The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated 2019 - Thursday: Dr. Crawford Loritts

Episode Date: September 12, 2019

Pastor Crawford-LaRitz joins us from Roswell, Georgia, with more doctorate degrees than, well, than a doctor. When asked if he had any loving words to say about his family, he shared this thought about his son who preached last night. How can somebody be so smart and so dumb at the same time? Dr. Crawford has possibly written more books than the Apostle Paul. When asked why, he simply said, I did it because I could.

I did because I wanted to. Look at me. When asked if he would like to speak at saturated this year, he commented. You've got to be kidding me, honey. You can't be serious. When asked what has changed your life in all aspects, down to the very bones of who you are. Dr. Crawford responded. I think it's a Neil Diamond song.

We asked Dr. Crawford, what would be the very first thing you would do if you were stranded on a deserted island? I'm going to sell the refrigerator in a stove. It's not necessary. Keep the microwave because that's my lifeline. We asked Dr. Crawford, how is your marriage doing? He responded. What possibly could be wrong? Can you imagine somebody getting rid of all of this?

Visiting us from the not-so-far land of Georgia, who hopefully won't make as many Georgia jokes as another pastor on our staff, please welcome Pastor Crawford-Loritz. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Please be seated. Now, your pastor's a piece of work, man.

I'll tell you. Joby, that was not good. Yeah, serious introduction, huh? Let me get something straight. Now, most of those doctorates are honorary. I would have been in school until I was 107.5. So, you know, but it is a treat to be here with you. I talked to my oldest son this morning.

I was driving to the airport in Atlanta. He said he just had a great, great time. And by the way, you need to know, Brian is our firstborn, and he was born on my birthday. We share a birthday, and I've not celebrated a birthday in 46 years. You know what that idiot does every day, every year. Seriously, he does it. February 11th, there's a birth.

Every year, he'll call me and say, okay, Dad, what are you going to do for me on my birthday? Yeah. He's the gift that keeps on taking. I am just thrilled, thrill, thrilled to be here. And I'm fired up about the vision of this. You know, in church life, sometimes we don't pause long enough to focus on the fact that we need to sit in the presence of God. And the old camp meeting idea, now y'all too young for that, I'm dating myself.

But the old revival camp meeting idea, it's a little bit of a meeting idea. It's a great idea. There needs to be seasons in our lives where we push back and we focus on our relationship with God. And really, he does want us to be saturated in his presence. And so this is a good thing. Well, I bring you greetings to my wife, Karen. It is true. We've been married 48 years.

She's the joy of my life. And amen. And we have 11 grandchildren. That is true. and I tell our kids unashamedly, your only reason for existence is transportation for my grandkids. That's right.

You know, and we have a three-day rule whenever our grown kids come to visit us. See, grown folks bring a lot of drama. And when they come to visit, it's a three-day rule. Now, the grandkids, they just say as long as they want to, but, you know, their parents, we tell them, you say three days, if God could raise Jesus in three days, you can get out of my house in three days.

I started to say I'm kidding, but there's an element of truth that old dear. I wrestled a little bit in prayer about what to share this evening, and there are a number of things that ricocheted off my heart and mind, but there's a text of scripture that I just could not get out of my mind. And I really believe that it's something that the Lord wants us to hear tonight. And I want to talk about this evening recapturing our first love. It's a very familiar passage of scripture.

It's found in Revelation chapter 2. But before we get going, let's just bow our heads together for a word of prayer. Holy Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy, and we thank you for your power. We thank you for what you've done in our lives and what you continue to do in our lives. You have been so, so, so good to us. forgive us Lord God for our selfishness and at times a bit of an entitlement mindset Lord I pray that you'll take us to where we need to be Father you know I'm acutely aware of the fact that nobody needs to hear Crawford's

miscellaneous ramblings about nothing and no one needs to hear my opinions no one needs to hear my thoughts but God we can't make it without a word from heaven we need a word from God so spirit of the living God fall fresh on us I pray that you'll edit out everything that I say that doesn't honor and glorify you reach out and grab us by the lapels of our souls and pull us close this evening speak Lord Jesus and I do pray particularly for those who are here

whose shoulders are slump spirits are sagging and maybe they've been beaten up by the world I pray that the living Christ recapture their hearts that the presence of Jesus would be sweet on one hand but like a refining fire on another Lord God

do a work we pray we desperately need you in Jesus' name amen sometimes in the Bible when God wants to get our attention he will often use the imagery of marriage.

And often when he wants to talk about our lack of faithfulness, he will use some shocking, searing terms, such as Israel going, and I'll use the old King James words, or hoaring after other gods. That unfaithfulness to God is a very serious matter. So the question comes,

how do we maintain that faithfulness? I'm going someplace with this. Let me tell you how I met my wife. Karen and I met when we were both in undergraduate school, and in fact, I met her the beginning of my sophomore year in college. I had broken up with my high school sweetheart. Well, the truth of the matter is, girlfriend kicked me to the curb. And as you saw in the video, can you imagine somebody getting rid of all of this?

Actually, I can, yeah. And this is a true story. I came back on campus and I got down on my knees and I was in my dorm room. This was like, you know, the first day back. And I was on my knees praying and I said, God, no more women. They mess you up every time. And I'm hurting and I need time to heal here. And I'm not going to be distracted or deterred this semester.

Just you and me, Jesus. And I'm going to stay focused on my relationship with God and not going to date anyone or anything like that. I'm just going to be focused, Lord. And people who know me know that once my mind is made up, I can be fairly focused. And so I get up off my knees and I'm filled with this deep-seated, stalwart, single-minded, not to be distracted, not to be deterred, commitment to Jesus. I'm going to say focus. I'm not going to go out with anyone.

I need time to heal. So I'm walking down the street to the main administration building going over in my heart and mind, this deep-seated stalwart, single-minded commitment to Jesus. I'm going to stay focused and just rehearsing this thing. You know how we do. So I get the doors in the main administration building and they pull them open and there at the top of the stairs were these two brown legs.

And I said, Lord, what have we here? I was healed instantly. It was a miracle. And those legs belonged to now my wife Karen and she was new on campus and my mama taught me to be hospitable to strangers. And so I said, I'm Crawford-Leritz and what's your name? She told me.

I said, well, you know, I'm your official tour guy. And I've been showing around now for 48 years. So actually she's been showing me around. But here's what I've learned. Now, I'm going someplace with this. And I know that we have singles here, but bear with me for a moment. Great marriages are not kept together by feelings of love. Hear me, hear me, hear me.

Great relationships are not kept together by feelings of love. They're kept together by a commitment to love. And this is part of the problem with our culture today is that we're thinking with our feelings. That's the reason why relationships are so fragile. And so it is with our walk with God. Marriages deteriorate based upon a four-fold cycle. And it parallels what can happen in our walk in relationship with God.

First, it begins with passion. you're in love, L-U-V, baby, you know, that's it. I don't know how we're going to live, but that's all right. We're in love. And the passion is all there. And you say, I do, and realize that you did. And you're a kissy-face and this kind of thing, and you discover that somebody's got to go to work around here else we're going to be homeless.

So you got to show up, you function, and this kind of thing. And so your passion is there, but the realities of life take place. And you forgot to say, I love you when you walk out the door. You didn't call exactly when you said you were supposed to call. You forgot about a certain, and all these things life happened. And the passion can, if you're not careful, can erode into a little bit of the second phase. And that's neglect. You didn't mean to do it.

And unless there's a little bit of adjustment and your reordering of the priorities and making sure that you follow through on these things. And you're prioritizing a relationship. if you're not careful, if you're not careful, those little neglects, if you will, can become habit patterns. And so you've gone from passion to neglect, little unresolved conflicts,

someone in a relationship is conflict diverse. You're not dealing with the issues. And now you're in a pretty serious place, and that's when the boredom sets in. You're going from passion, neglect, to bored him. There's not the same buzz that you have with one another. When she walks into the room, you no longer turn your head.

In fact, the truth be told, you kind of sort of figure out ways to not necessarily be around each other alone anymore because it's just a bunch of little stuff that is built up. No testimonies now. stuff is built up. And unless there's major intervention at this point, you know what, as a pastor, I see this.

And your pastor probably say, I see this as a pastor. Sometimes the drift in the relationship, when you all see it, it's not one big major thing. But the little piranhas of neglect has cannibalized the relationship. So you've gone from passion, neglect, boredom, and now the fourth phase is,

departure. You may not literally leave the relationship, but the fire's gone out. You know how to function, you know how to put on pretences around other people. You're not to act, but the truth of the matter is, intimacy has been flushed down the total a long time ago. And so it is, often, in our walk in relationship with God, unless there's enormous intentionality. in terms of stoking the fires of the relationship, intimacy with God is not a natural thing. The fires of love, in terms of our relationship with the Savior, doesn't naturally occur.

Our proneness to wander is not something that just took place before we were believers. There is something in us that chooses to drift. There's no such thing as neutrality in terms of our walking relationship with God. Now, I know this sounds crazy because we live in a culture and a society where we, as I said, we think with our feelings. But love and passion and commitment is wrapped in one word, discipline to sustain it. and the subtlety of the enemy is to move in to our hearts and lives and cause us to claim to other good things about the Christian life and to make that our primary passion and Jesus gets lost.

And that's exactly what this letter to the church at Ephesus is all about. John is on the Isle of Patmos and he's exiled there. he has this incredible vision God tells him pick up your pen John I want to dictate some letters and he dictates seven letters to seven different churches

now it's interesting five of the seven letters follow the same basic template what do you mean by that well if you read them you just read those letters you'll find five of the seven follow the same basic template that is that he commends the church

for something he can dens them for something, and then he corrects them. I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I really believe the letter to the church at Ephesus has the Church of Jesus Christ in the Western world, particularly in the United

States, especially here in the southeast, all over it. All over it. Now, I want the text we put up on the screen here, but Revelation Chapter 2, I want to read verses 1 through 5.

Listen to these words. To the angel of the church in Ephesus, right? The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lamp stands. I know your works, you're toiling, 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 namesake. and you have not grown weary, but I have 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 lamb stand from its place, unless you repent. Now, as you read the floor of this text, there's a little bit of confliction that ought to hit you. You find him commending the church. And by the way, his commendation is not disingenuous.

He's given the church of standing ovation. Now, my research indicates that the church in Ephesus was not some big, large church like this, isn't a church I pastor, this kind of thing. It was probably a series of very small house churches. around Ephesus. And there's perhaps maybe 10, 12, 15 people huddled together in these small little gatherings. And there was an elder there. An elder would stand up and perhaps he got this letter. He got this letter from Jesus.

And he stands up in the church. Put yourself in the place of the people who are sitting in this house church. I'm sitting next to Karen and the elders reads this message from the mouth of the master himself. Stunning. And listen to what he says.

And I'm kind of like hitting Karen and saying, we ain't doing too bad. He says in verse 2, 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 a apostles and are not and found them to be false.

I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary. Now put a pen in that and just stop right there. When you read that commendation, you say to yourself, what could be wrong? What could be wrong? I want you to know that it's that Jesus commends them for at least these two things. If you look at the verbs there, he commends them, number one, for right behavior. You folks are squeaky clean. He doesn't bust them for any protracted immorality that's taken place in the church

or greed that's taking place in the church or folks that are having these relational meltdowns and bit out of shape or any of, you know, any of that stuff. He said you're enduring, you're putting up with stuff, you're hanging in there, wonderful. So he commends them for right behavior. The second thing that he commends them for is for right beliefs. There's a little line, I think that a New American Standard Version puts it this way. You have put the test those who call themselves apostles that are not.

That's a not-so-settled inference to the idea that you've got a right framework of biblical belief in doctrine and teaching, and you're holding to that. Nobody's believing squirrely stuff in the church here. nobody's going down the pathway of cults and all of this stuff now you you you think about that for a second what could be wrong I'm sure your pastor gets this I get this the pastor staff gets this you know people in the church where they relocate this kind of thing that say pastor do you know of a great church over

you know in the Denver area I'm going to move to Chicago or going out to LA or what church immediately I'm thinking of well I want to recommend church where the people are not, you know, they're behaving like decently and they believe in the right stuff. And mind you, Jesus is commending them for that. Right behavior and right beliefs does not equal right hearts, though. Listen to this line. Now, you've got to feel this. When you read your Bible, read it in its emotional context. You're sitting there and you're listening

to this message from Jesus. And then the elder, reads this next line. My mind. Five words. But I, Jesus, have this against you. You really don't want Jesus to have something against you. And you're thinking,

hold up, man. You just told me I'm behaving right and believing right. Well, what else is there? isn't that the essence of Christianity overcoming my issues believing the right stuff what do you mean Jesus says

I've got a problem with you and it's not inconsequential it's subtle at first it's imperceptive but nevertheless it is a big big big big, big problem I have with you. I've got this against you. Now, lazy preachers have

butchered this next line. I don't know how many times I've heard young preachers or so stand up and not pay attention to the words in the text. Because Jesus says, he does not say you have lost your first love. That's not what the text says. the problem that he has it they didn't lose their first love right the English standard version says you have abandoned I prefer you have left not lost you have left not lost you have left not lost leaving something implies distraction

and I want to suggest to you although the text doesn't say this I want to suggest to you that that that just just the movement of the passage here. There is, please forget this expression, there is an ellipsis here. What is that? In other words, what Jesus is saying here, you, you have traded something

for something that is important. You've walked away from it. In other words, you have replaced my love with right behavior and right beliefs. Now, I'm commending you for that, but you have left your first love. You left it. You got distracted.

That's the reason why you can sit in every small group in a church. You can go to every Bible study in the church. You can volunteer for stuff and still feel empty because the process has become the destination. And we fall more in love with the stuff that we do for Jesus. Then we do for, then we do Jesus himself. We forget the essence of Christianity. The essence of Christianity is a person. And he says, you somehow got distracted.

Number years ago, I was, this is when they were doing these promisekeepers events, stadium events. I was speaking at a lot of those things. My wife and I was on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ at the time. It's now called crew. and I was also given leadership to this pilot project in Atlanta. It was an evangelistic television special. And so we had Christian leaders coming in from all of the country. And it happened to be on this Friday that we're having a meeting Friday morning.

And I was leaving from my office to go right to the airport to speak in one of these stadium events and give the gospel that evening to about 50,000 men in this stadium. So I was really excited about what was going on that day and everything. and so I got up that morning and I was running a little late. I'm going to tell you a little probably more information about me than you need to know. I'm a little obsessive, compulsive about time. I'm very seldom late for anything. So a guy like me, when I'm running late, you know, that ain't a good thing.

I mean, I'm just having a little bit of a hissy fit about this thing. And so I'm running late and for whatever reason. And so I'm leaving the house and I'm a creature. habit too. I put things at a certain place every night so I don't forget it, my phone, my wallet and money clip and keys and all that. You don't need to know all that. So, so you know, I'm getting a car and I know you've had this experience. I'm back out of my drive, but I'm getting a car. I'm forgetting something. I'm forgetting something. I go this checklist. I got this stuff for the meeting. I got this stuff for the night. I got

my bag and got all this stuff. I get halfway to my office and I remember man, I left my wallet on the table. I knew exactly where it was. I knew exactly where it was. But hear me, in my desire and nothing was evil that day, I was doing everything that would advance the kingdom. But I got distracted by the good stuff, and so I was driving without identification.

And that's exactly what Jesus is saying to them. No, no, no, no, no, I'm glad, glad you're behaving right, glad you're believing right. But you have made a switch. You made the manifestation, the essence. You think that because you're doing all this good things in the name of Jesus,

that that's transformative? Seriously? And I wonder how many of us have gotten distracted. Glad you're going to the Bible study. Do that. Glad you're in your small group. Do that. Glad you volunteered to do that.

But you do know that's not the essence of your walk with God. And notice what he says in his statement of the problem. You have left and then he says your first love. First. That is not to be taken as the sequential term for phrase, do this and then this and then this and then this. It is the essence term for first. In other words, that which establishes all of the,

priorities in your life. Best thing to do this, and I don't mean to sound, you know, I love my wife to death. At this stage in my life, I've got a lot of water on the bridge. I came perilously close, perilously close to burning out in the mid-90s, perilously close. And I emerged from that time. Some guys got my grill, and I looked at my priorities and realized that I ain't married to nothing, including ministry. I'm just married to Jesus.

I'm married to Karen. and my wife has veto rights over my life and schedule. She does. Vito rights. Now, she gives me, I have a lot of freedom, but I don't get it twisted. She's number one. And what Jesus is saying is, I said, look at you.

Look at you. Overcrowded schedule, doing all this stuff in the name of Jesus and my name. And he goes on to me, that's great. Believe in good. That's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. but I'm not essence in your life anymore.

I'm not essence in your life anymore. You love this stuff when you love me. Really? You have left your first and he says love. Now hang in it with me. The Greek word there is agape. Now we, you know, in our desire, those are us preachers, in our desire to help people understand the difference between Greek words.

We get a little, sometimes I think we oversimplify things. we say this you know three Greek words you know that's translated love eras we get erotic from that that's sensual love

phileo familiar relational kind of love and agape and then we quickly say agape is this God's unconditional love is a whole whole slow your role there slow your role trying to define agape in

fact is almost almost as it is equivalent in my mind to trying to define holiness in God's glory. The finite human mind can not begin to begin to fathom the proactive purity of God. That's holiness. There's a disconnect. We don't have words to describe the utter purity of God. Glory. How do you describe the manifest presence of God? And so it is with Agape. How do you how do you articulate this pure love, love that's uncontaminated? This love that caused God to move toward you. This love that ran you down. And he's speaking to the church at Ephesus.

Read Acts chapter 19. In fact, the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia has this article on Ephesus. Ephesus was a hellhole. All kinds of nasty stuff. and I don't even want to begin to describe there's going on there. These people, they ain't get saved from gated communities.

They say, well, look at you. Look at you. Look at you. You've left. You're first. So he commenced him for something. You're sitting there. I started out doing like this.

The Karen said, hey, we ain't so bad. Now I'm kind of looking at my sandals. But then he condemns, he commends them, put condemn in quotations and now he corrects them what are we supposed to do

guilty is charge what am I supposed to do how do I keep how do I keep my heart fresh how do I stay out of this misalignment pull that I feel what do I do he says here

I love it verse 5 he says, remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first. This is simple but liberating. You know, sometimes for those of you who preach and teach, take what the text gives you. Remember that good meat makes its own gravy. All right? You don't have to get fancy with it.

Make it do what it do. That's Ray Charles theology. Let it do what it do, okay? But the text says, here's the answer. He says, here's the answer. Here's the answer. He says, you need to do three things. You need to remember.

You need to repent. And you need to redo. He says, first of all, I want you to remember. Remember. Remember. I don't get too granular here, but the word, the Greek word, remember here is a bit of a double entendre. It means both to rehearse as well as to recall. It means to recall as well as to rehearse.

He says in so many words, I want you to remember. In other words, another words, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, time out, pull over. Don't keep going faster in the wrong direction thinking that you're going to end up at the right place. Stop, stop with the activities. Stop, stop, stop. Time out. Time out. You're feeling your heart is cold.

How come I don't sense that I'm close to the Lord? I'm dry in my walk with God. Well, maybe what you need to do is just get away. Take a date with the Lord. Get somebody watch the kids. Get a journal in your Bible and a pen. Leave the cell phone in the car. Stop.

Pull over. Look in the rearview mirror of your mind. Go back. Way back. Way, way, way, way, way, way, way back. Way, way back. Way back. Before you knew the difference between Genesis and Abacca,

before you knew that the difference between the Gospels and the epistles, and before you knew all of that stuff. Before you had all the lexicon of Christianese, go back. Remember how you felt? Jesus was saying to John, look, tell those. people remember how you felt remember when you went into those pagan temples and they were doing the nasty in there you remember that remember the tears that were trickling down your cheeks because you you didn't know how God how long how come how come I can't be getting better how come I'm so guilty this weight is all over me

you remember that you remember that you remember you you felt so low and so powerless do you remember Remember that? You don't do that anymore, huh? Good for you. You remember that? Do you remember when you walked out of that place into the agora, the marketplace? You saw this little dude there

in the marketplace, and you froze. And he was talking about this man, Jesus, who died on the cross, in your place and for your sin, and rose again on the third day, and all you had to do was to turn from your sin and trust him as your Savior, Lord. And you froze there.

And the tears began trickling down your cheeks again because you said, this is what I was born for. You remember that? Your right beliefs and right behavior did not say you. It was a person. It was a person. I want you to recall this story is all in this room and all on these other campuses.

Stories, stories of God's. supernatural intervention in your life. He saved you. He snatched you. Some of you got saved coming into this place. He delivered you. You didn't know what joy was. The word also means to rehearse though. Bring it full.

Listen to me, I'm too old to recreational preaching. So here, give me on this. Don't you ever get so cute in your walk with God that you're so mature that you forget. to talk about the cross every day of our lives we ought to preach the gospel to ourselves it keeps us humble and it keeps us holding on to the Jesus who saved us and you rehearse it every single day every single day gratitude for our salvation fuels our love for the Savior did you hear what I said gratitude for our salvation fuels our love for the Savior

And it gives us the proper passion by and through which we are disciples and we go to the Bible says, and we serve and we do all these things. No, because serving is not the end game. The Savior is. And that's why we love him. And that's why we love it. So we remember and we repent. The word repent means to change your mind.

God, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And then he says, I want you to do again the deeds you did at first. years ago when I first studied the text, that stumped me a bit. And so what did he mean by that? Then it dawned on me. He was talking about the fresh feelings around their conversion. I gave my heart to Jesus when I was 13 and a half years old.

And I can remember laying in bed at night with the Bible open on my chest.