Leaving Love + Losing Light | Student Pastor Zach Hammond by Zach Hammond First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN) Kind: sermon Scripture: Revelation 2:1-5, Matthew 22:37-40, Romans 8:37, Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 10:12, Deuteronomy 11:1, 1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 John 4:20, 1 John 5:3, Jude 1:20-21, James 4:7 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/zach-hammond--leaving-love-losing-light Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ Revelations chapter 2 and verse number one. I have a very simple message for you tonight. I will not be long. I've been told by some of my more honest friends that I need to shorten it a little bit. So, I'm going to do my best tonight. Jesus name. I feel they're in the right spirit. Give honor to Pastor Sister Carpenter, Pastor Sister Ericson. Jesus, what a wonderful word we heard preached this morning. Amen. Let's give pastor a hand this morning. What a great, great message. Revelations 2 verse number one, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, right? These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst, the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and the how thou can't not bear them which are evil. In other words, you separated yourself and thou has tried them which say they are apostles. You've tried the false prophets. You've separated yourself from evil and you've found the ones that are liars. He says, done a good job, commended them, John did. And has borne and has patience and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. Sounds like a pretty good church. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee. Very popular verse here. It's quoted many times, but oh, how interesting it is where it's nestled in here. He gives them all the accolades in one through three. Nevertheless, I've got something just somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Preach to you for just a few moments tonight on leaving love and losing light. leaving love and losing light. Would you lay your Bibles down? Would you lift your hands to heaven? And would you just pray a prayer? God, I want you to challenge me tonight. God, I want you to speak to me tonight. Come on. Could you pray that prayer honestly and openly to the Lord? Lord, I want your word, Lord, to be a light unto me tonight. Lord, I need your word, God, to shed light in this room tonight, Lord. show us where we're at, but let it also be that lamp that shows us where we're going, Lord. Let it be all that it can be in this room tonight, Lord. I believe without a shadow of doubt, Lord, that there are people in this room, Lord, that are ready to take a step forward, Lord. They want to do something greater for you, Lord. God, but we want to remember that we loved you because you love us first, oh God. Lord, we want to return unto you where we, Lord, it all began with us loving you, God. Help us to see it once again tonight in Jesus mighty name we pray. Would everybody say amen? Amen. Amen. You may be seated tonight. Matthew chapter number 22 says, "Master, which is the greatest commandment in all the law?" It's a good question, right? He said, "Master, what's what's the greatest commandment?" He said, Jesus tells him, he said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." Anybody finish that? Huh? all your heart. All your heart. All your heart, all your soul, all of your mind. He said, "This is the great commandment. This is the first and great commandment." Verse 39 says, "The second is like unto it." He said, "You love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Now, that's a pretty powerful statement there. On these two commandments hang all the law, all the prophets, all the doctrine, all the things that we want hangs these two things that I love God and I love my neighbor as my self. Your life as a Christian, my life as a Christian is dependent upon the love of God, understanding the love of God. And when you understand his love, you can tap into everything else that God has. Very simple tonight. But if you begin to understand the love of God, the theology is contingent upon the love. Light is contention contingent upon the love. John the beloved becomes John the revelator. Why? Because love always leads to light. If you don't have the love, you're not going to have the light. Let me say that again for you. John the beloved becomes John the revelator because the maturing of the Christian is measured by love and nothing else. If you don't have love, you don't have nothing else at all. By the love of God within them, the scripture says that's how you would measure the Christian. Let me give you some scripture here. And I'll just kind of just just if you're taking notes, you might not be quick enough here. I'm just going to kind of gag you with the bread here for a moment. Romans 8:37. Nay, in all things we are more than conquerors through him that love precedes revelation, but it also precedes victory. Deuteronomy 6 and5. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. So what happens in Matthew is Jesus is just quoting what he said in the Old Testament. And oh, how powerful of a statement pastor said this morning. We would be foolish to negate the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 10. And now Israel, what do the Lord thy God require of thee? But to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. In other words, can you serve the God, serve God with just a little bit of love? With just a little bit of love, with just I'm going to proportion the amount of love that I see fit on the days of the week. And no, no, no. Moses instructs Israel on God's expectation, including love as a core foundation for Christianity. Deuteronomy 11:1, "Therefore, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and his commandments always." Love is linked to obedience and his laws, but you're never going to consistently be able to obey him if you do not love him. I know that's as deep as a little puddle out here on a Tuesday rain. But I want you to understand tonight that the foundation of everything is the love of God. It shall come to pass if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart, with all your soul. Love is connected to blessings. Love is connected to obedience. Deuteronomy stresses it over and over and over again from that you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them to love the Lord your God to walk in his ways to cleave unto him. Thou shalt not hearken under the words of the prophet for the dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God pro God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. How does he prove your love? God tests Israel's love through false prophets. All right. He tests their affection so that there's a lot of false doctrine that can be caught by its love. You say, "I don't know if that's truth or not." You can really, you may be able to fake the power, but you can't fake the love. If you love me, he said, "You'll keep my commandments." What you do in your life has to do with love. And I cannot stress this enough tonight to you and I'm just going to kind of try to beat it into the ground. If love is not the motive, it will not last. We can be here for a lot of reasons and a lot of people and a lot of a lot of things that we think in our mind, I'm coming for the blessings. I'm coming for the covenant. I'm coming for this. I'm coming for that. But at the basis of it all, the foundation of which I stand on is I love him with every portion, every part of me, every heart, the soul, the mind, the strength, everything that's within me. I love him. Students, don't do it for nobody else. I know mama's trying to get you to do it. I know daddy's trying to get you to do it. I know you might be here tonight cuz your wife drugged you here. I know you might be here tonight because you feel like you're being propped up in a relationship and my marriage is going to go to pot if I don't come to church. But I wish some point at somewhere within this service that something pricricked your heart and maybe a tear swelled up in your eye because you realized just how much just how much Jesus loved you. As he begin to sing about the redemption story that he changed my life that he died for me that because he first loved me that there's something inside of me that begins to understand that I can give some affection back to him. It's the motive of love. And we know that all things work together for the good to them that it's the basis of everything. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, "But it is written, eyes not seen, ears not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that you keep reading all these famous scriptures that we quote, we sing. It's in the lyrics, it's in the songs, and it all gets ended. It all is is just bookended with love. You can't even comprehend what he has for you if you just love him back. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive a crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. John 1 John 4 and 20. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Now, I love this passage because it really James, he he does what a lot of people won't do. He just kind of writes it as it is. And he writes the logic or the thinking, the mind of God in a very easy to understand. You don't have to kind of like try to figure out what he's saying. He just says it, right? So, let me put it into the way God the way God depicts it is is you can't say that you love him and then not love the people around you. Pretty simple, right? That's the logic. That's how God thinks. So in other words, let me let me put it into all the facets of our life. You could apply this to any part of your life, to any relationship in your life. Students, you can you can't say that you honor God and not honor your parents. That's the logic of God. How can you say that you honor your pastor who you see one day a week, but you don't honor your parents who you see every day? That's the logic of God. It doesn't just add up to just him. It adds up to every relationship in your life. Because if you love God and it's the basis of everything, you can't just say fooy with everybody else. That's right. You can't lie and cheat and disrespect your teacher and say you love God. That's the logic of God. And James helps us see that very clearly and helps us comprehend. In other words, you can't disrespect and dishonor your spouse all week and claim to love Jesus. Because here's the problem. We've got a basis. We've got a foundation that's wrong. And we have a lot of communities and country clubs and even sadly some churches and some leaders that have made the basis of everything loving people. The problem with loving people is then you get a humanistic worldview and you take uh you're going to go more for experience over truth because oh see that truth offends them and if I'm going to love them I can't say that and if I'm going to speak that then that's offensive to them and they're maybe going to walk away and so the basis is loving people. You're never going to get anywhere with that. You're going to live a life that's up and down. It's depressed. It's anxiety. It's frustration. It's this relationship to that relationship. You can only have one friend at a time. Probably your your church is going to just kind of meander through or your community is going to be your family is going to meander through. But you find yourself in a place where you say, "I'm going to love God. That's the foundation. That's the basis of everything." Then all of a sudden, loving people is easy because you have a clear depiction of what kind of love that you're supposed to share with people. Cuz the worst thing that we have today is our definition of love. Our def definition is wrong. Our truth is wrong. So therefore, the light has faded because we don't have true love. We have we have we have left the true love. So therefore, we don't have a true definition, a true understanding of what love is. So therefore, you're expecting something that you scrolled through last night and that's not real. Instead of turning pages, you have scrolled through and said, "I expect this from my husband and I expect this from my wife and I expect this from my friends and I expect this and that's not true love." That that's that's that's it's a false definition. So you have to make sure that your foundation, yes, we must love one another. That's how he will know. The world will know that you are his disciples. But you are his disciples or you cannot love them. Are you with me? You have to love him. You have to have a source. You have to have something to connect to before you can give anything. And oh, how we've got those things kind of messed up and turned around. By this, you're going to know that my you got to love one another. His commandments. I love this. 1 John 5 and verse number three. For this is the love of God. This is the place you get your definition. This is the place you get the light. He said, "For the love of God," it's it's going to it's going to show you right here. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. So when we look at scripture, I know it's simple, when we look at the word of God, do we love him? Do we love him based upon the scripture text? Do we love him based upon the relationships in our life? Do we have more turmoil in our life than we do peace? That could be a definition that we don't have the true love of God. It could be telling us all that we need to know. Loving God is shown through obedience. You say, "Why do you worship him? Why are you here, pastor, on a Sunday night, as he's already mentioned?" Because I love him. Why did you come tonight? Why'd you get the kids ready early? Why'd you get here at 5:25 and and meander into a prayer? Why Why would you do that? You're already going to be here for a couple hours? Because I love him. Why is it that you you you make sure you get up a little bit early before you go to work and you bow your knees over beside the bedside? That's That's not so somebody could see you. At least I hope it's not. That's not just so to be an example to the kids or just because somebody's asked you to. It's got to be because you love him. I I know it's awful simple. I know it's it's just you're a church who hears such great preaching. I know you would expect something that's much more deep. But you've got to understand tonight that we have to be motivated by love. I don't know why and and my wife kind of jokes with me about it and I'm not going to tell you the whole remarks that she gives me when I talk about it whole conversation. But I have a favorite song and it's an old song. is called more than anything. I had a weird, really, really weird gig that I don't want to get into the details, but I went and played drums at this church on an off night growing up. Just say it this way. The church had more money than they had since. So, they paid me too much money to come play a youth service on a Tuesday night with some friends. And every service they started with this song. I'm not going to sing. Brother Ericson's going to sing it when I'm done. How about that? Just simply says, "I love you, Jesus. I worship and adore you. And I just want to tell you that Lord, I love you more than anything." Simplest song. If it was if there if there was something that was just postered on my my my proverbial refrigerator spiritually, it would be that because I can get caught so caught up in all the questions and all the details and all the this and all of that and all the drama and all of this one's leaving the church and this one's turning back from the truth and this person's doing this and this person's doing that and they're disagreeing with this one. I can't believe this is happening and would you believe this happened on Facebook today and all the things in our world today? And if you're not careful, you'll get in the midst of doing church like the church at Ephesus. I've separated myself from the false prophets. I dress the part. I come to church. I do everything. I've been patient. I've been kind. I've been this. I've been that. But you have something just it's just somewhat against him that you don't quite love him like you used to. Oh my. You don't love him like you used to. That term first love, it refer refers to a a honeymoon stage that when you first came to God, he was everything to you. But perhaps it's just become a routine. Perhaps it's just something that you go through the motions. You just do it because you know this works and you don't really ever connect your heart to him. But more than anything, Jude 1 verse number 20 says, "But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourself, keep yourself in the love of God." Any of you, any person, and no matter man, woman, boy, or girl that's in this room tonight, you feel yourself kind of leaving the love, you better tonight. I come as a simple cry as a voice in the midst of a untoward generation to simply tell you keep yourself in the love of God. Don't you let you may fall out of love with a lot of things but don't you fall out of love with Jesus Christ. Don't you fall out of love with the savior of your soul. Don't you fall out of love of giving him worship and giving him praise. Don't you ever fall out of love with bending your knee and crying out to him. Don't ever fall out of love with the God who created us. Love, it's the foundation of everything. I've got to keep myself looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. The church at Ephesus, John writes about him in Revelation 2, but Paul writes to them in the epistles. John writes and he just he again he just kind of gives them all these accolades and what you're doing for the Lord is important but it's also matters why you do it. That's what this is saying. Revelations 2. It's just like he he he's like John's like I'm thankful that you're doing this but there's got to be a a little bit of a prick. He said there's just somewhat against you that I know you're doing the right thing but I need you to remember why you do it. Please hear me tonight. I know you're coming early. I know you're here. I'm not here to bash you. I'm not here to beat you up. I'm not here to make you feel like you're not doing something right. I'm just here to remind you that what good is anything we do if it's not motivated by the love. I just simply love him. I'm just simply giving back to him what he's he first loved me. It's that simple. I'm just a returner. I'm just a responder of the goodness of Jesus. The church at Ephesus was so busy with their separation, they forgot their adoration. Paul references love in his book to the church at Ephesus over 20 times. It's stressed more than anything else because Paul writes over half the New Testament. He understands the foundation of it all is love. the last two chapters. Chapter five, I don't know if you have headers in your Bible, but in my Bible, there's headers, the little sections, and it goes like this. In chapter 5, it starts with walk in love. Believe it or not, for about seven or eight verses there, it talks about walking in love. And then it goes to a next header that says, "Walk in the light. Walk as children of the light because if you can walk in love, you will always have the light. If you will fall in love with him, you will fall in love with others. You will fall in love with being the light. You will fall in love with the revelation of the scripture. All the things that the light represents, it starts with love. He says if you can love one another that you can walk as children of the light. Well, there's no coincidence that the next one says, "Walk not as fools. You walk in love. Walk in the light. Walk not as fools." Then he ventures into the last part of chapter 5 and he really starts his tone. I mean, there's sometimes I'm reading the text and I'm like, man, I I don't ever want to disagree with King James, but I'm like, you should have moved six up a paragraph because he starts and moves out of the walk of love and light and foolishness. And all of a sudden, he starts talking about something that's very interesting and it really is coupled with all the Old Testament scriptures that Deuteronomy and all all the things that we quoted here a few minutes ago. Those just a few of the ones we talk that are in the script that we talk about that have to do with obedience and submission. He says, "Wives, submit yourself to your husband. Children, honor your father and mother." That's where we go to from love, from walking in love and walking in light. He then transitions into submission within the family. And then he goes into submission about leadership and servantthood, about being submitted to authority, about being submitted to a boss, about being submitted to a pastor, about being submitted to your husband, about it's all about submission. And then once he gets done with walking in love because this is the foundation. And then he gets you in the light and he warns you about some foolishness, he gets you submitted. Then he says, "Put on the whole armor of God." And he starts walking you through. Put on that helmet. Put on that belt. Put on those shoes. You're going to start doing I'm going to put a sword in your hand cuz you can't fight spiritual battles without basing it in love and everything that comes after that. But if you don't have love, you won't have the truth. If you won't have love, if you do not have love, if you're not here motivated by love, it's going to be hard to even listen to me tonight. It's going to be you're going to be wiggling looking at the clock trying to figure out when's the best time to take a bathroom break. Wonder if the coffee shop's still open so I can see if I can miss a few minutes of this sermon. It's it's going to be a unsubmitted spirit because we've got a false definition of love. That's right. That is the if if I could put my p finger on the pulse of our world today. Yes. You think that it's just a bunch of people who are looking to rebel. It's just a It's just a a a chide or a push against spiritual authority. No, it's a false definition of love. It's a misunderstanding of love. It's a misunderstanding of this word right here. Why in the world would we want somebody who don't love us enough to tell us the truth? Why in the world would we want somebody to just get up here and just make us comfortable in our condition? Why in the world would we want somebody then we want to submit and we you really don't want a wife or a husband that's not going to tell you the truth. It's not biblical. He said he gave you a help meat. You know what that means in the original text? A beneficial adversary. That's the original text. In other words, you need somebody who loves you enough to get a light out and shine it on your issues. Say, "Hey, you need to shut up. All right? You need to stop being so negative. You need to get out of the mully grubs. You need know the worst relationships that I see are those who just they both got the same issues. They both negative at the same time. They both gossiping at the same time. They both unsubmitted at the same time. Why? Because it's a wrong definition of love. You just tell me what I want to hear. This is the spirit of the age. It's it's a spirit I'm just going to accept everybody's truth. I'm going to accept everybody's gender. You can be a cat if you want to. You can be a rooster if you want to. We just going to share the truth. No, that's not the truth in love. That's just a false definition of love. So what do you get? You get unsubmitted people because you think that you've got this love over. That's not love. That's some fake phony experience that you've taken over truth. And when you start leaving love, you'll start losing light. And before you know it, you'll be unsubmitted and you'll be treasuring your heart and putting your affection in things that will not last. It's the spirit of the age. Young marrieds, young couples, young people, you better beware of what you allow to define. Love precedes submission. And if your definition of love is wrong, submission precedes spiritual warfare. Some of us, if we allow the spirit of the age, if you if you're sitting at table tables that are at work that are devouring the boss, change tables. If you're sitting at tables that devour the preacher, change tables. Why? because you're not going to win any spiritual battles. Go ahead and hang it up. You might as well take the helmet off. You might as well take the Bible and lay it down. This sword's not going to work if it's not submitted. This I'm going to say it again. This sword's not going to work if it's not submitted. You can quote the whole stinking book, but if you're not submitted to leadership, you don't get to put the armor on. You got to know what love is. You got to know what the light is. You got to submit that to somebody within all facets of your life. In your home, in your community, in the church, nowhere in any of the Bible, in any of history, please hear me tonight. Do you get to just do whatever you want to do? 300 years in the book of Judges, that's what you get. You get hell on earth because that's what hell is. You just get to be subject to all that you ever wanted to do. It's complete autonomy. Be your own boss. Yeah, that's that's a good You want something has no limits, has no lines, has no that's hell. You're asking for hell on earth. A false definition of love will take you to a place you never ever ever thought you would be. Submission precedes spiritual warfare. And submission fails when there's a false definition of love. James 4:7. Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Once again, just another little nugget from James to let you know you don't get the resist. You don't get the running devil that we sing about unless we submit to God. When you lose love, you lose it all. Yes. When you lose love, you're in the dark. You lose the light of revelation. You lose the effectiveness of the family. You lose the effectiveness of community. You lose the ability to fight in spiritual warfare. So, the warning of Ephesus, you did everything right. You're doing well. You're patient. You know the truth. You're decid you you've been just very discerning over the false prophets. You've got the doctrine. You know the truth. But there's somewhat I used to love the Lord, but if I'm honest, I don't love him like I used to. You simply don't fall out of love with anything. You just choose to love something else. It's no different than a divorce. It's no different than a relationship. It's not that you don't have affection. It's that it's somewhere else. You left it. He said, "You were once there, but you left it." In other words, it's all about ge, it's almost geographical. If you can just look at the picture, he's trying to show you that the love of God's right here, and you just got to get in it. God had changed. God's the same yesterday, today, and forever more. He He's right here. He's the same God he was when you came to him, however many years ago. He's the same God he was when you fell in love with him as a child. He said, "And the only thing that's changed is where you're at." I understand this is it's very simple, but it's also very strong. I'm reminded of a story. I don't have time to go to the text again. I'm trying to trying to dial this thing back a little bit. Saul is struggling. Saul's losing. He may look like he's winning because God's fighting his battles, but he's not doing what God asked him to do. Man of God comes in. He says, "I hear the sounds the loing of oxen, the bleeding of sheep. I've come to you didn't kill the king and you didn't kill what God said to kill. And Saul's just doing things he's not supposed to do. He's being disobedient. Somewhere in Saul's heart, he lost his love. Yes. In the midst of all of Saul's turmoil, in the midst of all of Saul's leaving, in the midst of all the things that you read about Saul, up until this point, there's been a man named David that had a harp that would come in and while Saul seemingly, some people say he's losing his mind, you know, David would come in and begin to play. David was the soothing sound that would cause Saul to get himself together to remember who he was. But all of a sudden, something changed and Saul is over here and he's in the midst of his downward spiral. The one thing that he loved was the harp of David. All of a sudden, David, the psalmist, is running from the spear of Saul. He's throwing a spear at what used to soothe him. Something changed. Something Something's different now. Something that used to work. And it used to it used to be the thing that that that that was kind of a solvent under him. And it used to cause chills perhaps to go up and down his spine. But now he's throwing spears at it. Couldn't help but just think of how simple happens to all of us if we're not careful. The choir that used to move us to the choir that we used to sing in but now it convicts us. So I throw spears at it of why I really don't have to do that. Just too busy to do this or that. I just that the prayer room that used to soothe me and really make the service more effective. The things that I used to do, the prayer that I used to be able to feels like a harp. It's just a song. It just it's the song of my heart. It's just the strings that begin to There's things in my life that I used to do and now I all I can do is throw spears at it. Why? The heart didn't change. God hadn't changed. Pastor still preaching the same message. Church is still doing the same thing. Still got a bunch of sinners in it. Still, we're still there. No, nothing's changed if we're not careful. Nothing's changed. But we are not self-aware enough to evaluate where we're at. And we're throwing spears at things that used to soothe our soul. I used to be a part of it. I used to be bought in, but now I just criticize it. Now I just want to kill it. Now I just can't hardly sit through a sermon. Now I can't hardly sit through a service. It's too I just I can hear the devil whisper in my ear and I don't like this and I don't like that. And if we're not careful, we have forgotten why we're here. Here's my fear. The days of the harp, the days of ministry. I see something. It's kind of a eb and flow within our churches today as we're finding that the apostolic and Pentecostal church is one that's now a little more known, maybe a little more favorable, maybe a little more cool than it used to be. As there's many people that grow up, and I've seen it happen time and time and time again, and now they've grown up in church, and they used to be the one that was doing everything. They were in the middle of everything. It was a song unto them. They were here early. They were in everything that I just I'll just help you do anything, pastor. I I I'll beat on a drum. I'll shake a tambourine. I'll run sound. I'll do whatever you need done. I sing in the choir, stand on my head, chew bubble gum, run circles. Whatever you need done. Prayer the whole month. Yeah, we'll be here. Give to missions. Yeah, we'll do it. It used to be a thing. They're just bought in. It's just everything. But they begin to leave that love about the time that they begin to have and give birth to another generation. Hear me tonight. That generation is seeing them throw spears rather than hear the heart. That generation has seen them resent what they used to love. They didn't see the season of love. They didn't see the season of serving. They didn't see the season of extreme involvement. They didn't see the nights where dad come down and he was a part of the work nights and he was doing this and he was doing that and he was just pouring his heart into the church and mom was pouring her heart into the church. Now all of a sudden they got teenagers and they decide to take a season of and when you get uninvolved and your geographical location changes of where you stand in relationship to your spouse, to the church, to the community. When anytime your location changes, it's within your pride and within your flesh that you begin to point fingers. I used to be a part of it and it used to be this way and it used to be that way and you should have oh back in the day it was this and it was that and it was blowing it was going and we used to do it that way and they're not doing it that way anymore and I bet this really you know this one's not a part of it and this was a you know what that is spear throwing I mean people that used to be a part of what's happening up here and what's happening out there and they're serving and every all of a sudden they can't even be a part of the service they they got they gota They got to disengage. They They forget why they're here. We're here to worship the Lord. That's right. We're not We're not here to throw We're not here to throw spears at the sound guy. We're not here to throw spears at our neighbor. We're not here to throw spears and remind them, hey, I'm here even though what you said to me any No, no, no, no. We're here for one reason and one reason only. I love Jesus. And I'll do anything and everything I can to make sure that the love of God is shed abroad in my life. Mom and dad, it's not time to stop doing what you've always done because God has not changed. God's not changed. If you're doing less, he's talking to you tonight. What changed? He didn't change. His goodness didn't change. His mercyy's new today. Do you love him? Do you love him? Do you love him? That's the question. Do you love him? I used to. If you're able to say, "I used to," you got to finish the sentence and just say, "I just don't love him like I used to." Samson loved God's strength, but he also loved Delilah. Lot's wife loved the rescue mission, but she still had half her heart in Sodom. Gahhesi loved the prophet of God, but he coveted non's wealth. Judas used to walk with him. But he loved money more. Just half-hearted Christians lay out a sea of love the house of God, but they trust more in their riches. Your motive matters. And you can be highly motivated with the wrong motives. Just preach to you for a moment. You got all the solutions for all of everybody's problems, but yours, your foundation is wrong. We We're here and yes, I want everything to be great and everything to be perfect. I want all the systems and all the structure and all the things to be correct and the church is progressing or the church is, you know, up to par with all the things. But it comes back to one thing. We're here for this. We're here to love him. If the coffee ain't just right, if we run out of Snickers before church, if somebody parks in your parking spot, if somebody's sitting on your pew, if somebody's singing your solo, if you didn't get put on schedule, don't get caught up in all the things of the Ephesus church. Oh, we've separated ourselves and we've come in and I got my suit on and I got my No, no, no. If it's not about love, it's not about anything. I love Jesus more than anything, more than ever before. Sister Ericson, for Eric to come and play, we must be drawing closer to him in the last days. We cannot afford as Christians individually or unified to be moving the other direction. Say, "What is holiness?" For me, the Ephesus church, John is warning them that you're you're doing all the things to draw yourself away from the world, but you're doing nothing to draw yourself to him. You've separated yourself to say, "I'm not going to sin." But not sinning is not righteousness. Being right is righteousness. Doing is righteousness. Loving is righteousness. Standing still is not the will of God. He's a God that changes. Not he's not talking to you when he says to change not. He's got something new for you every morning. It's a whole another word when he says I want to take and put it in a new skin, a new creature in Christ Jesus. He wants to make you something because he wants you to grow in the love and draw toward him every single day. Beckham, can you come here for a second to help me, buddy? Beckham's nine. Hampton's asleep. So is the other one probably on the way. Beckham, this is the house of the Lord. These are the best people in the world. Hear me? We listen to pastor more than we listen to anybody. Why? He's responsible for our soul. The choir sings and they sing and play and that's all not so it can be cool and Michael does cool runs and sounds good where the Asa does a good job and they've got the cameras going and the graphics are going. That's not what it's all about. It's just all about loving Jesus. This right here, the prayer room before service. It's more important than country club. It's more important than baseball games and basketball games. It's more important than anything. Those things are fun. And I'm thankful for the school, but the school better be about loving Jesus. Thankful for good math teachers and good science teachers, good educators. Thankful for accreditation. I'm thankful for those who But I'm thankful we can get and we can nitpick and we can say that school could do this, school could do that. And yeah, everybody knows everybody's got a solution, but I'm just thankful I'm got my kids in a place that loving Jesus is what it's all about. I got a definition of love. There's nothing more important than when we come in here on Friday mornings and we as a student staff body get to say we love you Jesus more than anything else buddy. We love Jesus. The motive no matter what happens in your life the motive is loving Jesus. Love fuels worship. Worship fuels victory. And the list just it just domino effects. Where does it start? Love. You want more of God tonight? I challenge you to love him. There's some of us tonight. And I think we could just be reminded. We could just turn this place into an entire altar and just say, "Take me back, God. Take me back to where? Take me back, God, to my heart pounded. I've let other things get in the way. I've let other priorities. I've let things, oh God, creep in. Stand to your feet tonight. And as a declaration unto God, as a sign of your physical location, he said, "You have left your first love." If you desire, if you desire to fall in love with him all over again, I wonder if you'd make your way to this front. And as a church, as he warned the church at Ephesus, I know you're good people. I know you do great things for God. I know you know the difference between right and wrong. I know. I know. I know. But I just want to remind you tonight, I love you, Jesus. Without the love, come on. Love will change your perspective. Love will change it all. I'm here because I love you. I'm not here for any other reason. I love you, Jesus. I love you more today than I ever have. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I worship and adore you. Just now you love you more than Come on. That's it. Don't forget why we're here. Come on. Don't forget why we're here. Come on. Love will it'll push something out of emotions from your heart. Love will promote you to lift your hands. Love will promote you to lift your voice. Maybe it's been a while, but just tell him, "I love you, God. I love you. I love you, Jesus." Come on. I know it's simple. I know it's what we tell the little kids. I love you. Just tell him I love you. Just tell Jesus you love him. But I'm here to tell every adult, could you just tell him you love him tonight? I love you, Jesus. Just want to tell you, Lord, I love you more than anything. More than anything more than anything, I love you, Jesus. I worship and adore you. Just want to tell you, Lord, I love you more than anything. I love you, Jesus. I worship and adore you. Just want to tell you, Lord, I love you more than anything. More than anything. Love you more than anything. More. Jesus, we bless you tonight. Jesus, I love you, Jesus. Oh, God. Oh, God. We should stand to your feet all across this place. John as he writes, he said, "Repent and do the first works." Repent and do what you did first or else I'll come to thee quickly. I'll remove the candlestick out of his place except I'll repent. It's three steps. Repent. return and relight. Repent return and relight because where the love is, the light will be. So tonight, I wish in closing. Pastor's going to come. Brother X will sing a couple more times. But could we pray a prayer of repentance from the depths of our heart for any time we misplaced our adoration, we gave it to something it didn't we put God to the side. I wonder if you could lift your hands as submission as surrendering unto God. Open up your mouth and begin to repent as a declaration from your heart right now to the place. Oh, I love you. Where I first received you. Take me back. Take me back, dear Lord, where I I first believe. Take me back. Take me back, dear Lord, to the place where I first received you. Take me back. Take me back dear Lord where I I first believe. Oh, take me back. Take me back dear Lord to the place where I first see you. Take me back. Take me back to Lone where I first believe I love you, Lord. And I lift my voice to worship you. Oh my soul rejoice and take joy my king in a while you hear and let it be a Sweet, sweet sound in your Come on, lift up your voices and sing this with us. Oh, sing I love you, Lord. And I lift my voice to worship you. Oh my soul, rejoice. Come out like this next part. and take your life. Come on. Let it be sweet incense in what you hear. And let it be a sweet sweet sound. Let it be a sweet sweet Oh, let it be a sweet, sweet. Come on. Both hands are lifted in the air right now and just tell Lord I love you so much. Come on. I love you so much, God. I love you. I love you. I love you. Come on. And I'll say, "I love my brother. God, I love my sister. God, I love my coworker. God, I love my boss. God, I love my teacher. God, I love my neighbor. Ah, I love you. I love you. I love you, Jesus. I show my love through you, Lord God. I show my love, oh God, to my neighbor, God. It's my love, Lord God. I show it, Lord, because Lord, you first love me. God, I can love everyone. God, I can show love to everything. Oh God, because you love me, Jesus, I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Come on. You thankful for revelation tonight. Come on, Pastor Hannah and preach about it. Come on. The love that leads us to revelation. Oh, I love you, my Lord. Oh, his spirit is in this place. What a beautiful spirit of presence of the Lord is here so beautifully. Come on. I I don't think we're quite ready to dismiss tonight. Just just for a moment longer. Just come on. Ah, we linger in the presence and the love of the Lord. I love you. I worship and adore you. Just want to tell you that Lord I love you more than anything. Come on, tell a girl I said I love you. Jesus said, "I love you and adore you." Just want to tell you, Lord, I love you more than anything. Just one more time. One more time. Sing, "I love you, Lord.