Leaving Your First Love

Hello, this is Carter Conlon, and welcome to my kitchen again today. And it's just been such a privilege to do the devotionals I've been doing with you from here. And today it just has a very, very special meaning to me. Let me just explain things to you as I read to you from Revelation chapter two to the church of Ephesus, beginning at verse two. The Lord says to this church, "'I know your works, your labor, and your patience, "'and you cannot bear those who are evil. "'And you've tested those who say they are apostles "'and are not, and have found them liars. "'And you have persevered and have patience "'and have labored for my namesake "'and have not become weary. "'Nevertheless, I have this against you, "'that you have left your first love.'" You know, it was in the, some of you don't know this, but 40 years ago, 42 years ago, when we became believers in Christ, Pastor Teresa and I had a sheep farm, and about 40 years ago, I was in the kitchen of our farmhouse and I was praying a simple prayer. And here's what I prayed. I said, oh, Jesus, if you will touch my life, and if you will set me free from everything that binds me and restricts me, I will live for you all the days of my life. And it was in that farmhouse kitchen that the Spirit of God touched me in such a profound way I will never be able to forget it. And from there, the rest is history. It was, we were off into ministry for many, many years. And I pastored as a senior pastor for 26 years. I've been an associate for 10 years. And here we are after 42 years. And it's interesting that I'm finishing where I started. I'm back in my kitchen again. And I'm praying the same thing that I prayed 40 years ago. My prayer is, Jesus, if you will touch my life, if you will give me a fresh baptism of your Holy Spirit, God, you will give me the strength. I will finish my days out living for you with all of my heart. Now, the sheep are gone. Those days are over. But here I am back in the kitchen again, and I'm just believing God for a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit. I don't want the Lord to have to ever look at me and say, you've done these great things, and you've tested and proven and taught and persevered, but you've left your first love. I don't want that ever said of my life. I wanna go back to the old farm kitchen. Those days were simple. We prayed, we believed, and God touched us. We went forward in the strength of God's Holy Spirit, and we were led by his word. And great fruit, I believe, was born for his kingdom's sake, just through obedient hearts. I wanna finish where I started. And I'm thankful today that God's brought me back. In the last week and a half of being a senior pastor in my entire life, he's brought me back to my kitchen where it all began so that one more time I can say, oh, Jesus, will you touch my life? Will you strengthen me? Will you knock out the boundaries and borders that age would wanna put around me? Would you give me something I've never had of you before, and would you give me the power to make a difference in my generation? My brother, my sister, let that be your prayer today. If you've lost your first love, just come back, and you'd be amazed, you'd be amazed the things that God will bring back into your life that you thought were lost forever. God bless you. See you again tomorrow.