♪ Glory, let me lift my voice ♪ ♪ Chairs I'll pass, home at last, ever to rejoice ♪ ♪ When in service for my Lord, dark may be the night ♪ ♪ But I'll be more close to him, he will give me light ♪ ♪ Satan's stares may fix my soul, turn my thoughts aside ♪ ♪ But my Lord goes ahead ♪ Oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face There to sing forever of His saving grace On the street of glory, let me lift my voice There's a path, home at last, ever to rejoice When in valleys low I look, for the mountain high, And behold my Savior there, leading in the fight, With the tender and outstretched, for the valley low, Guiding me, I can see, as I onward go. Let us see Him, look upon His face Let us sing forever of His saving grace On the street of glory, let me lift my voice Heirs of past, home at last, ever to rejoice When before me pillows rise from the mighty deep And my Lord directs my path, He does safely keep And He leads me gently on through the world below He's a real friend to me, oh I love Him Oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face Let us sing forever of His saving grace On the street of glory, let me lift my voice There's a path, home at last, ever to rejoin Hey man, let's turn to page number 502 one of my favorite hymns and can it be 502 Can it be that I should gain an interest in the same? I'll see ♪ Will be my joy through the ages ♪ ♪ To sing of his love for me ♪ ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful ♪ ♪ And my song shall ever be ♪ How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. And what a love it is. And you're singing tonight like you believe it. You believe that you have a Savior that loves you. That went to the cross for you. and goes above and beyond for us every day. We're here to worship Him tonight. We're here to hear from Him. The Bible talks about Him inhabiting the praises of Israel, and I believe that if we follow suit, He'll inhabit our praises as well. Amen? And we want Him to meet with us tonight. Brother Jordan, I appreciate you being here tonight. Would you open us in prayer? Father, we thank You for this opportunity to gather together. Lord, we do pray that You would have the preeminence and that You would have liberty Amen. Brother George, you better come sing a couple songs for us. I didn't ask him before church, but I appreciate him coming over tonight. Also some other visitors that are here. Appreciate you being a part of the service and I want to thank our folks for being here. Working today and trying to get here to the meeting. We appreciate that there's still some that are out sick and so we ask that you continue to pray for them and. I don't know if I announced Sunday, my dad finished his last treatment last week, and we'll be having another test at the end of the month to see where to go from here, and he's still having a hard time recovering from the radiation and chemo. He was here Sunday, and I'm sure you noticed he was starting to go bald in a few spots. I know Emily brought it up to him. being the good daughter that she is. But he's still having a hard time, and I'm sure it'll take a little bit of time to recover from some of that, some others that have gone through it. You continue to pray for those that are out sick, but we're glad you're here tonight. This is our winter revival, and we're wanting to have the Lord stir our hearts. And we want to praise Him. He's worthy of praise. Last year was a hard year. It was a hard year on a lot of people. But I tell you what, it was also a great year because we saw the Lord do some things that only He could do. And so, dear, in this meeting, these times like this, is an opportunity for us to come together a few more days during the week to praise the Lord, to worship Him, And so you praise and worship him as we sing tonight. Brother Jordan will sing, the Threns will sing, and it's great to have Brother Buster with us tonight. Amen. And we've been praying for his daughter. We've been mentioning it at just about every service, and so he can give us an update tonight. But she did make it home, and so we're very thankful he got to come over and be with us for a couple of days. And so he'll be preaching for us tonight. So Brother Jordan, if you don't mind, sing a couple for us. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways that I could not begin to tell you just how good he has been he's my friend he's my god he's my shepherd my life the lord has blessed me in so many And now I'm thankful for my family who has felt God's great touch. He's been present in all of my trials and he loves me so very much. ♪ And though we stumble and though we fall ♪ On his word we will stand ♪ And I know he'll be faithful ♪ Till we reach that fair land ♪ Oh, but the greatest of all his many blessings I ever received. It was His saving power when on His name I believed. I had nothing But my guilt and my shame, it was all through His precious blood and His holy name. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways. that I could not begin to tell you just how good He has been. He's my friend. He's my God. He's my shepherd, my life. The Lord has blessed me in so many And now I know that I'm not wealthy and my clothes there ♪ Not new ♪ I don't have much money ♪ Oh but Lord I have you ♪ And to me that's all that matters ♪ Though this world may not see ♪ Thank you Lord for your blessings ♪ Because the Lord has blessed me ♪ ♪ in so many ways. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Being blind was all He stood by the road begging, it was all he knew to do. But one day he heard about a man. The miracles that he could do would make him whole again. His faith was strong, he didn't He said, where can I find this man you're talking about? You can find him helping sinners. You can find him by the sick man's bed. You can find him in the graveyard. ♪ Out there raising up the dead ♪ You can find him on the hillside ♪ Feeding the multitude ♪ Oh, but you don't have to find this man ♪ Because he'll find you ♪ Not so much has changed since then ♪ When the storm clouds roll overhead ♪ You can call on him ♪ And just like that blind man ♪ He shows mercy on our lives ♪ Takes us by the hand ♪ And leads us through those darkest nights ♪ And by his grace we never have to doubt ♪ Because we can find this God I'm talking about ♪ You can find him at the altar ♪ You can find him by the sick man's bed ♪ You can find him watching over his people ♪ Just like he said ♪ You can find him on the hillside ♪ Feeding the multitude ♪ But you don't have to find this man ♪ Cause he'll find you So when it seems as if everything's gone wrong ♪ But you still find comfort cause he's been there all along ♪ You can find him at the altar ♪ You can find him standing by your side ♪ You can find him listening to your prayer ♪ And catching every tear you cry ♪ You can find him holding your hand and leading you from the storm. But you don't have to find this God, cause He's found you. No, you don't have to find this God, cause He's found you. Brother Mark, if you bring your family up, come sing for us. Thankful for all the Lord does for us. We can just sing about Him finding us, but once He found us, we can have as much as Him as we want, and as little as we want. But man, I want all of Him that we can get, and even during this meeting, so come sing for us. And after they're done singing, Brother Buster, you come preach to us. Amen. I praise the Lord for His goodness, I'm thankful for Answer Prayer. You know, sometimes the answer we get is not the one we want, but the Lord always knows what we need. So I'm going to sing her song tonight. The title of this song is, The Times You Said No. We pray in faith believing and rejoice when answers come. ♪ We are thankful when he hears our cry ♪ And we see the work he does ♪ But sometimes we pray for just one thing ♪ That we've made our hearts desire ♪ And when we do not get the yes we want ♪ We forget his ways are higher ♪ Thank you for the times that you said All the doors that you have closed When I prayed for something that you knew Would never help me grow Thanks for loving me enough To protect me from myself And when my ways had strayed from yours You showed your perfect plan for the answered prayers you know. As I look back on this life I've lived, I see things that wouldn't be. I think of all the blessings I'd not have had you not protected me. And though sometimes your answer broke my heart, and I felt the deepest pain, I didn't know back then what I know now. So thank you for the times that you said no All the doors that you have closed When I prayed for something that you knew Would never help me grow Thanks for loving me enough To protect me from myself And when my ways had strayed from yours You showed your perfect plan instead Lord, I'm thankful for the answered prayers you know. Oh, but thanks for every time that you said no. All the way, my Savior leads me. What have I to ask besides? For I know what e'er before me Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er before me Jesus doeth all things well. Oh but thanks for every time that you said no. Thanks for every time that you said no. Amen. ♪ Way by the gates ♪ Begging the rich man for bread ♪ Swords on his skin ♪ Some said he's better off dead ♪ When that day came, Lazarus closed his eyes ♪ Carried by angels to Abraham's side ♪ When everything changes ♪ Imagine the glory ♪ The sound of the praises ♪ When God in his riches ♪ Lavishes treasure ♪ And into his kingdom He welcomes the beggar To all of the poor, the bruised and the broken like me, there is a hope for the desperate, the lonely, and the weak. There's a day coming, I'm telling you now. We'll trade all our sorrows for a glorious cry. When everything changes, imagine the glory, the sound of the praises. When God in his riches bribes his treasures. And into His kingdom He welcomes the beggar Blessed are the poor in spirit For theirs is the kingdom Oh what a moment. Imagine the glory. When God in His riches lavishes treasure, and into His kingdom, His kingdom, welcomes the beggar. ♪ Welcome to Beacon ♪ Amen. Thank God for his word. And I'm looking forward to hearing it open here in just a moment and preached. Amen. And the Word of God, though, when you open it, whether in church or at home or on your break at work, it can minister to your soul. And I'm so thankful I've got one, amen. And I don't just have a Bible, I have the Bible. And listen to this song, the Bible. How often I have turned to the precious word of life, needing strength for my weary soul. How often has the voice of God addressed the sin in me, as he draws me close and makes me whole. ♪ In the darkest hours of life I faced ♪ I've been healed by the word ♪ My spirit springs to life anew ♪ When I hear from the Lord The voice of God that speaks from the pages. The truth of God that stands throughout the ages. It's a lamp, it's a light, it's the very bread of life. ♪ A source of comfort, cheer, and my heart's delight ♪ I'm so thankful that I have the Bible ♪ Decisions I have made have been guided by this Speaking truth when I don't know what to do It stands unchanging in a world where nothing stays the same It's a constant light for whatever we go through It was true back then, it's true today. You can build your life upon it. The foundation upon which I stand, I'm thankful I can. It is the voice of God that speaks from the pages, the truth of God that stands throughout the ages. It's a light. It's the very bread of life. A source of comfort, cheer, and my heart's delight. I'm so thankful that I have the Bible. It's my strength in times of temptation. It's where I first learned of God's salvation. And tomorrow when I open up this blessed book again, it still will be everything The voice of God that speaks from the pages. The truth of God that stands throughout the ages. It's a lamp. It's a light. It's the very bread of life. A source of comfort, cheer, and my heart's delight. I'm so thankful that I have the Bible I'm so thankful that I have the Bible in the Lord's house tonight. The book of Revelations, we're going there tonight. And while you turn, think about that song. Reminds me of the plagues in Egypt. I believe it was the first plague where the Lord made a difference between Egypt and Israel. Darkness. I believe that's correct. It ain't. It's close. And you know something about darkness? A light can be seen. The smallest of light can be seen. It's very dark. You know, the stars, they say, millions of miles away. I'm not sure who clocked that, but you have to believe them. Like they went to the moon. Yeah. But I don't want to get a conspiracy started, but nonetheless, you would think that the Egyptians could have seen that light because it was in Goshen. They couldn't. They were blinded. I remember years ago, I went caving. I don't advise that, but I went caving. And the flashlight I had went dead. And if you've ever been in a cave, I'm not talking about a man cave, if you've ever been in a cave, you know that darkness can be felt. Can you imagine living in this world without the scriptures? Can you imagine what you would do without this light? My word is a lamp. My feet, a light, my path. I don't believe we, I'm a second generation Christian, really beyond that, third and fourth generation Christian. I really don't know what it's like to live not knowing what it's like not to have a light. There's multitudes and multitudes in this city who do not have a light. We are a light of the world, and God help us to shine. But thank the Lord for this book. It's a light. Thank you for praying for us. Our youngest is home now, and she has some follow-up stuff there. She had RSV and pneumonia at the same time, and that kind of really took her for a loop. Her oxygen was 82 when we got her to, when her mother got her to the hospital, so they kept her for quite an extensive time, and now she has some follow-up clinical appointments, but she's used to the doctor. So she's had close to 20 surgeries in her life, so we appreciate your prayers. Grateful for that prayer. I don't know about prayer making the difference, but God makes the difference. He chose to use the avenue of prayer. I'm thankful for that. Well, we're in Revelation chapter 2, and this is, I don't know how you do this time of year, but this is the love month. Yeah. I bought a, I was at Home Depot the other day, and I bought a plumber's snake. And my brother was with me. He said, is that for her birthday? That fellow was standing behind the desk. I said, no, this is for Valentine's Day. I think she's really going to like it. She'll like it when she flushes that toilet and everything goes down. Isn't that better than a box of chocolates? I better stop there, my mind is building on that thought. So with it being Love Month today, the time of my preaching, I want to preach on love. And I want us to look here in the book of Revelation, we're in chapter 2. And we're going to look in the first few verses here. He says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, thy labor of love, thy patience, how thou canst not bear them which are evil. Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's sake has labored and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." We end our reading there tonight. Ms. Sarah, I'll try to remember you over there. We look at the church of Ephesus, and there's a lot of commendable things the Lord says about them. He says they were efficient in their service. Efficiency is a great thing, isn't it? They were efficient in their service. They were blameless in their character. They had a great character. They were orthodox in their doctrine. and they were faintless in their duty. Somehow, mysteriously, they were lacking in love. They were defenders of truth, and they were haters of lies. And the Lord commends them for all that He sees of their outward work, their hatred for the Nicolaitans, the testing of those that had evil doctrines, But as the Lord looks at His people, He says, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. I want to preach for just a moment about a tragedy of a lost or left love. I wonder if the Lord looks at us today and sees our clean character. Lord knows we need more of that. in our day, and he sees our strong stand. He sees that we're Bible believers, or what that's worth. He sees our straight scriptural stand and belief. And I wonder if he looks at us tonight and says, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. And real quickly, I want to give us three things tonight. See how tragic it is when this church has left, lost, walked away from their first love. Notice number one, the cost or rather the cause of a lost love. You find Paul writes to the church of Ephesus and he talks to them about their love for Christ several times in that chapter or in that book. And I want you to notice, number one, what caused this loss of love was, number one, they failed to feed their love. In the book of Ephesus, chapter 3, in verse 17, he says this, and I'll read it for you, "...that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, the length, the depth, the height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." The church had failed to feed their love. And you know that love grows on what it feeds. The food of love, the knowledge, the communion. You see, tonight all love is hungry. And if our love tonight shows any signs of starvation, if our love for Christ shows any waning, shows any type of digression or lacking thereof, it's because we have failed to feed that love. God desires, if you will, for us to be with Him. But we live in a world that's so busy I mean, we're so running to and fro. Everyone's trying to get to the front of the line. Everyone's thinking right now, if we stopped and paused for just a second and said, how many is thinking about what they left undone at home right now? How many is thinking about what they are going to do or need to do tomorrow? How many is thinking about projects that right now in this setting, what are we thinking about? It would be a sad reality. It would be a bad reveal if we were to vocalize what our minds are on. Can I tell you, dear friend, if we can't focus on the Lord in this setting, this is prime real estate. This is where it really should be at the pinnacle and we have to say that our love is lacking in being fed. You think about this matter of marriage. I was telling those girls over there about, you know, traveling and meeting different people and falling in love and being married. Boy, it's a wonderful feeling, isn't it? when you fall in love. I don't know if they say fall in love. Usually I equate falling with tragedy. But nobody wants to fall, but when you fall in love, you know, man, his eyes catches yours and her eyes catches his, and you know, it's just that connection. All the fireworks go off and, man, you lay in bed at night and you think about that one that you fell in love with and can't wait to see her. I can't wait to see him. We were down in the Pensacola area last week and took my daughter over to PCC and my wife went there and kindly I knew some people in that area that years ago, they were retired, they would leave the key under the mat. And when I didn't have a meeting, I would go down there and stay in their home and see Lisa at PCC. And I went there so much that when we got married and we were in a meeting, a fellow said, didn't you go to PCC for college? I said, no. He said, yeah, I know you did. I've seen you there. I said, no, I wasn't there as a student. I was there, you know, hunting. But nonetheless, You know that love, you fall in love. You're always wanting to be with that one and then you get married. Man, that's a great thing. You get all dressed up and you have a big ceremony and have a honeymoon and have a home you live in and it's all, it's just wonderful. And then, you know, the children begin to come. One or two or three or however many. And, you know, she gets busy and he gets busy and things begin to happen. And it's amazing. In a span of time, whether it's three years, five years, ten years, fifteen years, somehow or another, a man doesn't mind working overtime and not going home. She's not all excited about seeing him like she used to be. It's kind of like my brother when he got married. He got married and he didn't have a license. He didn't have his driver's license and he had a car and a Datsun, a five-speed and nobody in his family could drive the Datsun but him. So he drove to the DNV, took his driving test and failed and drove back home. Eventually, he got his license. But you know, he would tell his wife, you young people don't know what a Datsun is, a real small car. He'd tell his wife, he'd say, you have to, honey, you have to scoot over. I can't get in the fifth gear. She wasn't big, by the way. You took that wrong. She was sitting so close. And he said to her the other day, he said, you know, I haven't moved. They're not still driving the Datsun, by the way, but you know what happens in those situations? That love hadn't been fed. It's starving. And I bring that to the spiritual side of things. People come to church and they sing about the Word of God and you get excited. Revival comes and you, hey, you ain't going to work over. You're going to be there for church. Man, you can't wait till Mission Conference comes. You get to meet these missionaries and see where they're going. You get to hear about their field. Yeah, preacher, we'll prepare a meal. Yes, we want to do all that we can. And all of that beginning, that love is being fed. And then over time, love begins to grow cold because it's failed to be fed. And I say secondly, not only have they failed to feed their love, but they failed to show their love. In Ephesians 4, Paul says numerous times in verse 2, he says, "...forbearing one another in love." Verse 15, "...speaking the truth in love, edifying one another in love." They failed to express. They failed... Can I say it this way? They failed to exercise. Exercise. I don't really care for exercising myself. It's inconvenient. It's uncomfortable. There's no positives to it. You say, oh, but you get healthy. You get all of that. And so they say. But nonetheless, same ones who said they went to the moon say that. So nonetheless, exercise. But you know, the Lord says this about exercise. He says, if you love me, keep. my commandments." You see, love grows by expression and exercise, by action. The book says something about action and love. It says, for God so loved the world that He gave. You know, the question tonight is not are we showing our love to those that are lovable. But the question is, are we showing our love to those that may not reciprocate it? It may not come back to you. Those that may have treated you badly, those that may have gossiped about you, those that maybe have not been so lovable. Have you exercised that love? Let me ask you this question. Has your love cost you anything lately? You know, the cost The cost. Has it cost you anything recently? A man will be willing to pay for things that he values very much. He won't mind paying the price for something he really likes. Something you can buy down at the Bible bookstore for $25. He'll go buy something for $220 because he likes it. Cost him something. They fail to feed. They fail to show. Then thirdly, how about the cause of a lost love? They fail to guard their love. Ephesians 5 and verse 2 says, walk in love. Then on later it says, but fornication, awe and cleanness and covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. My dear friend, love needs to be fed. Love needs expression, love needs exercise, but love most of all, it needs a jealous watchfulness, a guarding, a protecting. You know, like going back to that boy and girl and they haven't been married and he's over there sitting with somebody else, or He's over there, she's over there talking to somebody else and boy, that significant other isn't happy about it. What are you doing over talking to her for? What are you doing over talking to him? That jealous watchfulness. Guarding. Just protecting that love. Let nothing intrude. Not to deviate to the natural, the physical thing, but can I tell you, that's very important about your marriage. You know, all the Valentine's Day, for what it's worth, I'm not really much into all that myself, but maybe you are, that's fine. You know, it's very important that you keep yourself at arm's length to people that you're not married to. To that one you're not married to, people that you're married to. We're not Mormons. You need to make sure that you keep that relationship at a distance. It's not wrong to be friends with somebody that, you know, a man be friend with a woman, and a woman be friend with a man. We need to be friendly. We're brothers and sisters in Christ, but there needs to be an arm's length distance. It doesn't need to be private texting and talking out in the parking lot at night by yourselves. Those kind of things are just dangerous. But can it bring it back to the spiritual side? Can I tell you tonight, we need to be conscious of this love. We need to guard this love. Make sure nothing gets in between it. Make sure nothing tries to rob our love for Christ. You see, anything that lowers our standard of holiness Needs to be condemned. Needs to be getting rid of. And I'll tell you, that's a challenge in our day. There's a lot of things that try to creep into our life to rob us of our love for Christ. A lot of things. I mean, you can make a list and go down that list and never get to the bottom of things that try to suck out our affection for Christ. I think about as a boy when we was in Africa over in that part of the world there's a lot of thievery going on and so there's a lot of protection. We had a eight-foot wall around the house and mom and dad did, after I left anyway, they had a wall and on top of that wall they had it concrete and they put pieces of broken glass, you know, up there where people couldn't climb. They tried to make it as impenetrable as possible. But that wasn't all they had. They had these dogs. They'd always had three or four dogs. Now they were dogs. They weren't grand dogs. They weren't their little babies. I don't want to get into this. You want to limit your coming back to places. Just start preaching against animals. then the real animals will show up. But nonetheless, these were dogs. They were outside creatures. They were pit bulls and a rottweiler. They had a rottweiler, a German shepherd, and an African breed of boar bull. These were big dogs. And Dad put a lot of investment in those dogs, not money-wise. We never bought a dog in our life, but always mutts. But nonetheless, he trained those dogs. But those dogs, they weren't there to be friendly. They were there to be guard dogs. You know what them dogs would do? If they heard something on the other side of the wall, it could be a gang of men or a squirrel, they went crazy. They would bark and you would have thought that the militia was about to invade and look over there and it's a cat. That was their territory and they were noted as guard dogs. Anything that tried to get into that perimeter was notified. They were notifying the owner. that there's something out there that's trying to get in here and we're not going to let it get in here without trying our dead level best to stop it. And if it happens to climb over, we're going to chase it, we're going to bite it, we're going to make it flee. It's not going to cohabitate, we're not going to snip it and be friendly, we're going to get rid of it immediately. Can I tell you, we need some spiritual guard dogs. There's a lot of things that try to climb over your heart's wall. A lot of things that try to intrude on your love for Christ. And I mean, it can be anywhere from music to relationships, from things on social media to television, from books, from relationships. It can be from just time wasters. I'm telling you, the cause of a lost love is because we fail to guard that lie. We fail to say, whoa, this isn't coming in here. I'm spending too much time on this thing. I'm taking too much time away from the Lord. I'm not praying like I used to pray. I'm not reading the Word of God like I used to read. I'm not witnessing like I used to witness. I'm not offended by things that are ungodly like I used to be. Those things, they're just normal now. You know how that happens? We fail to guard that. You have to guard it. Anything that's real precious needs to be guarded. Did you see that Yehu tried to climb over the fence at the White House the other day? I mean, that's a pretty big fence. I don't know what his deal was, but, man, they were on him. Like white on rice. Did you get that? They got on him quick. Because, now listen, if he would have been trying to climb over your fence, oh well. They would have just drove on by. You know what side of town you live in. But he was trying to climb over where the president lives. Something special was in there. Just recently, something special was in there. And they took it, they were going to make sure that that ain't going to happen. That's how we need to be. The castle of our heart, you heard a little song. The castle of our heart, there's something special in there. There's a love that the Lord put in there for him when we got saved. We need to guard that love. The cause of a lost love, I gotta be quick. Secondly, I want you to notice the cost of a lost love. Notice how he describes this cost. He says, number one, he describes it in verse 5 as a fall. Remember, from whence thou art fallen. It's an unmistakable fall. The Lord describes this lost love as a fall. Now, I mentioned that about falling in love, but when we think about someone falling, spiritually speaking, to brother pray for brother so-and-so, they fail. We don't think about it like, we think about it in a moral sense often, or we think about it maybe a doctrinal thing. But the Lord says the church that's wayward from their love, it's a fall. They've fallen. They're not where they ought to be. They're not how they should be. They're not where they used to be. They're falling. It's an unmistakable fall. And then he says, it's an unutterable grief. He says in verse 4, I have somewhat against thee. The Lord is displeased. It grieves the Lord. the most painful of all of the love being left, the love being, can I say, walked away from, lost, if you will. It's more harmful not to the one that's walked away, but to the Lord. He's the one, because He's pure. He's clean. It's like these little children. you know, two- and three-year-old, and grandmama really loves them, or daddy and mom really love them, you know, and they mistakenly say something to offend that little child, and that little child is somewhat, we can say, innocent, and they begin to weep and cry. It grieves the one because they didn't mean to do that. But here this little child that really was, you know, innocent in their love, they love them here regardless, and here this parent has said something or done something accidentally to hurt them. It grieves that parent. And I tell you that's even worse than that is that we would grieve the Lord. Because He's never done anything to hurt us. He's never said or put anything in our life to cause us to mess up or to be less than what is best. The Lord's never tried to make us worse. He's never tried to hurt you or never tried to take advantage of you and that we would walk away from a love of one like that, that we would leave a one that's so kind and gracious like that and He says, it grieves me. It grieves me. Not only we see cost is a unmistakable loss, an unutterable grief, or rather an unmistakable fall, but it's an unpredictable loss. He says, I will remove, in verse 5. He says, I'll remove your candlestick. Here this church was shining, talking about the light, Here they were a testimony. Here they were a witness. But with this wayward love, now they're looking at the possible removal, a loss. Oh, I'm sure they'll still be, they'll still be like the Lord says, they'll still have patience. They'll still be standing, still be doctrinally straight, but they'll just be a facade. Lord's going to be gone. Because there's no love there. I'm afraid that's where we're at in a lot of our religion today. We have all of our Baptist songs. We have all of our doctrines correct. We have the King James Bible. Bless God, and we preach against anybody who don't. All of our ladies dress modestly. All of our men are respectable. There's no real love for God. And all we do is just meet and entertain ourselves, have a pep rally, get all excited, and go home and there's still no love for the Lord. It's a loss. But all this conclude by looking at the cure for this love that's been lost, been left. He gives us three words here. He says, number one, remember. In verse 5, that's the first thing he says to them. Remember! What he's doing is he's calling them to compare where they are to where they once were. He's wanting that church to look back and remember how it used to be. Remember the vows. Remember the communion. Remember the time spent with Him. Remember the comparison to where you are now, to where you once were. Remember how you would spend that time in prayer and how it wasn't a drudgery to come to church. It wasn't a struggle to serve the Lord. It wasn't a difficult thing to be a witness. It wasn't something that you did out of obligation. You weren't dressing or speaking or acting or doing things a certain way because you felt compelled to, but it's because you felt that the Lord wanted you to and your love for Him demanded obedience. Compare that to where you are now. Look back. Contemplate how it used to be. That's what they say in marriage. If your marriage is wavering, start dating again. I don't know what all that means. But I can tell you what you got to do. You got to remember some things. Physically speaking, you have to remember what attracted you to that person. Remember how you used to sacrifice for that person. Like the old fellow wrote a love letter to the girl he loved and said, honey, I love you so much that if you were on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, I'd climb them to come to you. He said, I love you so much that if you were on the other side of the Mississippi raging river, I would swim across to get to you. I love you with all my heart. You're sweet. You're kind. And he said, yours truly. P.S. I'll come see you tomorrow if it ain't raining. Yeah. I'm afraid we're like that sometimes. He says, remember. And then He says, repent. Verse 5, that's the second thing. I believe He says to them, remember from whence thou art fallen and repent. He says, repent, do the first works. He says, this is what you're to do. You're to turn. Repentance is to turn. Going from one direction back to the other direction. He says to repent. We preach repentance to the lost, but the book says in 1 Peter 4 and verse 7, repentance must begin at the house of God. We fool ourselves to tell the world to repent, and oh yeah, we all want the world to repent. Hey, bless God, them sodomites out there, they need to repent. Them old Democrats and Republicans, them old rhinos, they need to repent. That old queer-loving crowd, they need to repent. Oh, pornography. All these people need to repent. But that ain't who God's talking to. He's talking to the church. He's talking to us. Repent. You've not been what you should be. Repent of those things. And then he says lastly, he says, return. He says that right there. He says, remember from whence thou art fallen, repent and do the first works. do the first works. You see, true repentance will be followed by action. It's more than just a feeling. Love is proven by action. Actions speak louder than words. The old saying says, I can't hear what you say. Actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you're saying. In verse 7 he says this, he says, to him that overcometh. Notice that phrase, to him that overcometh. It's mentioned in verse 11, it's mentioned in verse 17, it's mentioned in verse 26, it's mentioned in chapter 3 and verse 5, it's mentioned in chapter 3 and verse 12, it's mentioned in chapter 3 and verse 21, that little phrase, to him that overcometh, to him that overcometh, to him that overcometh. You see, it's insinuating that it's going to be a struggle. You see, when someone has some type of hindrance, now think about that. I believe he's an Australian fellow. He doesn't have any arms and no legs. Have you ever seen that guy? He's a good swimmer and he's a motivational speaker. And they say this about people like that. They say, He's a big overcomer. And what makes him an overcomer? Because it's a struggle. I don't want to speak for him, but I dare say it's a struggle every second of every day for him. And that makes a big difference. That makes him an overcomer. Can I tell you tonight that one little revival meeting is not going to get you right. One trip down to the altar is not going to get you right. You see, this love is going to be tempted to grow cold day after day, week after week. You can read your Bible today, and in the afternoon, that old love will begin to wave wayward. It will begin to grow cold. And He implies to him that overcoming, and then He says this in verse 7, I will give him the eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. The paradise of God, the tree of life, that goes back to the Garden of Eden, doesn't it? You know what that tells me? Our love for the Lord can give us a little heaven on earth. It can give us a taste of a glorious paradise in a wicked ungodly world in which we live. That love for the Lord. I remember I may have told you this before, but you done forgot it. I remember my oldest brother, John. Brother Thren knows him. His first marriage, he got married young when he was in college, Bible school. And he and his wife, they had two children. I believe he was 29 when they called him to the church where he's at. The only church he's ever pastored. He's been there 29 years, I think. He had been there for, I don't know, five or eight years, and his wife grew sick. They were at Walmart, of all places, and she noticed her. She couldn't see the big old rollback signs. He said, I can't make out the numbers. So they went to the optometrist, and the optometrist looked in her eyes, and they said, this is big deal. You need to go see a specialist, and you need to do it right away. So they went to Richmond as soon as they could get an appointment, and they went into that specialist, and they did immediate laser surgery. And when she left that place, she was blind, and she never saw again. Over a process of time, she got worse and worse. I can't remember, I think they were married 18 years, and she was on dialysis, and she passed away, unexpectedly, tragically. She had been passed away several years, and I started looking for him a wife when I'd travel. He's a lonely fella. I started looking for him a wife, and I was at a church, and long short of a good lady there, a young lady his age, never married. And they got married. They met in April and got married. Met in August and married in April. That Christmas time, I called him. Called him and asked him what he was doing. He said he'd been shopping. Said he was shopping with his wife. Told me all the stores they went to and none of them were appealing. None of them had anything that I would have caused any sense of enthusiasm to arouse in my spirit. But I heard it in his tone. He was excited about dress shopping and kitchen decorated shopping and picture on the wall shopping, things that really flabbergasted me. But he liked it. I hung up the phone and I told my wife, I said, that's odd. He got all excited about that, you know, that's not up his alley. And then I got to thinking about what an older preacher told me. He told me he's passed from West Virginia, his wife died of cancer, and he nursed that poor lady to the day she died. And a few years later, he got married. And I asked him, I said, how's it going? The man is better than my first marriage. I said, how's that? I knew he loved that woman. And he said this. He said, because those feelings I thought I'd never have again, I got them back. He said, now I know how to enjoy them, because I lost them. But now I got them again. When my brother told me that, I thought, you know what, that's what it is. He thought he'd never get that back. You know what you could call that? You could call that a revival. A love that once was there had wayward. And he lost it. But now he got it back. And you know what he wanted to do with it? He wanted to guard it. He didn't want nothing in there intruding. He wanted to enjoy it. He wanted to explore it. He wanted to feed it and make it as big and as great and as productive as possible. And I tell you tonight, that's what you and I need to do with our love for the Lord. To get back to that first love. That's what he said. That first love. That love that you and I used to have for the Lord. It's a tragedy when you lose your first love. Will you bow your heads with me tonight? She's praying, Father, we thank you for your precious word. Lord, we know the truth and I don't know these people and their needs. I don't know any home situation. I don't know the church situation. Don't know the history of anything and anyone's life but my own here tonight. And I pray you'd help us, as your people, evaluate our love for thee. And if there's one here tonight, Lord, that's unsaved, that's lost, may they know that you love them. It doesn't matter what sin they've committed, it doesn't matter what background they have, it doesn't matter Lord, what things they've done that you love them exactly who they are and where they're at. You gave yourself for their sin. You love them tonight. You'll help them and save them if they'll just come and accept what you've given to them. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand. Our heads are bowed. Eyes are closed as she plays. Some are down here praying. Maybe you need to come join them. Maybe tonight the Lord's kind of spoken to your heart about your love. Maybe He's did some of that remembering. Maybe you need to do that tonight, some remembering. Oh, how the preaching of God's Word used to stir your soul. How you used to couldn't wait to get to the house of God. How when the invitation was given, you was down on the altar. How when the songs were being sung, you was singing the loudest. Now that don't really impress you. You've grown above that. You've been saved long enough, it doesn't thrill you like it used to. Oh no, that's not maturity, my dear friend. That's a wayward love. A love that's not what it used to be. I'm glad tonight His love doesn't wayward. Thank God tonight He loves us. No matter where we're at, no matter what we've done, His love for us never waywards. He says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. So Mae with her head bowed and eyes closed for just a moment while these are still praying. you Amen. Alright, you can look up here. I want to thank the Lord tonight for the message. The Lord's put everything together yesterday. Brother Mark reminded us the King needs to be in the right place. What he did for us last night and then tonight about our first love. There in that text he said, I know thy works. And our church is going into our 10th year. This May will be our 10 year anniversary. And I do not want to get to a place where we're just doing the works and going through the motions like we've always done. Some of the men in here know this in our church. Every year I agonize and pray and struggle with whether or not to have a camp meeting or to have a revival. And I do it because I do not want to do it just to do it. I don't want to have one just because we've always had one. And last year, I canceled our family revival in Uthral. I didn't have peace about it. I don't want to do it just to do it. I don't ever want to do that. And 10 years, and I thank the Lord for it. I praise the Lord for it. And some of, there's a few folks here that have been here almost since the beginning and we've seen a lot of changes and we've seen a lot of things in our church. And I want our love for the Lord to continue to drive what we do at this church and to try to please him with everything we do. And I do not want it to be just another work or just because we have to do something. Brother Buster, I appreciate that reminder tonight. It's all about him. And I love the Lord and I'm thankful for all that He's done for me and all He's done for our church. And I pray that we continue to try to please Him. And so thank you for that. Appreciate all of our visitors being here tonight. It's an honor to have you. Thank you for being a part of it. And our church, I want to thank you for being here. Many of you working and going through a lot, so thank you so much. Brother Carl, if you would, close us in prayer tonight. And tomorrow night we'll be back at 630. And so please pray, invite someone, and be here yourself for the service tomorrow night at 630. And we'll be hearing from the Threns again tomorrow night, have some more preaching. And so you come back tomorrow night if you can at 630. Brother Carl, will you close us in prayer?