Standing In Love

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Amen, church.

You can take your Bibles this morning and turn them to Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

We kick off this morning our study of the seven letters.

And I want to say thank you to the council and you, church.

It is uh my honor and my privilege to stand before you each week.

And it is an honor and privilege to shepherd people.

I love, and I'm speaking, I believe, on behalf of our pastors.

We love what we get to do.

Uh this is a blessing.

Uh, and there's nothing in the world like it.

There is nothing like what we get to do.

And um, I know that each of you has a position and a calling, but when God calls you to get in and dig into the lives of people and pray for and love and share his truth, uh, it is it is an honor.

And so thank you.

Um, we appreciate being recognized, but we recognize the one who calls us to it, and we recognize you without you.

There's no pastoring to be done.

So thank you, church.

Revelations chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

I've been excited as we look into this.

And um, so open up those Bibles.

Let's jump right in this morning.

Revelations chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

Let's read verses 1 through 7 as we get started.

To the angel of the church of Ephesus, write these things.

Says, He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.

I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil, and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars, and you have persevered, and you have patience, and have labored for my name's sake, and have not become weary.

Nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love.

Remember, therefore, from where you fall, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

But this you have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitians, what I also hate.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of paradise of God.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you and we thank you for the opportunity we have this morning to open your word.

Lord, we're thankful for uh the admonition that we find here this morning, Lord, from a long time ago that is reflective still today.

And I pray that you would open our hearts to your message.

I pray that your spirit, God, would be allowed freedom, Lord, to draw us to what you have to say to us.

And God help us today to leave different than we came.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We see there, point number one this morning, the faithful works.

Letter A is the faithful.

We're gonna see the faithful works of Christ, and then we'll see the faith work of the church later.

But the faithful work of works of Christ, it says as it starts, Jesus Christ holds them in his hand.

They are the angels of the seven churches that are in his hand.

The word for angel is the word messenger.

Now, some people look at this and believe that those stars that it's saying, the messengers, the stars, refer to a guardian type angel that is given to every church or charge over other churches.

Others feel that the stars refer to pastors of these churches.

So, an important question in identifying many symbols of revelation, and you can debate for days and weeks and months over a lot of these symbols.

Um, but an important question to ask for this is um what purpose would God have in giving John, his apostle, a vision to write a message to other heavenly beings?

There may be one.

But what purpose would that be?

So I like and I lean, and as a pastor on pastor appreciation, I like to lean as pastors of the churches.

And so uh he gives this message to John, a writing, and the point is Jesus is pictured as holding his servants in his hands, protecting them by his power.

They were undergoing lots of persecution, and they needed reassurance as they struggled.

So do you, and so do I, when you struggle.

The word for hold in this passage is a present-tenth word, meaning he is in possession of his church.

I want you to hear that, church body.

We are in his hand.

John 10, 28 and 29 says, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no man will be able to pluck them, or New King James snatch them out of my hand.

We are in his hands.

When I think about those hands, it's the hands that formed the dust of the earth, hands that touched leopards and fed multitudes, and eventually Jesus' hands were nailed to a cross.

When you were a little child, you probably sung.

He's got the whole world in his hands.

It's a place of absolute protection to be in his hand.

It is to be a child living as his vessel for his will, is the safest place.

I'm not saying that it's without persecution because this church is being persecuted, but the best place that we can be is in his hands.

Well, not only does it talk about the seven stars being his hand, but it then it says he walks in their midst.

Jesus Christ's direct presence in their midst.

God, Scripture says, inhabits the praise of his people, church.

The psalmist said that.

In Psalms 27, 4, we see these words.

God is in the midst of this church to Ephesus, but also he's in our midst today.

James 4, 8 says, If you will draw nigh to God, he will draw nigh to you.

And so he says there in Revelation, he's walking amidst them.

Imagine with me this morning the Spirit of God in this place right here, walking freely amongst us.

In the Old Testament, the presence of God was pictured consistently in the tabernacle and the temple of God.

But in the New Testament, believers became that temple.

We're told in 1 Corinthians 6.19, what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

So we're told where two or three of us get together, that's where the church is.

Now, man, we got a great facility, a great building.

And man, I'm so happy for what God's given us in this 90 acres to just make much of Jesus.

But I want to tell you, church is right there with you.

You're it, it's in you.

So, man, gather together and praise his name because he inhabits it.

You can do that down at the coffee shop.

And he'll inhabit it.

You can do it at a Connect group.

You can do it on a Friday at the barbecue.

He inhabits the praise of his people.

We are that temple of the Holy Spirit.

And so when he's writing this letter, he says, He's amidst his people.

Well, letter B, I want you to see.

That's the faithful works of Christ, letter A, but letter B is the faith work of the church.

There's a picture of these churches.

And I want you to see their Ephesus.

We're gonna fall in and find out why Ephesus was such an important city where it was, but the faith work of the church, Ephesus was a Mid Eastern giant.

By location alone, this was a trade route city, and a melting pot of people came in because of the access and the roadways.

So everyone from every place knew about Ephesus, this gateway of Asia.

And all of this trading, well, because of those things, it became a meld of arts and science and lots of religions, including the worship of and what it was known for in this time period, the most infamous Artemis.

This is a picture of the temple of Artemis, also known as Diana.

And Artemis was known as the goddess and daughter of the Greek god Zeus.

And so the people in Ephesus, this was a fertility goddess, and they worshiped at the temple of Artemis.

They worshiped at the feet of this goddess that would give them fertility.

And so let me tell you some of the things that happened, the evil that went on in Ephesus at this time.

There was ritual prostitution playing an important part in the temple.

There was pagan worship in the temple, and the writers that write about this said this place was exceedingly a centerpiece of immorality.

Some of the worship, including secret rituals, and it became a place of good business.

So silversmiths began to craft things that people would buy that would be picturesque of what happened in the temple.

And so it was big business.

They made charms and little silver shrines, but some of the things that were happening because of their worship of Diana was black magic and dark arts, demonic things.

And so this was a place.

You can see the heart of Paul to plant a church in this place on a second missionary journey.

Paul comes across this epicenter of things, and Paul's heart from the Lord's change in his life says, This is where we need a church.

And can I say evermore, church, where evil abounds, do we need the work of God at work?

We need you.

And so this was happening, and Paul uh planted this church.

We see the letter of Ephesians that we have in the Bible was written about 10 years after that.

And when he writes this letter, he's writing to the church to encourage unity.

He's writing to the church to encourage no more racism, no more divide, that the body of Christ is gonna see Jews and Gentiles as equal and bring them into the body.

And then he leaves the letter with an encouragement from Ephesians 6 that you've got to put on the whole armor of God for this fight of spiritual warfare.

And it gives you a different picture when you think about spiritual warfare, and you picture this temple and immorality and all of the crass paganism.

And Paul says, put on that fight against warfare because it was real in Ephesus.

Well, the church was planned, a letter was sent, and approximately 30 years passes, and John, the living apostle who is writing this vision in Revelation, writes a letter.

So 30 years pass, and here's this letter, the preacher, John.

And I believe John, you can see by timelines, John ran the same time as Paul.

We're not shown anywhere in scripture where they met, but they were running ministry in a similar vein of time.

And so I believe the people in Ephesus would have understand and knew who he was.

They knew their founder, Paul, was working in the same time as him, the advent of the church.

And undoubtedly Paul spoke of the works of John.

So then John gives a vision from God, and he says, You've been working from God, from Jesus.

He says, You've been working and you've been serving and you've been building and you've been working and you've been serving and you've been building.

And they hear these words about their hard work.

And the message, uh Bible version, says it this way I see what you've done, your hard work, and refusal to quit, and are an example.

So this church has been going.

We're talking almost a half century of time has gone by since they've started and they've been working and they've been doing and they've been serving.

And it's a picture of Galatians 6 9 that says, Be not weary in well-doing, but in due season you will reap if you don't faint.

So they're going as a church and they're at it.

And I want to tell you, it's in a place where life is not easy.

It's not easy there to be a church.

One of the writers wrote this, because they refused to bow the knee to the goddess Diana, it caused violence, social ostracizing, and economic repression for any Christian living during those times.

It can feel exhausting to stand in culture where there's little or no Christian belief or action.

But God, through this vision, through John, wanted them to hear these words to the church.

God was pleased to see their effort.

He was pleased in a hard circumstance.

Some of you work in a job where you're feeling that now.

You're feeling the taxation of a system who doesn't want Christian beliefs.

And they're trying to repress, they're trying to ostracize, and they're trying to say, not those words, not that hate speech, not here, not now.

And so you're already, you're feeling some of that, what they were going through.

And it's not easy.

And God says to them, I see your labor, and I appreciate the hard work.

And in the face of that type of culture, they kept the right beliefs.

It says that they stood on their doctrines and even pointed out wrong.

And God is pleased that they believed the truth and they fought for the truth and they worked and persevered for the cause of the truth.

They had a core conviction that they wouldn't let go of.

And this testimony of a church, half a century being a pillar in a hard place.

They made a difference, there's no doubt.

People had come to Christ because of the church at Ephesus, there's no doubt.

Pastors had served and elders had served, and for all this time, many had been changed.

They're feeding the needy in a hard place.

Still fighting.

When this letter comes, still fighting the fight, putting on the armor and trying hard, persevering.

I want you to get the picture.

But point number two.

We see the faulty weakness.

I mean, they're working and they have effort and they're sweating and they're grinding believingly for the Lord.

But they had a faulty weakness.

Verse 4 and 5.

Man, this first word hurts.

Nevertheless, I have this against you that you've left your first love.

Remember, therefore, from where you've fallen, repent and do the first words.

Letter A is this.

They're busy but disappointing.

Just that phrase alone.

For some people today, you feel a little bit of the weight.

Busy but disappointing.

Nevertheless, is a hard word.

Nevertheless, here.

I mean, he tells them.

Man, hard serving.

But have you ever gotten an F on a report card?

Just one.

Just one F.

Some of you shaking your head no.

Well, God bless you.

You had an experienced life.

Junior year was my busiest year.

I played three sports.

I had three jobs, believe it or not, and chemistry was just kicking my tail.

And I failed it.

Okay?

The rest of that report card with all its A's and its B's, I don't remember any C's, seemed to fade in the distance because, nevertheless, there was a big fat F.

And it was crushing.

By comparison, the reality of failure caused a lot of damage to my life that summer.

It caused a lot of damage to my life.

The end of my basketball season.

I missed three weeks of basketball because of that F.

I that summer missed three weeks of work, which meant approximately$1,500.

I had to pay$300 to take the summer school because my school didn't provide it.

And so that was a part of it.

And all of that boiled up.

And you know what?

My other grades didn't seem to matter.

The other hard work didn't seem to matter because there was this nevertheless F.

I want to take you to Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

I want you to see a scripture comparison.

Luke 10, verse 38 through 42.

Luke 10:38–42

Now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him, this is Jesus, into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Therefore tell her to help me.

And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed.

And Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.

The picture here, I hope, can hit home.

There's many that are busy about many things, but Jesus reminds Martha, who said, I need some help.

This house ain't about to clean itself, Jesus.

Them clothes aren't about to pick themselves up and get in the hamper.

Them dishes are not about to get done, and Mary doesn't seem to care that I'm over here sweating for you.

What are you gonna do?

And he said, Martha, all that stuff is stuff.

But I'm here right here, right now.

There's one thing.

There's one thing.

And you know what that one thing is, church?

He says, sitting at Jesus' feet and hearing Jesus' word is the one main thing.

I'm not saying there's not other things, but there is one main thing.

And if you don't get that main thing, all of these other things are things that will distract and make you busy, but disappointing.

You'd be pouring out a cup that's just empty of spirit.

And man, it doesn't take long before a cup like that just gets negative, gets complacent, gets tired.

You see, Saul, before he became Paul, he was zealous.

He was busy and he was sincere.

And he was killing Christians.

The Bible says this, this is one scary verse in the Bible, that there will even be those who do works and much in Jesus' name, yet one day, before they enter heaven, they hear these words.

I never knew you.

But I worked in your name, I did in your name, I served in your name, I was busy in your name.

Why will they hear that?

Because they will have missed the main thing.

And hear me, I'm not against busy.

Busy and hard work is a recipe for success in life.

Okay?

I'm not against it.

The Bible says, go to the ant, thou slugger, don't be lazy.

But if you are so busy you can't sit at Jesus' feet, so busy you can't be taught, so busy you can't get involved in a class and grow, so busy you can't be moved by the Holy Spirit.

If that's you and you are busy, then you're busy and disappointing.

Because, let her be, you're loving, but you're empty.

Your service started out of a place of love, but it's empty.

Do you remember a time in your life where you began operating?

If you've lived any amount of time, you've done this with work or something, but you began operating methodically, almost robotically.

If you've had children, you do this, and you just brush your teeth, comb your hair, go to bed, and you fell asleep in the middle of the phrase.

Like you're Going through motions, the scripture in the Bible that I had brought to my attention again recently was this out of compulsion serving.

Have you left your first love?

Now, various views try to pinpoint what is the love of the first love that they left.

By the way, left, not lost or faded, they left.

Not hurt and walked away, but they left.

Aiken said this about it they left that first flush of enthusiasm and settled into methodical norms.

And I want to say a word of caution here because this is so typical.

And we have to guard against it, methodically doing without any enthusiasm or love.

So this debate arises as of what the love is that they left.

Maybe it was a love of one another, people like to say, as the body, or just left the love of Jesus Christ.

I say possibly it could be a conglomerate of both.

But regardless, the why of what we do is that question.

If we don't stay in the why of what we do, we can easily slip away from it and not do it.

Married folks, you remember when you first fell in love?

You were crazy.

Remember that?

Crazy about them.

I remember being on the phone with Heather till 2 a.m.

at Tennessee Temple.

And we had class at 8.

I knew I was gonna see her.

And then we'd go to class, and let me tell you, being in college together at a small Christian school campus is like dating on steroids.

Two weeks is like two months.

And we were together, and I was talking to her at 2 a.m.

and I'd wake up.

And if I had$15, we were going on a date.

And she wrote me love notes.

Ooh.

We when you feel love, you can't get enough.

That enthusiasm was there.

And when you love somebody like that, you will do things you've never done before.

I never once, y'all won't believe it, because some of you know I'm addicted to coffee.

I never drank a cup of coffee till I met that woman.

Coffee was nasty, but I go over to her and her aunt's house and they be drinking coffee late night.

I'm like, well, I can't let her down.

Gotta be a man and ring some coffee with her.

Now I can't stop.

I have never in my life watched a musical.

Wouldn't dream of watching a musical.

If I saw another man watching a music, I would judge him for that.

Now I can quote musicals and look forward to them.

I said it.

You want to know where to find me on a Friday?

In the club.

Sam's club.

Because I love somebody.

I'm fired up.

I was fired up then, I'm still fired up.

I look at her sometimes and I'm having a little self-talk with nobody looking like.

You did good, man.

You did good.

Congratulations.

Love fires me up.

When you get saved, it is falling in love with God.

You have a fire and a passion and enthusiasm.

And when you fall in love with something, you should continue to grow in love with something.

I've grown in love with my wife.

This love is the motive for all that we do in his name.

So then you can sing a song and you can teach a lesson.

You can preach in his name.

You can give out coffee in his name.

You can shake a hand.

You can witness, you can give in his name because it flows out of ever-deepening love.

If we lose our love for him, then our service begins to mean nothing.

Let me show you what I mean.

Turn to 1 Corinthians.

You don't hear that in a wedding.

It was a rebuke showing them they needed to understand the main thing.

This is what it says.

But if I have not love, I am nothing.

And though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but I have not love, it profits me nothing.

Church.

Are you hearing this?

Without love, it doesn't matter how much we're serving.

We can go out and do all kinds of things.

If you don't love the person next to you and love the God above you, then there is a sincere problem.

Love is supposed to grow.

I mean, I love my wife today more than ever.

I love my kids more than the first time I seen them.

I love this church body more the more I get to spend time with you.

Love should grow.

But when Jesus Christ gives this vision to the church at Ephesus, I wonder what he said to them if he would have to say to some of us, You don't love me like you used to.

The church there at Ephesus had once been overwhelmed with the gospel.

They'd do anything because it was an opportunity to spread his name, his fame, and his glory.

They wanted others to know.

Now, after 40 years, they were wrapped up in what it meant to keep their core convictions.

And listen, clear biblical truth.

We are about truth and doctrine here.

So we're not discounting that.

And they were earnest and they were diligent, but they stopped loving.

If you stop loving God and loving people, your care for the truth becomes just noise.

This happened in the 80s and 90s in the church.

I grew up in it, and I think they were sincere.

I think pastors, listen, I'm not down on it.

I think they thought that they, I think they thought they were doing the right thing in ways, but they become very legalistic about things, about preferences, and they were teaching a lot about music or clothes or hairstyle.

And they were sincere and they worked hard.

And the church I grew up, man, it was growing.

But they were sincere and sincerely wrong about some things.

I lived through it and I felt judged.

I wanted to know why the jean pants on my legs felt like the fire of hell if I was near church.

I wanted to know why my mustache that was growing in some peach buds made me feel like such a pagan.

That's what my church would have had you believe.

We missed it.

I watched generations of young teen girls get pregnant and the church ostracize instead of coming alongside and saying, hey, let's walk you out of this.

Let's come around and let's the church, let's the church give a baby shower, and we're gonna walk you through it as a young new mother, through your pain and through your went through.

Yes, you messed up.

We want to call sin.

But stopping the love.

Well, it takes us to the third thing in the passage.

There's a fatal warning.

Look at verse 5.

At the end of it and through seven, it says, And do the first works, or else I'm gonna come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Go down to verse 7.

He who has an ear, let him hear.

To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life.

He gives a warning.

Letter A is restored and relating.

Gives a warning to restore.

I hear from people all the time this phrase.

I don't like people.

I'm not much of a people person.

And I like what one man said because I totally disagree.

There's only one type of person, and it's a people person.

You are a people person.

It's the only kind of person.

And Jesus Christ gave two greatest commands.

He said, Love God and love people.

Now we have bins, I understand, but God made us to be relational.

So do the hard work that it takes.

I hear people in business all the time.

Well, it's just probably not my route.

I shouldn't really be dealing with people.

I mean, maybe you shouldn't be the voice that fields the calls because you snap a lot and you don't like problems, but I'm telling you, you don't have business if people aren't on the other side of the business.

Every business is about people.

So in this world, it will help you a good deal if you don't have a shirt like that.

I saw a guy working with walking with that hat down the road just a week.

I was like, well, I don't want to say hi to him.

He don't like people.

So do the hard work.

He says this do the first works again.

Do the first works.

Find your way back into love.

It's not meant to be a marriage sermon here, but it does apply.

If you faded from your mate, he says, do what you did when you stayed up till two in the morning.

You know, I can't do that.

Well, if you can't, then you can expect to have a divorce.

You have to go back and find your way back into love.

Do the hard work.

How did it get so far from where we once were?

You know, God has revealed things to me in my life.

And when I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, I was nine.

And I mean, as a nine-year-old, I was all in as nine was gonna be.

I liked preaching, I liked worship, I liked going to church, and I invited people to, y'all think you got it, bad.

I had what was called Wednesday night Patch the Pirate Club.

Look that up.

We did Bible verses and all of it, but Patch the Pirate was a big thing.

Look at what I'm telling you, go home and Google Patch.

I still remember some songs about the Poochie lip disease.

I mean, we sang this stuff.

Boy, we have come light years.

But I invited people to patch.

I took seven people in the back of my dad's pickup one time, no seat belts, because we could do that back in the 80s, and brought them to church.

I mean, as close as I could be to God at nine.

Well, I fell away in my teen years.

And I repented and I rededicated, and I was right there between my end of my senior year and the decision to go to Tennessee Temple, and I was walking through what this meant for my life and trying to just find my way back into love with God.

And I've shared this before, but God one morning, as I was doing my devotion, doing my prayer, and listening to worship music, gave me this song, and I want you to hear it again.

Turn the page, can't turn the light out.

Every word, every line carries to a soul.

Dark letters on the page singing so loud.

Dark letters on the page singing so loud.

And it was speaking to me about where I was in the moment.

Where did I go wrong for these two years not to hear your song?

Well, the song continues.

It says, 18 years, I guess I was alright.

I let you do the thinking.

I just bide my time, just going on.

Father to son, Sunday hand me down.

That was me.

I was in bus ministry with my dad.

I was in church, but I was living for the world for these two years, but I was in it.

Father to son, this was, I was given this.

I didn't take it.

I was given spiritual living, and it was a hand-me-down, church service week after week, Christian school.

Where did I go wrong?

It was everywhere all around me.

Where did I go wrong not to hear your song?

I was all around it, but I was missing it.

He was right there.

God never moved, but I did.

One of the sad phrases in this passage is, or else I will remove your candlestick.

What does that mean?

I will remove your candlestick.

All spiritual authority and opportunity for spiritual impact.

If you keep serving me without loving me, I'll remove your candle.

There's a dark world in need of the light of Jesus Christ.

And if you can't love Jesus Christ and others, I'll remove your effectiveness to that world.

You'll in effect be a darkness in a dark world.

And you'll just spin wheels throughout life, being background noise to something that was meant to be more.

Roughly 500 less churches as Southern Baptists.

Now, the positive is if you can see, we're bouncing back.

There's a graph that depicts how many people attended church.

In 2019, there was 5.2 million.

Okay, and this is of people that took this survey.

And here we are in 2023.

See, we're bouncing back, but yet we've lost our candlestick.

We've lost that love for several hundred thousand.

It appears some have left their first love.

And we said it when all of that started that this is gonna be the thing that the people that are riding the fence about church, they'll get out and they'll never be back.

They lost that love.

We've seen throughout history where God has removed the candlestick.

Malachi 2.2 says, God will curse those who will not bring him glory.

And because I love you as a shepherd, I want to ask you a hard question and for you to be honest.

I want you to think about this.

If you're here today, can you say, Pastor, I'm tired, and I know what's right on the inside, but I feel done.

I feel drowning.

I feel distant from God.

It's not judgment.

I want you to know for you.

I feel tired.

I've been busy, but on the inside, I feel done and distant from God if that is the case.

It's hard to admit, number one.

And you can't get moving towards right if you won't admit wrong.

But if you're there, letter B is for you.

He says, remember and repent.

He said, remember and repent.

Consider that.

Remember what?

Remember what you did to see that first love.

Many today have forgotten the first things.

If you're considering this today and you're wondering a question, I want you to hear something.

Have I ever fallen in love with Jesus Christ in my heart?

You may be here, and that's not, you can't picture a place where you felt all those things or you've had a spirit enthusiasm.

Maybe today is a day of salvation for you.

Maybe today is a day where you have to go all in for Christ.

Maybe you've never repented of your sins.

And he can bring something brand new, a light of your life, a passion, a purpose for you.

Maybe you've never fallen in love with Jesus, but maybe you have.

And when you think about where you are, you say, I've done the right things.

Like the church at Ephesus, I'm serving, I'm faithful, I'm here, but I find myself not able to love people.

And I find myself just wanting more, but I'm not there.

I want to explain to you, John 8 12 says, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

It's vital that we remember what is it that made that light shine.

John 8 said, It is in those that follow.

It's in the follow.

If you will follow me and be the light, then your light will shine.

But if you will not love and follow me, I will remove the candle.

When you're in love with Jesus Christ and you walk with him, it is real hard to walk, it's real hard to walk with him and commune with him and not glow.

That light becomes a part of who you are because it is real.

And here's the thing.

Some of you, you're doing the thing and not experiencing nothing.

And I want to tell you, you've got to grind into that and ask God through it.

Get in his book, but then ask him and meditate on what it says and then ask.

And when he points out that sin, you've got to do something about it.

Because the sin makes it all hazy and fade, and it makes any opportunity of that glory to just dim.

And you've got to do what the book says because then I can commune with him and walk with him.

And when he speaks to me and I say, uh-uh, no, that light, that candlestick becomes ineffective.

We've lost that first love to do whatever it would be to please him and glorify him.

Anything, Lord.

I'll do anything.

I'm telling you early days of Dayton Heather, anything she wanted.

Anything.

I'll take her anywhere.

Do anything just to be with her.

Do you feel like that about God?

I want to close with a story.

In 1963, in Mountain City, Tennessee, there was a couple whose honeymoon phase had long worn off.

And they were in love and they dreamed about starting a life together.

But selfishness and sinfulness began to make what was once real love fade in the background.

And what was once care and romance began to be another fight and another argument.

And it began to weigh, and the burden and the tension in that home was constant.

They had two young girls and a little boy.

And try as they might, they were committed, but on the inside, they were done.

So finally, at the cost of their little family, they were separated.

Then they were divorced.

The husband moved 500 miles away from Mountain City.

He left his first love.

Not real long after that, tragedy struck the family.

The little two-year-old boy ran outside.

A car was coming.

It was a neighbor driving, and tragically, he was struck by the car and killed.

They reconnected during that time and began over a couple of years trying to work out the things that had gotten them so far away.

And after a few years, the couple reconnected and decided against all odds to try to give their love another chance.

Have you heard of couples getting married, divorcing, and then getting remarried again?

It happens every now and then.

You hear it, you go, I need to hear more about that story.

Well, this couple was married for the second time.

And in 1996, several years, the husband, after having some severe heart problems, had been touched by God.

And he was convicted by God of all the messes that he had become and began in that family.

And one by one, he began apologizing to family members, to his children, to his wife, and writing past wrongs.

I want to fast forward to 2000, and I am in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 700 miles from home.

I would travel three hours to Mountain City, Tennessee to see this man and his wife.

I would see a man who loved his wife in his 60s, just loved her, doted on her, and was dating her.

I didn't see or even know of these things of the past, but I saw a man who loved and gave, and he had a church just down the road from his house, and he loved his church and loved God, and he began to invest in me.

My grandfather, Austin Bolden, had walked away from his first love, my grandmother in 1963.

But he remembered and he repented and he returned.

And because of it, I was impacted.

Seeing a godly man in his last seven years of life, seeing someone love his God and love his family and love me.

He finished his fourth quarter with a glowing candlestick for God.

That story happened, one, because my God is patient.

My God saw his plight, and my God kept loving him and didn't want his candle to be done with.

But then my grandfather remembered, he repented and he returned, as Revelation said.

Maybe today you need to repent and return.

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