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Examining The Heart
52 Plays11 months ago
In this sermon, Cliff Vines preached about the need for believers to evaluate their love for God and the importance of maintaining that love as their foremost priority. Drawing from Revelation 2:1-7 and referencing Deuteronomy 6:4 and Mark 12, Vines reflects on the commendable qualities of the church at Ephesus, such as their perseverance, love for the word, and obedience to the apostle John's teachings. He emphasizes that believers should put preachers to the test using the word of God and warns against allowing their love for God to diminish, which could threaten the church’s witness and existence. Vines offers a heartfelt challenge for self-examination and repentance, encouraging a return to the fervent love for Christ experienced at salvation and fostering a continual vision of Christ to sustain this love. The sermon calls for those who haven't placed their faith in Christ to trust and repent, inviting the congregation to reaffirm their commitment to loving God above all else.
Timestamps:
00:00 Criteria for choosing a church are important.
05:39 Jesus brings salvation to believers, pastors symbolized.
07:29 Jesus among us, temple of the living God.
11:45 Riot in Ephesus due to power of God.
13:49 Believers endure trials, wish they could change.
17:46 Satan crafts false teachings; compare to God's word.
21:28 Church praised for following Jesus' teachings faithfully.
24:49 Spouse: I'll provide, but love fades.
28:37 Eternal love prompts worship and sharing faith.
33:01 Seek a constant vision of Christ for love.
37:07 Disciples show love by obeying God's word.
38:20 Love God more than your spouse for better love.
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Transcript
Gratitude and Community
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning. I want to say again what an honor that it is to be able to to preach here this morning over the last several months. This church has become a ah family to us. And we've deeply enjoyed and been blessed by being here and relationships and friendships that we formed. And so again, it's an honor to be here and appreciate Pastor Ridley allowing me to preach this morning.
Anticipation and Scripture
00:00:31
Speaker
And we've,
00:00:34
Speaker
like I said, we were talking about, we're looking forward to the launch in Lewisburg. And we've been meeting at five o'clock here, although that may change will as far as the exact location. um around here on the campus. But we've been meeting in here at five o'clock on Sunday nights. And if you're interested, we'd love to have you join us. Of course, this upcoming Sunday, it'll be the family gathering, so we won't be meeting then. But we're super excited about what we believe God is doing in the direction that he's leading us to go with the Lewisburg launch. So all that being said,
00:01:14
Speaker
um I wanna ask you this morning to turn your Bibles to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter two, and we'll be looking in verses one through seven.
Christ's Assessment of Churches
00:01:27
Speaker
Revelation two, one through seven. A text that no doubt many of you are familiar with.
00:01:36
Speaker
And one thing I'm sure you're aware of because as you've If you're a member here when you were looking at this church or if you're looking for a church, then in your mind, like anybody else who might be looking at a church to potentially join, you've got some criteria. You're going to assess whether or not you feel like this church is where you would believe the Lord would have you to be. or And you made that decision if you're a member here and you know you have an assessment. You're going to assess any church you go to and say, well, is this what we're looking for?
00:02:13
Speaker
and you take all people across the board and some of those criteria are gonna be good, some of them are gonna be bad. But I can tell you that there is one assessment that really matters concerning every church.
00:02:33
Speaker
And that's the assessment that Christ himself gives. Because Christ is the Lord of every church. and he peers into the recesses of our hearts and he knows the motive and the heart condition and the frame of mind of every single believer in every single church.
00:03:00
Speaker
And we must give an account to him. I want us to read this text this morning as we open our Bibles and we read, God speaks. We have his word.
Ephesus and Repentance
00:03:11
Speaker
Revelation two verses one through seven. It says, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write, this is what the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says, I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance.
00:03:35
Speaker
and that you cannot bear with those who are evil. And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they're not. And you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake. You also have not grown weary. But I have this against you that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet this you do have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
00:04:27
Speaker
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.
00:04:41
Speaker
Now, I have this handy dandy little thing up here. I'm just gonna tell you right now, and I will do my best to try to sort of keep it going along and and kind of control, but I'm sure if the audio visual guys were grading me on how I did on that last service, I'd get an F. So I just will praise the Lord, they know what they're doing. So anyway, but as we look at this passage, each of these, this is, of course, these are seven letters to seven churches.
Vision of Christ
00:05:05
Speaker
They're all throughout Asia Minor. And in this beginning section of revolution, revolution, my word, revelation, Jesus is addressing all of these seven churches.
00:05:17
Speaker
And he begins each one of these letters with giving a description of himself that kind of reflects back, goes back in chapter one, it described him with a face shining brighter than the sun. His hair was white as wool. His eyes pierced to see into every nook and cranny of mine in your heart. His feet were burnished brass. He's a God of judgment. He will bring judgment. And he brings salvation to those who call on him in faith. We need to know Christ. The great theme, the great vision of the Bible is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he will save you if you call on him in faith.
00:06:07
Speaker
And in describing who he is, then he goes on to say in verse one, he said, this is the one who holds the seven stars hang yeah
00:06:18
Speaker
Now, those were in chapter one said to be the angels of the seven churches. Now, most of the time, that word angel means literally an angelic being. But ah given the context and way this is used, ah I and a lot of other commentators believe this is actually the pastors of these churches. It's probably referring to the pastor here, ah these seven stars. And God has them in his hand. God has called men, pastors, elders, overseers, all kind of one office. um he He has called these men to shepherd the church of God. He has called these men to proclaim and to teach His word in shepherding God's
Role of Pastors and Jesus' Presence
00:07:05
Speaker
people. And so we have a very grave and a very serious responsibility because we dare get up and say, thus says the Lord. And those men are in the hand of God and God's hand is on those men.
00:07:18
Speaker
and it is their responsibility to preach and live truth. He is also the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands. The seven golden lampstands we find are the seven churches. That's an encouraging as well as a sobering truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is literally among us. as churches, at this church. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter three, we we are the temple of the living God and he has taken us, as 1 Peter says, like a bunch of living stones and built us up as a temple and in which the the Holy Spirit dwells. Christ is here as we worship.
00:08:17
Speaker
Christ is here as his word is proclaimed. Christ is among you sitting unseen in our midst as we relate to one another, as we encourage one another, as we do nuts and bolts of ministry and sit down and work all that out and plan and mundane things, just you know just ordinary stuff. He's here. And he's here knowing the thoughts of your heart and mind. I mean, he sees the good, bad and the ugly.
00:08:47
Speaker
but he's here.
Jesus' Pattern of Assessment
00:08:50
Speaker
He is present and Lord over his church. So we have the description of Jesus, but we also have the the assessment of Jesus.
00:09:09
Speaker
Again, it's Jesus' assessment that matters. ah You can go see a church and you go, I like this, I don't like that, and blah, blah, blah, and you know, sometimes we're accurate, sometimes maybe we're off, whatever. But what Jesus has to say is what really matters. And here is this is really kind of Jesus' pattern with these churches. He'll start off, there was, one, there was nothing good to say about. But other than that, Jesus starts off talking about the good, dealing with the good before he brings up any issue that he might have.
Commendations to Ephesus
00:09:47
Speaker
And he's got some really good things to say about the church in Ephesus. I mean, this is good stuff.
00:09:56
Speaker
He says here in verse two, beginning of verse two, he says, I know your deeds. It's kind of a generic statement. He says to all the churches and he he goes on to describe what those are, your toil. Ephesus really was a a marvelous church in many ways. And as this describes, they were really a hardworking church. ah I remember you know a few months ago, you know hearing Laurie say, you know hey, we're about to start taking volunteers for vacation Bible school, but you know if you want to do that, you need to sign up pretty quick because this is going to fill up fast. I'm thinking, wow, how many pastors would love to be able to say of their church, you know we got vacation Bible school, but we have to turn volunteers away.
00:10:48
Speaker
In so many churches, it is such a problem to get people to serve the one whom they call Lord. If He's Lord, and if you're living under His Lordship, nobody has to cajole you and prod you to get you to serve if He's Lord.
00:11:13
Speaker
So this was a toiling church. And I've been impressed with this church. we're Working church, no church is perfect, we know that. Just like you and I are not. This is a working church. He said of the church in Ephesus also that you have perseverance. Ephesus, ah it was in a very paganized culture and they weren't experiencing severity of persecution to the degree that some of these other towns, ah churches in other towns did. and Nobody was being martyred here that we know of, but they had faced animosity and hostility in their town. You know, Paul was there in Ephesus. He founded the church. He was there for somewhere around three years and he had to leave because of a riot. And and let me tell you how the riot happened. The riot happened
00:12:01
Speaker
Not because the people weren't walking with God and being foolish and and therefore but you know just they did stupid stuff and the town turned against them. No, let me tell you, the riot happened because of the power of God in people's lives. It was a paganized city and all these people were getting saved. under the witness of the church and Paul's ministry and the people sharing the gospel and their their lives were being totally transformed so that they were bringing all these pagan magic books and burning them and turning people away from the false gods and the idol makers got kind of angry about it. The gospel goes forth in power, but do not be mistaken to think that it always causes pleasant changes.
00:12:49
Speaker
Sometimes they're not well received.
00:12:53
Speaker
And so they had to persevere and in their faithfulness to Christ in a city that really didn't always think too much of them. I mean, they had to acknowledge that they were upstanding people. That didn't mean they liked everything that issued from it. I'm thankful that we don't face persecution here. But I think if you had your thumb On the pulse of our culture, I don't think anybody would be able to say that we don't face an increasing animosity from our culture as Christians. We are facing an increasing hostility and animosity as our culture continues to become more pagan.
00:13:41
Speaker
So what's ahead may not be as smooth as what's been behind us. Not a prophet, I don't know, but it's trending that way.
Perseverance and Testing Teachings
00:13:55
Speaker
But nonetheless, as a believer, one of the marks of you being a believer is that you have perseverance. It's just something God put in you. For instance, every one of you, you have been through times, maybe right now you are going through a time like this.
00:14:15
Speaker
and you walk with God long enough, you will go through a time like this, where things happen that would shake you. And in your humanity, if you could just sit down and have a conversation with God face to face, human to human, and that's not gonna happen by the way, but I'm just saying, if you could, that you would look him in the eye and say, God, I would do this differently and I'll sure wish that you would.
00:14:43
Speaker
that Not condoning that, I'm just saying, some you go through times where you feel like that. You probably have. You don't like what you're facing. But can I tell you, at the end of the day, when the dust settles and you come out on the other end of that, and all throughout that, and you may be upset at God, you may not like what he's doing, and you may want to tell him that.
00:15:16
Speaker
But at the end of the day, you're still going to be clinging to Christ in faith. Why? Because He's clinging to you. You have been made alive in Christ and the steadfast covenant keeping love of God in Christ never ceases. And it holds on to you so that you in turn by his grace hold on to Christ. You persevere. Even when you go through things you don't understand, you don't like your faith in Christ. If you are a child of God, it will endure. It just will.
00:15:55
Speaker
Those who fall away are or not. and they They were not believers. You have perseverance if you're a child of God.
00:16:08
Speaker
He also goes on to say in verse two, he said, you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they're not. And we don't have apostles anymore. ah Unfortunately, you'll find that there are a number of people who like to call themselves apostles. they're they're not That office doesn't exist anymore. But there are plenty of false teachers and preachers. There are plenty of those. And this church at Ephesus had the ability. They knew enough of the Word of God, and they loved it enough that when somebody got up to teach or preach the Word of God, they would put put that teaching to the test, put their lives to the test.
00:16:52
Speaker
What are the criteria for that? Well, Acts talks about the the Berean church. They they studied the daily to see if those things were so. That's how you do it. You you compare it to the Word of God. Unfortunately, a lot of times, the the how they put teaching to the test, people, you know, something along the lines of, well, how does this, this encourages me. It makes me feel
Addressing Sin with Love
00:17:15
Speaker
better. It gives me an emotional boost. I've even heard false teachers and preachers say people just need a ah lift. They just need an emotional lift. And that's what our worship services are about. Listen, friends, you can go to hell with an emotional lift. You really can.
00:17:33
Speaker
How it makes you feel is not an adequate test. Some of them say, well, it makes sense. What they're saying, it just resonates with me. It makes sense. You can go to hell on preaching and teaching that makes sense. Because Satan is more than able to craft false teachings and ideas in such a way that absolutely resonate with and make sense to our carnal minds. He really is. No, friend, you've got to compare it to the word of God.
00:18:08
Speaker
I've heard too many people say things like, well, I really like this such and such preacher, or pastor, whatever. And there are times when I've just wanted to say, friend, if you knew more of the Bible, or in some cases, if you knew more about what this person taught, you wouldn't feel that way about them. There's a lot of very popular and sometimes mainstream preachers that are just false. We need to be careful about that. This church could discern. And I'm thankful that this church at Grove Hill is a solid, sound Bible teaching and preaching church. I'm very grateful for the passion for the word of God that this church has. He said, you also have,
00:18:58
Speaker
Well, I just lost my place. Put to the test, those who called it another, I've skipped one. ah That's what I did. I skipped one. Got ahead of myself. Go back in verse two a little bit earlier. The phrase before, you cannot bear with those who are evil. I skipped one, sorry. What's he talking about? He's not talking about those outside the church.
00:19:25
Speaker
Centers are going to be centers. You are that way before you were saved. The church does not have authority over the outside world. This is not Israel. We're we're not a theocracy as far as political. it We're not. He's talking about those inside the church. And the church, this church loved the word of God. It loved God and it loved one another enough not to coddle and enable and allow rampant, rebellious, blatant sin that would bring a stain on the testimony of the church of God and fly in the face of the lordship of Jesus Christ. They did not allow that.
00:20:12
Speaker
Now, they weren't hateful. The goal of it, I mean, it's done in love. The goal is restoration. But Paul describes that process in 1 Corinthians 5, verses 9 through 13. Jesus described it in Matthew 18. Paul talked about it a little bit more in Titus, especially regarding pastors or elders who are being divisive or sinning.
00:20:37
Speaker
But the church is to deal with those and lovingly who are engaged in certain sin that can become a cancer to the body. And this church was faithful to do that.
00:20:58
Speaker
And he said, you've again, he repeats perseverance and you've not grown weary. The enduring working church I've been privileged to meet with the staff a couple of times.
Modern Parallels to Ephesus
00:21:09
Speaker
And I was telling telling them in the last staff meeting, I said, you know, as I was preparing for this, I just, ah you know, I can't help but notice some wonderful similarities between the church here in Ephesus and Grove Hill. I mean, really, like this is some good stuff. And I see these things here, praise God for that. And honestly, if,
00:21:36
Speaker
If these things could be true, could be said to be true, of most churches in America, it would be a massive improvement. I mean, most pastors, if their church could just do these things faithfully and consistently as Jesus described in the verses that I just read, they would think their church is absolutely in revival and they were flying high.
00:22:08
Speaker
And so you gotta think as the, you know, the Ephesians might've been, you know, maybe some Sunday morning, some Lord's day, they're gathered there and the pastor gets up and he's got he's received this letter from the apostle John. So guys, we we need to listen to what the Lord is saying through the apostle John. And they're hearing this and and and um I would imagine that their hearts are soaring. Like they're hearing words directly from the risen Christ, commending them for these things that they're doing in obedience. And then they hear their pastor read, but I have this against you.
00:22:56
Speaker
And so you kinda gotta wonder, and none of us were there, so this is a little bit of sanctified speculation. But you gotta wonder, when they heard that, did they think, well, this must not be too bad, because I mean, look at all we're doing well. This must not be, whatever's wrong, it must not be too big of a deal.
00:23:17
Speaker
But the opposite's true.
Rebuke for Leaving First Love
00:23:21
Speaker
Because what Jesus said in his rebuke, what he had against them is that he said in verse four, that you've left your first love.
00:23:35
Speaker
You've left your first love.
00:23:39
Speaker
You go back, even looking at the passage we read, we're gonna go Deuteronomy 6, 4, and what Jesus called the greatest commandment in the Bible. The greatest. That you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your might and with all your soul. He adds mind to that in Mark chapter 12. But that's the greatest commandment in the Bible. Now granted that command is only doable for us who are believers.
00:24:21
Speaker
An unbeliever can't do that. They need to put their faith in Christ and repent of sin. Then the Holy Spirit will come into them and then they can love the Lord. It is our business as believers, our first business as believers to make sure that we love God with all of our being.
00:24:43
Speaker
If we wanna know how serious this is, just in a picture sense, I mean, we we have the word of God and that's the authority, that's the real thing, but even just to imagine this on our on a human level,
00:24:56
Speaker
what if, if you're a wife, so you may have heard things like this, I don't know, what if you're a wife and your husband said to you, honey, I'm gonna keep working and I'll keep a roof over our head and make sure we have what we need, but I'm sorry, but I just need to tell you you, I don't love you like I used to love you. You don't have the same place in my heart you used to have. Man, I'll go through the motions, but you're not the delight of my eyes like you used to be, the delight of my heart. What if husbands, your wife, said to you, honey, I'm gonna keep you fed and I'm gonna keep your clothes washed, you know, I'll be a good mother and all like that, but
00:25:43
Speaker
I just have to tell you, I don't won't really love you like I used to. I don't treasure you like I used to. You just don't have the same place in my heart. And I'll do all this other stuff, but you know, it is what it is. I could not imagine that. I wouldn't ever want to hear my wife say that. And she wouldn't want to hear that from me.
00:26:09
Speaker
Now, to be sure, God's not dependent on your love. He's not gonna have a self-esteem problem because you don't love him like you should. He doesn't need us at all. I've heard teaching and preaching, oh, this, you know, I mean, yes, we can grieve the Holy Spirit. I get that. But I've heard preaching and teaching that made the made God look like a victim. He's not at all. But he does deserve your love. And can I say, he values it. He really does. It does matter to him. He values it. He's fine if we don't. But he does value it. Because he delights in you as his child. You know the Zephaniah 317? Yeah, no, it's one of those things you...
00:26:59
Speaker
You might lose a lot of money if you had to bet on, can you find that pretty quick? That's one of those books and minor profits. but But it says that he sings over you as his child. If you're his child, you you are a treasure to him. And your value is couched in the value of his son in that his son gave his life for you, even though you really didn't deserve that.
00:27:26
Speaker
And we love Him because He first loved us.
00:27:34
Speaker
So let me ask you, does God inhabit the highest place of affection in your heart? That's really the question. We look at Ephesus and we have to see does you know what his rebuke there. You've left. your first love and we we're I believe where we can be confident in talking about a love for God because Colossians 1 says that he might come to have preeminence in all things. In other words, first place. Well that means I need to love him above all else.
00:28:11
Speaker
So is that true of you? Do you love him with all your heart?
00:28:21
Speaker
as you look on the cross of Christ, as Jesus is pictured in the Bible, do you love God and Christ with all of your heart? And I know it's not like some emotional high all the time. That's not what I'm saying. But when you meditate on the gospel and what Christ has done for you, and your sin that he is removed by his death and his resurrection, and you didn't deserve any of that, and now you have eternal life and never ending steadfast love towards you, does that melt your heart? Does that move you to worship?
Call to Remember and Repent
00:28:55
Speaker
does it want does it Or does it prompt you to desire to share that with others and to love God's people? If not, then we have to confess before the Lord, God, I've been guilty of leaving my first love. And if that is the case, then what do you do about it? As Jesus gave the assessment, and there were a lot of good things in there, but there was also something very serious in that they had left their first love. So what's what's the cure? what Jesus gives his exhortation here, what the doctor ordered, the prescription for the illness. And he says in for beginning in verse five, yeah, let me move this on. He says, therefore, remember
00:29:48
Speaker
from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first.
00:29:56
Speaker
That's secure. Remember from where you've fallen. If you're a believer in Christ, that then there was a time when you first came to know the Lord Jesus, you had repented of sin, you were convicted of sin. That's the Holy Spirit's job. you know the For us, the path of the gospel begins with kind of an ugly beginning. We're convicted of our sin. There's no salvation without conviction of sin, without me having a very real sense of I am on the wrong side of God. Did I know why?
00:30:32
Speaker
and you're convicted of that sin and and trusted in Christ for eternal life as you repented of that sin.
00:30:43
Speaker
And just such a joy that though you were dead, now you're made alive. Your sin is removed from you. The love of God and the face of God pours out on you and shines on you. And there's just such a delight in him. Just your move to worship. Grateful for what he's done. Grateful for his faithfulness.
00:31:03
Speaker
And if that's, and I don't mean our emotions always stay the same, but if that that frame of heart is still not within you, then you need to go back and remember that. You need to go back, turn back and remember what Christ has done. Remember how you were and repent. Repent means that your life changes due to a renewing of the mind, due to a change of the mind. You know, Romans talks about how our minds are renewed. they're They're renewed by the Word of God. We think differently because now we have God's revelation that tells us what truth is and how we ought to think and act accordingly and live. And so you turn back.
00:31:52
Speaker
you You change your mind about your heart not loving Christ or God with all your being, and so you, oh, I'm gonna go do that now. I'm gonna love him. I haven't been loving him faithfully as I should. Now I'm going to. That's repentance.
00:32:06
Speaker
And do those things you did at first. So how do I do that? Well, let me just say first and foremost, just because God said so, he just do it. What do you mean it we just do it? How do I do that? Well, any command in the Bible
00:32:25
Speaker
is doable for you and I as believers, or it wouldn't be a command. Now unsaved people, they can't. We couldn't before we were saved. We're dead, dead people don't do anything. But if you're saved, you can obey the instructions of God. You can choose to love Him faithfully with all your heart again. But I would also say this,
00:32:56
Speaker
what you need on a consistent ongoing basis. I'm gonna read this passage. It's Hebrews chapter two, verse nine. I thought I had it marked and I didn't.
00:33:16
Speaker
And it may not sound very descriptive, but let me briefly explain. But we do see Him, Jesus, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone. What does that have to do with continuing to love God? If you want to love God with all your heart faithfully on a kind constant basis, you know what you need? You need a constant vision of Christ.
00:33:49
Speaker
And we have that in the Word of God. If you want to continue loving God faithfully, you need to be in this book because from cover to cover, Christ is revealed. And to see Him, for you as a believer, to see Him is to be enamored by Him and to love Him with all of your being.
00:34:14
Speaker
So we need to do that.
Consequences of Not Repenting
00:34:18
Speaker
Now, there is a warning here, and it's down in, boom, left my place. It's um there in verse seven, or I'm sorry, verse six. No, verse five, I'll get it in a second. but If not, if you don't do this, if you don't repent, I am coming to you and will move will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent." That's the warning. That sounds harsh. Now he's not talking about losing your salvation. That's not doable. There are no deconversions. There are no deconversions. There are just unsafe people turning away from a faith they never had. He's not talking about losing your salvation.
00:35:12
Speaker
What he's talking about is that a church's witness, and very possibly even the church itself, ceasing to exist because of the judgment of God because they did not obey.
00:35:26
Speaker
He said, why? Just because they loved him a little less? Here's why that's so serious. If you begin to love God less, all those other things that you're doing in service to God, all those things rest on the foundation of the love of God. You remove the foundation, eventually it all falls down. erode the love of God, everything else will fall apart in time. That's why it's so serious.
Indicators of Genuine Love for God
00:35:51
Speaker
As I begin to kind of wrap this up, what are some ways in which we would know? You know, if I'm loving God with all my heart or if I'm not, how would I know? Well, for one, and I've kind of mentioned this already,
00:36:14
Speaker
Your love for the word of God pretty much matches your love for God. I've said a thousand times, how you relate to the Bible is how you relate to God. Because God in Christ is perfectly revealed in his word.
00:36:37
Speaker
Also, how do we obey? Our obedience is a huge telltale factor. John 14, 15, Jesus said, if you love me, obey my commandments.
00:36:53
Speaker
God's love language is obedience. How you relate to others says much about your love for Christ. Jesus said, if you love me, I'm sorry, ah By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another How we do those things do we desire to obey the Will desire to obey the word of God not just love the study of it Do we do we love over do we long to obey it? I'm not saying do we have perfect because we know we don't is there a longing to obey
00:37:31
Speaker
what God's word says. Even if I don't necessarily like doing the thing that tells me to do, I still wanna obey the word of God. Those are some ways we can know. Do I love God with all my heart? Those are things that will change as we do. So I would just ask you this morning, do you love Him with all your heart? do Is He the treasure of your life?
00:38:02
Speaker
I don't mean we can answer just give a correct answer. I mean, is he really the the absolute treasure of your heart? That everything else, all the other things, even your spouse is on a lower level than that. By the way, the best thing that you can do for your marriage is not to love your spouse the most. Love God more than you love your spouse. If you love God more than you love your spouse, you'll do a better job of loving your spouse. But is He the treasure of your life? If you're here this morning, you've never placed your faith in Christ, you you can't love Him until you do. You need to trust Him and repent of your sin. I'm gonna ask our staff to come forward as we begin our time of invitation.