is a big point now – I will learn how to think with God. And stay with that and have the thoughts that come from the doctrine. 

 

That the doctrine that is being shared on the steps of the temple, because there were no church buildings. There were house churches. And then the school of Tyrannus. Paul is like teaching and making it clear to pagan people that that’s not right, and that Timothy, you got to fight a good warfare. 

 

And Timothy, flee from idolatry. Flee from the lusts of your youthfulness. Be embracing – the Word of God is God breathed. It’s profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, and it will fully equip you, 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Okay. All right. There’s so much to say here, but I want you to go back to the text. 

 

Chapter 2:2, how do you find a man a liar? How do you know if he’s lying? By getting occupied with the truth? Where is the truth? It’s here. Two parts. The Spirit and the Word. John 4:24, “the Father seeks such to worship him in spirit and in truth.” In the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and Bible, the Word of God. The Bible. Words from God. That’s your worship. That’s how you walk with God. It’s the Bible, and the Holy Spirit filling us and bringing the Bible into our heart and mind. 

 

Now, you discern is he lying or not? Is that true or is that an error? Is that false? And the church at Ephesus was able to do that. Why? Because Paul was that kind of leader. Because Paul was that kind of preacher. Because Paul had that message in his heart. He’s saturated with the Bible. He’s saturated with the Bible, and he could give an opinion on many subjects, and he could say this is what I think about it. And it would be 1 Corinthians 7. I have an opinion. I’m not saying it’s the Word of God, but I have an opinion on it. I think I have the Spirit of God. 

 

So, he gave opinion on marriage. You cannot sleep around with other women. You have one wife. You have one wife. He had an opinion on raising children. Do not provoke them to anger. He had opinion on slaves. Honor your masters and God will hear your prayers. He had an opinion on a father, on a husband, on a wife. He had an opinion on business, handling money. He had an opinion on our relationships. He had doctrine that came to life so that Christians in the first century had a life-changing experience and that’s why the temples became empty and the churches got bigger and bigger. The temples died out. 

 

And you know what happened to them? They would go and say this piece of marble, I can use that for my house. They would steal the temple. They would steal pieces, and they would bring it home. The temples were useless eventually. People didn’t worship those gods cuz Christianity grew. Cuz you became – the pagans would kill, when a baby was born and it was a girl, they would kill the girl cuz they weren’t that profitable. They would keep the boy. But what did Christians do? They didn’t kill the girl. They loved the girl. They loved the baby girl. 

 

So, now pagan men needed to get a wife. Who would they find? Who would they marry? The Christian girl. She was the one that lived. The Christian girl lived. The pagan man married a Christian girl, and the girl in Paul’s teaching said that the woman, the believer, would sanctify the family. 

 

And he also said if you are married to a pagan, and they are willing to stay with you, stay with them. Like Paul – what is my point? My point is Christianity is so awesome. When we have it happening inside in our hearts and it’s so satisfying, it affects our family and the family affects the community. And it outgrows the lie. The truth is the best defense against the lie or best offense but it’s also the best defense. It’s offensive. It’s reality. 

 

Heterosexual living is better than homosexual living. It’s better. It’s a better lifestyle. It’s healthier. It’s better. And we don’t say that to condemn anybody, because we all have a sin nature, and we understand what sin is and we’re all sinners. It’s better to be honest than deceitful. It’s better to say the truth than to lie. 

 

It’s better to be heterosexual than homosexual. It’s better to be with your friends than to be alone. It’s better to be wise and walk with God and be satisfied than to be frustrated as a human being and live a miserable life. What’s wrong with saying that? Why can’t we say that? That’s what the pagan world needed to hear, and Paul was not afraid to say it. Cuz it delivers people cuz they then may find Jesus Christ as the reality of life, cuz he is. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Okay. 

 

We got to wrap it up here in a minute, but there’s awesome stuff here. Look at chapter 2:3. The church has not fainted. How about us? Are we fainting? Individually, personally or as a church. Are we fainting? And he’s saying, no. To the church at Ephesus, you have not fainted. But, vs. 4. Okay. What do you have against me, Lord, or against us? You have left your first love. 

 

What’s the first love? The revival that Paul had forty years earlier, because this is written in 96 A.D. and he was first there in 53 for a couple of years. So, we’re about 40 years difference and you have lost, left your first love. Where did it go? I’ll tell you where it went. It sounds like, and I don’t know for sure, it sounds like they were so tough on telling the truth and knowing the right way, that it became the ethos of the church. That they became hard, judgmental. Maybe more suspicious. More kind of calculating governing the church. Not as merciful. Not as gracious.

 

Do you remember that you have sinned and you were forgiven of your sins? Do you remember that you are a wicked person, and God saved you by grace? Then why are you judging the alcoholic or the adulterer? Why are you judging the guy that is a criminal? Don’t you remember that you were a criminal? Don’t you remember how arrogant you were? Don’t you remember how you were saved by his grace? That you were a temple worshipper of the goddess, Artemis, Diana? And that I saved you by grace, and I made you a child of God. 

 

And now you’re like a tough church. You’re like judging people that come in. You have lost your kindness. The mercy. You have lost your light-heartedness. You’ve lost your joy. Where is the joy? Where is the faith? And I could say, Lord, I’ve lost my joy. I’ve lost the love. I’ve lost the kind of fun when Jesus is around, and he feeds 5,000. He waves his hand and the storm is over. Whoa! Who are you? I am God. I made whales. I am God. I made the mountains and the desert and the deep sea. I am God. 

 

Loosen up. Love me. Know me. Rejoice in me. I am the living God. I am the answer for your life. I am the God of grace. I give grace to you. Oh, no, no, no. Be careful. Be careful. Don’t give out too much grace. We got to control this thing. We got to control the church, and control everything that goes on. We got to know everything going on, and we got to be careful about everything. Everything. 

 

No missionaries go out. Nobody is ordained. There are no outreaches. We don’t want to get in

to any trouble. No risk taking. No adventure. No new school. No new Bible school. No new pastors ordained. No more vision. We’re controlling it cuz that’s the safe way to go. 

 

And Jesus said, you have lost your first love cuz I am the God of the church. I am the God that’s controlling things. I am the God that forgives David. I forgive Abraham. I forgive Moses. I forgive Solomon. I forgive the Apostle Paul. And I saved him and I am the same God yesterday, today, and forever. Come on! What kind of church do we have, right? Come on! What kind of church do we have? 

 

You don’t dare do anything because of covid. Like you can’t do anything. Remember those days? You know, we can’t have church but you can go to Home Depot and be in there with a thousand people. You can go in an alcohol store and go in there and it’s packed with people with masks on. 

 

You can go to a strip club, and the woman has no clothes on but she’s got a mask on! That was on the news! I don’t go there. I don’t go there. But as long as she has a mask on, it’s okay. But you go to a church, God forbid. 

 

No, no. I don’t believe that. I believe we gather in Jesus’ name. I believe we honor the medical profession, absolutely, but we also have a faith where we can say we can go to an Islamic country and love people and share the Gospel. 

 

You can go to a leper colony in India or wherever it is and share the Gospel. And God may save your life but he may not and you may die and that’s your decision. Isn’t that interesting. It is. Come on! Where is Jesus? He’s walking on the water. I’m just having fun. I mean it’s true, isn’t it? It is. 

 

Okay. Let’s finish up here. Chapter 2:5, we don’t have an iPad for two weeks, so I just love to draw this picture. “Remember therefore from whence you are fallen.” Where were you? Where you have fallen. Remember from whence you are fallen. Where was I? I was sitting on the steps with the Apostle Paul. My heart burned within me. I traveled 100 miles to meet him. I came from – or 35 miles is Pergamos. I came from Laodicea and I’m sitting with him. I just had, I just had, I was excited about it. I was excited about it. 

 

But 40 years later, I don’t have much of anything. I have a program. I have a system. I have a dead heart. I lost my joy. I got bad habits, and I remember where I fell from. Where I was. Where I fell from. I remember I loved the Bible. I bought a new Bible. I remember on the phone. 

 

I remember in Scott Robinson’s garage having a prayer meeting at 6 in the morning. I remember us praying for the world. I remember the vision and the faith. Remember where you have fallen from he says there. Remember from whence you are fallen and repent and do the first works. Vs. 5b. 

 

So, in the 14th century in Ephesus, there’s nothing there in the city. Everybody left. The city died. The city ended. The river bed filled the city with mud, and the people left for a better place to live and the church is no more there. But this you have and I’ll end there at vs. 6. All right. So, that’s the end of the message. Amen. (Prayer)

*****

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.