Keeping Your First Love, First
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· 3 viewsA look at things that cause Christians to lose enthusiasm in their journey of faith.
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2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Central Idea/ Thesis:
A look at things that cause Christians to lose enthusiasm in their journey of faith.
Introduction:
We have all experienced moments where our enthusiasm for God and faith has wavered, leaving us feeling discouraged and hopeless. A young man named James found this to be true when he began to doubt his purpose in life and lose sight of why he was a Christian in the first place. He felt like God wasn't giving him the answers he wanted and that his faith wasn’t growing as fast as it should. So, after months of struggling with these doubts, James decided to attend a sermon on Loss of Enthusiasm. Little did he know, it would turn his outlook around wholly! In this sermon, we will explore how losing enthusiasm is an inevitable part of the spiritual journey.
Many reasons can contribute to losing enthusiasm for our Christian faith. Here are a few possible reasons:
Sermon Body:
1. Lack of progress:
1. Lack of progress:
When we don't see progress in our efforts toward a goal, it can demotivate and cause us to lose enthusiasm.
We all have this hope that Christianity is going to make everything better in our lives.
Whatever our health, it's going to make us healthier
Whatever our finances, it's going to make us wealthier
Whatever our relationships, it's going to make them better
It's going to fix our kids
Fix our jobs
Fix our neighbors
Fix our politics
Fix everything
Then we get to a point where all things remain the same, we don't see any progress and we give up on God and our faith
All the sudden we leave our First Love behind
Proverbs 13:12, which states "Hope deferred makes the heart sick",
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Matthew 7:7-8, which encourages us to “ask, seek and knock” for what we need, and
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
2. Unmet expectations:
2. Unmet expectations:
Having unrealistic expectations or having expectations that cannot be met can lead to discouragement and a lack of enthusiasm in our faith.
We recognize this in our relationships.
Meaningful relationships like marriages often do not survive unmet expectations
When your love one doesn’t do what you think they should do, we get out of those relationships and even our First Love’s are no longer first.
Not seeing our prayers answered or a God who does not do as we expect, can lead to discouragement which can take away enthusiasm for our first love.
We humans always expect, always request our wants, desires we feel are due us.
When those things don’t happen as we feel they should it makes us anxious.
Anxiousness is often the result of unrealistic expectations. Listen to what Paul says to the church in Philippi, encouraging them not to be anxious.
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Proverbs 14:12 reminds us, “There is a way that seems right to us, but its end is the way of death,”
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
We expect what we think is right.
However our sin in this carnal state warps our expectations to following ways that lead to death.
We are so conformed to the world it is hard for us to recognize it.
Romans 12:2 reminds us not to be conformed to the world where a lot of inappropriate expectations come from
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
If we weren’t so conformed to the world, we wouldn’t have the unrealistic expectations that plague us as believers.
Our perspective needs to become:
Spiritual and not Carnal.
Biblical and not Worldly
Sacrificial and not Selfish
Eternal and not Temporal
[We are so conformed to this world that all our planned achievements have earthly destinations.]
James 4:13-14 which advises us to look forward with humility instead of boasting about our expectations
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
It is said that if you want to make God laugh, just tell Him your plans.
[Not only are a “Lack of Progress and “Unmet Expectations” reasons for losing enthusiasm in our faith causing us to leave our first love. We can add to these also “Boredom.”]
3. Boredom:
3. Boredom:
Repeatedly doing the same thing can become monotonous and uninteresting; when bored, we look for another love.
Boredom is generally the sign of laziness; non-participation; complacency; an outsiders perspective of church life.
This type of Boredom is a little bit different, the Holy Spirit through Solomon calls it weariness...
8 All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
The Hebrew word weariness here, speaks to the type of person who gets bored with being a Christian.
The type of Christian who always needs something new to be engaged and not bored. They often leave their first love for something new.
In actuality they are bored with being a Christian. They are bored with what they think being a Christian is all about.
They are bored with:
Attending the assemblies
Studying their Bibles
Hearing the same old sermons
Hearing the same old Bible lessons
seeing the same ole people
[Many others have had to walk this journey, it would help to remember them. After considering the great Hall of Witnesses found in Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12 starts off like this...]
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Boredom is defeated by joy.
The type of Joy that allowed Jesus to endure the cross.
the type of Joy that allows us to love our enemies.
The type of Joy that equips us to face our trials.
The type of Joy that Christians have striving in a world opposed to their very existence.
The Joy of being God’s Child allowed Job to say, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.” Job 13:15 “15 Though he slay me, I will hope in Him...”
The Joy of being God’s Children allowed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to say to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not bow down to the golden image that you have set up.” Dan 3:16-18
Conclusion:
As we close, we must focus on the eternal perspective of life in order to keep our faith alive and vibrant. We should not be conformed to this world but instead seek the things above and run with endurance the race set before us. Our adversary, the devil, always seeks someone to devour; therefore, let us stay sober-minded and watchful. Let us continue to do all things with our might and embrace God’s grace as He establishes our steps. Lastly, let us draw strength from His truth, which will set us free. May we never grow weary in doing good or lose enthusiasm in our faith journey! Amen!
Invitation: