[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I want you to imagine that you are living in the city of Ephesus in the year 50 AD.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can walk the marble paved streets of one of the most affluent and influential cities in the world at that time.
[SPEAKER_00]: A quarter of a million people live here, and at that time, that's a really, really big city.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a city that has tremendous economic significance, because roads converge here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a huge harbor that brings in a lot of goods.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then you also have towering above the city.
[SPEAKER_00]: the temple of Artemis, Artemis of the Ephesians, as it's called.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a religious tourist destination where people flock from all over the known world to come and worship at this temple in this mighty city of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: But behind all of that grander and all of that pump,
[SPEAKER_00]: is a well-tuned money-making machine because emphasis in many ways is a tourist trap.
[SPEAKER_00]: The temple of Artemis is actually overseen and run by the government.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a money-making operation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are lots of people who are getting very, very wealthy off of the idols and the souvenirs and the trinkets that get sold and the whole temple economy that has built up around this temple of Artemis.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you were to live in Artemis at this time, you would absolutely be expected to participate in all of the religious festivals and all of the feasts and the parties that they would have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then one day, a man named Paul walks into town with a small team.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't look like much, but this group of people is going to turn this city upside down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul starts in the synagogue, but then he rents a local lecture hall owned by a philosopher, because he's no longer welcome at the synagogue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while he's there, he teaches the Word of God in the afternoons in the off-hours when he could rent this lecture hall probably with the money that he made from his tent making business.
[SPEAKER_00]: And day after day for two years, he preaches the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the message of Jesus grips this city.
[SPEAKER_00]: more and more people trust in Christ and it's such a radical transformation that even the sorcerers bring all of their cult books together to the middle of the city where they burn them in a massive public bonfire.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what happens when people trust Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: They stop buying idols.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was a problem for a city that was built around this temple of Artemis and where the temple and industrial complex was starting to feel the hit of fewer and fewer people within the city believing and trusting and participating and buying the things that were required for temple worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: all of this leads to the silver merchants, organizing a riot and grabbing some of Paul's team members and taking them into the amphitheater and they probably would have lost their lives or been severely beaten had it not been for the mayor of Ephesus stepping in and warning them that if they continue, the Romans will probably come in and have a crackdown on this city.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Paul decides it's time to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: But a few years later,
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing that he will never see any of these people that he loves in Ephesus again, he shows up just off the coast or off about 30 miles south of Ephesus in my leadists.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the coast he invites the elders of the church and Ephesus that he started that he discipled to come meet with him there and he gives them an urgent prophetic warning along with an emotional, tearful goodbye.
[SPEAKER_00]: So guard yourselves, and God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Feed and shepherd God's flock, His church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Purchased with His own blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following, see Paul knew that the greatest risk to this young church in Ephesus was not actually the pagan culture outside the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the distortion of truth inside the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so his biggest message for them is watch out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct the false teaching, guard yourselves, guard the flock, watch out for these vicious wolves who will try to distort the truth and draw a following.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not long after, while Paul has changed to a Roman guard under House arrest and Rome,
[SPEAKER_00]: He picks up a pen and writes another letter, back to this church that he loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: We call it the Book of Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this letter, Paul acknowledges what this church is well known for, the reports that he has been hearing about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I read sections of this letter to you, I'm gonna invite you to participate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will point at you when I want you to fill in the next word.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's what he says in Ephesians chapter one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ever since I first heard of your strong faith
[SPEAKER_00]: Love for God's people everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not stopped thinking God for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So two key things that he mentions there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard about your strong faith in Jesus Christ and your love for all of God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are known for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Word of this has reached me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he encourages them to continue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And chapter four he says, always be humble and gentle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he shares a vision for the future of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He talks in chapter four about the leaders that God has given the church and how they're supposed to build the church up and equip people for doing the work of the ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as he talks about this, he gives them this vision for what the church could look like in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, then we will no longer be immature like children.
[SPEAKER_00]: We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, we will speak the truth in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Growing in every way, more and more like Christ who is the head of His body, the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can see the two rails that the church has meant to run on.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have truth and you have love.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to have truth, but you've got to have love.
[SPEAKER_00]: You speak the truth, but you do it in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: You correct false teaching, but you do it with gentleness and humility.
[SPEAKER_00]: In love, a few years past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul writes a letter to his protege Timothy, and a letter that we call, first Timothy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Timothy is now the lead pastor of the church in Ephesus, and the mandate Paul has for him is exactly the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says in 1 Timothy 1, when I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those who's teaching is contrary to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let them waste their time and endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees.
[SPEAKER_00]: These things only lead to meaningless speculations which don't help people live a life of faith in God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So heavy emphasis on truth here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he says, The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love.
[SPEAKER_00]: That comes from a pure heart of clear conscience and genuine faith, truth and love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Truth and love, they're supposed to be two different sides of the same coin.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're two halves of the same equation without either one of them, it's not going to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Paul says that if you do a good job correcting false teaching and standing for the truth, the purpose, the result of this, is that it will result in a church that is full of love.
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple more years pass.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul writes his very last letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Timothy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what he reminds him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights.
[SPEAKER_00]: A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach and patient with difficult people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gently instruct those who oppose the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps God will change those people's hearts and they will learn the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single time God addresses this church and Ephesus through Paul, the blueprint is the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: Protect the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: but do it with a heart of love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Speak the truth in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Generally instruct those who oppose the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're gonna fast forward 30 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot can happen to a church in 30 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: The passion and the zeal and the love of that early church if we're not careful can start to become a cold, methodical, traditional,
[SPEAKER_00]: sense of protecting what we have and maybe even forgetting why it's so important to protect it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Doing things the way we've always done and holding fast to the truth that we have learned but forgetting that the whole point is to as a whole church be built up in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Timothy is now in his 80s.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still the lead pastor of the church in Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: John is overseeing the churches in the region of Asia.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he lives in Ephesus and he writes from Ephesus, but he also visits all the churches around the Roman province of Asia.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now in 905 AD, he is exiled to the island of Patmos by the Emperor Domitian, and there Jesus comes to him with a message for the churches that he oversees, including his home church and Ephesus, along with six others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's from that lonely, rocky island of Patmos that Jesus pulls back the curtain of heaven and reveals a diagnosis and a message for these seven churches, including the church of Ephesus,
[SPEAKER_00]: and unless you understand that history.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you have a good handle on the timeline of the church and Ephesus and how they started and what they went through in the kind of teaching that they have had and the letters that have been sent to them and the emphasis on the truth and the love and how they were known for having a love for all of God's people and speaking the truth and love was a challenge that was given to them over and over and over again and unless you understand that, you are not going to understand the weight of the message Jesus gives to them in Revelation chapter
[SPEAKER_00]: Right this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lamp stands.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked last week about the stars and the lamp stands, how the stars are the angels of the churches and the lamp stands are the churches, but some people have wondered what exactly does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: the stars and the angels of the churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some scholars think that that means that God assigns churches guardian angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that there are angels that are responsible for individual churches to help guide them and influence and interact in some way in those churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is a really cool thought that we might have a guardian angel watching over us right now as a church seeking to help us if we don't mess it up, if we don't get in the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some scholars think actually that because the Greek word for angel, which is ungoloss, actually means messenger, and it does not actually mean a heavenly being, it can be any kind of messenger, it can be a heavenly messenger, it can be a human messenger, and it's used that way in the Bible many times both ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: That maybe this actually refers to the chief human messenger of the church, so it would be the lead pastor of the church, and maybe that's who the letter is written to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these are the two main theories about what the angel of the church in Ephesus means.
[SPEAKER_00]: Literally what it actually means is messenger.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the messenger of the church in Ephesus, right this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So personally, I think this propably refers, and I'm about 51% certain of this, so just understand where this is at on the spectrum.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this probably refers to the lead pastors of the churches, and here's why I think that.
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, it doesn't make a lot of sense for God to send a message to Jesus to send a message to us, a heavenly spiritual angel to send a message to John, to then write a letter to other heavenly spiritual angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just an odd communication path to follow, especially because these letters are full of review.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of God's righteous angels does not need to be the recipient of that review.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the lead pastor over the church who is responsible for overseeing some of the development of this church and responsible for helping to correct some of it and maybe a part of the problem in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then they do need to receive that review.
[SPEAKER_00]: When John the Baptist sends messengers to Jesus, those messengers are actually referred to as angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because angels is just the word for messengers.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Bible and multiple instances uses angel for messenger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you look at the lampstands, the lampstands are a visual symbol that represents a human church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it seems very possible to me that the stars are also a visual symbol that represents a human leader of that church that would coincide.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now again, I said I'm 51% certain.
[SPEAKER_00]: So whatever you believe about what the stars and what the angels represent, who are the actual messengers there, it doesn't change the content of the message and the diagnosis of this church, which is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know all the things you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you don't tolerate evil people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles, but are not.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have discovered that they are liars.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, if the letter ended right here would be celebrate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's good stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: We work hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: We expose false teachers.
[SPEAKER_00]: We stand for the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is great.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you jump down to verse six, he says, this is in your favor.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicoletans.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just as I do, it's like, wow, we hate the same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus hates score.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's great, which is probably worth understanding who the Nicolaitons work, because this has actually a key to understanding even a lot of stuff in the book of Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Nicolaitons took their name from one of the original seven deacons named Nicolus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the official story of those people went, well, Nicolus started to grow in his understanding and he started to teach that if the soul is saved, you can do whatever you want with a body.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the body is of the flesh and the soul is of God, and so it's actually better to do fleshly things with the body because the soul is saved anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if it's more advantageous to you, if it's beneficial, if you enjoy it, go ahead and do whatever you feel like with the body, even if it's stuff that would normally be considered sinful because it's okay for you because your soul is already saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might remember times when Paul said, what should we go on sinning that grace may abound God forbid?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the kind of thing he's addressing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of what he says in the letter to the Ephesians, addresses specifically these types of people who have seemed to think, I can follow Christ, but I can still do all of the bad stuff that the pagan world wants to do, and I can keep those things together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the Ephesian Church probably remembered that Paul said, your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot engage them in sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot engage in immorality and adultery, and greediness and all the terrible things that the other people do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Nicoletans, they thought you could do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there is one ancient church father who wrote that Nicholas didn't actually teach any of this stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's being misrepresented.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then actually they latched onto him as their patron saint as it were, but that they distorted his teachings and some of the things that he said, but that's not what he meant.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just took his name and applied it to themselves to give them some kinds of ancient validity to what they were doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at any rate, the suffering that Jesus says the Ephesian church endured is probably related exactly to this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because what the Nicolatans did is they would say, well, I followed Jesus, I followed Christ, my soul is saved, I got my fire insurance, but also, since my soul is already saved, then I'm going to go ahead and participate in all of this stuff I'm expected to do as a good citizen of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go to the temple feasts.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to participate in the feasts and the festivals to the goddess Artemis.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to participate in the parades, which involves all kinds of immorality and acts of wicked immorality that God opposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Nicolaytans thought, well, we can go ahead and engage in these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's writings outside of Scripture that tell us more about what the Nicolaytans did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you did not participate in that,
[SPEAKER_00]: as a Christian who was trying to follow Jesus in Ephesus, well, you would have some problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'd be ridiculed, you would be a social outcast for many people.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were not seen at the temple feasts and involved in the festivals, something was wrong with you, you weren't a good citizen, you weren't participating.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you would actually be viewed as being immoral.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were not participating in those immoral things that they were doing, if you were not involved in the idolatry and the immorality.
[SPEAKER_00]: then they would look down on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was bad for business.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you were a business owner, it could cost you your job if you weren't a business owner.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you could face real persecution for holding fast to your faith, which is why it was very convenient for the Nicolaitons to ignore all of those regulations and just try to have the best of both worlds, which of course would not work for them, Paul says in Ephesians, the people that live this way will not be in the Kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they were not actually Christ followers.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is what the Ephesian church was suffering under.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a very difficult situation that they had to patiently endure.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a great thing to hear from Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, you have patiently endured, and you have stood from the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have not participated in the stuff that these people have been trying to entice you to participate in and saying, it's okay, you can still have Jesus, but you can do all these other things too.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can live like the world and for the world and still claim Jesus is all gonna work out in the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Ephesian believer said, no way, that's not for us, we're not doing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus says, good job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Way to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not all goodness.
[SPEAKER_00]: verse 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, but I have this complaint against you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't love me or each other as you did at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now if you studied this letter before and another version of the Bible, you've probably read something that's a little bit closer word for word to the original Greek, which says you've lost your first love.
[SPEAKER_00]: or you've abandoned your first love.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a word for word translation, but the problem with word for word translations is a lot of times when you're translating from Hebrew or Greek word for word, you actually don't communicate the meaning, you just communicate the literal words.
[SPEAKER_00]: But sometimes a thought for thought translation is far more helpful by someone who has studied what those words or phrases or idioms meant in that culture at that time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we look at what this phrasing means, you've lost your first love, you've abandoned your first love, we can identify what does John have in mind by this?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does this mean for him?
[SPEAKER_00]: If God's bringing this message through John, we want to look at John's other writings to, okay, what is losing your first love, look like for him?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can see that if we go to his letters, his epistles, that he wrote, well, he was in Ephesus to the various churches that he over saw in the Roman province of Asia.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we look at the first one, he says dear friends,
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us continue to love one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: For love comes from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So love and love of God, love others and love of God very intertwined here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, but anyone who does not love does not know God.
[SPEAKER_00]: For God is love and the implication or does not love other people, does not love other people and the family of faith doesn't know God, for God is love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love has brought to full expression in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: See for John.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no separation between love of God and love of other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are part of the same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to have both.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He says in His second letter, if someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar.
[SPEAKER_00]: For if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, then we cannot see?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he has given us this command, those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves his children too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when he says, you've abandoned your first love, you've lost your first love, what he means is, you aren't loving each other, and you aren't loving God the way you did at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: For John, these are inseparable concepts, for Jesus, these are inseparable concepts.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you love God, you're gonna love his children.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you say you love God, but you hate a believer,
[SPEAKER_00]: John says, you're a liar.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot, it is impossible to truly love God if you hate his children, or even one of his children.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what's the message that the Ephesians have heard over and over again in their history?
[SPEAKER_00]: Through the teaching, through the epistles, what have they heard?
[SPEAKER_00]: They've heard correct false teaching, but with kindness and gentleness.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've heard stop the false teaching, so that the church can be filled up with love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they got the first part right.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they let the second part slip away.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had uncompromising doctrine, but they failed to show authentic love, like they once did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what happened, maybe, is the same thing that happens in a lot of churches over time.
[SPEAKER_00]: They preferred being right over being loving.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be one or the other, you can be both.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they so preferred having right teaching in right doctrine, which was good, that they let the love piece slip away.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love being right more than they loved God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And according to John's writing, you can't love God if you don't love God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a deal breaker for Jesus, who says, you held to the truth, good job, but you don't love like you did at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you have this equation, and half of the equation is truth, and half of the equation is love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you take away either part of that equation, you do not get the result that you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: They only had half of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus in the very next verse, verse 5 drops the hand, he says, look how far you have fallen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn back to me, and do the works you did at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's a very serious sounding warning.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't want you to miss the hope that is in there, because his message is not, it's too far gone for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's too late.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to come and remove this from you no matter what.
[SPEAKER_00]: His message is repent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn back now, there's still a chance for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can get back to where you were 30 years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were known as a church that loved all of God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet today you become cold and you become more harsh and you stand for the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but you're not loving like you used to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to do the loving works that you did at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn back and repent, and there's still time for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can recover this, so there's hope in all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is a serious warning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will come if you don't repent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will come and I'll remove your lamp stand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what is the lamp stand?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is he talking about there?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the lamp stand refers to the light of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the influence in the impact that this church has in their corner of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: It represents the blessing of Jesus on their church as a church that is serving him and influential in if the lampstand goes away.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that all believers in that area are suddenly going to cease to exist.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that they're not going to still gather, but their influence and impact as a church is going to go away because the lampstand is removed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the church will shrivel and the church won't have the kind of influence and promise that it once had.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a lighthouse without a bulb.
[SPEAKER_00]: where the workers keep coming in every day, not realizing that the ships can't even see their light.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what the church would be like.
[SPEAKER_00]: A church without a lampstand is a church that is going to shrivel.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is going to weaken.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not going to be the light that it once was and it's not going to have the blessing of Jesus that it once had.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is a fair warning for every church today.
[SPEAKER_00]: For every church that wants to be a lampstand church, right doctrine,
[SPEAKER_00]: Without relational love, it's still bad theology.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've known people like this and at times I've been that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you've known people like this, maybe at times you've been that person, that learned the right things, corrected false teaching, stood for the truth, but you didn't do it in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's still bad theology.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you can have all the right doctrine and know the answers and be Bible trivia expert.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that if you don't have love towards other people, God says, that's not good enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not what I want from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've only gone halfway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to love other people or else you don't truly love me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so right doctrine without relation to love is still bad theology.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a church that had become a group of critics.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were concerned with defending the truth, which is good, but they forgot how to act in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what they used to be known for.
[SPEAKER_00]: For their love of all of God's people everywhere, Paul says.
[SPEAKER_00]: But 30 years can change a lot in a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So my question for us today is, what do we want to be known for?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the question I gave you before the message time started.
[SPEAKER_00]: What should our church be known for?
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the part of the message where it gets really risky.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't know what you put in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And part of me expects that screen to go up there and show all of your answers and have the biggest word be donuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it's going to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to put what you submitted on the screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so your answer is now we're going to go up there as we find out what should our church be known for according to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead and put that on the screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well done.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's changing live as someone decided I better add love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Truth and love, love, welcoming, outreach, loving others, loving, well, lots of versions of love, loving our neighbors.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we combined all the love things together, it'd be an even bigger word, so that's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Community gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Donuts is there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Compassion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Genuine love and care, engaging younger generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody figured out how to put a heart in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice, nice work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carrying, loving, Jesus and others.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are good answers.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what we should be known for as a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe all but one of those things are what we should be known for as a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the church in Ephesus was known for great things at the beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Strong faith in Jesus, willing to correct those who oppose the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they missed out on the love part.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a warning that is so relevant to us today, but we can also flip that warning into a guide.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can flip that warning into some helpful direction for us, can't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked last week about how revelations really like a discipleship compass to point us in the right direction, sometimes it helps us to avoid the wrong direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if we turn it into guidance on how to be a church that Jesus is proud of, a church that Jesus looks at and says, that's a place I want to give my blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a church where I'm going to give him the lampstand.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a church where I want them to have light and influence in the community.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a church where I will entrust them with more people because I know they're going to do a good job of discipling them and raising them up and helping them to grow strong in the faith that they're not going to lead them down into some false teaching, but they're also not going to turn them into a bunch of critics.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to be a place of truth and love.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we become a lamp-stand church that would receive a letter from Jesus that includes the first half of the letter to the Ephesians.
[SPEAKER_00]: But flips the second half into your known for your love for all of God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's very simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: It starts with uncompromising truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to have uncompromising truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The last series that we went through was the undivided series.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might think the reason for that series is primarily to keep us from arguing about the things in the conviction bucket and the preference bucket, that's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: The primary reason for that series is so that we know what goes in the dogma bucket and the doctrine bucket, because those are the most important things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also important that we know what doesn't go in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we need to know, what do we believe about the gospel?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the most important thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: How a person becomes a genuine follower of Jesus Christ by trusting in what Jesus did on the cross when he died and he rose again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And believe in him alone for our salvation, nothing that we can do to earn it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many versions of the gospel that are distortions of the truth, and it's those distortions of the truth of the gospel that lead people away from genuine faith and lead to teachings that make you think, well, I can claim Jesus, but I can also still be involved and all of this worldly and moral stuff over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what Paul fought against over and over again.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to have uncompromising truth when it comes to the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also spend a week on doctrine and we have a very strong solid statement of faith that says, here are the things we aground as a church and in fact our entire association, 1600 plus churches in the evangelical free church of America that all agree on these 10 major points and we say, we are going to fight for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will not compromise on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will have uncompromising truth in our dogma and our doctrine.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we have to have first of all as a church in order for us to be a lamp-stand
[SPEAKER_00]: But we also have to have authentic love, uncompromising truth, and authentic love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus told the church and Ephesus, you've lost your first love, you need to return to the works you did at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's he talking about there?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about the fact that you can't say you love someone and do nothing about it and call it real love.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not real love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love has to have action associated with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is not the first time this message has been delivered to the churches in Asia through John.
[SPEAKER_00]: John says in first John, dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other, let us show the truth by our actions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our actions will show that we belong to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we will be confident when we stand before God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you have truth and you have love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you say you have love, but you don't show with your actions, you don't belong to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to have both, but on the authentic love side, you have to show that love.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of our distinctive values here at our church is called Love Is A Verbe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love Is A Verbe, because we believe it's only real love.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's if it's put in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's some action associated with it, we can't just talk about it, we have to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about feelings, it's about action.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the way you really see real love is when you don't feel like doing it, but you do it anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not because you're going to get some sort of reward, but because you love that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the correct response to God's truth is always love in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: The correct response to God's truth is love in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so to help us with that,
[SPEAKER_00]: To give us some guidance on how to do that as a church, because I believe it's going to be individually applied by the Holy Spirit to everybody here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody that's watching online, here's how I want to close the message.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to close by reading to you, Paul's letter to this church in Ephesus, a portion that I haven't covered yet, where he explained to them how to be the kind of loving church that at one time they were,
[SPEAKER_00]: and they ended up not being that way later.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's gonna be some correction here, and there's also gonna be some positive things that we need to do and what I want you to do as I read through this is just be listening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be open for the spirits leading in your heart for just one area that God wants you to surrender to him, that he wants you to grow in, that he wants you to do a better job of, making sure that you are putting love in action in our church and in our community so that we as a church are known for people not just of truth,
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what he told them, and we're not going to put this on the screens.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just have to listen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can even close your eyes and listen if you want to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what he says in Ephesians chapter 4 of verse 21.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Put on your new nature created to be like God truly righteous and holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So stop telling lies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us tell our neighbors the truth for we are all parts of the same body, and don't sin by letting anger control you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry for anger, gives a foothold to the devil.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are a thief, quit stealing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, and here's where all the positive things come in.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to give negatives and positives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people are great workers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people are great at business.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people are business owners.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not a bad thing, but he says, if you're going to do that, go do that well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't do anything deceptive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't steal from other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't use deceptive business practices.
[SPEAKER_00]: But go be great at what you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then out of the surplus of what you earn, make sure you're helping other people be generous.
[SPEAKER_00]: don't use foul or abusive language.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let everything you say be good and helpful so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the ways you can be loving to other people is just finding a way to say a positive word and encouraging word to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is something that I'll be honest, I'm not naturally good at, but I know people who are good at this, who just naturally they spot the ways where they can give a word of encouragement to someone and it makes such a difference in their life that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you will just wake up every day thinking, God, would you give me an opportunity to encourage someone today that is love in action?
[SPEAKER_00]: And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, he has identified you as his own.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guaranteen that you will be saved on the day of redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger,
[SPEAKER_00]: harsh words and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, here's the positive, replace it with this, be kind to each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tenderhearted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me pause right there and just ask a question for you individually.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each and every one of you, this may look different.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is for you to think about what does it look like for you to be tenderhearted?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think other people see you as a tender-hearted person?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what would that look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we're commanded to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be kind to each other, be tender-hearted, forgiving one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just as God through Jesus Christ has forgiven you, imitate God therefore, and everything you do, because you are his dear children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Live a life filled with love.
[SPEAKER_00]: following the example of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you such sins have no place among God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is probably a direct confrontation of what the Nicolaitons were doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obsene stories, foolish talk, course jokes.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are not for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think he's talking especially about the Nicolaitans who claim to be of Christ, but whose lifestyles were characterized by idolatry, immorality and impurity and greed.
[SPEAKER_00]: They won't inherit the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: For a greedy person is an idolater and worshiping the things of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think that's the neglect.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't participate in the things these people do.
[SPEAKER_00]: For once, you are full of darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now you have light from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus has given you His light.
[SPEAKER_00]: So live as people of light.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carefully determined.
[SPEAKER_00]: what pleases the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that an amazing sentence?
[SPEAKER_00]: When 30 years from now, they're gonna get a letter that says, this part of what you did, please the Lord, and this part very much did not.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here Paul is telling them, carefully determine what pleases the Lord, take no part in the worthless evil, worthless deeds of evil and darkness instead expose them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did a good job of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.
[SPEAKER_00]: but their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the light makes everything visible.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why it is said, a way goes sleeper rise up from the dead and Christ will give you light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ gave them light.
[SPEAKER_00]: He blessed their church.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a tremendous impact.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word of Jesus went out from Ephesus to all over the Roman province of Asia.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so churches were started in every city.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they grew exponentially because of the light of Jesus being spread through them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of it started right there in Ephesus, they were a hub.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were an impact.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were a lampstand church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And over 30 years, it kind of shriveled up the light, the love.
[SPEAKER_00]: half of the equation, even though they held to the truth, they didn't have the love, and they didn't put the love in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if they said they had love and they could even say, well, we defend the truth of what we've been taught, we defend correct doctrine.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the way we show love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus says, no, go back to the works you did at first, go back to what gave you the reputation as being a church that loved God's people everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're missing
[SPEAKER_00]: if you were to write a letter to our church today.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the way we need to read Revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What would Jesus say about us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now in a church of our size, you might have different letters to different parts of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or what if you wrote a letter to each of us individually?
[SPEAKER_00]: And said, hey, here's the thing you're doing well, but here are the things you're not doing well, repent and return to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Repent and go back to your first love, which doesn't just mean loving God and loving Jesus, because you can't love God unless you love God's children, and love God's people, and you can't love God's people, and God's children, unless you put that love in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: So church, how are we putting God's love for people in action?
[SPEAKER_00]: How are we making sure that we are loving other people?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's done through praying for others, sometimes it's done through taking meals.
[SPEAKER_00]: To people sometimes it's done to just showing up when there is a need, sometimes it's done, like after the first service, I saw people praying for each other and some people in tears and just the care and the love that we have for each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's done with an encouraging word, sometimes it's done by showing up and helping
[SPEAKER_00]: There are all sorts of ways we can show love, but don't we want to be a church that's known for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We say we do, we say we want to be a church that's known for love, but are we putting that love into action?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what I want you to do is just take 30 seconds now, as I close us in prayer, and pray along with me for what God wants to show you for how you can better put love in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a follower of Jesus, would you bow your heads with me and let's pray right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or Jesus, you did the most loving thing possible by coming to this earth and dying for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you've told us that we need to have the same kind of love for each other, that you had for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it can be hard sometimes to show that love God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a reason why so much of Scripture is dedicated to telling us that we need to love and we need to show that love with our actions.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, I'm sure there are ways that every one of us
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I asked that your Holy Spirit right now would just speak to us, God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help us to know those things in our lives where we have not been as loving as we should have been, where we have not been loving you and loving others and how those are just a connected part of the same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, I pray that you would help us to be convicted of those areas where we need to grow as I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, for every one of us show us where we need to improve in this love and putting into action and whether it's something with our neighbors or something with our small group or something with other people here or people at work or whatever it is Lord, I just pray right now that you'd convict us and help us to grow and then show us the right path.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, show us ways where tomorrow we can show up and show love to someone in a meaningful practical way and let's string a lot of those days together.
[SPEAKER_00]: where we're just known as a people who love other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: People that God's created, God's children, people in this family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I pray that we would be known for our strong stance on uncompromising truth that we would correct false teaching when we see it, especially in our own church, but that we would always do it with gentleness and respect and kindness and humility.
[SPEAKER_00]: And above all, Lord, we may be known for our love that comes from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of the most loving thing
[SPEAKER_00]: how you died for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, God, we get the opportunity to remember that, to remember your sacrifice for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we thank you, God, for how you showed love, help us now to represent that love everywhere we go in your name we pray, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Pastor Adam, for that teaching, Jesus' message, the Church of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Such a timeless truth for all believers, for all time, to remember,
[SPEAKER_01]: all you'd be reminded of and you know it's I find it so easy for in this new life that Jesus gives we sometimes just can forget the why like we've been called we've been made new to to know to love to enjoy God we've been made new to love our neighbors but here's the important part we have to make sure we catch we are
[SPEAKER_01]: We are to love the way, we are to love in the way in which God has called us to.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that sort of love, that sort of way, it cannot come from our own strength, but it comes through knowing Jesus and being led by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, this is something that this is a tall order, it's a big task.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus knew just like his first disciples what many years ago, just like we would today.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knew that we would need ways to be reoriented.
[SPEAKER_01]: to loving that way, to wanting, to want to love that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knew he would need it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, one of the ways in which he did this was with his disciples, he had a meal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he used bread and wine to remind them of them, and to explain to them the love that would be poured out to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Through what he was gonna do, through his life, his life, his crucifixion, and his resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, he was giving his body and his blood away to them as a way for them to know
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this morning, we're gonna be taking communion together first and foremost because it's something that Jesus commands for us to do until he returns because he knows how to forget what we are, how forgetful we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: And secondly, don't we all just need spiritual nourishment sometimes, don't we just need a tasteable tangible way to your mind of the real faith of the real hope of the real calling and the real love that the Lord has given us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this morning as we pass out the elements, you'll notice that there are two cups.
[SPEAKER_01]: The top one is the juice, the bottom one is the bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you need a gluten free option, there's one located for you in the middle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're here today and you are not yet a believer of Jesus Christ, we would just ask that you sit this one out, just allow the trade to pass by.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are not into people doing things because the person next to them are doing it, we don't want you to feel nervous.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is also something that's a very sacred act of worship for believers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you would just let that pass on by and would you please engage with us in a conversation about where you are with the things that Jesus maybe was what question you have.
[SPEAKER_00]: those people at the front afterwards who would love to talk to you about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as the elements go around, if you're a believer, I would ask that you just take time and ask the Lord, is there anything that you need to confess right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps send that you've put off to the side and just sit ahead no big deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there maybe forgiveness that you need to give someone else?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there praise that you have been withholding?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because perhaps it's just been really busy or you've just had a really, really hard season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it would be good for all of us this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just to use this time to stop and hit pause and say, Lord, remind me of the awesome and amazing love that you have brought to me through Jesus and how that is supposed to flow for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you would, I'm going to go ahead and read Luke chapter 22 of verses 14 through 18 and I'll just allow these words of Jesus to His disciples to just orient us to this moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says when the time came Jesus and the Apostle sat down together at the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus said, I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.
[SPEAKER_01]: For I tell you that I will not eat this meal again until it's meaning is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he said, take this and share it amongst yourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just as we will do here in a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: For I will not drink wine again until the kingdom of the God, the kingdom of God has come.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, we thank you for this opportunity that we have as a body of believers in you, as new lives in Jesus, to hit pause and to remember what you've done for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to take these moments and to use them well so that our hearts, our minds, and our wills, and our strength to just be oriented to who you are to what you've made us to be, and to how you are sending us from this place that they end Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let him go back to Luke chapter 22, verses 19 and 20, and says he took some of the bread and gave thanks to God for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he broke it into pieces.
[SPEAKER_01]: and gave it to the disciples saying, this is my body which is given for you, do this and remember it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, we thank you for your body that was given for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you that you give everything that was righteous and beautiful and wonderful about yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wonderful about yourself for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, we thank you for your body that was given.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then after supper, he took another cup of wine and said, this is the cup of the new covenant between God and His people, an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, we thank you for your blood that was shed.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for how it cleanses us.