Return to Your First Love: Remember, Repent, Repeat

Aug 28, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Subtle Shift in a Marriage Bed

When shared chores replace shared joy, even good routines can mask fading affection. Relationships risk becoming functional shells of their former selves when the engine of delight dies. The danger isn’t stopping loving actions, but losing the love that once fueled them. This slow transfer of passion happens when attention drifts to maintenance over connection. What begins as service can become obligation if not anchored in adoration. [10:10]

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.”
(Revelation 2:4, ESV)

Reflection: When did you last feel genuine delight in Jesus rather than dutiful obedience? What practical step could rekindle that warmth?

Day 2: When Spiritual Resumes Hide Empty Hearts

Impressive religious activity often earns applause while concealing cold affections. Enduring hardship and defending truth matter, but not if divorced from devotion to Christ. Like a lampstand without oil, service without love cannot sustain light. The Ephesus church’s achievements became liabilities when disconnected from their first love’s fire. [12:24]

“If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
(1 Corinthians 13:3, ESV)

Reflection: Which of your “good deeds” feel most disconnected from love’s motivation? How might you surrender them back to Jesus?

Day 3: Remembering Forward to God’s Unchanging Love

Memory anchors drifting hearts in God’s faithfulness. Unlike human relationships, Christ’s love never evolves—it deepens. Remembering isn’t nostalgia for spiritual honeymoons, but reclaiming the reality of His cross and future promises. The same hands holding Ephesus’ lampstand hold history’s timeline and your tomorrows. [24:59]

“We love because he first loved us.”
(1 John 4:19, ESV)

Reflection: What specific memory of God’s past faithfulness could strengthen your present trust? How does His future promise steady you?

Day 4: Repentance as Reordering Life’s Zipper

Repentance isn’t groveling—it’s resetting life’s priorities like realigning a jammed zipper. When lesser loves climb the list, repentance pulls them down so Christ’s supremacy restores order. This active reshuffling exposes good things pretending to be god-things, freeing them to serve rather than rule. [26:35]

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.”
(Acts 3:19, ESV)

Reflection: What “good thing” in your life demands repentance for claiming too much space? How will you practically reorder it?

Day 5: Returning to the Table Where Love Was First Tasted

Communion’s bread and cup are antidotes to amnesia. Tasting these elements reawakens palates numbed by routine religion. Here, love becomes tangible again—not as a feeling to manufacture, but as a feast to receive. The table invites rebels turned servants to become beloved children again. [33:37]

“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’”
(Luke 22:19, ESV)

Reflection: How might regular communion reshape your relationship with Jesus from obligation to gratitude? What bitter root might this meal sweeten?

Sermon Summary

Augustine’s diagnosis of sin begins with disordered desires, with loving good things in the wrong order. Jesus places the right order plainly before his people: love God with everything, then love others as self. Love therefore becomes the better question, not merely, “Is this right?” or “Is this lawful?” but, “What does love require of me?”

Attention becomes part of that ordering because whatever gets attention gets a piece of the heart. Martha’s anxiety shows how many things can demand attention until affection gets divided. The hidden heart needs examination, not just so its problem can be named, but so life, calendars, relationships, and mindsets can actually be reordered.

Love carries a subtle risk. Love does not simply disappear or drift away like something moved by outside forces. Love shifts. Love gets displaced, disoriented, and moved down the list, often without deliberate intention. The same activities can remain long after the affection underneath them has changed. Marriage makes that easy to see: chores continue, rings remain on fingers, and lives stay under one roof, yet delight in one another can quietly fade.

Jesus names that danger in the church at Ephesus. Jesus commends their hard work, perseverance, discernment, endurance, and refusal to tolerate evil. Yet Jesus holds one devastating thing against them: “You have forsaken the love you had at first.” The church’s spiritual resume could not make up for the loss of its engine. Service, truth, sacrifice, prayer, Scripture, and even hardship for Jesus can continue while Jesus himself is no longer first.

Paul presses the same point: gifts without love are noise, sacrifice without love gains nothing, and faith without love is nothing. Jesus must be first, not because he is egotistical, but because he is the source and sustainer of life itself. Every other good thing breaks when the zipper gets off at the top.

Jesus gives a threefold way back: remember, repent, and repeat. Remembering considers how far love has shifted, recalls God’s faithfulness, and holds onto promises still ahead. Repentance means turning and reordering, not merely leaving bad things behind but putting good things back in their rightful place. Repeating means returning to practices such as prayer, Scripture, worship, and gathered church life, not to fake a feeling but to make space for affection to flourish.

The gospel finally begins not with human love for God, but with God’s love for sinners. The cross reveals that Christ loved first, before anyone had priorities squared away. Communion becomes an invitation to remember Christ’s body and blood, repent of shifted affection, and return to the King’s table.

Key Takeaways

1. Love shifts before activity stops Love can move out of its rightful place while the habits it once produced remain fully intact. Spiritual activity can look healthy from the outside while the heart quietly runs on self, reputation, duty, or fear. Jesus cares about the engine beneath the activity, not merely the activity itself. [12:40]
2. Jesus must remain first Jesus does not compete with other good things as though he were one option among many. Jesus holds first place because life, breath, mercy, and every genuinely good gift come from him. Good things become crushing things when they are asked to heal, save, or sustain in ways only God can. [14:37]
3. Forgetfulness threatens first love Forgetfulness can cool affection more quietly than hatred ever could. Remembering God’s rescue, faithfulness, promises, and love in Christ exposes how far the heart has shifted. Remembering is not an attempt to recreate an old emotional high, but a way of being reoriented by what remains eternally true. [21:35]
4. Repentance reorders good things Repentance is more than feeling bad or turning away from obvious sin. Repentance names whatever has moved too high, even when that thing is a relationship, responsibility, comfort, or spiritual accomplishment. God restores order when the heart stops treating created things like gods. [26:11]
5. Christ loved sinners before response The gospel does not begin with the strength or sincerity of human affection for God. Christ loved first, gave himself for the undeserving, and made the cross the clearest picture of that love. Communion invites every returning heart to begin again with Christ’s love, not with the pressure to manufacture its own.

## [30:16]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:21] - Disordered Desires and Rightly Ordered Love
[02:23] - Asking What Love Requires
[02:46] - Attention Shapes Affection
[05:26] - The Subtle Shift of Love
[10:10] - Ephesus and Lost First Love
[12:40] - The Activity Remained, the Engine Changed
[16:51] - Nothing Without Love
[19:16] - Remember, Repent, and Repeat
[21:35] - Forgetfulness as Love’s Great Danger
[25:48] - Repentance Reorders the Heart
[28:09] - Returning to the Basics
[29:34] - God Loved First
[32:20] - Communion and Remembering Christ
[34:20] - Actively Reordering Life

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Revelation 2:1-5
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.’” [10:49] [12:40]

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” [17:01]

1 John 4:10, 19
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” [30:11]

“We love because he first loved us.” [30:16]

Observation questions

What specific things does Jesus praise in the church at Ephesus before addressing what is wrong with them? [11:03]
What does Jesus say the Ephesians have abandoned, and what three responses does he command in verse 5?
In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, what powerful spiritual activities or sacrifices does Paul mention that can still be empty without love? [17:01]
What are some ways the same outward activities can remain in place even after the affection beneath them has shifted? [09:09]

Interpretation questions

How could a church or believer work hard, stand for truth, endure hardship, and still abandon their first love? What motives might quietly replace love for Jesus? [13:16]
Jesus tells the Ephesians to “remember,” “repent,” and “do the works” they did at first. How is this more than simply trying to recreate an earlier emotional experience with God? [23:06]
Why does Paul use such strong words—“nothing” and “gain nothing”—for impressive actions done without love? What does that reveal about what God values beneath outward obedience? [17:32]
If Jesus is the source and sustainer of life, why do even good things become harmful when they take first place in a person’s heart? [14:58]

Application questions

What is currently receiving the most attention in your life—responsibilities, work, comfort, a relationship, entertainment, ministry, or something else? How might that attention be shaping your affection? [03:03]
Are there spiritual practices you still do—prayer, serving, giving, reading Scripture, gathering with the church—but that sometimes feel driven more by duty, fear, image, or habit than love for Jesus? What might help you honestly name that shift? [16:39]
What good thing may have moved too high in your life lately? In what ways have you looked to it to comfort, save, heal, or define you in ways that belong to God alone? [27:06]
What is one specific memory of God’s faithfulness in your life that you need to remember this week? How could remembering that moment help reorient your heart toward Christ? [22:04]
Rather than trying to force a feeling, which one or two practices could create space for love for Jesus to grow again—prayer, Scripture, worship, communion, or gathered church life? What would a realistic first step look like this week? [28:33]
1 John says that love begins with God’s love for sinners, not with people getting their priorities right first. Where do you need to receive Christ’s love and grace again instead of trying to earn your way back to him? [30:28]
Jesus invites his people to actively reorder their lives. Is there a change needed in your calendar, relationships, spending, habits, or attention so that Jesus is not merely included but truly first? [34:39]

Sermon Clips

58s

#RepentAndReorient

“Then we move to repentance. Jesus says repent, and I believe that repentance is the biblical word underneath this entire series. I think that for three weeks, we have been talking about reordering our affections, and the Bible has a word for it. It's repent. It's not what maybe your cultural connotation is as of late, which is a little more condemning and judgmental. No. The biblical meaning of repentance is this, to turn, change the direction, or reorient yourself. It's it's an actual movement. It it it's a it's another form of shifting, isn't it? Repentance is a is a mental shift. It's rethink everything you thought you knew. It's an invitation to reconsider what you've prioritized and loved. It is to realize that something has become disordered and allow God to put it back in its proper order.”

43s

#LoveIsEnergy

“I don't think love disappears. It's a little like energy. You remember learning this? Energy can't be created or destroyed. It's transferred. It kind of always exists. You have potential or kinetic energy. And and and so I think love is similar. It doesn't just disappear. It doesn't evaporate. We were created in the image and likeness of a God who is love. We cannot help but love. We cannot help but have affections and attractions and worship something. It's the gravity of our heart. So love doesn't disappear. It gets displaced. It gets disoriented. A a subtle shift happens in the order of our affections.”

28s

#WhoIsFirst

“The question is not, do you believe love is that important and powerful? The question is, if love is that important and powerful, and it can so subtly shift, what do I really love? What's first in my life? Not just what do I want or think is first in my life. What is actually first on the list? Because if it's not Jesus, we have a problem. We have a serious problem.”

48s

#FightForgetfulness

“And and and and I think that this is so revealing because if we're not careful, we think that the greatest enemy of love is hate. And and there is some truth to that. In in many ways, it is love's opposite or it's the absence of love. You can expect to find hate. But I actually think that maybe the opposite is a little different. You could argue the opposite of love is fear. Right? Perfect love casts out all fear. But but I'm gonna go with the more subtle one that fits with what we've we've been talking about. What if the great danger, one of the greatest enemies of love isn't just hate, isn't just fear. What if it's forgetting? What if one of the greatest enemies to love is forgetfulness?”

31s

#RememberToLove

“We would be well served when it comes to reordering our affections, to pause, and to practice the discipline of remembering. When we consider the love of Jesus, our love for Jesus can always deepen. It can intensify. It can broaden, grow, mature, overflow, and be shared in new ways. It's inexhaustible. And and we just need to remember sometimes. Remembering has a way of refreshing our love and reorienting our hearts.”

70s

#JesusFirstAlways

“And and it and did you notice it didn't say what displaced Jesus? It didn't say what took first place. It could have been anything on their list. He said, look at us. We're suffering for Jesus. Look at us. Look at all the good work we're doing. What could have gone first is anything on their list. It could have even been themselves, their own contribution, their own enduring, their own lack of weariness. See, in week one, we said it's love God, love others as you love self. Those are the three components. And God doesn't deny a kind of love for self. The the world can't answer that question apart from this correct order. But, man, oh, man, don't we love to invert that thing? And we go, wow, I love me, and then and then others, and then I'll get to God. And we just distort it. Right? And we put ourselves at the top of the list. We it doesn't matter, to be honest, what displaced Jesus and took first, because that's not the problem. The the emphasis is on this. Jesus is no longer first. It doesn't matter what took his place. If he's not first, that's the problem.”

42s

#RememberTheCross

“The cross is the the clearest picture of this affection. And and and you might not think Jesus is your first love, but have you considered that you might be his? Have you considered how much he loves you, that he deemed you worthy of his life on that cross? That he said, oh, God, I love them. For God so loved the world he gave his son. Have you considered how great a price is on your life despite every reason it doesn't deserve it? That the infinite God of all creation came down, traded life, heaven for earth, and life for death for you? Have you considered his great love for you? Because part of remembering is returning to these truths”

50s

#RememberRepentRepeat

“So sneaky. And and and and so there's a three part movement to how we return to God. How do you return to your first love when you faded? When you've, not just drifted, but but shifted? How do you get back? Well, the threefold pattern here is to remember, to repent, and to repeat. And I love alliterations. So this one just made sense to me. Remember, he starts by consider how far you've fallen. You have to remember. You you need to have, aggressive moral inventory. Right? People in the 12 step program get this. You you have to actually take into consideration how you have fallen. And and and this just again, this doesn't always feel good, but it's so important because it gets to the good news.”

37s

#ImmutableHope

“But it's not to get hung up on remembering. It's not to return to the past. And here's why, because with God, two things are true that aren't true in your marriage. One, God never changes. Praise the Lord. That's incredible. That despite everything else that changes in your life, everything you lose in your life, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. We get to learn more and more and more about this infinite god beyond our comprehension for all eternity. That's incredible. And the second thing is that there are always better things to come with him,”

56s

#PastAndPromisedFuture

“that he plans to redeem all creation, to bring new heaven and new earth, to bring the redemption and resurrection of everyone who's fallen asleep in Christ. This is really good. Only only in Christ. This is a bold statement, and I'm confident. Only in Christ do we have the privilege of not only remembering the memories and the history that came before us. Right? Jesus on the cross is the foundation of our faith and that's history. We we don't only remember the memories in history, we also remember the promises in the future that God has for us. So this charge to remember, it's broad. It's our it's our past. It's the history of the church's past. It's the history of our our faithful followers before us pass, and it's the promises and faithfulness of God going forward.”

40s

#GodIsAll

“And and and this is not because Jesus is egotistical or narcissistic. None of that. It it is the reality that, in God, we have our being, our life, our breath. Apart from God, nothing that is is. That's the premise spiritually, biblically. That's the belief we ultimately hold. That everything that is is because God said it is and made it so. He is the source and sustainer of all life and every good thing. And so he is actually the only one worthy to be first in our lives.”

58s

#BeginReordering

“And so, as the series wraps up today, the work does not. Please, hear my heart. This is the beginning. That might sound discouraging if you're a little more convinced and convicted that you've got some shifted affection in your hidden heart, but it's a good invitation. God's first grace is always to reveal these things to us. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel like grace, but it is by all means a grace that we would see the subtle shift in our love. We all have desires that get distorted, disordered, displaced. We all have affections that slowly move up or down the list invisibly in our heart. And this series has brought it to the surface so that we can examine it. But examination is only step one. We have revealed some things. We have some results. Now the invitation, now the opportunity is in your hands. How will you actively reorder your life?”

32s

#GuardYourMotive

“subtle how subtle is that shift that the emphasis goes on the wrong syllable. Right? And we start working for Jesus and serving Jesus and learning about Jesus and defending truth about Jesus and preaching Jesus and witnessing on Jesus, and enduring hardship for Jesus. And somewhere along the way, we lose the engine that drove the whole thing. The the the thing that was intended to animate and motivate all of the rest. A a pure motive of the heart.”

48s

#ProtectYourWitness

“Look, there's a repercussion for not returning back to God. He doesn't say, your salvation will be removed. He he says, your light will be snuffed out. Meaning, your witness, just as you have tried and tested false prophets and found them to be false, unfortunately, your your, disordered affections disqualifies you from being the right witness for my love. You are called to be a representative of it. And so, I don't know that salvation's on the line here, but at least their witness was. At least that that, subtle dangerous notion of claiming to be a Christian, but not really representing Christ.”

71s

#OwnTheShift

“This shift happens in our heart. And and and let me clarify one more layer. Just because drift is passive doesn't mean that shift is deliberate. It doesn't mean that we're always knowingly or intentionally shifting the affections of our heart. What's different is that with drift, can point outside yourself, but with shift, you have to own it. Once you see it, once you recognize it, once you name it, once you notice it, you have to own it and then decide, what do I do with this? Well, that's kind of the crux to the matter. But the craziest thing about a shift, to me is this, that you can actually still operate with the same activities of affection, but lose the engine driving it. You you can do the same things love taught you to do far after love becomes the motivation for why you do it. That's subtle, isn't it? That's sneaky. That's the shift in our heart that we need to be mindful of and pay attention to.”

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