Rediscovering Your First Love
Pastor Darryl Bentley
Midland SDA Church
April 24, 2010
Homiletical Idea: When we first come into a saving relationship with Christ we have a fire like no other time in our Christian walk. At least one reason that we lose that fire is because sin creeps back in and pulls away from Jesus. It is the equivalent of spiritual adultery. To regain that first-love experience we have to go back where we fell and start fresh with Christ. Then and only then can we rediscover our first love with Jesus.
Love Struck
I think it would be fun to line up several couples from the church family here and have them recount how they felt when they first fell in love with their spouse. What would they say? Would they tell us how their heart raced with excitement when they would see or call their new-found love? Would the guys tell us that they were willing to do anything to get to hold her hand? Would the ladies tell of how they giggled with their friends when their beau would speak to them? No doubt the stories would be fun to hear and recount.
Why is it that when we first fall in love with someone we are willing to do anything for them? It seems that men and women both will go to the ends of the earth to please the one who holds the key to their heart. Reason and caution are often tossed to the winds of chance as we embark on a journey of love. Most of us have even heard and perhaps used the phrase “They are head over heels in love”. When we say this we mean to say that the person or couple has allowed their heart to be given to another without reserve.
Deeper Love
In June, Ginger and I will have been married for 16 years. I can honestly say that I love her more today than I did that summer of June 1994. But the love that I have for her is different from the love that I have for Jesus. While the relationship that I enjoy with my wife is very good and mutually satisfying on many levels it is not a love that brings the things that a love relationship with Jesus can bring.
The love that Jesus gives us and that He teaches us to experience is the type of love that goes beyond emotion. It is a love that goes beyond sexual gratification. It is a love that fills us more deeply than any other love can. Why? It fills us in this uniquely satisfying way because when we are filled with the love of Christ we no longer have to question whether or not we are good enough. It is not about how good we are or can become. It is totally about how awesome Jesus is.
His love is one that surpasses all of our expectations. His love supplies all of our needs and wants. David reminds us in Psalm 23 that when the Lord is our shepherd will have need of nothing. When our Heavenly Father is taking care of us with His infinite love we come to a place of complete fulfillment. Jesus spoke of this during His discourse on the mount in Matthew 6:33. He encouraged us all to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness then everything else we need would be supplied.
When you have a love like that there is nothing on this earth that can touch that. This is something that the ancient church in apparently Ephesus forgot.
Something Against You
If we go to Revelation 2 we find our text from this morning. It is there that the Lord Jesus is addressing the Ephesian church. Let’s read together beginning in Revelation 2:1.
Notice what is happening here. The Ephesian church by all outward appearances was doing everything right.
1. They are full of good works.
2. They persevere and have not grown weary with sharing the gospel message.
3. They have upheld the doctrines of the church and not allowed heretical teaching to come in.
4. They have exposed false apostles.
5. They have done all of these wonderful things that the name of Jesus might not suffer loss.
6. But, they have not done these things in love. There was a cold formalism surrounding all they did.
Discovering the Need to Rediscover
After Christ lists all of the good things they have been doing He lets them know that there is trouble in their midst. The good things they have been doing have been done without love; without that first love experience.
It is important to notice that they had not simply grown a little weak in that experience, they had left it all together. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine someone coming to church, taking the time to help spread the gospel, be zealous that all the right procedures are followed, and yet they themselves are unconverted and as lost as the day is long?
What a miserable place to be in. We can liken it to a marriage that has grown cold and lifeless can’t we? I know most of us who have been married for any length of time have experienced some trouble in one form or another within our marriage. Ginger and I have certainly had our trials and periods where we wanted to choke each other. It happens to all couples. Some people remain married for years simply for their children or because it is the right thing to do. The only reason they don’t get divorced is because they don’t want the hassle.
And what’s worse is that some people approach church that way. They do not come to church to either be or receive a blessing. No, they come out of a sense of obligation or because they would be embarrassed to stop coming. They want everyone to think that they are alright inside but the truth is that they have either never had or they have lost their first love experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we are involved with the church and do not have the love of Jesus covering all that we do our involvement becomes nothing more that cold, loveless, resentful actions. It becomes a burden to us and instead of being happy about the sacrifices we make for Jesus we begrudgingly push forward without joy and happiness that should characterize all that we do for Christ.
It is because of these types of behavior in the church that we need communion.
The Remedy
I am always amazed at how often the Scriptures give us the answers that we need to the very questions raised in the Bible. Here we find that Jesus levels a very heavy accusation against the Ephesian church. Of course we know that it is not merely an accusation but a statement of facts. I love how Jesus begins with praise. He does not simply start off by beating them up. He first wants them to know that He has never stopped loving them.
It is only after He has encouraged them that He lets them know where they have fallen. It is only after He has praised them that He reaches out in love to call them back. He says to them, “Go back to where you fell and make things right.” In other words He seems to be saying to them, “You need to take the time to think back to where you began to do things without love. You need to think back and try to recall why you let you love for me wane.”
Applying to Us
The reason I thought of this story was because we are having communion today. As Seventh-day Adventist Christians we celebrate communion at least one time a quarter. So you and I have at least four times a year that we can follow Christ’s counsel to come back to our first love and we can do it in a very real and tangible way.
When we consider communion is there any preparation that should go into coming to this table? Yes, there is. In 2 Corinthians Paul gave us some insight as to how we should approach our walk with the Lord Jesus. Let’s read 2 Corinthians 13:5.
I love how he articulates these things. He says that we should willingly approach self-examination. Paul asserts that if we are being faithful in the examination of ourselves then we will know whether or not we are still in love with the Lord. If we pass the test as he puts it then our Christian experience is safe. If we don’t then we need to go back and discover where we lost it.
What does it mean to examine ourselves? It means that we take a serious look at our motives. It means that we ask ourselves why we come to church. It means we stop and ask ourselves if we are always speaking to people in love or if we are harsh and cold. It means asking the question, “Do I love Jesus more than anything else?” If we cannot honestly say that we do then we may have lost our first love experience.
How To:
Some would still ask, “How do I get back my first love experience or how do I get it in the first place?” The answer is actually quite simple. We need to rediscover what Christ did for us. We need to spend time considering the sacrifice that was paid for each of us. We need to spend thoughtful time each day remembering what Christ endured for us.
In Romans 5:6-8 reminds us of an important concept. Let’s read about it.
You see friends God loved each of us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us while we were yet sinners. He did not wait for us to get all cleaned up spiritually because apart from Christ we cannot be sinless. Even Adam and Eve had to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus to keep from falling too. They failed to stay fixed on the Lord and look where it has brought us today.
I love a thought that the inspired author Ellen White shares in her book Desire of Ages. Notice this quote from page 83:
It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross.
So how do we rediscover our first love? By dwelling on what Jesus has done for us and by allowing His sacrifice to melt our hearts of stone and ice that we might become truly repentant and follow Him all the way.
Surely today this is solid counsel, and it is my encouragement to you to let this service have more meaning than perhaps it has in the past. Let today be the day that you fall fully in love with Jesus. Please let today be the day that you forsake going through the motions. Let today be the day that you rediscover your first love: Jesus.