What Do You Do When You’ve Lost Your First Love? (Hint: Don’t Settle for a Second Choice) Lenten Series

A pastor used a clever show and tell to make sure his congregation didn’t miss the meaning of an important message: “The Right environment for a healthy Christian life”. He took four cans and put a worm in each can. He put a worm in the first can full of whiskey; a worm in the next can full of cigarette smoke; a worm in the next can full of chocolate, and finally one in the can of rich soil. At the end of the sermon, he opened them up. The worm in the whiskey can, dead: the worm in the cigarette smoke-filled can, dead; the chocolate-filled can, dead. But the worm in the good soil-filled can, alive. He asked the congregation what they learned. Marge, the cranky, hard living elderly woman who always sat in the back, raised her hand. “I learned that if you drink, smoke, and eat chocolate, you won’t get worms. She missed it.

Many Christians miss it when it comes to Lent. It is more than what you give up. It’s also what you gain—love—as seen in the church of Ephesus, one of the seven churches of Revelation 2. In our mini-series—The Lenten Churches of Revelation—we will see that Christ is coming back for his bride who returns to Him, as her first love. To get that first-love feeling back, you have to consider the 3 C’s: Commendations. Complaint. Commands.

First, Christ commends the working church. In Rev. 2: 2-3, Christ acknowledged what was good with the Ephesus Church, calling them to look within themselves on their good works.

“I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance…Rev.2:2a

Christ loved their work. They were energetic. If they existed today, I imagine they would be involved in all-things ministry: conferences, multiple services, zoom, etc. Christ loved their endurance. They did not give up, even under the prominent presence of the sex cult of Artemis (Acts 19 riot). Also, Christ loved their orthodoxy. They were true to the word of God. They didn’t tolerate the teaching that anything goes.

As you look within and examine your relationship with God that first burned with devotion, but now seems to have cooled down, focus on the good. What made it energetic, enduring, orthodox? Church is more than church work.

Second, Christ was honest with his complaint of his Church. As in any relationship, there are issues. For Ephesus, the main thing was missing:

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Rev. 2:4

Worldly options cooled down their love for Christ. The Ephesians lost that “loving feeling.”

• Perhaps their prayer life cooled. They didn’t talk to God as often.

• Perhaps their praise cooled off. They didn’t talk to God as sweetly.

• Perhaps their dating cooled off. They weren’t seen out with God as much. Their witness waned.

When Christ looked within the Ephesus Church (and you and I), He sees what needs to change (of heart) and needs to change back to that first-love of God.

Finally, Christ commanded the church to get back to the three r’s of restoration: remember, repent, and resume.

5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do (resume) the things you did at first. Rev. 25

Remember: Recall what Christ has done for you, to clean you up when you were a hot mess. Repent: Change directions. We are eager to respond to an altar call but not to a call to alter. Resume: Do again what you use to do when you first fell in love with Christ. Pray more. Blow up God’s phone. Praise more. Get His praise on, not your praise on. Date more. Be seen in public with God, a witness in Jerusalem, Judea…the neighborhood.

When you’ve lost that loving feeling, let Lent lead you back to that first love. Don’t settle for second best.