Us Time with God / Matt Galvan

<p>Matt Galvan opens by situating the church of Ephesus historically — a forty-five-year-old, well-established congregation with sound doctrine, active service, endurance under pressure, and zero tolerance for false teaching. He then asks: what could Jesus possibly rebuke a church like that for? The answer to that question drives the entire message.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Scripture Text</strong></p><p>Revelation 2:1-7; Philippians 3:10</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Main Points or Ideas</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Christ&#39;s characteristic</strong> - Jesus introduces himself to the Ephesian church as the one who holds the seven stars and walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks — that is, he is actively present among his churches and sees everything. He comes not as a detached observer but as one who walks through and inspects, missing nothing.</li><li><strong>Christ&#39;s compliment</strong> - Jesus commends the church at Ephesus for four things: hard work and labor, patient endurance under pressure, intolerance of blatant sin, and sound doctrinal discernment in rejecting false apostles. Galvan applies this to the student body — serving God, not quitting when things get hard, pursuing right doctrine — and affirms that Jesus sees and commends it.</li><li><strong>Christ&#39;s rebuke</strong> - With one word — &quot;nevertheless&quot; — everything changes. Jesus says, &quot;I have this against you: you have left your first love.&quot; First love is honeymoon love: fervent, personal, uninhibited, and openly displayed. Using the marriage analogy, Galvan argues that the Ephesians had let life — not sinful things, but busy, good things — crowd out &quot;us time&quot; with Jesus. They were theologically straight but had lost the personal intimacy that makes doctrine living. Jesus says: I miss when you used to pray about everything, read the Word desperate to hear from me, and needed me for every situation. That intimacy had been replaced by routine.</li><li><strong>Christ&#39;s command</strong> - Jesus gives three imperatives: remember, repent, and repeat the first works. Remember how devoted you once were. Repent — not with excuses but with genuine sorrow and willingness to change. Repeat the practices of early love: personal Bible reading, prayer, desperate dependence on God. The warning is sobering: the church at Ephesus eventually disintegrated — not for lack of programs, but because they never returned to us time.</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>Galvan closes with three diagnostic questions: What three things most quickly distract you from time with God? What does Jesus want to do with you during that time? And what entertainments or pleasures never get skipped on days when devotions do? Jesus&#39;s appeal to Ephesus is the same appeal to every student: come back to us time — before it&#39;s too late.</p>