Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Conquering Familiarity with Return to Radical First Love
Ever felt the spark of your first love for Jesus fade into a routine? Imagine reigniting that fervor and transforming your spiritual journey! Today, we uncover the profound concept of true love as a choice, inspired by the story of Adam and Eve, and how their decisions reflect our own spiritual paths. Dive into Mark 6 with us, where we contrast the reactions to Jesus' ministry and explore the dangers of familiarity, both in our divine relationship and in our marriages. Drawing parallels with Dr. John Gottman's "four horsemen" of marriage, we discuss how criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling can erode not only our human relationships but also our bond with God.
In this heartfelt episode, we delve into the importance of rekindling our passion for God through personal testimonials of divine interventions and moments of profound spiritual guidance. Avoiding complacency and cynicism, we emphasize the transformative power of a passionate love for God, inspired by biblical tales and the radical inclusivity of Jesus' ministry. Reflecting on our personal journeys and unfulfilled promises, we urge a return to our first love, fostering a church environment brimming with miracles and authentic worship. Join us in this spiritual revival and rekindle your fervor for a life deeply rooted in God's love.
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I want to share today from the Bible around the call from God to your first love, your first love. Do you remember your first love? Yeah, some of you are smiling. Maybe it was the person you're sitting next to. Yes, anyway, we won't get into those stories. Today I want to talk to you about your first love of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And the concept of God is not going to force his way onto your life. He's not going to force your love. He could have created a world where there was robots, where he programmed in you will love me and you will obey me. That's not the world that God created. He created space. That's not the world that God created. He created space for you to love him or not love him. And in that environment, love, true love, is really possible. In fact, that's the only place where actual love is really possible is if you have a choice to not love God. Adam and Eve rejected God's love, rejected a closeness with God, rejected God's love, rejected a closeness with God. I really believe that God would have taught them all the wisdom they wanted to know, but they wanted to get the wisdom for themselves. They wanted to get wisdom apart from God and they grabbed a hold of the tree that God said don't go and get it from the tree, come to me and walk with me, me and I will show you wisdom. God was not holding anything back from them, but they wanted to grab it for themselves. When we get to Jesus, there's two stories that really demonstrate or exemplify this concept of loving Jesus and how that impacts the way that God works in our life.
Speaker 1:I want to read from Mark 6 today. Mark 6, verse 1. It says Then, when he came out of there and came down to his own country, the disciples were following him and when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue and many hearing him were astonished, saying when did this man get these things? And that his wisdom, which had been given to him, that such mighty works are performed by his hands? Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us? So they were offended at him. But Jesus said to them a prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives and in his own house. So he could not do many mighty works there, except he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them and he marvelled because of their unbelief. He was amazed. Then he went to the other villages Two times in the scriptures where Jesus was amazed. One of them is here, where people did not want Jesus in his own hometown. They were offended by him because they knew him. And the other time was when an outsider had extreme faith and believed in him and he was amazed at his faith. So the insiders no faith. The outsider had great faith. Both times Jesus was amazed.
Speaker 1:There were many people in the Bible in Jesus' time who were sick, who did not get healed. Jesus walked past many, many sick people to find one person who was hungry and had a desire and had a hunger in their heart to be healed by Jesus. He didn't heal everybody. He healed everyone who asked and called out to him. He healed. He did not heal everybody, though there's something in that for us, that Jesus comes to those who should know him, who should want him. Maybe we could say that in the church, right, those who should know him but didn't really want him. And then there was outside people who desperately wanted God in their lives, who desperately wanted change in their lives.
Speaker 1:This is what we call the tragedy of familiarity, the tragedy of that People. Have you been in a situation where people knew you when you were little, people who knew you when you were little, people who knew that they grew up with you? So they always see you that way. They always see you that way. They always see you as people used to call me Lukey, lukey boy, and they always call me Lukey boy. I'll always be their little Lukey boy. Yeah, You've seen that, like your grandma or whatever. They always see you stuck in time.
Speaker 1:So when you progress past that, it's almost like it's offensive. Who do you think you are? Do you think you're better than me now? I knew this church when there was 10 people. What do we think? We're a B-shot now, do we? I'm getting offended at people growing, getting offended at progress, offended at things happening that are good things. That's not a good thing. Familiarity will kill you. It will rob you of so much. It will rob your marriage, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Have you ever heard of the four horsemen of marriage? It's almost like an exact predictor of people ending their marriage like divorce. Right, they can almost predict it pretty clearly. They call it the four horsemen of marriage. Dr John Gottman. He writes about this.
Speaker 1:The four horsemen are criticism attacking people's personality or character rather than addressing behaviour, contempt, intentionally insulting and being disrespectful, often Sarcasm, cynicism, name-calling, eye-rolling, mockery, defensiveness, responding to criticism with counter-attacks or deflecting blame and stonewalling, withdrawing from interactions or shutting down emotionally. It's a predictor of the end of my and some of you are like doing a little checklist there. Which one have I done this week? Hey, we're all in that boat, we all need to change, we all need to get better. But you know, there's also some predictions of how your relationship with God is going. There's some predictors of how, if your heart for God may be in danger.
Speaker 1:And a huge one, guys, a huge one is familiarity. I'm familiar, I'm familiar with God, I know God. I've got God in a box. I can tell you what, god, you're allowed to do, what you're not allowed to do, what you can do, what you can't do. I've seen it all before and the result is these people got offended. You know, offense is a really powerful thing, powerful.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, offense comes when we think that we're more morally superior to other people. How dare you I'm at this level, how dare you treat me at this level? So can you offend it, having a very high opinion of myself. It comes from pride. That's where offense often comes from is pride. I'm above you. I knew Jesus when you were little. Jesus, you're not above us. I'm above you, man, you come from this small town. We saw you as a kid. That small town syndrome is what brought offence, and offence will destroy your life.
Speaker 1:Hebrews 7.12,. I love this verse. It's a challenging verse. It says Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. It says you know, the thing about offence is it never stops with you. Offence doesn't just stop with you. It always affects other people around you. That's why offence will destroy a marriage. Holding on to offence will ruin your family. It actually will teach your children how to be offended. It will set your children up for a fail. It will teach them to be cynical, even cynical towards God.
Speaker 1:I have a personal goal in my life. I think it would be a good goal for many Christians to adopt and that is I want to be very difficult to offend. Not impossible, please don't try. It's not impossible, but very difficult, very difficult I'm still a human but very difficult. That would be a great goal for every single person who calls Jesus, lord.
Speaker 1:The opposite of this is what the Bible calls honour giving honour. The word honour means to recognise the importance of something, to recognise the weightiness of something. When you look at Jesus, do you realise how weighty, how important, how good God is? Or have you got familiar with him? It's just God, he's just around, he's my buddy, how important, how good God is, or have you got familiar with him? It's just God, he's just around, he's my buddy. I think that was one of the first concepts I was introduced to Jesus, as he's like my best mate, he's like my buddy, and I think there is a certain aspect of that where God is close, like a friend. But he's not just a friend. He is the creator of everything seen and unseen. He's big, god is so big.
Speaker 1:And to become familiar is to stop seeing the importance of something. You can do that at home with your spouse. You can stop seeing them as important. If you ever think you're better than your spouse, by the way, you're in big trouble. If I'm here and they're there like I'm better than them, you're in big trouble. Familiarity will rob you in your family, your spouse, the grace of God. If you start seeing the grace of God, it's just a thing. Okay, you could be in trouble. I don't want to be Jesus' hometown is Nazareth, right? I don't want to be a Nazareth kind of follower of Jesus. Tell God what he can and can't do. I've figured it out. I've seen the Lord before I've paid my taxes. God, you stay in your box. I don't want to be this kind of follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Then there's another story, though, which is a much better story, and it's the story of Bethany, the town Bethany. It's a totally different response to Jesus. In Mark, chapter 14, we see this in verse 3. Being in Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat down at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil, and then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. This oil that she had was like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of oil, like you don't like have ten of these jars, right? This is like probably her inheritance, probably her inheritance for her marriage to come, like the money for her marriage, certainly the money for her future. This is her savings, and she has this one moment with Jesus and she decides to go all in in her passion for God and look what happens.
Speaker 1:But there were some who were indignant among them and said to go all in in her passion for God and look what happened. But there were some who were indignant among them and said why was this oil wasted? Why would you waste your passion on God? You could be doing something for yourself. You could be doing something that I think is a noble cause, but don't waste your passion on God, for it might have been sold for more than 300 and given to the poor.
Speaker 1:They sharply criticised her. In Australia, you might say that could have been saved for a house deposit mate Could have gone on a good holiday for that money. But Jesus looked at her and look what Jesus does. Jesus defends her strongly. He says leave her alone. Why are you troubling her? She has done a good thing. Some translations say a beautiful thing. For me, she's done a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:Jesus defends her, her passionate faith. It's not a calculated faith, measured out little by little. It's an all-in passionate faith that she has in Jesus, and many times this scripture, this story, has been kind of connected to like a building fund project or something like that Give all your money. Can I just talk to you about your heart for Jesus, though? Is this the heart that you have for Jesus? I have an all-in heart for Jesus, though. Is this the heart that you have for Jesus? I have an all-in heart for Jesus. He's not one of the options that I have in my life, and if Jesus doesn't work out, I'll just choose another one. No, no, I'm all in for following Jesus. We had baptisms a couple of weeks ago, and the guys were getting in that pool it was an amazing day together and they were saying I'm all in, I'm not going back.
Speaker 1:Jesus is the source of my life, and I want to ask you this today have you forgotten your passion for Jesus? Have you forgotten your passion? Maybe you had a passion back there in the day. Somewhere you had a passion. You had an unbridled passion for God, but you've maybe forgotten it. Maybe you've exchanged it for a more reasonable faith, like a more of a knowledge-based faith, rather than an exuberant love for God. This woman, jesus defends her.
Speaker 1:How do you keep your passion for God? That's a good question. How do you keep your passion for God? You need to remember what God has done for you. Remember? I remember the stories my mum told me of being healed as a baby, from when I was going to die. I remember how God saved me at 14 from being an angry young man. I remember how being in the field at night and crying out to God and saying, god, I need your help, and I remember him answering my prayers. I remember being 16 at youth camp and God showing me a vision of planting churches when I was 16 years old. He called me when I was so young. I remember and I remember what I felt at that time. I remember feeling anything is possible in the world. We could change the world.
Speaker 1:You could say that's a youthful exuberance, but that's the kind of passion for God that God is saying right here leave her alone. She has done a good thing for me. Her passion for me is good. Have you lost your passion for God? You need to remember what God has done for you. Remember, come back to it. Remember God calling us and leaving everything we've done to plant a church overseas, in a city we've never been to. Passion for God will get you there and coming back to Australia and starting this church and being so amazed that anyone would even want to join us and come with us. But passion for God is what's going to get us there. Are you passionate? But passion for God is what's going to get us there. Are you passionate?
Speaker 1:Assuredly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be told. As a memorial to her. We could preach Easter like this, maybe next Easter 1 Corinthians 15, jesus died, according to the Scriptures, for our sins, was raised to life on the third day and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Put your trust in him. Oh and by the way, there was also this one woman who was real passionate about Jesus and she broke her oil and she poured it over Jesus. And that's the gospel. That's what Jesus is saying. This woman's passion is actually becoming part of the gospel story that will go to the whole world. It's not an intellectual gospel that we have. It's not an intellectual gospel that we have Not only. It's a passionate love between God and us. It's a passionate love. So I want to encourage you today. Come back to your passion.
Speaker 1:Bethany was a special place. Many, many things happened in Bethany. Lazarus was raised from the dead in Bethany, they had the Passover in. Bethany was a special place. Many, many things happened in Bethany. Lazarus was raised from the dead in Bethany. They had the Passover in Bethany. This anointing Jesus ascended to heaven in Bethany. So many special things happened in Bethany. There was so much faith here. I really pray that our church is like a Bethany church, not a Nazareth church. Not a Nazareth church, not a Nazareth church, where we give mental assent to God but we're really offended by him asking us to change. But we're a Bethany kind of church where we have a passionate love for God and appreciate for who he is.
Speaker 1:By the way, jesus' treatment of women here is absolutely scandalous. We just do not appreciate how not cool what Jesus was doing here was at his time Like unbelievably empowering of women. Invited them into the closest circles. This is not done. Women invited them into the closest circles. This is not done. This is so culturally inappropriate what Jesus is doing for women right here. But he does it without even thinking. It's not like he's marching down the street with it, he's just like he's doing it. He's literally just saying treating them as wonderful, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 1:Aw Tozer says this about complacency. Complacency is a deadly foe of the spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present, but there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people. He waits to be waited, to be wanted. Sorry, too bad that with many of us he waits so long, so very long in vain.
Speaker 1:I really pray that in our church that our hearts would say God. Our prayer would be God, we want you, we want you, god in our lives, we want you, god in our lives, we want you. So what's robbed your passion for God? What has robbed it? People. Maybe people treating you badly could rub your passion for God.
Speaker 1:Disappointment will certainly rub your passion for God. Disappointment will rub your wonder, help you become cynical. Have you ever been disappointed? I have. It will rub you. But I want to encourage you. Don't let it rub you. Don't let disappointment rub you of your heart for God, your passion for him, your youthful exuberance. Don't let someone take it away. You might say well, luke, I'm not 17 anymore. I was passionate, I did go all in, but not anymore. I don't have that kind of passion anymore. You know, passion may look a little bit different. You know, at different times it may look different, but at the heart it's still the same.
Speaker 1:It's certainly not whipping yourself up. Remember the story about the prophets of Baal and Elijah is there and they're having a big showdown and they've got all the cows and they're going to call down fire and see which God is real. Can you imagine that? There's 400 on this side? 400. That's the way we used to do it in youth ministry 400 on this side and on this corner, in the red corner, we have weighing. It's one guy, one guy, and over here the 400 are whipping themselves, whipping themselves literally, whipping themselves into a frenzy, because they think that's where God will answer them by punishing themselves. That's one picture of passion. The other side of passion is Elijah just says put water on everything so that it's really hard to burn, because they're about to find out. It's not all about me, this is about God. And God comes down, burns the fire and all of those prophets are killed. That's a crazy story. It's a picture of passion for God, though it's a passion, so it's not whipping yourself up.
Speaker 1:But I pray that, as we get more mature, that our faith does not become quiet. I pray that Lowering our expectations, becoming more realistic, don't become more realistic. Stir up your faith and your passion for God. Stir up your faith and your passion for God. Let it out. The beginning of decline is losing your first love. That's the beginning of decline. I want to call us back from that. Today.
Speaker 1:There's a church in Revelation where God is knocking at the door and asking him to come in. This church is the church in Ephesus. It's the church that the book of Ephesians. It's the church that the book of Ephesians. Have you ever read the book of Ephesians? It's some strong work from Paul solid. He writes the book of Ephesians to this church. They've had pretty good input. Paul started the church probably the best church planner he's a 10 out of 10, right, he's the best church planner you've ever seen. Okay, the church is killing it. He started that church. And then Timothy, like solid, yeah, good guy, does well in the Bible. And then John, I believe, leads it later on, like great, great succession of pastors. I hope that, like you know, whoever leads this church beyond me is like that's, like you know, amazing, wow. So they've had some good leadership, had some good input.
Speaker 1:If you've read Ephesians, chapter 1, it's like a masterpiece, like they've had the best thing you've ever heard. But in Revelation, chapter 2, it says this okay, the angel of the Lord, the angel to the angel of the church of Ephesus, writes these things. Let me jump ahead. Okay, number two, verse two I know your works, I know your labor, I know your patience. Okay, so far, so good. And you cannot bear those who are evil. Good, and you have tested those who say they're apostles and not, and you found them to be liars Discerning. Very good, and you have persevered and you have patience. Wow, this is getting better and better and you have laboured for my namesake and you have not become weary, Passionate. That's great.
Speaker 1:This sounds to me like a pretty amazing church plant, like if people said that about our church plant, I'd be like we're doing good. Eh, this is working out for us. This is, by the way. This is Jesus speaking right. He says, verse 4, nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love. You've left your first love, guys. What's happened? Your love for Jesus, it's not there anymore. You're doing all of these good things, but your heart for God has gone somewhere. What's going on? And then he says here's the key, verse 5, remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Strong words, guys, strong words.
Speaker 1:I wonder if there's any people among us here today, maybe many of us who need to repent. I've lost the plot. Life happened. I didn't mean for it to happen, but somewhere along the line I've lost the importance of Jesus in my life, the weight of Jesus, the centrality of Jesus in my life. He's become a side thing, a handbag. My passion for him has waned.
Speaker 1:I've been around Luke, I've seen it all before, and I think in our church we are in danger of because our church is so friendly and so open, so nice, so there's an atmosphere here in our church of openness we are in danger of equating that with a lack of spiritual passion. But that is not the truth. This place is a place of spiritual passion, spiritual heart for God, not half-heartedness. We are relationally very relaxed, but our heart for God needs to be hot. Our heart for God must be hot and if it's not, I'm calling us to come back and repent, which just means turn back, come back to passion for God. I certainly pray that that's my heart as well.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this question If you've seen the Lord before, how much of the promises of God? Give me a percentage how many of the promises of God have you actually seen happen in your life. For me, I've still got lots to go. I have not seen yet many, many of the promises of God and I've got to tell you I have one life and I'm going to go after them. I'm going after what God has for us and I pray that you would come with us. I pray that your heart would also say we have one life to go after everything that God has for us and we're going to do it. We're going to go after it.
Speaker 1:The complacency trap for us is that I can do everything that I want to do in my life without God. That's a sad life. The busyness trap is I have too many important things to do when I should have only a few, and then numbing trap the distraction trap is pushing things to the side. This is the worst because in my heart I know when I'm distracting myself, I know that Jesus is more important, yet I am filling my life with other things. I am numbing the disappointment or whatever the distraction. I'm lowering what I believe God can do in my life, something that has been stolen from me, and I pray that you'll come back.
Speaker 1:So here's my invitation to us Repent, come back and stir up again your first love for God. Come back to your first love. Come back, let's be a church that is a Bethany kind of church, a church that is passionate for God and not treating God as just normal. You with me, you encouraged, challenged a little bit, I hope you are, because we're going to pray now, and we're going to pray now and we're going to give you the opportunity to respond in your heart towards God. Thank you, god, god, we're going to just stand before you right now. Give you our lives again.
Speaker 1:I pray for the people here who have maybe lost their first love.
Speaker 1:I pray today that that fire, that love for you, that passionate love for you, would be rekindled, would be breathed on by your Holy Spirit, not working it up, god, but surrendering to it, surrendering to great love, surrendering to great passion for you.
Speaker 1:I pray, god, that you would break down the disappointment, the failures of the past, the fear of man that would rob so many of a heart for you, a fence that has been a stumbling block.
Speaker 1:I pray, god, that you would come in and just deal with that stuff in our heart today and that you would stir a passion for us, a passion for you in us, god, and it would be lived out in our worship, in our lives, in our love for each other, in our big-heartedness, god, for you, in our dreaming for you, in our desire to lay hold of all the promises that you have for us. So today we repent, god, of our half-heartedness, our lack of zeal for you. We've let life get in the way. God, we turn back to you and say fill us again with the first love. May this church, future church, be a place like Bethany, where many, many miracles can happen. Because our prayer, god, is we want you, we want you in our lives, god, we need you. We want you in our lives, god, we need you. I pray that would be our prayer In Jesus' name, amen you.