Holding On to Your First Love: The Priority That Protects Your Heart - Pastor Joel, June 21st

This Father's Day sermon emphasizes the critical importance of maintaining our "first love" for God above all other good works and responsibilities. Using Revelation 2:1-7's letter to the church of Ephesus, Pastor Joel warns that it's possible to be doctrinally sound, morally upright, and actively serving while losing the love that should motivate everything. The Ephesian church was commended for their hard work, discernment, and perseverance, yet criticized for abandoning their first love. The sermon challenges both fathers and the entire church to examine whether their actions flow from genuine love for God or from frustration, duty, or cultural pressure. True spiritual maturity isn't measured by knowledge or activity but by learning to love with God's love—a love that is undeserved, unearned, and transformative. The corrective path involves three steps: remember where you've fallen from, repent (change your mind and heart), and return to doing the works motivated by first love, particularly by returning to the cross and the gospel message.