Return To Your First Love

The Lord Jesus is saying, if you wish to enter my kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, you need to be first and foremost poor. What is poor? Lord, I am hopeless. What is poor? Lord, I am useless.

What is poor? Lord, I am good for nothing. What is poor? I am bankrupt. I am paralyzed.

I am blind. I am dumb. All this is poor.

The Lord is saying, if you come to me and you say, I can do this for you, Lord, I can build this for you, Lord. I can bring people to you, Lord. Jesus says, I don't know you.

You cannot qualify until you come and say, Lord, I have sinned before you and before heaven. I am worthy of absolute nothing. I am the most wretched being ever to exist.

Have mercy on me, son of David. Have mercy on me, I the sinner. I am blind.

I am a beggar sitting at the wayside, begging for a drop of mercy from the Lord of mercy, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. When you come to the Lord confessing that you are absolutely dead, the Lord will say, you qualify. I seek the illiterate.

I don't need the educated, prudent people. I seek the ignorant, not the smart. If you think you're wise, then Jesus is not your portion.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And we spoke about this last Friday. We need to continue.

One thing we said, the Lord put these blessings in an order so perfect, so eloquent. So perfect, so eloquent. They fall into this perfect order so beautifully.

The first one is, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The second one follows is verse four, which is today's topic. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

The first time ever you're coming back to Jesus Christ of Nazareth. You were born in a Christian family, by the way. That could be the case.

It's not necessarily that you come from a different religious background or an atheist. No, you were born in a Christian family, raised in a Christian family. You went to church, maybe not every Sunday, but you've been to church.

You are to somewhat degree familiar with the Christian faith, but you have never ever been familiar with the honor of this faith, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. You went to church, but you never knew Jesus. You heard about him, but you never knew him.

So the first time you are coming now to entering a personal relationship, and this no one can tell you or teach you about it, except the Lord Jesus himself. When you truly have a real encounter with the Lord, it is then and then only you'll will realize who Jesus Christ is and what is he all about. For the first time ever, everything looks different, tastes different, is seen different than ever before.

That moment you will realize one thing, I am nothing but poor. I thought I was rich. I thought I was strong.

I thought, but all those thoughts were nothing but a delusion. Satan deceived you all those years. Now I'm coming, I'm saying, Lord, I'm poor.

What is poor? I'm empty. There is emptiness from within. Lord, I had millions of dollars in the account.

I was never content. I had all the wealth that I could ask for, but I was never happy. I had everything readily available at my fingertip, but I never never had peace from within.

I was always upset, angry. I lived in a chaotic lifestyle, yet I had everything. So when Jesus touched my heart, I realized I'm empty.

So when I came to him empty, and not only came to him empty, confessing to him that I am empty, what did the Lord do? The first thing he did, he filled me with his Holy Spirit. He filled me with his Holy Spirit. That's why step number two, blessed are those who mourn, who shed tears, who cry.

Why? Why mourning came after being poor? Because I came empty, he filled me with his Holy Spirit. The moment he filled me with his Holy Spirit, what happened inside of me? The light of the world came inside of me. The one who says, I am the light of the world.

So inside of me, for the first time ever, electricity is reinstated, and the light is on. Prior to that, there was nothing inside but total darkness. When the light came on, the Holy Spirit enlightened the entire me.

The whole of my being was enlightened by the Holy Spirit. When the light came on, for the first time, I saw all of my sins right before my very eyes. I saw them.

See, the Holy Spirit reveals your sins to you. When I looked at my sins, realizing then that every sin I committed, every crime I had done, broke this holy and sacred heart of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. When I realized what I have done to the very heart that loved me to death, to the very heart that sacrificed wholeheartedly for my salvation and redemption, when I realized the magnitude of my offense, I cried, I mourned.

For every moment, I was disobedient to Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I mourned. I cried, Lord, forgive me for every time I made a mistake and broke your heart.

As a true Christian, as a true Christian, I am not afraid of the Lord Jesus. I have fear of the Lord. I have fear of the Lord.

I am not afraid of him. Why? Because when I realized how much the Lord Jesus loves me, how can you be afraid with the one who loved you more than himself? How can you be afraid of the one who loved you and died for you on the cross? You cannot be afraid of him, but I have the fear of him. What is the difference between afraid and fear? The following.

If I'm afraid of the Lord, meaning if I make a mistake, I'm afraid he's going to chop my head and throw me in hell. This is being afraid of the Lord. But what is fear of the Lord? Is now I fear I don't make a mistake because the last thing I want to do is break his heart.

This is my fear. I'm not afraid of you, Lord. I am fearing not to hurt you because I know you love me.

I know you didn't come to judge me. I know you came to save me and redeem me, but my fear now, I don't want to make you cry. I don't want to upset you and break your heart anymore.

You don't deserve it, Lord, for the love you've showed me, shame on me that I really broke your heart. That's why I mourned when the Holy Spirit enlightened me, awakened me, opened my spiritual eye for the first time. I cried because I realized by the grace of the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the love of God the Father, I've realized how much I really hurt my Jesus.

The most painful, the most painful suffering the Lord endured until this moment was not the crown of thorns, was not the nails in his hands and his feet, was not the the whipping and the shredding of his of his pure body, was not that spear that went in his side. All these wounds after a little while can heal and the pain can disappear, but there is one wound cannot heal ever. The wound of the one you love the most and then he returns that love with a knife in the heart.

When the one you love the most turns around and hurts you the most, that wound cannot heal. Jesus loves us and we are loving Satan. Jesus calling us and we are going to Satan.

Jesus begging us and we are begging Satan. Jesus saying come to my holy church and we are going to Satan's house. Jesus says come to the light and we're going to darkness.

Jesus says come and praise me and we go and swear and use foul language. Jesus comes and says let me hug you. Instead we hug Satan and the world.