Is God Your ‘First Love’

In his letter to the Church of Ephesus, God tells faithful Christians to repent. Yeah, repent. For not doing two things. And you might be doing the very same two things. This is an important message. Tell me something, what is it that gets you more excited than anything else? What is it that you like to do more than anything else? What are your hopes and dreams? What are your hearts desires? What is it that fills your prayers? If your answers to any of these questions, isn't something that involves God, then God has ceased being the God in your life. You're in fact chasing other gods. You know, you can always spot a new Christian because of their exuberance. They're zeal for telling people about Jesus. They're fresh from accepting Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior. And they really mean it. God is their first love, no question. Until the things of this world become more attractive and more exciting over time, and God starts to take a secondary position. And it happens to all of us quite frankly. It's so easy to let other things become your God without even realizing it. For a lot of Christians today, politics, and even Donald Trump has become their God. And their entire outlook on life is based on the latest breaking news and most of it's bad news. But it's just as much an air for your favorite minister to become your God. So many Christians today are patiently devoted to the raising of funds, and the giving of their time to badly needed ministries, and having their entire outlook on life based on the income and the politics, and the performance of that ministry, it doesn't matter what it is, folks. Whatever it is that takes your eyes off of God, is guaranteed to rob you of your joy and your intimacy with God. The steps of the righteous are directed by the Lord and nothing else. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and always acknowledge Him, and He will direct your steps. No one else delights yourself in the Lord, and He will grant you the desires of your heart. The Bible shouts the message that we are to keep our eyes on God, follow Him above everything else, and in all seriousness, that's the only thing that will keep your life on track. A good fashion. When Karen I were young parents, we did just the opposite. No, we were so focused on volunteering for every opportunity at church that we lost sight of God. We forgot who we were serving, and began serving ministries, run by people, by flawed people, and found ourselves spiritually dry, and wondering how God, why God wasn't overflowing us with joy. With the best of intentions, we were completely off track. God was no longer our first love. In his letter to the Church of Ephesus and Revelation chapter 2, God calls faithful Christians like Karen and I were, like you may be now, to repentance, when we no longer hold God as our first love. If this sounds like where you are right now, in his letter to the Church of Ephesus and Revelation chapter 2, God actually calls you to repent, by saying, I know they works, and that labor, and that patience, and how they can't stop bare them with your evil, and that has tried them, which say they are apostles, and are not, and it has found them liars, and has borne in his patience, and for my name's sake is labored, it has not faded. He's talking about faithful Christians, possibly talking about you. Nevertheless, he says, get this, I have this against you, faithful Christian, because you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from whence you have fallen, where you were when you first accepted the Lord, and praised him, and he was your first love, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto you quickly, and will remove the candlestick alabet's place, unless you repent. He's talking to faithful Christians, they're doing good things, but to put those things above him, and he says to them, repent, to return to making God your first love, and to doing the first work. The first thing every Christian does when they get saved, is to tell people about Jesus. Unless you remember how far you have fallen, and returning to making God your first love, and doing the first work, telling people about Jesus, he will remove your candlestick. What does that mean? It means that he's going to remove the Holy Spirit, you're going to remove your testimony. And I got to tell you, the testimony of the church has been removed from making this error. Less than 10% of all sermons even mention salvation anymore. We're in trouble, folks. You know, let's get first to where we have control of our lives, okay? We're all called to be salt and light, right? The salt of the earth and the light of the world. Have you noticed that there's one characteristic that salt and light share together? They both change their environment. So here's the question for you. Are you changing your environment? Or is the environment changing you? It's a good question. More importantly, is the church changing our environment or is our environment changing the church? And the answer to that question is pretty obvious. But that's beyond your control. What you can control in what God is calling you to do is to go back to where your heart was when you first accepted Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, and you completely stretching your life to Him. And may God your first love again and start doing the first work again, moving everyone every day closer to Jesus. The word is so clear on this, folks. Keep God number one. Trust the Lord with your whole heart. Lean not under your own understanding. All your ways acknowledge you. Tell people about Him and get this. He, God, will direct your steps. What a promise. It didn't get any better than that. See you next time.