WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:00.321 for them. 00:00:00.321 --> 00:00:03.087 Now, this past week we had something. 00:00:03.087 --> 00:00:04.009 We had a holiday. 00:00:04.009 --> 00:00:04.852 You guys know what it is. 00:00:04.852 --> 00:00:09.631 We had Thanksgiving, all right, you guys got your turkey and your stuffing and you're all full. 00:00:09.631 --> 00:00:16.696 How many of you people celebrate Christmas after Thanksgiving? 00:00:16.696 --> 00:00:19.544 You can only celebrate Christmas once Thanksgiving is over. 00:00:19.544 --> 00:00:20.146 That's you guys. 00:00:20.146 --> 00:00:21.829 All right, a few of you, all right, hands down. 00:00:21.829 --> 00:00:23.182 I don't understand you people at all. 00:00:23.182 --> 00:00:24.809 All right, I just don't get it. 00:00:24.809 --> 00:00:25.269 This is what you do. 00:00:25.269 --> 00:00:32.892 You decorate the house, you put up all the ornaments and you set everything up just to take it down in three weeks. 00:00:32.892 --> 00:00:36.128 I'm going to go through all that work to only leave it up for three weeks. 00:00:36.128 --> 00:00:39.107 There's no way, kelsey and I, we love Christmas. 00:00:39.107 --> 00:00:40.481 It's our favorite holiday. 00:00:40.481 --> 00:00:41.042 We holiday. 00:00:41.103 --> 00:00:43.747 We start celebrating Christmas in the Burr month. 00:00:43.747 --> 00:00:45.470 No, no, that is. 00:00:45.470 --> 00:00:54.601 That means September, october, november, december. 00:00:54.601 --> 00:00:55.064 That is Christmas time. 00:00:55.064 --> 00:00:56.408 Some of you guys are looking at me like I am absolutely crazy. 00:00:56.408 --> 00:01:00.502 We just love Jesus and we love to celebrate his birthday and if you're not that spiritual, I'm really sorry. 00:01:00.582 --> 00:01:15.451 Okay, we love Christmas around here, but with the Christmas season there's often this air of romance, right, this love in the air that comes around Christmas time. 00:01:15.451 --> 00:01:18.424 It's cold and it's foggy. 00:01:18.424 --> 00:01:38.950 Here in California it doesn't snow but it rains, so you just want to stay home and snuggle up in your Christmas blankie and then a very particular type of movie starts to roll out around the holidays, you guys know the ones with, like, the horrible acting takes place in some small town in Wisconsin, somewhere, right? 00:01:38.950 --> 00:01:43.090 All these little Hallmark movies and these Netflix movies that come out. 00:01:43.090 --> 00:01:46.522 Now, how many of you, if you're being honest, you're into those? 00:01:46.522 --> 00:01:47.665 Like you like those? 00:01:47.665 --> 00:01:48.165 A few of us. 00:01:48.165 --> 00:01:51.921 Okay, guys, y'all are lying there, we go, let's go. 00:01:51.921 --> 00:01:54.590 He got his hand up, all right, you guys like those movies. 00:01:54.590 --> 00:01:56.759 We saw one, kelsey and I. 00:01:56.759 --> 00:02:12.282 We were like flipping through Netflix and there's this one movie that was about this girl she builds a snowman and then the snowman comes to life and she falls in love with the snowman, okay, and everyone's just like, yeah, it's just a Christmas miracle, this is totally fine. 00:02:12.282 --> 00:02:22.949 During Christmas, there is this romantic time and, by the way, in our house those movies do get watched, but my wife is not the one who watches them, right? 00:02:22.949 --> 00:02:26.668 That is the closest to a confession you will get from me. 00:02:26.668 --> 00:02:27.221 Now. 00:02:27.221 --> 00:02:31.870 You're here today and you guys are like Christmas in September, hallmark movies. 00:02:32.561 --> 00:02:34.747 What kind of sermon is this right now? 00:02:34.747 --> 00:02:51.991 Okay, we're going to be talking today about this idea of love, this idea of romance and passion, and how you and I can have a passion for God and be passionate about him, but without realizing it, we can often lose that passion. 00:02:51.991 --> 00:02:55.461 We can lose that love that we once had for him. 00:02:55.461 --> 00:02:57.385 We're going to be in Revelations, chapter 2. 00:02:57.385 --> 00:03:01.082 If you are ready to hear the word, would you say amen, let's go. 00:03:01.082 --> 00:03:02.145 All five of us, all right. 00:03:02.406 --> 00:03:10.407 Revelations, chapter two, verses one through five says this write to the angel of the church in Ephesus. 00:03:10.407 --> 00:03:18.949 Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 00:03:18.949 --> 00:03:23.531 So this verse here, this verse is referring to Jesus. 00:03:23.531 --> 00:03:28.022 Right, it's saying Jesus is the one who is giving this message to this people. 00:03:28.022 --> 00:03:38.076 The book of Revelation was penned by a guy named John, the apostle John, and he's delivering this message to the churches in Ephesus, coming directly from Jesus. 00:03:38.076 --> 00:03:39.480 And this is what he says. 00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:48.014 He says I know your good works, your labor and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. 00:03:48.014 --> 00:03:55.092 You've tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you found them to be liars. 00:03:55.092 --> 00:04:02.593 I know that you've preserved and endured hardship for the sake of my name and you have not grown weary. 00:04:02.593 --> 00:04:06.187 So Jesus starts off by commending them. 00:04:06.187 --> 00:04:11.991 He's saying you guys have done such a great job of keeping your doctrine pure, of keeping your teachings right. 00:04:11.991 --> 00:04:15.445 You have not allowed false doctrine to creep into the church. 00:04:15.445 --> 00:04:19.322 He's saying you guys are doing all the right things. 00:04:19.322 --> 00:04:26.495 This is actually a huge deal when you understand and realize the context of where Ephesus was. 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:32.752 In the city of Ephesus there is this huge temple to the Greek goddess Artemis. 00:04:32.752 --> 00:04:34.985 Do I have a photo of that up there Temple? 00:04:34.985 --> 00:04:37.028 Is that working? 00:04:37.028 --> 00:04:37.370 All right? 00:04:37.370 --> 00:04:38.492 It's working Cool, all right. 00:04:38.492 --> 00:04:40.144 This is the temple that would have been. 00:04:40.144 --> 00:04:41.470 Now it's since been destroyed. 00:04:41.470 --> 00:04:49.571 So there was this temple to the Greek goddess Artemis in this city of Ephesus and this wasn't no ordinary temple. 00:04:49.571 --> 00:04:53.362 This temple was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. 00:04:53.362 --> 00:04:56.889 It was four times the size of the Greek Parthenon. 00:04:56.889 --> 00:05:03.065 This was a huge city of of worship to this Greek goddess Artemis. 00:05:03.065 --> 00:05:07.625 This is where people would come from all around, from neighboring cities, to come and worship her. 00:05:07.625 --> 00:05:18.562 So when Jesus is saying you guys have done a good job keeping pure doctrine, this was a huge celebration for them and I can just picture them right. 00:05:19.024 --> 00:05:20.413 The pastor comes up to the church. 00:05:20.413 --> 00:05:21.961 He's like all right, guys, we're going to gather together. 00:05:21.961 --> 00:05:24.846 We've got this message from Jesus that he has for us. 00:05:24.846 --> 00:05:26.408 And he reads in verse three. 00:05:26.408 --> 00:05:33.050 He says I know that you've preserved and endured hardship for the sake of my name and you have not grown weary. 00:05:33.050 --> 00:05:34.600 And the people are gathered together. 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:35.903 It's like, bro, look at us. 00:05:35.903 --> 00:05:39.533 We're doing so good man, we're doing such a good job. 00:05:39.533 --> 00:05:48.701 But it continues. 00:05:48.721 --> 00:05:55.829 You guys know, usually if someone like says a bunch of good stuff about you and they go, but you're probably not going to like what comes next, right, he says this but I have this against you. 00:05:55.829 --> 00:05:58.165 But I have this against you. 00:05:58.165 --> 00:06:02.250 You have abandoned the love you had at first. 00:06:02.250 --> 00:06:06.629 Remember, then, how far you have fallen. 00:06:06.629 --> 00:06:28.584 Repent and do the works you did at first, otherwise I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent, as a stern warning for the church in Ephesus, saying you guys are doing all of the right things, but your heart is wrong. 00:06:28.584 --> 00:06:37.732 If we were to give them a job description of everything a Christian is supposed to do, they were fulfilling that job description, that checklist to a T. 00:06:37.732 --> 00:06:40.444 They had correct doctrine. 00:06:40.444 --> 00:06:48.019 They had correct doctrine, but they had an incorrect heart doctrine. 00:06:48.019 --> 00:06:49.362 They had correct doctrine, but they had an incorrect heart. 00:06:49.362 --> 00:06:52.228 They were doing all of the right things, but they were doing it for the wrong reasons. 00:06:52.228 --> 00:06:57.848 They were living out the Christian job description, but out of tradition and duty, instead of a genuine love for God. 00:06:58.911 --> 00:07:00.199 He says this in verse four. 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:11.786 But I have this against you You've abandoned the love you had at first and the key word in this verse here is first, that phrase, first love. 00:07:11.786 --> 00:07:18.471 It's the idea of this, like romantic love, when you're first crushing on somebody and you start liking them. 00:07:18.471 --> 00:07:27.012 Maybe if you guys can remember back to, like high school and you did the thing on the phone where you're like, no, you hang up first, no, no, no, no, you hang up first. 00:07:27.012 --> 00:07:29.233 You guys ever have a weird relationship like that. 00:07:29.233 --> 00:07:38.882 If you were super weird, if you're one of those couples like you just listened to each other breathe and you didn't hang up the phone, right, it's talking about this passion that you just want to be with them, you want to be around them. 00:07:38.882 --> 00:07:41.149 You'll do whatever it takes to get their attention. 00:07:41.149 --> 00:07:42.874 You want to spend time with them. 00:07:44.197 --> 00:07:49.487 I can remember this time where I met this beautiful lady, this girl that I was crushing on. 00:07:49.487 --> 00:07:50.689 Her name is Kelsey. 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:52.814 We actually met in Hawaii. 00:07:52.814 --> 00:07:54.302 We were working at the same church. 00:07:54.302 --> 00:08:02.658 She was a school teacher at the Christian school that the church had, and then I was going to college and I was working at the church part-time. 00:08:02.658 --> 00:08:08.608 I was helping out with a youth group and I did like maintenance and landscaping stuff and we met there and we weren't dating yet. 00:08:08.608 --> 00:08:16.389 But I remember one day saw her walking from her classroom across the parking lot and they had teacher housing on the property there. 00:08:16.389 --> 00:08:19.490 So she's walking from her classroom to the teacher housing. 00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:22.521 I just think to myself I'm like man. 00:08:22.521 --> 00:08:24.247 I really wish she would like look this way. 00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:27.267 How can I get her attention? 00:08:27.267 --> 00:08:32.729 I'm there sweeping the parking lot and I see some rocks on the ground. 00:08:32.729 --> 00:08:35.474 I have an idea. 00:08:35.474 --> 00:08:37.163 I've got some. 00:08:37.163 --> 00:08:38.206 The kids call it riz. 00:08:38.206 --> 00:08:39.149 Right, I've got some riz. 00:08:39.149 --> 00:08:40.224 This is how I flirt with her. 00:08:40.224 --> 00:08:42.865 So I look on the ground, I pick up these rocks. 00:08:42.865 --> 00:08:45.847 Turns out I have pretty good aim, okay. 00:08:45.847 --> 00:08:48.726 So I grab these rocks, I throw them at her. 00:08:48.726 --> 00:08:51.153 I'm successful, I don't hurt her, okay, but I hit her. 00:08:51.153 --> 00:08:53.424 They're small rocks, they like scatter around her feet. 00:08:53.424 --> 00:08:55.408 I am successful. 00:08:56.431 --> 00:08:59.621 And then she looks at me and she goes did you just throw a rock at me? 00:08:59.621 --> 00:09:02.024 And I look around, there's nobody else around. 00:09:02.024 --> 00:09:03.667 I look around, I'm like, no, not me. 00:09:03.667 --> 00:09:05.649 And then she just like walked into her house. 00:09:05.649 --> 00:09:07.770 She still asks me now. 00:09:07.770 --> 00:09:09.131 She's like what were you thinking? 00:09:09.131 --> 00:09:11.413 Like what was going through your mind? 00:09:11.413 --> 00:09:24.240 Guys, you know, when you like a girl, like you know, sometimes we don't always think through things properly, right, but I mean it worked. 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:28.285 So, hey, things progressed and it went on and we dated for a while. 00:09:28.285 --> 00:09:30.958 We went on a bunch of romantic dates and eventually I was like, okay, I got some counsel from some people, I talked to some people. 00:09:30.958 --> 00:09:32.945 I was like this is the girl I want to marry. 00:09:32.945 --> 00:09:36.332 We started having these conversations about getting married. 00:09:36.332 --> 00:09:40.410 So you guys know, when you're going to propose, you got to make the big thing right. 00:09:40.410 --> 00:09:43.184 You've got to decide what you're going to do and plan out this whole big event. 00:09:43.184 --> 00:09:48.841 So I went out and I bought the ring and I spent a bunch of money on the ring and I got this romantic plan together. 00:09:48.841 --> 00:09:51.788 You guys, ready for the best proposal story ever? 00:09:51.788 --> 00:09:53.832 All right, this is what happens. 00:09:53.852 --> 00:09:54.561 We live in Hawaii. 00:09:54.561 --> 00:10:00.980 So I got a group of my friends together and we're going to kayak to the Mokulele Islands they're called. 00:10:00.980 --> 00:10:01.982 We have a photo of them up here. 00:10:01.982 --> 00:10:09.455 What you can do in Oahu is you can actually kayak from the shore out to these islands where nobody else lives or these isolated islands. 00:10:09.455 --> 00:10:16.846 So we get up early in the morning, I get my friends together, we're going to go kayak out there at sunrise and we get there. 00:10:16.846 --> 00:10:18.832 It's super romantic. 00:10:18.832 --> 00:10:22.582 Nobody else is on the island, it's just us and my friends. 00:10:22.582 --> 00:10:31.081 Obviously they know what's on, so they like go one way and then when you get there, there's like this beautiful beach with nobody else there. 00:10:31.081 --> 00:10:36.010 So we go for a little walk, take this romantic stroll along the beach. 00:10:36.010 --> 00:10:38.221 And I have a plan. 00:10:38.520 --> 00:10:40.585 So I brought with me in my pocket I had a seashell, and then I had a ring. 00:10:40.585 --> 00:10:42.668 Okay, I don't know what I was thinking, kayaking out there with the ring in my pocket, but so I did. 00:10:42.668 --> 00:10:43.650 So I had a seashell and then I had a ring. 00:10:43.650 --> 00:10:46.918 Okay, I don't know what I was thinking, kayaking out there with a ring in my pocket, but so I did. 00:10:46.918 --> 00:10:48.725 So I had a shell and so I did. 00:10:48.725 --> 00:10:52.265 I pulled out the shell and I pretended to pick it up off the ground. 00:10:52.265 --> 00:10:59.402 And I tell her I'm like, hey, look at this shell that I found on the ground Now. 00:10:59.402 --> 00:11:02.534 At first this is us on that beach right there. 00:11:02.534 --> 00:11:07.196 At first she thought it was like some weird animal that I had in my hand, so she didn't want to touch it, okay. 00:11:07.196 --> 00:11:11.953 But eventually she picked it up and then under the shell was the ring. 00:11:11.953 --> 00:11:13.937 Pretty good, right, pretty good. 00:11:13.937 --> 00:11:14.618 This is where you guys go. 00:11:14.618 --> 00:11:19.283 Aww, why am I telling this story? 00:11:19.283 --> 00:11:27.515 Eventually she said yes, and things went well and we've been married for seven years now. 00:11:27.535 --> 00:11:37.220 This is the kind of love that Jesus is talking about, that he wants the church to have for him, this passionate love that will do whatever it takes, that will plan out all these big, extravagant things because they love him so much. 00:11:37.220 --> 00:11:39.663 And he said you guys used to love me. 00:11:39.663 --> 00:11:40.105 Like that. 00:11:40.105 --> 00:11:52.996 In a marriage relationship it often starts off that way You're infatuated with each other, you love each other, you're passionate about one another. 00:11:52.996 --> 00:11:55.235 But then life gets busy. 00:11:55.235 --> 00:12:07.721 Maybe you have some kids and your routine is like you go to work and you brush your teeth and then you come home and you got to make dinner and then you get dinner ready, then you wash the dishes and then you just go to bed and date nights kind of slip away. 00:12:07.721 --> 00:12:11.238 You don't do those big romantic things anymore. 00:12:11.238 --> 00:12:15.360 It becomes easy to drift in those relationships. 00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:23.000 The same thing can happen in our spiritual lives and in our spiritual relationship with God. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:31.857 If we live out the Christian job description, we do the things we're supposed to do as a spouse and as a wife and a husband. 00:12:31.857 --> 00:12:39.494 You do all the stuff that husbands and wives are supposed to do, but we lose that passion In our Christian lives. 00:12:39.494 --> 00:12:43.996 We live out the Christian job description but we lose our passion for it. 00:12:43.996 --> 00:12:50.355 And here's why that is so dangerous to do all the right things but with the wrong heart. 00:12:50.355 --> 00:12:52.736 It's what Jesus tells them in verse 5. 00:12:52.736 --> 00:12:57.058 It says remember then how far you have fallen. 00:12:58.190 --> 00:13:08.764 Repent and do the works you did at first, otherwise I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. 00:13:08.764 --> 00:13:14.061 A lampstand would have represented God's presence within a church. 00:13:14.061 --> 00:13:17.580 That lampstand would have represented that God was with those people. 00:13:17.580 --> 00:13:18.812 He was with that church. 00:13:18.812 --> 00:13:20.134 He was walking with them. 00:13:20.134 --> 00:13:25.672 He's saying if you do all of the right stuff, but you do it for the wrong reasons. 00:13:25.672 --> 00:13:26.634 He says I'm not in that. 00:13:27.856 --> 00:13:39.119 If you come to church every Sunday and you sing these worship songs but you're not meditating on the words and that worship's not coming from your heart, it doesn't mean anything to him. 00:13:39.119 --> 00:13:53.557 If you're on a serve team on Sunday and you're just doing it because this is what a Christian is supposed to do and you're living out the job description, it doesn't honor God, it doesn't glorify him and he removes his presence from that work. 00:13:53.557 --> 00:13:59.900 See, ministry without love is meaningless to God. 00:13:59.900 --> 00:14:01.605 Ministry without love is meaningless to God. 00:14:01.605 --> 00:14:03.210 Ministry without love is meaningless to God. 00:14:03.711 --> 00:14:06.581 We get into this mindset where we feel like God needs our help. 00:14:06.581 --> 00:14:10.375 It's like I have to do this stuff to be a good Christian. 00:14:10.375 --> 00:14:18.539 That way, god will look down on me and I will gain his approval, because if I don't do it, nobody else will will. 00:14:18.539 --> 00:14:19.543 God doesn't need your help. 00:14:19.543 --> 00:14:21.615 God doesn't need you to do anything. 00:14:21.615 --> 00:14:22.398 He's God. 00:14:22.398 --> 00:14:23.655 He can do whatever he wants to. 00:14:23.655 --> 00:14:30.538 He wants us to experience the joy that comes from him working through us and in our lives. 00:14:30.538 --> 00:14:37.421 He wants us to experience what it's like when God uses you to lead people to him. 00:14:41.269 --> 00:14:48.614 This is why it is so important that we don't lose our passion for Jesus, because when we're simply doing it out of duty and instead of our love for God, we might as well not be doing it at all. 00:14:48.614 --> 00:14:55.230 And the church of Ephesus didn't even realize this was happening. 00:14:55.230 --> 00:15:02.323 They thought they were doing all the right stuff, keeping pure doctrine in this place where there was this goddess worship happening. 00:15:02.323 --> 00:15:14.533 And in our lives we can think we're doing all the right steps because we're checking off the list of what Christians are supposed to do, but if there's no love and passion in it, we might as well have never done those things. 00:15:14.533 --> 00:15:16.158 So how can we tell? 00:15:16.158 --> 00:15:18.451 How can we tell if we're losing our passion from God? 00:15:18.451 --> 00:15:20.676 How can we know that those are happening? 00:15:21.037 --> 00:15:23.461 Here are three things that I do in my personal life. 00:15:23.461 --> 00:15:28.986 They might be different for you, but three ways that I know that I can tell that I'm losing my passion for him. 00:15:28.986 --> 00:15:33.981 Number one you see, serving as a chore, not a gift. 00:15:33.981 --> 00:15:36.231 Ephesians 3, 7,. 00:15:36.231 --> 00:15:41.850 I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace that was given to me. 00:15:41.850 --> 00:15:52.538 By the working of his power, I can tell that something is off in my life when the planning center invitation pops up, you're like, ah, scheduled again. 00:15:52.538 --> 00:15:59.081 When you're in the midst of serving and you're like I really don't want to be doing this, I really don't want to be here right now. 00:15:59.081 --> 00:16:07.438 And what we can do if we're not careful is we can just push that to the side and be like, well, this is what Christians are supposed to do, so I'm just going to push through and I'm going to keep doing it. 00:16:07.438 --> 00:16:12.321 Pastor Nate talked about there being some check engine lights in our life. 00:16:12.321 --> 00:16:19.991 This is a check engine light. 00:16:19.991 --> 00:16:20.735 That's saying why do I feel this way? 00:16:20.735 --> 00:16:21.457 Why have I lost my passion for him? 00:16:21.457 --> 00:16:22.360 Why don't I want to be serving right now? 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:24.027 This is an indicator that we're losing our love for God. 00:16:24.327 --> 00:16:32.311 Second way we can identify if we're losing our passion for love for God is this you see, giving as losing, not investing. 00:16:32.311 --> 00:16:34.575 Matthew 6, 21. 00:16:34.575 --> 00:16:38.902 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be. 00:16:38.902 --> 00:16:46.711 Also, no one can serve two masters, since he will either hate the one or love the other, or he will love the one and hate the other. 00:16:46.711 --> 00:16:59.533 We cannot serve God and money when we see our tithe go out, when we hear about things like Project 33 and all the exciting things that God can do through our giving and we're like man, I don't want to lose my money. 00:16:59.533 --> 00:17:01.698 I'm going to give my money to that. 00:17:01.698 --> 00:17:03.370 Then my money is going to be gone. 00:17:03.370 --> 00:17:15.711 It means our view of our finances and our passion for God is off, because when we tithe and follow Christ in obedience to that, he uses what little we give to accomplish amazing things for his mission. 00:17:15.711 --> 00:17:19.852 He uses what we give to make him known throughout the nation and throughout the world. 00:17:19.852 --> 00:17:29.296 So I know in my heart when I give and I feel like I'm losing something, I've lost my passion for the work that God is doing. 00:17:29.296 --> 00:17:35.513 What we spend money on is a direct indicator of what we prioritize. 00:17:35.513 --> 00:17:45.098 If you were to go through your bank statement and look at all of the stuff you spend money on, that will tell you everything you value. 00:17:45.098 --> 00:17:52.476 What we spend money on is a direct indicator of what we prioritize in our lives. 00:17:56.381 --> 00:18:05.140 The third way you might know that you're losing your passion for God is you see prayer and Bible study as time-consuming, not a necessity. 00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:09.238 Verse 5 says I am the vine, you are the branches. 00:18:09.238 --> 00:18:24.731 Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for, apart from me, you can do nothing when we get so busy in our lives and we just view reading our Bible. 00:18:24.731 --> 00:18:33.717 We just view praying as a checklist item that we have to do, or maybe you don't view it as a necessity at all and you skip it altogether. 00:18:33.717 --> 00:18:46.435 God says, if we are not abiding in three indicators, that you might be losing your passion for God. 00:18:46.435 --> 00:18:49.515 You see serving as a chore instead of a gift. 00:18:49.515 --> 00:18:57.458 You see giving as losing, not investing, and you see prayer and Bible study as time-consuming instead of a necessity. 00:18:57.458 --> 00:19:03.633 Maybe for you there are different checklists that you have to put in your life to make sure your passion is where it needs to be. 00:19:03.633 --> 00:19:08.636 Maybe some of these things rang true for you and you resonate with some of them. 00:19:08.636 --> 00:19:11.326 Then what can we do? 00:19:11.326 --> 00:19:17.481 You realize your passion isn't where it should be. 00:19:17.481 --> 00:19:22.051 You realize your priorities have differed and your love for God is wavering. 00:19:23.375 --> 00:19:24.577 How do we get that passion back? 00:19:24.577 --> 00:19:27.132 Three things, and then we'll be done. 00:19:27.132 --> 00:19:28.017 Number one how do we get that passion back? 00:19:28.017 --> 00:19:28.759 Three things, and then we'll be done. 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:29.644 Number one how do we get that passion back? 00:19:29.644 --> 00:19:31.892 We admit and repent. 00:19:31.892 --> 00:19:47.771 Revelation 2.5 says Remember then how far you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first, otherwise I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. 00:19:47.771 --> 00:19:52.252 They didn't realize they were doing anything wrong. 00:19:52.252 --> 00:19:55.792 They didn't realize they weren't serving God. 00:19:55.792 --> 00:19:58.153 They thought they were doing all the right things. 00:19:58.153 --> 00:20:05.613 To realize we've lost our passion for Him takes some humility To go beneath the surface of your heart. 00:20:05.613 --> 00:20:08.311 Say where am I really at with God? 00:20:08.311 --> 00:20:11.613 Where's my passion level really at? 00:20:11.613 --> 00:20:25.453 Am I just creating this checklist so that I can feel good about myself and feel like I'm serving him, or do I need to take a hard look at myself and admit yeah, I'm not where I'm supposed to be? 00:20:25.453 --> 00:20:28.712 We want to gain our passion back for God. 00:20:28.712 --> 00:20:32.772 It starts by admitting it's not where it should be and repenting and turning back to him. 00:20:33.884 --> 00:20:36.173 Number two, the second way how do we get our passion back? 00:20:36.173 --> 00:20:41.345 You get around passionate people Galatians 6.1, brothers and sisters. 00:20:41.345 --> 00:20:49.109 If someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you, who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit. 00:20:49.109 --> 00:20:53.213 This is why God designed the church. 00:20:53.213 --> 00:21:02.453 This is why he created the church body, because all of us in our lives will have seasons where we're on fire for God and we're in love with him. 00:21:02.453 --> 00:21:09.665 And we want to do everything for him, and we'll all have seasons where we kind of drift away and we get tired. 00:21:09.665 --> 00:21:17.806 It's so important for us to be around passionate people that will help lift us up in those times. 00:21:17.806 --> 00:21:19.711 We get around them. 00:21:19.711 --> 00:21:25.712 We get around a Christ follower who has been following Jesus for 20, 30 years and they're constantly learning something new. 00:21:25.712 --> 00:21:27.597 You ask them what's your secret? 00:21:27.597 --> 00:21:30.048 Years, and they're constantly learning something new. 00:21:30.048 --> 00:21:30.892 You ask them what's your secret? 00:21:30.892 --> 00:21:32.317 What have you done to stay this passionate for God all these years? 00:21:32.317 --> 00:21:33.039 How do you do it? 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:37.770 Get around passionate people and ask them what is it that keeps them going? 00:21:37.770 --> 00:21:44.488 Lastly, and then we'll be done, how do we get our passion back? 00:21:45.710 --> 00:21:47.952 We practice active rest. 00:21:47.952 --> 00:21:52.645 Practice active rest If you've done sports or work out at all. 00:21:52.645 --> 00:21:55.894 This is a term that's used in there active rest days. 00:21:55.894 --> 00:22:02.597 So if you work out right, when you work out, you like tear your muscles down, you get beat up and you have to take time to rest. 00:22:02.597 --> 00:22:08.877 But an active rest day isn't just sitting in a chair chilling like watching Netflix. 00:22:08.877 --> 00:22:14.436 An active rest day is actively doing things that are going to help you heal and recover. 00:22:14.436 --> 00:22:18.796 So you'll stretch, you'll do yoga, you'll go for a light jog, you'll get a massage. 00:22:18.796 --> 00:22:25.157 You do these things to actively replenish yourself physically so that you can go and work out again. 00:22:25.157 --> 00:22:28.491 The same is true in our spiritual lives. 00:22:28.491 --> 00:22:33.215 When all we do is go, go, go, serve, serve, serve. 00:22:33.215 --> 00:22:39.673 It's no wonder why you're burnt out when you can neglect your time with God. 00:22:39.673 --> 00:22:46.516 No wonder why our passion is running thin, because God created us to have rest in our lives. 00:22:48.546 --> 00:22:50.452 Mark 6, 30 through 31 says this. 00:22:50.452 --> 00:22:53.815 This is after Jesus had sent out his 12 disciples. 00:22:53.815 --> 00:22:57.053 They preach, they perform miracles, they healed people. 00:22:57.053 --> 00:22:58.076 They did all this stuff. 00:22:58.076 --> 00:23:04.252 And then verse 30, it says the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 00:23:04.252 --> 00:23:05.457 So they're excited. 00:23:05.457 --> 00:23:06.007 They're like Jesus. 00:23:06.007 --> 00:23:07.692 Here's all the stuff we did for you. 00:23:07.692 --> 00:23:09.849 This is how he responds to them. 00:23:09.849 --> 00:23:24.372 He said to them come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while, for many people were coming and going. 00:23:24.372 --> 00:23:27.595 They did not even have time to eat. 00:23:27.595 --> 00:23:32.125 People were coming and going. 00:23:32.125 --> 00:23:32.887 They did not even have time to eat. 00:23:32.907 --> 00:23:42.371 One of the reasons we lose our passion for Jesus is because we get so caught up in doing stuff for him that we don't take time to just sit at his feet and fall in love with him. 00:23:42.371 --> 00:23:59.397 We don't take time to get into the word and hear about his love for us, and hear about the sacrifice he's made for us, and fall in love with him again and again and again, when all we do is do, do, do we burn ourselves out and we forget why we've done it in the first place. 00:23:59.397 --> 00:24:05.113 And we can trick ourselves, because we can have a ton of movement. 00:24:05.113 --> 00:24:11.815 We can have a ton of movement in our lives and make absolutely zero progress. 00:24:11.815 --> 00:24:19.892 We can have a ton of movement in our spiritual lives and make zero progress. 00:24:19.952 --> 00:24:26.045 Spiritually to grow, we cover up the hidden parts of our heart by serving, serving, serving. 00:24:26.045 --> 00:24:28.433 So people think we're doing what's right. 00:24:28.433 --> 00:24:29.971 So people think we're right with God. 00:24:29.971 --> 00:24:36.296 So we try to convince ourselves that I'm right with God and I'm just going to stay so busy so that I don't have to think about it. 00:24:36.296 --> 00:24:42.961 But in your heart you know that passion isn't there. 00:24:42.961 --> 00:24:54.075 In your heart, you know there's something wrong and there's something off and you've got to take that time to sit at his feet and rest in him. 00:24:54.075 --> 00:25:06.632 For you, that might be listening to worship music, going on a hike, waking up 30 minutes before the craziness of the day starts and just spending time in prayer with him and reading your Bible. 00:25:06.632 --> 00:25:12.893 You have to do something to practice active rest, to refuel yourself spiritually. 00:25:14.446 --> 00:25:15.410 How do we get our passion back? 00:25:15.410 --> 00:25:16.273 We admit and repent. 00:25:16.273 --> 00:25:18.853 We get around passionate people. 00:25:18.853 --> 00:25:22.074 We practice active rest. 00:25:22.074 --> 00:25:26.632 Maybe you're here today and we've gone through some of these things. 00:25:28.506 --> 00:25:32.662 Say, man, if I'm being honest, my passion level for Jesus isn't where it should be. 00:25:32.662 --> 00:25:40.328 My desire to serve him, my desire to give, my desire to be around him and his people isn't where it should be. 00:25:40.328 --> 00:25:46.058 Here's the good news you may have lost your passion for Jesus. 00:25:46.058 --> 00:25:51.249 You may have lost your passion for Jesus, but he'll never lose his passion for you. 00:25:51.249 --> 00:25:59.835 He's right there, right next to you, just waiting for you to turn back to him, waiting for you to admit and repent and begin to restore that relationship with him. 00:25:59.835 --> 00:26:14.815 So what I want us to do right now just take a few moments in your seat, search your heart and ask God to truly reveal have you lost your passion for him and make some commitments of what you're going to do to get that back. 00:26:14.815 --> 00:26:16.990 We want people to talk to and pray with. 00:26:16.990 --> 00:26:18.075 We have people at our prayer. 00:26:18.075 --> 00:26:19.461 Next steps banners up here. 00:26:19.461 --> 00:26:22.672 Go ahead and just take a couple of moments and then we'll pray together.