STUDY SHEETS for Sunday – October 2, 2016 | Faith Fellowship Church of Tennessee, IL

What went wrong at Ephesus?

How could such an impressive church be in danger of losing their true gospel witness? Here’s how. By forgetting what was most important and abandoning their “love God first” priority.
If loving God is not our highest priority, then at some point in our lives, regardless of what we say or profess or include in a statement of faith, God will no longer be our highest priority.
It really comes down to this: Do we love God as God commands us to love him?
A Detailed Command: God doesn’t only command us to love him, but he commands us as to how we are to love him—with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength.

As a church, we need to ask ourselves: Are we hearing Christ’s message to the church at Ephesus? This is not an issue of emotional love or sentimental attachment but one of priorities. So let’s ask, Does God set our priorities? Or have we also forgotten what is most important? Do we need to remember and repent?
No matter how impressive or biblical a church may seem, and the Ephesus church certainly appeared to be both impressive and biblical, a church is not pleasing to God if it has lost its highest priority.
Whether the church at Ephesus in AD 95 or the church at Tennessee, IL in AD 2016, the “first love” priority is vital to maintaining our gospel witness.
This love for God needs to rise above everything in our lives for us to stay on target, to be true to his calling. Loving God in this way demands our full and complete surrender, humility, obedience, loyalty, devotion … our all.