Let's close our eyes and let's just look to the Lord one more time and just thank Him.
Father, we thank You. Holy Spirit, we thank You that You guide us and You lead us.
That You show us what should and should not be done.
We thank You that You teach us how to protect the anointing,
how to protect the presence, how to respect You when You come.
Lord, we are thankful for everything that You are doing in this church
and I ask that as I speak today that You would just unveil our eyes
to see that You would open our ears to hear what the Spirit of God is saying today.
Let me just sit on that for a little bit. Holy Spirit, I'm asking that You would
open our eyes to see and You would open our ears to hear
what the Holy Spirit is saying today to the churches.
Help us to interpret, help us to respond. You are our helper,
so help us in that. In Jesus' name, I pray.
If you agree with me, would you say amen?
Open your Bibles up to Isaiah 66.
I'm hoping to finish up this series here hopefully next Sunday.
I'm hoping to wrap this up.
Here's what I want to... I can't get too much into the message today
just because I don't want to keep you here after 12.
But here's what I want to emphasize today because next Sunday
I want to get into some things. And then I also actually want to have
a few people come up and share that have shared with me about some things
that really bore witness in my spirit regarding the series that we're in.
We're in a series that I've been leading us through called Revival Is.
And I said this in one of the first messages.
I said, I believe that a lot of Christians, and I speak this from experience
because I've asked multiple, multiple Christians of what is revival
and the answers I've gotten.
I've come to the conclusion that we don't know what revival is
in its fullness, so to say.
We have ideas of it. Some of us have probably even experienced it.
If you're 70 plus years old, that's not an offensive statement.
That's a compliment. So take that as a compliment.
But some of us have probably even lived through revivals of the past.
I think the Brownsville Revival was in what?
The early 90s, if I'm not mistaken? That was down in Florida?
So some of us have been there and we've seen it.
But what I'm really trying to emphasize is that at the root of it,
I can't say that there is one individual that says,
yep, I know what revival is through and through.
We can find revivals in the scriptures.
One of the greatest revival that we can find in the scriptures
is recorded in the Book of Acts of the early church.
That is literally the blueprint of what a biblical revival looks like.
Which, by the way, I want to make this statement.
There are biblical revivals and there are quote-on-quote revivals.
There is biblical revivals and I feel like in the day and age
that we've been living it in full gospel circles,
because we so long to see and experience a biblical revival,
that we will actually water down or we will desensitize
what a biblical revival is and we call everything a revival now.
We have churches that will hang banners on a Friday night
and say revival meetings, and I come to the conclusion
to say you don't even know what a revival is.
Just because you put a banner and it says these are revival meetings
does not mean that you are having a revival,
nor, or I should be more specific, a biblical revival.
There is a distinct difference between a biblical revival
and what we now in our full gospel, Pentecostal circles,
what we now call revival.
And it's like on one hand it's, I love that we want revival,
but I wish that we would want Jesus as much as we want revival.
Let me say that again.
I pray and I hope that we would want the Lord
as much as we want revival.
We so desperately want it, we put banners,
but when it comes to the Lord being our master
and he asks us to do something that is inconvenient
and the reason why he's asking us to do it
is so that we could know him more, we say no to that
because it's inconvenient for us.
If we could want Jesus and not just want him
but to want to know him as much as we want revival,
I promise you revival would be already here.
I promise you that.
You say, how can I make that promise?
Read the book of Acts.
Read what the early church experienced.
They weren't even praying for a revival.
They were simply waiting on the Lord
because they so desperately wanted him.
It wasn't even about revival.
It was about you told us to wait
and you said if we wait, you will come in a measure of power
and you will bestow that power upon us.
That's what they were doing.
They were eagerly waiting for the Lord to come.
So the reason of this series, there's many reasons
but the reason of this series is not only do I want us
to be educated in what a biblical revival is
but I want us to be fully knowledgeable
of what is coming ahead for the church
according to what the prophet Joel prophesized
and according to what Peter reiterates
of what the prophet Joel prophesied in Acts 2.
Where for those that maybe you don't know your Bible
the prophet Joel prophesized by the utterance
that God has given him and he says that in the last days
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Pastor Verner already said that today.
All of us can prophesy.
Don't be so emanured or don't be so...
let me use a better word.
Don't be so, oh my goodness.
We all can do it.
I'm not saying that in a dis...
in a disrespectful way to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
No, I respect them. I have reverence to them.
I want them. I operate in them.
But we get so like, oh my goodness.
I just prophesied.
Wow, cool.
I know somebody who just got saved that prophesied.
What does that mean?
That they're now the most mature person
that sits in the church?
But the purpose of the series is,
I want us to understand
what is a biblical revival
and what lays core to what revival is.
And if you've been tracking with the series,
if you take the purpose of revival
and you peel it,
you literally break it down to the core of it
and you get to the question of,
okay, Lord, why are you sending your spirit,
you're pouring it out.
What is the purpose of the revival?
Because revival is bringing something back to life.
It is the reviving of something.
Something was dead, now it's alive.
It's being revived.
So if you really boil it down to the core,
Lord, what is the purpose of revival?
What is the purpose of the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit?
I have come to the conclusion.
Now some may argue with me,
and I'd love to sit and talk with you about it.
But I have come to the conclusion
that the purpose of revival
is God the Father,
once again, by the Holy Spirit,
is trying to return a people
or a church, in other words,
the bride of Christ,
back to its first love.
So that we would be so infatuated
with the Lord,
that we would be so in love with Him
that nothing else matters.
That is at the core of what a biblical revival is.
Literally, that is the core of revival.
The signs, the miracles, the wonders,
those are, I'll even call them secondary
to the main thing.
God desires for a people
to love Him with our first love.
Now some of you are asking, what is first love?
Let's open up first Corinthians.
I'm just reading this in case
you don't know your Bibles, okay?
Being gracious to you here.
First Corinthians 13.
We know this as the love chapter.
And it's a bit cringy that when you go to a wedding
and they send you a wedding invitation,
I said cringy, I know.
You get invited to a wedding,
and it seems like every other wedding invitation you get
has first Corinthians.
And it's like, I get it?
But do you know what Paul is actually really referring to?
Yes, this is love amongst a husband and a wife.
Yes, this is love amongst brethren, amongst the saints.
But it's more than just that.
Paul is talking about first love
is what Paul is talking about.
So if you ever wondered what is first love,
let's read it together.
This is first Corinthians chapter 13.
Let's start at verse one.
He says, though I speak with the tongues of men and angels,
but have not love, I have become a sounding brass.
Let me just pause there in case...
Yeah, I'm not going to go there.
Kev, just for the sake of time.
He says, if I pray in tongues of men,
so in his native language,
or if I pray in the tongues of angels,
let's just call it the heavenly language.
I just recently told somebody this week,
I said, I speak four languages.
You know what they are?
Russian, Ukrainian, American, or English,
however you want to call it.
And I speak the heavenly language.
Four languages.
Did you know that if you're baptized in the Holy Spirit,
you speak in two languages?
Don't be so amazed that I'm the only one
that can speak more than one language.
Because it's like you're a foreigner
and people come and they're like,
oh, you speak multiple languages?
I'm like, yeah, you can too.
Let me pray for you real quick.
It's that easy.
So, tongues of men and tongues of angels.
Paul is saying, listen, I can pray
both in the spirit and I can pray
in my native language.
But then he says this.
He says, but if I not have love,
he said I'm just a sounding brass.
In other words, I can come up here
and I can pray up a storm in the spirit.
But if at the core of me, in my heart,
I don't have my first love
onto the Lord and I'll explain what first love is.
What I'm doing is all in vain.
It's all in vain.
Who cares that I just came up here
and I prayed such a prayer
that all the listeners were like, man,
did you hear the eloquent words that he used?
Did you see how long he prayed in tongues?
Who cares?
If at the core of me,
I don't even walk in first love towards God.
God is not impressed.
Let's keep going.
He says,
And though I have the gift of prophecy
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
and though I have all faith
so that I can remove mountains,
but I have not love,
I have nothing.
That right there just described
are full, gospel, pentecostal,
charismatic circles.
Friend, you can come up here
and you can prophesy.
Better yet, you could come up to me
and you could give me a word of knowledge
that would blow my socks off.
Cool.
But if at the core of you,
you do not have first love onto God,
what you just did is in vain.
It's pointless.
I know I'm making some real statements this morning.
But I'm trying to emphasize to you
of what a biblical revival
actually is
and the purpose of it.
Let's keep going here.
Verse three.
And though I have bestowed all my goods
to feed the poor
and though I give my body to be burned.
Wow.
Paul just keeps going deeper and deeper
with this thing.
He says, though I bestow all my goods
to the poor and I feed them
and though I give my body to be burned
but have not love,
it profits me nothing.
It profits me.
I could go and open up
a non-profit and call it
Feed My Starving Children.
I could go and open up a non-profit
and call it Salvation Army.
Whatever. You fill in the blank.
You could go and create a business
that is a non-profit business
and literally change the world.
Yet at the end of your life
the biggest question that God
is really going to ask you
is what was at the core of your heart?
Friends, I want us to ponder that.
To make it more personal,
we can build a building.
We can fill that building
with people like God promised
but at the end of it as a pastor.
If people that I am
assigned to lead as a shepherd,
if they are not falling
in love with Jesus,
if they are not walking
in first love to the Lord,
friend, I am failing you as a pastor.
That to me has the fear of the Lord.
That to me has the fear of God
that I can be up here
and I can preach something to you
so well and I've tickled your ears
and you leave this place.
If you're not falling in love with Jesus more,
my question is what am I doing wrong?
That's not the only question I ask
but that's where I start.
That's where I start.
Lord, what am I doing wrong?
How am I not seeing you correctly?
Because the way that I'm seeing the Lord,
it should emanate off of me
and it should affect the people
that are under my influence,
that are under my leadership,
whatever you want to call it.
Whatever I'm looking at
or I should say whatever pastors
are looking at,
we as the congregation
are going to end up looking at it.
Have you listened to the podcast?
A church is formed under its pastors.
So whatever our pastors are looking at,
we as the congregation
are going to end up beholding it.
Why do you think so many churches
struggle with scrolling?
Because the pastor probably
spends more time scrolling
than actually beholding the Lamb of God.
Why are so many churches weak
in areas that it's like you got to have this?
Because the pastor probably is weak in those areas
and he can only lead a people
as far as he's gone or she's gone.
Yes, I said she's gone
for those that are listening online.
So I want to make this personal to us.
Examine your heart.
We can build a building.
We can fill that building
with multitudes of peoples.
I promised you we would even see
signs, miracles, and wonders happen.
But at the end of the day
when my pillow hits
or when my head hits the pillow,
what lays at the core of me?
What lays at the core of my heart?
Do I love God
with a burning desire?
Am I willing to lay down
everything for Him?
And I said everything.
Am I willing to give up my dreams
and die to things
that I may have worked my life for?
If I don't have that type of tenacity
or that type of love towards God,
friend, I would examine yourself.
Because at the core
of a biblical revival,
the more I study,
the more I come to it,
that same conclusion,
the core of it is our first love
onto Him.
And out of that,
everything else comes
and you'll see as I walk us through.
Let's keep going here.
First Corinthians.
Let's go to verse four.
Now, Paul begins to describe
what first love is.
So he gives all these things
from verse one to verse three.
He talks about it.
He makes these comparisons.
You can prophesy,
I have not love.
It's in vain.
You can give.
Your body can burn
with I got to fulfill the needs
of people.
But at the core,
you don't do it
because you love God.
It's in vain.
And then in verse four,
he begins to actually describe
what is first love.
Listen to this.
He says love suffers long.
Love...
Man, I can't say that without weeping.
Love suffers long.
We suffer not because
God desires us to suffer.
We suffer because we love him so much
and we're willing to sit
and wait until we see
his kingdom come
and his will be done.
First love suffers.
Friend, if you're not suffering
for the things of God,
examine your heart
if you're actually in first love.
First love suffers
for the things of God.
It's willing to wait.
It's willing to be patient.
It's willing to persevere.
It's willing to wrestle
until it sees
his kingdom come
and his will be done.
That's first love.
He goes on to say
love suffers long
and is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not parade itself.
He's describing first love.
First love doesn't parade itself.
It's not you
living a life that you're so infatuated
with yourself and how amazing you are.
First love, according to what Paul is writing here
that it's not...
it doesn't parade itself.
It's not seeking its own.
First love is completely...
now listen to me.
It is completely selfless.
Not selfish.
That's first love.
It's completely selfless.
You're not seeking your own thing.
You're only seeking
what do you desire, Lord?
What do you want to do today?
In me and through me?
How do you want to show yourself to me today?
How do you want me to demonstrate
your power today, God?
We're not seeking of...
well, how can I do this, that, and the other?
It's God, what do you want to do?
How do you want to do it?
Ever seen a young couple
just about to get married?
It's like the dude's like,
what do you want to do, honey?
You want to go pick roses?
I'll do it.
As long as you want to do it with me.
You want to go dance in the rain?
I'll do it, because you want to do it.
And then the girl on the other side goes,
you want to repair your car?
I'll do it, I'll even hold the ranch for you.
Come on.
I'll even get my hands dirty and greasy.
See, that's first love talking.
If you've lost that in your marriage,
go back to that.
Go back to that.
Go back to that.
To that love that you had with your spouse
before you even got married,
you were dating them.
You want to go play golf, honey?
I hate it, but I'll do it, because you like it.
See, that's first love.
We're not parading.
We're not self-seeking.
But we are doing whatever he wants to do.
God, you want to build a building?
I'll do it, because you want to do it.
That should be the attitude of word of life.
We should not look at this as a burden of,
oh, man, we should look at this as God.
You want to do it?
Let's do it, Lord.
I don't know how we're going to do it, but let's do it.
I'll share with you something just to describe first love.
When me and my wife, and we were still dating,
she thought I was loaded and wealthy,
because I had a BMW.
What she didn't realize is I had $20 in my pocket,
legitimately, at one time as we were dating,
the only money I had was $20 in my pocket.
And we wanted to go and do stuff,
and I was like, let's go do activities.
Let's go do whatever.
I'd have no money to do nothing,
but I said, I'm willing to do it.
I don't know how we're going to do it.
And we happen to have one of our dates,
one of the cheapest dates,
and it was the Lord that made a way.
We went to, was it the Science Museum, sweetie?
We went to the Science Museum,
and it cost us a whole $2.
But we did something.
I say all that to say that
I don't want us to be oblivious.
Let's have some logic.
But to be willing to have the heart attitude of,
God, you want to do it?
Let's do it, Lord.
If you want to do it,
you will make a way of how we're going to do it.
That's where the logic, in some way,
kicks in, the supernatural,
and then the logic is kind of there.
But it's more the supernatural.
You following me?
So first love doesn't parade.
It doesn't parade itself.
It is not puffed up.
It does not behave rudely.
It does not seek its own.
It is not provoked.
It thinks no evil.
When you walk in first love,
you don't think of God being this evil man
up in heaven that's shaking his fists all the time.
The reason why people have this perspective
of God the Father being this mean grumpy old guy
who probably came from the Vietnam war
and hates everybody that he's talked to
and is just shaking his...
You're not in first love.
I hate to break the news to you,
but you're not walking in first love
because you're not thinking any evil.
When you're in first love,
you realize, my God, you love me.
You're not after to pour your wrath out
and to condemn me and destroy me.
You actually love me.
First love doesn't have evil thoughts towards God.
It does not rejoice in iniquity.
We don't take joy...
Let me make this more personal.
We don't take joy in how cool our past life was.
BC before the cross.
Have you ever talked to people?
I've talked to people, especially in the Slavic communities.
You talk to somebody, you know,
they come all tatted up and earrings
and they just look like they just been through a rough life.
And you talk to them and they're like,
man, my life back in the day, brother,
I was, you know, and they'll sometimes squat like this
and they'll take half an hour.
This is called the Slav Squad, by the way.
When you squat like this, it's the Slav Squad.
And they'll go half an hour talking about
how cool they were in their past life.
And then they'll take five minutes and they'll say,
yeah, Jesus saved me.
And you're like, wow,
what I heard there is you just took joy in your iniquity.
You took joy in who you were,
your notoriety, your popularity,
your influence, how cool you were,
how many girls you had, this, that, and the other.
But now I'm just saved.
I just, yeah, it's kind of boring now,
but I'm saved. Hey, I don't drink and smoke anymore, though.
First love is like, dude,
yo, I was in some stuff.
Why do you think many of you have never even heard
my full testimony?
Because it's done with.
I don't need to bring up things that I was involved in,
just to, I don't know,
glowed or to show how cool I was.
It's all done with.
What I need to talk about now
is what the Lord did for me,
and who I am in him,
and what he's doing in me and through me on and so forth.
First love doesn't rejoice in iniquity.
We're not taking joy in the sin.
We're not taking joy in the things
that were maybe transgressions or whatever they were.
We're not rejoicing in that thing.
It's done with.
I was a sinner, now I'm a saint on and so forth.
Is this still good, by the way?
Okay, you're still with me?
Because we're going to go a little afternoon here.
It does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth.
Bears, now verse 7.
First love bears all things.
Believes all things.
Hopes all things.
Endures all things.
Let me take a pause,
and let me just reiterate that real quick.
First love bears all things.
We hold on to it.
Until we see that thing come.
And I'm holding on to it, God,
because I love you with my first love.
God, you said.
Father, you said.
And I'm going to hold on to this thing
until I see it come through.
Father, you made a promise to me as your child.
I'm going to bear this thing
until I see it come through
to prove to you that I love you
with my first love.
It bears all things.
First love bears all things.
Your word says, God,
that you're going to pour out your spirit.
Your word says, Lord,
that you're coming back.
I'm bearing that truth.
I'm holding on to the truth
that I shall see salvation
come to my family.
God, I'm holding on to that.
Bears all things.
Believes all things.
Not a doubt in my mind, God,
you said it, I believe it.
And any unbelief that's in me, Lord,
rid me of it, Holy Spirit.
Help me, Holy Spirit,
to overcome any unbelief
that I may have in my life
so that I can walk in first love
and believe all things.
Hopes all things.
Endures all things.
And then he says here in verse 8,
love never fails.
Let me just say it this way.
First love never fails.
I have never met someone
that has loved God
with first love
that God has failed them.
And I know quite a bit of people
just so you know.
I have not met one individual
that has loved God
with first love
that has seen that first love fail.
I haven't.
And I don't think I ever will
because his scripture says,
his word says, love never fails.
He says, prophecies fail.
He says, tongues will cease.
But he says, love never fails.
And then at the end of the chapter,
he'll even say this.
He says, these three remain.
He says, faith, hope, and love,
but the greatest of these is what?
First love onto God.
It's our first love onto Him.
It's that burning desire
of what do you want to do, God?
I want to do it with you
because you want to do it with me.
God is not that employer
that tells you, go and do it,
and then he just leaves you.
No.
He is that business owner
that says, I want you to do it
and I want to do it with you.
Let me show you how we can do this.
Let me show you how this process
can actually go.
Isaiah 66, I didn't read it,
but let me just make this
and we'll come to a conclusion.
I'll let you go this morning.
Isaiah 66 verse 1 and 2,
talk about the three things
on whom God will look.
He says, on this one I will look,
on Him who is what?
Poor, contrite spirit
and trembles at my word.
All three of those things,
by the way,
all three of those things
are talking about first love.
Because God will,
and if you don't believe me,
I'll read a few scriptures here.
God will not look
upon someone,
nor will God come and rest.
Because Isaiah 66 talks about
God looking on those
who do these three things,
who have a lifestyle of it,
and it says that they will create
a dwelling place for God.
God will not look
upon someone,
nor will God come and rest
in a place
where first love
does not exist.
God is not
a man,
or let me put it this way,
God is not a father
that will shortchange
his son
of what his son
is actually valued at.
God the father will not
shortchange his son Jesus
in giving him a bride
that is half ready,
or giving him a bride
that half of her wedding dress
is like dirty stains
and she didn't use tide,
and on the other side,
she did use tide,
and she's clean and beautiful.
Is that an advertisement for tide?
It just came to me.
The father will not shortchange
his son.
He loves his son
far too much to say,
ah, sorry Jesus.
It's the best that we could do.
Darn.
Only if we could do better.
But that's all I can do for you son.
I'm sorry.
That's not the father.
The father gave his spirit,
and the Holy Spirit
is preparing the church
the bride
with fragrance,
anointing it with fragrance,
and aroma and mirror and oil,
and all these things
so that the church
could be arrayed in beauty
and smell beautiful,
so that when we come
to be presented to the bridegroom,
the father will say,
look what I've prepared
for you, my son.
Go and get her.
Go and get your beautiful bride.
She is adored.
She is beautiful.
She has made herself ready.
And the Holy Spirit
was doing it with her.
Now go and get her.
She's ready for you son.
She's been prepared.
That's who the father is.
So don't you ever think
that God will come
and rest in a place
where first love
does not abide.
That's why I made the statement
through this series,
that if we can focus
not so much on
what we have a picture of revival,
but if we can focus
on God, we want to capture
your attention,
which I believe
as a church we have.
I believe that we have caught
the attention of God.
I do believe that.
Otherwise I wouldn't be
pastoring here.
Just going to be honest
with you.
My wife and I did not come
here to pastor
because Pastor Vernon Mary came
and said, we don't have
any other young people.
Would you please come
and this?
No.
They just said we heard
from God.
And then my wife and I,
we heard from God.
And I knew that if I'm
hearing from God
regarding coming here,
not because I'm so great,
but this church has caught
the attention of God.
It has.
Now, we've caught the attention
of God.
Now do you know where we're at?
Where I believe we're at?
It's to create a greater
dwelling for him to come
and rest.
And I promise you,
he will not come and rest
if first love does not
abide in this place.
He won't.
We can cry for it.
We can call for it.
We can believe for it.
We can sing for it.
We can do all these things.
But if deep within our heart
and in our spirit,
first love is not there.
He will not come and rest.
I promise you.
I promise you that.
Isaiah 66 is talking about
first love.
To be poor in spirit,
you've got to walk in first love.
To be of a contrite spirit,
you've got to be walking
in first love.
To tremble at his word,
you have to walk
in first love.
Revelation 2,
God addresses the first church
out of the seven,
and I've shared this before.
The Lord asked me once.
He said, son,
He said, what is the first church
that I addressed
and what was the issue
that I addressed there?
And I said, Lord,
I said, I think it was
the Ephesus church
and you addressed them
of losing their first love.
He said, you're correct.
He said, now why?
And I was like, I don't know, Lord,
tell me.
He said, because it all begins
with that.
Out of the seven churches
that God addresses,
He chooses to address
this church with the issue
that they had.
It starts with first love.
Why do people leave the church?
There is many reasons.
There is many reasons.
But if you come down
to the core of it,
you will find
that an individual
has lost their first love
on to God.
You will.
I promise you, you will.
Just sit down and talk with them.
They'll tell you
how this person heard them,
how that person heard them,
how this person
misunderstood them,
how this was misinterpreted,
how they didn't allow me
to do this, that, and the other.
And they go down this list,
but at the end of it,
it's like, yeah,
but you lost your first love.
What about what God
asks you to do in that church?
Regardless of all the trials,
the tribulations,
the oppositions
that we can even face
amongst each other.
The disagreements,
he addresses
the Ephesus church,
and the issue
he addresses them with
is first love.
That to me
is a huge indicator.
God, what are you saying?
What are you saying, Lord?
God will not come
and dwell,
God will not come
and rest,
nor will we catch
the attention of God
if we are not walking
in first love,
if we are not suffering,
if we are not bearing,
if we are not believing,
if we are not hoping,
if we are not rejoicing
in the truth,
but rejoicing
in our iniquity,
in our past
of how cool I was.
In Malachi,
let me read one more scripture
and we'll come to a conclusion.
I just,
I want you to understand
the heart of God in this
and how I believe
how critical it is.
In Malachi chapter,
it's going to be chapter one.
I'll read this
and we'll come to a conclusion.
Malachi is the Old Testament.
It's the last book
in the Old Testament.
And God makes a statement here
that I've,
I've, I've read this scripture.
I've pondered on this scripture.
I've meditated on this scripture
for many, many years.
We actually,
we created a whole
gathering back in like
2016, 2017.
Yeah, 2016, 2017.
I think it was 18 too.
We literally created a whole,
I'll call it an event.
It was more than just an event.
But we created a whole event
around this scripture
and another scripture
out of Ephesians four,
Awake, O Sleeper,
and Rise from the Dead.
But we literally created
a whole event
that we included.
There was like
five plus churches
that were a part of this event
because we wanted to,
we wanted to do it right.
We wanted to do it right
in the sight of God.
We wanted to give God
what he's worthy of.
Now listen to what the prophet
writes in Malachi chapter one,
verse six.
He says this.
A son honors his father.
Now again, this is a,
this is evidence
that God will not come
and rest, nor will we catch
the attention of God
if we are not walking
in first love, nor,
or if we don't have
first love.
This is just evidence,
and scripturally that
this is a true statement.
God just won't
because he values his son
far too much.
Okay, let me read it
and then I'll make a statement after.
He says a son honors his father
and a servant his master.
Then he continues to say,
if, if then I am the father,
not a father,
he actually says the father.
Where is my honor?
And if I am a master,
where is my reverence?
Says the Lord of hosts.
To the priest who despised
my name, yet you say,
in what way have we despised
your name?
Verse seven.
You offered defile food
on my altar,
but say in what way have we
defiled you by saying,
the table of the Lord is contemptible.
Am I pronouncing that right?
By saying that the table
of the Lord is...
that word literally translates to
to have disrespect
to the things of God.
That's one way that
that word is described.
Is to not have the respect
unto God that he actually deserves.
In other words,
God deserves
and he will not receive anything
but first love.
You're saying that's a harsh God.
No, that's not a harsh God.
That's the type of God
I want to serve.
That's the God
that understands value.
Let me read on here
for a little bit more.
Are you still good?
Verse eight.
And he says,
when you offer the blind
as a sacrifice,
is it not evil?
Let me bring this
to New Testament language.
When I have now spent myself
for the world
and the things of the world
and now I come to God
and I'm like,
well, this is the best I have, God,
so...
take it, I guess.
I know some of you
I just feel the pressure
just coming through the room.
Don't look at this
as a pressure
of I got to perform more.
Look at this
of how much more
I need the Holy Spirit
to walk in first love.
Friends, I'm telling you,
I said this in the series,
it takes God to love God.
Without the Holy Spirit,
you can't love him
with first love.
I promise you.
That's one of the reasons
why he was given to us.
He says,
you offer the blind
as a sacrifice,
is it not evil?
And when you offer
the lame and the sick,
is it not evil?
And then he even says this statement.
Offer it to your governor.
Would he be pleased with you?
Would he accept you favorably?
Says the Lord.
Come to work for a month
nonchalant.
Just try it.
Just show up late to work
for even two, three days.
Just try it.
See if they'll keep you around.
I'm being honest with you.
Just try coming late to work
for two or three days.
If they don't let you go,
they will talk to you about it.
The boss, the manager,
whoever they'll come
and they'll talk to you about it.
If we would have the same attitude,
I'll conclude with this.
If we would have the same attitude
that we have towards our jobs
and our businesses,
if we would have that same attitude,
now I'm talking about the people
that understand work ethic.
Let me just make that real quick.
The people that understand work ethic
and the importance of accountability
and character and all that stuff.
If we in America could have the same attitude
towards God, and I'll,
let's make it more personal,
towards church,
because this is the house of the Lord.
As we do towards our jobs,
we would create a greater dwelling place for God.
We would.
We would.
If we would stop being so nonchalant
and wake up in the morning and say,
it's 9.30, church starts at 10,
if I arrive at 10.15, that's not a problem.
What if I told you, listen to me,
and I know I said we'll conclude with this,
but we'll conclude with this.
Yeah.
Once you get a Slavic person going,
it's like a motorboat.
Come on, shut them off.
Put the choke or something.
What if I told you a day is coming
that there will be a people
that are going to be so hungry for the Lord?
We're already seeing a little bit of it,
but people will be so hungry for the Lord
that they will line up at the doors
before the doors even open.
And if you're somebody right now
that says, ah, 10.15, that's all right.
You may come and find yourself
not having a seat where God is doing the work.
You're saying, but God wouldn't do that.
Are you sure? Read history.
Are you sure? Read the history.
I remember being a young kid, a young lad.
Yeah, it's a new word that I'm working on here.
Matt's over there laughing at me.
I remember being a young kid.
I don't know, maybe 9, 10,
and going with my parents
to a Benny Hinn crusade in Minneapolis.
I remember standing in line like,
oh, are we for real? For like over an hour.
But man, was I happy when I made it into that room
because God was there.
You're saying, well, God wouldn't do that.
Are you sure? Because when I read the scriptures,
God will rest in a place geographically.
He will.
Let's stand for prayer.
Do you want to say anything after,
or can I dismiss them after?
Father, we thank you.
Father, we thank you
for your precious Holy Spirit.
Father, we thank you
that your Holy Spirit is our helper.
He is the one that works in us
and with us.
Holy Spirit, you are the spirit of truth.
You're the spirit of the fear of the Lord.
You're the spirit of wisdom and knowledge.
And we thank you that you put up with our immaturity.
We thank you that you are working on our character.
You are, you are molding us.
None of us have arrived, Holy Spirit.
And you are bearing, you are suffering with us
because you love us.
So I pray, Holy Spirit, and I ask
that as we leave this morning,
that we would lean on you
like we've never leaned on you before.
That we would look to you
knowing that it is only by you
and through you and with you
that we can love our God with first love.
We recognize that, we confess that, we believe that.
Holy Spirit, help us to be a people,
to be a church that would walk in first love
and continue to do so in the days ahead.
That we would burn in our hearts.
That we would burn in our hearts.
That we would burn and behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world.
That excitement.
I feel like excitement has left the hearts of people.
I pray that excitement would once again
come to the hearts of people
and we would be excited about the things of God
and what he's doing.
That we would once again find joy in the suffering.
That we would once again
look at the road ahead of us.
That may be long and we'd say,
God, you're walking us, you're walking us through this road.
You're walking with us in this road.
You are a way maker.
Help us to recognize that Lord.
Help us to live in that Lord.
In Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen.
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