“I know ]your deeds and your toil, and your patient endurance, and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and have tested and critically appraised those who call themselves apostles (special messengers, personally chosen representatives, of Christ), and [in fact] are not, and have found them to be liars and impostors; and [I know that] you [who believe] are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and that you have not grown weary [of being faithful to the truth]. But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]. So remember the heights from which you have fallen, and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will] and do the works you did at first [when you first knew Me]; otherwise, I will visit you and remove your lampstand (the church, its impact) from its place—unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:1-5 AMP)
This is Sunday morning, so I will be short, sharing a lesson that can suffice for your Sunday School lesson you will miss due to the pandemic. Although I want to be short, let me make sure you can identify with what I am about to say.
Picture a layer cake, stacked at the top with a luscious icing that you personally, particularly love. Or picture a decadent desert like a chocolate or vanilla mousse, where you only eat the top of three delicious favors. You don’t like bananas, so when it comes to banana pudding, you just eat the vanilla wafers and the custard on top because you don’t really like bananas.
You have a picture in your mind, right? Well. While you are waiting for morning service to begin, face-to-face or virtually, take a few minutes to read what Jesus has to say to the church at Ephesus; a message that has more than one practical lesson for churches today corporately and we who individually make up local churches. Don’t just eat the top coating, as with the desserts I mentioned above, but eat the whole thing. If I had to name it with a food in mind, I would call it a Mercy Sandwich. I don’t know what specific message will be sent to the angel of your church, your pastor, but listen for all the ingredients, all the layers. Eat the whole thing from top to bottom. In the above passages, Jesus mercifully gives compliments to the church at Ephesus; commends them for things they are doing well. That’s the first layer and we love it! But again, don’t stop there. Eat the whole thing! Go to the second layer that mercifully mentions the church at Ephesus’ areas of “Needs Improvement;” things that have to be fixed, individually or corporately as a church. Keep going to the third layer, where you find the merciful exhortation to remember the spiritual heights you reached in word and deed in times past, along with the remedy. The remedy is simple, “Repent.” Mercy cause the Lord to give us second chances, over and over, to get it right.
So again, I encourage you to eat the whole thing this morning and discover, as you listen carefully and attentively, how the Lord mercifully gives us a chance to get better. Oh, this is for you and for me because there are no perfect churches or perfect people. We just have to regularly eat the whole thing. Be blessed!
“He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], to him I will give [the privilege of eating] some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name engraved on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17 AMP)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King