Recapturing The Church's First Love

“Recapturing the Church’s First Love”

By

District Elder M.L. Maughmer, Jr.

SCRIPTURES: Revelation 2:1-7 “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, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and 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 hast laboured, 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 the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God”.

We understand that the Book of Revelation is the book of (7) sevens. The numbers 7 is mentioned in Revelation more than any other book in the Bible and because of this it is the most mentioned number in the Bible. The number 7 we call God’s number it represents perfection.

OPENING:- I heard a story about a preacher and one of his counseling sessions. This preacher received a call from a lady he never met before and she wanted to set up a counseling session with him. The preacher thought about it and agreed to speak with the lady. On the day of the counseling session this lady walked into his office and said "Preacher, you’ll be shocked by my story." He assured her that he wouldn’t be because after 25 years of preaching and counseling, he thought he had heard almost everything.

She started the session by saying with such dire emotion, I hate my husband. I hate the way he looks. He has gotten fat, doesn’t take care of himself. I hate the way he sounds. He slurps his food, drags the fork across his teeth, and chews with his mouth open. I hate the way he brushes his teeth. He squeezes the tooth paste from the top of the tube instead of the bottom. He snores at night, pulls all the covers off of me, makes all kinds of noises and even sucks his teeth. I just don’t love him anymore! She went on with a long list of other reasons why she hated her husband so emphatically for quite sometime.

The preacher was shocked. He had heard it all before, but never quite as bluntly and with such sincerity as she was putting it. The preacher caringly asked the lady Has it always been that way? After a moment of silence there came a little glimmer in her eyes and a trace of a smile on her face. She then looked at the preacher and said No, It hasn’t always been this way. He used to be kind, gentle, and sensitive. I can remember how romantic he was when we were dating opening the car door everytime I go in or out. I remember the intimate conversations, the soft music the candlelight dinners. I remember walks in the park on cool crisp nights. I remember a wonderful wedding and an awesome honeymoon. I remember those early years when we were struggling together raising children trying to find enough money to pay our bills. She looked at the preacher smiled and said there were some good times. There was a time when we were very much in love.

The preacher smiled and looked at the lady and said ma’am you don’t hate your husband although you don’t like some of the things he does; however, your problem is simple you’ve lost your first love. He gave the lady this advice Recapture your first Love and I guarantee you that you will fall in love all over again.

GOOD ADVICE - HOWEVER

Sadly modern society and this new age of thinking tells us that we ought to be happy and if you’re not happy, then just walk away from whatever is making you unhappy. Therefore we have the highest divorce rate in history because now we simply have thousands of people walking away from their marriages because they’re not as happy as they think that they ought to be and it’s easier to walk from then it is to work for.

The same is true of our jobs. Most of us began our jobs with high ideals, great enthusiasm, expectations, tenacity, and vigor. However, somewhere during our time on the job the work began to be mundane, we began to find fault with those we worked with and the job became just something we do to get a paycheck. The wonderful feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment was gone and all the excitement was faded away just like a child’s Christmas toy a few weeks after Christmas. What has happened is we simply lost the love we had for the job at first.