Latest / The Daily Word / August 28 – Loved Enough to Be Corrected
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good we hours of the night. Whenever you are joining us, welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes. It is my privilege to pastor Arkitavo campus, and I am excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode where we're going to be doing a devotion out of the New Testament portion of our church Bible reading plan. Today is August the 28th. And we are jumping into Revelation chapter two. Now there are a lot of things that come to mind when we think of the Book of Revelation. some of them are a little scary, perhaps a little a little daunting, but but here's a perspective that I didn't have until this reading of the book of Revelation, and I hope it'll bless you like it's blessing me. and that is that that Most of the words of Jesus that we have recorded in Scripture were spoken to non-Christians. Because most of the words were spoken before his death, burial, and resurrection. People couldn't be Christians before he was resurrected from the dead. And what's beautiful is that the book of Revelation actually gives us a unique picture because it Does have some pretty substantial portions where Jesus is talking to Christians. And that gives us a unique glimpse into how he approaches people who have entered into covenant relationship with him. And that is something that's just so valuable. And here in chapter two, that is what we get to see as Jesus starts sending messages. to the seven churches that that are predominant major churches in the ancient Roman world. Now we could take the time to to study each of these individual messages for insights and see how they apply into our life and that would be a worthwhile, beautiful pursuit. But I think there's one thing that that kind of stands out to me more than any other and and let me let me preface it this way. A lot of the times when we think about Jesus, we have these these pictures in our mind of like like paintings we've seen of him. You know, Jesus with with his long wavy hair, perfectly blowing in the wind while he's holding a a sheep and carrying it back to the pasture, or or or Jesus with his head Bent back and he's laughing with a child on his knee, you know, beautiful depictions of who Jesus truly is. Those are accurate depictions of Jesus, accurate depictions of part of who he is. And here in Revelation, we get another picture of who Jesus is, another aspect of his character. And it we see a description of of that side of Jesus in in chapter one that we read yesterday in verses thirteen through sixteen. I'm reading out of the ESV today. and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest, the hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow, his eyes Were like a flame, a fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand were seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its full strength. See, while Jesus is A loving shepherd, while Jesus is the one who delights in in young ones and in children, he is also the God with fire in his eyes and a sword coming out of his mouth. He is all that at the same time, and he addresses his followers as all that at the same time. And that's what we can see demonstrated in this chapter. Take the church of Ephesus, the first church that he addresses, for example. See, Jesus starts with with the good, loving things that we all want to hear from our good, good shepherd, our loving, loving Savior, in verses two to three, where he praises them for what they're doing well. I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot be. 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. I would love to hear Jesus say things like that to me. I would love that, but I wouldn't necessarily love to get to the next portion of what of what Jesus says. Well in verses four through five But I had this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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. What I want us to understand out of this is that in our relationship with Jesus, we can expect Both of those same kind of messages from Jesus. Jesus is loving and he is gracious and he demonstrates his good pleasure with those he loves. He is not afraid to give you an attaboy, a pat on the bat. He is not afraid to encourage you and lift your spirits. He delights in those things. But he also does not mind bringing correction when it's necessary. We often get this picture of Jesus, that loving shepherd with the bouncy hair and the sheep, and we think, the Jesus Jesus just loves me so much. He's not gonna He's not gonna come down on me in in my areas of life that I need to grow up in. No, he's just gonna he's gonna turn a blind eye to those things because he just loves me so much and he gave his life for me and his blood covers all that. He doesn't even see all that when he looks at me. Well actually he does. Hebrews 12 5 through 6 puts it this way and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons my son Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be wary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. Now this gives us an image here that one of the reasons that God disciplines his children is Is because he loves them. That means that God's discipline is an act of love. And I think one of the reasons we can point to that so clearly that discipline is an act of love is because he wants to draw us back into alignment through that discipline because he knows the good things he has in store for those who are faithful. He knows the rewards that he has waiting for them and he does not want us to miss out. And he even gave us a picture of that with the way he finished his address to the church at Ephesus in verse 7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one to the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. So let's talk application. Let's talk application. The first let's ask ourselves some questions. First, do I recognize that God's discipline is an act of his love? That he's not just disciplining me because he's angry or upset with me, because he wants to get good things to me? And then am I attentive to hear Jesus' corrections when he brings them? After all, he who has an ear let him hear. I have to be attentive and I have to be ready to hear those things. And am I willing to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only when he brings that correction to me? Those are some some pre-game application questions to get us ready to take a moment and give the Lord the opportunity to speak Whatever is on his mind to us. Lord, what do you want to say? Now we can come to him confidently that whatever he says is going to be out of love. Now he doesn't always bring correction. After all, d in this same chapter, we can see that he brought the church of Smyrna comfort with no chastisement, no correction. But are we willing to hear whatever he desires to speak to us even? If that message is one of correction. Jesus, what do you want to say to me today? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your great love. We thank you that you care for us enough to correct us when we go astray. You love us enough to call out the good things that we are doing, to strengthen our resolve. We love you that you are balanced and that you are loving. In all that you do. We love you, Jesus, and we pray that you would continue to help us to be receptive and ready to hear whatever you have to say. Show us, Jesus, that your chastisement is an act of love and that you want to discipline us for our own good. Lord, I pray that you would just give us confidence in our relationship with you and every aspect of our relationship with you, more and more confidence. As each day passes, we love you, Jesus. We really do. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.