Gateway Church Live | “Return to Your First Love” by Pastor Robert Morris | September 1

[Music] well gateway shirts welcome how we doing today [Music] whether you're watching online or at a gateway gathering or you're here in the room we are so excited that you're it's communion weekend this weekend so if you did not get a chance to grab the elements you have some time to do that as well as we'll give you another opportunity as well but if you're watching online or at a gateway gathering you have time right now run to your kitchen grab whatever you can from your pantry so you can participate in communion with us but church let's lean in and let's worship god together come on [Music] so [Music] and all i see is the battle you see my victory when all i see is a mountain you see [Music] thank you jesus [Music] [Music] oh not available [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lay out your feet oh [Music] father we rest in the work that you do on our behalf we worship you lord in jesus name there is a grace in the rise and fall there is return for [Music] there is a place where redemption cries there is a death that can save a life there's resurrection where there was a cross there is power when we've lost it all yeah there is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] don't be afraid of every crooked turn [Music] uses all the pain in her there is power in the way [Music] when the sky is [Music] is [Music] i'm thanking you jesus [Music] the is is [Music] [Applause] so why should i worry and why should i fear [Music] is [Music] i'm thanking you jesus i'm thanking you jesus we thank you jesus in your presence for the hope that we have in the name of jesus that although we may be experiencing heartbreak even though we may be having heaviness in our lives that we have hope that's an anchor for our soul that's firm and secure the name of jesus christ that we're standing on the solid ground of the name of jesus not on sinking sand we thank you lord i pray you to remind us of our hopes so that we can say hallelujah for a broken heart because it draws us even closer to you god with me may we draw closer to you today in jesus name we pray everybody say amen amen amen we're going to continue in worship together today you can be seated we're going to prepare ourselves for communion what a privilege we have to take communion together to remember jesus if you weren't able to receive the elements on your way in if you'll just raise your hand up high our ushers are coming now they'd love to serve you make sure that you get the elements if you'll just shoot your hand up we'd love to serve you in that way a gateway we observe open communion so you don't have to be a member of gateway church to take communion with us in fact we'd love for you to join us at the table and remember jesus in this way remember all the things that he's done remember the character of who he is that the things he's done show us and who jesus is who god is to send his only son to be the sacrifice and redemption for us while we were still sinners it's a beautiful thing that we get to remember today so as we do prepare our hearts to take communion together we're going to continue in worship lord we turn our eyes and our affection towards you we acknowledge where we are today and father we acknowledge you are greater than our present circumstance give you all the glory in the middle of where we are today you're worthy of this praise even if it's broken you're worthy of it lord and so much more come and have it all have it all lord sometimes i'm full sometimes i'm not i'll bless your name no matter what if emptiness is all i've got jesus it's yours oh jesus it's yours [Music] oh let this be my sacrifice a yielded heart clean and contrite no matter what this worship costs jesus it's yours oh jesus it's yours i just [Music] i just love you god i just love you i just love you [Music] we guys you we love you guys your worthiness will never change so here's my life my highest praise jesus is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] only because i will not breathe [Music] only because you loved me oh [Music] i just love you guys [Music] [Music] you know one of the places that i experience and feel god the most is at the table whether i'm gathered with my family or my community when we're sharing around the table our stories of the week are stories of victory and defeat because lord knows we have them both when we gather around the table to remind ourselves that we're human beings and not human doings see what i love about the table is the thin place for me a place where the supernatural meets the natural where i can feel god's presence so strongly and here's the thing about the table church is that jesus invites us to his table you know different traditions they call it different things we call it communion or the lord's supper or the eucharist and what i love about this word the eucharist which i know some people can can get hung up on what i love about this word is this is in greek eu means good and charis means grace so when jesus invites us to his table he's inviting us to experience his good grace and here's the thing membership isn't required having our things in order isn't required the only thing that's required is that it's the invitation that we're to receive his good grace so i don't know what your faith journey looks like today friends i don't know where you stand with god but here's what i do know is that there are people in this room today are watching online with us that the question they're asking themselves is am i worthy enough to receive communion friends that's not the question today the question is not can i receive it the question i want to ask you and that jesus is asking all of us is will you receive his good grace today to thing about jesus that is so good is that he's going to meet us exactly where we're at and also he's going to invite us where he's at to the table with them because we have a place there beside our king so the night before he was crucified he took the bread and he said this is my body broken for you and this is my blood pour out the next time you do this do this in remembrance to me so today we remember and today we receive if you can take the cracker in your hand god we thank you so much for this bread and what it represents god your body broken for us so that we can be made whole in you god today we remember and today we receive in your resurrected name we pray let's receive the bread [Music] can you lift up the cup with me blessed are you lord our god king of the universe god we thank you for this cup and what it represents god your blood poured out for us your good grace poured out for us and so today as a church family right here in person and watched online we receive your good grace god and it's in your resurrected name we pray amen let's receive the cup church you can place the cup down in front of you and will you do me favor will you stand as we continue worshiping our god today come on church [Music] i see it clear now you're all around me in every little thing where can i go now [Music] to hear your voice [Music] you're with me here [Music] you're closer than i thought was possible so i'll rest right here with you just with you [Music] so i'll rest right here with you [Music] breathtaking [Music] you come like thunder [Music] to hear your voice [Music] you're with me here [Music] [Music] right here with you [Music] and so rest right here [Music] [Music] to hear you speak to me come and speak to me guys [Music] [Music] [Music] by my father [Music] by my father [Music] oh [Applause] [Applause] [Music] oh right right here [Music] oh [Music] thank you lord god thank you for the rest that is found in your presence lord i pray that you would rejuvenate and restore our souls in your presence today we receive your goodness we receive your good grace and we thank you for it in jesus name and everybody said amen amen thank you so much for worshiping with us thank you for being here today we're so glad that you've joined us in the house of the lord we're excited about the message that pastor robert's going to bring today we know it's going to bless you and your family so before we jump into that would you please turn to the people around and make them feel welcome we're so glad you're here welcome to gateway church [Music] [Music] hey everyone we're so glad you're joining us whether you're with us online or in person here are a few things you need to know a lot of great things are happening at gateway here are a few ways you can get involved right now to check out all that's going on visit us at gatewaypeople.com also you can follow us on social media and join your campus facebook group if you'd like to give today you can visit gatewaypeople.com and click on the gift tab use our mobile app or give it one of the offering boxes at any of our campuses we have so many amazing opportunities for you to grow connect and be encouraged for more information visit us at connectcentral or text connect to 7 10 10. we're so glad you're joining us thanks for being here today [Music] we believe in faith we believe in family we believe in this country this month we celebrate our hispanic heritage founded by president reagan in 1988 to honor those that came to this great place with hope in their hearts and reddit camps they came to partner with the beliefs values and dreams this country holds we hail from guatemala to cua puerto rico to colombia honduras to mexico and all the places in between we are rich communities with hope faith and love and today we contribute to the american way in every area industry and profession we brought with us our complex and rich culture all of our vibrant food tenacity work ethic and unwavering love for family and coming to this nation the cost was well worth the sacrifice a seed was sown for the opportunity that our generation holds today though we are diverse in appearance accents and origin together we advance as one body undivided towards the creation of a new heritage one that fully reflects and embodies the kingdom of god somos hispanos somos familia somos hispanos somos familia somos hispanos somos familia [Music] okay i'm gonna start talking over here hey everyone i was uh i was so watching that video there that i forgot i was supposed to come up here afterwards so so i just was just intrigued by how god has used brought people from all over the world to the united states i believe it's because what god did here in this country and what god's doing here in this country people see faith freedom and values in this country and so anyway i was just very grateful for that so let me give you an update uh on my leg i know y'all showed the pictures last weekend they were just beautiful beautiful pictures to look at uh sunday morning last week i woke up feeling much much better it was just incredible and it surprised me it shouldn't have surprised me but i just didn't put it together that josh made that announcement uh saturday night or saturday afternoon the four o'clock service and then it was posted on my social media accounts and so a lot of people began to pray and i just woke up just like feeling much much better so this has been a much better week so thank you so much for your prayer uh now because it was a nerve disorder in the in my lower leg that caused so much pain now that that's just about gone i can feel my hamstring tear so in that wonderful once now that the other's gone i can i know that i injured something else so anyway um the gateway conference is um a week from this monday monday and tuesday let me give you a little background if you don't know not much but just a little we started this years ago as a pastor's conference and pastors and leaders from other states but also from around the world come every year to this and we felt a few years ago maybe some leaders from gateway want to attend and so that's when we begin advertising it here but i don't know if you if we ever fully explain to you that it's really a pastors and leaders conference and there will be thousands of pastors either here or online from all over the world at this and so if you'd like to attend we still have spaces open space available there's a cost for it and it's all day monday and all day tuesday so a week from this uh coming monday so be september 27th and 28th also uh next weekend is our global impact weekend and this is one of the greatest weeks of the year because we kind of tell you what we're doing all over the world and it's just a really really fun weekend and joachim from sweden will be speaking he's spoken one time here before he's very funny he was a pastor a great guy but it just kind of helps us understand there's more going on than in just our little realm of the world there's something going on that god's doing all over the world so that'll be next weekend all right and then the following weekend we already had this plan last week it was supposed to be our elders retreat and we canceled it because of my leg so i'm normally not out of the pulpit this much in a month but the next weekend uh we have michael jr here so um don't forget that one of the reasons we have michael jr is because you can invite unchurched people that weekend and tell them no sermon this weekend because they're not used to good servants like you get you know if they're unchurched they're they probably think of sermon as dry dull boring which you don't think of sermons like that obviously but so it's a time when you can bring the unchurched here that maybe see michael jr on television or in movies or something and they come and hear him and then you all know how he always turns it to the gospel and we normally have about a thousand people accept christ that one weekend so please think about that so that's the next two weekends and then i'll be continuing the series that we're going to begin today i thought pastor josh did a fantastic job last weekend you will probably never think of jonah and the well the same way uh and then pastor jelani the weekend before and mentioning pastor jelani on sunday night this sunday night 6 p.m there's an interest meeting for the new plano campus it's going to be starting so if you know anyone in that area or you live in that area and would like to attend that interest meeting it'll be sunday this sunday at six all right all right we're beginning a new series uh called the seven churches of revelation you've been waiting for this series you've been wondering pastor robert were you ever going to preach on the seven churches of revelation well here it is all right so the first thing i want to do though is give you some background on the book of revelation and the apostle john or the disciple john who wrote the book i also want to remind you that when i begin a series about in the first message about the first one half of the message or two-thirds of the message is laying the foundation for the whole series and then we'll actually get to the first church and the lord kind of zeroes this in on one major thing about it and so we'll get that minute the reason i say that is for those of you who are like i am who are time conscious and since i won't get to my first point until two-thirds of the way through i don't want you to pass out okay so we'll we got plenty of time for everything all this background information that you'll love about the book of revelation first of all you need to know that the book of revelation is a letter it's a letter to the seven churches of asia minor which is turkey now but it's the whole book is a letter and much of the new testament are letters you've read the letter to the church at ephesus called the book of ephesians you've read the two letters to the church of corinth called first and second corinthians thessalonica thessalonians uh colossia um colossians galatia galatians are you following me so this is a letter matter of fact people don't realize peter was written first peter and second peter uh to the uh tribes of israel that had been dispersed same with james so it's kind of at the very first of the book that we don't even read that part we just kind of go past that part of to whom it was written so so this this is a letter it was written about 95 a.d so 95 almost uh 65 years a little over 65 years after jesus was the resurrection of christ and jesus appears to john on the island of patmos now it was written probably 96 but i'm rounding dates off because in your mind you could do math easier if we round it off all right the reason i'm saying this is jesus appears to john he appears to paul in about 33 to 35 a.d and this is going to shock you what i'm about to tell you if you've never heard this he was uh resurrected in about 29 a.d i know you're thinking yeah but he was 33 and a half i understand that but that's because he was actually born in 4 bc i know i know you're wondering well how could he be born four years before christ it's because we didn't understand about the calendar and the bcad started about 500 a.d now i just want to mention one thing today they're trying they've changed it and they're not using bcad bc means before christ a demon's the year of our lord they changed it to bce before common era and ce common era and when you if you go online and read about why they changed it they will say this has nothing to do with taking christ out of out of it nothing at all but if you go back and see why they started it they say very plainly we're doing this so that people of all faiths are no faith are not offended that's literally why it began and they will they'll come up with all sorts of stories that 1500 years bce is what they say before common area error they were taking keeping time by okay it's just a bunch of uh baloney uh balogna in the greek is what that's called so we're going to use before christ and a.d when we talk about dates in the year of our lord okay so [Music] so i'm rounding dates off let's just say that jesus resurrected around 30 a.d so you can get the dates here and around 35 he appears to paul so five years after the resurrection but 95 he appears to john this is what i want you to catch from that 65 years after the resurrection is when jesus appears to john and addre and speaks these seven letters to the seven churches of asia minor and by the way we're gonna we'll be there in chapter two and three and you need to know if you go and look at it you have a red letter edition on your ipad or phone or whatever however you read the bible or if you have one that actually has pages in it you know if it's red letter all every word in chapter two and three is red letter it's all jesus every bit of it him speaking to john and then he shows up in chapter one and and he says some things so this word starts on the island of patmos why is he on the island of patmos he's on the island of patmos john is because he was exiled to the island of patmos now get why because he wouldn't die that's the truth every disciple other than judas and john were martyred john wasn't martyred but they tried to martyr him tertullian tells us this who's a historian of the day he says they put him in a cauldron of boiling oil but he continued to preach and suffered no harm so they pull it out of this bowling oil and the emperor who's tired the roman empire is tired of hearing him preach bans him exiles him to the island of patmos okay so that's where he writes the book of revelation about 95 or 96 a.d he wrote the book of john and 1st john 2 john 3 john between 95. some say when he was on the island some say before i think he was still in ephesus when he wrote that that's the church he attended by the way the church at ephesus which is the first letter which is uh timothy was the pastor if you remember first timothy saying timothy and paul's writing timothy a spiritual son okay so timothy's the pastor john also was the disciple that took care of jesus's mother until she passed away all of this happened uh the i'd be in him being banned and exiled after mary had already passed away um but he's while he's at the church of ephesus the reason i wanted to say that when he wrote the gospel of john is because he wrote his gospel after matthew mark and luke mark wrote about 70 a.d um i mean mark matthew and luke wrote about 85 a.d john's about 90 80. the reason he wrote his gospel is matthew mark and luke are called synoptic gospels synoptic means similar so you will find many of the same miracles in matthew mark and luke but you won't find him in john the reason again that john wrote is because they only wrote about the third year of jesus's ministry they write about the birth and the death but then the every one of them mark 1 matthew 4 and luke 3 all say after john was imprisoned and john was in prison two years into jesus ministry so they're all covering the last year the third year of jesus's ministry john then decides to write his gospel after all three of those have been written because no one had covered the first two years of his ministry so you find things in john you won't find in matthew mark and luke you'll find in john 1 begins in the beginning the way genesis begins its only other book in the bible begins that way you'll find in john 2 the first miracle jesus ever did he turned water into wine you'll find in chapter three the conversation of nicodemus chapter four the woman at the well the conversation of her chapter five the healing of the blind man the pool of bethesda chapter six where he describes i'm the true bread that came down from heaven chapter 7 where he describes how he is the messiah and that his he has equal authority with the father chapter eight the woman caught adultery none of these are in matthew mark or luke chapter nine the healing of the blind man chapter 10 that he's the good shepherd chapter 11 the raising of lazarus from the dead so whole chapter chapter 12 the anointing preparing his body for burial chapter 13 the washing of the disciples feet not in matthew mark or luke chapter 14 is what he said at the last supper this is the only place we have this recorded chapters 15 and 16 is on the way to the garden and then chapter 17 is the prayer he actually prays in the garden so we have that prayer and in chapter 18 crucifixion and picks up and coincides with the other although it has some two or three statements i'd have to go back and look that he said in john i recorded that are not recorded in matthew mark luke you'll follow me is this too much detail for you is this interesting okay so you've got john who writes this when he writes it now one thing about john you need to know the average age uh was the for death rate was in the 50s people didn't live very long back then john lived to be over 100 years old at the end of his life it was said that he could only say three words there's a story that is in history but it's not in the bible so we don't know about its authenticity but it's that one day john was at the church at ephesus where he attended and they said hey john's here the last living disciple of jesus and so please come to the front come tell us come tell us you know what was it like walking with jesus what was it like being with jesus and he walked to the front and he said three words love one another and he went and sat down they said toward the end of his life it's the only three words he would say for several years love one another if you remember john's the only one john 14 that recorded jesus saying at the last supper a new commandment i give you a new commandment he talks about in the first john ii john also a new commandment i give you love one another with him only saying those words i heard i know franklin graham's a good friend of mine billy graham's son and then i was invited to attend the memorial service of dr graham only 2 000 pastors were invited and friends and i was on the fourth row and billy graham's pastor shared a story about billy graham and franklin share with me that in his final years he didn't speak much but when he did speak most time he only said four words so his pastor at his memorial service told the story that every saturday they didn't have saturday services at the church only sunday they didn't have online services so every saturday he would go over to dr graham's house talk with him some and then preach his message on saturday to dr graham that he was going to share on sunday so personally i don't know if i'd want to preach in front of billy graham but that's what the pastor did and for the last few years billy graham didn't say hardly anything and so um the pastor's over there preaching this message and after he preached it he said to dr graham dr graham i don't know if you recognize this message but this is a message actually that you preached and dr graham started shaking his head and he said you preached this in such-and-such city in such-and-such crusade and then he told him how many people got saved and i really don't remember the number five thousand or ten thousand whatever he said this this many people got saved when he preached this message and dr graham raised his finger and said the four words that he was known for saying toward the end of his life it was all him those are the words he used to say a lot toward the end of his life people would congratulate him or commend him on his life and he would always say it was all him so that's kind of the way john was toward the end of his life now these seven churches let me get back to the seven churches are in asia minor modern-day turkey why did he write a letter to these seven churches he did it because they were on the most populous trade route of the day let me show you a map so you can kind of get it in your mind of where the seven churches are where the island of patmos is so there's the island of patmos where john was and then if you start at ephesus and go up and go clockwise that's the order of the letter that's the order of the letters the seven letters ephesus smyrna pergamum thyatira sardis philadelphia by the way philadelphia started an extension campus in pennsylvania sorry it's a horrible joke but it's funny all right and then and then the last letter the seventh letter uh to the church at laodicea all right so that kind of lets you know a little bit and i think that the lord spoke to these seven churches they were major churches at that time but then he knew that these letters and you have to remember it wasn't just the seven letters in two and three it was the whole letter it was the letter of revelation the book of revelation which would go through the scripturation process so he knew it would become scripture the last book of the bible and he knew that once these seven churches passed the whole book around the whole letter that then it would go then to other the rest of the body of christ you see what i'm saying so it was a strategic plan all of the letters seem to have three parts now these won't be my three points for each of the letters and i can't go through verse by verse and just explain because this is a seminary class although i'll make comments but i believe the holy spirit's going to point out one thing that we need to learn from each of these letters you know one major thing okay but all of the letters seem to have let me say five of the seven you see it very clearly two of the seven it's difficult to see it but it is there but they all seem to have three parts commendation correction counsel they start with commendation the lord's saying this is what you're doing well correction this is what you need to change and then counsel this is how you need to change it now one other thing about the seven churches is people see these differently some theologians see these differently some theologians see these as um church history and it's a timeline from the resurrection until the second coming and so the letter at ephesus was about the first church for two to three hundred years then fourth century they're saying that's when they moved to the second church and then third and then and then they'll say and you could see now we're in the seventh letter church of laodicea so we're the end time church there are some that see these seven letters as written obviously to those literal churches but they're only for the end time church i don't believe either of those i believe these seven were literal to the seven churches but also letters to all the churches of all time in other words whether you live in the 7th century or the 12th century or the 21st century these letters are for us here are two reasons why i believe that uh because it's in the bible god put it in the bible so just like the letter of ephesians was written to the church at ephesus yet god has spoken you through ephesians i think he can speak to you through these seven letters which encompass one letter so it's by this spirit the second reason i believe it's for all churches of all time is all of them end with either at the last line or close to the last of the letter they end they'll say this all of them say this he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches plural anyone who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying now remember jesus said these yet the spirit inspired the scriptures the holy spirit so let him hear what the spirit is saying to the scriptures all right so let me show you how this is the whole book of revelation is to to all the seven churches revelation 1 4 john to the seven churches which are in asia so he this is in chapter one he's telling you the revelation of jesus christ is for all seven churches that's the whole book okay was written to these seven churches verse 11 jesus shows up he shows up in verse seven i think but in verse 11 it says he's saying i am the alpha and the omega the first and the last and what you see this is jesus talking to john write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in asia and then he lists those seven just the same way we had them while ago and then revelation 1 verse 20 now he's going to tell us something about the seven stars because they all start with to the angel so he's going to tell us something about the angels and the churches all right revelation 1 20 the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lamp stands the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven stands which you saw are the seven churches so when john sees jesus he's in the midst of seven golden lamp stands and he has seven stars in his right hand so the seven lamp stands are the seven churches so what does that tell us it tells us that we're not the light but we hold the light that we're just a lamp stand you don't light a light jesus said and put it under a basket you put it on the lampstand so the higher the church holds the light the more people are going to come to christ so churches are lampstands the stars are messengers they're angels the greek word is angelos which means a messenger i personally believe that this is the senior pastor or the pastors of the seven churches not an angelic being this is why matthew mark and luke talk about john the baptist and call him a messenger but it's the same greek word for angel but they're talking about a man and then in revelation john has this angel that's showing him around remember you've read the book of revelation probably he has an angel that's showing him around and he falls down and begins to worship him and the angel says don't worship me now listen why he says revelation 22 verse 9 then he said to me see that you do not do that for i am your i am your fellow servant and of your brethren the prophets so i don't think this is an angelic being like an angel from the old testament when he talks about the angels and the angels in camp around i think this is actually a a prophet maybe from the old testament he says i'm one of your certain fellow servants i'm one of your brothers so i believe that when it says to the angels it's talking about to the pastors of the churches because the pastors would get up and read the letter to the church and said listen john sent a letter back and jesus appeared to him and i want to read you this letter so he's talking to the leaders also leaders are referred to as stars in the bible daniel chapter 12 verse 3 says those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever so that's my belief about what these seven angels all right that they're the pastors all right all right all ready to get to the first letter you didn't fall asleep did did you i mean i test my sermons on debbie and when she starts dozing i know i've got gone into too many details all right so revelation 2 verse 1 and i'll make comments throughout about some of the comments all right some of the verses to the angel which could be it's the messenger could be the pastor of the church of ephesus that'd be timothy right these things says he who holds the seven stars at his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands now verse two starts the commendation all right here's the commendation i know your works your labor your patience and that you cannot bear those who are evil now this is referring to the nicolaitans and we're going to talk about those in the third church all right you can't bear those who are evil this next is also referring to them you've tested those who say they are apostles and are not and you found them liars and you have persevered and have patience and you have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary so that's the commendation the counts the correction in verse 4 nevertheless i have this against you that you have left your first love okay so let me just go ahead and give you right now i guess they can do it the the title of the message is return to your first love so return to your first love all right all right so let's go back verse four i have this against you you've left your first love that's the correction verse five is the council remember there from where you have fallen repent and do the first works or else i will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you appear in other words i'm not going to let you hold the light anymore because i don't want people to see the type of light you're holding let me make a comment the church at ephesus was a church that emphasized truth and jesus said i want you to emphasize love as much as you emphasize truth that's basically the kind of a bottom line of this right verse six but this you have that you hate the deeds of the nicolaitans which i also hate let me make a comment about that again we'll talk i'll i will tell you exactly what the deeds of the nicolaitans are in the third message in this series all right but i want you to notice this goes back to what josh said last week that you can share in god's anger against wickedness as long as you share his compassion for people notice he doesn't say that he hates the nicolaitans he says i hate their deeds he loves his people but he hates the deeds so i'll tell you what the deeds are in the third message it's called a teaser by the way all right verse seven he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches plural and then he says and this is in many of the letters something like this to him who overcomes i will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god now i told you a while ago there's three parts it seems like there's really four in most of the letters and that's a reward but the other three that i had commendation uh correction and counsel all begin with the letter c and i couldn't think of a a word for a crown look at that it's a gift it's a gift i'm telling you so they all have four parts all right commendation correction counsel and crown that's all right we got it all there okay so verse 4 verse 4 says i had this against you that you left your first love so i want to ask you something have you ever felt that way well if you're a believer you have unless you got saved an hour ago you have felt like that you don't love jesus like you did when you first got saved you've gone through that you're like i i just i i want you to do something my heart cause man i was so excited and i just fell in love with you when i first got saved i feel like i've left my first love okay it's really easy to get it back and he tells us how to do it in verse five that's his counsel all right watch this verse five remember there from where you're falling repent what's repent mean change your mind just change the way you're thinking about this and do the first works do the first works here's how simple it is he's saying do what you did when you first got saved just do it again okay for me it was three things when i thought about this all right and by the way they all begin with the same letter just so you know okay worship word now we'll go through each of them these are our three points worship word and witness worship word and witness okay so we we don't have time to go through a bunch of stuff on them but we'll hit each of them right number one's worship when i first got saved i just wanted to spend time in the presence of god and worship can include prayer but i want you to think about when i first got saved and when you first got saved we just wanted to get to know god we just wanted to be in his presence we'd love being in his presence and then life gets busy so for me i got saved at 19 nine months after debbie and i got married um and then um about a year after that josh was born and then along came james and then came elaine okay children work when josh was born before josh was born debbie worked when josh was born she quit work we went from a two-income family to a one-income family life got busy my work started taking off we had children so we learned how to not sleep anybody ever been through this and so all of a sudden we feel like we've left our first love and so i remember telling the lord when i was reading this passage this is years ago just a few years into my christianity lord that's me i've left my first love and it was like he said look at the next verse do the first works and i just felt like the lord said make it a priority to spend time in my presence just make it a priority so i begin to do that here's the second thing is word spend time in the word of god now the bible has 1189 chapters i'm going to round it to 1200 just for math again okay so that means if you read 40 chapters a day i know that that's a lot i understand that um but you could go through the whole bible in 30 days let me put another way if you read 10 i think i started too much all right if you read 10 chapters a day you can go through the whole bible three times a year you can do it 120 days 10 chapters 1200 chapters it's 1189 but close to 12. you can do it in in uh four months all right 120 days so so for me i was traveling and preaching so i was preaching revivals at night so i had a lot of time during the day so i that's how i started doing this math if i read it for me it takes about one hour to read 10 chapters so if i thought if i read 40 a day i can go through the whole bible in a month and by god's grace i was able to do that many times and then i thought you know if i read 50 chapters a day again i'm i'm doing i'm working at night from 7 to 11 or so during these revivals in the evening so during the day i had the time to do this if i do 50 chapters down and do it in 24 days and then a few times when i wasn't even when i didn't have a revival or something i just took time away and i would read a hundred chapters a day it takes about 12 hours to do that for me but i'd read 100 hours a day and go through the whole bible in 12 days and i just did that many many times it just got me in the word now let me tell you something that applies to all of us maybe you're on a daily bible reading program or you try to read a chapter in the old chapter the new a psalm every day whatever it is have you ever opened up the bible to read your daily bible reading and you think to yourself oh i've read this passage before and then the next thought which is from the enemy by the way is you know you're running a little late so you could skip bible reading today that'll save you like 10 minutes okay so let me give you a comparison uh have you ever had a nutritious meal a good tasting like one of your favorite best tasting but nutritious meal set down in front of you and you thought to yourself oh i've had this before so i don't need to eat today you don't think that do you you eat it anyway even though you've eaten it before because your body needs nutrition right so when you open your bible to a passage you've read before read it anyway because your soul needs nutrition read it anyway so worship word this is what i feel like the lord wants to say to us and then witness when i got saved i just felt like i witnessed to everybody all the time and uh as i grew in the lord i kind of got away now i'm not talking about uh telling seven strangers a day the roman road okay i'm not talking about hey excuse me uh the bible says you're a sinner and you're going to hell and jesus died for your sins okay i gotta go talk to someone else now okay i'm talking about with sincerity just work jesus into the conversation just work god into the conversation you know if someone says man this rain was sure a blessing you could simply say man it really was a blessing and i'm telling you for me because i was so messed up once this guy shared with me how i could give god control of my life now i really do see everything as a blessing okay you'll get one of three responses when you do something like that one will be i know exactly what you mean once i gave my life to the lord i just see blessings everywhere now well you found a fellow believer second response you might get is what do you mean gave god control of your life because i've been kind of thinking about the whole god thing so what do you mean now you get a chance to witness to someone third response you might get would be uh okay and then the person backs away slowly but that's okay you planted the seed you didn't get to water it but you got to plant it all right so you need to understand worship in the word and witness god did not design us to be reservoirs he designed us to be rivers the way a reservoir becomes stagnant well let me say it this way for a reservoir to not become stagnant it must have two things it must have water flowing in and water flowing out worshiping the word and witnessing that's the only way you're going to return to your first love let me give you one example um you ever had maybe let's just talk to the guys for a minute you got a group of guys group of friends and all of a sudden you notice that jim isn't showing up you know tuesday night's bowling night friday night's poker night and all of a sudden jim's not here and so you say what happened to jim and they what did they say he met a girl right and pretty soon you see jim standing at a mall outside a store hold the purse [Applause] and when you go talk to jim what does he do he talks about her old man you need to this girl i met you i mean she's incredible we like all this agent he wants to do two things he wants to spend time with her and he wants to talk about her you all know why because he just fell in love are y'all following me when you first fall in love with jesus you just want to spend time with him worshiping the word and you won't talk about him that's how you return to your first love it's that simple i want you to bow your heads and close your eyes every weekend we ask the lord a question at the end of the message holy spirit what are you saying to me through this message i just want you to ask him he's not mad at you he knows all the good things you're doing the only reason he wants you to return to your first love is for you it benefits you it makes this life so much more joyful so much more exciting so this is council yes he's correcting something that could you know lead to another a a a drab dreary life for us but he's giving you counsel let me tell you how you return your first love do the first works so maybe it's not those three things maybe you wouldn't say them the way i said them but let the lord define it for you [Music] and then just give him a response tell him lord i want to return to my first love [Music] lord i want to tell you thank you i want to tell you thank you lord that we love you because you first loved us and lord we want to all of us commit today to return to our first love we want to spend time with you and we want to talk about you and we want to be the lamp stand that holds the light that you set it on a hill so everybody can see you in jesus name amen [Music] [Applause] amen church can you stand with me [Applause] at this time we're going to close our service like we close every service and i'd like to invite our prayer team up to the front right now if if we uh asked ourselves holy spirit what are you speaking to me and you felt the holy spirit prompting you to return back to your first love our altar is open and we would love to pray with you during this time pastor robert says this every week we all need prayer so maybe it wasn't something about the message but maybe something that god has been speaking to you through the week and you want to come forward and and receive prayer you don't have to be a member of gateway church to receive prayer like i said we all need prayer at different times in our lives and so our team who is here at the front would be honored to pray with you you can come forward right now as i'm continuing to talk and a few things that i want to let you know about before we go as you guys know the crisis that's going on in afghanistan we are getting um afghan refugees right here in our own backyard and because you guys are so awesome and incredible we're getting phone calls and emails asking how can i help is there anything that i can do well i have an answer for you uh we're we are making uh evacuation kits for um for these evacuees for these refugees and if you want to be a part of that you can go to gatewaypeople.com and figure out what it what these kids look like and what it entails and you can drop them off next weekend or the weekend after right here at this campus or at any other dfw campuses if you're watching online you're a part of a gateway gathering and you don't live near a campus go to our website gatewaypeople.com to figure out how you can financially give to these kids there's uh home needs toiletries school supplies uh if you go to the website it's a whole list of supplies that you can do to be a part of this incredible project and then we're gonna be partnering with world relief and collecting these and distributing these out and so we would love for you gather your friends your community your family put some of these kids together and then bring them back here in the next few weeks uh so we can come alongside and be the church to our friends and our neighbors in our own backyard amen you heard pastor robert talk about gateway conference that's taking place next week this is not just a conference for pastors it is a conference for leaders and if you're in this room today you are a leader the question is not am i a leader it's what how am i leading and who am i leading and so we want to invite you to be a part of that you can go online to gatewayconference.com to get more information on that if you're not able to attend in person you can also join at the conference online as well and we would be honored for you to come to that conference it's going to be an incredible conference one of my favorite things we do all year and so i just want to invite you to be a part of that church before we go can i pray with you god i thank you so much for every single person in this room god what you're doing in our lives right here and right now i thank you for the message that you gave to pastor robert to speak to us god may our tomorrow morning look different because of what you've done in our lives today god and we thank you god i pray that you bless us and you keep us may you shine your face upon us god and may we feel it in your resurrected name we pray amen church we love you so much we will see you next week [Music] you

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Length: 74min 25sec (4465 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021