SERVICES: SATURDAY 6PM | SUNDAY 9AM & 10:45AM. 

We Livestream at www.FaithFellowshipWeb.com/livestream, through the FFC App, and YouTube.

Remembering

Words of Faith Final

Remembering

Words of Faith 11-11-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

www.faithfellowshipweb.com

To unsubscribe, follow the directions at the end of this devotion.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

 

Revelation 2

       [2]  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. [3]  You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. [4]  Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. [5]  Remember the height from which you have fallen!

 

       The people of Ephesus had witnessed the greatest outpouring of the Spirit of God since Pentecost. They had seen miracles beyond what most people will ever see. They had responding sacrificially and complete abandon to give their lives to Jesus.

       After that great outpouring, Ephesus became center of the Christian movement in Asian Minor. This was now the center of ministry to the Gentile world just as Jerusalem was the center of ministry in the Jewish world.

       Timothy later served as Pastor in Ephesus. Paul wrote a key letter to the church at Ephesus. The letter to the Ephesians defines the Gospel of Salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). The letter to the Ephesians also mapped the plan of local church leadership.

       But somewhere along the line, the love had faded. Jesus called John to write about the good things first. Here are the things I know about you. I know your works… your toil and your patient endurance. I know that it has been hard. You do good works with patient endurance. You don’t give up. I know your integrity. You cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them false. Spiritual discernment was critically important in this early time of the church.

         When leaving Ephesus, Paul had warned against false teachers who would come like fierce wolves among Ephesus believers (Acts 20:28-30).  He also warned Timothy, the Pastor at Ephesus-- the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions (2 Timothy 4:3).

         But this community had held strong and not allowed evil or false teaching to infiltrate the church during those 42 years.

         Jesus expressed through John's pen, I know your enduring patience for my name and that you have not grown weary.

 But… this I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. You have forsaken or turned away from your first love. Another way to say it is that you have lost your agape.

          Agape was the glue that held the early church together. This is the unconditional love that has no requirement or expectation of return. This is the unconditional love God has shown toward us and is given by the Spirit among us. It is also the primary fruit of God’s Spirit in a believer (Galatians 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 13).

         You have abandoned the agape you had at the beginning. The Great Outpouring at Ephesus was marked by many things, but none more powerful than this agape. This powerful love left no idol sacred, no sin hidden, and nothing held back. Pentecost was marked by the power of agape (Acts 2:42-46). This is absolute and total abandon for Jesus.

         Paul wrote 35 years before Revelation, “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:15-16).

         For all the good that the Ephesian believers had been doing, they had lost this primary glue upon which the first church was founded. It is a sobering passage that causes us to stop and take stock of where we began where we have come to. The Lord will tell them the way back, but they could not move ahead until they faced this loss of first love.

         How is your agape? How is your first love for Jesus? How is your first love that you experienced among believers? How is your Jesus glue that holds relationships, and church and family together?

 

        Father God, I want to take stock. I want to look inward and also look outward at the way I have treated relationships. Draw me back to my first love. Draw me back into the agape that first attracted me to You. In Jesus’ Name.

 

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SUBSCRIPTIONS - To receive the Words of Faith devotion five days a week, send an E-mail message addressed to join-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. To stop receiving Words of Faith, send an E-mail message addressed to unsubscribe-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -     

The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.