Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #278 Returning to Our First Love: A Call for Revival

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#278 Returning to Our First Love: A Call for Revival · The OneCry Podcast

0:02
Speaker0: You will rightly stand in truth. You will rightly
0:06
Speaker0: walk in integrity. All these secondary things come from
0:10
Speaker0: the first, and the first and only being Him,
0:13
Speaker0: loving Him.
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Speaker1: Welcome to the One Cry
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Speaker1: Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
0:21
Speaker1: The goal: accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival
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Speaker1: truth, stories, and reports.
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Speaker2: Well, welcome to the One Cry Podcast. We're so excited that you're
0:36
Speaker2: joining us today. I'm Bill Elif, and I'm thrilled today to have—
0:39
Speaker2: we've been together before many times on the podcast,
0:43
Speaker2: but Jordan Bowen. And Jordan and I are both pastors
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Speaker2: in the Little Rock area and serve— both serve with One Cry
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Speaker2: also. And Jordan has a deep passion
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Speaker2: for prayer and the presence of God and the
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Speaker2: movements of God and revival. And so Jordan, welcome.
1:02
Speaker0: Thank you.
1:03
Speaker0: Thank you so much, Bill.
1:03
Speaker2: Great to have you. I'm honored to be here.
1:05
Speaker2: Since you've been on the last podcast with us,
1:10
Speaker2: you have added a little something to your family.
1:12
Speaker0: I have. I have a little
1:13
Speaker0: baby girl, which is much better than my 3 stinky boys. It really is.
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Speaker0: I love her so much. I love my boys, but there's something about that girl.
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Speaker2: You're just rolling down the road with those 3 boys and then your
1:25
Speaker2: wife. I got pregnant with this
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Speaker0: wonderful,
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Speaker2: precious little
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Speaker2: girl.
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Speaker0: Yeah, she's wonderful.
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Speaker2: Okay, so before we kind of
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Speaker2: dive in, what's different about a girl? What changed?
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Speaker2: What changed? I know. Yeah, I had 4 boys and 4 girls, but what
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Speaker2: have you noticed that's different about a girl?
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Speaker0: Well, I mean, I feel like she
1:46
Speaker0: can do no wrong. That's one thing.
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Speaker2: Well, that's right.
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Speaker0: They're perfect. And she's
1:51
Speaker0: sweet and everything is the boys' fault.
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Speaker2: Yeah.
1:52
Speaker0: Like, it's always their fault. Yeah.
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Speaker0: And it should be. And I think the big change, it's funny, it's me.
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Speaker0: Like, I changed. I changed once I held her
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Speaker0: and saw her. It's just a different love.
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Speaker0: It's just a different kind of love.
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Speaker2: It's just something delicate
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Speaker2: and precious.
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Speaker0: Right.
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Speaker2: And boy, you wait till she's about 3.
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Speaker2: I know. And she's sitting in your lap and
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Speaker2: she can get anything she wants.
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Speaker0: That's right.
2:18
Speaker2: That's right.
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Speaker0: Yeah.
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Speaker2: You know,
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Speaker2: it's amazing in that the natural
2:25
Speaker2: love.
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Speaker0: Right.
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Speaker2: There's something about picking up
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Speaker2: your first child and you just love them. Yeah. And God has hardwired
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Speaker2: us that way. And but you
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Speaker2: know, it's also just in light of where
2:42
Speaker2: you're heading today to talk to us about revival
2:48
Speaker2: in some real-time churches.
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Speaker0: Right.
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Speaker2: That we can lose our love for
2:56
Speaker2: the Lord, can't we? That's exactly right. And it can kind of drift away.
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Speaker2: So you're going to talk to us a bit about that because there,
3:03
Speaker2: all of us face moments when we're kind of going through
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Speaker2: the motions.
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Speaker0: Amen.
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Speaker2: But we are missing the heart of it.
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Speaker0: That's right.
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Speaker2: So what does God have to say to us about that today,
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Speaker2: Joel?
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Speaker0: Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. Well, in Revelation where
3:18
Speaker0: I've been studying and our church has been learning a lot in this as well,
3:21
Speaker0: and The Revelation chapter 2 through
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Speaker0: 3, we see Jesus speaking to 7 different churches.
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Speaker0: And I want to speak in this episode to one
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Speaker0: of those churches that Jesus speaks to, is the church of Ephesus.
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Speaker0: And so around 96 AD, John the Apostle is writing
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Speaker0: this that they would have read of the words of Christ.
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Speaker0: And this is what he says about this church.
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Speaker0: Chapter 2, verse 1, he says, to the angel of the church in Ephesus,
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Speaker0: write, these are the words of him who holds the 7 stars in
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Speaker0: his right hand and walks among the 7 golden lampstands.
4:00
Speaker0: I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance.
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Speaker0: I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested
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Speaker0: those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
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Speaker0: Verse 3, you have persevered and have endured hardships
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Speaker0: for my name and have not grown weary.
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Speaker0: Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken
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Speaker0: the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen,
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Speaker0: repent, and do the things you did at
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Speaker0: first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove
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Speaker0: your lampstand from its place. It's amazing to
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Speaker0: me, a couple of things for all of us to lean
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Speaker0: into here is first is in every one of these churches, Jesus speaks
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Speaker0: to them and He reminds them of who He is. And so He's immediately
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Speaker0: taking the church and reminding them who has authority, who's in
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Speaker0: charge. I love right here, He says, the words
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Speaker0: of Him who holds the 7 stars, these 7 churches, and holds
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Speaker0: the lampstands and knows your deeds.
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Speaker0: I immediately, Bill, take comfort in this, knowing that even before Jesus
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Speaker0: here corrects this church and then uplifts this church and guides this
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Speaker0: church, He says, I know you and I hold you.
5:20
Speaker0: I know you, believer. I hold you, believer. I know
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Speaker0: you, church. I hold you, church. It amazes me. Every listener,
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Speaker0: lean in. God knows your church individually,
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Speaker0: Knows your church, knows the needs, knows the
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Speaker0: hurts, knows the pains, knows the possibilities, knows the days that are ahead.
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Speaker0: He knows individually, intimately how
5:46
Speaker0: your church is doing, how you are doing. Hmm.
5:50
Speaker0: And like a loving Father that loves us enough
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Speaker0: to correct us, He does that. But first, He wants to remind them of
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Speaker0: something that they're doing really well. And he says, it's that
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Speaker0: you are holding to the truth. He says, you have a lot of reasons
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Speaker0: to kind of skew away from the truth, a lot of false teachers, a lot
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Speaker0: of false doctrine, a lot of persecution, a lot of hardships in your city.
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Speaker0: And you, though all of that, are persevering and remaining
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Speaker0: in the truth.
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Speaker0: It is so difficult in our culture today, Bill,
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Speaker0: to stay true to the truth.
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Speaker2: Yeah. Yeah.
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Speaker0: And I imagine
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Speaker0: for them that their situation was not much different than ours.
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Speaker0: Um, though we seem like temptation
6:35
Speaker0: is at every corner and we don't have to look for it, it comes for
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Speaker0: us. For them, it really wasn't that much different, but they definitely knew where to
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Speaker0: look for it. Being in a city where there's a
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Speaker0: giant, um, throne,
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Speaker0: a giant altar to the false god of,
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Speaker0: of fertility, and for them on the streets
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Speaker0: is sexual immorality. Everything that still happens today was happening then,
7:01
Speaker0: and the temptation was still there. And at the same time,
7:04
Speaker0: Paul even says in Corinthians, he, or in Acts,
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Speaker0: he talks about this church in Ephesus before he leaves, and he says, you have,
7:11
Speaker0: uh, you have sheep in wolves' clothing that are coming to get you. Like,
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Speaker0: he warns them that there are people that act like you,
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Speaker0: talk like you, look like you, but they're liars. And they're going to try to
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Speaker0: take you away from the truth of who God is, what he values,
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Speaker0: what his word says. As believers,
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Speaker0: we must, if we want to be a church that pleases God,
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Speaker0: a people that are seeking revival, we must be people who
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Speaker0: hold true to truth.
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Speaker0: To my church, when we were looking at this, and to you listeners as well,
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Speaker0: in this moment, I just leaned in and said, you know,
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Speaker0: are we willing to always stand for truth
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Speaker0: regardless to the culture and context around us? Are we compromising?
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Speaker0: Are we gonna be countercultural? A revived church has
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Speaker0: to be, has to be in truth. There is no other way.
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Speaker0: And they have to be willing to love people enough to stand for truth and
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Speaker0: speak truth. For people then, it would have been sexual sin,
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Speaker0: sexual immorality. It would have been marriage and
8:19
Speaker0: that not being God's way. And it's still true today.
8:23
Speaker0: Sarah and I have, uh, some at a time acquaintances,
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Speaker0: friends in our church that were not
8:31
Speaker0: in a marriage that reflected God's truth, and they didn't know Christ.
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Speaker0: And so my wife and I had them in our home and I
8:38
Speaker0: remember with tears sharing with them the truth of what God desires for them in
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Speaker0: their marriage. And here they are, they're, they're married and they're not doing
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Speaker0: it God's way, these 2 women. And I
8:50
Speaker0: remember looking at them while they're in tears, thankful that we would
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Speaker0: be willing to share the truth with them. But as I said that, I said,
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Speaker0: until you meet Christ, I don't expect you to believe what I believe,
9:01
Speaker0: but I want to walk with you in the days ahead.
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Speaker0: I wish that they would have walked with us, Bill. I do. They didn't,
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Speaker0: but they know the truth.
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Speaker2: Yeah.
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Speaker0: And, and our
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Speaker0: church, they know that we will be people who have truth and
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Speaker0: speak it to people, because that's what we need
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Speaker0: to do as churches, is we need to be people who are willing to love
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Speaker0: someone enough to tell them the truth.
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Speaker0: This church They seem to be doing that,
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Speaker0: but at the same time, they're missing that very important piece, which is the love.
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Speaker2: Yeah.
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Speaker0: I don't think they're standing for truth and love, because Jesus says,
9:40
Speaker0: you're not loving me, and if you don't love Christ, then you don't love people
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Speaker0: rightly. And so Jesus says to them, he says, you're holding true
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Speaker0: to truth, but yet you have forsaken the love
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Speaker0: you had at first. Bill, when I was studying this, I was amazed, because I
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Speaker0: often said, like, This church had lost their love, and it was a slow fade,
10:00
Speaker0: you know, the honeymoon, and then eventually hardship came and all this, and they
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Speaker0: just one day never had that love again. The, the fire
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Speaker0: dimmed down. But the understanding of the word forsaken, it really speaks
10:12
Speaker0: to left. Mm-hmm. That it maybe wasn't so much that they
10:16
Speaker0: lost, they knew where it was. They knew
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Speaker0: Christ. Walked away. They walked away from their love for Him. That they
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Speaker0: chose lesser things in hopes that
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Speaker0: it would meet the need that they have of their love
10:30
Speaker0: they had at first for Christ. I also think it's interesting
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Speaker0: that Jesus says, you left your, your first love, you have forsaken
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Speaker0: that love you had at first. I think if you really lean in
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Speaker0: and understand that word, of that word first there, He's not saying that I want
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Speaker0: to be first on the list of all the things you do as a believer,
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Speaker0: or first on a list of all the things you do as a church.
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Speaker0: He's saying, I am the list. I want to be the list,
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Speaker0: the first from which all other things come from.
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Speaker0: Yeah. That if I am whom you love, then you
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Speaker0: will rightly love people, you will rightly stand in truth,
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Speaker0: you will rightly walk in integrity. All these secondary
11:09
Speaker0: things come from the first, and the first and only being
11:13
Speaker0: him, loving him. And so for
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Speaker0: them, it was a left love for Christ.
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Speaker0: Truth, yes, but not in love.
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Speaker0: And because they had left Christ as their love.
11:28
Speaker0: Let me give you kind of what Jesus says next of the way of returning,
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Speaker0: right? The revival invitation to this church.
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Speaker0: He says, consider how far you have fallen, repent,
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Speaker0: and do the things you did at first. Or we could say, remember,
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Speaker0: consider how far you've fallen, remember, Return,
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Speaker0: repent. Consider how far you have fallen,
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Speaker0: remember. Bill, I, I remember
11:56
Speaker0: when I made the covenant marriage commitment
12:00
Speaker0: to my wife, Sarah. I remember that.
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Speaker2: Right.
12:02
Speaker0: I remember her dad
12:03
Speaker0: walking her down the aisle. I remember being in love,
12:06
Speaker0: saying I do. And I remember in that moment
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Speaker0: that I'm making a commitment for the better and for the worse, for the
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Speaker0: good and the bad, for the hard and the easy. I remember
12:18
Speaker0: that. And there have been moments in our marriage where
12:22
Speaker0: I have had to go back to that moment and remember that commitment I
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Speaker0: made in the bad, and in the hard, and in
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Speaker0: the ugly. Remember,
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Speaker0: remember once where you were, he says, remember back
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Speaker0: to when you first met me. When you first
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Speaker0: encountered my love, when you first heard the gospel and received it,
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Speaker0: remember that moment, church. And then he says,
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Speaker0: repent and return.
12:52
Speaker0: That repentance, it is, it's a change of direction. It's a change of
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Speaker0: you once loved me in this way and no longer you do. So you repent
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Speaker0: of that and you return back to the ways of loving me.
13:03
Speaker0: Bill, knows a lot of
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Speaker0: this in my life that I'm wrestling in so much of this passage right now
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Speaker0: because I feel like if I'm not careful, Bill,
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Speaker0: as a pastor, and many of our listeners are pastors or ministers or leading in
13:19
Speaker0: prayer in their church, serving Jesus
13:22
Speaker0: has become my job, and that's
13:27
Speaker0: not okay. Yeah. I found myself when I studied this,
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Speaker0: I immediately was hit with the truth, the reality
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Speaker0: of, if I'm not careful, I can be just like this, filled with truth,
13:38
Speaker0: filled with truth. I mean, I'm paid to teach truth.
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Speaker0: Like, I have to know truth.
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Speaker2: Yeah.
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Speaker0: But doing
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Speaker0: it from a place where I've forgotten that I love
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Speaker0: Jesus. I heard this quote this week from a book,
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Speaker0: and it was from a pastor who, did not
13:58
Speaker0: follow faithfully in his ministry and had some moral failure
14:02
Speaker0: and later came back into ministry teaching
14:06
Speaker0: or warning other ministers of like, hey, here's how I got to this point.
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Speaker0: And he said this statement, he said, I began to see God's
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Speaker0: word as a tool to use instead of a
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Speaker0: treasure to behold.
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Speaker2: Wow.
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Speaker0: When I heard that, I had to stop his audiobook. I had to stop it
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Speaker0: and say, Lord, I think that's me.
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Speaker2: Mm-hmm.
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Speaker0: Many times I,
14:35
Speaker0: I am looking at your word. I'm spending time with you saying,
14:40
Speaker0: okay, Lord, what do I do with this? What do I do with this?
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Speaker0: Who do I teach this to? What truth do I need to pull out of
14:46
Speaker0: this? Having the truth, But forgetting you
14:50
Speaker0: are my love. And because you're my first and only love,
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Speaker0: I'm in the truth and walking in the truth.
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Speaker2: You know, Jordan, this is,
15:02
Speaker2: of course, such a profound
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Speaker2: passage and such a— I don't
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Speaker2: know of a more pertinent passage for right now.
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Speaker2: and in just our culture because number
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Speaker2: one, the great battle for the truth that's going
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Speaker2: on in America, and I'm
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Speaker2: old enough to just look back 20 years,
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Speaker2: 30 years, 40 years and see where we were just
15:35
Speaker2: in our culture related to the truth, and there's always been a battle, of course.
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Speaker0: Yeah.
15:41
Speaker2: We're at places now that are just
15:43
Speaker2: insane. I mean, it just— you just hear somebody,
15:47
Speaker2: groups of people, large groups of people saying things,
15:51
Speaker2: and you just think, how in the world could any person
15:55
Speaker2: really believe that?
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Speaker0: Right.
15:56
Speaker2: It's not even— it just doesn't— it's not
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Speaker2: even logical. It doesn't make sense. And I think we're at that spot
16:03
Speaker2: where Romans 1 talks about giving us up to a depraved
16:07
Speaker2: mind. Black is white, white is black, wrong is right.
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Speaker0: Yeah.
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Speaker2: So, for the church to stand up just unapologetically
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Speaker2: and say, hey, this is what God says,
16:20
Speaker2: is a battle.
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Speaker0: Yeah.
16:21
Speaker2: I mean, you, you got to have your,
16:24
Speaker2: you got to have your big boy pants on when you do
16:28
Speaker2: this in this culture because it's going to be confronted,
16:33
Speaker2: not going to be believed by many. And, and you have to
16:37
Speaker2: believe this is God's Word.
16:40
Speaker0: Yeah.
16:41
Speaker2: And the best thing I can do for people is give them God's
16:45
Speaker2: Word. Yeah. I remember when I was a young pastor, I would,
16:50
Speaker2: you know, you deal with these knotty things, these tough issues about marriage
16:56
Speaker2: and family and husband-wife,
16:59
Speaker2: and men with men, women with women relationship,
17:03
Speaker2: all that kind of stuff.
17:06
Speaker2: And you realize, man, if I stand up and just proclaim this,
17:10
Speaker2: it's going to have a little backlash, but you just have to understand
17:14
Speaker2: the Word of God is God— is inviolable and it's accurate.
17:18
Speaker0: Yeah.
17:19
Speaker2: And you have to believe in just the validity of God's
17:23
Speaker2: truth. Well, the Ephesians had done that apparently. Yeah. And that's great.
17:27
Speaker0: Yeah.
17:28
Speaker2: But what we're also seeing right now is
17:32
Speaker2: people who are really strong in their biblical
17:37
Speaker2: understanding. They just don't love Jesus.
17:40
Speaker0: Right.
17:41
Speaker0: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:42
Speaker2: And you feel it.
17:44
Speaker0: Right.
17:45
Speaker2: You know, and it's interesting to me,
17:48
Speaker2: Jordan, that the ones that
17:51
Speaker2: Jesus really had the greatest trouble with were
17:56
Speaker2: the Pharisees in His day
17:58
Speaker0: who
17:58
Speaker2: who had a lot of truth.
18:00
Speaker2: I mean, they— most of them memorized the Bible, the Old
18:04
Speaker2: Testament in their day.
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Speaker0: Right.
18:06
Speaker2: But just no grace.
18:07
Speaker0: Yeah.
18:08
Speaker2: And this balance of truth and grace, truth and love is
18:13
Speaker2: found all through the Scripture. You know, do not let truth and kindness
18:17
Speaker2: lead you. Bind them on your heart. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
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Speaker2: Jesus came full of grace And truth.
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Speaker2: So if you have all truth,
18:29
Speaker2: you become sterile, proud, you know,
18:33
Speaker2: knowledge puffs up. But if you— if you're just all grace
18:38
Speaker2: with no truth, it's just sentimentality, and you lose
18:42
Speaker2: the cutting edge of what God says is like a
18:45
Speaker2: sword that pierces through and helps people. It does
18:49
Speaker2: surgery on our— Yeah. hearts. So both, both are essential.
18:54
Speaker2: But you know, anything that we're doing that
18:58
Speaker2: illustrates that we're not doing the first and greatest
19:02
Speaker2: commandment, which is to love the Lord.
19:05
Speaker0: Love the Lord, yeah.
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Speaker2: With all of your heart.
19:07
Speaker0: Yeah.
19:08
Speaker2: And don't you love the way God
19:10
Speaker2: says that love— here's the first and greatest commandment: love the Lord.
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Speaker2: There's the focus. There's no There's no secondary love
19:19
Speaker2: that can brook that. Love the Lord with
19:23
Speaker2: all.
19:24
Speaker0: Yeah.
19:24
Speaker2: Not a little piece, not part,
19:27
Speaker2: but all of your heart, all of your mind,
19:32
Speaker2: all of your soul, and all of your strength.
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Speaker0: Yeah.
19:35
Speaker2: Just go after it.
19:36
Speaker0: Yeah.
19:36
Speaker2: You know, and I think what revival is
19:40
Speaker2: a lot of times— I know I've had times, we were
19:44
Speaker2: talking about this the other day, where I just realized I don't
19:48
Speaker2: love the Lord.
19:49
Speaker0: Yeah.
19:50
Speaker2: I mean, I— and that's going to happen,
19:51
Speaker2: right? Our love grows cold, the Bible says, and,
19:55
Speaker2: and we love the world.
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Speaker0: Right.
19:57
Speaker2: We get distracted.
19:58
Speaker2: We get our— our attention gets— and I mean, maybe some of our viewers
20:02
Speaker2: and listeners today are right there. They just say, I don't, I don't
20:06
Speaker2: know what happened. I did love the Lord.
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Speaker0: Right.
20:08
Speaker2: I can point back.
20:10
Speaker2: I can remember back to those times where
20:15
Speaker2: But my heart was just beating in unison, and I was so hungry for the
20:18
Speaker2: Lord. I couldn't wait to talk to Him, but somehow that's
20:23
Speaker2: grown cold.
20:24
Speaker0: Yeah.
20:25
Speaker2: And that's
20:28
Speaker2: nothing to be ashamed of
20:32
Speaker2: in the sense of feeling shame.
20:35
Speaker2: It's something to recognize and repent.
20:38
Speaker0: Yeah.
20:38
Speaker2: Because we're
20:40
Speaker2: in a battle for the truth of God, but we're
20:43
Speaker2: also— the world is battling for our hearts and
20:48
Speaker2: for our love because, you know, you do what
20:52
Speaker2: you— you pursue what you love.
20:53
Speaker0: Yeah.
20:54
Speaker2: I know guys who
20:55
Speaker2: love sports and they just pursue— they know every ball
20:58
Speaker2: team and every player and they just love it.
21:01
Speaker2: You know, that's their love.
21:03
Speaker0: Right.
21:04
Speaker2: And so they're
21:05
Speaker2: gonna pursue it.
21:06
Speaker0: You know,
21:06
Speaker2: if you love money, you're gonna pursue it.
21:08
Speaker2: If you love fashion, you're just gonna pursue it. And if you
21:12
Speaker2: love Jesus, and he's in that first place with all
21:16
Speaker2: of your heart, you're gonna pursue him, you know?
21:18
Speaker0: Yeah, yeah,
21:19
Speaker0: one of the questions I began asking myself from this is,
21:23
Speaker0: whatever I think about the most is probably what I love first.
21:27
Speaker2: Yeah, yeah, that's, yeah.
21:29
Speaker0: And if it's not the Lord,
21:31
Speaker0: then it's a lesser thing.
21:33
Speaker2: I heard a guy say one time,
21:35
Speaker2: you know what, you love what your mind
21:39
Speaker2: goes to when it's in neutral.
21:41
Speaker0: Yeah.
21:42
Speaker2: So when
21:43
Speaker2: you just don't have any pressure to think about anything else, what do
21:47
Speaker2: you go to?
21:47
Speaker0: Yeah.
21:48
Speaker2: Video games, is that— Yeah, yeah.
21:50
Speaker2: Social media, is that what you go to?
21:52
Speaker0: Right.
21:54
Speaker2: And there's something about Christ so
21:58
Speaker2: captivating our attention that we just go to
22:02
Speaker2: him. We listen to him. We want to talk to him. We want to read
22:05
Speaker2: about him. We want to talk about him with other people. Yeah.
22:09
Speaker0: And I
22:10
Speaker0: think the temptation perhaps for the church of Ephesus,
22:12
Speaker0: because they had great leadership, great teachers.
22:16
Speaker0: I mean, they were the church. Like, you really would have— we would
22:20
Speaker0: have looked at it and be like, wow, that's the model church. Is they had
22:24
Speaker0: a lot of spiritual activity with little to no intimacy
22:28
Speaker0: with Christ. But what they needed was intimacy with Christ,
22:31
Speaker0: that love that then fueled the activity
22:34
Speaker0: that came from it. And we're so— I'm so quick to flip
22:38
Speaker0: that constantly, flip that removal of that abiding in
22:42
Speaker0: Christ and that being with Christ.
22:44
Speaker2: Jordan, as always,
22:46
Speaker2: we wanna pray this in, not just
22:50
Speaker2: a perfunctory, moment of prayer here.
22:53
Speaker0: Yeah.
22:53
Speaker2: But I
22:55
Speaker2: wonder in a moment if you would just lead us,
22:58
Speaker2: and I want to invite the listeners today
23:02
Speaker2: to walk into the throne room of the presence of God
23:08
Speaker2: with us and to really pray in the next
23:12
Speaker2: few minutes. And if I could, before you pray,
23:15
Speaker2: Jordan, I want to ask all of us, question,
23:19
Speaker2: and it was a question that Jesus asked
23:23
Speaker2: a man that He really loved.
23:27
Speaker2: He encountered him after the resurrection,
23:31
Speaker2: and He said, Peter, do you love Me?
23:37
Speaker2: That's so simple. Don't you know that
23:40
Speaker2: just pierced Peter's heart?
23:42
Speaker2: Yeah. And I think we ought to We
23:46
Speaker2: ought to listen because I think the Holy Spirit, as He's calling
23:49
Speaker2: us back, wanting to revive us, wanting to use
23:54
Speaker2: us, wanting to create a movement to Him,
23:59
Speaker2: do you love Jesus?
24:04
Speaker2: And if you don't, what do you love?
24:07
Speaker2: What's taken first place? What's garnered your attention?
24:12
Speaker2: What's pulled you aside? What's— you know, our dear friend Daniel
24:16
Speaker2: Henderson says, Satan doesn't have to destroy you, he just has to distract you.
24:21
Speaker2: And have the things of this world kind of like
24:25
Speaker2: Martha just drawn your heart away?
24:29
Speaker2: Or do you love Jesus? Do you love Him?
24:32
Speaker2: Yeah. And so Jordan,
24:35
Speaker2: would you lead us And, uh, crying out for
24:40
Speaker2: that.
24:39
Speaker0: Yes.
24:40
Speaker2: Let's just pray for a moment.
24:42
Speaker0: And so, Lord, we,
24:43
Speaker0: we do. Christ, we ask you the question, have,
24:46
Speaker0: have we forsaken the love we had for you?
24:51
Speaker0: The love we had at first?
24:54
Speaker0: So right now, each one of us, Lord, we come before you,
24:58
Speaker0: enter into your throne room. You say, come in with boldness.
25:02
Speaker0: And I come with the question, Lord, Have I forsaken You?
25:05
Speaker2: Hmm.
25:07
Speaker0: Have I left You? The love I had for You
25:10
Speaker0: at first? Lord, I pray that You would,
25:14
Speaker0: uh, remind each one of us right now of
25:18
Speaker0: the love we once had,
25:21
Speaker0: the truth and love we once walked in.
25:26
Speaker0: And we repent from how we have left
25:30
Speaker0: that. And we return to you,
25:33
Speaker0: a good Father, that we may
25:37
Speaker0: walk in your love,
25:40
Speaker0: be in deeper love to
25:43
Speaker0: you, God. Mm. That we would— you would
25:47
Speaker0: be the first thought of our day, Lord, that we'd
25:51
Speaker0: roll out of our bed and land on our knees because you're the first person
25:55
Speaker0: we want to talk to. Amen. As we go through our
25:59
Speaker0: day, that we would carve intentional meeting
26:03
Speaker0: time with you. You would not be a side conversation. You would
26:06
Speaker0: be the conversation. And then as we go, Lord,
26:09
Speaker0: that we would continue that conversation. We would continue to speak,
26:12
Speaker0: continue to listen, continue to
26:16
Speaker0: love you. And so, Lord, we do. We come.
26:22
Speaker0: We repent. And then, Lord, we pray for the
26:26
Speaker0: churches of our cities, of our state, of our
26:30
Speaker0: countries, wherever we're at, Lord, that it would be true that
26:34
Speaker0: we would be people of truth and we would be madly in love with
26:38
Speaker0: you. That when we speak truth, we're speaking it because
26:43
Speaker0: we are meeting with you. We love you and you
26:47
Speaker0: are speaking through us, Holy Spirit, in that moment that we would speak
26:51
Speaker0: truth in love. We would love people enough to
26:55
Speaker0: tell them the truth, God. Lord, I pray that we would listen
26:59
Speaker0: and be quick to obedience. Mm-hmm. And that as a church,
27:04
Speaker0: Lord, that we would repent of anything that we have not upheld to
27:07
Speaker0: the truth. And we would return to you in that,
27:12
Speaker0: Lord. I think that's what a revival would truly look like,
27:16
Speaker0: is churches Lord, if sweeping revival came,
27:20
Speaker0: there would be churches that would have to change some doctrinal statements that
27:24
Speaker0: they've created instead of finding it in the truth of your
27:27
Speaker0: word, because they repent and they say, no, no, this is
27:31
Speaker0: what God's word says, and I love him and I
27:35
Speaker0: must uphold his word. So, Lord, would you move in such a way that
27:39
Speaker0: the church would find itself in deeper love to
27:43
Speaker0: you? Amen. and we would as followers of You in Jesus' name.
27:47
Speaker0: Amen.
27:48
Speaker2: Amen. You know,
27:51
Speaker2: folks, I've had the privilege of being in quite
27:57
Speaker2: a number of seasons of
28:01
Speaker2: revival and in environments and places where
28:05
Speaker2: God just manifested Himself and I have to say the
28:09
Speaker2: one thing that immediately becomes
28:13
Speaker2: evident is the love of God.
28:16
Speaker2: People just fall down. That's why worship is so
28:21
Speaker2: prominent. I remember going to Asbury a few
28:26
Speaker2: years ago when that 16-day movement happened
28:30
Speaker2: and it was just nonstop worship.
28:34
Speaker0: Yeah.
28:35
Speaker2: And there was teaching and all of that. There was testimony and
28:38
Speaker2: confession, But it was just people in love with Jesus and
28:45
Speaker2: it was evident and it was contagious. So Lord,
28:49
Speaker2: take us there. Amen. Amen. And we're so glad you
28:53
Speaker2: joined us and listen, next week we're going to continue
28:57
Speaker2: this discussion on how
29:01
Speaker2: Jesus tells us to come back to Him in revival
29:05
Speaker2: And I hope you'll join us again and invite some others to
29:10
Speaker2: come and be with us on One Cryer.
29:14
Speaker2: We'll see you next time.