Return to Your First Love
The initial passion and devotion we experience when first meeting Christ can gradually dim as worldly pressures and responsibilities crowd our lives. Like the church at Ephesus, many believers maintain good works and sound doctrine while losing their burning love for the Lord. The solution lies not in mere activity but in genuine repentance and returning to those practices that marked our early walk with God – earnest prayer, hunger for His Word, and wholehearted worship. Our invitation into the King’s garden demands nothing less than our first love restored.
Automatically Generated Transcript
[00:00:00] I’d like you to take your Bibles out, I would like you to turn with me to the book of Revelation. How many of you call it the book of Revelations, none of you I hope because it’s not the book of Revelation’s, it’s the book of Revelation, it’s one revelation. Okay? And I want you to turn Chapter 2 and I’m going to read tonight the first letter of seven letters that were written to the seven churches of Asia Minor. Anybody know where that is? Turkey, well done, who was that? You sir, very good. And so we have seven letters written to seven churches. In fact, if you look at the order that they appear in the scriptures, it goes round like that and so it’s the natural progression if you’re visiting each church. Does anybody know, I’ve already
[00:01:19] told you there’s seven letters written. Do you think that’s correct? Is there seven letters? Yes. Everybody says yes, actually there wasn’t. Does anybody know how many letters were written? Just one letter? No. There were many more than one. There were 49 letters. Each of the seven churches got a copy of all seven letters and so there were 49 letters altogether and they were carried by hand and delivered. Let me read to you the letter that was written specifically to the church in Ephesus. Each of the seven churches got a specific letter but they also had a copy of all the other letters. So let’s pick it up, verse 1, chapter 2, book of Revelation. These are, sorry, to the angel of the church in Ephesus writes, these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand
[00:02:32] and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work, your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have put to test those who have called themselves apostles, but they are not, and you’ve found them to be false. You have persevered, you’ve endured for my namesake, and you’ve not grown weary, yet I have this against you. You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen. Repent. Do the things you did at first. Now I will come to you, or if you don’t repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand out of its place, but you have this in your favour. 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
[00:04:06] the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” We’ll stop there. This is a very interesting letter. This letter is no ordinary letter. When you get a letter, what’s the first thing you do? When a letter arrives, it’s got your name on the front and it’s handed to you. What’s the first thing you do? Open it, exactly. What’s the second thing you do? Read it. No, I reckon there’s something else you do before you read it. Sorry? Pull out the envelope. I wasn’t thinking of that but all right, there’s a third thing that you do before you read it.
[00:04:55] What do you think it might be? Sit down. Well, there’s a fourth thing that you might do. See who sings it to. Sorry? And see who sings it to. Ah, you go straight to the end to see who the letter’s from. And if you don’t do that, the letter might not make much sense. Now you might pick it up from context of who wrote it,
[00:05:21] but not necessarily. And so you’d want to know who wrote it. One of the things I find interesting is we actually sign our name at the end. Why do we do that? Why don’t we put up the front? Who it’s from? Harry writing to you, Billy, or whatever it might be. And that’s what they did, of course, in the day of Jesus. That’s what they did in these letters,
[00:05:50] right at the very start of the letter. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, well, what does that tell me? That tells me that this is a letter from… God. And it’s not just an ordinary letter. It’s not a letter that comes in the mail that says, Harry’s fallen out of the tree and broken his whatever. And Billy’s got a promotion at work and Mary’s fallen pregnant
[00:06:23] and we’re gonna have our first grandchild. No, none of that. This is a spiritual letter. This is no ordinary letter. This is a spiritual letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. Angels are about the things of God, the messengers of God. And so this letter is a spiritual letter. And right at the very beginning of the letter,
[00:06:59] we find out who the author is. Who was the author? These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. Who holds the stars in his right hand, do you think? I think it was the Sunday school answer. You’re giving the Sunday school answer. God. God holds the seven stars in his right hand.
[00:07:27] What are the lampstands? the churches. That’s exactly right. And so, right at the very beginning, it’s telling each church that God is the author of this letter. Not only is God the author of this letter, but He actually walks among the seven golden land. He is in your church. Do you understand tonight there are angels here? Do you understand tonight that Jesus is here? He actually walks the aisles of this church. He’s present right now. And so He goes on and He says to Him who holds the seven stars in His right, the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden land stands. And then He says something very interesting. I know, what’s He know? He knows your deeds. He knows your deeds. You know, sometimes we need to be reminded of that. That God sees our heart. He knows
[00:08:58] our heart because it’s out of your heart come your deeds. And He knows what’s in your heart. We often try to hide things from Him. You know, I was the youth director at a church that was just over the way from here for quite some time. In fact, your pastor came and he and I linked together and we did a crusade in that church. It was called Upper Mount Cravat Baptist Church. In fact, the crusade went for three months, morning and night for three months. And in that church on a Sunday night, after the evening service, we would stand around and decide where we were going to go and drink coffee or eat pizza and have fun. You do that? Good. Okay. It’s a good thing to do. So we’d stand around in a circle and whatnot. One night I noticed that a young man who was always in that group, was in church but he was missing from the group. And a young woman who was always in that group was also
[00:10:26] missing. And me being sort of the youth person of the church, I’m the one who had to lock up. Is that what happens to your youth leader here? It has to hang back and lock up. I hated it. I locked up this night, turned out the lights, walked around the back of the church and guess what I found? I found him and her and they were whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears. Nothing bad. Just whispering sweet nothings. And they became terribly embarrassed when they saw me. They were sprung. But me being a good youth man, I didn’t tell anyone. And they went off and they had little chuckles when they were eating their pizza at the Pizza Hut out there on Upper Mount Cravat on Logan Road. And the other group were all there. They were all there. But they didn’t have a clue that this couple had teamed up together. And they didn’t want anybody to know. But you know what? Jesus knew. He knew before they even
[00:11:47] got together. Yeah. You see, he knows our deeds. He knows what’s in our heart. He knows everything even before we know. And then he goes on here and he says, not only do I know your deeds, but I know your toil or hard work as it says in my translation. I know your hard work. I know what you do. Listen to me. You go the extra mile for Jesus. You give the person who’s in desperate need a glass of cold water. He knows. He knows. And you might be out there toiling away and thinking, you know, nobody cares. Nobody knows what I do. I just, you know, I’m doing this, but I don’t get any appreciation. Nobody acknowledges all the hard work that I do. Listen to me. There’s only one person you need to know that will acknowledge what you’re doing. And that’s Jesus. And nothing, nothing escapes his attention. And he knows. And you’ll be rewarded in glory. So he says, I know your deeds.
[00:13:18] I know your hard work. And by the way, this is a church at Ephesus that has been planted by Paul. And it takes hard work. And when you’re planning a church, let me tell you, it’s real hard work. You know, this morning I said, it’d be great for you to come tonight. I want to congratulate you for coming tonight, especially if you don’t normally come. Thank you for coming. Because when you’re planning a church and it’s in its infancy, you don’t know who’s going to turn up. You don’t even know if anybody’s going to turn up. And so you’ve got to toil and keep at it. And I always tell my staff and others who need encouragement, who think that things are dark. I always tell them it’s darkest just before the dawn. I know a guy in the US who planted a church and it grew to about 150 people. And he was over the moon about that. And it had taken, I suppose, nearly 10 years to get to that. Then he turned up to worship
[00:14:43] one Sunday morning. He was actually in the band because they didn’t have a lot of musicians. And he played the pastor and he watched people coming through the door. And about 250 people turned up, an extra hundred people. And he was stunned. And so there’s people running around getting chairs, putting them out and all that sort of thing. They’re in a lovely big auditorium. The following Sunday, for whatever reason, he has no idea. They have 500. And over the next three or four months, they grew to 2,000 people. He has no idea. He toiled for 10 years to get 150. And all of a sudden, he’s got thousands. I want you to know this. If God has called you to do something, stick at it. Do it. I was down at the Wynnum Baptist Church as a student. And there was a lady down there who went to Bangladesh to start an outreach ministry in Bangladesh. That’s a tough call. Do you know how long she was there? 29 years.
[00:16:08] 29 years. And in those 29 years, she never saw a convert. Not one. But she hung in there and hung in there. She established all sorts of things happening to help the Bangladeshis. She was involved in ministry and never saw a single convert. And then another guy here from Queensland. And I can’t think of his name at the top of my head. My wife might be able to yell it out. I can’t remember. Morris Lee. How many of you know Morris Lee? Morris Lee went to Bangladesh. And within a 10 year period of him being there, building on what had already happened, revival has broken out in Bangladesh. May never have happened if Betty Salisbury had pulled the pin because she hadn’t seen a convert. Whatever God’s called you to do, keep at it. Keep at it. It’s always darkest just before the dawn. God will bring his blessing in his time at his place.
[00:17:30] And so in this letter, he goes on, he says, I know your deeds and I know your hard work. And he says, and your perseverance. Well, that’s what Betty Salisbury had to do, was persevere. And there comes times when we’ve just simply got to persevere. And then God will bless in his time. And then it goes on here, it says, I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people. And you’ve put to test those who claim to be apostles but are not, and you found them to be false. They couldn’t stand wicked people. What are wicked people? People who pervert the Gospel. Someone who changes God’s message is a wicked person. You know, we talk about all sorts of wicked people out there in the community. But you know what? There are wicked people who will take God’s word and change it. And people will become very confused. And he was commending this church.
[00:18:52] He was commending them for those who claim to have special insight, these apostles and prophets, and put them to the test. Does anybody here know what the test was? The Old Testament prophet had to fulfill a test in order to be considered a prophet from God. Does anybody know what the test is? Anybody want to have a crack at it? Sorry? It had to come true. It had to come true. That’s exactly right. I had to give two prophecies. There had to be a short-term prophecy as well as a long-term prophetic prophecy. So if you made a long-term prophecy you had to give a short-term prophecy to prove
[00:19:38] that the long-term prophecy was from God. And if the long-term, if the short-term prophecy didn’t come true, what was the punishment? Death, stoning. You were stoned in the Old Testament. If you claim to be a prophet from God and you are found to be false and you weren’t a prophet from God at all. And so they took these matters seriously. You’ve persevered and you’ve endured, you’ve endured hardships for my name’s sake. Folks, we don’t know what hardship is for the sake of God. You go to China, you go to Saudi Arabia, you go to Yemen and you’ll find out what hardship is in serving God. We think we do it hard here, you know, we come under a bit of persecution, someone laughs at us. No. Missionaries in those countries risk
[00:20:51] their lives every day. It’s hardship. And he commends this church which was under tremendous persecution. Can you imagine, here we are Sunday morning, we’ve just had a wonderful worship service and we’re all heading home to our air-conditioned homes. And on the way your partner says, or you might just think, you know what, I’d like some fresh bread and pick up a chook from Big Rooster. Yeah, not KFC, that’s Kids Fat Club, but Big Rooster. And so you get down to the hot bread shop and the person looks at you and says, don’t you go to that church down there in Lillian Avenue, that Christian group? Oh yes, you can leave my shop, I’m not serving you, I’m not selling you any bread. And the same thing happens when you get to Big Rooster, Red Rooster, whatever it is. Then you see this job advertised and
[00:22:12] it’s a good paying job and it’s in the government. And now is it going to be good paying? Guess what, it’s going to be secure. When was the last time someone sacked someone from the government? I’m talking about the public service, not very often. So I want the job, but on it, when you are filling out the format, ask you, do you attend a Christian church? Of course, yes, well that immediately rules you out. You see, there are Christians who can’t get jobs because they’re Christian. And that was the case in the town of Ephesus. There were Christians who couldn’t get jobs because they belonged to this church at Ephesus. And in this letter he says to the church, you’ve not grown weary about this. That’s good. But sometimes when we struggle and go through hardships and have to fight for the existence of the church, we think the church is ours. Well, we get
[00:23:42] our Bible and we get to church and we carry it round like a great trophy. I’m a great believer. And we start making up our own rules as to who can come to our church and if they come to our church, they’re more than welcome, but they’ve got to abide by our rules. And all of a sudden, church can easily turn into something that it was never intended to be. It becomes a club. And we have unwritten rules and you’ve got to abide by the unwritten rules to be accepted into the club. This usually happens when we lose our love for God. This church, Ephesus, was what’s called a first-generation church, but now has just moved into being a second-generation church. First-generation is 20, 25 years. Second-generation comes after that. Who makes up the second generation? Usually the kids of the first generation and they take up the leadership roles. And the truth of the matter is they don’t necessarily have a
[00:25:32] love for God that the first generation had when they were planting the church. They lose their love for God. It can happen, folks, and it does happen. And it happens to us not only as churches but as individuals because the individual is what makes up the church. I want to ask you a question. Can you remember when you first met Jesus? What was it like? Can you remember? I remember it just like it was yesterday. Someone had been reaching out to me, followed by the name of Graham Wheat, who had been reaching out to me. And he had been telling me things and building a relationship with me. One Saturday night, I’d been out doing things that God wouldn’t have been pleased about. I’d been at the horse races in the afternoon and I was a gambler. I got home, felt a bit lonely, didn’t have much to do. So I got on the phone and rang Graham Wheat. He’d become a friend and his nickname was Milo. I said, Milo, how about we get in the green brick? He had an apple green mini. I said, how
[00:27:28] about we get in the green brick? We go into town, do a few lapi-lapis, and pick up a couple of chicks and have some fun. He said, yeah, all right. He said, but I want you to do something for me. And I said, what’s that? He said, tomorrow we’re having a barbecue, and we’re having a shindig down at my church, four o’clock tomorrow afternoon, followed by a shindig in the church. He said, if I come tonight, and we go down and do Lappy Lappy’s up and down the main street. He said, you got to come to that with me tomorrow.
[00:28:07] I said, okay, not a problem. So we went up the main street, did Lappy Lappy’s… never picked up any chicks. You know how it is. They’re hard to get sometimes. And so the next day he rings me at about two o’clock Sunday afternoon, says I’ll be around to pick you up about half past three, quad to four to go to the shindig. I said, oh Milo, I don’t know if I want to do that. He said, well you promise. I said, all right. And so Milo picked me up, took me to the shindig, had a barbecue. After the barbecue there’s a band setting up in their church. I thought, oh this looks all right. And I went in and the band played some good stuff and a mix of secular and spiritual songs. And then this guy got up with a pot belly, bigger
[00:29:09] than mine, fish eyes. You know how fish eyes protrude? This guy had fish eyes. And he had a Bible in his hand, took hold of a microphone just like this and he started to preach. Well I’m sitting in the back row and I went over to Milo and I said, Milo, this guy’s either been reading my mail or you have told him about me. He said, I haven’t said a word, I haven’t said a word. Because it was piercing my heart. And then at the end the band came up and he gave this public appeal for people to walk out the front and make a commitment to God. Give their lives to Christ. If you went to the Lakes Creek Baptist Church in Rockhampton today and went to the second back row, you would see my finger marks still in the pew, timber pew. I was going nowhere. That night I got home and I got in my room and I went to bed and I couldn’t sleep. I was so disturbed, so disturbed. Finally I
[00:30:44] got out of my bed and I knelt down beside my bed and I said something like this, God, I don’t even know if you exist. I don’t know if I’m talking to the ceiling. I’m confused, but God, if you do exist, here I am. I don’t know what to do next, but here I am. I’m yours. I crawl back into bed, went to sleep, slept like a log. Following day I was troubled about what had gone on in my mind and I was trying to make sense of it. Didn’t make any sense. Finally I rang Milo up and I said, Milo, you better come pick me up. I need to have a chat to you. So we went and parked down on the banks of the Fitzroy River, pretty much in front of the racetrack, and I told him what happened, what I did. He turned to me and he just said, that’s how you give your life to Christ. He said, do you believe? I said, yeah, I do believe. He said, you’re a Christian. Then he began the process of discipling me. Cut a long story short. I link up with a
[00:31:59] fellow by the name of Jim Gibson after I’m married and I go to this college out at Brookfield and part-time of the night time doing a couple of courses and God speaks to me one day and tells me through, there was a billboard, it was through a billboard and this billboard had a vision on it. It wasn’t there the next day when I went back, but it was there when I came around the corner and it was a vision of people coming to Christ. Jim Gibson was part of the fulfillment of that vision when we conducted a crusade in our church at Upper Mount Cravat where we saw many people come to Christ, where we saw a treasurer who’d been a treasurer for over 30 years of the church stand up and give a testimony of how Sunday night before he came to Christ and yet he’d been treasurer of the church for 30 years. I was on fire, but you know as time goes on, you know what happens? Well, I’ve got to buy a house. You know what that means? I’ve got to earn a bit more money. Do you know what
[00:33:42] that means? I’ve got to spend more time working. Then the wife comes out of the obstetrician’s office with those famous words, I’m pregnant honey, we’re going to have a baby. What happens when you’re going to have a baby? Let me tell you, you’ve got to start buying baby clothes, you’ve got to start buying cots and there’s a bit more pressure comes on and then of course at work we’ve got to give you a bit more responsibility. So you’re going to spend a bit more time at work. What I’m trying to tell you is this. The things of the world come crushing in and if you’re not careful before long, that fire that burned in your heart when you first met Jesus turns to just a flickering flame that could blow out. It won’t blow out but it’s a flickering flame and we allow these things of the world to come in and we don’t have the time to spend with Jesus. You know when I became a believer, I was the first to church and the last to leave and I wasn’t the man to lock up. I went along to a thing on a Friday night like
[00:35:21] a youth thing and we had this program. I was the first there and I was the last to leave. In fact, Milo and I would be sitting in the gutter outside till one or two o’clock in the morning, not talking about football that we both played but talking about the things of God. But then as time goes on, the things of the world come rushing in and when the things of the world come rushing in, that first love, that fire turns to a flickering flame. Oh, you’re still in church, you’re going through the motions, you’re still doing the things that you did in the youth group or the young adults or whatever it is, but there’s something missing.” Well Jesus writes to this church in Ephesus and says, this is you. You’ve lost fire that you once had. He says, here’s how you fix it up. What’s he say? He says, go back and do the things you did at first. Repent and go back and do the things you did at first. What does
[00:36:52] repent really mean? It means have a change of attitude that turns you around. It’s exactly right. Repentance happens in the heart and it’s God, I am so sorry I don’t want to do this anymore and I need your help and power in my life to help me to turn. I desire to turn and follow you as I once did. That’s the repentance. Then he gives the practical application. He says, this is what you’ve got to do. When you repent, you’ve got to go back and do what you did at first. What was it that you did at first? I’ll tell you what I did at first. I trusted God. I had faith. You see, my faith now had shrunk and I was doing things in my own strength, in my own power and of course you can only do that for a certain time because your power is very limited but his power is infinite and so he says, go back, think
[00:38:16] what it was like when you first became a believer. You were in church, you were reading the Word, you were hanging on the things of my Spirit as I spoke to you. Go back and do those things again and that flickering flame will turn back into a fire and you’ll be walking with the Christ. Now I don’t know what it is for you but you must know what little things have come into your life. Do a little inventory and ask yourself, does the flame of God really fire in my heart and life right now and what is it that’s sucking the oxygen from that flame in my life right now. Do a self inventory and find out. Say God, show me what’s sucking the oxygen from the flame and when he reveals it to you, repent of those things, turn away from those things and go back and do the things that you
[00:39:29] used to do. Get back into his Word, get back into prayer, get back into church, start listening to the sermon instead of just sitting there and glazing over. You don’t do that, do you? You ever sat there and just glazed over? Oh come on, we’ve all done it. When you’re about to hear the message, say to God, God speak to me, speak to me and help me to be obedient to what it is that you say to me. And then he says to the church, he commends him again, he says, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate. So this is not all bad, he’s saying you’ve got some good things, hang on to them. What were the deeds of the Nicolaitans? Anybody know? Nobody knows. What were the deeds of the 1960s in Australia? Two words, big voice, sex, free love and that’s exactly what the
[00:40:45] Nicolaitans were into. Free love. Love without boundaries. And he said, I hate this and you hate it and I commend you for it. Then he goes on and he says something really interesting in closing. Have I gone too long folks? You sure? Okay. Here’s what he says in closing, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says. Interesting he’s talking to the church, who is the church? The people and he says to them, he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Now churches is in plural. That’s how I know they’ve got 49 letters. They’ve each got seven letters and he’s saying listen to what the other churches are being told as well and take heed of what they’re being told. But this one’s for you. He who has an ear, do you have a spiritual ear? Can you hear
[00:42:07] the voice of God? When God speaks, do you hear? You may hear, but if you keep on resisting, your hearing will become impaired. And there may come a time when you don’t hear Him anymore. The word hear, for hear, in the scriptures, in the original language, is a very interesting word. It carries with it a meaning of response. You know, Jimmy Gibson and I used to travel around doing crusades together and whatnot. Sunday nights we’d be out somewhere and we’d often come home and his mum would be there at 11 o’clock at night and she would make us a mixed grill. Can you believe that? A whole mixed grill and we’d sit down and we’d eat that. And I spent a fair bit of time in Jimmy’s home with his dad, Ted, and his mum, Lass. And I remember on one occasion, Jim was walking down the
[00:43:18] hallway of his home, had a long hallway in their home, and he dropped either a pen or pencils, and he just kept on walking. And Jim’s dad was standing at the end of the hall. He said, hey Jim, you’ve dropped a pencil. Pick it up. Jim just kept walking, belligerent Jim. And his dad in a slightly louder voice said, Jim, you’ve dropped a pencil. Belligerent Jim just kept on going. I think it was in a hurry to get the loo actually. Finally his dad yelled out, Jim, pick up that pencil. Jim stopped, turned, walked back, picked up the pencil, and on he went. My question to you is this, when did Jim hear his dad? Did he hear him the first time? Did he hear him the second time? Did he hear him the third time? Yes. That’s what the word here means in the Scriptures. It means to respond. And if you don’t
[00:44:34] respond you actually haven’t heard interesting unless you respond you haven’t heard and so if God is speaking to you and you resist you haven’t heard to hear the voice of God is to respond to the voice of God he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says then it goes on the talks right at the very end about the right I will give you the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God does anybody know what the paradise of God is the The actual, again, in the original language, means the King’s Garden, the King’s Garden. Do you know who gets to visit the King’s Garden? Who can actually go into the King’s Garden? Now, this is still true today.
[00:45:44] When Queen Elizabeth was in Buckingham Palace and she had a garden in the Palace, the King has a garden in Buckingham’s Palace. you know who goes into that garden? Any ideas? The king, well done. The king goes into that garden. Who else goes into that garden? Sorry? The gardener. Probably. Probably. Who else goes into it? His family. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. Other people go into it, but who? Come on. Sorry? The heir? No. Big voice. By the invitation only of the king. And the only way you will get into the king’s garden, the paradise of God, is by his personal invitation. And if you have a spiritual ear to hear his invitation, that’s the moment you become a believer. When God speaks to you, that night when I got out of my bed, that night God spoke to me and I responded by getting out of my bed and saying, God,
[00:47:10] I don’t know if you exist, but I’m here and I’m all yours. If what he said tonight is true, I’m all yours. That moment, the king invited me into his garden. And guess what? I’m going. I’m going. I’m going to the king’s garden. Who’s coming with me? Anybody? Great. Great. Great. There is no greater privilege than to be invited by the king into his garden. And we will walk with him like Adam and Eve walk with him before they sin in the cool of the evening in the king’s garden. Wow. Wow. There won’t be a gardener there because it’s a perfect garden. There won’t be any weeds. OK. But my message to you tonight is, is there a fire burning in your heart or is it just a flickering flame? Find out what is sucking the oxygen from your spiritual walk and power with God. Repent of what it is that’s sucking it and go back and do the things you did when you first met the
[00:48:53] Saviour. I still have in my head, my mind, a vision of my middle son. He came to Christ when we were living in Townsville. And I will never forget him coming to tell me. I get emotional about it. And his whole body was shaking. His whole body was shaking. Why? Because he had met the king that night. He had met the king. And he’s working out his salvation with fear and trembling and we lose that a fair bit. I’d love to preach on that sometime. What it means to work out your salvation with the fear and trembling. We’ve lost that understanding in our church. Let me pray for you. Father, we thank you that you’re a God who cares for us, so much so that you continue to woo us back to yourself as we stray away. And Lord, if there’s anyone here tonight who’s just got a flickering flame but want to get back,
[00:50:18] Father, would you reveal to them what it is that’s sucking the oxygen? That they might be able to repent of it and come back and be the people you call them to be when they first met you? That they might do the things and the trust, the trust that they had in you then, the faith that they exercised then. May they return to that. And I pray that in Jesus’ holy name. Amen. Thank you.