(Re)Start
Keep The Faith
October 11, 2020
Rev. Tim Sharpe
Jesus commends the Ephesian church's faithful service and discernment but rebukes its loss of love, calling believers to remember God's saving love, repent (turn back to God), and intentionally grow in active love toward God, one another, and the world.
Summary
This sermon—part of a seven‑week look at the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2–3—focuses on the church in Ephesus: praised for faithful service, care for the poor, and doctrinal discernment, yet rebuked for losing its first love. The preacher urges the congregation to pray for ears to hear, to remember how God formed and saved them, and to repent (literally to turn away from sin and toward God). Emphasizing that biblical love is deliberate action that grows slowly through wisdom, persistence, failure, and recommitment, the message calls Christians to recover love for God and others so they might share God’s grace, hope, and power with the world.
Key Points
- Series context: a seven‑week study of Jesus' seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2–3 (first‑century churches in modern Turkey)
- Opening: prayer asking for ears to hear and be changed
- Personal note: minister's lifelong involvement in church music and passing songs to his children
- Ephesus praised for faithful service, care for the poor, endurance under hardship, and doctrinal discernment
- Primary rebuke: the Ephesian church had lost its love—busy activity had overtaken heartfelt devotion
- Call to remember: God formed and saved us; remembering His love fuels our love in return
- Repentance defined: turning away from sin and toward God; humility to admit wrong is essential
- Love as action: biblical love is intentional, concrete, slow to grow, requiring wisdom, persistence, failure, and recommitment
- Final charge: recover and share God's love so others may know His grace, hope, and power
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