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Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2009: Expect It

Marc Swearingen

Love With a Risk

Running From Duty

The Pearl of Great Price

A Universal Cross

The Voice of Conscience

God’s First Promise

Iron Mixed With Clay

Christ Our Righteousness

By Faith or By Sight?

Questions and Answers with Marc Swearingen

A Knowledge of Evil

Our First Love

What I'd like to do is I'd like to just close with a with what I feel is a very appropriate devotional thought I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 2 Revelation chapter 2 Revelation chapter 2 Chapter 2.

And while you're turning there, I'd like to share something with you.

I can remember when I became a born again Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

I mean, I just, this message just set me free.

And when I learned this message, I purposed in my heart to commit it to memory.

And I studied for hours a day, masticating this message that we have.

And I can remember the Sabbath of my baptism.

I was, you know, I could sense God leading me in a powerful way and I can remember it was an evening, it was a Sabbath evening baptism after church, you know, a few hours after church and I was sitting on the front row with another woman who was going to be baptized with me and another gentleman And I can remember her sitting there and she was looking at me and talking to me and saying, you know Mark, I'm not sure if I'm making the right decision.

And I looked at her and I basically said, well, Let's just get baptized and see what happens.

And did you know that when I was baptized, I sensed the Holy Spirit come upon me in my heart with power.

I know that sometimes when it comes to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, sometimes that baptism happens before the water baptism, biblically.

And sometimes that baptism happens after the actual water baptism.

And then sometimes it could also happen simultaneously, the 2 can happen together.

Of course we need to daily receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit as we lay our hearts before God each and every day.

But friends, I was on fire for this message.

I mean I masticated and chewed up and just ingested this message because I wanted to commit it to memory so that if I was ever in a situation and I didn't even have a Bible, I would be like a spiritual machine gun just pumping out texts and defending the truth, you know, that had set me free.

I mean, I was motivated and high energy and high octane, and people would always tell me, well, at the time I wasn't a pastor, but they'd say, Mark, you know, you're just so on fire.

But then, you know, over time, you know, it's not the uppercut from the devil, it's the jab, wearing you down.

And over the course of time, you know I could sense that momentum lessening subtly.

You know the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2 verse 1 had that problem.

And what's interesting, when you start reading there in verse 1, and we're going to read that in just a second, but I can remember that I had sensed my experience get so subtle over time to the point where I was in the bathroom in front of a mirror 1 morning, looking at myself in the mirror thinking, what happened to me?

I was so pumped up about this message and I know we're not supposed to go on feelings but even the spiritual energy had waned.

And I can remember looking at myself in the mirror thinking, what happened to me?

And you know, like the Holy Spirit does, and like I've described to you all week, God speaks through our thoughts.

And the thought came to my mind, you have left and lost your first love.

And Ephesus there in verse 1 was a church that went through that experience.

And I believe that if we are in danger or maybe even have lost our first love, We can learn from the experience of Ephesus to get that first love back.

It says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the 7 stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks.

I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars, and has borne, and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored, and has not fainted.

Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Now friends, that's a pretty lengthy passage, but let's just take a moment to look at it.

Notice that Jesus in verse 1 talks to the church at Ephesus.

And for those of us who understand Revelation, you know that Revelation chapters 2 and 3 address the messages to the 7 churches.

And I believe that there are 3 parallel applications to what these churches represent.

First of all, they were literal churches in John's day that had real spiritual problems.

Secondly, they also line up and measure up with certain epics and periods of church history.

Beginning with Ephesus and ending with Laodicea, from the time of Christ down to the end of time.

Those 7 churches line up with different phases of Christian church history.

But thirdly, I believe that the spiritual problems that the 7 churches faced, Christians in all ages, can and have faced.

And it's interesting to note that Jesus begins by offering a description and He describes Himself as He that holdeth the 7 stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks in verse 1.

Now God's right hand is a symbol of upholding power, sustaining strength, And the stars can symbolize both angels and people and messengers.

And I believe that here Jesus is saying, look, I'm still upholding you with my right hand.

I'm still in the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks.

I'm still walking in the midst of the churches.

Even with Laodicea, even though Jesus is outside of the hearts of the Laodicean Christians by knocking on the door and saying, let me in, He's still beside us at least, walking in the midst of the churches, even though we've done a lot in many cases to try to grieve him away.

I've still got you in my right hand, and I'm still in the midst of the candlesticks.

And then notice in verses 2 and 3, he mentions 6 or 7 strong positive qualities about this church.

A church that was first, A church that was desirable, a church that was on fire, but then its love began to wane.

Before dealing with the issue, Jesus tactfully affirmed them in some strengths.

You know, I wonder if We would do well to do that when we have to deal with difficult people and address tough issues with them.

If we should begin by affirming their strengths, if they have any, and then dealing with the issue.

I think we'd find a lot better conflict resolution if we did that and had that approach.

But notice that Jesus says, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience.

You see, this church was a laboring church that exhibited much patience and tribulation.

And then he said, How thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars.

You see, they dealt faithfully with unfaithful teachers.

They removed them and did not allow them to deceive and mislead people.

They dealt faithfully with false doctrine when it came into the church back then.

And notice in verse 3, and they have borne and has patience and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted.

But notice down there in verses 4 and 5, He gives them the issue.

He speaks to them about their spiritual challenge.

He says, nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.

You see, they were still functioning in a capacity to assist the work of God.

But their hearts and the faith in their hearts had grown cold, it had waned.

That love and passion, And I'm not talking about an emotional passion.

I'm talking about a deep conviction type of passion.

An enthusiasm and a motivation for the gospel had waned and had nearly come to a standstill.

And that was the issue that Jesus was dealing with.

And he said, look, remember in verse 5, therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.

He said, look, remember from where you fell and come back and find me where you last left me.

Where your faith last grew dim, I'm waiting right there for you to come back and reconnect with me." And I would submit that that's a daily experience, friends.

My wife and I went to Tampa to a convocation.

We didn't have children yet and we had met my mom down there because I was doing an evangelistic series in Clearwater, Florida.

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Series

Restoration 2009: Expect It

Our First Love

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Rehoboam

49m

Losing the First Love

53m

Together- Part 1

57m

Born Again - Part 1

1h 9m

Seminars

Your Problem Solved

1h 2m

Reprioritizing in the Last Days

Use of Spiritual Gifts

1h 10m

WYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Repentance and the Latter Rain

1h 19m

FYI 2009 Plenary Sessions

From World-class Dancer to Word of God Preacher

1h

Devoted Devotions: A Vibrant Devotional Life for the Last Days

Something to Do with Surrender

41m

Power of the Everlasting Gospel

An Unwanted Guest: Jesus at the Door

1h 25m

Morning Devotional

Radical Faith

38m

Don’t Forget Where You Came From

40m

Sound Doctrine