The Biblical Principle of First #4: Redeeming the Time and Returning to First Love

The biblical principle of first says that whatever you give to God first, He redeems and blesses, and that includes your time. In this fourth message of the series, Dr. William P. Hohman shows how the church at Ephesus kept serving but lost its first love, and he calls believers to redeem the time by giving God the first part of every day. It continues the teaching from The Biblical Principle of First #3: God’s Love Language, Morning Prayer and First Love.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, every Scripture he uses (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for building a daily habit of putting God first.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on June 27, 2022. It runs about 71 minutes and ends with an invitation to receive Christ. Pastor Hohman explains that the series grew out of his teaching on kingdom economy, and he names the theme for this part plainly: today’s message is redeeming the time.

The sermon moves from the law of the firstborn and firstfruits, to the warning given to Ephesus, to the love of God that comes first, and finally to Isaiah 55 and a pair of stories from his own life about what truly refreshes the soul.

Two Kingdoms and the Biblical Principle of First

Pastor Hohman begins by reminding the church that believers live under two governments: the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. Jesus said to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Matthew 22:21). Each kingdom has its own economy, and the very first principle of God’s kingdom, he says, is called first. God Himself commands that there be no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3).

Under the old covenant, the first clean animal was given to God, and by it the unclean animals were redeemed. They received the same benefits and the same blessings. Children were dedicated to the Lord at eight days old. When you give the best first, he teaches, everything that remains is blessed and multiplies. That is why Proverbs says to honor the Lord with the firstfruits of all your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow (Proverbs 3:9–10).

The same pattern shows up in ordinary life. Believers meet on the first day of the week, and they give thanks for a meal before eating it, not afterwards. The kingdom of God runs on give, and it will be given to you. The world runs on a work-and-pay system and a buy-and-sell-to-get-gain system. That, he says, is why Jesus drove the money changers out and declared that His Father’s house would be called a house of prayer (Matthew 21:12–13).

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). And God practiced the principle Himself: He gave first, His only begotten Son, the clean one given to redeem the unclean. That is why Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). When we do not give God our first, Pastor Hohman warns, life becomes “the old grind,” and we deplete our strength chasing things that were never designed to redeem.

Ephesus: Serving Without First Love

The main text is Revelation 2:2–5. Jesus commends the church at Ephesus for its works, labor, patience and perseverance. They tested false apostles and did not grow weary. “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Pastor Hohman points out that Jesus did not scold them for serving. The problem was that they were living off a previous experience with the Lord and had forsaken intimacy with Him.

He sets this beside the church at Laodicea, which was neither cold nor hot (Revelation 3:15–16). Laodicea’s water came in by aqueduct through the desert, so it was too warm to quench thirst and too cool for a bath. Jesus spoke in a picture they lived with every day. God wants us on fire, and working for the Lord is not enough unless it is done in love with Him. In his words, “you can’t fall in love with serving more than you fall in love with the savior.”

Jesus gives Ephesus three steps. First, remember where you have fallen from. Pastor Hohman gives the same counsel to struggling married couples: remember why you loved each other, or the relationship slides into performance, and nobody stacks up. Second, repent, which simply means change your mind and get your priorities back in order. Third, do the first works.

The first works are pictured in Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42). Martha was busy serving in the kitchen and wanted Jesus to make her sister help. Mary sat at His feet, and Jesus said she had chosen the good part. Pastor Hohman paraphrases the heart of it: be with Me first, and we will eat later. God knows we have things to do, but being with Jesus comes first.

Redeeming the Time in the Morning

Pastor Hohman turns to redeeming the time. He starts with a natural lesson: people who always show up late lose others’ confidence, so repent of it, leave early and be available. Then he moves to the spiritual. David said, “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up” (Psalm 5:3). The very first thing in the day, David went to meet with the Lord.

Jesus, who came from the throne of David, did the same. He rose a long while before daylight, went to a solitary place and prayed (Mark 1:35). Pastor Hohman says that if Jesus had not given the first part of His day to the Father, the rest of the day would have drained and depleted Him. He gave the first, the clean part of the day, before problems and issues crowded in.

In Matthew 6:6, Jesus says to go into your room, shut the door and pray, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. That, he says, is redemption at work. You do not need a literal closet, but you do need to shut off the world: turn the phone off and let no one and nothing else go first.

Even in Eden, God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day and called, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:8–9). Pastor Hohman reads the cool of the day as early morning, the coolest hour in a hot land. From creation, God’s desire has been to have our lives first so that He can redeem the rest of the day.

His simple practice, repeated through his 36 years at the church, is to get alone with God first thing and pray, “Father, tell me again how much you love me,” and then listen. You may not feel anything at first. That is why he calls it practicing the presence of God. He also cites Martin Luther, who answered an assistant urging him to hurry, “I have so much to do I don’t have time not to do this.”

We Love Him Because He First Loved Us

At the center of the biblical principle of first is God’s love. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). When we spend time with God, we exchange our weak, needy lives for His love, and that is the redeeming factor. Pastor Hohman adds that walking in this love means trusting that all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28).

He describes a thermostat in every life. You can be cold, warm or hot, and the setting is governed by the time you spend with the Lord, the friends you keep and the words you speak. Time is the one thing that makes everyone equal: 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Houses and marriages both need time invested, and when we feel we have no time, we start dropping things. Giving God the day first, he says, lets redemption come in.

Then the key verse: “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We can give God our firsts, but we will never give to Him first. He recalls a Bible college professor who said God created man because He was lonely. The Lord corrected him with Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I do not change.” God did not create out of loneliness; He created because He is love, and love needs an object.

Pastor Hohman lays out three ways God loved us first:

On redemption he reads 1 John 4:10: real love is not that we loved God, but that He loved us. By grace we are saved through faith, and it is a gift (Ephesians 2:8). On salvation he reads Romans 5:4–5: hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person, he stresses, and fellowship with Him is often simply sitting together, like the little girl who went next door to a grieving widow and “just sat with her and cried.”

The Disciple Jesus Loved

Pastor Hohman then contrasts two apostles. John repeatedly called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. At the Last Supper he leaned on Jesus, and the others asked him to find out who the betrayer was. After the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter by the sea, asking three times, “Do you love Me?” and telling him to feed His sheep and follow Him.

Then Peter turned, saw John following, and asked, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus answered, “What is that to you? You follow Me” (John 21:20–22). John was already following. Pastor Hohman says Peter fed off position and comparison, but John fed off Jesus’ love. Peter was insecure in the relationship; John was secure because he knew God loved him.

Knowing you are loved, he teaches, quiets the inner chatter and conflict of your thought life. You can accept how God made you, because every person is fearfully and wonderfully made. When he finally understood the love his wife Pam had for him, whom he met when they were children, his life changed; when he knew the love God had for him, the sky was the limit.

This is where the principle of first meets the first commandment. Jesus said to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30–31). Pastor Hohman admits he does not know what all his heart or all his strength is. Jesus loved us with all of His, and by grace He pours that same love into us. All we work at is sitting at His feet and giving Him the first of every day.

Come, Buy Without Money: Redeeming the Time

Paul writes, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16). Pastor Hohman explains circumspectly as having eyes all the way around your head: walking exactly and diligently, with confidence. Without first love, he says, Ephesus would lose its lampstand, and people without it cannot see to make right decisions. He links the evil days to God giving people over to a debased mind (Romans 1:28) and to the distress of nations with perplexity (Luke 21:25).

Then he reads Isaiah 55:1–3: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.” He explains “Ho” as a cry of astonishment, like a game-show audience gasping at the prizes. He teaches that wine in Scripture speaks of the Spirit and milk of wisdom. God invites us to buy with something we do not have.

To explain it, he tells of the green stamp store of his childhood, called the redemption center. At eleven he picked rocks on a potato farm, saved his cash and tried to buy a fishing reel there. The clerk refused: you cannot use money here, only stamps. Redemption works the same way. You come to God without money and without price, take time with Him, and He gives His Spirit, wisdom and strength for the day.

The second story taught him Isaiah 55:2: “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?” As an exhausted young pastor, he drove eight hours to a conference with Myles Munroe, hoping to be refreshed. Instead he was surrounded by people and distracted by a man swinging a huge worship flag that knocked a team member down. His best time all week was the eight-hour drive each way, alone with Jesus.

On the way home the Lord spoke to him: you did it backwards, you spent money for something that did not satisfy because you did not first give your time to Me. Pastor Hohman is not against family vacations, but if you are constantly desperate to get away, you are doing it wrong. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Putting God First This Week

Pastor Hohman closes by reminding the church that in the biblical principle of first, it is always God first. He gives first, and we redeem our time by giving Him the first of our day. Here are steps drawn from the message:

• Give God the first hour. Before the phone, the news or the to-do list, meet with Him, as David and Jesus did in the morning.
• Ask Him to tell you again. Pray, “Father, tell me again how much you love me,” and then listen quietly.
• Remember, repent, return. If serving has replaced intimacy, recall how your walk with Him began and change your priorities.
• Choose the good part. When busy service crowds out time at His feet, follow Mary rather than Martha.
• Check your thermostat. Look at where your time, friendships and words are going, and give God the first of each.
• Rest the right way. Before planning another escape, spend time with Jesus, who promises rest to the weary.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Two kingdoms, two economies
• 1:02 The first clean animal redeems the rest
• 2:15 Firstfruits and full barns: Proverbs 3
• 3:16 Give and it will be given vs. work and pay
• 4:12 God gave first: Jesus, the clean one
• 6:27 Revelation 2 and opening prayer
• 8:39 Today’s message: redeeming the time
• 9:40 Lukewarm Laodicea
• 11:46 Remember where you have fallen
• 13:47 Mary and Martha
• 14:52 Psalm 5:3 and Mark 1:35
• 16:47 Matthew 6:6: the secret place
• 19:46 The cool of the day in Eden
• 21:42 Perfect love casts out fear
• 25:01 We love Him because He first loved us
• 26:20 Created out of love, not loneliness
• 29:33 Redemption and salvation
• 34:10 Martin Luther’s morning hour
• 37:05 John 21: what about this man?
• 42:14 The first commandment: Mark 12
• 47:43 Ephesians 5: walk circumspectly
• 51:37 Isaiah 55: come, buy without money
• 54:56 The green stamp redemption center
• 59:27 Isaiah 55:2 and the conference story
• 1:06:54 Invitation and closing prayer

Biblical Principle of First Series

This message is part of a five-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: The Biblical Principle of First #1: God’s Love Language and the Firstborn
• Previous: The Biblical Principle of First #3: God’s Love Language, Morning Prayer and First Love
• You are here: The Biblical Principle of First #4: Redeeming the Time and Returning to First Love
• Next: The Biblical Principle of First #5: Love Renewed Every Morning

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to pray for hours every morning?

No. Pastor Hohman says you do not have to spend four hours in the morning. He tries to give at least an hour, sometimes much more, and he points to Martin Luther’s custom of about an hour. The point is not length but order: meeting God before anything or anyone else, with the phone off, so the rest of the day is redeemed. Even when you feel nothing, you are practicing His presence.

What does he say about people the church might call wicked?

He says it is not our place to condemn people bound by addiction or sin. Our place is to make sure they know God loves them, no differently than He loves anyone else. A tongue-lashing does nothing for them, he says, but love gives them strength to cry out to God and break the bondages in their lives. He reminds the church that everyone has done foolish things, and God looks at the heart with love.

How does the message end?

It ends with an invitation for anyone who has never given their life to Jesus, and for believers who have drifted like Ephesus. Pastor Hohman says it does not matter how far you have fallen; it is one step back. He leads a prayer asking God for forgiveness, a new heart, His Spirit and His love, and making Jesus Lord and King.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Revelation 2:2–5 — Ephesus has left its first love
• Proverbs 3:9–10 — honor the Lord with your firstfruits
• Luke 10:38–42 — Mary chooses the good part
• Psalm 5:3 and Mark 1:35 — prayer in the morning
• 1 John 4:19 — He first loved us
• John 21:20–22 — you follow Me
• Ephesians 5:15–16 — redeeming the time
• Isaiah 55:1–3 — come, buy without money

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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