~~ Remember Your First ____ for Christ ~~

• Christ is sovereignly ________ with His church. 

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:  ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.’ ”  Rev 2:1 

“As for the mystery of the seven stars that 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 are the seven churches.”  Rev 1:20

• Christ is _________ with us.

• Christ is ____________ for us. 

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”  John 10:27-30

• Christ commends the patient __________ of His church.

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.  I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.”  Rev 2:2-3

• Christ __________ our condition.

• Patient endurance has a bias for _______.

• Patient endurance has a burden for _________.

• Truth requires the _________ of teachers. 

• Test their ______.
• Test their ________.

“Yet this you have:  you hate the works of the Nicolaitans,       which I also hate.”  Rev 2:6

• Christ condemns ___________ obedience in His church.

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”  Rev 2:4

• You do not lose your first love, you _________ it.

• You leave your first love when you _________ the gospel.

• Christ calls His church to _________ affection.

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.  If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”  Rev 2:5

• How to get back to your first love?

• ___________ the gospel!

• _________ of your sin!

• ________ the work!

• __________ what is at stake!

• Christ commits eternity to those who ________. 

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”  Rev 2:7

• The paradise of God is __________.

• The tree of life is eternal _____.

• The conqueror is the gospel __________. 

“Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”  1 Jn 5:5