Sunday Message Summary, 2 July 2023
GOD is looking for repentance (Revelation 2:1-5 NKJV). This is not judgement nor condemnation but a correction of love. Correction is not easy for all of us, but GOD is a loving Father who does not spare the rod. GOD is giving us a hearing, but how we will respond to this hearing is up to us. Like Gehazi, we may try to hide our sin, but we cannot hide the consequences (2 Kings 5:25-27 NKJV). Gehazi became leprous because he tried to be clever in his own eyes. In another example, Esau was rejected from getting the blessing because he found no place of repentance (Hebrews 12:17 NKJV). There is no blessing where there is no repentance.
When we have left the place of our first love, we can still think and believe we are in that place because it is not so obvious. For example, in Judges 16:20, Samson sought to go out as he was used to, but he didn’t know that the LORD had departed from him. We know we have left our first love when we make light of holiness and righteousness, not knowing that righteousness is for our protection. It is a breastplate and shield, and without it, we are exposed. Additionally, when we drift away from our first love, we masterfully ignore and silence our conscience to our perdition. Instead, when we are convicted by our conscience, we should listen to it because it is an additional layer of protection for children of GOD (1 John 3:20-21 NKJV).
We further know we have left our first love when we make light of our cardinal spiritual disciplines, like prayer, the Word, fasting, and gathering together with other believers. It is when we make light of the Word of GOD, ignoring its instructions, corrections, and warnings. When we hear the Word and it does not mean anything to us anymore. When the Word of GOD comes, we should be searching ourselves, trembling at the Word (Isaiah 66:2b NKJV). The Word of GOD demands a change, and there is no arriving in this walk of faith. If we are not transformed by the Word, we have not come to the truth. Truth has got change and results, and the more we seek GOD, the more we will see the need of knowing Him. We should not be like those who don’t tolerate sound teaching but look for places of comfort where they will not be corrected (2 Timothy 4:3-4 AMP). When we reduce the Word to what we want to hear, we live in error and have drifted away from our first love (Matthew 22:29 KJV).
Church is our command center, our place of submission here on Earth. It is in the Church where we give ourselves as a living sacrifice. The Church is the only institution that destroys the works of satan here on Earth (Matthew 18:19-20 NKJV). We know we have left the place of our first love when we stop attending Church gatherings, and we stop serving, worshipping, and giving to GOD in His Church. Furthermore, we know we have left our first love when it all becomes a mere ritual and empty religious tradition without heart involvement. This is when we attend Church meetings because we have to, not because we are in love with the Owner of the Church. GOD is calling us to return to the close, intimate, and sweet fellowship we once had with Him. The LORD says that we should remember from where we have fallen, repent, and do the first works (Revelation 2:5 NKJV).
When we reduce the Word to what we want to hear, we live in error and have drifted away from our first love.
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