Leaning Backward to Move Forward

Introduction

Deneé crying over a song

Years ago when we were up in Hamilton, I was apart of the worship team at our church. And as a part of the worship team, we used to gather every couple of months to come together as a full team (It was quite a big church with many different teams) and have a worship night. Not for planning set lists, not for growing as a musician, but just to seek the Lord together as a team. There were some really beautiful moments in those times where we just sought the Lord through musical worship together. But there was one night that I will always remember clearly… We were having a acoustic worship time with nothing but a guitar and our voices, and one of our friends who is an amazing singer just started to weep. Now she is quite quiet and wouldn’t usually be the type to burst into tears in a public setting like that. After the worship time, we were all talking in the group about what we felt the Lord saying to us in those moments… And she shared why she was so moved in that moment. She said… “As we were singing that song…(Heart of worship I think?) I started to cry as I felt the love of God. Then I was a bit confused as to why I was crying so much so I asked the Lord why? I felt the Holy Spirit remind me of something. He said… “That’s the song you sung when you first fell in love with me.”

Here’s a question for you… Do you remember when you first fell in love with Jesus? What was that like? I know we’re not all about feelings and all of that jazz… but did you have a feeling? Did you have a moment where you first realised the love of God and a spark of love for Him was fanned into flame?

I remember it for me. I encountered God in a real and powerful way when I was 15 years old… Some of you are thinking… Oh wow, so only last year! Actually, someone in this church the other day thought I was 44 years old. I may feel 44 sometimes with my lack of sleep, but i’m not actually in my 40’s. But I was 15 years old when I first had this encounter with the Lord in such a real life changing way. I remember it well. I went to bed that night and woke up like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I was completely in love with Jesus. I remember the song that was playing when I responded to the gospel… It was ‘Consuming Fire’ by Tim Hughes. That was the song that was playing when I first fell in love with Jesus.

I wonder this morning, can you remember the first time you loved Jesus? When you had an actual realisation of His love for you? When nothing else seemed to matter in your life other than just being with Him?

This week, Rich let me know he had to be at the hub and asked if I could preach… I was about to just pick up in Romans where I was going to go in a couple of weeks time… But I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to let that go this week and come back to what matters most. Remembering the LOVE that you had for God when you first believed.

I’ve called this message ‘Leaning Backward to Move Forward’ because I want us to lean backward in remembrance of the love of God in our lives when we first believed and recognise that this is not just something of the past… It is essential in the Life that is Set apart for a Christ follower to live. We cannot truly move forward unless we hold onto this love we had for Him when we first believed.

PRAY

So, this morning I want us to gaze into one of the letters that Jesus told John to write in Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2:1–7 NIV

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

It’s interesting that this is the very first letter Jesus asks John to write. It’s the very first one that we see and obviously there was some sense of urgency for it to be written down at the beginning!

The first thing I want us to see from Jesus’ words here to the church is he emphasises that…

Doing good deeds does not necessarily equal love

You can do good deeds and good godly things with the wrong heart motives. However, Equally as true, is that you can do good deeds and good godly things with no heart motive at all. You just do it because you grew up like that. Or you just do it because that’s how you’ve always been taught. Just because you do something good, does not mean that it comes from a heart of love.

Now, this is very important for us to understand… because we know that usually when there are BAD DEEDS, they come from a self-centred motive. Therefore, we just assume that because something is good, it must come from a loving motive. But Jesus tells us here in His letter to the church in Ephesus that it’s possible to do good deeds with the wrong motives. He still tells them that He sees what they have done and what they are doing. And He sees what they are going through and how they are holding fast to their faith in the midst of trials and hardships. He sees all of that! He’s still with them in all of that! But then He comes around and says that the thing He holds against them is that they have forsaken their first love.

The Greek word here from ‘Forsaken’ literally means to leave or abandon a place or a person.

You might ask… But how can that happen? I see that list that Jesus mentioned here to the Church of Ephesus… Here’s the list that Jesus saw… He saw their…

Hard work

Perseverance

They didn’t tolerate wicked people

They didn’t allow false teachers

They persevered under hardships

They didn’t grow weary

Now, We look at that list and think to ourselves… What a great list! But do you notice that there is nothing in there specifically about walking in relationship with Jesus… Just being with Him. It’s all about work and perseverance, but there seems to be a great lack of relationship. In the following letters to other churches, Jesus says different things. He says that he sees one churches love and faith. To a different church he speaks about how they remain TRUE TO HIS NAME. He says of another church that there are some who WALK WITH HIM DRESSED IN WHITE. But we find nothing of that here. There seems to be a great list of deeds without relationship. A Great list of DOING without BEING or LOVING.

Jesus says that although they are doing good things, and He sees all of that, they have forsaken… Or left behind or abandoned their first love. A Person. Christ Himself. They’ve lost the love that they had for Him at first.

Losing Eliana

About 2 years ago, Eliana was 2 and a half years old, we were staying at my mother in law’s house while ours was being rented out in town. I was looking after Eliana by myself and was in charge of making sure that she didn’t wander off. Well, do you know what happened? She wandered off. I remember doing something and then having a sudden realisation that it had been about 10 minutes or so since I had heard her. So I started calling out her name and looking in each room to see where she was. It started off quite calm thinking I would find her somewhere, but then my emotions started to rise a little bit as I looked in room after room after room and couldn’t find her anywhere. On top of all of that the front door had been opened and so to be honest with you… I started to panic a bit. I had looked in every room of the house, including the garage, and she was nowhere to be found. I remember for about 4 or 5 minutes just yelling her name hoping that she would hear me from wherever she was and say something. After about 5 minutes, I heard her little voice come from the garage and went and found her behind the door sitting there playing with a toy. She had been sitting there all along but wasn’t saying anything. When I came into the garage I opened the door just enough to not hit her behind the door and so I didn’t see that she was there. Can I tell you that when I found her… She must have been so confused. I wrapped my arms around her and had a moment of thankfulness beyond what I can describe. I had tears in my eyes and I could tell that she was looking at me trying to figure out what was going on.

I had a moment where I lost one of the most precious people in my life and it was scary… but when I found her again, the joy that I realised in that moment was indescribable. And I tell you what, after knowing how that felt… losing my daughter for a very brief moment, I have done all that I can not to let that happen again.

Mary and Joseph Losing Jesus

Do you know that a similar situation happened to Mary and Joseph? I want to read you what happened to them when Jesus was a 12-year-old boy… They completely lost him for a few days. Have a listen to this in Luke 2:41-52…

Luke 2:41–52 NIV

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… How on earth did they lose Jesus?! They were gone for a whole day before they realised! I mean Mary knows that He’s the Messiah because the Angel told her when He was born… She knows what has been spoken over His life, so why didn’t she at least keep an eye on Him on a daily basis to make sure He was okay!?

You know what Mary and Joseph did? They assumed that Jesus was still there with them. But He wasn’t.

I think we could ask ourselves the same question in our lives sometimes ya know… How did we lose our way with Jesus? What are the areas of our lives where we have forgotten His love or His grace or His Truth? Or His Strength? Where have we gone astray and left who Jesus is behind? Or where have we left or forsaken the love we had for Him at First? You see, we think it’s crazy that Mary and the Joseph left Jesus behind and forgot about Him, and it is! They should have been more aware and remembered Him! But we can do this all the time in our own lives too. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, or how long you’ve been following the Lord, we all can fall into the trap of losing the love that we had for Christ when He first saved our lives. We can know that He is the Messiah, just like Mary and Joseph did! We can know that He is The Way, The Truth, The Life, yet still lose our deep affection and desire for HIM.

How do we come back?

I want to give us 3 steps that we can all reflect on in our own relationship with the Lord… But also as a Church as we move forward into these new seasons that are to come.

Recognise

The first step to coming back to a deep and reverent love for Christ is to recognise that you’ve lost something of the love that you once had for Him. Bring this before the Lord. You have to humble yourself in this and lay your pride down. Don’t swallow your pride as some say… I hate that saying because it gives a picture of pride still being within you. You may have swallowed it but it’s still digesting inside of you. So you have to throw away your pride and humbly come before the Lord, no matter who you are or how far along on the journey you are with Him, and say… “Father… I recognise that I don’t have the same love that I once had for you.” When you bring it before Him and call it out, God can begin to plant something in you that is new and fresh. But if you are not willing to recognise it and lay it down, you will not see any change.

2. Repent

You’ve not only gotta recognise that you’ve left a love for God behind, but you also have to be willing to turn away and change your way of living. You see, recognising is the first step which is a realisation… But REPENTANCE is allowing that realisation to become ACTION. How do you do this? By turning around and going back to Him. (Just like Mary and Joseph did. They recogonised the fact that Jesus was back in Jerusalem, and then they turned back. They didn’t just realise that He wasn’t with them and then say… Oh no… Where is he? Oh well, Hopefully He shows up. Let’s carry on.” NO! Repenting is turning away from where you shouldn’t be, and turning BACK to where you should be. It’s turning from one way of living and walking back into the arms of Jesus.

Jesus Himself didn’t call the Church of Ephesus to just change their view of Him, or do something else to show their love for Him… NO! He said to them… REPENT! Turn away from whatever else has gripped your heart on this journey. Turn away from your own righteousness that is like filthy rags and turn back to ME.

Once you’ve recognised you’ve lost the love you had at first for Jesus, you must then Repent and turn back to Him. When you do that… You will find step 3 which is…

3. Receive

Our God is so gracious. You know why? Because when you turn back to Him, He is right there waiting to give you all of Himself. He’s not holding your sin against you when you repent, He’s welcoming you in a new and fresh way that leads to a greater revelation of love for Him. When you repent and run towards Jesus, you see HIM and all of His FULLNESS. You see His great love that was shown for you at the cross and remember what He went through for YOU which leads to a greater love for Him than you could have possibly imagined.

Maximillian Kolbe

In 1941, during the war, there was a certain Jew who tried to escape from a concentration camp. As a punishment, the guards ordered 10 people from the camp to be put into the starvation bunker. As they were selecting the 10 people, there was a man who was chosen and he starting begging the guards by saying… “Please, please… I have a wife and kids…” Upon hearing this, another man stepped forward and offered to take that mans place because he was a Catholic priest. To everyone’s astonishment, the guards allowed it and the 10 men were taken into the starvation bunker where they did not survive. That mans name was Maximilian Kolbe. He took the place of another man and showed a heroic act of love so that he could continue to live with his wife and kids. The mans name who was spared was Francis Gajowniczek. And do you know what he did for the rest of his life? He went around for the rest of his days telling people what Maximilian Kolbe had done for Him. The great act of love that was shown for Francis Gajowniczek enabled him to go and show that same love toward other people.

The Pope said during a service in honour of Maximilian Kolbe that “his sacrifice was a victory like that won by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 John 4:19 NIV

We love because he first loved us.

You know how you can come back to your first love? You have to be willing to receive His love for you afresh. You cannot first love, until you’ve been loved first. I’ll say that again…

You cannot first love, until you’ve been loved first.

How are you supposed to show what you do not know?

Life to the Max conversation

I will never forget working at Life to the Max and that season of my life… Working with some young people who had been completed neglected and thrown out in society. Some of them were nasty if I’m being honest with you! But one day I was in the car with my manager at the time we were dealing with a nasty situation… and I always remember her saying to me… “Yeah but Dan, their parents have never shown them what love is. How are they supposed to know if they haven’t been shown it? And then their parents don’t even know what love is because THEIR parents never showed them…” She went on to say to me… “It’s just a vicious cycle.”

But you know what I’ve learnt? The Gospel is the great breaker in those vicious cycles… Why? Because all of a sudden, that person is shown what TRUE love is. GOD IS LOVE. And it breaks in on that cycle and creates a whole new pathway for not only one person, but their entire family in the future.

The reason why some of us struggle in our love for the Lord and our love for other people is because we haven’t fully grasped the love of God for US. We don’t know it! Or, we used to know it! We used to know it really well years ago! But somewhere along the way… we’ve become stale. We’ve become dry. We need a fresh revelation of His love so that we can truly receive a renewed love for Him.

Conclusion

Every single day… You need to ask yourself the question… Am I living out of love for Him…?

Not out of obligation but out of love

A few weeks ago, I preached a sermon and if I’m honest, I rushed through it toward the end because it was getting late! I still hadn’t done it the night before and I was trying to get it all down and wasn’t sure where I was going yadayadayada. Anyway, I preached the sermon some of you were touched by the Spirit and He moved anyway which was awesome. However, I woke up on Monday morning ready to write again for that Sunday as well… and I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me by saying “Son, last week you wrote out of obligation… This week I want you to write out of LOVE.” Well, Can I tell you, that week the words just flowed. The same happened this week! Why? Because… I’m not just writing these words and trying to get you to understand some concepts. I’m allowing the love of God to sink deep into my soul as I write and seeing who He really is as He reveals words to my heart.

Don’t live out of obligation. Live out of love.

There’s a huge difference in living your life out of obligation compared to living it out of Love for Him you know. A HUGE DIFFERENCE! We have to be so ONTO it every single day when it comes to this area of our lives otherwise we will get a bit too far down our journey like Mary and Joseph and recognise… Hang on a second…? Are we missing something…? And we will realise that we aren’t just missing something… We are missing EVERYTHING. We’re missing the WHOLE POINT OF LIFE. Doing everything that we do out of a love for HIM.

Jesus said that to those who are victorious in this area, He will give the right to eat from the tree of life. Now, I believe that this is not only for eternity in the renewed creation… But for the here and now too. If you are willing to Recognise the parts of your life that have grown dim in your love for Him… To then Repent and turn away from the fruitless things that have gripped your life or distracted your walk with the Lord, then I believe you can Receive the fruit of LIFE that comes from a new and fresh love for Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

PRAY