From Flourishing to Failing

This is from Montrose Baptist Church's AM service on 8-30-2009.

I can still remember November 26, 1994. On that particular day, my Mom, sister and I attended a lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Panama City. I remember that day so well because I was thoroughly disgusted with the way that the Florida-Florida State football game had progressed through the first two quarters.
Once we arrived at the restaurant, I left my headphones in the car and decided to concentrate on reading a book to pass the time.
I really don’t remember the book or lunch for that matter, but when I returned to the car and turned on the radio, I was surprised to find out that Florida State, who had been trailing 31-3 going into the fourth quarter, finished the game tied 31-31. That particular game has been called “The choke at the Doak.”
For myself and every other Florida State Seminole fan, that was one of the greatest games in history. However, for the Florida Gator faithful, it is a day when they watched helplessly as they transformed in one quarter from flourishing to failing.
I know that not everyone is a fan of Florida State football. I know that many of you could’ve cared less about what was happening in Tallahassee, Florida on November 26, 1994. However, I believe that all of us can understand how things can change from flourishing to failing.
I’m afraid that the church is coming to understand that transformation. Rather than flourishing, we are floundering.
I want to take a different approach this morning. We are actually going to look at two different passages and look at the process of how we move from one to the other.

Read text. (Ephesians 1:1-2, 14-15; Revelation 2:1-4)

When you look at these two passages, it is not readily apparent what the correlation is between the two. However, we need to understand what it is that we are looking for this morning.
We are going to approach this morning’s message in a different fashion than usual. In fact, instead of trying to systematically deduce the text, we are actually going to establish a timeline and progression using these two passages as bookends.
If we are to look at Paul’s prison epistle to the Ephesian believers and compare it to Christ’s declaration to the church at Ephesus through John in Revelation, we would note a commonality, as well as a marked difference.
The common element between these two records is in the target and recipient of the message. They both were addressed to the church at Ephesus.
However, there is a marked difference. The tone of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is drastically different from Christ’s declaration recorded through John in Revelation. Where Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians is full of compliments, basic living principles, and encouragement, Jesus’ declaration is not as flattering.
Just consider the differences quickly. In Ephesians 1:15-16, Paul compliments, “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.”
Yet, when we arrive at Christ’s words in Revelation 2 he compliments them for their purity and patience, but then says, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
Did you catch that? Paul compliments the Ephesian church for their love, and then Jesus says that they have lost it.
Why would there be a difference? We are talking about the same church. Could Paul really be wrong about this particular church?
The fact is that Jesus and Paul are both entirely correct in their assessment of the Ephesian church. The difference is in the dates of the writing. Paul wrote this letter from prison to the church between 60 and 63 AD. However, Jesus’ concern and condemnation was not raised until the mid-90’s AD.
At the time that Paul wrote, the church was at most 30 years old. However, there has been an additional 30 year span between Paul’s writing and Jesus speaking.
When we see their approach to the church, we come to find that the church has not progressed, but regressed. Instead of growing stronger and more fervent, they have begun to wither and fall away.
As this particular church has lost its fervor and passion, we can note a process that still translates to today. We can see how the church can transform from faithful and flourishing to failing.
I believe that the Ephesian church gives us a good indication of the onset of trouble in the church’s future. The first part of that process toward failure starts with attitude. Specifically, if it manifested in…

1.) Apathy
“I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”- Revelation 2:2-4
If we could break all of that down and put it in laymen’s terms, Jesus is basically telling this church, “Listen, I know what all you have done for Me. I know how you have struggled and continued on. You’ve kept on keeping on! You have even been careful in weeding out the false teachers that have arisen among you. However, you’ve forgotten why you are here. You’ve been just doing these things for so long that you no longer truly care.”
The Ephesian church had grown apathetic in their service and worship. They lost the zeal, the love, the excitement that they used to have.
Somewhere through the course of those thirty years, they were found guilty of the same thing that many churches struggle with today. They started off with a bang. They were passionately in love with Jesus. They longed for the chance to tell someone, or to do something in His service. However, it has now been so long, and they have allowed themselves to stray to the point that they cannot remember why they are doing the things they are doing.
Please understand something this morning. When the church lost their love of Christ, it was at that point that they became apathetic.
I know that we have talked before about the decline of the church in America. The statistics are abundant that prove the church is dying a slowly accelerating death in our society. We are moving from faithful and flourishing to failing. And I believe the culprit is found in the same struggle of the church at Ephesus.
We have become apathetic. We have lost sight of our first love, and thus our service has become lacking. Because we don’t still feel that burning passion for Christ, we lose motivation and meaning for our work.
You might want to argue and say, “Well, I still care. I’m not apathetic. It still matters to me.” But let me ask you to evaluate your own life.
Over the course of the last thirty years, or five years, or however long you’ve been a Christian, is your love for Christ and your desire to make a difference in the world for Him growing, or have we settled into a comfortable position where we fill our roles, but its done out of duty instead of joy?
If you cannot honestly say that you have not grown in love and fervor, if you are guilty of becoming apathetic in some measure, we must remember, the church is us. It is not the building. The corporate church will be apathetic if we are apathetic as God’s people.
The first move in the church’s transition from flourishing to failing is found in an attitude of apathy.
Unfortunately, it does not simply stay with an attitude. Instead, that attitude begins to progress, and eventually it moves to…

2.) Abandonment

Now, this is something that we don’t really see with the church at Ephesus in Christ’s declaration in Revelation. In fact, He commended them for their perseverance. They were still there.
Even if they didn’t remember why they were serving God, they were still doing it. But, if we look at other churches in Scripture, and particularly the modern church, we discover that apathy eventually leads to abandonment.
Let me try to illustrate how apathy and abandonment relate.
I know that everyone has things that they are passionate about. For many of our men, they are passionate about their hunting. It is something that they take very seriously. They understand their purpose and objective, and they enjoy that time.
For many of you ladies, it may be something else. Maybe it’s growing a garden, cooking, quilting, or even dancing. Whatever your passion is, you approach it like the men. You know the purpose, the desired end, and you enjoy those times.
For my grandmother, it was quilting. My Grandma Betty was an award-winning quilter. She traveled all over the country to enter national events, and often brought home awards. She would spend endless hours with needle in hand in her quilting room just singing whatever cam to mind and sewing.
But when she got a little older and found herself in ill-health, she lost her passion for quilting. It was no longer her great source of joy, and so what naturally happened next? She quit quilting.
If we, with our various passions, lose our love for whatever it is we are doing, it won’t be long before we simply quit doing it. Our apathy will translate into abandonment.
That is what happens in the church. Apathy leads toward abandonment.
That is what has happened to the church in America. We have lost sight of the love and passion that used to drive our worship and service. Now, there are pews filled week after week because, well, that is just where we are supposed to be on Sunday. There are scores of Christians that are present, and even leading, because someone may call if they miss a service.
When we lose that love, and when apathy begins to set in, it will not be long before we simply abandon the church and God’s service all together.
I know that some are probably sitting here this morning thinking, “Well, that will never happen to me. Even if I am not as passionate as I once was, I’ll never just leave.”
If I could be so blunt, I’m certain that many of God’s people that are sitting at home each Sunday morning, instead of in His house, would have responded that same way.
If we do not check our apathy at the door, abandonment is around the corner.
In the regression from faithful and flourishing to failing, we first note apathy. We then see it mature into abandonment. And eventually, we even encounter…

3.) Apostasy

Once again, when looking at the Ephesian church, we might not readily see evidence of great abandonment or apostasy. However, we could find numerous warnings and examples in Scripture that point to this problem in Ephesus.
One example that could be found would be in 2 Timothy 2. I know that all of this may seem like a big jigsaw puzzle this morning, but we are trying to get an overall view of the church at Ephesus. And remember, while 1 & 2 Timothy are pastoral letters written to Timothy, Paul urged him to remain behind, where: At Ephesus.
Through the mention of Hymenaeus and Philetus, we come to understand that apostasy had taken place in Ephesus. In fact these two men were misleading the church and teaching that the resurrection of the dead in Christ has already taken place.
It seems that these men were parts of the church- and even given an opportunity to teach, but they had abandoned the truth of the gospel and were spreading a foreign, errant message.
While we see it in ancient Ephesus, we could quote a number of modern examples of apostasy in the church. In fact, many atheists and agnostics have a church background. Even many people that would label themselves as Christian have fallen into apostasy.
Now, I know that word has a connotation that tends to make us think of movies and stories of witch-hunts and errant applications of church authority to push a personal political agenda. However, the word itself simply refers to falling away and accepting another gospel.
I wish that I could exclude this part of the process from this list. However, I simply cannot. Where apathy leads to abandonment, abandonment gives greater opportunity for apostasy.
Listen, there are numerous “Christians” that have become disenfranchised with church, their hearts have grown apathetic, they have abandoned fellowship and service, and now they are pushing false gospels.
I’m afraid that one of the most popular forms of false gospels now comes in the form of post-modernism, secular humanism and new age teachings. Instead of turning to Christ for answers, there are scores of former church members that now believe that all they need to do is look inward for the power to change their circumstances.
We could name off any number of sects and cults that are guilty of apostasy. However, that is not the point this morning. Rather, we must recognize the slippery slope on which we play when we harbor attitudes of apathy.
We find evidence of decline in the church in Ephesus in Scripture. We see it all around us in the modern church today.
Every day eight churches in the United States close their doors. Each new day, six new churches are planted. We are facing a net loss of two churches a day. They are closing doors, losing influence in their community, and granting victory to the enemy every time a church dissolves.
The core reason for this decline and failure is simple. I firmly believe the American church’s problem is that we have lost the passion and fervor for Jesus that we once had. Our life in Christ is no longer based around a love affair with Christ, but has become a duty and obligation to our local congregation.
We must rekindle the flame that once burned in us for Jesus.
While we talked about three steps to transformation from flourishing to failing, the fact is that your presence this morning suggests that you have not reached the second and third stages. However, if we do not rediscover the joy and love for Christ that we once had, abandonment becomes infinitely easier.
As we come to our invitation this morning, let me ask you two questions: Are you still in love with Jesus, and if so, what are you doing to evidence it?If you’ve become apathetic and lost that fervor, simply go to the throne of grace this morning. Repent, make a fresh commitment, ask Christ to restore your passion, and then get to work on your relationship with Him.
The process of a relationship with Christ is the same as a relationship with a spouse. Improving a relationship is done through actively sharing your love and evidencing your affection with TIME.