Genuine Revival – Pt 1 Love God First

Text: Revelation 2:2-5

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.’”

Introduction:

Do you remember when you first started dating your spouse? Every text, every conversation, every glance is electric. But over time, kids, work, bills, running a home, keeping up with school, sports, and a busy schedule made the relationship feel a lot different. Over time, you might forget the date nights and the romance for the weekly grind of life.  In Revelation 2, Jesus writes to a church that had lost its fire, not because they stopped working, but because they were too busy to love. Not each other, but Him.

The church in Ephesus had all the right activities. They stood strong, served faithfully, taught truth, and exposed falsehoods. From the outside, they were a model church.

But Jesus said:

“I have this against you…” (Revelation 2:4)

They had lost something essential—not their theology, not their commitment—but their “why.”

Jesus said, “You have abandoned the love you had at first.”

This isn’t about losing salvation. It’s about drifting in affection. 

• Think of a marriage—where routines replace romance, and duty replaces delight.

First love is that deep, personal, emotional devotion to Jesus that:

• Delights in His presence,
• Desires Him above all else,
• And serves not out of obligation, but joy.

1. The Ephesian church knew what to do (works, toil, discernment). 
2. They knew how to do it (sound doctrine, hard labor, perseverance).
3. But they forgot why they did it—love for Jesus.

Jesus isn’t impressed by busy hands but by a beautiful heart.

I. Rooted in Truth, But Missing the Heart

Ephesus was spiritually rich:

• Planted by Paul
• Nurtured by Aquila and Priscilla
• Taught by Apollos
• Pastored by Timothy and Tychicus
• Received a personal letter from Paul (Ephesians)
• They knew the truth informational but not relationally.
• They were missing the Spirit!

But Jesus reminds us: The Father is seeking those who will worship in Spirit and truth, not just truth. ( John 4:23) 

We can love the Bible, love church, love being right—but if we don’t love Him, it all becomes noise (If I don’t love I have become nothing…1 Corinthians 13:3b).

II. The First Love Is Our Why

When we first came to Christ, everything flowed from love:

• We served because we were grateful.
• We prayed because we longed for His presence.
• We gave because we had encountered grace.
• We obeyed because we trusted His goodness. 

That love—that why—was never meant to fade. It was meant to deepen.

•  First love is that deep, personal, emotional devotion to Jesus that delights in His presence, desires Him above all else, and serves not out of obligation, but joy.
• But over time, busyness in ministry, wounds, disappointments, or self-sufficiency can cause that love to fade.

III. The Spirit Awakens Us to Our Why

Jesus says, “You have abandoned the love you had at first.” And then He calls us to remember, repent, and return.

How can we follow in love with Him again? That’s the Holy Spirit’s work in us that we must not quench nor resist!

• Romans 5:5 “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit…” 
  • The Holy Spirit reminds us of our why by filling us with Gods love for us. 
• John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you

He stirs up love again. He reveals the face of Jesus as beautiful, not just useful. He causes our hearts to burn again with first love.

IV. Don’t Just Restart Your Work—Rediscover Your Why from the Holy Spirit. 

• Rev. 2:5 “Do the works you did at first…” 
• They were still doing good works as a church so what was different? 
  •  Jesus isn’t saying to do more. 
  • He’s saying to return to why you started doing it.
  • This is a move from task orientation to relational orientation. 

When we are task-oriented and not relationally oriented, we just check boxes. 

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Do you have a reason to live? People often feel that they have no reason to live because they have lost their purpose, their ‘why’. 

• What is your “WHY”?
• It’s what you love and live for: purpose and reason that keep you going.

I ask the Holy Spirit to produce love in my heart for the Lord. Galatians 5 tells me that He produces the fruit of the Spirit, not me. I then give God the love that the Spirit has given me back to the Lord. I love Him with His love! 

This is the secret key to freedom – Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. 2 Cor. 3:17 

If I try to be free from idolatry and sin to please and love God, I have it backward. 

• Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you; and I will remove the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

I seek to love God first, and then I can turn from idolatry and sin, and I am free. 

We throw the word love around with disregard for what it means. What or who I love, I love is my purpose, the reason for living, my why! 

Love is. I used to say I love food, I now say I enjoy food, but love God and people. 

• Food is not my purpose; it gives me the energy to love God and people.
• Money is not my purpose; it enables me to love God and love people. 
• Music, reading, and gaining knowledge are not my purpose; it is a gift to show love to God and minister to people. 
  • Self is not my purpose; it gives me corporality to love through service to God and people. 

Fasting breaks the idolatry of self-pleasure.

• Food: I do not fast to show God love, I fast because I love God and not food. 

Giving breaks the idolatry of greed. 

• Money: I do not give money to show God love, I give because I love God and not money. 

Serving from learning, and growing in skills breaks the idolatry of pride and self. 

• Skills: I do not serve to show God and people love, I serve because I love God and not my selfish pride. 

Jesus warns of something more serious: “If you don’t repent, I will remove your lampstand.” 

V. Returning to First Love: How?

Jesus gives us the path back:

• Remember – Go back in your mind. Recall when you first loved Him, when grace overwhelmed you. The Spirit helps us remember:
  • Of the Spirit, Jesus said, “He will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
• Repent – Turn from anything that’s taken His place:
  • Greek: μετάνοια (metanoia)
  • Definition: “Metanoia” means “a change of mind,” “a turning about,” or “a reversal of decision.” 

VI. The Power and Necessity of Why

• • The “Why” inspires; the “What, When, How” just informs.
    • Inspire ( Latin for filled with wind or God-breathed) 
      • The presence of God is not attracted to what you know or what you do.
      • The presence of God is attracted to why you do it, with passion and love.
• The “Why” provides direction in difficult seasons.
  • • “When we are clear on our why, we can endure any what.”
    • Jesus had a why— That’s how He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). 
• Without a “Why,” you burn out or drift.
• Losing your why is losing your way!

• • • You keep doing the what and the how, but the heart isn’t in it. 
    • It becomes mechanical. 
    • This mirrors Jesus’ warning to Ephesus: “You’re still doing the works, but you’ve abandoned your first love” (Rev. 2:4)1.

Conclusion: Jesus is not calling us to more activity. He’s calling us to intimacy.

The greatest church in the New Testament era was one generation away from becoming a lampstand removed. 

• Not because they lacked doctrine, but because they lost devotion.
• Not because they weren’t doing what’s, but because they had lost their why. 

When a church loses its “why,” it has lost its “way.”

Love God first again: John 13:23 “Lying back on Jesus’ chest was one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.”

• Receive and Believe His Love for you again: (1 John 4:19) We love because he first loved us. 
• Commit to Obedience: (John 14:15) Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” When tempted, cry out to God for strength and confess that you love Him more than any desire to sin!
• Love Others:  (1 John 4:7-11). Genuine love for God will overflow into love for people