Return To Your Fist Love
God wants to send real revival! More than just a banner stretched outside a church
building, more than just a few conversions, more than just a temporary rush of emotions
and more than a gathering like we have here this morning. God wants and God desires to
send real revival. He wants to send the kind of revival that finds individuals radically
allowing their lives to be changed. He desires to send the kind of revival that invades the
homes of our families and heals the hurts that we have thrown on each other. He yearns
to send the kind of revival that finds entire cities falling under the canopy of His glory!
Why do we so often approach the level of revival that God desires and that we dream
about but never quite get there? It is as if we are missing one ingredient. I’ve come to the
conclusion that the missing ingredient is true unity. It is God’s catalyst for revival.
When a recipe is created, there is often a single catalytic ingredient that triggers or initiates
significant change when it comes into contact with the remainder of the ingredients. If
that catalyst is missing from the recipe, then the whole cake flops. I remember when I was
first learning how to cook, I failed to understand the difference between baking powder
and baking soda. Well for those of you who don’t go near the kitchen except to go see
what is in the fridge, let me clue you in on what can happen with the wrong ingredient. It
is the difference between a cake rising as it should and filling the house with its flavorful
aroma, and one that smells good but doesn’t look or taste as it should. One small
ingredient can make the difference between success and failure, between victory and
defeat.
Friends, here this today we have the opportunity to get the recipe right. We have the
opportunity to understand God’s plan for us, for you and for me, I praise Him that He
desires to be here this morning, that He desires to invade us tright now, and that He
desires a personal relationship with each of us so greatly, that He sent His son Jesus Christ
to die on a cross in payment of our sins! Thank you Lord! for being here today!
In God’s Word is the only unanswered prayer of Jesus! Jesus’ unanswered prayer is very
simple and is repeated no less than five times in John chapter 17. It happens in verse 11,
and in 20 - 26. That prayer, that desire, that plea from Jesus to the Heavenly Father is that
“we may be one”. I have found that anytime something is repeated in the Bible, that it is
signifying importance and that it is a value or a lesson that we need to understand and to
store deep within us. Five times this prayer of Jesus is repeated. Now if something is
important enough to be repeated five times, well, I think and hope that you get the picture
that this is a key desire of Jesus.
Unity comes in many forms, some of which come to mind almost immediately and some
that need to be dug up from deep places in us. Lets look at a few examples that I thought
of.
What about snowflakes, you remember those things that fall from the sky in the winter
and as kids we love because they might cancel school. And now that we are parents we
abhor for that very same reason that they might cancel school! Individually or a few at a
time they are pretty to watch as they fall, but they have no real effect on us. But allow
millions to gather and they can stop traffic, shut down entire regions for days at a time or
even kill as they avalanche down the sides of mountains.
Or what about the fingers on your hand. Individually they can show direction, show
numbers and even make profane and vulgar gestures. But now put them together and
you have dynamite. Look at Mike Tyson. What do you think would happen if Tyson
could not put his fingers together to make a fist? I doubt seriously that he would be the
most feared heavy weight fighter of all time. For it is when those fingers come together
that they suddenly have great power and the capability to punish greatly.
But they can only punish when a master controller is in control. When I allow God to use
me, all of me and you allow God to use you, all of you then great things with power and
might can happen.
I want to take a look at five areas that God desires to bring unity to. Five areas that if we
allow Him to take control, they can be mightier than the fist of Mike Tyson. Mightier than
the fist of a 1000 Mike Tyson’s. So lets get started, shall we?
Unity among the churches
First, there is unity among the churches This is not an “us” versus “them” war, but rather
a recognition that God has gifted each church with unique gifts that He intends to be
knitted together for maximum Kingdom impact. I am so tired of hearing about what
church is bigger, what church has more money, what church has more stuff. We
concentrate on these earthly things when we should be bragging about what God is doing
among the body of Christ. among the entire range of churches, regardless if they are
Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, traditional, contemporary, Pentecostal or charismatic. Here
today we need to commit to each other and to our Father in heaven that we are going to
put away the 5% that we cannot and probably never will agree on this side of heaven, and
begin to concentrate on the 95% that we all have in common! God desires for us to be in
unity with each other as churches!
Local Church Unity
But, we cannot attempt unity among the churches until we have the second version of
unity and that is local church unity. This is the unity that comes from the various groups,
the various ages, the various peoples of the church coming together and working together
to impact lives through the blood of Jesus Christ. You see when God pulls together a
group of people and they catch the vision that they have a special purpose and begin to
work in that direction, well amazing things will begin to happen. And you know
something? From what I hear of what God is doing here and from what you are allowing
Him to do, amazing things have already happened and you better hold on to your seats
because even greater things are goi g to happen. But only if you as individuals and as a
body of Christ, allow the Holy Spirit to blow through this place and through your lives!
One of the largest tragedies in today’s society and in today’s church is that we settle for
mediocrity. We settle for mediocrity. We spend so much time worrying about what
clothes someone is wearing to church, or about what version of the Bible is being used, or
how we want the church to minister to us that we lose sight of the fact that we are the
church. We are the body! We are the ones who should be doing the ministering!
When was the last time that you did ministry? Oh you are probably sitting there saying to
yourself that I am not a minister that is Brother Larry’s job, or that is so and so’s
responsibility. Well guess what and I don’t want to shock you here, but you’re wrong!
that’s right I am telling you that according to the Bible you are wrong. You see we are all
ministers. We are all called to do what we can. We are called by God to put into practice
the spiritual gifts that He has freely bestowed and given each of us. You have special
skills that this church needs. You have interests that God is eager to expand upon and to
grow so that you can be a blessing to others. Don’t sit on the sidelines and complain as
the game goes by. Get off the bench and get into the game. God has a plan for your life
here at this fellowship. He has this so much in mind that the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 1
that,
“before I formed you in the womb, I knew you;
before you were born I sanctified you.
I ordained you...”
So my fellow sanctified and ordained friends, are you ready, are you willing, are you
going to come on board and honor God with your unity in the church? I hope so!
NOOOOOO, I pray that you do!
Unity of Community
The next level of unity is one of community. This is where we each have a group of
friends that we can count on to be there for us. When times are tough, when times are
great, when life is hard and when life is easy, friends are those that are there for you
regardless of the temporary circumstances and regardless of their personal cost of being
there. This is not a Lone Ranger and Tonto type of friendship that I am talking about
here. I mean I can just envision The Lone Ranger and Tonto riding along and coming into
this valley with towering cliffs on each side and then suddenly they are surrounded on the
rim by 1000’s and 1000’s of Indians. Then the Long Ranger says to Tonto, “we are in
trouble!” And then Tonto replies, “what you mean “we” white-man?” That is not the sort
of relationship that God has in mind. We find a great example of the type of relationship
that He does have in mind however, in the New Testament.
We find three men, somehow interlocked through God’s great plan. We find the Apostle
Paul, we find a younger minister by the name of Timothy and we find a contemporary of
Paul’s by the name of Barnabas. Now we all need people in or lives to function as these
men did. Allow me to explain,
First we need a Paul, someone who is probably a bit older age wise than we are and one
who is spiritually more mature. Someone who has been around the barn a few times as
the old saying goes. This person will build into us the benefit of his experiences, the
wisdom of her trials in life both those that were negative and those that were positive.
This “Paul” person will do something that very few of us have ever had done and that is to
help hold us accountable. Rather they will help to ground us in the scripture, God’s word
as well as in the rights and wrongs of life.
Secondly, we all need at least one Barnabas. This person will be someone who is at the
same position in life as us. Living the same existence, having the same experiences,
someone who is not impressed by who we are, but rather is impressed by who we are to
become. This is probably your friend who is complaining about the same things that you
are and who is both giving advise to you and getting advise from you.
You know what we call advise that is wise? Advise that has the Bible as its core and the
love of Jesus as its wrapper? We call it wise council. You see we all get council or advise
everyday from a thousand different sources. The wise thing for us to do individually is to
take a look at the source of the council and to discern or figure out if it is based upon God
and His word or upon someone’s thoughts and ideas that may be so far off base that they
aren’t even in the same times zone as what God’s is. I heard a story of guy who was so
paranoid and scared of the police that he started to think that his dog was talking to him.
He would sit at the kitchen table and worry about the police coming and the dog would sit
and look out the front window and was supposed to tell him when the police showed up.
One day the door bell rang and it was the police and the guy looked at the dog and said,
“shoot dog, you didn’t give me the word that the police were here!” And the dog looked
back at him and said, “No kidding “ and then as the police came in the front door the dog
ran out the back! That was probably not a very wise place to get advise , I am sure that
you will agree.
Finally you need to have a Timothy. This is someone who is younger in the faith than you
are and someone who you are actually their Paul. Have you ever stopped to realize that
you have great influence over a certain number of people. These people are probably
younger than you are and look up to you. You have their attention, you have their eyes
upon you. You also have a great mandate and responsibility from God to mold into them
what He has molded into you.
So, take a look at your life and nd determine who is your Paul, who may be your
Barnabas’ and who your Timothy may be.
Unity in the family
Next on the unity scale and I think that you can see that we are getting smaller as we go.
We find family unity. In order to “be all that we can be” as the advertising slogan says, it
is great if we have the love, the support and the prayers of our family. For some this may
not be possible because of a divorce or maybe the death of a loved one. If you are in this
group, maybe great friendships can fill this area for you. But what about the family? I am
not talking about unity in the family here as having a definition living under one roof.
NOOO today we have too many families that live under one roof and don’t have the
foggiest idea of what is going on in the lives of the rest of the family members living in the
house. Rather I am talking about having close relations with your family. This close
relations can be seen in various areas of life.
*Time
*Availability
*Unconditional love and acceptance
*Spiritual oneness
Individual Unity
But before we can have unity among the churches, before we can aspire to unity within
our own church, before we can yearn for unity in a community of friends and yes, even
before we can obtain close family unity, before any of these can be obtained, we must
have individual unity. That’s right individual unity!
The first level of unity in God’s kingdom is found within your own self! Did you know
that you can have disunity in your own heart? James, the apostle was referring to flawed
individual unity when he said in James 1:8 , “A double-minded is unstable in all his ways.”
If you can’t trust yourself you are inherently unstable. Stop and think about that. Do you
wonder why some people do such illogical or thoughtless things? No one else can trust
them because they can’t trust themselves! You never know which side they are going to
come down on.
You can’t go to the next level of unity until you have first settled things at this level of
unity. Think about it this way, you wouldn’t and couldn’t in this town build a house
without first pouring a foundation. So folks, let make a covenant here this morning to
stop trying to put the roof on the house when our foundation is made of quicksand!
You should be able to say, “I know who I am! I know in whom I believe! I have an
understanding of where I stand in Christ!
The Bible says in Matthew 6:22 that , “ the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your
eye is single or good, your whole body will be full of light. What is the opposite of
light? Darkness! Who is the author of darkness? The evil one, Satan - OLE scumbag!
There is something powerful about the single-mindedness of the Apostle Paul when he
spoke in such terms in Phillipians 3:13 as, “This one thing I do.” He was singular in his
focus. Paul was being single minded in his vision because he said that he was forgetting
what was behind him and he was pressing on to the things that are ahead.
2 Corinthians 5:17 states it vary clearly,
“If anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation,
old things have passed away,
behold all things have become new.”
This is forgetting about the old ways of Scott, this is putting behind me all of the sins that
Scott committed, this is walking away from the very person in myself that I hate.
If you can find a person who is totally sold out to Christ, I mean totally and completely
going in the way that God has directed regardless if anyone likes it, cares about it or
comes along for the ride, if that person is doing it because it pleases Christ - that person is
single minded. That person is who I want to be. That is the type of person that I desire to
be. Oh God, build into each of us that desire, that passion, Oh God, bring on your spirit,
the Holy Ghost! I am ready, Are you! Are You! Are You!
So as we sit here on July 23 in Canneyville KY how do we get to this single-mindedness.
How do we grasp for this unity? Well my brothers, my sisters before we can have unity
in all of these areas and even before we can unity within oursleves we must have unity
with our Heavenly Father. God’s desire is for a relationship with you and with me! He
wants so desperately for each of us to love Him and for us to allow Him to love us that He
sent His son to die on the cross in payment for our sin.
In 1 Corinthians 16:22 we find the Apostly Paul writing that “if anyone does not love the
Lord, Jesus Christ, let him be devoted to destruction, Paul goes on to pray “Oh Lord,
come!” asking and beseeching the Lord to come and take the false and nominal Christians
away from the Church because they were infecting it with their attitudes.
Going back to the book of Revelation chapter 2 John is writing about works and laboring
for Christ and doing a bunch of good stuff that is actually helping the ministry of the
church, let’s go back to those focal passages and read again what He has said under the
inspiration of a Holy and Loving God!
Read: Revelation 2:1-6
Discuss Revelation 2:1-6
But how do we “return to your first love”? Lets look at a few points and we will be done.
1. Spend time with Him
a. prayer - conversation speak and listen
b. praise - sing a new song in your heart and your lips
c. prepare - spend time in His Word - not books about His Word
Prayer
Invitation
