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Getting Back to Basics: The Love We Had at First
Robert Wurtz II

Robert Wurtz II (birth year unknown–present). Robert Wurtz II is an American pastor, author, and Bible teacher based in St. Joseph, Missouri, serving as the senior pastor of Hillcrest Bible Church. For nearly three decades, he has focused on teaching advanced biblical studies, emphasizing the Spirit-Filled life, the New Covenant, and historic evangelism. Wurtz has authored four books, including Train to Win, Love in Crisis, and The Love You Had At First, available through major retailers like Amazon. He hosts websites such as thegirdedmind.org and biblebase.com, where he shares hundreds of free articles and teaching videos, also featured on platforms like sermonindex.net and YouTube. Known for his commitment to preaching the "whole counsel of God," Wurtz critiques modern seeker-friendly messages, advocating for bold, repentance-focused evangelism rooted in the Book of Acts. A native of the Kansas City, Missouri, area, he lives in St. Joseph with his wife, Anna. His work extends to conference speaking and moderating online Christian communities, reflecting his passion for apologetics and classical revival. Wurtz invites in-person attendance at Hillcrest Bible Church for Sunday and Wednesday services.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker continues their study on getting back to basics. They discuss the importance of becoming fishers of men and evangelizing to win souls for God. The speaker then introduces a new subject titled "the love that we had at first." They highlight the story of the church at Ephesus, who had once had a great love for Christ but gradually lost it. The speaker emphasizes the need for Christians to retrace their steps and rediscover their first love for God, as it is a travesty to give that love to someone or something else.
Sermon Transcription
We're continuing our study of course this morning and the subject that I have titled getting back to basics We are moving into chapter 8 last week. We talked about becoming fishers of men and that God expects us to Begin to walk a path where we begin to win souls and evangelize and do his work in the earth And we talked about that last week and this week. We're going to look at a new Subject that I hope that we can just cover this week and possibly we will Extend on beyond this next week, but I've entitled this particular chapter the love that we had at first The love that we had at first. I remember some years ago God had given me a series that was titled ten keys to total victory I had sit out for about a year from teaching God was doing a work in my life and at the end of those Twelve or so months maybe eleven months. It might have been God gave me that series and the which he started to Show me through that series that God can give us the victory over sin and one of the points in there And I'm going to switch to the mobile their brain one of the points there Is that we need to get back to the love that we had at first for God How many of you remember when you first? Turned to the Lord and the great zeal and the love that you had for him and the way that you walked with God and the desire that you had to be in the Word of God the desire that you had to read the Word and to even tell others about Jesus and you thought about the Lord all the time and you talked about the Lord all the time He was always on your mind. You didn't miss a prayer meeting. You didn't miss a service. You were eat Sleeping and breathing God and a lot of people probably thought that you had taken things just a little bit too far Some people probably thought you'd taken things a little bit too far But when we have that first love as it were experience in God God doesn't work in us and I would dare say that there is more Growth that takes place in those months Hopefully years of our Christian walk than probably does from there on after we move out of that initial experience We grow very much during that time Because of our great desire to have and to know all of these things that God would have us to know So I want to look this morning at getting back to the love that we had at first for God Follow with me if you'd like in your notes or you can just listen These are just my hand notes that I give out the reason for everything Okay, the reason for everything Christianity in its purest form boils down to just two requirements That we love the Lord our God with all of our heart soul mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves Upon these two commandments hang all of the Word of God How many of you know that All of the Word of God boils down to those two things Those are the two issues that it really boils down to without these two basic elements in our Christian life No matter how much we give to God or no matter how much we do for God. It is all in vain It's all in vain It is all in vain if we do not have the love of God First John 4 16 reads and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God in God in him This love that we know and believe then begins watch this to have a profound effect on us verse 11 states Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another You see this thing becomes Progressive and it begins to spread when we recognize the love that it God has for us It begins to spread when we deeply consider the genuine sacrificial love that God poured upon us while we were yet Sinners the natural outworking of that love is that we love one another How many of you well, you don't have to raise your hand, but many of us saw the passion Amen, and it had a very profound effect on me the first time I seen it and then the second time I've seen it It had a more profound effect. But the third time I saw that movie. I'll tell you what it did to me It didn't bring a tear to my eye. I Got up out of the movie theater and I said it would be a Travesty for me to not win the loss and to do what God has called me to do after the suffering that he suffered for my sins It would be an absolute Travesty to step on the love that he showed for us when he died on the cross and it turned my life around in that regard when we deeply consider the deep Genuine sacrificial love that God poured upon us while we were yet sinners The natural outworking of that love is that we love one another With the revelation of God's compassion for us to be revealed and it is allowed when we allow it to sink down It touch every fiber of our being Scripture tells us that it would be impossible to shut up the bowels of our compassion when we see others need The Bible said if you see them in need how dwelleth the love of God in you It is a contradiction church when we could see someone in need and shut our bowels of compassion up and still proclaim That the love of God dwells in us. The Bible says how could this be? Moreover it is the greatest evidence of all that we are truly saved that our great love for God is Translated to also include one another as it is written a new commandment I give unto you Jesus talking that you love one another as I have loved you That you also love one another By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one to another See there are a lot of things that we use as an indicator to determine whether or not somebody is really legit But the question is do you have loved one to another? This is how Jesus said all men will know that you are my disciples because listen It's so unique to see people love one another The world doesn't see that when you genuinely love one another when you Open up and you begin to share with people and you give to people that is so rare that if we would just do that The world would say that's Jesus That's Christ I've never seen such a thing as this when we love one another as God intended The one who searches the minds and the hearts will give to everyone according to their works and those works must have been motivated by love They have to be motivated by love church They have to be motivated by love. We're going to bear that out to whom much is forgiven To whom much is forgiven there was a time in Jesus ministry that a woman came and washed his feet with her tears and Wiped them off with the very hairs of her head Jesus said the woman did not cease from kissing his feet Have you ever seen such a thing church? Have you ever seen that? Can I share something with you? last night We were in the nursing home that beautiful Savior And I remember this woman I walked up and I'll never forget it in the years that we've been in this nursing home ministry I'll never forget this woman She extended her hand out to me like this and she had such a skinny little hand That you could tell that she probably was only weeks probably from death There was wasn't much left of her and she extended her hand out because she wanted to be touched She wanted somebody to touch her She wanted somebody to touch her and I can still remember seeing the little ligaments in her hand moving under the skin that she just Extended that hand out to me to touch her There was another person this happens all the time They will just take you by the hand church and they'll just start kissing your hand. I'll just kiss your hand Let me tell you something They've come to a place where they appreciate and say it is good and blessed are the feet of them To bring the gospel. They are so humbled in their condition that when they see you they just want to kiss your hand You know church. I believe that's what this woman was doing they came to Jesus the Pharisee who resented this showed no such affection for Jesus and Herein lies the great lesson about our love for Christ Jesus answered this Pharisee and he said wherefore I say unto you her Sins, which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little You know that you know what? We've all sinned. I didn't I knew I didn't probably wouldn't get much of the name in there We've all sinned church hmm We've all sinned the Pharisee showed by his actions That in his own view his sin was about $50 worth Compared to this woman's 500 Hmm in his view in his view not God's view church It only takes about one cent of sin to keep us out of heaven, okay, she didn't know it hmm The greatest sin that this man demonstrated was pride and arrogance and God hates that it's number one and is listed seven things He hates pride church, you know what pride is Webster defines it as excessive self-esteem We live in a world that teaches self-esteem on every hand Teach our kids feel good about yourself. No matter how you live Want to know how to feel good about yourself hmm Live with a clear conscience before the Lord You'll feel all the good and you'll be humble before God You'll be humble, you know humility does something for you You can go around the world and I'm told that people have they feel much better about themselves everywhere in the world but in America And we teach self-esteem so much why is that I believe because their hearts are so much humble more humble before God They're humble they're humble they appreciate what they have They're thankful when we get so proud as this Pharisee was His pride and arrogance stripped the man of any real and meaningful love for God You hear what I said his pride and arrogance stripped him of any real meaningful love for God He should have known that one cent of sin was enough to damn his soul And that he ought to be thankful Because he perceived his sin so little and the woman knew her sin was so great. We learn a great lesson about the human condition See it wasn't that her sin Necessarily was so much greater than his it was that she was so much more conscious of her sin than he was hmm She was so much more Conscious of her sin than he was When we cease to appreciate the love that God showed us by sending his son to die upon the cross for our sins We neither kiss the Lord's feet as it were with our love and nor do we welcome others to do likewise We don't welcome anyone. It's a matter of fact. What's what's she doing over there? I'm trying to talk to him Hello There she is over there kissing his feet crying all over him I'm trying to talk to this man See she didn't he didn't recognize His sin like she did and had a profound effect on the way She viewed Christ as opposed to the way he did he showed almost no love for Christ or his neighbor in this passage and And it began when he would not recognize his own great need for forgiveness He did not stop to consider listen. He did not stop to consider himself You know Galatians 6 and 1 tells us to the spiritual will consider themselves Notice I didn't say the sinners the spiritual consider themself Lest they're also tempted. That's what allows them to be able to restore people when they fall they consider themselves It doesn't mean that you necessarily fell and you can relate to them and well, I fell this week So, you know what brother, you know birds of a feather flock together. So I'll lift you up because you can lift me up. No Listen when you you can walk in victory and still consider yourself and lift them up That's what God wants us to do That's what he wants he did not take time to name his sins one by one He conveniently cast his thankfulness as far as the East is from the West where God likewise had cast his sins That's what we do church. We don't even take time to reflect on what we did and therefore we're not thankful For what God did therefore we do not love as we should You see the progression when we just have this hurry up drive-through mentality I'm gonna drive through and get my sins forgiven. You don't even stop to consider the magnitude and the enormity of your sin Therefore you're not thankful. Therefore you do not love This woman hear me church. You have to get this. This will change your life If you get this point this woman this woman Considered her sins and she realized how great it was for her to be forgiven and she loved much She loved much. How could a person truly love? When they never considered their self They don't consider their own sins. I buried it under the blood Yeah, you did but you're still a sinner oh Oh You're forgiven You're not perfect You're not perfect. Let me tell you something church if we get this fact, you'll get to have victory in your life Because God resists the proud He gives grace to the humble When you look at your sin and you see him for what they are and you say war is me Even as the Prophet Isaiah for I am undone I'm a man of unclean lips. This is the Prophet of God who foretold the coming of Jesus Christ He said I am a man of unclean lips and In that humility God pours the grace on him to be able to live, right? God will resist you if you're proud Will resist you will push you away Is it his arrogance? Expected God to forgive him as Expected him. Listen, he expected God to forgive him. You know what when you act like that, you're not thankful. Oh God owed it to me He died on the cross he owes me forgiveness That ain't even the right spirit church. He's gonna forgive you. Yeah, but why can't we just stop and be thankful, huh? Can't we just stop and be thankful long enough that we would love That we'd love the Lord So that if we would just love the Lord we could then love our neighbor Love people in need and be moved with compassion to touch the lost The church at Ephesus stage to the church at Ephesus Had the greatest teaching available in the New Testament and especially on the subject of love Both Paul the Apostle and John the Revelator worked diligently with this church Paul in the book of Ephesians writes that we should be holy and without blame before him and love and Commends the church for their love for the Saints in verse 15 of chapter 1 in chapter 2 verse 4 He reminds the people of the great love wherewith God loved us when he quickened us together with Christ while we were dead in sins in chapter 3 verse 17 Paul tells us that we should be rooted and grounded in love and in verse 19 We read these words and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God in chapter 4 verse 2 We are admonished to bear with one another in love and to speak the truth in love Until the body is built up in edified verse 16 He says a lot about love done in church constantly telling them about love Perhaps chapter 5 verse 1 and 2 are the most telling be there for followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and it's given himself to us For an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor Three times Paul tells the husbands to love their wives as themselves Even as Christ also loved the church and he gave himself for it And then finally Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Made two final pleas in the book of Ephesians concerning love closing with this Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with all of them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Amen in sincerity Sincere love church Not loving in word and in time But indeed in truth, you know talk is cheap, isn't it? Didn't talk cheap, you know, we can all say I love you But wouldn't it be great? We just showed love Hmm, I prefer I don't know about about you, but I prefer Somebody show me love as to tell me they love me. I Might be a weirdo But I prefer to be sure I prefer you show me love and never tell me to tell me and never show me This talk is cheap I Know a lot of marriages where the husband and wife told each other they loved each other and kissed him every day and ended in divorce But I've seen some that maybe they told him right when it was the right time honey, I love you And they're still together today. They didn't make the pretense It was sincere. It was from the heart It can be noted Church the first Corinthians was written by Paul from Ephesus which contains the great love chapter 1st Corinthians 13 John the Revelator If you've ever read any of his writings that seems to be all he talks about his love Love love everywhere. You look it's love with John the Revelator He spent much time at Ephesus and it's believed to have written the gospel of John from there from Ephesus He penned these words For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him, you know The passage would not perish but have everlasting life Ephesus was a city inundated with teachings of love both in word and an example Say man, they had a lot of love being taught kind of like our church We got brother and sister Birch Who for the last 20 odd years or more have done nothing but show love nothing, but taught love The question is have we caught it and emulated it Because the Church of the Ephesus Church did not do that We're going to follow it the departure the departure John the Revelator writing from the Isle of Patmos all visions of the great and mighty majesty and glory of God I've often wondered many times. Why is it that new converts always seem to head to the book of Revelation? Huh? And I used to almost be like why is that? Why is that? Why is it that they would head to the book of Revelation? You know why that is Church? You know, you might read a lot of things and you might scratch your head But you're going to walk out of the book of Revelation with two things You're going to have a vision of the majesty and glory of God and you're going to have another thing and that's the fear of God And if you get those two stones in place God can work with you from there Oh, you may scratch your head at all the typologies and symbologies in the book You may not know one thing that's being said, but you'll go out of there saying something like this. I guarantee you one thing He's God Hmm Whoever heard of such stuff? He's gone John the Revelator wrote the book of Revelation As one of the first orders of business Christ gives a report of the condition of the seven churches at Asia he begins with Ephesus The Living Bible captures the great essence of what is happening here. Jesus says I know how many good things you were doing I have watched your hard work and your patience I know you don't tolerate sin among your members and you have carefully examined the claims of those who say they are Apostles but are not you have found them to be liars You have patiently suffered for me without quitting yet. There is one thing wrong You don't love me as you did at first think about those times of your first love how different things are now and Turn back to me again and work as you did before Or else I will come and remove your candlestick from its place among the churches Why would that happen? Why would that happen Church It would happen for this reason Without love we are not qualified to minister before the Lord Without love we're not even qualified to minister before the Lord We have to have love we have to have love what horror John must have felt He had taught at Ephesus He had written the book of John from Ephesus Here was Paul the great apostle writing from Ephesus 1st Corinthians 13 Sending letters back to them repeatedly telling them to love and here he arrives And he said John They've left the first love They've left the love they had at first For me Well, you don't find the love for God like you had at first You will not find love for one another either Hello You won't find it. You won't find it Church This was no different than the Pharisees There was a lot of business going on They seem to be doing everything right But their motivation was all wrong They had become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal and all of these things profited them nothing Their hearts were hard in church We're going to get to that in a minute praise the Lord There was a lot of business, but there was no real fruit They hated sin, but they did not balance it with the love of Christ or love for Christ They were no different from the Pharisees that Jesus chastised in the ears years that he walked the earth they had abandoned their love for Christ that should have been chief and foremost the Greek word is protos and If there is no real love for Christ, we need not look for love for the Saints Or vice versa Listen church in an atmosphere where there is no revival and people do not live holy. There is no love and there is an extreme atmosphere of distrust among each other and It erupts into all sorts of kinds of schisms and fightings and everything That is why it is so important to grab hold of this atmosphere revival that we're in today Because if you have lost faces at where you can regain it in that humility at the altar and trust can be restored Hear me tonight this morning Trust can be restored when people see brokenness church. It changes their mind About you no matter what you've done. I don't care what you've done Brokenness causes people to want to love you once again when they see Christ in you There's a lot of business But no real fruit they hated sin they didn't balance it with love they had abandoned abandoned their love For Christ that should have been chief If there's no love for Christ, we need not look for it among the Saints After all that teaching on love and all the example of what love was they forsook the great love that they once had For Christ and I dare say when you forsake that love your spiritual growth comes almost to a stop What is there to drive your zeal hmm, I remember Phineas date How much time do I have I need to move? I Remember Phineas date in his book. He said he went an angel. He's just telling this story. I think it's hypothetical just by analogy Went to this pastor this angel and said pastor. Give me your zeal I Said what give me your zeal he reached in the man and pulled out a zeal Took the zeal out put it on a Bunsen burner. I mean, you know what those are Until it started separating into various strata Then he started breaking it down by percentage Starts at the top. Well, I Remember how it broke down went something like this 25% pride for the organization 15% wanted to be seen by the congregational members 10% strife and envy 20% hmm Hello got down to the bottom About 10% love for the Lord They naturally in an atmosphere such as this would have hated sin without having the heart of God to love lost souls They would have been moved by contention strife fear envy resentment jealousy guilt vain glory everything but The love of Christ to do his work. They would have condemned the guilty without considering their own sins Perchance they had so forgotten their sins that they may have thanked God listen that they were not like the sinners like the wretched Publicans as to the Pharisee did and prayed with himself Hmm that's how you get Pretty soon you get so puffed up. You don't even have the love of Christ. You start thanking God You're not like this poor wretched sinner. You didn't even realize it wasn't for the hand of God there you went Amen, there you to win There you to win With them. Yes, the gospel is preached and we can rejoice But for the workers from their point of view it is all in vain because their motivation was not Compassion it was not unmerited love the fire in the end Scripture says we'll try every man's work of what sort it is And if it is birthed from a heart of great love that work will not fail the test why because love never fails It never fails church Love never fails When is there ever a time when showing love would be inappropriate There are not many Not many to everything. There's a purpose. I understand They condemned sinners and argued theology real good. They were real good at it Book of Ephesians is the most powerful theological book in my opinion in all of Scripture other than possibly the book of Hebrews Talks about more doctrinal issues in the first chapter than we could discuss in five years teaching probably But they didn't have compassion they had left their first love Retracing your footsteps and we got to get cruising here. I got ten minutes The church at Ephesus like so many Christians once had a great love for Christ, but they lost it little by little the physics law of the conservation preservation the conservation of matter guarantees that The love didn't just disappear. It was redistributed somewhere else See things don't just disappear. They might change form, but they don't disappear This is a travesty in the body of Christ The blood-bought saints of the Living God begin to take the love listen That once belonged to God and they give it to someone or something else This is the true definition of harlotry To take the love that belongs to one and give it to another You know what? We distribute a lot of God's love and affection in a lot of bad places No, the Bible said love not the world and the things of this world. You know that word love there's a Greek word agape You know why it's that you can't just be a filet of the world Hmm you drop the world like a bad habit Mistreats you too much You got to love the world unconditionally Hmm After beat you up and leaves you for dead. You got to keep loving it. You got to exercise Unconditional love for the world There would have been filet. Oh you'd have left long ago How does this happen? It is simple Jesus has said that if you love me keep my commandments in verse 16 Jesus said that the Comforter would come in verse 17 He said he the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth is one that sinners cannot receive Because it does not see him or know him Why? Listen, because they do not have a heart to keep the commandments of Christ Say where did my love for God though? Let me help you because I'm not going to get through this lesson What happens is God wants us to do something and we quench the spirit And when that happens, we create a hard spot in our heart And the more we do that the harder the heart gets and pretty soon church We are so hardened that we cannot love We don't have a love for God like we should We don't have a desire to win the loss like we should trace your footsteps back. Think of every time God told you I want you to Do this and you said nope quench quench quench quench quench the spirit You're just hardening your heart pretty soon. You know what you don't even have you don't even have love for anyone You don't even have love for Christ anymore you start coming to church out of ritual It all began when you started quenching the Holy Spirit so we see then that the Holy Spirit is sent to steer us and Empower us to keep the commandments of Christ and in so doing bring forth the fruit of the Spirit Which above all things is love what happens the Saints begin to quench the spirit and they disobey the commandments Sins of omission he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not and sins of commission the more the Spirit of God is Hardened or quenched rather the heart of the soil gets The heart of the heart gets the heart of the heart gets the less impact the word has when it's sung You know what? My front yard is horrible. Have you been by there? It's a mud hole. It is a mud hole right now But you know what's really nuts over the last 10 years that I've lived there I have sewn anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds of grass seed in a in a space that you know Probably isn't much more than this And it's absolutely mud. You know why that is. I Talked to somebody who did grass Just last week. They say you know what you need to stir the dirt up brother You need to get the fallow ground stirred up Huh? You get the fallow ground stirred up in on your yard You need to get it broken up real good and fine Then just take this machine over that's full of seed and then it just kind of pokes the seeds down About an inch down in the dirt by the thousands and thousands Hmm throw some hay over it water it and come back in a few weeks. You'll have a real nice green yard I thought wow, it's kind of contrary to what I've been doing. I just I just get the big old spreader out I'll be honest with you put about five pounds of seed in there I'm just out there didn't till up the yard didn't nothing. I'm just out there. What's out of work? Did you do do do do do do do so you can see seed literally just laying on the dirt? hmm Amen, I thought this out. This is how you're supposed to sow it. I didn't know any different I literally did not know any different. Sometimes I might rake the grass a little bit. Did you did you? But you know what's worse than that church. I've been teaching Sunday school like that for 10 years Without teaching the people to cultivate their hearts And consider their sins And stir up the fallow ground I've come in here every morning on Sunday with my spreader And I've just spread I've laid it down so thick brother a lot of times thinking while I'm really doing God a service But you know what the problem was The people's hearts were not ready to receive the seed that word And it wasn't because we didn't have worship before the service It's because we don't stir up the fallow ground of our heart in this way We never allow God to bring us to a place of brokenness Will we stop Galatians 6 and 1 and so consider ourselves We begin to list all the sins that we did that got our heart hard in the first place and we we begin to repent We say God, I don't want to do that anymore. We begin to see ourselves the way we really are We don't do that and our heart is as flat and hard as can be We sow the seed on top The rain washes it away. Oh some of the seed goes down a little bit when a hard rain comes Just come by my house and look at the grass Years of sowing seed without stirring up the fallow ground years of it I Don't have time to get in the bottom section. I'll just tell you what I've done. Can I just give you my testimony? Oh Brother Tony don't mind The turn of last year God begins stirring my heart We're staring down the barrel of 2004. That's what I felt It wasn't long after that. I received a call from brother Tony When I looked into that man's eyes I saw a brokenness I have never seen in a human being in my life It's so stirred and moved me that I will never be the same I'll never be the same. I will never be the same church I Took a book that he had told me go home and read this God began doing a work and I began doing a tremendous amount of soul-searching and The more soul-searching that I did the more things I looked and seen just how messed up I was How many things I just prayed Lord cover it in the blood and he's saying no, I want you to turn that thing over. I want you to repent I Want you to consider this because I've got to plant a seed there So you'll bring forth fruit in that area again. Oh God, can it just say forgive me and get up and act like nothing even happened You see church I did that for 10 years I Never was humble before God. I got so proud and arrogant that God had to take the class from me in 1999 Just arrogant as can be Who's going to teach this class It's gonna teach this you tell you something church My life will never be the same from that day I said across from him at Burger King I Saw brokenness. I saw tears. I saw somebody trembling at the thought of their sins and I thought He ain't that much more of a sinner than me Or my tears Or my tears for my sins Where are my tears Why do I see the women like sister Sue and sister Dorothy come up here every time Communion service come in crying crying crying? And I've looked at him and I said Lord, why don't I feel that in my heart? Why don't I feel tears? Why don't I feel like crying Because my heart was hard And I needed to stir up the fallow ground. I needed a time of reflection To see how wicked I really was How vile Church If you would just allow your time self a time of reflection. I've got a notebook and I'll close with this I've got a notebook at home. I just bought last week. I'm not playing games with God anymore. I don't care I'm gonna have victory in my life or else I Don't care what you think. I don't care what my neighbors think also. I care about what God thinks I've been worried about the what men think for so long. What are they gonna think? Oh, he ain't quite got it together Well, here's some good news. I don't I Don't have it together. I Don't always have it together church. I Don't always have it together brother make care. I don't and to be frank. I'm tired acting like it. I Didn't fall last week either or last month. I didn't stumble two months ago I'm walking in the greatest level of victory. I ever had to God be the glory and let me tell you why that is Because once I reached a place to when I begin to walk in victory, I didn't say yeah, I'll tell you what Mm-hmm Look what I am I'm holy wrong with these sinners God said let me just withdraw my grace a little bit there son Boom down on the floor. I'd go again. Then I'd be like that man unable to lift my head God have mercy on me as sinner If we can walk in humility in the times of victory we'll walk in victory There's no other way to walk in victory God resisted the proud But he will give grace to the humble Everything that God does for you. You just keep getting more puffed up He's got to keep sticking the pen in you And I think God would prefer that that we would be so exalted in pride. We'd be like the devil himself As you see what happens Before long you begin to get prideful you begin to usurp the glory of God Then it ain't long and then you want the authority of God It's bad progression church Get you a notebook you can do what you want. That's what I did. Let God speak to you you be obedient to God I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I've told you what to do for 10 years I'm like God deal with you. I Understand you what I did and you know what? Sin is manageable When I'm in humility when I'll stand up and say I don't have it all together. I Need your prayers Then I go up and next week. I walk in victory because God's grace keeps propping me up and I keep giving him the glory Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean and I don't mean a false humility, but I mean I really am Undone, I know who I am Church I'm a wretched sinner When I came to that realization God started breaking the strongholds in my life and I believe I will walk in victory I'm gonna ride out into the sides of the north with clean hands and a pure heart. That's what I'm gonna do
Getting Back to Basics: The Love We Had at First
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Robert Wurtz II (birth year unknown–present). Robert Wurtz II is an American pastor, author, and Bible teacher based in St. Joseph, Missouri, serving as the senior pastor of Hillcrest Bible Church. For nearly three decades, he has focused on teaching advanced biblical studies, emphasizing the Spirit-Filled life, the New Covenant, and historic evangelism. Wurtz has authored four books, including Train to Win, Love in Crisis, and The Love You Had At First, available through major retailers like Amazon. He hosts websites such as thegirdedmind.org and biblebase.com, where he shares hundreds of free articles and teaching videos, also featured on platforms like sermonindex.net and YouTube. Known for his commitment to preaching the "whole counsel of God," Wurtz critiques modern seeker-friendly messages, advocating for bold, repentance-focused evangelism rooted in the Book of Acts. A native of the Kansas City, Missouri, area, he lives in St. Joseph with his wife, Anna. His work extends to conference speaking and moderating online Christian communities, reflecting his passion for apologetics and classical revival. Wurtz invites in-person attendance at Hillcrest Bible Church for Sunday and Wednesday services.