DECEMBER 10 "RETURN TO YOUR FIRST LOVE...I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!"

"Return to your first love" it's the sermon older Christians hate to hear. It's like men listening to a sermon on lust "oh here we go again", they think to themselves. Lust is the Achilles heel of every man (though hopefully triumphant) and "go back to your first love" is the sermon that can be preached any Sunday, and most older converts will be convicted! Because we do stray in our relationships, the fire does dwindle in our relationships and whether we want to hear it or not it is true and needs to be said. We do need to return to our first love, it's not a cliché, but true! We are no longer the "down and out" person we were when we first came to Christ. We are now married, have kids, have sports on week-ends, have good jobs and life is good, for the most part and oh yeah, Jesus, sure, he's good, church is alright, however I don't think I'm gonna make it this Sunday my son has a soccer game out of town and I didn't make it last week because my work had our Christmas party and the week before, I was just awful tired and thought I needed a day off to rest. Finally that Christian makes it to service for the 1st time that month and what do they hear....but a sermon on "returning to their first love" or accused of being "lukewarm" and really, who wants to hear it?! So then, what do we do with this verse in the Bible, what do we do with this staunching rebuke from the one we love. If you're a smart preacher, you avoid it. If you are an obedient preacher, obedient to the Holy Spirit, you still preach it and let the cards fall where they may. Should it be preached every Sunday or every month, of course not, but the preacher should not be afraid or intimidated from preaching the Words of Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit prompts him. And so, with all that said, do you need to return to your first love? Are you so caught up in your life now that Jesus is but a shadow of what He used to be in your life? Do you still pray? Do you still pick up the bible? Do you still desire to be in church or is it just your duty now? If you're human and you've been a Christian for any number of years, the answer to all those questions will be in your favor. at certain seasons in your life. And it is a good sermon, or a good blog or a good friend, that because they care for us, reminds us to keep the flame alive, don't let it dwindle; keep the flame alive with Jesus because we know that the natural course of any fire, if you've ever had a fireplace, is to dwindle down and eventually go out, that is the natural course of any fire, no matter how bright, how powerfully it once blazed, without care, every fire, eventually goes out!

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