The Loveless church
I want to tell you a true story about a church that my
family was a part of, but first I want to read to you Revelation chapter 2 and
then ask a question. “To the angel of
the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven starts
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; and you have
persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not
become weary. Nevertheless I have this
against you, that you have LEFT YOUR FIRST LOVE. 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. But this you have, that you hate the deeds
off the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
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.
Here’s my
question about this loveless church; they have all these things going for them,
you know Jesus says that they have these works of patience, that they can’t
bear evil, that they have tested apostles, found them to be liars, they do all
these things that are good, BUT then you come to verse 5 and it says; “Remember
therefore where you have FALLEN, REPENT and do the first works, or else I will
come to you quickly and REMOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND.”
What do you suppose it means to have your lampstand removed? And what do you think would happen if this
church didn’t repent? Do you suppose
they would enter into the Kingdom of God because of their good works? Do you suppose they would have everlasting
life and be the sons and daughters of the Kingdom of GOD? Or do you think that
when they came to the gates God would reject them because they didn’t have
love? Is love not that important?
(Meaning, could lacking LOVE take you to HELL?)
Now I
want to give a story that actually happened in a church that my family was a
part of. This church was sort of like a
Baptist church but they were non-denominational and they prided themselves in
having good bible knowledge, having good teachers, good bible studies, they had
a lot of people that went there that were wealthy, they could send people on
mission trips, they did a lot of good deeds.
Well, at one point of time they invited some missionaries to come to the
church and to speak on a Sunday. And
when this group of missionaries came, one of them had a word from the LORD, a
prophetic word for the church. And when
this missionary shared and said that he had this word of the LORD to share with
the church, everyone was all ears. They
wanted to know WHAT IS THE PROPHETIC WORD THAT THIS MISSIONARY HAS FROM THE
LORD TO US? And so, the missionary
shared what the message was, and he said what the LORD had given him for that
congregation, for the pastor, for all the people there was; THAT THEY HAD A
LACK OF LOVE, THAT THEY WERE THE LOVELESS CHURCH! The church did not receive that message well,
in fact they brushed it off. After that
missionary left the pastor said, (I’m Paraphrasing) “Well that’s not that big
of an issue, that’s not a big problem… it could have been worse. The pastor said; it’s not that big of a deal because we have
plenty of things going good for us and we can just muster up more love, that’s
not that big of a problem…. You know, we have our bills paid, we have good
theology, we have good teachers… they had plenty of LOVE FOR THEMSELVES and
their OWN LIKES, but they did not have the love of Jesus Christ.
So again,
here’s my question, do you think that church, that church that I was a part of,
that had so many good works going for them, would enter the Kingdom of GOD
because they had correct bible knowledge, because they prayed, because they
sent missionaries to different parts of the world? Or do you think they would be REJECTED
ETERNAL LIFE BECAUSE THEY HAD A LACK OF LOVE?
The question is HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK THE LOVE OF GOD IS? Is it
important or is it irrelevant?
In
reality if you have no love you are nothing.
Jesus will reject you if you reject to love others as yourself and if
you have rejected the love of the Father.
There is no way just to muster up more love in yourself, you have to
REPENT, you have to seek JESUS, you have to ask HIM for HIS heart of LOVE. And if you have not truly repented, you will
not have any more love in you. You will
have the love of the WORLD, the love of the flesh, the love of YOUR OWN DEEDS,
but you will not have the love of your Father in heaven. Don’t suppose that you are going to enter
Heaven being part of the loveless church.
Without love Jesus Christ will REJECT YOU. There is not way to enter the Kingdom of God
without true love. We need to love the
Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and
strength, and we need to love others as ourselves. Do we really have the love of Jesus in
us? Have we really repented of our sins
and are we living righteous? Or have we
fallen from our first love for dead religion, for the love of things that God detests? Check your own heart and make sure you are
really in the love of Jesus Christ.
