First Love 2 by Apostle Femi Lazarus: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Revelation 2:1-5

The Lord knows your works. If you are in active service of the kingdom, he is recognising your works because service is primarily unto him, not unto men. Sometimes it can be tiring and you ask: "Does the Lord even see what I'm going through trying to get things done for him?" Yes. He is not irresponsible. He knows your work. One day we are all going to stand before him face to face for rewards and appraisals. It will occur to you then that you were not wasting your time. The most beautiful thing about the Lord is that he sees secrets — he sees in the secret and rewards in the open.

Now look at Revelation 2:5: "Remember therefore from whence thou hast fallen and repent and do thy first works." In the Amplified translation: "Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent — change the inner man to meet God's will — and do the works you did previously when you first knew the Lord. Or else I will visit you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you change your mind and repent."

The Fall That Happens While Ministry Grows

This kind of fall can happen when ministry is still progressing. You can be in a falling state and have more platforms than you have ever had. Platforms are not a proof or justifier of where you are standing. It is the Lord who sees the secret who is speaking here.

When you forsake your first love, you also stop your first works. You become fatigued. Jesus is referring them to the first works because they had one — they had a track record to return to.

There is a danger in winning people to Christ and not getting them discipled, not creating the platform where the inner longing of their soul to know the Lord more can be met. Two things can happen:

• Those new converts come with so much zeal to work but the people they expect to inspire them are themselves cold and empty.
• They are introduced to a blend of the world and the Lord — and never experience a genuine first works.

He called the disciples in Mark 3 that they should be with him, and then he might send them forth. So ministry is a probability — intimacy is the real work. More important to God is your staying with him. You are the bride of Christ. The conjugal duty is more important than extramarital activities. That's your first work: intimacy.

The Problem With Watered-Down Christianity

We are beginning to perceive prayer, fasting, and study of the word as old-fashioned. We are assuming on behalf of a generation that they have short attention spans. But as we try so hard to win the world, here is what is happening: the world is also trying hard to blend with the church — and so far, only one side is succeeding.

The church must go back to the days of evangelism, the days of intercession, the days of prayer. It's either the old rugged cross or no cross at all.

You will never know the Jesus of the Bible from a Holy Ghost party. You need the old rugged cross, the red hot fire. That's why many Christians are still struggling with vices — TikTok Christianity is not going to make you.

Something happens when you have the opportunity to be in a community where everyone is doing something edifying. Don't stay alone — it's a trap. If you try to burn alone, you can't burn for long. You need a community of faith where your heart is ignited to love God more.

Those who gave their life to Christ on campus and had fellowship community — whether BSF, ASF, or RCF — and had a community where people were studying and praying: you found gold. It may have looked like a waste of time, but you found gold.

First Works: Discipleship and Intimacy

The first question to ask yourself: do you have a first walk? Trace your journey of faith with God. Is there a season you can point to where you just wanted to serve God — a track record of a meeting point, a moment of zeal?

Ephesians 4:14 says: That we be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness. The Message translation puts it: "No prolonged infancies among us. We will not tolerate babes in the woods — small children who are easy marks for impostors."

People who have no depth become the weak links — the Achilles point of the church. They can't distinguish between what is right and wrong because they were never established.

The church must be a healthy community for new converts. The goal should be: go back and do the works you did when you first knew the Lord. What were those works? Evangelism. Bible study. Prayer. Seeking the word. Sitting under teaching. Bearing the cross of genuine discipleship.

The Joy That Was Always Part of the Package

Added to the package of salvation is the joy and enthusiasm a believer has. If a believer doesn't have this from the point of birth into Christ, it is because they were born into a community of faith that convinced them it was not necessary.

It is a divine package that comes with salvation. You cannot get that joy outside of Christ. The Bible calls the life outside of Christ a superfluity of nothingness — a world where you dig and touch nothing. People are smoking and drinking, unhappy, looking for joy — but that joy is in salvation. They are looking for the very thing Christ alone gives.

Psalm 51:12: Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

Salvation is the greatest miracle — that a man who was on death row was redeemed from death to never know that death again. That's the gift of salvation. And that's why you cannot be saved and not want others to be saved.

What Is Burnout and How to Avoid It

God has given two descriptions of the believer's life in relation to the Spirit:

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• The well of living water — the anointing within. This is your personal consumption, the work of the Holy Ghost within you for personal growth and daily living.
• The river of living water — the anointing that flows outward to bless others.

If you fail to nurture the river — your personal walk — you will minister from your well. You burn out. Power will flow, but you are depleted on the inside. That's why a man can preach heavily and then commit suicide: he had been tapping from his well for so long, there was nothing left.

Matthew 11:28 in the Message translation: "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you will recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythm of grace."

When you come to him, what he does is help you carry the weight. The farther you are from him, the heavier your life becomes. Once you are away from his presence, everything rushes in — the fears, the oppositions, the words that should never have entered your head. The devil can talk to you freely because you are in his territory. And he will beat you with experience.

Go back to the days where you worshipped God alone in your room and cried as an audience of one. He's still waiting — long after people leave God's presence, he still hangs around. When was the last time you cried in his presence? When was the last time you prayed and three hours felt like twenty minutes?

The only way we are strong is proximity with Jesus. That's the only way.

The Story of Samson

Samson's hair was trimmed. Delilah had lured and taken away his strength by shaving the locks on his head. The Philistines fell on him and the once-powerful man was helpless. He said, "I will shake myself like other times" — and they knew not that the Lord had left.

But when he prayed, God gave him strength one more time. While they were mocking him, calling him a useless, defeated soldier — the Bible says the hair on Samson's head began to grow back. There was a divine investment speeding up his restoration. Angels were ministering to him. Strength was coming back. And the moment he called upon the Lord, strength returned.

Isaiah 40:29-31: He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

The Lord doesn't bury wounded soldiers. He restores them completely. There is hope for a tree — even if it is cut down, the stump holds in the earth, and at the scent of water, it will spring back again.

Psalms 11:2: The wicked bend their bows that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. But there is a Lord who helps. He helps. He restores strength.

Prayer is your lifeline. Don't ask only for things — thank God for things. Go to the feet of the cross and hold him. Say: Help me. Breathe your life into me.

In Ezekiel 37, a question was asked: Can these bones live? Can your passion for God come back? Can you return to the place of fire, of anointing, of intimacy, of that flow? Yes — dry bones will rise again.

2 Chronicles 7:14: If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their lands.

The only way we can finish this race unscratched is through intimacy. If you get to a certain point of warfare, you take prayer like oxygen. When darkness tries to encroach your soul, you cling to him because your very life depends on him.

Jesus, breathe your life into me. Set me on fire again. Release your flames into my heart. I want to love you — help me love you. I want to love you and lose my mind loving you. My heart has gone cold — revive it. Infuse me with love for you, with hunger, with passion, with an urge for intimacy.

You are back to where you used to be. That compassion is back. That empowerment is back. The grace of the Lord is strong upon you. You will journey with this presence. And the Lord says: get back to the place I placed you — and everything will fall back in line. Have I not sent you? Have I not commanded you? Turn not to the right nor to the left. Set your face on me like a flint, and I will restore that which was stolen. The secret of your lifting is hidden in your calling. Stay with the calling.