SERIES: IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It
(freely adapted from Craig Groeschel’s It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get it and Keep it)
“DO YOU HAVE IT AND DOES IT HAVE YOU?”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES
OPEN
We pick back up this morning in our series: IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It. The first message was “What is it?” We defined it this way – “It is what God does through a rare combination of certain qualities found in his people.” Those qualities are: 1. A passion for his presence 2. A deep craving to reach the lost
3. Sincere integrity 4. Spirit-filled faith 5. Down-to-earth humility 6. Brokenness
Our second message began a study of the traits that marked churches that had it and for us to learn how we can develop those traits in our congregation The first trait was a God-given, God-breathed vision and we said that “You Can See It Clearly.” The second trait was the importance of teamwork and we said that “We Experience It Together.” The third trait was innovation and we said “You’ll Do Anything For It.” The fourth trait was about sharing the gospel because ‘You Want Others to Have It.” The fifth message was about failure being necessary to success and we said that “You Fail Toward It.” And the sixth message was four weeks ago and it was about sharing with others because when you have it, “You Share It With Others.”
This morning, each one of us needs to answer the questions, “Do I have it and does it have me?” Are the six qualities mentioned just a few minutes ago evident in your life? Is God working in you and through you to accomplish his purposes?
In a sermon, John Ortberg told about Max Depree. For many years, Max Depree was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company called Herman Miller. Depree is also known for his books on leadership and his service on the board of trustees of a seminary.
Because of his experience and wisdom, Depree was often asked to speak on the topic of leadership for different companies and organizations. At one event, someone asked Depree what was the most difficult thing for him personally to work on in his own life. His response was, “It’s the interception of entropy.”
Entropy is a term from physics. It is the process in which everything left to itself has a tendency to deteriorate and wind down.
Does the phrase “spiritual entropy” describe your relationship with Jesus Christ right now? At one time, you were much closer in your relationship with him. You used to love to talk to him in prayer. You used to love to read his word. You used to love being with his people. But life has interfered. The worries and struggles of this world have come between you and the Lord. Other things have become more important. There is distance in your relationship. Things have cooled off in your spiritual romance.
Have you noticed that new believers often have it? They’re “unreasonably” excited about Christ. They think God is always speaking to them (and maybe he is). They see everything as spiritual (and they’re probably right). They believe Jesus might return soon (which he very well could). Everything they do is focused on him.
They have it.
Then some more “mature” believer decides to help them to grow up. “This is just a phase you’re going through,” the mature believer explains. “It’ll wear off.” The seasoned person might describe how Moses once experienced God’s presence and glowed. But the glow faded. And the longtime passionless Christian inadvertently talks the new passionate believer into surrendering it and becoming like the rest of the dull Christians you and I both know (and sometimes are).
The Righteous Brothers used to sing about losing “that lovin’ feeling.” Are you singing a similar lament right now? Do you need to humbly admit, “I’ve lost it”?
Be honest. Do you have it? Do you have that something special that is from God and for God? If not, do what you need to do to get it back. Cry out. Plead with God, Give it back! Give it back to me in a way that I’ll never lose it again.
If I could put it in a bottle and give some of it to everyone, I’d do it in a second. But God is the one who gives it. And he seems to give it to those who want it – or more precisely, to those who want him and his will. Maybe it’s time for you to ask him for it; for him to become the true center of your life.
I want us to look together at a passage of scripture that deals with this very problem. It records the very words of Jesus as he looked at one specific congregation in Asia Minor and gives his assessment of their situation. It gives us some important principles in correcting our own.
Rev. 2:1-7 – “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘These are the words of him who holds the seven
stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and
your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be
apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name,
and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the
height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come
to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of
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 the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”
Jesus actually says some good things about this congregation. He commends them for being active, hard-working, persevering, discerning in their doctrine, and morally pure. In the eyes of many people today, the Ephesian congregation was a great church – a faithful church.
Yet, Jesus points out a very fatal flaw. Jesus said, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” The word translated as “forsaken” means “deserted, vacated, abandoned.” They had gone somewhere else. They had left behind their “first love.” And this defect was so severe that, if it went uncorrected, Jesus said that it would result in the extinction of their light. Jesus warned that if they continued in the same direction, the church would cease to exist.
What was this first love that they had left behind? It was their inner devotion to Christ that had marked their earlier commitment. It is like the love shared by newlyweds.
When your marriage relationship is new, it is fresh and alive. You spend time with each other. You enjoy being with each other. There is an energy that emanates just from your relationship. When you’re apart, you long to be with each other. Life seems to have no real meaning without your mate at your side.
But what happens? Melvin Newland describes it this way: “But there are jobs to go to, and appointments to
be kept, and stresses to be dealt with, and arguments and problems and family feuds and fusses. And all of
these things pull on us, until soon the demands become so overwhelming that the love relationship begins to
suffer. Then one day you look across the table at each other and you think, “That’s not the person I married.
You’re a stranger. I don’t know you anymore.” And what’s happened is that your love has been starved. It
didn’t receive the daily nourishment it needed to grow healthy and strong.”
You see, at one time, the Ephesians had felt so much love flowing from God to them, that they were afraid if they took it in all at one time that their hearts would explode. At one time, they had lived with a simple childlike trust in God, a trust that freed them from the debilitating concerns that crushed others. At one time, the Christian life seemed like an adventure. They never knew when God would break in with a leading, a sign, a display of his power.
Jesus is saying to the church at Ephesus and to some of us today: “You have abandoned that innocent, enthusiastic, authentic love you had for me. It used to characterize your life. But now a very subtle and serious erosion has happened in our relationship. Your love light doesn’t burn so brightly anymore.”
We do that, don’t we? Somewhere along the way, some erosion occurs. Things settle down. The shine wears off. The new car smell is gone. We turn from being believers who have enthusiasm without much knowledge to being believers with knowledge but without much enthusiasm. The fervor of our love for Christ is replaced with an indifferent, unenthusiastic devotion.
When Christians begin to take God’s love for granted, their hearts start to grow cold, and the dynamic that fueled their spiritual life disappears, then over time our Christianity becomes mechanical and emotionless. Oh, there might be some activity that goes on for a time. There might be a little labor, a little service, a little resentful giving, some sporadic attempts at prayer, but the life-giving dynamic of it all is mission.
The single greatest challenge in all of our lives is staying in a vital, first-love kind of relationship with Jesus Christ. It the biggest challenge in my life and it’s the greatest challenge in yours.
So how do we rekindle our relationship with Jesus? How do we get it back? Christ gives us three important things we can do that will help us rejuvenate our walk with him.
REMEMBER
God will send you reminders about how you’ve forgotten your relationship with him. I read a story about a fellow in the Navy who was an engineer on a submarine. He was often out at sea during important family occasions and as a result, he sometimes forgot about them.
One year he missed his wife’s birthday. Unfortunately, it was impossible for her to tell him how furious she was. The Navy screened all messages to their personnel. They wanted to edit anything out of them that could be considered disturbing to the men on board the sub.
However, this woman got creative. She sent her husband a letter, thanking him profusely for the lovely birthday present he so kindly remembered to send her. She went o and on about how special he had made her feel by his thoughtfulness, and how grateful she was for his generosity.
Navy personnel dutifully delivered her letter. The man got the message. And he never forgot his wife’s birthday again.
Jesus said, “Remember the height from which you have fallen!” He’s asking you to reflect on what you used to have. Look at the relationship the way it used to be and compare it to the way it is now. Consider the joy you found and the peace you had at a former time. Are things as wonderful in your relationship with Christ as they once were?
REPENT
Jesus says that after you remember, you have to repent. Repentance is not a popular word in our world. Repentance is a decision to change. It’s an admission that your thoughts and your actions have not been right.
When you repent, you look at your sin and you see how ugly and horrible it is. And you don’t try to deny it. You don’t blame it on someone or something else. You did it and you face the reality of it.
The word translated “repentance” here literally means “to change one’s thinking; to think differently”. But thinking differently must also mean that you act differently. In Mt. 3:8, John the Baptist challenged some of the Jewish religious leaders to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
RETURN
Where do you find an item that you’ve lost? You have to go back to where you left it. That’s where it is. It can be keys, a wallet, sunglasses, an important document, but whatever it is, it is sitting in the last place you left it.
That’s basically what Jesus is saying here. He’s saying that if you have lost it, remember where you had it last then go back and find it again. Where was the last time that you were touched by the wondrous love of God? Wherever it was, if you’ve lost it, it is still there. God hasn’t moved, and He is waiting for you to come back, to become reacquainted with Him. Zech. 1:3 – “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
For a married couple who has fallen out of love, they have to do the things they did when they first fell in love. They have put the needs of the other person first. They have to buy gifts for one another. They have to go out on dates together. They have to do those things to re-kindle the relationship.
For the Christian, it means praying again. Not just statements that tell God what you want. I’m talking about spending time with God where you talk to him and he talks to you. You commune with God and he communes with you. It means reading your Bible and meditation on what God’s word says. It means putting into practice what God’s word says. It means serving him by serving others. It means you participate in individual and corporate worship. It means giving of yourself and your money, your time, and your talents.
Notice that Jesus gives a warning about what will happen if you don’t return to your first love. He warned the church at Ephesus, “If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Wow! What a warning. Jesus is saying to the Ephesian church that if things don’t change and soon, it’s going to tear the soul out of the church. And Jesus says, “I’ll take your witness away. You will cease to exist.”
Today, there is little left of Ephesus but ruins. What was once a mighty ocean harbor is now six miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The coast is a harbor-less line of sand beach, unapproachable by ship. What was once the Gulf of Ephesus and the harbor is now a marshland dense with reeds. And the church at Ephesus no longer exists. We don’t know exactly what happened but most scholars think that they weren’t able to recapture their first love and their lampstand was removed.
CLOSE
Wayne Cordeiro, a preacher in Honolulu, HI writes:
Some time ago some wonderful people in our church gave Anna, my wife, and me a dinner certificate
to a nice restaurant for $100. We thought, Wow, a hundred bucks. Let's go for it. We found a free evening.
We dressed up. I took a bath, used deodorant and cologne—the whole thing. I even washed and waxed my
car, because we wanted to take it through the valet, and I didn't want my Ford Pinto to look bad. The night
came, and we were excited.
We went to this ritzy restaurant and walked in. They gave us a nice, candlelit table overlooking a lagoon
adjacent to a moonlit bay there in Hawaii. Oh, it was nice. And we thought, for a hundred bucks for just the
two of us, we could eat high on the hog. So we ordered the most expensive thing there. It was wonderful.
When the bill came, I said, “Honey, why don't you give me the certificate.”
She said, “I don't have the certificate. I thought you brought it.”
I said, “You have to have it. You're supposed to have it. You're the wife!”
She said, “I don't have it.” And I thought, We are in deep yogurt. Here we are. We look rich, we act
rich, we even smell rich. But if we don't have that certificate, it invalidates everything.
Cordeiro adds: “There are times in our lives when we can look holy, we can act holy, we can smell holy. But without a relationship with the Lord, we've forgotten something. It's relationship that validates everything
else.”
