Losing Your First Love

So you became a child of God, & you experienced His forgiveness. That’s first love.

First love looks at mountains of troubles & sees them as hills to conquer. First love looks at rivers of grief & worry that may arise in life & says, "That’s nothing. God & I together can swim through that."

First love looks at stumbling blocks & sees them as stepping stones that prove the power of God. First love cries out, "Just give us a mountain to climb. Give us a river to swim. Give us something to do to prove the greatness of God’s love & how powerful He really is." That’s first love.

C. But first love is vulnerable. It needs to be protected. It needs to be reinforced. Because love, you see, when it really loves, stretches out its arms & rolls up its sleeves to help the hurting multitudes. It isn’t selfish. It gives itself totally & completely.

ILL. Paul is an amazing example of that first love. Paul recognized that he owed everything to God. Again & again he said, "I am the chiefest of sinners. I don’t even deserve to be called an apostle." He was always very much aware of who he was & what he had done. And he is overwhelmed that God could love someone like him.

And when he thinks about that he calls himself a "debtor" to God & a debtor to the Jews & to the Greeks & to the barbarians. In other words, because he had been so wondrously loved by God, he owed it to God to share that wonderful love with others.

That wonderful first love caused Paul to write these amazing words in Romans 9:1-3. "I speak the truth in Christ - I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit - I have great sorrow & unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed & cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race."

Do you hear the heartbeat? Do you hear what he is saying? He is so much in love with God, & consequently in love with his brothers & sisters, that he was willing to be cursed & go to hell himself, if it would mean that they would be saved.

ILL. Moses prayed the same kind of prayer in the wilderness, after the people had rebelled against God. We read these words in Exodus 32:31-32. "So Moses went back to the Lord & said, `Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin - but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.’"

In other words, Moses was saying his love for God was so great & his love for the people was so deep that he was willing to offer himself in their place. "Blot me out, but forgive them."

SUM. That’s the unselfish quality of first love.

II. HOW DO YOU LOSE SOMETHING AS WONDERFUL AS FIRST LOVE?

A. Now, how do you lose something as exciting & as wonderful as first love? I would think that we would take very good care of it, & never take a chance on losing it. But we can lose it. Sometimes it just disappears, vanishes, goes away. But how does that happen? Let me offer some suggestions.

In the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is talking about the end of time, & here is what He says in vs. 12, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold."