Summary: oh!church of Ephesus!you have left First Love!! This is the time to sit and examine to search the lost Gems, New Annointing is in the Land of Living 2003.

7 Spiritual Gems you Have Lost

If wealth is lost nothing is lost,

If health is lost something is lost,

If character is lost everything is lost.

are you sad to think that you lost some thing in your life, you need not worry about it, because

" The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19 : 10)

" To Seek and to save that which is lost" was the main purpose of the coming of Jesus into the world. When you lose any of your material possessions you are immediately aware of the loss. But the sad thing is, you are not even aware the lost spiritual things and you do not search for it. If you know the value of the thing that was lost and its spiritual consequences, you will not keep quiet. Dear friend, the Spirit of God loves you and therefore He speaks to you in a Still Small voice. "Will you not search for those wonderful spiritual things you have lost?our Saviour has come to save the lost.By the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are going to receive all the 7things you have Lost.Amen!

[i] LIFE WAS LOST

" For this my son wad dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry" (Luke 15:24)

The prodigal son had lost his Life as he left his father.& he lost every thing that his gave him. When he came to himself he realized that he had lost some thing precious and he came back to his father. The Life that he had lost was not ordinary life but as son he had precious life. It is true that the wealth he had taken away from his father was also lost. But this loss was not of a serious nature because when he got back the fellowship of his father he was able to enjoy his father’s wealth once again. Dear friend, if you get back the Life with God you will certainly enjoy the blessings that come from Him. God ,our Father has given us Eternal life, because you are His son.1John5;11

"The Father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hand " (John 3:35).

Jesus came into the world to restore the Life& every blessing that mankind had lost. He had to pay a heavy price for it on the cross. Dear reader, confess your sins and claim this Eternal life once again in faith. God will certainly give back His abiding presence to you.

[ii] EVERYTHING WAS LOST

When David was staying at Ziglag,Amalekites came and burnt all their houses, and had taken the women captives,they slew not any, either great or small but carried them away .David and his men lost their wives and their sons and their daughters, so David lost every thing. At that time all his men became his enemies, so David wept bitterly, and he lost his strength also.David was greatly distressed.

dear friend are you in the same condition as David was?

Have you lost everything by your enemy Amalekites.

But you know that you have a good news. Our Saviour is able to restore all that we lost.

David also when he lost every thing he enquired at the Lord,, knowing that our God is God of Restoration.

David lost all these things because he was living in the place of danger.Dear friend you are also living in this world of insecurity. you may lose everything, because of Amalekite.

But David followed his enemy with the password from the God of Restoration.

1Samuel 30;18 says, David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away.And nothing was lacking to them neither small nor great ....David recovered all.with God you will be able to recover all that you had lost in your life, dear friend.

But listen to the word of God in prayer, He will speak to you clearly to follow your enemy to recover all.

[iii] THE FIRST LOVE THAT WAS LOST

" Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works ; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent" (Rev. 2: 4,5).

as the years are passing, Little by little many believers lose their first love. The excitement and joy of the early days of salvation and annointing, disappear. The sad thing is that they are not aware of this loss. thinking that they still have the same Love they had once, but doing all the repeated works , it is very misrable they are not in the Love of God!

Losing the first love is falling!

Losing the first love is not doing the first works!

Losing the first love is the beginning but if you do not repent and rededicate yourself, you may lose all that is precious for a Christian.

I f the first love is lost , your Lamp stand will be removed!

Living in the darkness is a terrible life!But in the coming days of 2003, God will bring a new light as in [Isiah60;2]

but the Lord will araise over you, and His Glory will be seen upon you,

What happened to your prayer life? What happened to your ministry? What happened to the thrill you had when you read the word of God? If you repent and do those things that you did in the early days, you will get back the zeal and joy of a christian. Your life in 2003 will become different and God will use you for his glory.

[iv] THE Blessing THAT WAS LOST

Has anything like this happened in your days?what the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten,what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten,and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten,[Joel 1;2&4]

" Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel : behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost ; we are cut off from our parts" (Ezekiel . 37:11).

Some Christians life is like dry bones and like life left by the consuming locusts, In other words, they have lost all the Blessings of life , by putting up a fight against the devil. the 4 kinds of locusts came in their life have made them spiritually poor and useless. Dear friend, God will do a miracle in your life.

God will look at your state & He will have pity on you, [joel2;18]

And He promises, ’’ so I will restore to you the years, that the swarming locust has eaten,the crawling locust,the consuming locust and the chewing locust ,Joel2;25

He will replace the flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. He will put His breath on you. There will be a great revival in your life and in your community. You will regain the life of spiritual vigour and vitality. You will stand up and fight the spiritual battle as a mighty army that rose from the valley of dry bones.

[v] THE ANOINTING THAT WAS LOST

"And his strength left him,,,but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him,,’[Judges16;19,20]

" But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master ! for it was borrowed And the man of God said, Where fell it ? And he showed him the place. And he Cut down a stick and cast it in thither ; and the iron did swim" (II Kings 6: 5,6).

Samson the great judge of the Israel was anointed by the Holy Spirit , the Power of the Anointing was a gift for him to judge& deliver Gods people from the hands of Philistines.

whenever the enemies came the anointing came upon with full of strength , to fight for Israel,& to protect them from the hands of enemies.but because of the sin of Samson, the lust of eyes, the lust of flesh, Samson lost his anointing& the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brother&sister , you also given the gift of God with a purpose, you should not use it for the world& sin. lest you will lose it as Samson lost!

The sons of the prophets took Elisha with them when they went to the river Jordan. While they were cutting the trees, one of the axe heads fell into the river. The young man who lost the cutting edge was distressed as it was a borrowed one. Prophet Elisha asked the man to show the place where it fell. He cut a stick from a tree and threw it into the water. The axe head rose to the surface and floated. The young man grabbed it and continued his work with a thankful heart.

The axe head may be compared to the talents and gifts that God has given you. they are not your own but it was borrowed,. it should be returned to the master of the axe. We live in a world dominated by the power of darkness. Many of us are careless , so, the many good people they lose the gifts given by the master. If the axe head had been firmly fixed to the handle the young man would not have lost it. God has given you many spiritual gifts, but you must claim them as your own. You must Know how precious they are and use them carefully.

The Son of the prophet got back the axe head because he took the following action immediately : he realised that he had, lost something precious. He appealed to the man of God and the miracle happened. Dear child of God ,, don’t lose your peace & faith,because of the lost precious talents that God has given you The one greater than Elisha, is always with you. If you cry unto Him, He will do a miracle for you. You will get back the talents you have lost.

[vi] THE BIRTH RIGHT THAT WAS LOST

" Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Easu, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears" (Hebrews 12: 16,17).

Esau is a man symbolises the people who never give the value to the spiritual gems.He didnt know the real value of Birth right,

so, Easu sold his birthright for a pot of porridge. but one day he realised his mistake it was too late. Even today many children of God they never give value to the free salvation, anointing, but only when the trouble comes they realise the Mistake they had done in their lives!

Esau shed bitter tears of repentance but he never got it back. But it was too late!

the rich man in the Hell also cried ,, but it was too late!

the 5 foolish virgin also sought the oil for their lamp, but it was late& the door of the wedding house was closed!

you already too late Dear friend, but the door is still opened for you, the bridegroom of our wedding is so loving& He is awaiting for you,.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit is your birthright. It is something that is promised to all flesh. It leads you into holiness. It is a Spirit of knowledge and power. It will make you remember the words of Jesus. It will teach you the mysteries of God. It will comfort you and guide you. At the same time, if you are careless you will lose your anointing. The children of Israel rebelled against the Spirit of God and they lost His help, Jesus said, that all manner of sins would be forgiven but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost would never be forgiven. Ananias and Saphira lied against the Holy Spirit in order to keep back part of the price of the land they had sold. They were punished immediately. It is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4:30). The Spirit of god is like fire. He puts real zeal and enthusiasm in the minds of believers. But if they are thoughtless this fire will be quenched. Dear friend, do you want the anointing of the Holy Spirit to abide in you? Then you must do the following things. When the Spirit of God gives you a very clear leading, do not rebel against it . but obey The spirit will give you new revelations regarding things spiritual. Do not be a hypocrite and blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. Even your thoughts are known to the Spirit of God. Refrain from doing anything contrary to the truth. Be truthful and stright forward in all your dealings. Dear friend, do you want to keep your anointing? Do not be lazy work with zeal and enthusiasm in God’s vineyard Be careful about the words you speak. Do not use bad language. Your words should be good and edifying. they should be graceful and a blessing to others. The anointing that you have received from God is most precious, Hold on to it.

vii. PARADISE WAS LOST

God planned Adams life and gave secrets for them to inherit Paradise of Eden.Both Adam and Eve listened to Gods voice. But after some time when the old serpent came in to the garden and spoke with Eve, and made them to suspect God’s Words.

Eve disobeyed Gods Words and obeyed serpents words. Consequently Adam and Eve had to lose their Blessed Paradise.

’God drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned everyway to

keep the way of the tree of life.’’Genesis3;24.

Pity pity what a pity,by disobedience our for father& mother lost the Paradise & they spoiled the plan of God.

Dear friend our loving Father has a good plan about your& my life. If we obey all His commands, then the plan of God will be fulfilled in our life. the prepared Paradise will be yours , you need not go to hell & be tormented.I f you hear His voice today let us obey and inherit the paradise.

Revelation 22;14 says,"Blessed are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates in to the city."

you will be a Blessed person if you obey His commandments,& you will never lose anything in your life, even the things lost in your life will be given back to you,by the God of Restoration.

In this sermon we considered seven precious things that a believer can lose if he is careless. But our merciful Saviour is kind. He came into the world to seek and save that which was lost. He will restore all that you have lost and use you mightily for God’s glory. Hallelujah!

God Bless you!!!