Let’s get excited again

I truly believe that the church has lost its fervor.
Fervor means fer·vor: intense and passionate feeling.
“he talked with all the fervor of a new convert”
synonyms: passion, ardor, intensity, zeal, vehemence, emotion, warmth, earnestness, avidity, eagerness, keenness, enthusiasm, excitement, animation, vigor, energy, fire, spirit, zest,

Many of us have lost our shine or luster. We have allowed the enemy to lie to us about who we really are.
He has invaded our kingdom.
Why do I say that? Because the kingdom of God is within us!
We have allowed the enemy to come in and invade our Kingdom! The way he did with Adam and Eve.
We have believed the lie that we are nobody with Christ. That by being a believer or someone who is a Christian is nothing more than just a regular person with a religion!

That is not what our bible says.

We look at Jesus and He had fervor for His father! He was passionate, He was enthusiastic. He has zeal. He was vigor and full of fire.

Fervor is something we have lost.
We have lost the excitement it is to serve God. We have lost our passion in worship. We have lost our earnestness in prayer! Our zeal for God and the things of God.
We have lost our fire.

In Revelation 2:1-7 it speaks on The Loveless Church. It teaches us how the church in Ephesus was great at discerning false teachers yet they lacked love.

We live in a society where we cry out for justice. There has been so many things that have happened that have been unjust. So, we stand up for what’s right.  Many people aren’t afraid to speak up anymore towards someone who did them wrong, and that’s a great thing! We need to be speaking for whats right. We stand up and say “hey that’s not right” just as we see the Ephesian believers had developed great discernment when it came to false teachers and heresy. They knew who was real and who was fake. But they were missing one thing. It was LOVE!

You see what profit a man if he stands up for what’s right but doesn’t do it out of love?
Its empty.
In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 it teaches us exactly that.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body [a]to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

You can defend and protect the word of God but if you are doing it without love, it means NOTHING!

Ouch!

We have lost our first love. We have lost our excitement for God and for the things of God!
Have you ever met someone who defended the word of God but didn’t do it with love? There isn’t any edification in it? It doesn’t bring the person to repentance but pushes them away.

We get so use to the church world, that our love for God grows cold. So, then we become cold. We don’t like people anymore. We don’t want to be around people. It bothers us when someone who is on fire for God is joyful and excited.
It bothers us when someone shouts during praise
It bothers us when someone begins to weep when they’re in the presence of God.
Why, why does it bother us so much?
Could it be, could it just be that our hearts have grown cold? Our first love has grown cold?

You see Jesus here in Revelation 2
Christ commended them for this discernment, that they were able to recognize all those false teachers and save people from listening to false teachings but He faulted them for having lost their “first love.”

Jesus is saying to us in these days “man that’s great that you can clearly see that pastor is lying” that’s awesome you can see that what that teacher said wasn’t true. I love that you aren’t naïve to these things but you missed the point man. You missed it.

I love how John piper explains this he says:
““My love threatens to grow cold when the familiar becomes taken for granted and neglected.”

Jesus basically told them. You don’t have relationship, what you have is religion. The very thing Jesus came to set us free from was the very thing they were binding themselves up with again.
Works without love is mere religion. Its being a pharisee.
The church today is driven not by love, but religious acts.
You know how satan has sneaked back into the church, its called a spirit of religion.
He has deceived us so much so, that we have completely have stripped ourselves off of our first love. What’s our first love. Jesus!
Jesus is our first love.
Not my husband
Not my kids
Not my business or job
But the first time I ever met Jesus was the very first time I met my first love.
Jesus was telling the church, you lost me! You lost who you are in ME!

Your first love is Jesus.
You lost Jesus.

Many of us are walking around defeated because we have lost Jesus.
The parable of the lost coin

Luke 15:8-10 (NLT)
Parable of the Lost Coin
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

First thing she did was light a lamp. So she can see.
She then begins to sweep the entire house! Not just sections, she sweeps the entire house.
We must clean our house. Ourselves. Begin to remove the trash. All that bad theology. All that religiousness. All those lies that you’ve accepted from the enemy. Remove the junk.
When she did that, she found the coin!
We can rejoice like the Shulamite woman in songs of Solomon when she says
“ I have found the one whom my soul loves”
She had been searching earnestly for her love.
We should never stop searching for Jesus. And when we find Him, don’t let Him go. Don’t let go of your first love. Keep Him ever so close to you.
So the fire of His love may burn within you.