From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hey, I know what it's like prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. And the Lord says you need to respond quickly. Remember, repent, and return and do the deeds you did at the first.

Larry Nobles: Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And Happy Easter as we approach the most important day in the Christian calendar and in the life of every Christian. We pray that this Easter will remind you of the sacrifice that God made for you and me, for all of us, and the hope that it assures us in our risen Savior.

But you know, even with this monumental truth of the risen Jesus, many people have a strong faith that tends to drift as they fail to remember what Jesus did for us all. Today's program will help us to get back on track. It's called Prone to Wander from Pastor Jeff's series, Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival.

This series will help you stop drifting away from God and drawing closer to Him. And you can get this message in multiple formats when you go to fromhisheart.org and make a gift of any amount to support this ministry. That's fromhisheart.org. But first, open your Bible to Revelation chapter two as Pastor Jeff continues with part two of the lesson, Prone to Wander.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you have found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love."

Here's the question I want you to consider today. Does the message to the church in Ephesus apply to you? Does it apply to us? Three discoveries from this first letter to the churches in Revelation. Discovery number one: The church in Ephesus was doing lots of great things. Lots of great things.

Now, Ephesus was a church that was founded by the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey. And the Lord, when He comes to speak to the pastor to send the message to the church, He commends them on some great things. And four things are mentioned. First of all, they were working hard for the Lord. And He says, "Hey, I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance."

They were working hard. Secondly, they were standing against sin. He says, "And that you cannot endure evil men." You cannot endure evil. You stand up against sin; you stand up against men who are committing sin. Now, He says in verse six, "Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." And God said, "Hey, you Ephesians, you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Good for you."

You're standing against sin. Thirdly, they were practicing spiritual discernment. He says in verse two, "And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you have found them to be false." Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. So, they were practicing spiritual discernment. And then lastly, they were enduring hardship for His name.

Verse three, "And you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake and have not grown weary." And those Christians endured hardship for the name of Jesus. The church in Ephesus was doing lots of great things. And maybe you're here and you know you have lots of things that you're involved in, lots of things you're doing, and the Lord would say, "I see your deeds. I know you're doing some great things."

But discovery number two: The church in Ephesus was missing the greatest thing. And the Lord says to them, verse four, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." You have left your first love. The word "left" means to forsake, to lay aside, to neglect, to depart from, to disregard. You've left your first love.

And that's the greatest thing. That's the most critical thing. That's the main thing. And the main thing for the church is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. How did they fail in the greatest thing? How did they miss the main thing? How did they miss that? Well, they did what we do.

They had allowed other things to take first place. Other things to take first place in their hearts and in their lives. It's easy. See, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, and prone to let other things take priority in your life. They had let other things take the number one spot.

Scripture says in Colossians 1:18, "He also," speaking of Jesus, "is head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, the first one to rise from the dead never to die again, so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything." He is number one in everything. When the Scripture says, as though speaking straight from the Lord Jesus, "I have this against you, that you have left your first love," it doesn't mean that you don't love Him anymore.

It means you don't love Him like you once did. You're not excited about Him like you used to be. You're not on fire for Him like you used to be. Think about in your marriage. We get married and we're so excited, and we just can't wait for the wedding to come, and brides dream of the wedding day, and grooms dream of the wedding night.

That's just the way it is. And so, we're so excited, and we're going on the honeymoon, and everything is, "Yes, dear. Yes, darling." And then you see a couple after thirty years. Is it still there? Has the love deepened? The emotions come and go, and you don't build on emotion, but emotions are not a bad thing. Emotions are a good thing.

Debbie and I in our marriage, we'll talk about that, and we'll say, "Sometimes we love each other, but we don't feel it." And other times we feel it. And it's okay. We don't walk with God based on our feelings; we walk with God by faith. But sometimes in our marriage, there are just tremendous feelings.

And I'll tell Debbie, "I'm just having a big surge for you, a big surge of love." And she loves that. And I love that when she has a surge of love for me. But when we don't have the surge, we still love each other. And so, in your relationship with the Lord, don't chase a feeling, but don't reject the feelings either.

And there ought to be times where you come and you sing His praises and your eyes fill with tears. And you think how good Jesus is to you. How amazing that He would die on the cross for you and rise again from the dead. And you're just overwhelmed. As Dan Carson wrote a song, "It's amazing that You love me. It's amazing that You care."

Do you ever have that go through your mind? How in the world? Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? What is the issue? You're missing the greatest thing. You don't love Him like you used to. So, the church in Ephesus, doing lots of great things. The church in Ephesus, missing the greatest thing.

Discovery number three: The church in Ephesus was given a prescription of four things. This is what the Lord says that they are to do. "I have this against you, you have left and departed and neglected your first love." Verse five: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Do you hear what He says? If you're somebody that has wandered away from the Lord and you don't have a fire for Him like you used to in the past, and there's not passion there, what does the Lord say to you? Four things you need to do, all start with the letter R. First thing: Remember. Remember therefore from where you have fallen.

What does that mean? Well, when you love the Lord with all your heart, and things were going so good in your spiritual life, remember what got you off track? What caused you to start to wander away? Sometimes it's a relationship. Sometimes it's a girlfriend or a boyfriend. You get all enamored with this person, but that person is not good for you; they're not developing your spiritual relationship.

They're pulling you away from the Lord. And so, that is the place where you began to depart. I talked to a friend of mine who's a physician, and he said, "I was doing pretty well with the Lord until I got into college and medical school, and studies just consumed me, and I put the Lord on the back burner, and I left Him on the back burner for many years until my life was imploding."

He's a Christian, but he had wandered away from the Lord. Maybe it's school, maybe it's your job, maybe it's sports that take first place. Remember where you have fallen. Maybe it's COVID. Everybody's all freaked out about COVID, hiding under their bed about COVID. Big bad COVID. And you've got to still live your life.

God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline. And so, some people have dropped off the map with COVID. The FBI, if they were worth two hoots, they couldn't find them. And it's like, where are these people? We haven't seen so-and-so since COVID. "Well, we don't go out. We can't go out." Well, listen, I understand.

And if that's you—it's not you, because you're here—but if that's you, listen, don't get mad at me. I'm just saying, search your heart. Has COVID caused you to wander away from God? Live stream church and television church are good supplements; they're not good substitutes. There is no substitute for gathering with the people of God and singing His praises and worshipping Him.

There's no substitute for that. We need one another. So, you ask yourself, remember therefore from where you have fallen. What caused you to fall? To wander? Sometimes I've talked to people over the years, and they'll say, "God called me into the ministry, and I said no. And my life, my spiritual life just hit a standstill."

Because anytime the Lord says do this and you say no, how are you going to walk with God? How are you going to walk in a love relationship with God when you're telling Him no? Remember therefore from where you have fallen.

Larry Nobles: You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today, and part two of the message Prone to Wander. Pastor Jeff returns in just a moment. You know, it's so easy for believers to drift. We're not talking about abandoning your faith, but slowly cooling to your passion for Jesus. Many are staying busy on the outside while growing cold and dry on the inside.

They're going through the motions while their heart quietly wanders. Revival is needed in all of our hearts. Revival is God reigning in the hearts of His people with a fresh and a mounting love for Jesus. If you'd like to discover how you can allow that to happen to your life again, or even for the first time, we hope that you'll get this series called Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival, a five-message series from Pastor Jeff.

It's our gift to you to say thanks for supporting From His Heart this month with a gift of any amount. And you can call to get it at 866-40-BIBLE, or go to fromhisheart.org to make that secure gift. With that gift, you'll join us in having an impact on a lost and hurting world this year.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Second R: Repent. And repent. He says it twice in verse five. Remember and repent. Metanoia is the root word there. It means to change your mind. Change your mind about what you think about what you're doing, what you think of sin and self and the Savior. Change your mind about that and turn from those things.

We have a lot of people that don't want to repent. They don't want to even say that they have sinned. If we say we have no sin, the Scripture says in First John, we're deceiving ourselves. If we say we have not sinned, we're calling God a liar, and His word is not in us. When God says this is a sin and we say, "No, God, that's not a sin," you're calling God a liar.

That's serious business. You're not going to walk with God; you're not going to be right with Him if you're calling Him a liar. So, we are to remember, we're to repent, and we're to return. He says, "Do the deeds you did at first." What are the deeds you did at first? Well, think about the honeymoon love. What did you do for honey on the honeymoon?

Man, you were there and you were attentive, and you wanted to please your spouse. And if they said, "Hey, can you get me another cup of coffee?" "You bet, I'll get you another cup of coffee." I'd have to tell you, this morning Debbie was having a quiet time and I was in the kitchen, and she said, "Honey, can you get me another cup of coffee?"

And I said, "I'm preaching; I'd better do that." And so, I got her another cup of coffee. And I did it twice. And I don't know what I'm going to get in return, but something good. You go back to the things you did at the first. What did you do at the first? Man, I spent time with God. I prayed.

I remember early in my Christian life, I would want to grow in my prayer life and—not that it was a competition, but I wanted to spend time on my knees before the Lord. And not just two minutes or five minutes or ten minutes, but thirty minutes, forty-five minutes, just praying and asking God and just pouring out my heart to Him.

Making a prayer list and being faithful to that prayer list every day to go through and pray for those names. Making sure that I didn't ever go to sleep unless I spent at least five minutes, bare minimum, in the word of God. And if I was tired and it was the end of the day, and I said, "I haven't read the Bible today," I'd make sure I'm going to get up and read before I go to bed because this is important.

The things you did at first. And then lastly, we're to respond quickly. What does He say? "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent." Or else. What happens if you blow off the Lord?

You get the "or else." "Or else I'm coming to you, and your church is gone. I will remove your lampstand from you." No love, no light. The Lord is telling them, "You need to get right with Me. I need to be number one again." I was looking at a LifeWay study just this morning. Thom Rainer said between 6,000 and 10,000 churches in America close every year.

That's 100 to 200 churches closing around the nation every week. What happened? No love, no light. "I'll remove your church." What happens to a church? They get away from preaching the Word of God. And when you get away from preaching the Word of God, then what are you preaching? You're preaching pop psychology, you're preaching just try and do better, and there's no more "thus says the Lord."

And we just have a little chat, and I sit on a stool, and we just chat, and I have coffee, and we're chatting. We don't do that here. You say, why don't you do that here? Because "thus says the Lord," this isn't a little chat. I'm just a herald, and the King says this, and you need to hear it, and you need to heed it.

And this isn't a chat that you can take it or leave it. And if the message steps on your toes, just know that it steps on my toes. And if you are prone to wander, just know that I'm prone to wander too, because I'm not a different creature than you. My pastor, Admon Shook, used to say, "In the minds of church members, there are men, there are women, and there are preachers."

And you're like a separate category of critter. And I'm just like you. We all have feet of clay, and we all struggle. And so, when you hear something that I preach and you say, "Ow, that hurt," it hurts me too. And I get convicted. Sometimes I think, "Lord, I don't know how I can preach this because I'm struggling with this too."

He says, "Preach it and you work on it in your life." Hey, I know what it's like prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. And the Lord says you need to respond quickly. Remember, repent, and return and do the deeds you did at first. Hosea chapter 10, verse 12, the Lord says: "Break up your fallow ground," the unplowed ground in your heart, "for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes to rain righteousness on you."

The devil's favorite word is "later." He doesn't necessarily try and get you to believe something the opposite of what I'm preaching today. He'll say, "You know, this is important. That's really important what Pastor Jeff is saying, what it says there in Revelation 2. That's important, and you need to return to your first love, but listen, let's not go overboard."

"You've got things going on today. You just do it later." Always later, later, later. You know what God's favorite word is? "Now." "Come now," Isaiah 1:18, "and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

"If you consent and obey, you'll eat the finest of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword. Truly the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Come now. Now. You don't have the promise of tomorrow. It's now that we get right with God. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Behold, today is the day of salvation.

Let me close with the story—the rest of the story of Robert Robinson. The man that wrote Come Thou Fount, the man that wrote "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." Well, as he continued on in his Christian life, he began to wander from the Lord. He began to get fouled up in sin.

And he got far, far away from the Lord. And as the story goes—hard to verify, but as the story goes—he was in a carriage, and a woman was sitting across from him at the carriage, and she was humming the tune Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. And she didn't know who Robert Robinson was, and she said, "Sir, are you familiar with that tune? It's a wonderful hymn."

And he said, "Yes, I am. I'm the poor soul who wrote the words to that hymn. And I would give a thousand worlds if I had them to enjoy the feelings now that I had then." She reminded him that it said, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for your courts above."

It's not too late to get right with God. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Behold, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day for you to return to Him. The Lord says, "Return to Me and I will return to you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." So, as we close out, I want you to consider this question. Be honest. What is the condition of your heart today?

Larry Nobles: Perhaps you know that Jesus is indeed the Lord and Savior of your life. But like Robert Robinson, you've wandered away from God. You can come back to Him today. His arms are open wide, waiting for your return. Or maybe you know right now at this moment that you're not a child of God. Well, that can also change.

If you don't know Jesus in a personal way, we want you to come to Him by sincerely crying out to Him from your heart, repenting of your sin, and putting your faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of that sin. You'll instantly become a child of God, and He'll never, ever let you go. If you'd like to know more about this and what it means in your life for now and for ever, go to fromhisheart.org, click the "Why Jesus" link right there on the homepage.

You'll find some free materials there to download and read and find out about what it means to be a child of God. We hope you'll do that today. Today's message, Prone to Wander, is from Pastor Jeff's five-message series, Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival, that we're airing the first two weeks of this month. It's also Pastor Jeff's gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount.

And you can request it when you go to fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE. Make your gift and the format choice you have: DVDs, CDs, USB flash drive, or immediate MP3 download, all when you get in touch with us today. I'm Larry Nobles, praying you'll join us tomorrow for a precious message called The Ifs of Easter. Be with us then as we again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart. Here on From His Heart.