Summary: <p>Revelation 2:1–7 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: <br><br>20 This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. <br>Angels- 19:10; 22:9; 8:3–4<br>Churches- Revelation 11:3–7, 10 Lampstands refer to those who are God’s prophetic witnesses.<br>Mark 4:23; Luke 8:16 16 “No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl or hides it under a bed. A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house. 17 For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all. 18 “So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.” <br>Matthew 5:14–16 14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. <br>The statement that Jesus walks in the midst of the 7 lamp stands is intended to remind the introverted readers that their primary role in relation to their Lord should be that of a witness to the outside world.<br>Leaving their first love is their failing to be a prophetic witness.<br>2 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. <br>4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. 6 But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do. <br>7 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God. <br><br>So having right doctrine is not enough, defending against compromise and maintaining the church’s purity is not enough. We must maintain a faithful witness to the outside world and to do this we must love people and seek to build them up.<br><br><br>Church is personal. Are we careful with people’s feelings? We maintain the balance between our love for God and love for people. Our love for God is expressed partly in our love for people. You cannot have one without the other. We don’t love God and ignore people. We don’t love people and ignore God’s truth, and our witness of that truth to the people we are called to love.<br><br><br><br><br>Knowledge makes us prideful, but love builds people up.<br>We demonstrate we love God by loving people.<br>We can love people we disagree with.<br><br>We protect people from feeling rejected by shutting down gossip.<br>Gossip- idle talk or rumors especially about the private affairs of others, tattling. casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details which are not confirmed as true.<br>Is there a conflict? Yes. Is this something we need to bring the other person in here to talk about? No. Then we don’t need to talk about it at all. End of story.<br>You are either seeking to obey the Matthew 18 process or you are involved in being divisive.<br>We only talk to people who are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Either way, we are seeking reconciliation, not division. <br>We protect people from feeling rejected by privately addressing individual issues as they arise.<br>Confidentiality (This is what we’ve been talking about on the last two points)<br>When we love people by demonstrating that we accept them regardless of their behavior or beliefs the result is that they feel safe with us, and they begin to share things with us.<br>Maintaining confidentiality is how we get to the 3rd thing, honesty.<br>People will share things with us that are above our pay grade and we won't know all the answers, but here we need to remember that we are not the Savior but we are here to point them to the Savior, Jesus. When they see us not know all the answers they see us exercising faith and this encourages them to exercise their own faith and to trust ultimately not in us but in Jesus. <br>We must maintain the balance between maintaining confidentiality and knowing when to seek help. This is centered around 3 things. <br>Being hurt<br>Hurting others<br>Hurting themselves<br>Honesty<br>We we give people acceptance and they know we can maintain confidentiality, the result is we have created an environment where honesty can take place.<br>People will not be honest with us, until we are honest with them.<br>Maintaining our testimony with people doesn’t mean we have to make them think we are perfect people. Rather, they should be able to see our struggles but know that we bring our struggles to Jesus.<br>Parents, create this culture and environment in your home when your children are young, and they will be honest with you when they are teenagers.<br>Honesty means people can be themselves, share their doubts, ask you hard questions, and admit to you their struggles.<br>Getting to the place where people can be honest with us is how we create a culture of discipleship. <br>If people can’t be honest with us, because they will feel rejected or that we can’t keep their confidences, then we will never see where they need the Gospel applied to their hearts. <br>If they can’t share their doubts about their faith with us, and their struggles with sin with us, then they are forced to do the Christian life alone.<br>If people can’t ask us the hard questions, they are going to ask someone else.<br>If they cannot share their struggles, then the struggles stay in the darkness where they can thrive.<br>Church should be a place where you can ask hard questions, not just a place where you have to be very confident in your faith in order to be accepted.<br>Loving people doesn’t mean we have to set them straight on every issue right away, even if we feel strongly about the things they are involved in.<br>Honesty also means we are free to admit when we don’t know the answer to their questions. We can say “I don’t know.” Remember that our dependency is on the Holy Spirit, not to be the Holy Spirit.<br>It’s a Process<br>Building up people in love is a process. There is no finish line, or trophy that says “congratulations, you are now finished with growing to be like Jesus. <br>Building up people in love is a process that happens over time by shaping, crafting, and molding people by applying the Gospel to their life experiences.<br><br><br>So we are seeking to create a church community that is not just for the few and the committed.<br><br>What if a farmer only planted seeds randomly.<br>What if an athlete only exercised when he felt like it.</p>
