That helps. Now try. Now try. There we go. Now I can't raise my voice. It is very good to be with you this evening. I want to clear up a couple of things that my dear beloved brother Rick Garland, who I haven't seen in years, said. Now that I have the microphone, Rick, you can sit there and listen. I don't know if it was half-tongue-in-cheek or quarter-tongue-in-cheek or not, but wanting Pastor John MacArthur to be the speaker here, I would have raised my hand to that, too. And I just want to assure all of you from the get-go that I'm not him. So I want to bring down your expectations quite a bit. So thank you for that, Rick. The other thing, Rick talked about people fleeing California because they want to get away from all of California, get to safer confines. That might be true for some, but I moved from Southern California about five and a half years ago to Iowa, peaceful, quiet Iowa. Twelve years engaged in full-time street evangelism in California, I could not get arrested. Within a year's time in Iowa, I got arrested twice. Open your Bibles, if you will, to John chapter 13. My assignment for tonight is the church's responsibility for evangelism. It is a topical message. I won't be expositing a particular text. You might want to jot down some references. I probably won't give you the time to turn to every passage of scripture tonight for the sake of time. Pastor Max said I only had two and a half to three hours to preach during this session. John chapter 13, beginning in verse 31. God's Word tells us this. Therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you, ye shall seek me, And as I said unto the Jews, whither I go you cannot come, so now I say to you, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. God's Word. So in that passage, verse 34 and 35, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. So here's my question for you. How? How will the all men to whom Jesus referred when he said these words to his disciples know that we Christians are truly his disciples? Now you may answer back, well, Tony, the answer is right there in the passage. They will know that we are his disciples if we have love for one another. Okay, I see that. So here's my question then. How? How will the all men, in other words, all the world, all of the fallen, lost, and dying world know we are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ? Again, now maybe with a bit of frustration, you answer, Tony, again, the answer is in the text. They will know that we are his disciples if we have love for one another. All right, one last time, I'm gonna ask you, I'm patient. How? How will people who are dead in their sin, according to Ephesians 2, 1-3, and spiritually blind, according to 1 Corinthians 2, 14 to 16, know we are his disciples by our love for one another. Where and when does the world see this mutual, familial expression of love among Christians in our present-day context? They don't see it on Sunday morning, or Sunday evening, or Wednesday evening. Why? They're not there. They don't see it when we are bearing one another's burdens through prayer and other practical helps. They're not with us when that happens. They don't see it when we're watching each other's children or taking vacations together. They're not with us when we do those things. They don't see it when we counsel each other, admonish each other, encourage each other, weep and mourn. with each other, we understandably don't readily invite the world into such intimate settings. So again, I ask you, how? When? Where? Do the unbelieving masses see our love for one another and see it in such a way, to such an extent that societies given over by God to debased minds will stop, take notice, and exclaim, wow, look how much love they have for one another. They must really be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. before you look in the mirror and smile and say to yourself, well, I just exude Jesus. Tony is such a silly old man. He doesn't understand that people see Jesus in me. Just stop, knock it off. I don't want you to hurt yourself. I don't want you to pull some false humility muscle wherever that's located. Not one single, solitary, lost person can see Jesus in you. You can't see him in me. And at the risk of being redundant, they are also spiritually blind, not only spiritually dead. Their minds will not allow themselves to see Jesus in you. Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, God's word tells us this, and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now I've done a detailed study of the Greek text regarding that word translated as dead. It has a very sophisticated and deep meaning. This is what it means. It means dead. It doesn't mean anything else but dead. Amen. That's what it means. Continuing on in the text, wherein time passed, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. The other text I referenced earlier, 1 Corinthians 2.14-16 tells us, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Amen. couple of centuries of the church and onward from the Book of Acts onward, it was almost easy for the world to see the love Christians had for one another. Back then, as it has continued in pockets of the world throughout the church age, it actually Christians, not in a theoretical, philosophical, poetic, or merely theological sense, actually counted the cost, denied themselves, took up their crosses, and followed Christ. They lost relationships, livelihoods, possessions, and their very lives. And they often did so together. They often did so for each other. Their love for each other wasn't sentimental, occasional, convenient, or safe. It was costly. It was sacrificial. They loved each other as Jesus loved them. He showed the greatest of all loves. He laid down his life for his friends, for his sheep, for his people. He sacrificed himself for the benefit of others, his people, his church, his bride. Amen. if you will, must have included these words of the Savior. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love one to another." They believed these words. they died these words and the world could see it. The unsaved masses could say from the comfort of their coliseum seats, look at the love with which they love one another as they watched Christians torn to pieces by lions. Where can the unsaved masses see such public displays of love among Christians today? China, the Middle East, South American jungle, Maybe. There are places in the world today where Christians show their love for one another as they corporately deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Christ. But where in our North American context, where or how in our American evangelical context, can lost people know that we belong to Jesus as evidenced by our love for one another? Government isn't likely going to kick down the doors of the church, this church, today. It may happen someday. It may happen in my lifetime. It may not happen until some of you reach my age. It may not happen before the Lord returns. We don't know when or if that will happen, but it is very unlikely to happen this evening here. So again, I ask, since we are not being forced possessions, comforts, freedoms, and our lives for the greater good of our Christian brethren, how will people who are dead in their sin and spiritually blind know we are his disciples by our love for one another? Where and when does the world see this mutual, familial expression of love among Christians in our present-day context? It's in the context of public evangelism, my beloved brethren. evangelism. And evangelism in all of its biblical forms, including public evangelism, is the responsibility of the local church. As I thought about this message and realizing that if you are here, then I am likely preaching to the choir, I thought that what you don't need is another how-to sermon. The problem with most American evangelical churches is not in the area of how to. The problem is in the area of why not. If a church is not engaged in the public proclamation of the gospel, if it is not pursuing its Christ-given mandate to fulfill the Great Commission, it is putting the cart before the horse to talk about how to before talking about why not. Why aren't we engaged in public evangelism together? That's not a training issue. That's a heart issue. Why are so many churches not engaged in the public proclamation of the gospel? I'll tell you why. It is because they have left Let's read verses one through seven. God's Word tells us this. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou had atest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also ate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, And what was the love the church in Ephesus had at first? Well, the answer is what or who most of you might think. And it also might be something that you didn't readily think of when you look at this text. Now, once we've identified this first love, we're going to look at Jesus' commands in our passage this evening. Commands we must obey if we are ever to recapture that all-important first love. And to do that, We're going to focus on verses two through five in Revelation 2 for the remainder of our time. But before we do, before we identify what that first love is, or more literally, the love you had left at first, and answer this evening's question, we need to spend a little time briefly taking a look at this church in Ephesus. And by the time of the Apostle John's writing of Revelation, believed by many to be some 30 to 40 years, after the writing of Paul's letters to Timothy. The battle with false teachers, namely a group known as the Gnostics, raged. Yet in spite of the turmoil that infected some churches, Christ saw much that was good about the church in Ephesus. Take a look at verses two and three in Revelation 2. Jesus said, I know thy works and thy labors and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars, and has borne, and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. Jesus, the omniscient second person of the triune God of the universe, knew everything there was to know about this church. In Ephesus, nothing was hidden from him, just as he knows all there is to know about every local assembly of his body, and each of us watching his church. He knew there was much about the church at Ephesus that was commendable, and as the loving Lord that he is, he chose to let the church at Ephesus know, via his letter to the church here in Revelation, that their good works had not gone unnoticed by him. Jesus commended the church for the manner in which they toiled. Now, the Greek word here is kapos, which literally means to engage in an excessive labor of the type and intensity that produces grief and sorrow. They were working themselves to tears for the Lord. The church did more than work hard in their ministry. They worked to the point of physical and emotional and spiritual exhaustion. The church at Ephesus was at it. Jesus commended the Church for the way they patiently endured. The Church at Ephesus not only patiently endured the laborious task of ministering in a Christ-hating world, the world's always hated Him, but they also endured the attack of the enemy by way of false teachers outside the Church, and false teachers who from inside and outside the Church tried to steer the Church away from the truth of God's Word. Like the American church today, at least many segments of it, the church at Ephesus excelled at ministering in the name of Jesus Christ, but they found themselves often too busy and weary to spend any time with or to enjoy wonderful fellowship with Christ himself. The Ephesians Christians were doing all, well, most of the things right, but they were doing them in such a way as to reveal to Christ in joyful obedience. They became and were continuing to become redeemed creatures of habit. Redeemed creatures of habit. Like growing portions of the American church today, the church at Ephesus loved Jesus and loved his church, but over time that love had grown cold. Church at Ephesus over time replaced vibrant orthopraxy, the application of their faith, out there in the real world, which was built on solid biblical orthodoxy, the doctrines of their faith, with lifeless practice and lifeless doctrine. In other words, the Church at Ephesus was going through the right motions in the name of Jesus, but they were doing so without the zeal, the fire, the passion, and the love they once had as newborn babes in the faith, as those with the wide-eyed exuberance and joy of the Lord that so often marks the newly regenerated life. Having commended the Ephesian church for its ongoing and tenacious work for Christ, and having now chastised the same church for possessing a now diminished love for Christ and his church, Jesus gives the Ephesians Christians a threefold command to right that wrong. to return to the level of love and devotion they had when Christ first saved them, when Christ first formed the church. Look at Revelation 2.5 again. God's word tells us, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. Jesus' first command is for the Ephesians and for those today whose love for Christ may have grown cold, is to remember therefore from where you have fallen. The first command is to remember. Now the verb in this command is in the present tense. In other words, Jesus is commanding the Ephesians to keep on remembering and to never forget. We should never forget, but how easy it is for us to forget, especially those of us who have been in Christ for a while. How easy it is for us to forget who we were and where we were when we first came to faith in Jesus Christ. What is it that Jesus wants them never to forget? He never wants them to forget from where they had fallen. Now that phrase, you have fallen, is in the perfect tense, which means the fall about which Jesus is referring began quite some time ago before he gave this commandment. This is an old problem for the church in Ephesus. Now remember, we're talking about the first century. Church wasn't around that long, but yet this was an old problem. And it's important to keep in mind that the apostle Paul organized the church in Ephesus during his third missionary journey. Now, while no one knows with absolute certainty, most agree that Paul's third missionary journey lasted about three years. and took place sometime during the early to mid-50s A.D. Paul was martyred in Rome sometime around 68 A.D., and the Apostle John penned the book of Revelation in or about 95 to 96 A.D. Now, there is disagreement among theologians regarding that date. Of course, there is, again, that disagreement, but let's go with this. What do all those numbers mean? Well, presuming that these dates are indeed accurate, and since Jesus said the Ephesians' love for Christ's church began to wane long before Jesus gave the letters to the seven churches, then it's not unreasonable to conclude that the Ephesians had maybe 10 years, give or take, of healthy, intimate fellowship with Christ and his church before their love began to grow cold. A decade. Maybe a little more. It's not a long time. Jesus commanded the believers in Ephesus, as a means of recapturing their love for Christ and His Church, to remember and remember often who they were in Christ so many years ago. The Apostle Paul encouraged his son in the faith, Timothy, to do the same thing. In 1 Timothy 6, 11 and 12, we read, But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses." Timothy was somewhat timid. He wasn't coddling him. He wasn't patting him on the back. He wasn't saying, there, there. He was telling him to knock it off. Amen. That's what he was telling him. His first letter to Timothy was likely penned by Paul shortly after his release from his first imprisonment in Rome, which would put the time Timothy received this letter somewhere around 63 AD. By this time, the Church of Ephesus was already embroiled by conflicts with false teachers, inside and outside the church, and these conflicts were of the type for which Jesus commended them in Revelation 2.4. The time frame of Paul's first letter to Timothy, coupled with the struggles that the church was now facing, gives even more credibility to the fact that Jesus' references in Revelation 2.5 about how they had started to fall away could have begun ten years or less after the formation of the church. Paul encouraged Timothy to take hold, to look back, to remember the day he was saved and his subsequent profession of faith when he was baptized in front of many witnesses. In the first century, making a public proclamation of one's faith in Christ could cost you your friends, your family, your home, your job, and in many cases, your very life. Paul encouraged Timothy, and us as well, in times of timidity and discouragement, to look back to the zeal with which he not only turned to Christ, but also courageously and unashamedly testified to the free gift of salvation that the Lord had given him. Paul encouraged Timothy to look back to the love he had for and the love he publicly expressed about his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul exhorted Timothy to remember these things. Again, it was the start of the fall from their fervent love for Jesus and his church that our Lord wanted the Ephesian believers to remember often. Jesus' second command to the Ephesian church was just one word, but one very important word, repent. The fact that Jesus issued the command with Just one word can be seen as Jesus issuing the command with a great deal of force and authority, the kind of authority only he has. It was tantamount to a police officer commanding a suspect to freeze. Jesus isn't looking for a discussion here. He's not interested in dialogue with the church. He isn't looking for a debate or an argument. He isn't looking for excuses. He's looking for obedience and therefore he commands the church to repent. The command to repentance in what is called the Aorist tense, which means it was a command to be obeyed once and for all time. You don't simply repent when you come to faith in Jesus Christ. A genuine follower of Jesus Christ will continue to repent through his or her life. It will be a way of life. Repentance will be a way of life. for the genuine Christian. They will continue to repent. They will continue to believe. They will endure to the end, not to earn their salvation because it is a free gift, but as a testimony, as a byproduct, as a fruit of the salvation they've already been given. When Jesus says those who endure to the end will be saved, he's not saying that the work of endurance will save anybody. He's saying the evidence of their salvation will be that they will endure to the end. Amen We will continue to repent we will continue to believe not as a work But out of adoration and love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ It will not be a work leading to salvation. It'll be a fruit of our salvation According to the theologians the word repent in Revelation 2 5 can be rendered to change your ways or turn from your sins or turning your back on sinning or changing your attitude or turning back toward God. And when we call people to repentance, we should not simply tell them to turn from their sin. We should not be out there telling people, stop sinning. Especially when we're saying that to unbelievers who have no ability apart from salvation to stop sinning. The message is not stop sinning. As I hear many, Street preachers cackle, stop sinning with no gospel whatsoever. Right. When we call people to repentance, we should not simply tell them to turn from their sin, but to turn from their sin and to turn toward God. Simply turning from your sin is no different than cleaning up your act, which will get you nowhere, eternally speaking. If you make yourself clean on the outside, you cleaned up. If your love for the Lord and His Church is vain, Jesus commands you to remember from whence you came, from where you have fallen, and repent of the sin of letting that special, essential love for Christ and His Church grow cold. If your love for Christ and His Church has grown cold, brethren, you must repent and you must do it now. and do it whenever necessary. Repent and keep on repenting. The third command Jesus gives in Revelation 2.5 is to do. He expects them to do something. The fact that Jesus follows the command to repent with the command to do or perform shows that repentance is more than a changing of the mind. Genuine repentance always brings forth works or fruit says as much in Matthew 3, 7-10. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Now also the axe is laid under the roots of the trees, Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. James, the half-brother of our Lord, who once denied him only to later become a leader in the first church in Jerusalem, makes it clear to the believers dispersed throughout the known world that faith without works is indeed dead. James 2.26, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Any good spiritual fruit, any work that brings honor and glory to Christ occurs as a result of salvation. We can only do that which is pleasing to God because we are saved. For the Christian is saved by the grace of God alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. The person who is truly born again will bear good fruit and will do good works all be it imperfectly, all be it not always consistently, it will be a mark of our life that we will bear fruit, that we will do good works pleasing to God, and we will want to do them. No one will have to make us come kicking and screaming to read the word of God, to pray, to serve and love our brethren, to be part of the local assembly, and to go reach the lost with the gospel. So what is it that Jesus commands the Ephesians to do? He commands them to do the works they did at first. That's what he says. Now, the command to do what they did at first points back to the first love in verse four, but here's where it gets really interesting, at least to me, and I hope to you. You see, the Ephesians' loss of love was not only for the Lord Jesus Christ and his church. Their loss of love for Christ and his church extended beyond Christ and His Church. Their loss of love extended to a specific kind of work that isn't mentioned in the passage. G.K. Beale, in his commentary on Revelation, put it well when he wrote this, quote, Although they were ever on guard to maintain the purity of the apostolic teaching, the Ephesian Christians were not diligent in witnessing to the same faith in the outside world." The idea is that they no longer express their former zealous love for Jesus by witnessing to him in the world. The Ephesian Church, like so many segments, Right. I can't tell you how many times. Over the years, I've had well-intended Christians, when they hear about a ministry on the streets or a ministry on a college campus, they quip with words like, oh, I used to do that when I was in college. When I was young, when I was doing the faith, I was so zealous. The idea is that they no longer express that former zealous love for Jesus. love for his church had grown cold, which was evidenced by the sad reality that they no longer had a fervent love for reaching the lost outside the church with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They had made the slow downward slide of violating the two greatest commandments, their diminished love for God and their love for people were evidenced by their lack of desire to tell other people about the love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy made available only through the sacrificial death and the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, the God-man. Their hearts had grown so cold that they weren't talking about Jesus anymore. Jesus gave no commendation to the church at Ephesus for winning souls. He did not commend the church. for its evangelistic efforts. Look, I understand that we're not to build entire theologies out of what the Bible doesn't say. Many false religions were built on that. But it's significant in all that Jesus commended the church at Ephesus for, there was no commendation for the work of gospel ministry outside the church. My brethren, we do what we care about and we talk about that which we love. We do what we care about and we talk about that which we love. We do what we care about and we talk about what we love. We cannot honestly say that we love Jesus and love reaching the lost with the gospel if we are not doing anything about it. The Ephesians were engaged in the faithful study and defense of the Word of God, for that Christ commended them. They were willing to toil and persevere for the name and the cause of Christ. He commended them for that. There are many churches that could say the same thing here in the United States. Yet many churches have left their first love. Many of these churches are no longer doing that. that which they likely did during the early days of the life of the church. They now love Jesus and his church less because they no longer speak outside the four walls of the church about Jesus. And their love for his church is likewise diminished because they no longer care as they once did for seeing the body of Christ The American church has settled for transfer growth. The American church has settled for being Costco and Walmart or the gym. The church is satisfied with taking dissatisfied gym members, dissatisfied Costco members, dissatisfied first church members and second church members and third church members. Come on over here to our camp. We'll make you feel better here. You'll be more comfortable here. And so, professing Christians just hop from one church to another, adding the membership roles to one church or another, and the churches they leave don't change their membership roles, they just say they have as many people as they used to have, while other churches are adding the same people to their church roles. And so, people are on the membership of four or five different churches in their community. Because they're consumers. And the American church lets them. As Paul exhorted Timothy, as Jesus commanded the church in Ephesus, I exhort and challenge all of us to look back to those early days of our walks with Christ. Can you remember? Can you remember the zeal you had for sharing your newfound faith in Christ with others? Can you remember the risks you were willing to take to share in the gospel with the lost. Can you remember how little you cared about what others thought of you because you were more concerned with where people would spend eternity? If you cannot remember those days because it was so very long ago, then your love for Christ's church and the lost might be colder today than you think. And if you can't remember because it never happened, then check your spiritual pulse. You may be a dead person playing church. My Christian brethren, if this applies to you, remember from where you have fallen. Get back to that place. For the love and glory of Christ, get back to the place you once were. The place where nothing but the Lord calling you home could stop you from sharing the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ with those undeniable, unmistakable expression. Evangelism. As Paul exhorted Timothy to flee from sin, and as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commanded the Ephesians to repent of their diminished love for Him, so too do I call you to repent. Not by my own authority, of course, for I have none, but by the authority of the Word of God. Repent if you have in any way left the love you have. first. If in your heart and mind you are arguing with what you are hearing tonight, your argument is with the Word of God. Your argument is with the Word of God, and you will lose that argument, my friends. No matter how much you spin it, no matter how much you twist it, no matter how much you want to try to victimize yourself, you're going to lose. Don't simply change your mind about reaching the lost with the gospel. thinking about it and then doing nothing about it is not repentance. Repent of your diminished love for Jesus and his church by re-engaging in the God-ordained, God-glorifying work of evangelism. Do the works you did at first. In the second half of verse five, we read, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except you repent. Again, nowhere in this passage does Jesus talk about the Ephesians losing their salvation if they do not obey these commands. In fact, Jesus affirmed the genuineness and assurance of their faith in verse 2 by commending them. Had the Ephesian believers been apostate, had they completely fallen away from Christ, then false converts, those are the only ones who fall away, are false converts. He never would have commended them for anything. Remember, the passage in Revelation 2 is not about gaining or keeping your salvation. However, Jesus does make it very clear that there will be serious consequences if the Ephesians did not repent. He would remove their lampstand. In other words, if the church at Ephesus did not obey Jesus' commands to remember, repent, and do the works they did at first, They would cease to be a light in the world for the glory of Christ. He would remove the church from the churches that faithfully represent Christ in the world. They would continue on in dead orthodoxy until the church as an organized body of believers would fade out of existence. We're seeing that happen today. Churches that are substituting for the gospel are having their lampstands removed. Churches that would dare to say that there is some compatibility between Christian faith and LGBTQism are having their lampstands removed. Sadly, that's exactly what ended up happening to the church in Ephesus. They just faded away. Just as sadly, this is happening The churches in America today, they are fading from existence because they have allowed their first love, their love for Christ and his body to diminish, which resulted in a diminished love for the lost. And as their love for Christ has grown cold, so has their love for the gospel. And as their love for the gospel has grown cold, so has their love for bringing the gospel to the lost and dying world. And now many churches are just country clubs for pretending Christians. Many American churches today have either had their lampstand removed or soon will. My beloved brethren, pastors and parishioners, don't let that happen to your church. Evangelism is the sole responsibility of the body of Christ, his bride, his church. And you are part of that body, that bride, that church. We need to remember, we need to repent, and we need to do the work. Remember how hot your love for Christ and his church burned during the early days of your Christian faith. And remember with what love for Christ and zeal for his church you shared the gospel with the lost. Repent. Repent of love grown cold, if that's you. Repent of failing to love the lost, whether friend, neighbor, co-worker, family member, or stranger on the street. Repent of not glorifying Christ in your life by allowing your gospel light to be hidden under a basket. Repent, again, if this is you, of not loving the lost enough to be willing to lay down your very life so that others might be saved and do the work. Proclaim the gospel. As Jesus exhorted his apostles, so I exhort you. So I exhort me tonight. And may the words of Christ in Revelation 2, 2-5, continually sound in your heart and mind until you obey. And may they continue to sound in your heart and mind once you have obeyed, serving as a constant reminder of what Christ commands of all of us. Remember. Repent.