THE RECOVERY OF PASSION | Bury Your Ordinary

[Music] why does everybody show me what it's like to dream [Music] [Music] come on are you excited to be at church today welcome to vox church god bless you if you're new to vox my name is justin i'm the lead pastor thank you for being here today you're here on an exciting sunday we start our first part of an eight-week series called bury your ordinary so you came on a good sunday you could turn the person next to you and say you know you really look nice today come on just tell them you really do look nice today everybody in middletown and in hartford at all of our locations join us online new haven can we just say good morning to our whole church we love you god bless you come on put your hands together welcome to hartford welcome to middletown welcome to springfield all of our locations fox's one church meeting in various locations all across connecticut massachusetts and of course everybody join us online what a special time we are in store for these next eight weeks so excited listen if you've not yet gotten a book or joined a group uh it's time okay it's time and so these are available at every location make sure you get a book today we're going to be walking through the content of this book and more importantly walking through the content of our own hearts over the next eight weeks and i really believe i've been saying it now for a number of weeks it's an important time in our church it's an important time of transformation an important time for god to do a great work in your life and so if you haven't joined a group i am so excited during this series so far we haven't even you know this is week one we're just kicking off we already have 977 new people who have committed to be a part of a group come on in that awesome so listen if you're not in a group you're missing out you're missing out chapters one and two is your homework you get homework now isn't this awesome like homework i get homework chapters one and two is your homework for group for this week so make sure you read your book and make sure you come to group i encourage you actually there's that little blue workbook for all of our community groups it's also available online veryordinary.com but answer the questions in that workbook for week one before you get to groups so you got some thoughts already going on in your head also families moms dads kids we have been working for months now on releasing a discipleship track called no ordinary family isn't that awesome no ordinary family maybe your mom your dad you're thinking how do i really grow my family in christ how do we develop good habits as a family to follow jesus there's going to be a seminar coming up at our middletown location in october all the information is online we'll be pushing it out over the next couple weeks but i just encourage you sign up for no ordinary family if you're a member of a family and go to the training and watch what god does in your life sound good second timothy chapter two second timothy chapter two if you're new to the bible a letter written by the apostle paul to timothy he says this in chapter 2 verse 1. take a look at it with me he says you then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in christ jesus and what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also share in suffering as a good soldier of jesus christ no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules it is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops think over what i say for the lord will give you understanding in everything that's been my prayer for our church as we approach this series the lord will give you understanding in everything remember jesus christ risen from the dead title of our sermon as we step out into part one of bury your ordinary we're going to call today the recovery of passion the recovery of passion would you pray with me open your heart bow your head let's invite the holy spirit to work lord jesus we are grateful people grateful for breath in our lungs for life in our body you brought us here today for a reason we are right now right here because you have a purpose for this moment and so i pray that you would move i pray that you would speak i pray that you would minister to us in a way that changes us and draws us closer to you in jesus name we pray everybody said amen amen what are you passionate about what are you passionate about if a friend asked you that question family member asked you that question what are you passionate about would be the first thing that comes to mind what is it in your life that maybe stirs your heart that kind of gets you excited what are you passionate about i think a lot of times when we hear that word passion we think often of one of two things we think first of maybe hobbies or interests that we might have right so maybe you're passionate about golf or maybe you're passionate about coaching football or maybe you're passionate about home decor or maybe you're passionate about video games something that you enjoy an interest right we think of interest that we might have that's something that you might be passionate about and then we also think oftentimes when someone asks what are you passionate about about a greater cause or maybe a career you might say i'm passionate about being a doctor i'm a doctor i'm passionate about being a designer i love designing things i really enjoy that that's what i'm passionate about or maybe it's even like a bigger cause like i'm passionate about being a part of ending human trafficking or or solving global poverty you know i've got this passion for this bigger cause what are you passionate about it seems to me that passion very often in our time in our world is kind of a double-edged sword you know what i mean by that there's a there's a good side and there's a bad side to passion i think as soon as you meet a passionate person don't you find yourself being just slightly skeptical of them you know what i mean it's like we meet somebody who's passionate we go i don't know about that guy you know like there's something about him that's just you know we have a skepticism that comes with passion they're too committed they're they're a little too intense and we're a little leery of the zealous and we say oh i don't know maybe they're narrow-minded or easily manipulated there's something about passion that we're hesitant about that's one side of the sword but then on the other side there's something in our world that tells us that we're supposed to have passion you're supposed to find your passion in fact in our culture we very often link our sense of identity our sense of self to discovering and then obtaining our passion just think about the heroes of our day think about the heroes in our culture you look at someone like steve jobs he started apple computers right in his garage and he built it from nothing and he fought for it and now it's this massive company and so wow what a hero or lebron james just a kid from akron ohio he had everything against him and yet he climbed all the way up to the greatest athlete on the planet he pursued his passion he found his passion and so there's this pressure in our world that says hey if you're ever going to be somebody if you're ever going to be significant if you're ever going to be important you better find your deepest passion and then you better obtain it and so we all live with this sense of pressure it's kind of like well how am i supposed to find that and how do i know i chose the right thing right and what if i'm not that passionate about basketball or computers or what if i what if i don't have like a thing you know does that mean i'm not myself does that mean i'll never be someone what are you passionate about that word passion in the latin pasio it means to endure or to suffer i like this definition to be passionate means to be affected affected moved what affects you what moves you in my family we have a tradition around christmas time every year we watch the movie it's a wonderful life now i never watched that movie growing up as a kid i literally never saw that movie my entire life until i got married to my wife who had watched it every year of her christmas life and so when we got married she was like we're watching it's a wonderful life i'm like it's a wonderful who and so now i've been married 17 years which means i've watched the movie 17 times and every single year i have to relive the pain of george bailey and if you've never seen the movie maybe you don't know about it but george bailey is a man living in bedford falls upstate new york this tiny little town and he's dying to get out because he has a passion to be a great architect he wants to build things he wants to expand in the world and he wants to get out of bedford falls but right when he's ready to leave right at the moment that he's ready to get out his dad has a heart attack and dies and he has to take over the family business and so he's stuck there for a little longer but then he's gonna get ready to leave real soon and his brother's gonna go to college and he decides he's gonna pay for his brother's way to go to school and so he stays in bedford falls through his early 20s and then he stays in bedford falls into his 30s and then he finds himself in bedford falls in his 40s and he's dying inside because out there there's something significant and something important for him but in his world he feels trapped he feels stuck he feels like every time i almost have a chance i blow it i miss it the door closes and here i am in this little world that i'm stuck in unable to get out i wonder if there's anybody here that can identify with george bailey feeling like your dreams are always one step away feeling like the things in your heart never fully materialize passion we tell ourselves you know if george just got out of bedford falls he really could have done something he really could have been somebody he really could have been fulfilled i don't know if we should be so sure about that though because it seems as though the world is full of people who found their passion pursued their passion obtained their passion and then still found themselves empty did you notice that trend in our world today you think of someone like michael phelps michael phelps by the time he was 31 years old had won more gold medals than any other person in olympic history 23 gold medals by the time he was 31 the greatest olympian of all time by far more than double anybody else but after he had reached his dream he had always dreamt of being a great olympian after he had reached his dream after he had obtained more than anyone had ever obtained phelps found himself more lonely more empty and in a daily battle with suicidal thoughts something wasn't right about the narrative arc that we have embraced as a culture wait a minute wait a minute you're supposed to be fulfilled you're supposed to be a fully realized person because you've got your dream and yet you have nothing and this is a story that plays out again and again we've heard a thousand times of ceos and supermodels and great athletes and rock stars and it leaves us with some questions right maybe it's better just to aim low turn that person next to you tell them aim low now i'm just kidding you don't have to say that you're like wait really is that maybe it's better play it safe right maybe it's better not have such a big dream or maybe we should just distract ourselves like we've been doing just watch another tv show just scroll a little longer on social maybe it's better just to stay half engaged or maybe you've been looking for passion in the wrong place jesus speaks directly to this issue in the new testament matthew chapter 13 he says this he says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field in his excitement or in the new justin translation in his passion i'm just kidding there is no new justin translation he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field the kingdom of heaven is like a man who finds a treasure in a field in his excitement he hid it again sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy that what's he trying to tell us about life what's he trying to tell us about god what's he trying to tell us about what's real see he's trying to get us to understand that christianity check this out is the displacement of inferior passions by the revelation of a superior passion which then allows all other passions to find their place that's important for our series over the next eight weeks thank you one person who's getting excited christianity is the displacement of inferior passions it's not that they're all wrong it's that they're just not big enough a displacement of inferior passions by the revelation of a superior passion which then allows all other passions to find their place there once was a man he was a lot like you by the way there once was a man 42 years old 17 there once was a man 63 and trying to retire he was walking through a field he was just an average man an ordinary man there once was a man walking through a field and he tripped over a treasure and it was so sacred so amazing so valuable that he leveraged his entire life just to get that treasure he's telling us if you understand this story this is what it means to understand the kingdom of god see christianity is built on a supposition that you are not in fact a collection of chemicals you are not a biological accident you are not just a collision of atoms there's something more to you you are an eternal being you are an eternal being with an eternal purpose and the deepest passion of your heart can't be satisfied with hobbies or a career or anything in this life your heart needs more because it's hardwired for eternal life you desire something beyond the borders of the natural you desire the supernatural because you are created by a supernatural god and so what is eternal life what does it mean to have eternal life does it just mean you live forever does it just mean you continue to exist what's it really mean to have eternal life good thing jesus told us in john 17 look he said and this is eternal life that they know you the only true god and jesus christ whom you sent he's telling you friend this is eternal life you've been looking for it your whole life you've been searching for it in every hobby and passion and career in this world eternal life is to know god eternal life is to know him experientially to know him progressively to know him intimately eternal life is to touch the divine in consistent relationship and jesus christ came to make that available to us and if you see it 11 o'clock's waking up you already slept in come on if you see it if you recognize it it becomes for you like a treasure hidden in a field so for the next eight weeks i want to invite you on an adventure i want to invite you on a pilgrimage for the recovery of passion for the recovery all you need come on turn that person at you and say this is going to be good come on just tell them let's just build a little faith in the house this is going to be good this is going to be good it is it is balcony he's got a word for you all the way in the back this is going to be good my prayer is that it would affect you that it would affect you passion to be affected so in second timothy chapter two the apostle paul is writing to his spiritual son timothy and he's outlining for timothy what it looks like to live with god as your highest passion and to progressively grow to become more like god he's teaching him a process of godliness that unlocks your greatest passion in this world to know him to make him known to experience him in increasing measure and he begins in chapter two with a phrase that for me was very confusing for a long time i remember reading it and skipping over it and not understanding it for months and years in my christian walk he says you therefore my child be strong in the grace or in this translation be strengthened by the grace that is in christ jesus now i don't know your christian experience but for me when i met jesus christ when i truly experienced the love of god the forgiveness of sins i opened my heart to jesus i discovered within myself a deep passion that came from heaven i just wanted to know god i wanted to make him happy i wanted to be holy i wanted to please god in any way that i could i remember making big promises to god you ever done this where i just said god i'm just giving my whole life to you god i'm going to live holy god i'm never going to lust again i'm never going to lie again i'm never going to doubt again you've proven your heart for me i'm giving my heart to you i just want to honor you all of my days and i found pretty quickly that the harder i tried the more frustrated i became i wanted to honor god but i kept finding this propensity to disobey him i kept pushing up against this inability to accomplish what my heart desired and condemnation started sneaking in and little by little condemnation began to redefine my passion and what began as a passion to know god quickly became a burden on my back where all i did was feel guilty about the previous failure of the day before and it was always getting up and falling and getting up and falling and getting up and falling and i can remember reading romans chapter 7 and feeling like he wrote it just for me paul says i don't really understand myself for i want to do what is right but i don't do it instead i do what i hate and i can recall so clearly getting to a point of just exhaustion and frustration in my christianity asking the question is this all there is to try again and try again the merry-go-round the carousel of broken promises to god is this all there is god is there not no any power to actually change i'm more aware of my sin than ever yet i can't seem to break out of the cycle and it was then that i found second timothy chapter two verse one and it came alive to me you then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in christ jesus you then my child be strengthened by where's the where's the strength come from you then my child be strengthened by trying even harder to please god wait that's the way that i say you then my child be strengthened by your consistent diligence and discipline wait no that's not you then my child be strengthened when the preacher tells you how bad you're doing wait that's not what it says either it says be strengthened grace is unearned undeserved favor from god and it's important for us to understand how grace works into our spiritual growth see grace is what saves you you might think that you raised your hand at a church service or prayed a prayer to receive jesus but you have to understand is that even before you raised your hand or prayed that prayer god illuminated your heart he enabled you to desire him which then your response to him brought you to that place of salvation but god regenerated you even before you made the decision he opened your eyes and it was entirely by grace it wasn't because you were smart enough it wasn't because you studied enough it was because god himself called you by name and then he forgave you by grace when jesus christ hung on the cross he forgave your sins past present and future he's washed away your debt before god for all time and then by grace he became your representative which means that he forged a mysterious union between you and him so that now you are in christ and now christ is in you so when jesus died on the cross my sinful man that had a propensity to rebel and disobey god died with jesus that day god who is outside of time saw my life from beginning to end saw the cross and he saw me die that day so that by grace my old self was buried with him and then by grace through his resurrection i have now received in my inner man supernatural resurrected life oh somebody's gonna get it somebody's gonna see the treasure in the field and so i can't overcome sin by trying harder i can't overcome sin by human effort alone but i can overcome when i realize what god has done you therefore my child be strengthened by the grace see so many of us your passion for god has been suffocated by your consistent inability to grow or change your consistent inability to break free from that broken habit of sin but spiritual growth does not begin with a change in behavior it begins with a change in identity see god has already decreed over your life you are free you are forgiven you are mine you are my beloved i have washed you i have adopted you i have transferred you i have accepted you i have decreed you as blameless and i have empowered you by my living spirit and if you will believe the story of grace over your life you'll find the power to say yes to god and no to sin grace come on somebody [Applause] see spiritual growth begins with grace and it's so important that we understand that spiritual growth begins with grace but from this foundation we now learn a new pattern somebody say pattern pattern two people thank you pattern pattern look at verse two and what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust and faithful men who will be able to teach others also do you see the pattern paul to timothy timothy to others others to others he gives four different layers of the pattern there patterns you know patterns have a tremendous impact on our lives i think that we don't realize the level of impact that patterns have on us so much of your life is shaped by your patterns you know we are creatures of habit you know just the other day i had i was on my day off i was going to the store and as i was driving to the store and was ever happening it's happened me so many times as i was driving to the store i found myself driving to work and i'm like wait a minute wait a minute i just went past my turn what am i doing i was just in my pattern i'm just a creature of habit think about what you had for breakfast today i would almost guarantee you've eaten that before look at what you're wearing right now first time you've worn it probably not we have patterns patterns eat sleep all the different patterns of our lives and these are not bad things necessarily they're that's how we were created god actually designed our minds for patterns we by nature run on patterns scientists call this neuroplasticity that the brain creates highways of thinking it starts with a choice that choice evolves into a habit that habit then becomes a highway in my mind have you ever paused and considered and examined the patterns of your life see maybe maybe in your context it's normal to argue that's just how it is your parents argued growing up people argued now you and your girlfriend you just argue in fact you might even be a type of place where it's like if i'm not arguing with someone it's kind of strange i feel a little off i gotta go find an argument today now you wouldn't say that you know i mean maybe you would but most of us wouldn't say that rationally but we're actually saying that subconsciously because that's what's normal that's what's normal for you it's just normal to argue and so you're used to going to bed angry you're used to doing this whole like routine of the quiet treatment and and then i'm gonna oh and then we're gonna come back and i'm not really gonna say i'm sorry and you've got this whole routine that you go through that's your pattern or maybe it's your pattern that you know when i get home from work i have a drink it's just what i do every time i just have a drink i gotta have a drink you know if i'm if it's night and i haven't had my drink i feel like i'm like i'm walking with one shoe off like i just gotta that's just my pattern or i gotta turn the tv on as soon as i get home i turn the tv on and it just stays on it stays on all night that's just my pattern it's what i do every single day i do this or it's just my pattern to tell white lies they're not a big deal oh why were you late oh there was traffic in heaven right it wasn't really traffic but in my mind there was traffic and so that slowed me down and so there was traffic oh that's just this is a white lie just it's just a white lie it's just it's not a big deal that's my pattern i wonder what your patterns are see what we have to realize is whether you like it or not whether you understand it or not your patterns are shaping your future aristotle said it like this he said we are what we repeatedly do i like how john maxwell said he said the secret of your success is found in your daily routine your pattern and i think this is where a number of us fall into some trouble because a lot of us at church would say justin god is the most important thing to me i got my list of priorities there's god and then there's my family and then there's my work i got this i got i got it all worked out right or jesus is the center of my life jesus is the center of my world justin absolutely that's what i believe but you have to understand it's not your intentions that shape your life so if you say that god is your greatest treasure but you don't follow a pattern that reinforces that conviction then the pattern you follow will overrule the conviction that you profess do you see that and so it's one thing to say oh jesus is the center of my life but that doesn't actually get you very far you have to then establish a pattern that supports that conviction and if you don't establish a pattern that supports that conviction you can be far more eligible to self-deception because you believe that jesus truly is the center of your life and yet your pattern is for tv your pattern is for another thing your pattern is to neglect the pursuit of god in your personal world and because of that pattern you've convinced yourself that you're one person when in fact the evidence supports a different result paul actually warned about this in philippians 3 look at what he said he said dear brothers and sisters pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example there's power in your pattern for i've told you often before and i say it again with tears that there are many many not outside the church not living out in this crazy world many right here many in the house many who say they love jesus whose conduct shows that they're really enemies of the cross of christ they're headed for destruction their god is their appetite they brag about shameful things and they think only about this life here on earth and so he describes those who would be self-deceived as individuals who are obsessed with things in this life who chase around their appetites what what pattern do you follow have you taken time to examine your patterns back in 2015 the church was growing and god was moving and i was excited about jesus but i didn't have any disciplines in my life when it came to physical health i ate very unwisely and i avoided exercise at all costs i was about 25 pounds heavier than i am now and i started getting tired early in the day day after day physically exhausted always out of gas and i realized that my pattern was unhealthy and so i did what most of us do when we notice that our patterns are unhealthy i ignored it right and then i waited a little longer and ignored it some more and i waited a little longer i ignored it some more and finally i said you know what i got to start doing something so i started running any runners in the house today anybody like to run four of you god bless you it wasn't me i'm not a runner i would go running i'd come back and everything would be terrible my skin would be itchy my it would just be terrible everything and i'd read stuff about it my knees would hurt and i'd get home my wife would say hey how was your run and i say i hate it oh okay were you gonna go tomorrow yeah yeah i'm going to go again and i just would i tried biking i tried rowing i tried crossfit i tried weightlifting i pretty much hated all of it and i kept doing three days a week trying to trying to exercise trying to get it right and and three days a week and every time any time christie asks hey how's it going i hate it i hate it is it you enjoy no i hate it i hate it and six months but by four months went by seven months went by eight months went by finally it was about a year and i was on a trip i was traveling and i realized that look at my schedule i realized i wouldn't have any time on the road for a week to exercise and that was kind of like well that's great because i hate it anyways right so it's no big deal i could just take this week off and so day one was fine day two by day three something unexpected happened i missed it by day four i craved it and by day five i was waking up earlier than early so that i could get some exercise in and i learned something life-changing about the recovery of passion my new pattern rewired my passions see a lot of times in our world we assume that you have to have the passion and then you develop the pattern we think that that's the way it's supposed to work we teach ourselves oh search your heart this is the narrative of our day right search your heart find your deepest passion and then determine what your truth is and whatever's true for you you pursue that with everything you have be true to yourself and you'll find a fulfilling life and people are following that script all across our world and coming up radically and desperately empty but you know what i learned i learned that if you instead search for god's truth you search for a truth that's bigger than yourself and then you surrender fully to him and you pattern your life after his truth whether you feel it or not something crazy happens new passions start to grow and you find a river of life a joy beyond comparison that wasn't there before that grew out of your pattern so if you want to ignite your passion adjust your pattern if you want to ignite your passion adjust your pattern you've been waiting for a passion and god's been waiting for your pattern adjust your pattern and watch what happens to your passions and so paul here outlines for us eternal passion and a pattern that produces it look at it with me in verse four he says no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to plead the one who please the one who enlisted him an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules it's the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of his crops he's given us three illustrations to work off of right he says listen if you want to live by an eternal pattern you gotta think like a soldier you gotta think like an athlete you gotta think like a farmer see a soldier he thinks differently than a civilian right a civilian thinks about what do i want to do today ah maybe i'll go to breakfast ah maybe i'll go to the movies right what do i want to do today i don't know we'll do this or that maybe we'll move here or there maybe i'll change jobs that's who a civilian thinks but that's not how a soldier thinks he understands i don't i'm not making those choices i've given my life over to something else if they wake me up at 3am if they make me climb a mountain with a backpack on my back if i go into battle whatever it is i am submitted to a cause larger than myself i'm just trusting that that's the direction i've already signed up this is what i signed up for it's not a surprise it doesn't take me off guard i'm a soldier and because of that i've already made a direction for my life he understands that there's a cost he's already considered that cost and he's embraced it right and so that's the mindset of the soldier seeing athlete he thinks differently than a spectator it's football season right now and a number of us maybe you like to watch football and you sit there and you watch the game and you find yourself yelling at the quarterback on the screen right you go oh man you kidding me you didn't see him he's wide open right in the middle right you're yelling at him as if you could do any better let's put you out in the game with a couple of 280 pound guys hustling to crush your bones and see how well you throw the ball but you're not worried about that because you can sit back as a spectator and critique but the athlete knows i've paid a pretty high price to be here and things look a little bit different when you're actually in the game it's a different mindset see the farmer he thinks differently than the consumer what'd you have for breakfast maybe he had eggs right well somebody had to grow up that chicken and then cut his head off drain all its blood out someone had to then you know have it make sure it had a you know another chicken so you could have some some you know eggs and some some chicken and some bacon you said i'd have chicken for dinner well you get the idea whatever you had right somebody prepared it and most of the time when we think about these things we don't think boy i wonder who grew this broccoli no we just eat it because we're consumers that's what we do but the farmer doesn't think that way the farmer understands it took a long time to plant this corn it took a long time to grow that chicken it took a long time there was patience there was diligence see a civilian a spectator a consumer they all are passive but a soldier an athlete a farmer they're all active verse 7 think over what i say the lord will give you understanding and everything you know that's my prayer for you that's my prayer for us that even today we would think it over think it over think over what i say oh lord give us understanding what pattern are you following what passion are you feeding is it possible that you've created a pattern in your life that's actually suffocating holy passions is it possible that you're actually working against what you profess to be your deepest conviction is it possible that you've lost sight of the one truth that changes everything it's right there in verse 8. remember jesus christ risen from the dead in other words did you forget that this is real did you forget that he actually really physically rose from the dead did you forget that eternal life is not just a religious concept but a tangible reality there really is a treasure in a field that is so valuable that it just makes sense to sell everything else and buy that field and now we catch a glimpse of what connected the athlete and the soldier and the farmer they all caught a glimpse of something bigger the soldier committed himself to a cause greater than him the athlete committed himself to a crown more glorious than he could obtain otherwise the farmer committed himself to a harvest that in the future would be worth it they all lived their lives for something bigger and this friend is where we find the recovery of passion you weren't created just for living and dying you weren't created for hobbies and friends and comforts and careers christianity is the superior passion that displaces inferior passions so that they can then find their place the recovery of passion life is about knowing god life is about is about eternity and the crazy thing that jesus want us to understand is that eternal life isn't just for after you die eternal life is for right now that they may know you and jesus christ whom you sent eternal life starts today eternal life is available now you can know him what patterns have you created in your life to make that great passion priority see next week we're going to start with habit one habit one of seven for a heart fully alive and i encourage you read the book read the book get it in you pray through it join a group come prepared open your heart have some honest conversation but today i want to pray i want to pray for the recovery of passion i want to pray for the recovery of passion would you stand with me every location join us online right here in new haven let's just begin to open our hearts question for you today have you been affected by eternity have you seen the treasure in the field has jesus truly become the one thing that's worth selling everything for or have you set your mind on earthly things they will always disappoint in the end because that's not what you were made for if that's you today i want to pray that the holy spirit would break in and that you would catch a glimpse of the treasure in the field or maybe you're here and you're saying justin i've been trying so hard to follow god i'm just exhausted i got this big weight of condemnation on my back i always feel like i'm a day late and a dollar short i just i can't live for god it's too heavy it's too hard i fall again and again and again and again you've been building on the wrong foundation you've been trying harder but it doesn't start with a change in behavior it starts with a change in identity be strengthened by the grace that is in christ jesus i want to pray for you today that his grace would grip your heart that you would see his love for you and what he's placed in you and that you would leave this place with a greater power to live out your faith than you've ever had before unlocking your passion or maybe you're here and as i've been talking you've been reflecting upon your patterns and you're going my pattern has been suffocating any holy passion that would try to grow and i need to repent and i need to ask god for a new beginning today a fresh start the recovery of passion would you pray with me let's open our hearts spirit of jesus come spirit of jesus come right now we pray holy spirit come i'm asking you to meet us i'm asking for an eternal work to transpire right now lord jesus i pray for the recovery of passion you see our hearts you see our story i pray that even right now that we would be affected oh god meet us here i pray for the recovery of passion in jesus name you

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Length: 43min 14sec (2594 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021