Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and.
Speaker 2: This is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 1: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 1: in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: So over in the Book of Revelation, Chapter two, verse
Speaker 1: two through five. There's a challenge, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to be disciplined as I preach this one. I
Speaker 1: got a little I got a little bit off my
Speaker 1: plan at the last one. This one, I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: to just stay right right there and preach it, and
Speaker 1: because there's so much there that I believe will help you.
Speaker 1: But let's turn our attention now to the text. The
Speaker 1: Angel at the church in emphasis is receiving a message, and.
Speaker 2: The word of the Lord comes. I know your works verse.
Speaker 1: Two, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you
Speaker 1: cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested
Speaker 1: those who call themselves apostles and are not found them
Speaker 1: to be false. I know you're enduring patiently and bearing
Speaker 1: up for my Name's sake, and you have not grown weary.
Speaker 2: You're doing a lot of things right.
Speaker 1: And I see it, and I see you struggling, and
Speaker 1: I see you showing up.
Speaker 2: But I have this against you.
Speaker 1: There's something that's working against you. There's something that I
Speaker 1: need to challenge you on today. I have this against
Speaker 1: you that you have abandoned the love that you had
Speaker 1: it first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent
Speaker 1: It means to change your mind. It means to change
Speaker 1: your direction. Repent therefore, repent, Remember and repent and do
Speaker 1: the works you.
Speaker 2: Did it first.
Speaker 1: If not, I will come to you and remove your
Speaker 1: lamp stand from its place unless you repent. I see you,
Speaker 1: I love you, But if you don't remember and repent,
Speaker 1: you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Lose your place.
Speaker 1: So I want to appreciate to you today on the
Speaker 1: subject put your passion in its place, and I want
Speaker 1: you to pray with me that I could communicate this
Speaker 1: message in a powerful and clear way. Father, anoint your
Speaker 1: word and open our hearts. May we hear it and
Speaker 1: do it never be the same. We declare it, and
Speaker 1: thank you in advance for feeding us from your hand.
Speaker 2: In Jesus' name, Amen, on your way to.
Speaker 1: Your seat, touch somebody, say you're gonna get it back today.
Speaker 2: You're gonna get it back. You're gonna get it back.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you right now, you're gonna get it
Speaker 1: back today. Hey, So bring up my props and put
Speaker 1: my little picture up. I want to show you something
Speaker 1: from last summer. I took my kids back to my
Speaker 1: hometown and took them on a tour of Monk's Corner,
Speaker 1: South Carolina.
Speaker 2: A lot of people want to go to the Holy
Speaker 2: Land and then, and.
Speaker 1: Some people on their bucket list, they just want to
Speaker 1: see Monk's Corner. So I took my kids to all
Speaker 1: of the sites that I could think of that were
Speaker 1: memorable to me growing up, very proud of my small
Speaker 1: town heritage, and very proud.
Speaker 2: Of the church I grew up in.
Speaker 1: I took them by Monk's Corner United Methodist Church. A
Speaker 1: lady who recognized me saw us full up. She said,
Speaker 1: little Stevie Verdick, her sister taught my Sunday school class,
Speaker 1: and she knew I was pastoring. Now, proud of me
Speaker 1: and all that said, we could walk in and do
Speaker 1: whatever we wanted. She was there cleaning, and we went
Speaker 1: over to the choir room and I showed the kids
Speaker 1: how I used to suit up on Sunday mornings when
Speaker 1: I was about well was it ten, mom eleven? And
Speaker 1: I was an acolyte at the Methodist church, and so
Speaker 1: I kind of walked them through. I wanted to show
Speaker 1: him how I did it back in the day, because
Speaker 1: you know, not just anybody could be an acolyte. Took
Speaker 1: a special talented kid, very spiritually elite children were called
Speaker 1: upon it. They didn't let you light your own wick.
Speaker 1: They had a committee member for that. But I walked
Speaker 1: them through it. And so that's me at the front
Speaker 1: of the church there showing them how I used to
Speaker 1: do it. And you had to do it a certain way,
Speaker 1: you know, you come down during the first song and
Speaker 1: you I don't remember it exactly, it's been a while,
Speaker 1: but there was a certain way you did the candles
Speaker 1: and all of that, and then you light it, light
Speaker 1: the well, it's been a while. Abby had a funny
Speaker 1: line when I was showing her all this. She said, Daddy,
Speaker 1: did you have to practice that? I said, yeah, baby,
Speaker 1: took a lot of practice, and do it just right,
Speaker 1: can't mess it up.
Speaker 2: And plus Melissa Hydric was sitting up there in the.
Speaker 1: Balcony and I had a crush on her, and I
Speaker 1: didn't want to burn down the church in front of
Speaker 1: my childhood crush, light my robe on fire in front
Speaker 1: of my crush. So you had to practice that. And
Speaker 1: then at the end, how you put the fire out.
Speaker 1: That's important there at the end. And while I'm standing
Speaker 1: up there with them, it's memories, you know, because sometimes
Speaker 1: you go back.
Speaker 2: And you just you remember things.
Speaker 1: That was where I preached my first sermon on youth Sunday.
Speaker 1: Now they only give you twelve minutes to preach in
Speaker 1: the Methodist Church, And I know what some of you
Speaker 1: are thinking, can we make this a Methodist church?
Speaker 2: That sounds awesome.
Speaker 1: It takes me twelve minutes to tell you, hello, how
Speaker 1: many of you are glad I preached long sermons because
Speaker 1: you know you're jacked up. It's going to take me
Speaker 1: a whole lot more than twelve minutes to straighten you out.
Speaker 1: Weird though, touch somebody say it's gonna take more than
Speaker 1: twelve You're a mess.
Speaker 2: Me too.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I was remembering that first sermon. I was preaching
Speaker 1: on Peter walking on water, and I didn't even need
Speaker 1: the full twelve minutes to be honest with you. Within
Speaker 1: five minutes I had used all my notes and there
Speaker 1: was seven minutes left. I had nothing more to say.
Speaker 1: Because I was sixteen. I didn't have content. I was
Speaker 1: preaching on the storms of life, sixteen years old, trying
Speaker 1: to tell seventy three year old Methodist women about the
Speaker 1: storms of life. I didn't have a lot of life experience.
Speaker 1: But I tell you what I had. I had passion.
Speaker 1: I had passion. I mean, if I could have walked
Speaker 1: across the pews, I would have walked across the pews
Speaker 1: to show them how Peter came out to Jesus on
Speaker 1: that boat. And I didn't have much much sense, but
Speaker 1: I had passion. In fact, they brought up a group
Speaker 1: of people last night when I was preaching. They had
Speaker 1: people up who have been in the church ten years,
Speaker 1: and it made me remember back to all the things
Speaker 1: that we have now as a church that we did
Speaker 1: not have ten years ago when we started. We didn't
Speaker 1: have all these lights and cameras for video, and all
Speaker 1: this money to start campuses. God knows, we didn't have
Speaker 1: a building our first capitol campaign, you remember, Greg Weinberger,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a building, a blueprint to show the people.
Speaker 1: We didn't have any of that. But we had passion.
Speaker 1: Oh man, we had passion. We had the kind of
Speaker 1: passion that they were calling us a cult. Until they're
Speaker 1: calling you a cult, you ain't doing nothing.
Speaker 2: We had passion.
Speaker 1: I had passion preaching in that senior center. I wish
Speaker 1: I could tell them, Josh, remember you wrote me that
Speaker 1: letter the other day about my first green room.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a green room, it was a closet. It
Speaker 2: was a closet.
Speaker 1: We would move the plants out the closet and you
Speaker 1: would knock on it one minute less, so I come
Speaker 1: out and lead the music. We didn't even have that
Speaker 1: many people, but we had passion. How many know you
Speaker 1: can push through a lot.
Speaker 2: When you have passion. When you have passion, passion matters.
Speaker 1: And I was standing there with my kids and thinking
Speaker 1: about when I started appreciating and having conversations with my
Speaker 1: young self and checking my passion because in Revelation chapter
Speaker 1: two there is a challenge to passion, and I think
Speaker 1: it's good every once in a while to challenge your
Speaker 1: passion level. In contrast to the passion that you had,
Speaker 1: do you still have passion? You remember the first apartment
Speaker 1: that we lived in together, Holly, you remember it well.
Speaker 2: You remember the mouse traps. You remember it well. You
Speaker 2: remember how you cooked.
Speaker 1: All that fried rice and pasta and made me fat
Speaker 1: within a year and a half of being your husband,
Speaker 1: And I think you were trying to make sure I
Speaker 1: stayed with you. She got me so fat that first
Speaker 1: year cooking for me. I found a picture the other day.
Speaker 1: In fact, she brought it to me. I don't know
Speaker 1: if she's trying to keep me motivated to stay in
Speaker 1: the gym, but I was about forty five pounds heavier
Speaker 1: bro not in the biceps this picture. I wish you
Speaker 1: could see this picture. I thought about putting it on
Speaker 1: the screen, but some of y'all are going to lunch
Speaker 1: after this. I don't want to mess up your lunch.
Speaker 1: And I'm standing there, got my eyes closed and my
Speaker 1: shirt off and my belly out, looking like an infomercial
Speaker 1: before picture. That little apartment a Juniper Terrorists apartment CEE fifteen.
Speaker 1: It was very small and the insulation in the walls
Speaker 1: was very thin. And the reason I know because Tammy
Speaker 1: from Juniper Terrists Apartment C sixteen came over to us
Speaker 1: after our first night and the apartment knocked on the
Speaker 1: door and said I'm your neighbor, Tammy, and I just
Speaker 1: want to let you know we can hear everything. It
Speaker 1: was a duplex. I just want you to know here
Speaker 1: everything that happens in fifteen and I mean everything, because
Speaker 1: we didn't.
Speaker 2: Have a lot of space, but we had all the.
Speaker 1: Which brings us to Revelation chapter two. This is the
Speaker 1: connection obvious people. He said, you had something when you
Speaker 1: were small that you lost now that you're significant. Ephesis
Speaker 1: was not an imaginary place. So when the Book of
Speaker 1: Revelation is issuing seven letters to seven churches, they're real
Speaker 1: churches with real people, with real histories. And it's been
Speaker 1: forty three years since Paul started this church, traveling Inland
Speaker 1: with a group of compadres that are spreading the gospel
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. That he spends a couple of years
Speaker 1: with these people in Ephesis. And when he started out
Speaker 1: he just met some people. There were twelve guys who
Speaker 1: were disciples of John the Baptist, and Paul asked him
Speaker 1: do you have the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2: And they said, we.
Speaker 1: Don't even know that there is a Holy Spirit. They
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of theological knowledge, but you know
Speaker 1: what they had passion. Paul laid his hands on him,
Speaker 1: and when he did, they started to speak in tongues
Speaker 1: and they received the Holy Spirit, and they didn't just
Speaker 1: speak in another language. They started speaking about Jesus. They
Speaker 1: were speaking in the synagogues, and their passion was so
Speaker 1: strong that the crowds started coming out. And then they
Speaker 1: didn't like it, because sometimes when you get passionate, apathetic,
Speaker 1: people get threatened. And the Jewish religious system was not
Speaker 1: a fan of the prevalence of the Gospel, so they
Speaker 1: kicked Paul out of the synagogue. But how many know,
Speaker 1: when you have passion, you'll find another place. Nobody can
Speaker 1: shut you down. When you have real passion, if they
Speaker 1: kick you out the synagogue, you'll go to the lecture hall.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what Paul did. And he preached powerfully
Speaker 1: in emphasis. And it wasn't just an accident that he
Speaker 1: ended up in emphasis. God strategically placed Paul in emphasis
Speaker 1: because there were three hundred thousand people who lived there.
Speaker 2: Fourth largest city in the world.
Speaker 1: At that time, known as the Seventh Wonder of the World,
Speaker 1: home of the Temple of Artemis, daughter of Zeus I
Speaker 1: mean emphasis, was a place where people would come to
Speaker 1: get their shipments, it was a port city, it was
Speaker 1: well situated, it was an important place. So Paul is passionate,
Speaker 1: and Emphasis is an important place, and God says, I've
Speaker 1: got to get the.
Speaker 2: Guy with the passion in the right place.
Speaker 1: When I look back over my life, I'm grateful that
Speaker 1: God has directed.
Speaker 2: My past and made sure that my passion had a
Speaker 2: place to operate.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful that God found me as a teenager and
Speaker 1: gave me a place to preach because God saw a passion.
Speaker 2: Now, as a parent, I'm always trying to look.
Speaker 1: And make sure that if my kids have a passion,
Speaker 1: I encourage it. If you're into a Rubic's cube, I'll
Speaker 1: buy you three. If you like mindcraft, I'll tolerate and
Speaker 1: pretend to listen to you as you explain it to me.
Speaker 2: But I want you to have a passion.
Speaker 1: Passion mattersh It matters no matter what position you're in.
Speaker 1: Passion matters. And if you can't do it with passion
Speaker 1: in a small place, why in the world would God
Speaker 1: promote you to a bigger one. Paul didn't start an Emphasis,
Speaker 1: but he ended up there. Started in Damascus, spending time
Speaker 1: in isolation, but the same passion that was developing in
Speaker 1: his isolation.
Speaker 2: Did that make you.
Speaker 1: Think of David when I said that, because that would
Speaker 1: be a great Old Testament illustration of this New Testament
Speaker 1: personality as a shepherd killing lions, killing bears and didn't
Speaker 1: even know he was preparing for Goliath. But it was
Speaker 1: the same passion in the pasture that got him to
Speaker 1: the palace, same passion waiting for a place to happen.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the frustrating things, is that you
Speaker 1: can have the right passion in the wrong place. You
Speaker 1: can have more passion than opportunity.
Speaker 2: To express it. It's frustrating.
Speaker 1: I know some of you who come to church here,
Speaker 1: some of you would express yourself more in church, but
Speaker 1: you don't know if it's appropriate.
Speaker 2: I have one friend.
Speaker 1: Who grew up in churches where it was more demonstrative.
Speaker 1: He said, when he first came to elevation, it was
Speaker 1: kind of hard for him. I said, really, He said, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I would want to.
Speaker 2: Stand up while you were preaching and shout you down.
Speaker 2: There's a black guy.
Speaker 1: By the way, okay, incidentally, he said, But I was
Speaker 1: around a bunch of white people and god blos and
Speaker 1: we all have different personalities but I stood up. When
Speaker 1: I was stand up, I was the only one I
Speaker 1: was stand up, and I was expecting everybody else to
Speaker 1: be standing to he said, because you were preaching so passionately.
Speaker 1: The word just got in me and I couldn't stay seated.
Speaker 1: And I'm standing up, but I'm the only one all
Speaker 1: these people around me. You know, sometimes you can let
Speaker 1: other people minimize your passions and downplay your passion to
Speaker 1: the level of other people. Don't ever let another person
Speaker 1: become the.
Speaker 2: Ceiling on your passion.
Speaker 1: I'd rather change people than lose passion. I'd rather get
Speaker 1: some new friends that want to.
Speaker 2: Serve God and want to love God.
Speaker 1: I'd rather move seats and stay in my seat when
Speaker 1: the spirit of God hid me. In fact, if you're
Speaker 1: sitting at a campus and nobody around you looks excited,
Speaker 1: raise your hand and ask the I'm sure, and they'll
Speaker 1: move your seating assignment because I need some room to
Speaker 1: praise God, because when I think of the goodness of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Come on, anybody got passion and see when you have passion.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when you get around complacent people or people who
Speaker 1: have a different personality, you feel funny. My friend Carl
Speaker 1: Lynz came to preach out our code Orang's revival. He
Speaker 1: pastors in New York City, and so his kids play
Speaker 1: ball in Brooklyn, and he came to my kids little
Speaker 1: league baseball game. He came to Graham's baseball game in
Speaker 1: South Charlotte, and he tried to bring a Brooklyn passion
Speaker 1: to a South Charlotte baseball game. I mean, no, sooner
Speaker 1: had he got out there to the bleachers than he
Speaker 1: was talking trash to the ump. Now, this is not
Speaker 1: a high school baseball game. These are eight year old,
Speaker 1: nine year old kids. And Carl's telling the ump. He's
Speaker 1: telling the ump look good to.
Speaker 2: Me, hump, be happy to get to some glasses. Ump.
Speaker 2: Next thing, I know, he's talking trash to.
Speaker 1: The kid on the other team on den to about
Speaker 1: not today number eleven. I don't think so, little guy,
Speaker 1: I said, Carl, we don't.
Speaker 2: Do that here.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your passion, but this is the wrong place.
Speaker 1: I gotta come to the field with these people.
Speaker 2: Oh season, some of them on the other team go
Speaker 2: to my church. Shut out touch.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, keep your passion in his place. Right place
Speaker 1: for sex is in the marriage bag. I know you
Speaker 1: got passion but passion needs a place to operate, like
Speaker 1: a fire. If you're in disagreement with what I just said,
Speaker 1: let me prove it using natural elements. When I started
Speaker 1: this sermon, I lit this wik and none of you
Speaker 1: had a problem. Why because it was in its proper place.
Speaker 1: But I bet if I brought this wick down to
Speaker 1: the crowd.
Speaker 2: And put this fire in your hair, you say I.
Speaker 1: Got it, preacher, Keep it in its place. Misplaced passion
Speaker 1: is very dangerous. Misplaced passion, you know, it's even more
Speaker 1: dangerous to let somebody with Brooklyn passion get around somebody
Speaker 1: with a South Charlotte attitude. What I'm trying to say is,
Speaker 1: I mean, I love my city. We're a great city.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying we owe anything to those Yankees, but I'm.
Speaker 2: Saying that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes a new person will come into the church and
Speaker 1: they're excited. I mean, they are fired up, they got
Speaker 1: a passion, and let them get around Bobby who's been
Speaker 1: a Christian for twenty three years.
Speaker 2: And Bobby's looking at him saying, you don't do that
Speaker 2: around here.
Speaker 1: See, because people who are new to the faith, people
Speaker 1: who have that first love, they don't know that you're
Speaker 1: not so supposed to read your Bible.
Speaker 2: Yet they don't know that.
Speaker 1: We only listened to it on Sundays and we don't
Speaker 1: bother with it during the week.
Speaker 2: So if you don't watch.
Speaker 1: Them, they don't bring that passion into your church. If
Speaker 1: they don't get around, they are on people, and something's
Speaker 1: happening in Ephesus because when they first started, they didn't
Speaker 1: have the knowledge, but they had the passion.
Speaker 2: They didn't have the people, but they had the passion.
Speaker 2: They didn't have they didn't they didn't.
Speaker 1: Have the political support of the government, they didn't have
Speaker 1: a five oh one C three nonprofit tax exempt status, they.
Speaker 2: Didn't have a Christian president, but they had passions.
Speaker 1: They had false doctrine coming into the church. In fact,
Speaker 1: Paul told Timothy one time, he said, Hey, I want
Speaker 1: you to look at this in one Timothy one three.
Speaker 2: Because Timothy was a young.
Speaker 1: Man and he didn't have much experience, and the Bible
Speaker 1: gives us reason to believe that Timothy had a timid personality,
Speaker 1: Paul had to remind him over and over again, Hey,
Speaker 1: God didn't give you a spirit of timidity. Timothy Timid
Speaker 1: Timmy Timid. Timmy is pastor in a big city church,
Speaker 1: and there's people teaching false doctrine, and there's people trying
Speaker 1: to deny the gospel of Christ. And Timothy in his
Speaker 1: twenties with a timid personality. By the way, passion is
Speaker 1: not a personality type. Passion isn't how high you jump.
Speaker 1: Passion is how straight you walk when your feet hit
Speaker 1: the ground. Put this down. If you're passionate, you take
Speaker 1: notes in church. The proof of passion is perseverance. I'll
Speaker 1: prove it to you in the scripture. I'll prove it
Speaker 1: to you from verse Timothy one to three. Paul says Timothy.
Speaker 1: I urged you before when I was on my way
Speaker 1: through Macedonia, and I'm telling you again. Remain in ephesis.
Speaker 1: Now watch this. You don't have to tell somebody to
Speaker 1: stay somewhere they want to be. I've never had a
Speaker 1: massage therapist have to.
Speaker 2: Tell me to stay on the table.
Speaker 1: I have had a physical trainer have to tell me
Speaker 1: to do another rep to urge me to keep going.
Speaker 1: You don't urge people to do something they naturally want
Speaker 1: to do. So there must have been an instinct in
Speaker 1: Timothy to run. You're young, you're inexperienced. There's false doctrine
Speaker 1: circulating in the church.
Speaker 2: Timothy must not have been feeling it anymore.
Speaker 1: Timothy's fire might have been going out. So Paul said,
Speaker 1: I want you to remain there in Ephesus and do
Speaker 1: the hard stuff and persevere and persevere and stick it out,
Speaker 1: and come home to a family that might not even
Speaker 1: appreciate you right now, and show up at a job
Speaker 1: that might not even recognize your value right now, and
Speaker 1: preach in a place where you're persecuted.
Speaker 2: And the proof of your passion is your perseverance.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I was really passionate when I
Speaker 1: was preaching when I was sixteen. I was just excited.
Speaker 1: There's a difference. Interest is not passion. Come on, Knowledge
Speaker 1: is not passion. Passion is something different. When you watch
Speaker 1: a movie and they go home after a night at
Speaker 1: the first time they meet at a bar and rip
Speaker 1: each other's clothes off, that's not passion. That's attraction. One
Speaker 1: is from the heart. One is from the hormones. Passion
Speaker 1: isn't I rip your clothes off after the first.
Speaker 2: Time we met. That's not passion.
Speaker 1: Passion is when I saw my mom taking my dad's
Speaker 1: clothes off while he was dying. To give him a
Speaker 1: bath because he couldn't move his own body. That's passionate passion,
Speaker 1: June Am I right about passion. Passion is proven by perseverance.
Speaker 1: Passion is proven when you kneel down in the garden
Speaker 1: of gethsemine like Jesus and say, I'm under pressure right now.
Speaker 2: I don't want to do it right now.
Speaker 1: Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. You
Speaker 1: haven't even found your passion until you've passed your feelings.
Speaker 1: And I'm concerned about this because we've convoluted it. We've
Speaker 1: talked to people that if you don't feel it, you
Speaker 1: don't have to do it. But if you have real passion,
Speaker 1: you'll do it when you're up, do it.
Speaker 2: When you're down.
Speaker 1: Do it when they pay you, do it when they go,
Speaker 1: do it when they thank you, do it when they
Speaker 1: look you over.
Speaker 2: Do it when they hate you, do it when they
Speaker 2: love you. I got passion.
Speaker 1: I got passion to preach, I got passion to parent.
Speaker 1: I got passion to pay down my debt. And if
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: All at once, that's all all right.
Speaker 1: I got the passion to stick it out.
Speaker 2: I'm like Ruth Naomi. You can't run me off if
Speaker 2: you want to.
Speaker 1: I'm like alifsha Elia. You can tell me to leave,
Speaker 1: but I won't because.
Speaker 2: I got a passion. Where is your passion? Passion? Say it?
Speaker 1: Passion, say like that with the concentration on the vow passion.
Speaker 2: Passion. You can't say passion sounds ridiculous. Passion.
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine if I preached how some
Speaker 1: of y'all listen, that'd be horrible. Well, y'all know something
Speaker 1: say today that's gonna get around to it.
Speaker 2: And there's a Bible area.
Speaker 1: The relationship to the Book of Ephesian gives us a
Speaker 1: picture of the.
Speaker 3: Church of Officis from a doctrinal standpoint, but now it's
Speaker 3: been in a couple of decades. And then listen, the
Speaker 3: passion lost their first love, first love, love, passions, love, passions.
Speaker 1: The boy got me about the Church of Emphasis is
Speaker 1: that he commends their labor, but they've lost their love.
Speaker 1: See it isn't like they weren't making progress, but in
Speaker 1: the process of making progress, of keeping the false doctrine out,
Speaker 1: in the process of eliminating things from their life and
Speaker 1: their church that didn't need to be there.
Speaker 2: In the last forty three.
Speaker 1: Years because now John is writing from a place called
Speaker 1: the Island of Patmas, sending a messenger to the Church
Speaker 1: of Emphasis, and he says, I see your progress.
Speaker 2: You got a job, now, you got a wife now.
Speaker 4: But the question is the question is do you still
Speaker 4: laugh passion? You've got the apparatus, but you've lost your passion.
Speaker 4: All this is kind of pointless. If nothing's burning passion,
Speaker 4: you lost it. You lost your passion.
Speaker 1: One thing I always ask our worship team is that
Speaker 1: they lead you with passion, because I don't know what
Speaker 1: kind of hell you went through this week or what
Speaker 1: kind of hell you're going home to.
Speaker 2: So let's make it heaven on earth in here.
Speaker 1: And I think they do a really good job at
Speaker 1: every campus. Kelly Summers and Jane Williams and John sal
Speaker 1: Barrion tests you let me roll that out. Barri In tests,
Speaker 1: Barrien test what bar in testest? This is a place
Speaker 1: for passion. This is a place. Hey, hey, hey, you
Speaker 1: want to cry in the church. You can cry. Here's
Speaker 1: a hanky and shout.
Speaker 2: You can shout. You want to run, just don't run towards.
Speaker 1: The stage and makes me frightened, distracting me run in place?
Speaker 2: What kind of running motion was that.
Speaker 1: And sometimes your passion is waiting on a place to happen.
Speaker 1: Sometimes your passion is waiting on a place to happen.
Speaker 1: Graham's teacher told us the other day in the parent
Speaker 1: teacher conference. She said, Graham just loves life, she said,
Speaker 1: but sometimes I got to work with him on where
Speaker 1: it is appropriate to express that love for life. I said, example, Please,
Speaker 1: she's a great teacher, Kimberly Springs, teaching my third grader.
Speaker 2: She said, though, that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes Graham will just jump up in the middle of
Speaker 1: class and.
Speaker 5: Dab on a math problem and just dance across the room,
Speaker 5: just jump up, and there's a time to dab. But uh,
Speaker 5: but sometimes sometimes that flame becomes an ember. And I
Speaker 5: felt like the Lord wanted somebody today to get your
Speaker 5: passion back, and he.
Speaker 2: Tells you how to do it.
Speaker 1: He doesn't just challenge that you've lost your passion. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know your reaction to the scripture, but I
Speaker 1: take it as parental guidance that God is warning me.
Speaker 1: If you lose your passion, you're going to lose your place.
Speaker 1: Can I break that down? If you don't love that
Speaker 1: woman now that you're married, to her the same way
Speaker 1: and in increasing ways that you did when you dated her.
Speaker 2: Somebody else might. Now that's not a threat, that's just reality.
Speaker 2: I don't want to preach with passion.
Speaker 1: You think God can't raise up another preacher who's smarter
Speaker 1: than me.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no no no. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't operate out of the assumption that I'm entitled
Speaker 1: to anything that God gave me. I got to keep
Speaker 1: my passion. How can you have so much passion before
Speaker 1: you have the position?
Speaker 2: How do you get it back? He said, you've abandoned it.
Speaker 2: You didn't.
Speaker 1: You didn't lose your passion. You left it. You didn't
Speaker 1: lose it.
Speaker 2: You left it.
Speaker 1: You abandoned your first love. You stopped doing the things
Speaker 1: look at it. He said, you've abandoned your first love.
Speaker 1: Remember therefore, from.
Speaker 2: Where you have fallen.
Speaker 1: I love God because he doesn't say that we should
Speaker 1: regret where we are. He says, we should remember where
Speaker 1: we were and get your eyes back to the hills
Speaker 1: where your help comes.
Speaker 2: Come on, I'm preaching with passion, but I could use
Speaker 2: a little participation. I'm not staying where I am. I
Speaker 2: want my passion back so much. Shout I want it back.
Speaker 2: I want it back. I want it back. I don't
Speaker 2: just want to look like a Christian. I want a
Speaker 2: fire in my heart. I want to go through the emotions.
Speaker 2: Here's what you do. Remember from where you were falling.
Speaker 2: Remember from where you're fallen. Repent.
Speaker 1: Let's look at the scripture together, repent, and let's read
Speaker 1: the next part together and feel the feelings you felt
Speaker 1: at first. Well, isn't that how we treat passion like
Speaker 1: it's a sinsa But yeah, when he challenges their passion.
Speaker 2: He calls them to action. Do the things you did
Speaker 2: it first. It's a decision, not a sensation said. Let
Speaker 2: me tell you something else. Do it? Do it? Do it?
Speaker 2: Do it? How do I get it back? Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna pray, Lord, I want my passion back. It ain't coming.
Speaker 2: Not like that. You don't pray to get it back.
Speaker 2: You practice.
Speaker 1: Do the things you did at first. I don't feel
Speaker 1: grateful anymore. Be grateful. I don't feel excited anymore. Be excited.
Speaker 1: I don't feel love anymore? Be loving?
Speaker 2: Do it?
Speaker 1: Do it?
Speaker 2: Do it? What's it? What you did it first? Do it? Practice?
Speaker 1: Got shay you something you got? A second is this
Speaker 1: word good. I sure enjoyed preparing it. I think I
Speaker 1: like cooking this better than you could ever like eating it.
Speaker 1: While I was preparing it, watch this late need. The
Speaker 1: Lord gave me an illustration of it. You guys may
Speaker 1: not know the names of these musicians. I mentioned them
Speaker 1: already on the platform. One of our musicians here, LJ.
Speaker 1: He's a little newer to the team, but.
Speaker 2: He's got passion.
Speaker 1: And he's not some young buck who always wanted to
Speaker 1: be on the stage. He's done some things, he's wasted
Speaker 1: some seasons, and I didn't know about him. I was
Speaker 1: looking for somebody in this particular position, and I wanted
Speaker 1: somebody who would have not just the technical skills or
Speaker 1: proficiency to be back here by someone who would have
Speaker 1: the passion for it. You know how I knew he
Speaker 1: was the guy. He said that when I send in
Speaker 1: my scriptures for them to put on the screen, he
Speaker 1: begs the people that get the email with the scriptures
Speaker 1: if he can see them so he can figure out
Speaker 1: what I'm going to preach on, so he can start
Speaker 1: thinking through what song he might start playing when I
Speaker 1: start closing. See that's passion, that's passion, And I brought
Speaker 1: him up because I love all of our team.
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong, You're not my favorite or anything
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: But just something I heard that when he was he
Speaker 1: was living in Canada, and which is known for its.
Speaker 2: Passion of you, Wayne Finch, Stephen Finch, God bless you guys.
Speaker 1: But he was he was going through season. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to tell all of his details. Maybe maybe you
Speaker 1: can ask him one day, but he would sit when
Speaker 1: his wife would go to bed at night.
Speaker 2: He would put on his headphones and.
Speaker 1: He would practice playing with preachers online.
Speaker 2: Now he didn't have a position, but he.
Speaker 1: Had a what a what a passion and he would
Speaker 1: put his headphones on so as not to disturb his
Speaker 1: wife's sleep. I assume and sectually appreciated that, and he
Speaker 1: would play.
Speaker 2: Along with the preaching.
Speaker 1: I heard that there was a season where you would
Speaker 1: play along with me online.
Speaker 2: And I didn't know who he was.
Speaker 1: Never heard of him, never heard never even heard his name.
Speaker 1: They didn't even call David's name when he was out
Speaker 1: in the field tending sheets. Come on, I'm about to
Speaker 1: preach right section of I sure could use your passion.
Speaker 2: I sure could use it. I see he didn't have
Speaker 2: a position.
Speaker 1: But when you have a passion, you practice. You don't
Speaker 1: wait for a position. You don't do it because somebody's watching.
Speaker 1: You don't do it because there's a performance. You do
Speaker 1: it because it's a passion. And he didn't know he
Speaker 1: was just killing lions.
Speaker 2: He didn't know he was just killing bears.
Speaker 1: But when Goliath came stepping forward to the battle line,
Speaker 1: he had been practicing. And now he's back there and
Speaker 1: I'm up here because he had a passion.
Speaker 2: Passion will bring you from.
Speaker 6: The pastor to the palace.
Speaker 1: Pastor will bring you from the lowest to the highest.
Speaker 1: Repair again, passion back. Come on, take fifteen seconds and
Speaker 1: praise him.
Speaker 6: Passionate, passion, passionate.
Speaker 1: Come on, Rondell, bame on, late Norman, come on, you'll see.
Speaker 6: Get your passion back. God's not there, he's not going
Speaker 6: with you.
Speaker 2: Get your passion back in place.
Speaker 1: David said, oh yeah, I've been practicing for this. I've
Speaker 1: been waiting for an opportunity. I've been waiting for a
Speaker 1: giant said, I can princh anyway I want to, and practicing.
Speaker 1: You gotta practice your passion. Practice. I was riding home
Speaker 1: with Elijah, just on't fry and we were filling up
Speaker 1: the little gas cans with gas to put gas in
Speaker 1: the four wheeler. Very spiritual activity. And we filled them
Speaker 1: up and put them in Holly suburban. And I said, Elijah,
Speaker 1: we gotta put them just right because if the gas
Speaker 1: slushes around the back of the car, your mom isn't
Speaker 1: going to be happy about our outing. And he said, Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm worried because all the way here they were sliding
Speaker 1: around in the back.
Speaker 2: But I said, don't worry, boy.
Speaker 1: They might have been sliding on the way, but they
Speaker 1: were empty. Now that they're full, they're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: I started preaching to Eliza while I'm driving. I'm practicing.
Speaker 1: Breaching is not just my professor, it's my passion.
Speaker 2: If you got passion, you are a preaching the car.
Speaker 6: You are a preach in the kitchen. You are a
Speaker 6: worship gone Monday Tuesday.
Speaker 1: It's my passion, my passion, a practice, my passion, a practice,
Speaker 1: my passion. Practice practice, practice, practice, practice practice, Find.
Speaker 2: Seven people, tell them practice.
Speaker 1: Practice, practice, practice, practice practice. You never know, you never
Speaker 1: know what God might want to do through you. You
Speaker 1: gotta practice. You gotta practice well. I would pray, but
Speaker 1: I just don't feel anything. When I pray, you hadn't
Speaker 1: practiced enough. If you would pray two minutes, you would
Speaker 1: see the peace that two minutes brings, and tomorrow you
Speaker 1: want to pray five. If you practice, if you'd open
Speaker 1: your Bible and read a verse, you'd want to read two.
Speaker 1: You might read four, you might read ay. You might
Speaker 1: finish the Book of the Relations before.
Speaker 2: The week is over.
Speaker 7: If you would practice practice, I'm practicing.
Speaker 1: So if you ever see me in the grocery store
Speaker 1: and I'm mumbling, I'm not crazy.
Speaker 2: I'm practicing. I'm practicing. I'm practicing. I'm practicing. What are
Speaker 2: you doing throwing that stick on the ground, Moses.
Speaker 7: I'm practicing because I got to use this stick to
Speaker 7: park the waters. But until I practice, I can't perform it.
Speaker 7: And you've lost your passion because you stopped practicing.
Speaker 2: Even the best.
Speaker 1: Lose their passion without practice, even the best, even David,
Speaker 1: even David, the kid who ran to the battle line
Speaker 1: and said, I.
Speaker 2: Don't need a position. I got passion.
Speaker 1: I don't need the endorsement of Saul. I've got passion.
Speaker 1: I don't even need my brothers to like me.
Speaker 2: I got passion.
Speaker 1: That kid who ran to the battle. A kid who
Speaker 1: practiced found himself decades later. He was in the palace,
Speaker 1: but he had lost his passion. He sat down and
Speaker 1: wrote a psalm, and he cried out to God and
Speaker 1: asked the Lord to recreate and restore his passion, create
Speaker 1: a clean heart in me, O God, I had a
Speaker 1: pure passion when I started. And I've allowed some things
Speaker 1: to come into my life. And I've allowed some people,
Speaker 1: and I've allowed some memories, and I've allowed some decisions
Speaker 1: and some distractions and even some good things. I've been
Speaker 1: trying to keep the false stuff out. I've left my
Speaker 1: first love, and I want my passion back. He was
Speaker 1: home one day, walking around on his roof. That same
Speaker 1: kid who was willing to run to the battle lines.
Speaker 1: He's seen a lot of years now, maybe not forty
Speaker 1: three like the Church of Ephesus, but it's been quite
Speaker 1: a few years since that time, and he's not running
Speaker 1: toward the battle anymore.
Speaker 2: He's avoiding it.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says that in the springtime, when the
Speaker 1: kings go off to war, David stayed home. The king
Speaker 1: in the palace had lost that passion of the kid
Speaker 1: and the pastor, and he got out of place, and
Speaker 1: so we saw a beautiful woman bathing on the roof.
Speaker 1: He called for her and she had no choice but
Speaker 1: to come, and when he slept with her, they conceived.
Speaker 2: A child that resulted in a national scandal. Her husband
Speaker 2: was murdered.
Speaker 1: At the behest of David's henchman, and David received word
Speaker 1: that the child born to his wife would die, and
Speaker 1: he cried out from that place. I want my passion back.
Speaker 1: I've lost my baby, I've compromised my integrity. But if
Speaker 1: it took me losing some things to realize that I
Speaker 1: had lost my passion.
Speaker 2: God, all I can do now.
Speaker 1: I can't get back the baby, but I can get
Speaker 1: back my passion.
Speaker 2: I can't get back last week, last month, last year.
Speaker 2: Would you redeem the time I've wasted?
Speaker 1: Go?
Speaker 2: I want my passion back. I want my passion back.
Speaker 1: I just know somebody's heart is crying out, maybe even
Speaker 1: watching online. You couldn't even get the church, didn't even
Speaker 1: come today, and your heart is crying out as I preach.
Speaker 1: Stand to your feet. It's a holy moment in the sanctuary.
Speaker 2: Stand to your feet.
Speaker 1: I want my passion back. I want my passion back.
Speaker 1: I want my passion back, and I'd be asking me
Speaker 1: a question. She said, Daddy, Daddy, did you have to
Speaker 1: practice that? And I just I was standing there thinking
Speaker 1: about my kids. Maybe one day they'll take their kids
Speaker 1: to the church they grew up in, and I wonder
Speaker 1: what they'll be telling them about our church.
Speaker 2: Will they be telling them what God used to do?
Speaker 1: Will they be telling them about the people who used
Speaker 1: to give sacrificially, who didn't have a building but had passion.
Speaker 1: Will this be the place where they had revival one time?
Speaker 1: Or will it be a place where the revival fire
Speaker 1: never die because of the people.
Speaker 2: With a passion. And I want to pray for you.
Speaker 1: Because when David got done lamenting what he had lost,
Speaker 1: and he prayed out, God, don't take your spirit from me.
Speaker 1: I can lose anything, but I don't want.
Speaker 2: To lose my place.
Speaker 1: To the Angel of the Church at Ephesus, to the
Speaker 1: husband of for at Valentine, to the teenage girl in Rockhill,
Speaker 1: write these words, if you will find your purpose, you
Speaker 1: will recover your passion.
Speaker 2: I think the worst advice.
Speaker 1: That we could give a young person is to follow
Speaker 1: your passion. That might sound exciting, but it's self destructive.
Speaker 2: You don't follow your passion.
Speaker 1: If you follow your passion, you're gonna get your passion
Speaker 1: confused with your feelings, and the first time the wind
Speaker 1: blows real good, your flame will go out. Don't follow
Speaker 1: your passion because sometimes you can't tell your passion apart
Speaker 1: from your preference. Sometimes you can't tell your faith apart
Speaker 1: from your feelings. So you don't stay in ephesis. You
Speaker 1: don't stay in the hard places. Don't follow your passion.
Speaker 1: Follow your purpose. Remember the reason God saved you. Get
Speaker 1: your lamps stand back.
Speaker 2: Every candle needs a stand.
Speaker 1: The passion is the flame, and the purpose is to stand.
Speaker 1: Put your passion on your purpose. My passion follows my purpose.
Speaker 1: My passion follows my purpose. So when I feel it,
Speaker 1: when I don't, same purpose, same purpose. And you've been
Speaker 1: here and there and everywhere, losing time, losing joy, losing passion.
Speaker 8: Following your passion, that's ridiculous. Follow your passion. How ridiculous
Speaker 8: is that? Follow your passion? You know you would have
Speaker 8: married that crazy girl. Follow your passion.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: Find your passion and teach your passion to follow your purpose.
Speaker 2: Tell your passion where.
Speaker 1: To show up in the place of your purpose.
Speaker 2: I mean, imagine church.
Speaker 1: Imagine if the people running the cameras at this church
Speaker 1: it got it flipped. Imagine if the people running the
Speaker 1: cameras while I'm preaching, Imagine if they all of a
Speaker 1: sudden thought that it was my job to follow the camera.
Speaker 1: How ridiculous would that be? How ridiculous would it be
Speaker 1: if they? In fact, I'm gonna illustrate it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: show you how ridiculous it is when you follow your passion,
Speaker 1: Show them real quick on the camera. So I got
Speaker 1: to preach now, and while I'm preaching that camera, so
Speaker 1: now I gotta follow the camera. How ridiculous is it
Speaker 1: when you run around in life letting your feelings tell
Speaker 1: you what job to take and what job to quit,
Speaker 1: and what.
Speaker 2: Relationship to be in.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I don't follow the camera. The camera
Speaker 1: follows me. You gotta stay with me. I don't follow passion,
Speaker 1: My passion follow my purpose.
Speaker 6: Does anybody have purpose?
Speaker 2: Looking up to Jesus? Be after the better?
Speaker 1: Sir?
Speaker 2: Top my bag?
Speaker 6: Oh brother John set before.
Speaker 2: It endured the cross, despising as shame.
Speaker 1: I want my passion back, and my passion is waiting
Speaker 1: in the place of my purpose. I want to pray
Speaker 1: for you if this message hit your heart today, If
Speaker 1: it was for you, I want you to know that
Speaker 1: after David laid down and prayed and asked God to
Speaker 1: give him the baby back, the Bible says that he
Speaker 1: made a decision to get up, to get up, to repent,
Speaker 1: to get up. After he had been there long enough.
Speaker 1: He got up and he went in and he.
Speaker 2: Had another baby. He got his passion back. Could this
Speaker 2: be the day that you get your passion back?
Speaker 1: Not just goosebumps, not just a comfortable feeling.
Speaker 2: But an inner determination and.
Speaker 4: Resolve that says, I will, I will, I will.
Speaker 2: I don't feel it, but I will. I don't even
Speaker 2: want to sometimes, but I.
Speaker 1: Will, because my passion serves for permantness.
Speaker 2: Bow your head. Created me a clean heart, O God,
Speaker 2: and renew a right spirit within me.
Speaker 1: Cast me not away from your presence, and do not
Speaker 1: take your holy spirit for me. Restore unto me the
Speaker 1: joy of your salvation, and renew a right spirit, and
Speaker 1: grant me a willing spirit.
Speaker 2: Somebody say I will, I will, say.
Speaker 1: I will, I will, I will, I will, even when
Speaker 1: I don't feel I will.
Speaker 2: Because I have a passion I will, I will I'm
Speaker 2: not waiting on the position.
Speaker 1: I have a passion. Father, we thank you today for
Speaker 1: returning us to our first love. We don't want to
Speaker 1: labor without love, and we don't want to serve you
Speaker 1: without passion.
Speaker 2: We don't want to lose our place. We don't want
Speaker 2: to miss our chance. So while the.
Speaker 1: While the lamps stand is still in place, while we
Speaker 1: still have breadth in our bodies, while we still have
Speaker 1: an opportunity, we call out to you God, and we
Speaker 1: don't ask you to restore our passion, because the fact
Speaker 1: is you didn't take it away. It's still in us.
Speaker 1: It was just waiting for this word, for this moment.
Speaker 2: To be awakened. So God, we call our passion to
Speaker 2: the surface.
Speaker 1: Like Elisha called the iron of the accent to float
Speaker 1: to the top of the water, We're calling our passion
Speaker 1: forth today. We're calling our victory forth today.
Speaker 2: Like David got up, we're getting up. We want our
Speaker 2: passion back. We command our passion.
Speaker 1: To serve your purpose in our lives.
Speaker 2: We will by your spirit, we will.
Speaker 1: By your power, we will.
Speaker 2: We're getting up today. We're getting up today.
Speaker 1: Not staying down, not staying lost, not staying lonely, we're
Speaker 1: getting up.
Speaker 6: I'm getting up. I'm getting up. I'm getting up. I'm
Speaker 6: getting up.
Speaker 1: Right now, right here, right now, right here, right now.
Speaker 2: How about my passion about.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us special things to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch
Speaker 1: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 2: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church.
Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening. God bless you