SERMON STARTER

THE SPIRIT OF FIRST LOVE POVERTY

REV. 2:1-7

 

          On January 14th one of the three Powerball winners, John and Lisa Robinson, bought their winning ticket at Naifeh's Food Market in Munford, Tennessee. Their lump cash payout total $328 Million dollars. They said they were taking the lump sum because "we aren't guaranteed tomorrow."

          Both John, 58, and Lisa Robinson, 53, confirmed that they plan on continuing to work at their jobs. They said the first thing they will do is pay off their daughter's student loans.

When asked whether they planned to buy a big house, they said they have no interest. "I never wanted that in the past. I don't want that now," Lisa Robinson said.

          The other two winning tickets were sold separately at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California, and a Publix in Melbourne, Florida. Neither of the owners of those tickets has come forward to claim the prize money.

          The Lottery winners will never know physical poverty in this life. Jesus put it well:

Matthew 6:19-21 (NKJV)
¹⁹ "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

THE AMERICAN DREAM:

 

          The American Dream is not just freedom, but it is the ability to acquire wealth. Wealth in this world grants you power to control your environment. This wealth becomes the exercise in raw, naked ambition. Delores Hart gave up fame and fortune to take a real vow of poverty.

          Dolores Hart, O.S.B., (Order of St. Benedict) (born October 20, 1938) is an American Roman Catholic Benedictine nun who had been previously a prominent actress. She made ten films in five years, playing opposite Stephen Boyd, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton and Robert Wagner, having made her movie debut with Elvis Presley in Loving You (1957). By the early 1960s an established leading lady, she "stunned Hollywood" by announcing that she would be giving up her career to enter the Abbey of Regina Laudis monastery in Connecticut, where she served her monastic community for many years.

FOLLOWING JESUS WILL MAKE YOU RICH

          Doesn’t Jesus want to bless his kids and make them rich? If you believe that you don’t know the Spirit of God very well. We are to follow Jesus and be like Him. He is continuously emptying Himself for His Kids. If you would like to find God look for Him among the poor and disadvantaged. Heaven lost its real riches when God sent His only Son to die for our sins. Jesus was rich and voluntarily chose our poverty for our sakes. Can we who follow Him do any less?

CONTRAST:

          Jesus’ Call is to take Him into our hearts and receive a Spirit of Poverty, or what I call, "First Love Poverty." I believe the Beatitudes are not only a Call to Discipleship, they are a Revelation of the Seven Spirits of God. They are the Seven Qualities of God. The are the Seven special traits of the Spirit of God.

 

Pastor Phil   <><<

 

January 17, 2016, Pastor Phil Roland

Sheepfold Ministries

 

THE SPIRIT OF FIRST LOVE POVERTY

THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD

REV. 2:1-7 - REV. 1:9-20

"First Love Poverty is the kind of Love for Jesus that is self-abandoning love that forgets self in the haste to meet the needs of others and in so doing express an uninhibited love for Christ. Most Christian Believer haven’t a clue as to what it means to be ‘Spirit-Filled.’  To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we will feel, think and act like Jesus.” Pastor Phil

 

Matt. 5:3

 “Blessed  are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Revelation 3:7

³ and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. ⁴ Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.   Rev. 3:7b
 

THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF REVELATION:

EPHESUS - The Spirit of First-Love Poverty             

SMYRNA - The Spirit of Suffering   

PERGAMOS - The Spirit of Obedience       

THYATIRA - The Spirit of Righteousness

SARDIS - The Spirit of Mercy

PHILADELPHIA - The Spirit of Purity

LAODICEA - The Spirit of Completeness

 

POOR - Greek = Pto-khos = Miserable, Beggarly, Destitute

          Eg. Jesus’ Parable of Lazarus and the Rich man - Deepest Poverty

 

I.  FIRST LOVE POVERTY IS CHOSEN - Luke 9:23

²³ Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

          A. A young woman who receives a Proposal

                    1. Leaves the Comfort of her parent's home

                    2. Leaves the position given to her as her parent's offspring

          B. Takes on a Voluntary Vow of Poverty

                    1. Will you have this man for your wedded husband,

                       to live together after God's Ordinance, in the Holy Estate of

                       Matrimony?       

                              Will you love, honor, and keep him in

                              sickness and in health, and forsaking

                              all others, keep yourself only unto him,

                              so long as you both shall live?

                    2. Inviting Jesus into your life is a similar Spiritual Vow

THE SPIRIT OF POVERTY, cont. p.2

 

II.  FIRST LOVE POVERTY IS  COMMENDED BY JESUS - vs. 2,3

² I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; ³ and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.
          A. First-Love Poverty is Giving Yourself Away

                    1. Find a Hurt and Heal it,

                              Find a Need and Fill it!

                    2. Look after Widows and Orphans - James 1:27

                                        ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to

                          visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself

                          unspotted from the world.

                              a. Care for the poor, hungry and disadvantaged

                              b. Stay pure, unspotted from the world

                    3. Fed, Clothed, Visited Sick, Imprisoned - Matt. 25: 34-36

                        ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you

                          blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from

                          the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me

                          food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you

                          took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you

                          visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'

                    4. Spread the Good News

          B. Persecuted By Demetrius’ Followers - Acts 19:23-41

                    1. Demetrius, fellow craftsmen persecuted Paul / companions

                    2. No genuine work for Jesus and His Kingdom will go                                       unopposed by the enemy

                    3. Saeed Abedini, an American Christian pastor, jailed 3 1/2 yrs

                              a. His Crimes: Spying for the U.S. CIA

                              b. Being a Christian and having a home Bible Study

          C. Intolerant of False Teachers and Apostles -

                    1. Insisted on following Dietary Laws / Circumcision - Gal. 3-5

                    2. Taught Gnostic Heresy, the worship of Angels - Heb. 1-2

                    3. Taught a false Escatology (End Times) - 2 Thess. 2

 

III. FIRST LOVE POVERTY IS COMMANDED BY JESUS - v.4

⁴ Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

                             

          A. Ephesus lost her poorness of spirit

                    1. Preoccupation with doctrine, right teaching

                    2. Obsessed with doing righteous things

          B. They Forgot the God of the Work  vs. The Work of God

                    1. Focus is on what they did for Jesus, rather than on Himself

                    2. Lost their passionate Love Affair with Jesus

          C. Ephesus took on Spiritual Shifty Eyes

                    1. Eyes off Him and onto Ourselves

THE SPIRIT OF POVERTY, cont. p.3

 

                    3. Lost First Love results in departed glory - 1 Samuel 4:21

                                        ²¹ Then she named the child Ichabod, saying, "The glory has

                          departed from Israel!" because the ark of God had been captured

                          and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

 

IV. FIRST LOVE POVERTY IS CAUTIONED

⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent.

          A. Jesus warns Ephesus He will remove the Holy Spirit's Fire

                    1. Churches and People can still have their bldgs. / Activities

                    2. Can be busy, but the Power of God is Missing

                    3. Like chimpanzee warming hands around a non-existent fire

          B. What happened to the Church at Ephesus?

                    1. The church died as did the city itself

                    2. Ruins today lie under the murk and mire of a swamp

          C. He who has Ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the Church

                    ⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To

              him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the

              midst of the Paradise of God." '

                    1. Come back to the Passion you once had for Jesus

                    2. Remember the Love for Jesus you once felt

                    3. Remember how relieved you felt to know your sins were                               forgiven?

                    4. Return to this First Love once again. . .

 

ALL LOVE STORIES END IN TRAGEDY

Paul's Love Affair with Jesus ends in Rome's Arena, losing his head

John's Love Affair with Jesus ends in exile on the Isle of Patmos

Peter's Love Affair with Jesus ends on a Roman Cross, Upside Down

James Love Affair with Jesus led to death at King Herod Agrippa's Sword

Andrew lost his life by crucifixion

Matthew Martyred in Ethiopia

Thomas was lanced in India

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran Pastor, loved Jesus, Hung just months before the end of WW2. He said,

"The Call of Jesus is to come and die!"        

 

21 young Christian believers beheaded in Libya

THE SPIRIT OF FIRST LOVE POVERTY

Revelation 2:1-7
¹ "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
² I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;
³ and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.
⁴ Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent.
⁶ But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." '

 

 

Revelation 1:9-20
⁹ I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
¹¹ saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."
¹² Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
¹³ and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
¹⁴ His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;
¹⁵ His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;
¹⁶ He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
¹⁷ And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
¹⁸ I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
¹⁹ Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.
²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.

 

1 John 3:16-18
¹⁶ By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
¹⁷ But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.