“FIRST LOVE”

When you hear “first love” what do you think of?  First crush?  First kiss?  First date? First sport you enjoy?  First car?  If I say, “Sonny James, what comes to mind?  The song “Young Love”?  Sonny James just died at age 87.  He had 16 consecutive No. 1 singles over a 5-year period.  If today’s criteria were used, he would have had 25.  This was a feat never accomplished before or since by any single artist.  His breakout song was “Young Love in 1957.

They say for every boy and girl

There's just one love in this whole world

And I know I've found mine

The heavenly touch of your embrace

Tells me no one could take your place

Ever in my heart

Young love, first love

Filled with deep devotion

Young love, our love

We share with deep emotion

Just one kiss from your sweet lips

Will tell me that our love is real

And I can feel that it's true

For we will vow to one another

There will never be another

Love for you or for me

Young love, first love

Filled with deep devotion

Young love, our love

We share with deep emotion

If I say “the Church at Ephesus”, what comes to mind?  Jesus speaking to the apostle John in regards to the Church at Ephesus said:

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 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 have fallen; 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 Nicolaitans, which 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 the Paradise of God.

If Jesus came to your church, what would He have to say?  Have you fallen from your first love?  When you fell in love with your spouse, or got your first car, do you remember how you felt?  Was there an hour that went by when you did not think about it?  What about now?  What about your passion for the Lord, for His Word?  Does it consume you?  Do you roll it over in your mind, mull over it?  Does it distract your driving in the car? Do you think about it when you are exercising?  Do the sermons and teachings drive you nearer to the Lord, to His Word?  Do you look to His Word for the answer’s to life’s question?

When you have “Church” or Bible studies at you church, are they really “BIBLE STUDIES”?  How much Bible is studied?  In 60 minutes, how much is spent reading the Bible?  One?  Two?  Three? Five? Ten?  Did you really “study” the Word?  “Study” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary means: a state of contemplation, application of the mental faculties to the acquisition of knowledge, careful consideration, careful examination or analysis.  Sadly, many of the Bible studies that I have attended are light on both accounts, sort-of-like decaf coffee, diet pop, or lite beer.  How much time is spent telling personal stories, referencing biblical scholars (note I did not capitalize the word biblical)?  How much of the information is based in the internet?  How much is cross referenced to other Scripture?  Did it increase your love for the Lord, for His Word, His presence?  Are you left wanting more of His Word, more of His presence?

Can we say with the Psalmist:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

Blessed is the one … whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers?

I love you, LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold?

The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?  When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.  Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident?

Have we fallen from our first love?  Have we fallen out of love?  Have we drifted apart?  The word is God’s love letter to His people.  People don’t write letters anymore, we send texts and tweets.  During WWII, it took weeks for letters to reach loved ones.  I am sure that many letters arrived after soldiers had died.  Letters meant something.  They were read over and over again.  Do we treat God’s Word like texts and tweets that we hit “delete” after glancing at, or is it valuable like those letters from overseas that arrived long after the soldier had been killed?

Will God remove His blessing from your church or has he already?  A light that no longer shines is worthless like salt that has lost it’s savor; and it is cast out.  Are you, is your church relevant?  Are you just re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic?  Are you playing church?  Are you ministering to each other or a lost world?  Are you being equipped for the ministry of the saints?

 ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?  You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.  ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:  As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. “ ‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.  I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD.  I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.  “ ‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats.  Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? “ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.  Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away,  I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.