Letters to the Churches: Return to Love

Pastor Duane Brooks discusses the struggles and challenges faced by the church in Ephesus, as depicted in the book of Revelation. The episode explores the importance of returning to love, both in our relationship with God and with others. Repentance and revival are key requirements in individual lives and the church as a whole. We all have a need for a softened heart, revitalized prayers, and a renewed focus on loving Jesus and the people He loves. Pastor Brooks with a reflection on the importance of revival in bringing heaven to earth and the need to focus on doing what is right while showing love and mercy to others. This message is based on Revelation 2:1-7.Quotes:Duane Brooks: These were real churches in real places; but they are also representative churches – in any case, Jesus ends each letter with whoever has ears to ear, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches.  We are one of those churches.Scott McKnight: The book of Revelation when read well forms us into dissident disciples who discern corruptions in the world and in the church.  A dissident is a person of hope who imagines a better future world and then begins to embody that world.Michael Gorman: Revelation is about faithful discipleship in the world.John Stott: By praise and censure, warning and approval, Christ reveals what he wants his church to be like in all places at all times.William Barclay: Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.DL Moody: I am tired in the work but not tired of the work.Robert Murray McCheyne: How sweet to work for God all day and rest beneath his smile at night.Charles Spurgeon said over 100 years ago: If I have wickedness brought before me by others I will turn away from it, I will not gaze upon it with pleasure. Not only shall it not dwell in his heart, but not even before his eyes, for what fascinates the eye is very apt to gain admission into the heart.John Wesley: Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.Oswald Chambers:  Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for him.Helmut Thielecke: The globe itself lives and is upheld by Atlas arms through the prayers of those whose love has not grown cold. The world lives by these uplifted hands, and by nothing else.To discover more messages of hope, go to tallowood.org/sermons/.Follow us on X and YouTube @tallowoodbcFollow us on Instagram @tallowood.baptistFollow us on FaceBook @tallowoodbaptist