1. LET GO of your PAST FAILURES! (Rev 2:4)

“4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”

Personal Application: In the book of Jonah, Jonah tried to run from God, but he couldn’t hide.

• In Chapter (1), Jonah’s the Prejudice Prophet!
• In Chapter (2), Jonah’s the Praying Prophet!
• In Chapter (3), Jonah’s the Pouting Prophet!

Are we running from the Lord’s Calling?

2. GO BACK to your 1st LOVE! (Rev 2:5)

“5Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works;”

The word “Left” your “first love” is ἀφίημι, which means to send away, leave alone, permit, abandon.

“Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly.”

Personal Application: Because of being swallowed by a whale (Jesus affirmed this in Matthew 12:40), Jonah started praying when he should have done that at the beginning. Do we pray about God’s will? Or do we have our minds made up about what we really want to do, and then expect God to bless our plans?

3. FOLLOW THRU on WHAT OUR LORD JESUS TELLS YOU TO DO! (Rev 2:7)

“7He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

(Jonah 3:4)

“And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

The word “OVERCOME” is νικάω, which means conquer, am victorious, overcome, prevail, subdue.

Conclusion: We have all failed….even the best of people, CHRISTians, miss the mark. The question is how are we going to respond to our failures? In order to honor our Lord, we, like Jonah, must “LET GO of our PAST FAILURES, GO BACK to our 1st LOVE, and then FOLLOW THRU on WHAT HE LEADS US TO DO.”

Then and only then, we can go from Failure to FREEDOM! Do we need to return to our 1st LOVE Jesus?