I want this week to do a bit of follow -up from
Darren's sermon last week. How many of you remember
what Darren preached about last week? Go ahead,
everybody. Okay, zeal. You sounded very zealous
as you informed me of what he preached on. We're
going to have to work on your zeal, I think.
So he preached on zeal, and he did that out of
2 Kings chapter 13, and I'll just quickly read
this verse. You can go back and listen to it
online if you missed it, but it was where Elisha
had become, he was on his deathbed. Elisha the
prophet was about to die, and King Joash is coming
to him. He's coming to be sad with him, to grieve,
but also often the kings of old would go to the
prophet to receive some direction from the Lord
on what they should do. And so he was still at
the place of needing direction. One final thing,
Elisha, before you die, what should I do about
the Syrians? And so he got some direction, and
at the end of the direction, in 2 Kings 13, verse
18, He had told him, take the arrows. So he took
the arrows and he said to the king of Israel,
strike the ground. So he struck three times and
stopped. And the man of God was angry with him
and said, you should have struck five or six
times. He was not happy with this half -hearted
striking the ground. Okay, one, two, three. That
made Elisha mad. No. He said, you should have
struck it five or six times, then you would have
struck Syria till you had destroyed it. But now
you will only strike Syria three times. It's
interesting he doesn't say, you should have done
it five or six times, and then you would have
struck Syria five or six times. No, he said you
would have struck Syria until it was destroyed,
which in my mind I'm thinking could have taken
10, 20 times, but there was no limit if he had
been wholehearted in his striking the ground.
But because he was half -hearted, he was limited
to his half -heartedness the three times. Wow,
I didn't even get that. That just came to me
just now. I didn't even get that in my preparation
time, but that's mind -blowing to me. It really
doesn't matter how many times he would have struck
it had he done it in zeal. If he had done it
just the five times, but with a heart of zeal,
there would not have been any limit on how often
they would have struck Syria. They just know
they would have destroyed Syria. But because
he was half -hearted and lacked zeal, he was
limited by his zeal. You should chew on that
this week. I'm going to chew on that this week.
So that was Darren's sermon last week. What I
want us to follow up this week is how to sustain
zeal. Many of you responded to the altar time
for zeal. I want to be zealous for God. And many
of you came forward. To say, yes, I want that.
Now, I love a good altar encounter just like
anybody else. And I can look back on my life
and recall significant altar moments where God
did amazing things in my life. But where the
transformation in my life happened took place
as after the encounter, I took it home to walk
it out. And to be honest, I can recall specific
encounters where I'm in the encounter and I am
also thinking, I don't want to go home and wake
up Monday morning because I'll have to deal with
reality. I'm in this heavenly zone right now.
Where I don't have to face a spouse. I don't
have to face a child. I don't have to face my
finances or my health. Jesus, could you just
take me now? Let's all just be raptured right
now in glory. Wouldn't that be wonderful? But
no, I had to go home and walk it out. And so
the God encounters, the breakthroughs have been
significant for me. But the significance only
goes as far as we walk it out Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday. And so I want us to, for a few moments
here, look at three areas that are going to help
us not just say, yes, I want to be zealous, but
how can I sustain it in life? And so we're going
to look in Galatians chapter 4 this morning.
And we're going to be starting in verse 17. But
I want you to understand some of the issues that
Paul is addressing with the Galatian church.
You have to remember that there is this new covenant.
Once Jesus was resurrected and ascended, a new
covenant was put in place. And you have to remember
that as part of that, things like Peter having
a vision of all of the unclean food and realizing
it's all been made clean now. And so they had
this huge shift in culture. All of these rules
and laws that had identified who Israel was,
who the Jewish people were, are now a whole nother
thing. And they're having to learn what that
looks like in the New Testament, where we are
free now. We can eat what we want now, right?
This is, I mean, if we think about how hard we
have sometimes with change, I know a lot of times
people, oh, I want. Like Darren often likes to
bring out songs from the 80s and I'll roll my
eyes at him because those are his preference,
right? And so sometimes just little things are
hard for us in change. Can you imagine when it
has been for thousands of years a cultural identity?
And now all of it is permissible. Not at all
beneficial, but it's permissible. And so what
they began to experience in that early church
were teachers, false teachers coming in that
were trying to get them to come back to living
according to the law. And Paul had no tolerance
for it because what that says is, is that the
sacrifice of Christ is not enough. It says that
we also have to fulfill all the law as well as
have the sacrifice of Christ. And he had no tolerance
for it. And so they were trying to seduce them
back into bondage. That's what's happening in
Galatians. And so in Galatians 4 .17, it says
those people are zealous to win you over. It's
not just that they were trying to woo them back.
They were zealous to win them over. But for no
good. What they want is to alienate you from
us so that you may have zeal for them. They wanted
a transference of affection, of zeal, of loyalty.
To them and their teaching. And he goes on to
say, here is our primary text. It is fine to
be zealous. Provided the purpose is good. And
he gives a second qualification. And to be so
always. not just when I am with you. Okay, so
here's what happens. Paul would show up. Okay,
here's what it's like. It's like when our new
superintendent last fall called Darren on a Saturday
night and said, hey, I'm going to be at your
church tomorrow. And then it was me texting our
leadership team saying, hey, the superintendent's
going to be here tomorrow. Everybody on their
toes. This is what it was like for Paul. He would
come to town to visit the churches, and they
would all, their zeal and their faith, yeah.
And then he would leave town, and what would
happen? Would get lax again. Oh, the little things
don't matter. Oh, the... The spiders that I see
if I know that the superintendent's coming, I'm
checking for. But I don't care if you got to
come to the altar and face the spider web. This
is what was happening. They had zeal when Paul
was with them, but their zeal waned when he was
not. And he's saying, listen, it's good to be
zealous. But you have to have a good purpose
and you have to always. Be zealous. You have
to have a zeal that is not a roller coaster ride.
What it comes down to is this. There is an inward
stimuli and an outward stimuli. And so what they
were experiencing in the Galatian church, Paul
was their stimuli. And so when Paul, and he was
an outward, when Paul came, it stimulated them
to zeal. But they did not have an inward stimuli
to spur them on towards zeal. And to sustain
zeal, there's this transference that has to happen.
And I think it is really the place of maturity,
becoming spiritually mature. anybody that has
children. And we don't just leave the children
to raise themselves, do we? Few of them are going
to have the inward stimulation to eat their vegetables,
clean their room, treat people, share their toys.
That's why they have parents to provide the outward
stimulation toward that, right? Maturity, hopefully
as they become adults, They will begin of their
own accord without you overseeing it, will be
stimulated to be kind to people, to clean their
stuff, to do their laundry, to manage their finances,
right? It is a process of maturity. And so there's
nothing wrong with needing outward stimulus in
our zeal. But the goal is that we begin to grow
up into it coming from within. I don't need to
call an elder or the pastor in this moment. Not
that there's anything wrong with that. I call
people to pray for me. But it shouldn't be every
day. It should be, I know what it is within me
to reach out into heaven. And it's a place of
spiritual growth and maturity. I think this word
zeal is interesting because there is emotion
attached to it, right? We do feel some emotion
and zeal. If I'm zealous for something, it should
encompass my mind. It should encompass my emotions
and my body, my actions. And I think of the word
is very similar is passion. And I remember years
and years ago at a women's conference at my mother's
church, sitting with a group of women, and one
woman going on about how passionate she was.
And what she meant is that she is an emotionally
passionate. She liked wild colored hair. She
really meant zest for life. zestful person. Loud.
She liked crazy. In her mind, that was passion.
But what I find interesting is that the word
passion is actually an English word that comes
from Latin, passio. And do you know what that
word means? Suffering. It means suffering. It
was not until about 1200 that the word passion
entered the English vocabulary. In 1200, from
the Latin word meaning suffering and endurance.
It's where we get the term the passion of Christ.
Because what was Christ doing? Suffering and
enduring. And so we hear these terms like zeal
and passion. And they're good. But I think we
have a false conception of what it means. That
I'm always going to feel like worshiping. I'm
always going to feel joy. I'm always, that is
zeal and that is passion. And the truth is that
it usually means suffering and endurance. Aren't
you excited? I think you liked Darren's sermon
on zeal better than this one. Here's what made
me begin to think about this while he was preaching
last week. I began to think of 9 -11. And do
you know what happened? And if you all follow
anything in the church world, we had so many
articles and so many people talking about this.
What happened following 9 -11 was an influx into
the church. And now where are the people? It
doesn't last long. It made me think of Charlie
Kirk. Because what happened after Charlie Kirk's
death? An influx into the church. I know we had
some, and I haven't seen them in months and months.
I think of Gary. And do you know how many people
Darren and I talked to after Gary passed that
felt... Ah, Gary has gone. People need to rise
up now because Gary's gone. They need to walk
his shoes. They need to fill his shoes. And they
began to come to church and they began to rise
up. And slowly they're here less and less. What
is that? That is outward stimuli. There were
these moments that fanned zeal. that fanned passion.
And then we lose, we get away from the immediate
feelings of grief, of fear, the immediate feelings
of how close we are to eternity, how fleeting
this life is. We get further and further away
from that. And what happens? The zeal begins
to wane. The passion begins to wane. And I know
I'm really kind of preaching to the choir today
because you guys are coming day in and day out.
You're a zealous people. So I know that in a
lot of ways I'm preaching to the choir, but I
want to encourage you in it because the temptation
is. I told Pastor Araya this morning, I kind
of wanted to just stay in my sweatpants today.
I was so tired and after the accident and I was
just, I could just really just sleep in today.
But there's a passion that drives me. There's
a zeal that drives me. And no longer. Are they
subject to what is happening in life? Pastor
Gary may have lit a flame, but I've done the
job to blow on the flame, to feed the flame,
to sustain the flame, right? And so there are
three things I want us to quickly walk through,
and then we're going to conclude around the table
of the Lord. How to sustain zeal in your life.
And the first way to do it is to guard the direction
of your heart. These are going to be three very
simple things, but if you think about how you
feed fire, It's very simple things. You feed
it some wood. You blow on it a little bit. Give
it some oxygen. Sometimes you give it a stir.
It's not complicated, but it will sustain your
fire. And so these are three simple ways. They
don't sound very profound, but if you want to
sustain zeal in your life, there's no getting
around them. And the first one is guarding the
direction of your heart. I want us to go to Proverbs
23, and I'm going to read verse 19, and then
we're going to back up a little bit. But I want
to start in verse 19. And he says, hear my son
and be wise. Now, how many of you want to be
wise? I want to be wise. And guide your heart
in the way. That's what it says. I love that.
Guide your heart in the way. We're talking about
the way of the Lord. What this means is that
you are not subject to people. You are not subject
to circumstances. You have the power and the
authority to guide your heart in the way it should
go. You are not a victim. In trauma, in problems,
in difficulty, you are empowered to guide your
heart in the direction of the way. I love that.
That's what they called the new believers in
the New Testament. Followers of the way. Guide
your heart in the way. And so let's go back.
It's going to tell us a little bit how to do
that in verse 17. Two ways to guard the direction
of your heart. One is to guide it away from the
loves of this age. This is where zeal begins
to wane. When the things of this present age
become all -consuming. And suddenly our heart
is tangled up in it. And verse 17 says, do not
let your heart envy sinners. You're seeing all
of the people at your work that don't follow
the way of God. They're all flourishing, making
money, have kids, doing amazing things. And you
just see hardship, hardship, hardship. Do not
let your heart envy sinners. I love what Kathy
said. All that is needed, the salvation of my
soul. But be zealous for the fear of the Lord
all, everybody say all, all the day. What did
Paul say? If you're going to be zealous, be so
always. Be so always. So, do not envy the sinners
in your heart and be zealous for the fear of
the Lord all the day. And the second is to guide
your heart toward its eternal destination. Verse
18. For surely, here's your hope, surely there
is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut
off. This is why we are continually saying, look
to his coming. Look to the next life. Don't get
too settled here on earth because we want our
eyes continually on the prize. Our hope is not
in overcoming in this age. Our hope is in overcoming
death and forever overcoming with Christ. This
is our hope. And so when we are guiding our heart,
See, the enemy would want you to focus on getting
rooted here on this earth. And then there comes
a moment when you realize those roots don't go
very deep. In a moment it ends, and then everything
you've built for this life is done. Our heart
gets, the enemy wants your heart to be consumed
with this life. And it's not bad, and I'm all
about stewarding it well. But I'm stewarding
it for his kingdom. I'm stewarding it on my way
to where my heart, that's where my heart has
been placed. I've guided my heart, and I've said,
heart, you don't belong here. Heart, you belong
in eternity. And so I am guiding everything toward
where my heart is destined in eternity. Romans
12, there's one little verse, and the beauty
of the New Testament is there's a lot of writings
on how to live this life. There is a lot of practical,
you're children of the light, here's how you
live as children of the light. You're a Christian,
here's how you live as a Christian. Here's how
you treat people as a Christian. There's so much
writing in the New Testament concerning how to
do that. And in the middle of that, in Romans
chapter 12, there's a whole passage on that,
how to treat people. It says in verse 11, never
be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor
serving the Lord. Again, a choice here. If I
can get you to see this, that you have choice.
That you can decide your spiritual fervor. That
nobody's going to decide it for you. That nobody
can take it from you, but also nobody can give
it. It's up to us to keep our spiritual fervor.
And we do that by guiding the direction of your
heart. You can't just let it be and think it's
going to go where it should go. That would be
like raising children and not directing them.
You think they're all going to go the way they
should go in that case? No. Our hearts have to
be governed by our spirit, by our spirit man.
Our spirit man tells our heart where to go. And
so we guard the direction of our heart. The second
way we sustain zeal is, again, a choice. We can
guide the direction of our heart, but we also
have to choose how we're going to live. Okay,
that's our second. Choose how you live. In Titus
chapter 2, and starting in verse 11, salvation
has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
how? Soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present age. Again, we're choosing how we're
going to live this life while we wait for the
glorious return. And we see that in verse 13.
Why should we do it? Looking for the blessed
hope and glorious appearing of our great God
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you see the connection
they keep making in all of these verses? Wherever
it is telling us to keep your fervor, to keep
your zeal for the Lord, wherever it is telling
us, here you need to say no to the things of
the world, the things that your flesh would like
to feast on, they are always connecting it with
the return of Christ. They're not wanting us
to just do, we're going to suffer to suffer because
that's what it is to be a Christian. But no,
what we're doing is we're cutting off things
that would hinder us in our journey, in our pilgrimage
to our forever home. And so they always are connecting
over and over and over again. We do this looking
for his coming. We do this because he's returning.
We do this because Jesus is the prize that we
are going after. Always is the connection. Because
there's more than what there is to just live
for in this life. And so we have to choose how
we're going to live with intentionality. Cannot
be emotionally driven. We have to be driven by
the word of God and the ways of God. And so we
guard the direction of our heart and we choose
how we're going to live life. And here is the
sweet sauce of sustaining zeal. The third one.
Live in relationship with the one who is zealous
for you. Live in relationship with the one who
already showed us his zeal for us. In Titus chapter
2, if we look a couple of more verses down, it
says that he gave himself for us, that he might
redeem us from every lawless deed and purify
for himself his own special people. You belong.
I belong to him. It finishes that sentence with
zealous for good works. Okay, so he redeemed
us from every lawless deed. He purified us as
his own special people. A people that are zealous
for good works. I know in your mind you might
be saying, well, that means that there are things
I have to do for God. But I would have us go
to Revelation chapter 2. In Revelation chapter
2, we have here in this segment, he's addressing
all the churches in Revelation. And we find ourselves
at the church of Ephesus. He says in verse 2
to Ephesus, to the church of Ephesians, I know
your works, okay? Well, we just read that we
should be zealous for good works, and here he's
saying to them, I know your works, your labor,
your patience, that you cannot bear those who
are evil. I know that you have tested those who
say they are apostles and are not and have found
them liars. And you have persevered and have
patience and labored for my name's sake and not
become weary. That sounds like an awesome believer.
And he's acknowledging their what? Good works.
And as good as all of that is, still he has something
against them. Those are not the works that Jesus
is looking for. He goes on. He says, nevertheless,
in verse 4, I have this against you. You left
your first love. And here's our key. Remember,
therefore, from where you have fallen. Think
about when you were first saved. Repent and do
the first works. Interesting. So there were obviously
works they were doing in the thrush of first
love. That were different from the works he acknowledged
at the beginning. As good as those were. They
were not the works that Jesus was looking for.
Do the first works or else I will come quickly
and remove your lampstand. What are the works
of first love? What are the things that you did?
And the beginning of your marriage that maybe
40 years later you no longer do. What are those
things? I think that they are works that are
works that fostered love interaction. The works
that maybe You did for one another that 30 years
later, yeah, you can do those. You don't need
to do those anymore. There is a work that Jesus
is looking for from us that is not about your
labor in the kingdom. As much as I feel like
he's showing them appreciation for that labor,
I feel like he is affirming All of the hard things
they've walked through and endured. I feel like
he's affirming those things. But it's the leaving
behind. If they had just carried the first works
along with them in the later works. And so I
think when we go back to our verse in Titus,
where it says that he purifies for himself his
own special people, zealous for good works. It
is a good work that is born out of love affair.
It is a first work born out of knowing the lover
of your soul. And to sustain zeal means you've
got to do the things at the beginning. You've
got to remain in the first love. You've got to
remain in, we say that word passion, now I've
kind of changed that dynamic a little bit, the
zeal for one another. That you had at the beginning,
he's looking for in us. And if we will, abide
in the first love works. How many of you remember
when you first came to Christ, your zeal for
the word of God? You couldn't get enough of it.
Every time the church doors were open, you were
there. You couldn't get enough. You couldn't
get enough of one another, the body of Christ.
First love works. And even if we no longer feel
that first love, if we will engage in it, in
those works, do you know what will happen? It's
kind of like if you're trying to light a fire
and you cheat and you spray some lighter fluid
on it, right? If you will begin to engage again
in first love works, Jesus, I'm just going to,
I'm in my secret place with you. And I am, you
know, when Darren and I were dating, we didn't
want other people along. want other people hanging
out with us. And sometimes we allow into our
secret place other things, other cares, other
concerns, other people. And there is a time and
a place before the throne room for that. But
there is in the secret place a place where it
is you and it is Jesus. And you're just there
to commune and have love relationship. You're
just there to worship. You're not there thinking
about all the problems of life. You're just there
to worship and to commune in love. I guarantee
you, if you will engage in that, what is that?
That's first love works. If you will engage in
that, it will change your zeal. It will change
your... sustainability of zeal. And as soon as
I start to feel like I'm away from that, it's
my sign I need to just get back. I need to forget
about all of you. I need to forget about all
of them. I just need to be with the lover of
my soul. And if we will spend time, nobody can
give you zeal. You might get inspired by being
around zealous people, but nobody can sustain
zeal for you. It is only you and Jesus. There
is no shortcut. There is no other way. to sustain
zeal, but to be with the lover of your soul.
And it's a beautiful call. It's why one of my
favorite songs right now, we sing it every once
in a while, is What a God. Because if the highest
place I reach is at your feet, then I've done
it all. If the best thing that I've seen is your
glory, then I've seen it all. And sometimes we
get awfully distracted even in kingdom and we
get away from first love. We get away from the
secret place with just the bridegroom. And the
bridegroom is calling you back. He's in the secret
place and he wants to be with you. He wants to
be with you. Not the pastor, not the worship
leader, not your neighbor. He wants to be with
you in the secret place. And so this morning,
I'm going to ask the worship team to come. And
the ushers are going to begin to distribute communion.
This is why I love the table of the Lord. Because
the table of the Lord re -centers my life. The
table of the Lord draws my attention to the one
that is so zealous for me that he gave his life
for me. And when my eyes are fixed on that zealous
one that gave his life for me, Do you know what
that begins to stir? Zeal. Zeal. And so this
morning, I want us to be a people not just wanting
an emotional experience at an altar, although
they're good. But I want you to walk out here.
committed to these three things. Go ahead, men,
you can begin to distribute. As we come to the
table of the Lord, I'm going to ask that we would
make a fresh commitment in guarding the direction
of our hearts. And sometimes you have to let
go of things, good things. At this table of the
Lord, I want us to think about how intentional
we're being with our life. What we're building
towards. At this table of the Lord, I want us
to maybe oil the doors of our secret place. Maybe
they've gotten a little squeaky from unuse. But
the bridegroom is calling. As much as he loves
all of the things that you do for the kingdom,
what he's after is your heart. What he's after
is time with you in the secret place. He didn't
die on a cross for you just to do good things
for him. He died on a cross. So that you would
have a love affair with him. Jesus. The table
of the Lord is a place of examination. It's a
place to examine our hearts, our lives. And so
for just a few moments here, I want us to just
quietly look at where we've let our heart go
to. I want us to look at how we've chosen to
live and build our life. And I want us to begin
to think about our use of this secret place.
Just for a few moments here. This might be a
moment of repentance. Jesus told the church of
Ephesus, repent of these things. Repent that
you have stopped doing first love works. You
will receive life. Repentance, all it really
means, it's more than an I'm sorry. I'm sorry's
don't mean a lot if you then don't quit doing
the thing that caused the pain. But repentance
is to change your mind and to go a different
way. And some of us might need to do life a little
different. We might need to make space for the
secret place. We maybe have let our heart have
its way without direction. And we need to change
that. This is simple repentance here. Lord, what
do I need to do to change that I may walk in
zeal? Lord, as we come to your table, we don't
want to be like the empty nesters who spent their
whole marriage busy doing life, busy taking care
of kids, busy with careers, and never doing the
works of first love and are suddenly alone together
again and they don't even know their spouse.
Jesus, we don't want to be so busy in your kingdom
that we don't know you. We don't want to one
day as we're standing before you, Lord, look
at what I did. I even prophesied. And Jesus,
you say I never knew you. Lord, We want to be
consumed, above all, with first love, with the
secret place. And so as we come to your table
today, we take up your bread, which is your body.
This body in which we become one with. Even as
a man and a woman becomes one, as we partake
of this body, one with your body, a place of
deep intimacy and love that feeds zeal. And as
we take of this body, would you feed the zeal
and the fervor of our spirit today? May it awaken
this body of yours that was broken for us, that
was slain for us. May it be the sustenance of
our zeal as we partake of it today. In Jesus'
name, let's partake of his body this morning.
And we take the cup. The cup that is the promise.
The cup that represents the new covenant. The
cup that reminds us that there is another cup
that we will one day drink at the marriage supper
of the Lamb. Where we are face to face with Christ.
And so this morning, Jesus, we take this cup
in anticipation. We take this cup with joy, knowing
that it's just around the corner in such a little
time that we will be face to face with you partaking
together. And so with great anticipation and
great thankfulness, we partake this morning of
your cup in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord. Praise
the Lord. Can you just stand with me and can
we just for a moment worship the Lord? Thank
you, Lord. Before we leave, just for one more
moment, worship him.