When Your Heart Grows Cold: How to Restore Your Love for Christ
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Jonny Ardavanis
4.9 • 901 Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
Have you been serving, staying doctrinally sound, and doing all the “right” Christian things—but feel your love for Jesus growing cold? In Revelation 2, Jesus praises the church in Ephesus for their diligence, discernment, and perseverance, but then gives a sobering rebuke: “You have left your first love.”
This episode is sponsored by The Master's University. To learn more about how you can invest in a college education devoted to Christ & Scripture, visit: https://www.masters.edu
In this episode, we unpack what it means to leave your first love (not in sequence, but in prominence) and why a cold, apathetic heart is spiritually dangerous—even if your life looks strong on the surface. Using the Challenger space shuttle tragedy as an illustration of a “missing critical piece,” we look at Christ’s clear prescription for spiritual apathy:
- Remember where you’ve fallen (preach the gospel to yourself)
- Repent (this is a heart issue, not just burnout)
- Return to “the deeds you did at first”
We also discuss what those “first deeds” can look like: renewed hunger for God’s Word, fervent prayer, love for God’s people, evangelistic zeal, and honest confession—not just going through the motions.
If you’ve been asking:
- “Why don’t I love Jesus like I used to?”
- “How do I overcome spiritual dryness?”
- “What does Revelation 2 teach the church today?” …this conversation is for you.
Scripture: Revelation 2:1–7
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When after Jesus has said, I commend you for this, |
| 0:03.0 | I commend you for this, and then Jesus says, |
| 0:05.0 | I have something against you. |
| 0:07.0 | You don't love me like you used to. |
| 0:11.0 | And he's gonna tell them that when your heart grows cold, |
| 0:14.0 | you're in danger. |
| 0:15.0 | It's the most critical peace. |
| 0:17.0 | If your heart is growing stale, |
| 0:19.0 | you've been saved for a while, you've been disciples, you're serving, you know your gift and you use your gift. |
| 0:25.6 | What's the antidote that Jesus gives to our apathy? |
| 0:29.6 | And I think this is kind of so different than maybe we would expect. |
| 0:33.6 | He says your heart has grown cold because you haven't been doing something. |
| 0:36.6 | So what does he say to do? He says to do the deeds you did at first. And I want to just maybe think about those. Like what were the deeds that the Ephesian Church did at first that cultivated that affection? Because maybe this is you. Maybe you're going through the ministerial motions. And yet when Jesus says, you don't love me, you don't even love me. You just do this stuff. And maybe go, hey, that's me. So what is Jesus's prescription for that? This is the |
| 0:59.0 | antidote to an apathetic heart. Hank, how we doing? Doing fantastic, Johnny. How are you doing? |
| 1:10.8 | Not so great. Oh, and why is that? Well, I'm doing well. I had an eye exam yesterday. How'd that go? Having a stigmatism in both eyes, colorblind. What color's my shirt? Brown. It's green. It's evidence of your... Do you really think it's green? It is green. What color is your jacket? This is green. |
| 1:28.3 | Military green. |
| 1:29.3 | Military green. Okay. Way in on the comments below. Do you suffer from colorblindness like Johnny and think this is brown or do you realize that this is green? Can't tell if you're missing with me. I'm being dead serious. What are we talking about today? Well, hey, this episode is brought to you by the Masters University. if you or someone you know is looking to continue higher education, |
| 1:45.0 | I would encourage them to check out my alma mater, the Masters University, which is |
| 1:49.5 | committed to Christ and to Scripture. Obviously, on the podcast, we look at God's Word in depth, |
| 1:53.9 | and so I'm thankful for my time at the Master's University. If you or someone you know is applying, |
| 1:58.3 | they can use our unique code, dial in to waive the application fee. |
| 2:02.0 | I would highly encourage you to check out masters.edu. |
... |
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