Pursuing Passion & Our First Love // Jimmy Evans

tonight we have a real special treat Jimmy Evans is not only an overseer he's our Apostolic elder here at Gateway Church he's been a friend of mine for 30 years my best friend I was thinking at some point you stop being best friends and you'd be more like family and that's kind of what we are he's the senior leader been the senior leader at Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo Texas for now over 27 years he is the founder of a nationwide TV ministry called marriage today goes into homes all across America with the message of hope and encouragement for families and we're honored to have him here tonight would you give a warm gateway welcome to Jimmy Evans good evening thank you so much you take your seat thank you so much it is wonderful to be here you guys are family to me and we've been here since the very beginning helping this church and I am so proud of pastor Robert and the elders and you guys the congregation here for what you're doing not only here but all around the world it is wonderful to be here I know you've had two great evenings you've had TD jakes the last night you had James Robinson I'm trying to deal with this emotionally I kind of feel like a Shetland pony in a John Wayne movie and so I'm kind of trying to deal with all that if you have your Bibles there if you'll turn to Revelation chapter 2 I actually selected two messages for tonight I had one the one that I'm going to preach here if the Cowboys won and I had another one selected that I'm not going to preach now it was on the lake of fire and eternal judgment if they lost so anyway I'm glad they won this is this is the first conference and tonight I want to talk about passion passion for Jesus now there's an application of this message to marriage you'll hear me kind of referring to you know close relationships especially marriage but this is about Jesus and I want to talk about first love and about the issue of passion the word passion means an intense desire or enthusiasm just means to be enthusiastic desirous of something Revelation chapter 2 Jesus is writing letters to seven churches we're looking we're gonna look at three of these churches tonight they were dealing with passion issues and this is revelation to to Ephesus he says verse one to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write these things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands I know your works your labor your patience and that you cannot bear those who are evil that you have tested those who are apostles and or not and have found them liars and if you have persevered and have patience and they've labored for my name's sake and have not become weary nevertheless I have this against you that you've left your first love remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent now this is a very good church and they're doing everything right except the main thing and they're doing one thing wrong and what they're doing wrong is they're no longer prioritizing Jesus in a right relationship in a passionate relationship he says you've lost your first love and first means priority in love means passion you're prioritized passion for me has changed and so he makes a threat and it's not just a threat it's a promise and he said no listen to me in spite of the fact that you're doing everything else right I'm telling you if you don't repent I'm coming and I'm taking your lampstand away now we might listen to that and say well okay big deal you can have my lampstand okay now listen when your lampstand moves this game set and match okay and here's the significance of a lampstand of course we have electrician that we have lights but in those days they didn't and you either had candles or you had kerosene lamps or something like that and a light did two things it gave illumination inwardly and outwardly he gave favor they gave presence it let people know where you were when you lose your first love God stops revealing himself to you in the same way you're not gonna have God always loves you and he's never gonna leave your forsake you but if you look at church history and if you'll just look around you at believers through the ages you'll find that there have always been churches and moves of God under tremendous blessing and favor that grew dynamically and then stopped growing and died it's church history you'll see that there were people who are believers who were growing and doing great and had tremendous favour on them individually blessing from God and a tremendous amount of favor in the community but once they lost their first love you'll notice that everything changes and this is repairable now and let me say this is I begin because I've made these mistakes what I'm going to talk about tonight I've made these mistakes I don't want to come across as a a self-righteous condescending preacher talking about something I've never experienced fighting for our passion for Jesus is the most important thing we do in our faith because it's a constant battle I've been a believer for 36 years I got saved a week before I got married and so I've been married 36 years so through the 36 years that I've been a believer the most important battle that I have fought is for my passion for Jesus Christ and the most important battle that I fought in marriage is for the passion of our marriage and I'm going to talk to you about this issue of passion and why it's so important and you say well why would God remove the favor from my life why would God remove the lampstand from my life or from the church if we lose our first slug now I want you to listen to me lukewarm Christians are a bad advertisement for a great God and God doesn't want us multiplying when we're in that state he loves us he'll always love us this is a serious serious problem and so he's coming to the church at Ephesus they're doing everything right except the main thing and he's saying to them thank you for everything you're doing right however you've got a problem that is so serious that I'm going to remove your lampstand if you don't repair the problem and so I want to talk for just a minute about the three phases of failing relationships now relationship ought to have one phase that's all but failing relationships have three phases and the first phase is the ascent phase if you fall in love there's excitement there's focus their sacrifice there's passion there's intimacy the relationship is dynamic it's on the ascent now listen the ascent can be like this or the ascent could just be like this just a very gradual incline here it doesn't matter every relationship that is ascending is a good relationship that has a future to it the second phase of failing relationships is the plateau phase now once you listen to the words that I'm going to say because these are important words in the plateau phase here are the words comfortable easy status quo familiar when the relationship is no longer dynamic and it becomes comfortable I've done this with Jesus and I've done this with my wife I've gotten to a place in a relationship where I just began to plateau in maintaining the relationship and that only lasts a period of time until you go into the descent phase and the descent phase is lack of intimacy emotional distance lack of passion and problems your these are the three phases of failing relationships and this is what Jesus understands now watch listen the problem is not the descent phase the problem is the plateau phase because when you get to a place in your relationship with Jesus now this replies to marriage when you get to a place in your relationship with Jesus where you're maintaining it's not a state it's a statement and here's the statement I don't want to try that hard anymore I don't want to spend that much time anymore I don't want to spend that much energy anymore that was a phase that I went through Jesus Jesus you were a face and now I want to take this relationship that I have with you and I want to put it in a place in my life and I want to take that time and energy and I want to do some other things it's a statement that no longer do I want you in this place in my life and so understand when you get into that and I've done it now I'm saying I'm confessing and saying I've done this in every single time that I've gotten into this plateau phase in my relationship with Jesus what happens is this I want you listen to me when you're in love with Jesus everything right happens naturally what why is passion so important in a relationship I want you listen to me because when you're passionate in a relationship you always do the right things naturally without being told it's just the most natural thing that you do no one has to tell you when I fell in love with Karen no one had to tell me to kiss her I just did it like vapor lock I mean you know it was serious no one had to tell me to talk nice to her no one had to tell me to pursue her or call her or anything like that when you're in a passionate relationship everything right happened is just naturally when you're passionate about Jesus you don't want a sin you you don't want to do the wrong thing I mean you just your wants or changes when you're passionate you want the right things and you don't want the wrong things it's just the most natural thing the world but listen when the passion leaves you cannot legislate a right relationship you can't do it read the Old Testament in the Old Testament it is a case study in the fact that God can't relate to us through the law in the Old Testament God came to a bunch of disinterested people the Jewish people largely were disinterested in God they were there were some King David and others who loved God and there were bright moments in Israel's history where you know they fell in love with God but generally speaking they were disinterested and God came and gave them law after law after law after law pages in books of law and what the New Testament tells us is it was a great failure God could not relate to Israel through the law there's only one way that God can relate to us and that is through passion the only way that our relationship with God is going to stay right is if we're in a passionate prioritized relationship with him it's one of my the way it's one of the most important needs in our life is a passionate prioritized relationship with Jesus let me say another thing about the the issue of passion did you know it's the most attractive thing of our faith to an unbeliever there are many religions in the world today and they're all telling people that they have the truth did you know most people who are unbelievers they really don't know truth from non truth but let me tell you what they know they know passion you know if if you're talking to a friend that ate at a restaurant and you said to this friend hey did you like the food that restaurant and they went yeah okay you gonna go eat that restaurant you know why because the best source in the world is someone who's experienced it if people look at our lives and see us bored with Jesus and see us those of us who call ourselves Christians experiencing Christ but our response to the king of glory is okay do you think people are going to stand in line to get that Jesus said they'll know you're my disciples if you have passion for each other because passionate love is the hallmark of God himself god is love and he's not just love he's passionate love our God is a God of passion that loves us so much that he came from heaven down and took our place on the cross so we could be reunited in a passionate relationship with him he's worthy of our passion he's worthy of our love he's worthy of first place in our life and no one else is worthy and so when you when you talk about passion and why would Jesus come to the church at Ephesus and say to them this one problem that you have is so serious that I'm going to remove your lampstand why would Jesus say something like that it's because everything in the Christian life flows from the headwaters of our relationship with Jesus Christ and when something is wrong with our relationship with Jesus Christ everything else suffers and everything else is wrong this is everything so let's go back for just a minute to the book of Revelation and I want to talk about three of the problems that we have with passion when Jesus comes to the church in the book of the churches in the book of Revelation he's talking to them about different issues but three of them he talks about the issue of passion the church at Ephesus revelation two again verse four nevertheless I have this against you that you have left your first love remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the first works or else I'll come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent well here's the first problem with passion and it's dutiful neglect it's dutiful neglect now let's talk about a married couple for just a minute when people fall love they fall in love because they focus on each other when they fall out of love it's because they institutionalized the relationship when I fell in love with Karen I didn't fall in love with her chequebook I didn't fall in love with her credit score I didn't look at her and say man what a great figure I bet she knew housework people don't fall in love you know folding clothes and watching will a fortune you just don't do that you fall in love because you are engaged with another individual you fall in love with an individual and as long as that individual is the focus passion stirs and the relationship grows until you begins to institutionalize the relationship and now it's no longer about you and me it's about the kids and the mortgage and work and housework and all of those things all the things that surrounded our relationship it began about you and me but around us came kids and around us came a mortgage and around us came all these other trappings of our relationship and it was about us but now it's about those things you've institutionalized the relationship Jesus comes to the church at Ephesus and he says to them you're great with the house you're doing a great job with kids I mean you're just great the only problem is what about me this is not about them it's about us listen when you and Jesus are okay everything's okay isn't that the truth but we're okay with Jesus everything is okay so when we're not good with Jesus nothing else is going to be right that's what he understands us so he tells them how to get the first slug back and so he gives them instruction listen it is possible to live in a dynamic relationship for the rest of your life you can have a marriage that is ascending and growing for the rest of your married life you can have a relationship with Jesus that is growing for the rest of your life if you've lost your passion you can get that passion back easily for your marriage and for Jesus and it mean manipulating your emotions or hyping yourself up or doing anything weird it just requires doing what Jesus said and here's what Jesus said remember where you fell from remember where you fell from and he's calling to remembrance the beginning of the relationship I got saved at 19 years old I had lived in deep deep sin and rebellion until I was 19 years old and at 19 years old I had an emptiness in a sadness in my life that nothing could cure all my immoralities all the alcohol everything that I was involved in nothing could make me happy I had a hole in my heart and one day I called on Jesus and he stepped into my heart and overnight I felt happy I felt free I felt like I had a reason to live and I fell in love with Jesus Christ that's where I that's where I started that's where I started it always starts with Jesus it always starts with him coming into our lives and assuming something that no one else could assume and that is the role of filling this empty void in making us feel like somebody it's about Jesus and what happens is we fell in love with him and then we become Christians and we learned the lingo and we get involved in church which is absolutely essential and critical and before long what you know is we're now in a plateau phase easy comfortable status quo familiar we're not pursuing we're not seeking it's not the same as it once was there's not sacrifice in the relationship and I'm not talking about money I'm talking about time I'm talking about heart I'm talking about emotion we're not seeking in pursuing the way that we once did in this song that we sing just a minute ago it says when I seek you I find you and when I find you I love you when I seek you when I take the time and energy to seek you I find you and when I find you I love you and that's the secret of a relationship with Jesus Christ she said remember where you fell from I mean when I fell in love with Karen I was 16 years old and biology class in high school and I look I mean Karen said in front of me in class and I just thought she married she was dating some jerk senior and yeah he was I ran him off finally I but and I just thought she was beautiful I really did and I when I first date was to a Three Dog Night concert and they're making a comeback don't laugh they look really bad good for making a coming and I was a mess when I was 16 years old and my head is 1964 dynamic 88 Oldsmobile that my mother had wrecked almost told wiped out one entire side and then gave to me without repairing and the night that I picked Karen up I remember I worked at scrub it up car wash a dollar sixty an hour and I took my car through the carwash I went home I only had like two pairs of pants and two shirts but I put the best one on scrubbed up cleaned up you know went to pick her up and I parked on the good side of the car you know so she she couldn't see the bad side it was months before she knew there was a wreck side of my car because I was so careful to park it where she never had to see the other side and now what we do and I was smitten with her I'm telling you she I fell head-over-heels in love with her and we spent time together and we you know we talked on the phone that those of you who have been here know we talked on the phone till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and that that's when you would listen to each other breathe you ran out of words to say so just and that's how we fell in love and how we fell out of love is we got married and I worked all the time and when I wasn't working I was golfing and I came home tired want to sit in front of the TV didn't want to be bothered didn't want to meet her needs and that's how we fell out of love love always starts person to person focusing on each other jesus said remember where you fell from repent which just means turn around change your mind and redo the things you did at first I want you to listen to me I'm talking about two married people now if you don't have any love in your relationship it doesn't matter you say we're out of love Karen and I were totally out of love in fact the only feelings we had were bad feelings in our relationship Jesus says just do your first works don't don't worry about the emotion it'll take care of itself here's what Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 wherever your treasure is there will your heart be also well let me define these terms because they're important the word treasure does not mean valuables it's the word thesaurus it means a container in which you put your valuables it's where you store your valuables and jesus said wherever your thesaurus is wherever you deposit your valuables there your kardia we'll come to well the word kardia is where we get our work cardiac it means heart it also means the scene of your passions and emotions here's what Jesus says wherever you're depositing the best of your life your passion will always be right there now listen your passion is telling on you passion tells on us you say you know I'm not that passionate about Jesus and I'm not that passionate about my marriage I'm passionate about my kids I'm passionate about work I'm passionate about NASCAR I'm passionate about the Cowboys I'm passionate about QVC I'm put you know oh that's the only thing God laughs is QVC now listen your passion tells you where you're putting your best and here's what Jesus knew about the church at Ephesus you've made a you've made it withdrawal of your deposit when I was getting the best of your life I had your passion but there came a point in time when you entered into that plateau phase of the relationship that you came and started taking my time and withdrawing it you took my energy and you began to withdraw it and what you were giving me at first you're not giving me any more so you repent and begin to do what you did at first well Karen now we're out of luck we almost divorced and we fought all the time and it got to a point one night where I told Karen I said get out of the house I'm tired of you you know complaining and griping you're married to mr. wonderful you don't even know it that's the way I felt about it well God changed my heart and he got my number and I repented to Karen hung up my golf clubs and I told her your first and whatever it takes will make this relationship work but I didn't feel like it I felt the opposite I felt very negative about the relationship and if you're saying I'm out of love or you know I don't feel this way about Jesus the way you spell I don't feel this way about my spouse I used to feel totally understand it but let me tell you what happened woke up the next morning after I repented to Karen and I just began to a stop doing the dumb stuff I was doing a bad talking and and not being there for her and golfing all the time I stopped doing it and I started being nicer to her and I started giving her affection started saying nice things to her well after two or three days there was a change in the atmosphere in her home there we felt good about each other again after several weeks we fell back in love didn't take years it just took two or three weeks after two or three weeks of just being nice to each other and in pursuing the relationship we were back in love that was 30 something years ago we've never been back there again we have been in a loving passionate relationship for 36 years we're not perfect we've had difficult times but listen we've never been close to being there again and the when you're married God's Way it gets better every year now I want you to listen to me loving Jesus is the best thing in the whole wide world and you can never explore the depths of his heart Jesus you get bored with Jesus because when you're in a relationship with him there's always something you're finding out about him there's always something you're finding out about yourself there's always a new venture a new adventure there's always a new season there's always something he's doing he's the most enthralling exciting person in the universe and getting bored with him is not a statement on him it's a statement on us you can grow in your relationship with Jesus for the rest of your life in the same is true of marriage in marriage our souls are so deep we're so complex especially women is that I'm turning over here there's more men over here I'm turning over here but we're so complex you know you you never will figure each other out and just when you figure each other out you go into another season of life or something else happens turns fascinating she's fascinating she's a lifelong project she's not here I'm saying a lot of stuff tonight that I would never say what one TV nevermind remember where you fell from repent and just begin to do it again listen I promise you if you've been into this dutiful neglect kind of a plateau phase with Jesus you don't have to work up some emotion just wake up and start praying and start reading your Bible and start saying no to the things you used to say no to and yes to the things you used to say yes to and I promise within a matter of days or a few weeks you'll be passionately back in love with Jesus they taste something about the lampstand it's portable it comes back God wants to bless you he's looking for a reason to bless you but he will not bless us the way we want to be blessed when we are not putting him first because he's worthy of being first let me say another thing that turn if you would to revelation 3 and this is the church at Philadelphia and they were struggling with passion issues for another reason and this is Revelation chapter 3 verse 7 - the angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things says he who is holy he who is true he who has the key of David who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens I know your works see I've set before you an open door and no one can shut it for you have a little strength now the word strength there's the word Dunamis and it's God's power and he's saying your power is running out you're you're good people but you're running out of power you've kept my word and have not denied my name indeed I will make those of the synagogue of satan' who say they are Jews and are not but lie indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you because you have kept my command to persevere I also will keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth now the second problem with passion is disappointment the church at Philadelphia was disappointed you say why were they disappointed well it's because they knew that their football team was going to lose I couldn't help it anyway they're there disappointed now the name Philadelphia means brotherly love feed loss in Delphia two words fee loss means love Delphia means brother so this is the city of brotherly love but it's a snake pit Jesus calls the Jews of the city who are persecuting them a synagogue of Satan that's what Jesus said and Jesus is nice they are being viciously persecuted by Jews who believe that they're infidels and this mockery it is a mockery because if you were called to the City of Brotherly Love you would think that it would be a loving place but instead they are being ravished and persecuted by these Jews who are vicious and and committed to destroying them and they're losing heart they're just running out of power not listening when we get disappointed the natural thing that we do is close our hearts to protect ourselves any any time that we experience hurt or disappointment in a life it's just something happens to our hearts I've spoken to a lot of people on this issue this week I talked to some people they had lost an infant a preborn infant and when this baby died everyone in the family had a problem talking to God for a while I talked to a lady a couple of weeks ago her son died seven years ago this horrible accident that had occurred and she told me she said it's taken me seven years to get back to the place where I can have an open relationship with God when we get disappointed they're disappointed these these people are brokenhearted Jesus has no correction for these people he comes to them and everything he says is comforting to them because they're brokenhearted they're there they're faithful but they're just losing power and let me say this when you close your heart on Jesus you lose power because he's the source of all power but it's a natural thing it's a natural thing as some of you 2009 was a year for a lot of people and I know that some of you've been through tragedy and heartache and loss and things like that and when that happens the devil is always there to accuse God the devil is always there to say where was God why does God bless other people and not bless you where was what was God when your relative died where was God when your business failed where was God when you lost your job there he is now I want to I want to say a couple things to you don't want you listen to me real carefully now through disappointment Satan will completely control our relationship with God through disappointment he will control our relationship with God if we let him and let me say something about God God is totally faithful but completely unpredictable and what all of us want is a predictable God you know you get a call you're supposed to go to Philadelphia to start a church and you're thinking the City of Brotherly Love biscuit the whole city is gonna be our choir and we're going to give puppies to the whole world and it's and you just get all these thoughts going through your mind and it's just like this is awesome I've been called to Philadelphia and then you get there and it's just a game fight and you're just getting beat to death and you wake up because see when you knew you were going to Philadelphia you've got all these things in your head about Philadelphia let me say this God's absolutely faithful but he's not predictable and I've spent so many years dealing with frustration at God because he doesn't do it my way give your notice that and it gives you a promise you know and you're thinking praise God I know this is a dream from Lord I know this is a call from God and all of a sudden he's true the Scriptures are true his promises are true visions are true all that it never happens the way you think it's going to happen I mean it's like a plot of 24 they call it disequilibrium just when one problem gets solved here's another problem just when you think this is settled here's eight other problems you know you killed the terrorist and you found out he had a thousand babies and the disequilibrium and so you get him all figured out and all of a sudden he didn't meet your expectations and there's a devil saying where was God I'm gonna have a perfect life no one's gonna die nothing's gonna go wrong it's always going to be good and God's giving me this promise I know exactly how God's gonna do it and God says no I'm faithful but I'm not predictable by the way the reason I sent you the city of Philadelphia isn't because they were full of love it's because you were and I sent you there to win one person at a time until it became a city of brotherly love that name was not a guarantee it was a prophetic statement and you got your expectations so wrong I could not have possibly kept from breaking your heart see God's not predictable through disappointment the devil wants to control our relationship with God there in Philadelphia and it's a mockery you know let me say the devil loves to mock your calling if you're living in Philadelphia he wants to turn it into a snake pit if you're called the healing he wants to attack your health if you're called the finances he'll tack your finances if you're called to faith he'll mock you in an area of your faith that is unjust unable for you to do anything but wherever your calling is where ever the greatest promises are that's where he puts a giant remember the story of the children of Israel when they came to the promised land they thought that they were just gonna walk in and take the promised land and they got there and there were nine foot tall people all over the place he said by the way the Bible says they prepared the land for them the Giants prepared lamb can you say why would God put Giants in the Promised Land do you want to move into the promised land after midgets need to be tea beds little bee houses and Giants had gone in built big houses and big barns and big everything and God said I sent Giants in there the second reason there were giants there is because God wanted to test their trust are you trusting me to take you into this plant see there always be a giant there you just need to get used to that it won't be what you think he's totally faithful but he is not predictable and when we sit down and we get everything figured out that's when the devil breaks our hearts can he be trusted God Jesus comes to the church at Philadelphia and he says to them I've opened the door that no man can close and I closed doors no man can open and the door is still open to you listen it doesn't matter what anybody's done to you God's open door is still there for you you can trust him with the call and the promises of your life he's not a man that he would change or the son of man that he would repent he is God Almighty and he opens the door and the devil can't close that you can count on him to fulfill the promises on your life listen this can I count on God to vindicate me to the people who have hurt me this is a big one oh they have been devastating let's see what Jesus says to them I will make those of the synagogue of Satan come and worship at your feet and know that I have loved you in that great Savior I know you've been hurt by people and when we get hurt by people two things happen one is we're sitting there saying God why would you allow these people do you see what they're doing to me d remember Ananias and Sapphira God a few deaths would be so encouraging I've got a list you know have you ever noticed he doesn't take our advice on things like that I mean you're so frustrated you're trying to talk him into a good obituary or at least a good hospital report you know either one I'm better off because they got it get them you know get them Lord and nothing happens and these people are being ravaged by the synagogue of Satan and nothing is happening and Jesus comes and you know how that feels son of the devil way that had thing that happens is the first thing that happens is we get angry and we want God to strike them the same thing that happens is we say God's on their side not mine God must be against me if God would let these people do this to me and not doing anything about God must be against me and here's what Jesus says to the church at Philadelphia these precious people have closed their hearts off to God through disappointment Jesus comes and says beloved you need to trust me in my timing I know I'm not doing it the way you want or at the time that you want but you trust me right now and you know I see everything and every person in your life and there will come a time that these people will be brought and they will worship at your feet and they will watch me love you I will vindicate you I will bring justice to your wife to every person who's harmed you you can trust me with your calling and you can trust me with every person in your life but you close your heart to me now I know where you are and then he says I'm gonna keep you from the hour of testing that's coming on the earth you can trust me with your future I haven't gone anywhere listen when we get disappointed we naturally close our hearts off to God some of you are precious and godly and god-fearing and you love the Lord but through something that's happened in your life the door has swung shut partially or completely in your life the church at Philadelphia and Jesus is saying to your powers running out because I'm the power and you're wondering if I'm faithful and I am faithful there's one other church I want to look at real quickly it's the church at Laodicea revelation three to the end this is verse 14 to the Angel of the Church of Leo sins write these things says the Amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God I know your works that you're neither cold nor hot I could wish that you were cold or hot so then because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will vomit you out of my mouth because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do do not know they you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich in white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see as many as I love I rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent the church at Laodicea was rich and they were known for gold their garment business and for I said and their water source came from a hot springs and when the water came into the city it was lukewarm and all the references Jesus is making here are specific to their culture and he says you think you're rich but you're poor you think you see but you're blind and you think you're well-dressed but you're naked you're lukewarm and he's talking to a condition and the problem is lack of dedication they want it all they want Jesus and they want everything else now the word dedication means this it means to give yourself entirely to a specific person activity or cause it means to give yourself entirely jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself all the Bible's contained in those two scriptures right there to be dedicated let me talk about dedication for just a minute dedication is the key to passion because what dedication means is I'm given completely to this thing I'm giving my life entirely to Jesus let me talk about Tiger Woods for just a minute and I want to be careful about this because I care about him and his family and I hope that they're reconciled but everyone knows this story about his infidelities Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer on earth because at three years old at three years old he completely dedicated himself to the game of golf from the year from the age of three and to the age of thirty and he sacrificed and focused more than anyone has ever sacrificed and focused on one thing on the game of golf and he became and is the greatest golfer who ever lived period at age 30 he married precious beautiful gal at age three he chose a sport and he never changed that choice but at age thirty he married a woman but he didn't stop choosing and according to the reports there's been 14 women maybe more and according to the reports maybe not credible one of the women said that Tiger confided in her one of his mistresses that he was looking for passion because his wife had become old and dull and boring and there was no passion in the relationship there was a revelation today of one of the movie stars in Hollywood very very well-known that he's been with 13,000 women in his life some of you may have heard that you can find out his name it's in the news 13,000 women I bet they feel special 13,000 I heard this saying one time if you've loved every woman you love none of them but if you've loved one you've loved all of them the secret of happiness is not seeing how many people you can love the secret of happiness is finding out how well you can love one and for how long a lot of people want to keep their options open and they want to choose but they want to keep choosing and it's like yeah I'm gonna choose you I choose you to be my spouse I choose Jesus to be my Lord and Savior and I'm gonna choose you now but I'm gonna keep my options open and and you're the reason that I'm living today I mean you're you're mine you're my god today you're doing all this today but you know I have options the church at laodicea they chose Jesus and they chose everything else they were worldly they were compromised and Jesus came to them and said I wish you were cold or I wish you were Hut and this is the truth here's what Jesus says I wish you would choose against me or I wish you would totally choose me but because you've tried to have it all I'll spit you out of my mouth I reject that as a standard I choose Jesus Christ is the lord of my life it's a permanent choice and that choice means I've got to say no to other things in my future I don't have my options open when I chose Jesus I closed the door I chose Karen Evans 36 years ago to be my wife and when I chose her to be my wife it meant the door is closed I'm not choosing anymore she's my wife we were on a radio program a couple of years ago and they were the person that was interviewing us Dennis Rainey was asking Karen about our marriage and when our marriage was bad and when I was being a jerk and he said to her during the interview did you ever did you ever have temptations of being unfaithful to Jimmy when he was being that mean to you and Karen immediately gave this answer I wouldn't let my heart go there we can see we control our hearts there can be difficult times in marriages they'll be difficult times in life and a secret of passion is to choosing and staying with that choice I'm putting all my eggs in Jesus basket and I will never make that choice again I will never choose another God I will never choose anything to take his place and anything that competes with him I will not choose it I choose and I will not choose again Jesus comes to the church at laodicea corrects them comes to church at Philadelphia comes the church at Ephesus and it's all concerning the same subject something's changed in our relationship you're being dutiful but it's no longer about me you close your heart through through disappointment you've chosen everything and you haven't honored the choice that you made for me I want you to stand with me if you would and I want I want to pray with you real quickly and just bow your heads there I know some of you are at home and you're watching on Daystar and I want to pray with you because this is a such an important issue in your life I want you to I want you to bow your heads maybe bow your head there at home and just want to ask you this question is Jesus first you may have never made him first but it's time to make him first here tonight is Jesus first in your life is the first thing in your life your personal relationship with Jesus Christ time and energy that it takes have you closed your heart to Jesus because of a hurt has something happened in your life that disappointed your expectations and you've hosted this thought that says where was God why didn't God come through why didn't God do this for me and have you been faithful to Jesus to say no to those things that compromise your relation ship with him those things that compete with the time and energy that they belong to Jesus we've all made these mistakes so I'm saying the wait to begin 2010 is to get our relationship with Christ right want you to bow your heads close your eyes if you would if you want Jesus tonight to come and to pour out his grace and favour upon you and forgive you touch you heal you from one of these issues would you just lift your hands and let me pray for you lift both hands don't be ashamed we all deal with these issues live both hands at home lift both hands where God we come to you and we just say you're worthy of our first love you're the only one worthy and we come tonight Lord and we say forgive us for not being faithful to the relationship and forgive us for hosting accusations against you concerning your love and your faithfulness and your care for us God and we just say Lord whatever changes that we need to make we will make those whatever sacrifices we need to make we will sacrifice because you're worthy of it lord I pray heal every broken heart all of us who have been disappointed all of us who are suffered loss heal our broken hearts we put our trust in you tonight in Jesus mighty name somebody praise the Lord in this place tonight he's worthy [Applause]

Channel: Revived Life

Views: 72,004

Rating: 4.8228345 out of 5

Keywords: tiger woods, Warren Beatty, passion, Revelation 2:4, marriage, relationships, first conference, gateway church, lampstands

Id: pCbw84xGaJ8

Length: 48min 19sec (2899 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2015