Lyle

In this transcription, the speaker talks about the importance of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. They emphasize that our love for God should result in passion and exuberance, which will then flow into our relationships with others. The speaker encourages listeners to be passionate about God, as passion is contagious and can draw others to Him. They also discuss different expressions of love for God, using the example of David's exuberant worship in 2 Samuel 6. Overall, the main idea is that our love for God should be evident in our actions and attitudes, and that passion for Him can have a powerful impact on others. Hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, he Hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei Hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei, hei is that when you are so full of love and so passionate about something, it comes out and it oozes out whether you want it to or not. Now, I could probably guarantee that all of us have, like rugby or sports or football, whatever it is, have been to a game, and I'll guarantee you that when things heat up and things get exciting, that you can see us jumping to our feet and cheering. You will hear the yahoos, and you know what? We actually don't care how loud we get because we're passionate about what we're seeing. We're passionate about the experience and the moment that we're in. And so my challenge really today in speaking about passion and looking about how we express our love for God, I want you to keep that in the back of your mind and ask your when you last got that passionate about God and are you passionate about Him. So that's my intro. Are you ready? Buckle up. Okay. I love this just because I talk with my hands, but I just want to assure you all that I'm not going to break into any Britney Spears dance. There's no toxic going on here. There's no... I knew you'd cringe to me when I just love being able to do that, but that's all right. So anyway, I want to start where we should all start, and that's in Mark 12, 30 to 31. We should all know this scripture because this is what I'm basing everything around. It's a great place to start, and it's an obvious place to start. And it says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second blanket is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. So I want to talk about what it is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength. The strength part gets me because I'm like, What does it look like, God, to love you with all my strength? That means it takes effort. Why I want to come start here is because out of our love for Him, passion is birthed, and our exuberance for God and everything else flows from it. So being obedient to what He asks us to do, being willing to serve, remaining faithful to His house and the building of His kingdom, and our desire to worship Him, it all stems from our love for Him. It's out of our love for Him that others will flow. And I just want to say that unless we love God first, we actually can't love others in the way that He asks us to, because it's just not in us. People are awful sometimes, and some people are just awful. And Jesus asks us to love them, and we actually can't do that unless we love Him first, because as we love Him and put Him at that center place in our life, it flows out of that. All of a sudden you see people differently, and you begin to see the good in them or the things in them that God sees, and it changes their heart. So if you're struggling today to love somebody in your life or somebody's really challenging at the moment, then love God a little bit more. Get more passionate about God and watch Him change your heart for that person, because it's easy to come in your own strength and go, Oh, well, I'll just really try to tolerate them today. No, just dig into God and worship Him and love Him a little bit more and watch how He changes your heart. Matthew 6.21 says that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And again in Matthew 12.34 it says, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Those things that are first and foremost in our heart come out. So if God is first and foremost and on the throne in our lives, He is what will come out. He is who we will talk about. He is where our passion will start to flow out. If we love Him with all that it will be, we should be passionate about Him. We should want people to know about Him. We'll talk about Him. Of course you'll talk about Him. I want you just to think for a moment of someone that you really love. You talk about them. You want people to know how amazing they are and what they do for you and how they make you feel. And He's no different. He's no different at all. Passion is contagious. If you didn't know that, it is. Ever been at a rugby game and watched everybody cheer and sat there and felt like, oh, you get caught up in it. You get caught up in the moment and before you know it you're joining in whether you know what you're cheering for or not. And so I just want us to keep that in the foreback of our mind this morning that passion is contagious. And if we are showing passion, people will start picking up on it. People will pick up on it. Believe me, they will pick up. If you're not excited about something, why would anybody else be? And I'm sure that each of us sitting here look around and go, oh, there's spare seats. Where is everybody? Don't we just want this house to be full? Not because we just want people on seats, but because we want people to love Him like we love Him. And if we get passionate and we start stirring ourselves up and truly worshipping Him and setting our hearts on fire for Him, people will catch on. And people are like, man, they've got something that I want. I'm missing what they have. And it draws people in. And so, you know, our love for God can be our greatest witness above anything else that we say. It's our love for Him and our passion for Him. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. But anyway, back to my notes. So what does it mean to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength? And how do we express that love? Whether you think you're an expressive person or not, you express something. I want to look at some examples from the Word. And these are all really quite different. But they all show us a different expression of people's love for the Lord and how they showed that to Him and what they did. And I believe one of them, if not more, may challenge each one of us. So turn with me if you've got your Bible to 2 Samuel 6. And I'm reading from verse 12. Now, just to give you a little bit of a background, David tried to bring the Ark of the Covenant in before and failed. So this was his second attempt. And this is about the time that they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant back into the city. And the Ark represented God's glory and His presence. And so here's David. He's a public figure. He's a mighty warrior. He's a chosen king. And this is just the account of his worship to God, really, at this moment and how basically he just let go. So I want to start in verse 12. It says, So David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of trumpet. As the Ark of the Lord came into the city, Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. So they brought the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. He distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone, a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins that all the people departed, everyone to his house. Then David returned to bless his household. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of the servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. So David said to Michael, It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father in all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord and over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord, and I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in great honour. Therefore Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death. David was so overcome with gratitude and love for God and just overcome by his glory that he completely forgot himself. And I don't know what it looks like in your mind to imagine what he danced like, but I'm pretty sure it was, in teenage terms, pretty cringy. I'm pretty sure it was quite undignified. I'm pretty sure his legs were everywhere and his arms were everywhere and it was a whole different form of breakdancing. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't, it was a little bit uncouth maybe even, you know, in what our standards would be. And I really want to challenge us this morning. They were there to celebrate. Absolutely, they had so much to celebrate. It was a great time. The whole city had gone in. They'd all gone. They'd all gone with David. It was a time of celebration. They had given. It wasn't a small thing to give what he gave to each family. There was a lot of people there. A lot of people. I mean, this was a major party. If you want to put it in ad terms, it was a major party. They were celebrating. And when you celebrate, what do you want to do? You want to get excited. You want to show that exuberance. And so he did that before the Lord. And you know what? He was in front of everybody. So talk about being uncomfortable and he didn't care. Because he was so consumed by his love for God and his gratitude that he actually didn't care what he looked like. And isn't it interesting that often it's the people that are closest to us that have a problem with what we do? And I thought about Michael, and I actually felt quite sad for her because if you don't know the background of the story, she was Saul's daughter. And Saul actually, she loved David. She loved him. And Saul chose her as a sneer because he was afraid of David and he knew that David was going to be king and replace him. And so she was chosen to marry David because he thought, oh, she'll be a sneer to him. But she loved him. So in some ways I felt sad for her. But she was embarrassed by what he did. And I want to say to you today that things could get crazy in the house in the days to come. And I hope so. And I want us to be very careful that we don't ever mock how someone may worship God. We need to be very careful. And even if we find it cringy, which I probably will, I'm just being honest, if that's your expression of worship and it's to God, who am I to say anything about it? And I want to challenge you this morning. Have you ever thrown caution to the wind and danced and worshipped with all your might before God? And I know we meet corporately and you go, oh, that's a bit uncomfortable. I'm a bit self-conscious to do that at church. You got a bedroom at home? You got a lounge? See, worship isn't just for church on a Sunday. Worship is every day of the week. And there is no reason, if you are concerned about what other people think, that you can't get in your lounge, turn your music on, do whatever you do, and just dance. I tell you what, it's quite liberating. And no one can see you. And if you're not really great at it, well, who cares? It doesn't matter because you're doing it for the Lord. But I want to really challenge us in this area because Psalm 100 says, make a joyful noise to the Lord. Or some version says, make a joyful shout to the Lord. So to me, worship isn't meant to be noisy. We're meant to be loud. I'm looking at the city thinking, I wonder the noise. It says that they come in with trumpets. That's next level rugby game loud. Forget Eden Park and all those big places. Imagine the noise and the worship that would have gone up before God. When did we last make a noise? When did we last shout and forget ourselves? When did we last dance before him and just let everything go because he is worthy? And I know that for some people this is, oh, I don't like to dance and I don't like to, and that's fine. You don't have to dance like people say you have to dance. Maybe it might just be twirling around the room or whatever it is. Maybe your attitude of worship might be on your face. It's all worship. My point here in using David as this example is that he used all his might. He used all his might, and his wife was concerned, and she was jealous because the other woman were looking at him. It was her own insecurity, not his, and what he did was before God. And I sometimes wonder, we've all seen, most of us have seen the Jesus Revolution movie, eh, and we all had things to say about that, but I sometimes wonder, even as I think of that, imagine if God brought an influx of people into our midst and they're so overcome by joy at their salvation that they just let rip and dance before God, and I wonder what some of that will look like. And I wonder if some of us will say, oh, they shouldn't dance like that or cover up or whatever it might be. And I'm putting this out there because we don't fully know what's ahead of us, and I don't want anybody to come into the house and feel like they can't worship God here because it's an expression of our love for Him, and we might all do it differently. We might all do it differently, but if it's before God, it's for His glory and His pleasure, not for what we might think. David wasn't ashamed. He was so passionate about the one he was doing it for that he actually didn't care, and he was in front of everybody. His praise and worship, he wasn't concerned about what others thought of him, and sometimes I think we get caught up into this little thing of like, oh, I can't do that because someone might be looking. Well, they should have their eyes on God anyway, not on you. So I want to encourage us to maybe just push the boundaries, push our own boundaries a little, and think of what it is like to truly worship Him with all that's within us because it says love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. If we are doing that, it comes out. It comes out. When we are fueled by passion for the Lord, it shows. So I want us to turn to another example in Luke, and this is Luke 7, verse 36. You've gone very quiet. Are you all thinking about your dance moves? Maybe we should do dance lessons. I know the two-step. No. Been there. Luke 7, verses 36-39. Now I want to say here, I want to do a disclaimer here. This is about the woman who was, in my Bible, she's called a sinner. She isn't named. And she comes and she pours the alabaster flask of fragrant oil on Jesus' feet. Now there's some talk that I've discovered as I was doing this and studying it that Mary Magdalene, who I've always thought was this woman because she was a sinner, and that's what she was called, and Mary of Bethany, Martha and Lazarus' sister, were one and the same. But I actually don't think they were, personally. But you can go and do your own investigations into that and figure it out. It's just from what I've read that I don't believe that they were actually the same person. And I could be wrong, so don't quote me on that. I'm not a teacher. But I'm just putting it out there because I'm going to use both examples in what I'm sharing. And they are different because when Mary of Bethany went to Jesus and poured the oil on him, it was for his burial. And this doesn't mention that. So anyway, reading from verse 36, it says, Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with them, and he went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city, who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at his feet behind him, weeping. And she began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head. And she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. And when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. Then after that, Jesus goes on and he tells him, he tells him the parable of the two debtors and about, you know, who do you think, if there's two debts. Goes on to talk about that, about if there's two debts, who would be forgiven, you know, and it's obviously the one who had sinned the most and had the greatest debt. And so I just want to pick it up again in here from verse 44. So he says, He turns to the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, and she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. I wanted to look at this because to me, this is an ultimate example of loving Jesus and passion. If you don't know, in the day, the woman, if they took their hair out, so she took her hair out to wash her feet with it and dry her feet, that was actually considered really not done. You didn't take your hair out. The woman was not meant to have their hair loose. It was always meant to be back. And so here she is going in, where there are Pharisees, who we know were religious leaders and things of the day, and here she is and she stands behind him crying. And such was her love for him that she just was there because she just wanted to be there with him and to worship him. And her act was one of worship and her act was one of love. And to me, I liken that to passion because I doubt she was probably that welcome there. People stood in judgment of her. And sometimes our passion for God might get misunderstood or misread. Don't stop being passionate about him. People don't understand sometimes our expressions of love for God. Don't stop loving him because whether they understand or not, they bear witness in some way to them. And our prayer is that they will come to understand. But we don't stop loving someone just because someone else doesn't kind of understand our love. You know, she humbled herself. This was absolute adoration and a humbling that she... I mean, I don't know if you've ever washed anybody's feet. I have. And it is humbling. But it's actually amazing. Amazing, amazing. And... There's something about it in the expression of love because you can't... I mean, most people don't like feet for a start. They walk everywhere. They're not the prettiest things. But it's that humbling and that surrendering of ourselves to lower ourselves to do something that is just so beautiful for someone. And I've only ever done it once. And it was actually when we went away to our intercessors' retreat last year. And the Lord said to me to wash the feet of the other intercessors. And God did something so amazing and so powerful that weekend for us. And it's an honor. It's a thing of honor. And don't we want to honor our God? Don't we want to honor Him? I know we can't physically wash His feet. But we can worship Him with all that's within us. We can worship Him with everything that we've got. We can express that love and not be ashamed to show it. Turn with me to Luke 10. Beginning at verse 38. I promise it will make sense, if it's not already, when I wrap it up. So this is Mary and Martha. And you're like, oh, what's that got to do with loving God? We know this story, so let me just read it. It's beginning in verse 38 to 42. It happened as they went that they entered a certain village. And a woman named Martha welcomed them into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to come help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part that will not be taken away from her. Why did Mary sit there? She wasn't lazy. Can I just say that? I don't think she was lazy. She just chose the better thing. She chose the better thing. And I looked at this in an area of passion, because to me, when you're passionate about someone, you want to be where they are. You want to be in their presence. You want to be around them. You can't get enough of them. And to me, her sitting at His feet was not because she was skiving off from serving, because serving is important, but she chose what was better. And I think sometimes we need to remember that there are always going to be things to do. There are always going to be things to do. There is always something that needs done. There is always something that gets in our way at that time when we just sit at His feet. And sometimes we have to not see those things. And sometimes we just have to draw aside. She put her time with Him first. And she sat. I've read this so many times. You know, the one thing I always think is I wonder what Jesus was saying. I wonder what she heard. I wonder what Martha missed out on because she was busy that Jesus spoke to them about. I wonder what gems He was telling them. I wonder what stories. I wonder what teaching He was giving her that Mary sat there and she soaked it all in. And she heard it because she adored Him. I think she was quite captivated by Him sitting at His feet just listening. And I imagine her as someone sitting there just engrossed in what He was saying, so caught up in Him because she loved Him. And, yeah, I just, it does something to my heart about when I come and sit at His feet and when I listen and do a listen, what is He saying to me? What's He saying to you? Do we actually give Him time to tell us what He wants to tell us? Like, oh, we're too busy serving. And don't get me wrong, I'm not dishing serving because we've got to serve. But if He's first, our time with Him is the most important. If He's first, our time with Him is the most important. If we're passionate about Him, then you're passionate about spending time with Him. I don't know anybody who doesn't love a sports game or whatever it might be that you're actually, you know, yeah, that's your thing, who would miss it. I'm just going to, you know, we hear about games coming up. We hear about all those things and people get excited about them. And do we show the same excitement about our time with Him? It's like, yes, I'm going home to spend time with Jesus today. I'm waking up and I'm like, good morning, Lord. What's today going to be like? If He's first in the throne of our hearts, He's what will come out. He'll be in our thoughts. He'll be in our speech. And this, to me, is about what it is to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. He wants first place. He wants to see us passionate and excited about Him as much as we get passionate and excited about a sports game or whatever else it might be that floats your boat. Because He's worthy. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. There is no one else worthier than Him. Turn now to John 12. I'm just getting sort of wrapped up. Okay, this is where I gave my disclaimer before. This is about Jesus being anointed by Mary of Bethany before His burial. I'm beginning at verse 1. I just want to read this account and then I'll start to bring it all together. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom He had been raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper and Martha served. There she goes again. But Jesus said, Let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. For the poor you have with you always, but me you do not have always. So this is the same Mary who had sat at Jesus' feet, listening to Him. This is the same Mary in John 11.32 who, if you know the story of where Lazarus died, it was her that ran and fell at His feet. And in verse 32 it says, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. She had relationship with Him. She had relationship with Him. How did she have relationship with Him? Because she loved Him. She was passionate about Him. She sat at His feet. She did this beautiful act before He was buried that she ran to Him. And she knew that Jesus could heal her brother. She knew He could raise her. She knew. She knew because she'd listened to Him. She'd heard His story. She'd seen what He had done. And she knew that out of anybody, if she ran to Him, He could have answered that. And so it wasn't a, Oh Lord, really, why weren't you here? But just, once again, that thing of falling at His feet, knowing that He was the answer to everything. He was the answer to everything. So here she is, lavishing her love on Him again by pouring the costly oil on Him and wiping His feet with her hair. Another expression of absolute love and adoration. And I like my expensive perfumes, but they're not worth a year's worth of money. I wouldn't be allowed them. I don't think it's out of the cost that much. But I like my expensive perfumes, and I often feel challenged by this. I have my favorites. It's like, oh, would I really just tip the whole thing over somebody I love? Probably not. But there's a cost. There's a cost. There is an absolute cost to loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. There's a cost. And in this case, it was the oil. And Mary sitting at Jesus' feet, it was a cost. I'm sure the others talked about it and said, She's just sitting at His feet. Martha's doing all the work. Who knows? That's what people here would say. Let's be real. And our families would be like, Oh, she's just sitting there doing nothing. Let's make it real. I mean, at the end of the day, she chose what was the best thing to do. And I guess my challenge this morning is do you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Are you passionate about Him? Would you give up everything for Him? And I know we're all on different stages of our journey, and some of us have been around for a while. Some are just starting. It doesn't matter. It's allowing Him to captivate our heart. It's forgetting ourselves and just saying, God, I don't care who's looking at me. It's like the song we sung this morning. Praise Him now like we're in glory. I think if you don't like worship, you're not going to like heaven much, to be honest. If you don't know that that's what's going to be going on in heaven, like seriously. And I tell you what, that worship is going to be like nothing we've ever experienced. Absolutely nothing we've ever experienced. When we're driven by passion and love, we don't often consider the cost or the reaction of others. David's wife despised him for his passionate worship. She was embarrassed. The Pharisee judged the woman in Luke 7 because she was a sinner. Martha judged Mary because she didn't help, and she just sat at Jesus' feet. The disciple questioned Mary's use of the costly oil because of the evil intent in his heart. But each and every one of them were acts of worship before God because they loved Him and they were passionate. And they wanted to show that love for Him. Others' approval, I want you to listen to this carefully. Others' approval is not what should motivate us to love and worship God with all our being. But the disapproval of others shouldn't hinder it either. I'm going to say that again. Others' approval is not what should motivate us to love and worship the Lord with all our being. But the disapproval of others shouldn't hinder it either. We've got to get to a place, church, where we don't care who's looking. And we just say, God, because you are worthy, I will worship you. And I will honour you with all that's within me. Psalm 84.2 says, My soul longs, yes, even faints, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. To me that's passion for Him. That's passion. Does my soul long and faint? Not quite. But there are days when I know, and I know, and I know, that He is all that I need. And I just have to connect. And I just have to be where He is. I want to read you something. And I don't know if anybody knows Francis Frank De Parny. But he wrote some amazing stuff. And I want to read this account to you. Because to me this sums up passion about everything as I come to close. And I'll get through this without crying. But it just really moves me. It really, really does move me. And this is the account of when, after Jesus was crucified. And it challenged me. This really challenged my way of thinking and where I'm at with God. It says, I'm reminded of Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb of Jesus. The apostle had come, looked in the grave, and had gone away astounded. But Mary came to the tomb, and she lingered, and she was crying and weeping. The death of Christ was horrible. But his missing body was unspeakable. She could not be at an empty tomb. She had to have the one who her soul loved. The scripture says that Jesus himself came behind her. But in her sorrow she did not recognize him. And he said, Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? And for those that want to look this up, it's in John 20. And it counts in verse 11 to 18. It says, Can we see here the connection between Mary's weeping and her seeking Christ? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away. She would settle for his body if she could just put her arms around him. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. And Jesus said to her, Don't cling to me, for I've not yet ascended to the Father. The instant Mary sees the Lord, she clings to him. Jesus said, I've not yet ascended, and here is the most astounding event, and indeed the marvel of all marvels. Jesus interrupted his ascent into heaven to answer her love. He had not yet ascended, but in the process of his resurrection he is drawn, no, not compelled, towards her weeping. Jesus demonstrated that love is the highest and most compelling power of his kingdom. When you expend your energies, your nights, your heart, when you overcome your fears out of love for Jesus, you will find him and not let him go. She had found the one that her soul loved, and she continued in her pursuit and remained in sorrow until she had found him. The church leaders went home. Who did Jesus first appear to? He came to the one who had the greatest passion for him, who was there waiting for him, and there she was wanting to cling to him. Challenge is my heart, and I hope this morning that it challenges yours, to think that of all the people that Jesus could have appeared to first, it was her. And why? Because he answered the cry of her heart, because she so, so loved him. Passion will have us always where he is, and everything else will flow from that. Our obedience to him, John 14 verse 5 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Serving him, daily laying down our lives for him and for others. Worshipping him, just because he is. And discipling and showing others the way to relationship with him. We're called to disciple others. We're called to show people and teach people about who he is. And I'm challenged by that, because if I'm not passionate about him, why would anybody else be? If I don't show that I'm so in love with my God, then why would I expect them to be? And I just want to put a bit of a challenge out here to us this morning, that I believe as the generation we're living in, that we have a generational responsibility to those coming behind us. I really believe that. Those coming behind us are the future church. If we don't show our God passion and love, if we don't show that, man, he is the best thing that's ever happened to us, why would they think he is? I think we need to really look at how we show our love for him and not be ashamed to show that love for him for those following behind us. Don't you want your kids to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength? Don't you want your grandkids? Don't you want your families too? They'll want what we have if we show it. If we're passionate about it, they'll want what we have. I think as the greatest witness of all is to love him. We can say lots of things, but if we just show that we love him, people will be like, man, I want that. So I'm asking you this morning, are you passionate about him? And is he seated upon the throne of your heart? Do your actions tell others that you love him? Is the flame of your first love burning bright, or has it got a bit dim? Is your passion contagious? Do others see what you've got and go, man, I really want that? Do others see what you've got and go, man, I want what they have? I want to know this God that they know. I just want to pray and end there, because to me this is between you and God. But if something I've said today has stirred you, then believe me, I had a tough week getting this together, and God has challenged me time and time again, getting this word together, because it's like, come on, you can't say it, where are you at? And I know that it applies to us all. And I just want to say, don't leave if you need to get something right with him. Don't leave if you just need to, I don't care how you do it, because it's not between me and you, it's between you and him. If you need to come and you need to just get on your face, or you need to bow down, or you just need to stand and acknowledge, yeah, Lord, I've heard and I'm here. Increase my love for you and help me to be that person that's passionate about you. If you need to do that, then do it. But I just want to pray, because it is between you and God. And I pray that over the coming week you'll find more time to give him, and more time to sit at his feet, and more time to tell him that you love him, just because of who he is. Lord, I thank you for your word today. Lord, I thank you that, Lord, you've saved us all. Lord, and that we're here because of your goodness. We're here because of your mercy and your grace. Lord, I thank you today for my own personal salvation, Lord, that, Lord, you gave everything for me. And, Lord, I pray for each one of us as we've come around your word this morning, I pray, Lord God, that you'd stir again that fire, that you'd fan that flame within our hearts, that, Lord, we would love you, love you lovely with all that is within us, that, Lord, we wouldn't be ashamed to worship you, to, Lord, to forget ourselves, to forget ourselves because we're so contained with your glory and so contained with our passion and love for you, that, Lord, it just flows. I just really pray, Lord, for each one here, Lord, your blessing, your blessing, your blessing, and that, Lord, if anyone here doesn't know you, Lord, and isn't in a relationship with you, that, Lord, they'd seek you out, they'd ask questions, and they wouldn't leave today, Lord, without finding the answer. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. You're going to move out in the power of the Holy Spirit, and you're going to be witnesses, as Acts 2 says. You know, to all of the earth, and these signs shall follow you. You'll, you know, you'll preach the gospel in power, signs and wonders following. You know, you'll lay hands on the sick, they'll recover. You'll cast out demons. It's going to be awesome. Because out of the overflow, you're going to touch others. Because that's his desire, isn't it? His desire is that none would perish. That's why he's called us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Out of the overflow. If we feel we don't have overflow in our lives, perhaps we need a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. I've said this before. We're earthen vessels, and the Holy Spirit leaks out of us because we're crackpots, amen? We're not perfect vessels. We have hairline fractures where, you know, it seeps through, and then we need to get topped up, topped up, topped up. We need the tap to keep running because if it doesn't keep running, it'll just flow out and we're empty. We need to be filled again. We see that in Acts. They were filled in the beginning of Acts and then a few chapters in. They came to God again, and they got filled with the Holy Spirit again. There's a continued need to be pressing into God, seeking after God, and knowing the fresh filling of the Holy Spirit so that there's overflow in our lives so we can have continued passion. We know that, don't we? Those of us who are married. You've been married for a while. You had plenty of passion in your honeymoon. Mm-mm, passion. Passion. But we know over time that we come to realize that we've got to work at our marriages to maintain passion. Yeah? The truth will set you free, brother. You've got to work at it. There's a need of keeping that overflow in your life because life comes in. The mundane. People try to avoid the mundane. They want to live a honeymoon all the time. They want to experience the fun aspects of life every day, all the time. But there are mundane things that we've got to go through in life. Yes, we've still got to clean and wash things. Yeah, that's mundane. We've got to go through the mundane habits of maintaining family, maintaining ourselves. We've got to go through the mundane habits of getting income in order to pay bills and do those sort of things, maintain a living. But we understand amidst all of that we're called by God to reach the world in Jesus' name. And amidst all of that we've got to work at building passion. We've got to work at allowing the cup to overflow at all times. But that takes work and that takes effort. But it's coming to God and understanding that He's the source. Because Christianity is impossible without God. We need the Holy Spirit. We need overflow in our lives. I love at first John 2 says, but ye have unction. I'm speaking from King James. But ye have unction from the Holy One and ye know all things and the anointing which ye have received abideth in you. I love that. I love the word unction. I love the fact that the Holy Spirit abides in us and He gives us divine grace to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. So out of the overflow it's not a sense of mere human excitement that you're communicating to those around you the source of your passion. But there's an anointing on your life that has power to shift and change and bring freedom in lives. Thank you Jesus. Let's keep moving. Okay, let's move on to Mark 12 verse 30. It says this. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Love God, love people. Have a passion for God, have passion for people. Let there be an overflow of the heart towards God and overflow of the heart towards people. Matthew 7 says this in verse 12. In everything you do, be careful to treat others in the same way you want them to treat you. For this is the essence of all the teachings of the law and the prophets. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. What does that mean? Treat others in the same way you want them to treat you. And I want to go deeper than that. It's not just treating people with kindness or treating people with respect or treating people in a way that is right. It's knowing that I've received something from God and God has transformed my life. And I don't want to keep this to myself. I want to tell others. I want that which I've experienced to be the experience of others. If God has treated me, I want to treat others the same. I want them to have the same opportunities, the same experience. I want them to experience what I've experienced. So therefore, it's not just about me, it's about others. You follow me here, Church? There's the overflow of our experience, the overflow of the Holy Spirit working our lives. Something that we have has to be given away, has to be shared with others, has to be passed on to others. You're going to get it in a minute. Matthew 10 verse 5 says this. These 12 sent out with the following instructions. Do not go among the Gentiles or enter into any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim the message. The kingdom of heaven has come near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. And this is what it says here. The message puts it this way. You have been treated generously, so live generously. So here we have the disciples have experienced Jesus and they've seen his power at work and perhaps they've even been recipients of his healing power and various things. And now he's saying, come on, you go. Go and give what you've experienced to them, to others. Freely give as you freely receive. Now the question I want to ask you this morning, freely you have received, now freely give. The question is, what have we received and what are we being asked to give? What have we received and what is Jesus asking us to give? I mean, we can look at this and say, well, he's talking about cast out demons, heal the sick. Go heal the sick, go cast out demons. And we might say to ourselves, oh, I haven't been healed or I haven't had a demon cast out of me, so I haven't got that to give. So the question is, what have we received and what am I asked to give? Let's ponder on that for a moment because the answer to this question is going to revolutionize your walk with God. You ready for it? 1 Corinthians 2 verse 12 says, What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Peter 2 verse 10 says this, Romans 8 verse 15 says this, So what we have received is the Holy Spirit, is the seal of adoption, the very fact that we've been born of the Spirit. We are now not part of the kingdom of darkness, but of the kingdom of his marvelous light. Our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We are on the narrow road that leads to awesomeness, to the kingdom of God. We're not on the wide road that leads to destruction. We are children of God because of the Spirit of God. And that overflow of that revelation, the overflow of his presence and spirit in our life, should do something for us. And we carry something that we need to give away. And the first thing that we need to give away is mercy. Holy Spirit, mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Let me explain this. You know the expression, fall from grace? Fall from grace? It's a secular thought from a scripture in the Bible. From a scripture, from a secular perspective, to fall from grace is the referring to a loss of status, respect, or reputation because of a mistake or moral failure. The result is often the loss of support in social isolation. To fall from grace, from that understanding, is a secular understanding. Drop the mic right there. Because the verse that it comes from is this. Galatians 5 verse 4. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have become estranged from God, you have fallen from grace. So that's the verse. That's where that phrase, fall from grace, comes from. But the interpretation that the church has now embodied is the same as the secular interpretation. That the fall of grace means that you've made a mistake, you've had a moral failure, you've missed the mark, and therefore you've lost respect, you've lost dignity, you've lost our support, you're on the outside. That's a secular expression. But Paul, writing to the Galatians, he's saying this. Is that if you try to impose laws and follow laws, you've missed the mark. You've missed the mark. You've fallen from the reality of what grace means. No one can follow laws and keep the law. We all fail, we all make mistakes. We just need grace. Yeah? Now listen to me here. I'm not talking about a cheap grace where we can sit on Saturday and turn up to church on Sunday and all is good. All right? I'm not talking about that. I'm not advocating, that's the word, that woo-hoo, no, you can go and do what you want, God will forgive you, all good. No, no, we still have consequences to sin, amen. We still mess it up and have to follow through on the consequences. There's still standards that are required in order for you to function in the particular space of serving, if you're serving in the kingdom. But the result of a mistake, the result of a failure, the result of missing the mark is not social isolation and a casting out or even a loss of respect. It's the ability that as a church we have the grace to remind ourselves and others that you can't fix this on your own. You need God. It's impossible to be a Christian. We all make mistakes, and if we try to live up to the rules that we put in ourselves, then we'll always fail, we'll always make mistakes, we'll always find ourselves kicking ourselves in the butt and thinking that we're no good, we're useless, we're worthless, and the enemy will come in and whisper to endorse that very way of thinking that, yes, you are useless, you are no good, because you make mistakes, you're a failure, and we find ourselves not advancing anywhere in God. But when we understand that His mercy is new and fresh every morning, that we can come to Him and lay it all out and say, God, I'm trying to get this way, but I can't. Help me, Jesus. Forgive me of my shortcomings. He'll raise us up and move us forward. You see, when a Christian falls from grace, that's the wrong thinking. We shouldn't be falling from grace. We should be falling to grace if we make a mistake. If we mess up, we should not be falling from grace, but falling to grace. That's why we've got people going from church to church, people not even coming to church, because they fell from grace and they took on a sickler mindset, and we've said, your failure, your mistake, your shortcoming has disqualified you, and we turn our faces from them and they're isolated on the outside. Rather than extending grace and saying, hey, you made a mistake, come on, brother, let's move forward. You see, God spoke to us that this is a season where we are welcoming people home, and I want us to understand this about grace. I want us to understand this about us making mistakes. I'm under no illusion. Each one of us will make a mistake by the end of the year. Amen? I'm under no illusion. Some of us will make huge mistakes. Some of us make smaller mistakes, but nevertheless, we will not hit the mark because sin is simply this, missing the mark, no matter how big the sin is, right? But grace brings us back in. Grace invites us back in. Grace lifts us up and moves us forward. That is grace. And that's what God is wanting to overflow out of our hearts. Freely you have received mercy. Freely you have received my grace. Freely give. Go out in that grace and understand that as you forgive people their sin, as you stretch out your hand and love on people, as a result, signs and wonders will begin to follow. Healing will flow. The Bible says in James that if you confess your sins one to another, you will be healed. There's something about embracing grace that will release the healing power of God. And in our life groups, it's an ideal place for grace to be extended, for healing to be released, and for people to be restored and made whole and to know that they are loved not only by God, but by its people. Show mercy. Show mercy. Here's another scripture for us. James 5 verse 19 to 20. All right, I'm going to put the heat up now. Is that good? As members of God's blood of family, we must go after the one who wanders from the truth and bring him back. For the one who restores the sinning believer back to God from the error of his way gives back to his soul life from the dead and covers over countless sins by the demonstration of love. Oh man, hear this. Hear this. If we go out and rescue a brother or a sister and we extend grace and we bring love, it says here that we have the power to see their sin cancelled out in the name of Jesus. We shouldn't be holding people captive to sin. We are called to the ministry of reconciliation and healing, right? So as we go out and extend grace and love on people, our love will release people from their sin. And the Bible says here that we need to be motivated with this very cause and understanding that if we save somebody from their error, we save their soul from destruction. Amen? We save their very soul. I don't know about you, but I've been in church long enough where I've seen people come and go. Come and go. Come and go. Some go from one church to another church. That's all right. They're still in the sphere of where God is working on them. But there's others who step outside of that sphere and they don't come back to church. They find themselves back on the pathway of where they are, you know, just things are going from bad for worse. And rather than saying, oh, they'll stop coming, we need to be going out and getting them in Jesus' name. Getting them in Jesus' name. If they say, no, I don't want to go, and they push you back, something along the line, yeah, well, I like the passion of the revivalists who said that if sinners are so keen on going to hell, let them go there by jumping over our bodies and with their arms around their legs, praying for them and warning them as they go. Having that type of passion, where we are concerned for the soul of the sinner, not about our own reputation, recognizing that we are ministers of grace, reaching out, saving souls, grabbing hold of others who are on that path. Rather than sitting back, oh, okay, let's move on. Come boys, let's pack the wagons, we're moving on. No, no, we've got to bring as many people with us. I like what the message version sees from James 5. It says, my dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off, go after them. I mean, the parable of the lost sheep is exactly that, isn't it? It's exactly that. There were a hundred sheep in church, nine of them stayed, one left. And the shepherds left the church, and went looking for the one. That's an interesting thought, isn't it? We're waiting for Jesus to come back, because he's out there looking for the lost one. Maybe we need to go out and help him. Then we get him in, and Jesus is in the house, amen? It sounds like a bizarre bit of theology right there, but it actually makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. If we're busy reaching out, extending grace, bringing love to those who are in need, God will be with us. If we are more concerned about ourselves, going through the motions of religious expression, I don't even think God will turn up. There are houses around the nation who stand for the name of Jesus, but God's not there, because the church has forgotten to reach out and freely give what they have freely received. There's no overflow in their lives. The Holy Spirit's not even there. Their cups are empty. Their vessels are dry and empty. We need a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. We need overflow again. We need to have our eyes looking out towards the lost. Our brothers and our sisters, the ones whom we've connected with who are now disconnected, we need to once again get into that space where we're reaching out and loving on people. If we're in that mindset, operating in that obedience, God will turn up, because he shows up and shows off in our steps of faith. These signs shall follow those who believe. Amen, amen. Jude 1 says this. Jude 1 verse 20 to 23. But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. And await the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way you will keep yourself safe in God's love. Verse 22. And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the fire of judgment. Show mercy still to others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives. Notice he hates the sins, not the sinner. Again. Come on, let's be snatching people out of the fire in Jesus' name. All right, okay, move on. Proverbs 27 verse 17. As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. I love it. The Passion Translation says it this way. It takes a grinding wheel to sharpen a blade, and so one person sharpens the character of another. I like that. When I think of a grinder grinding out a blade, sparks fly. Sparks going everywhere. We need some more sparks in the church. All the pastors are like, no, no, no, we don't want sparks in the church. Sparks is when, you know, we are actually being real with one another, and we've got a close relationship where we can point the finger at each other's, you know, issues and draw it out in love and move each other forward. Iron sharpening iron, rather than getting offended and moving on and not sharpening anything, remaining blunt and dull. God wants us to be sharp, but to be sharp we've got to be open with one another. Iron sharpening iron. All I've got to say is here, and I've shared this scripture before, from Proverbs 27 verse 6. This is up further from iron sharpening iron. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. The slap of a friend can be trusted, but the kisses or the flattery of an enemy are deceitful. From a friend. We need some slapping in church, amen. I say this in all the right ways. I've got a friend, he lives in Australia, he was the best man at our wedding. We grew up together from young teenagers, and we know each other incredibly well, and we have no problems of physically kicking each other up the butt if we do something stupid. That's how close the relationship is. I mean, we don't see each other hardly ever, but I know that if he would step in the room and I was doing something stupid, he would not hesitate in pulling me aside and saying, dude, what are you doing, mate? And I would receive that because of the grounds of our relationship. There's a desire in each one of us to have friends like that. There's a desire and a need for us to have a sense of belonging and a sense of camaraderie and connection where we experience the grace of those around about us, but at the same time have opportunity to express grace to others. To be in a room where we can be pulled aside by somebody and they may say something that's hurtful, that feels like a slap in the face, but we know where it's coming from because we know that they love us. Because you can't really change unless you're offended. You know what I mean here? What they say has to offend you, and you go away and you think about it and you realize, oh brother, you're right. We've all been in church, we've heard the preaching and it offended us and go, wait, don't preach. We pray about it, and it drops into your heart. You know what I mean? It's just me that goes through that process. Because that's the power of God's Word. That's the power that the Holy Spirit brings to bring change. He convicts us. And conviction's not nice. Oh wow, I've got it. Oh God, I've got it wrong. Not far behind the Holy Spirit convicting you, the devil's saying, yeah, you've got it wrong. Go away. I don't know about you in the thinking. I have some good arguments of my own in the thinking. Holy Spirit standing out there going, I'll wait for you. Then he comes back and goes, all right God, you're right. It's grace being extended. Romans 12 verse 15 says this. Rejoice for those who rejoice and weep for those who weep. The message says it this way. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy. Share tears when they're down. Laugh. Cry. There's nothing more, there's nothing more satisfying to the soul than sitting with a brother or sister, or a sister depending where you are, who you are, and having a good laugh together and having a good cry together. Those who fall from grace from a secular perspective have made a mistake. They have made a moral misjudgment. They've lost reputation. They've lost even dignity. And they're on the outside. And they are isolated and they're grieving in shame and crying by themselves. But grace extends out to harm and says, come on brother. I know how you're feeling. I've made mistakes too. And it's crying together. It's laughing together. It's restoring one another's soul. And carrying that to a place where, come on, let's get on with it. Let me give you another verse. I'm just about finished here. Hebrews 10 verse 24 says this. Let us consider how we may spur one other on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meat together as some in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. I know as a pastor, we preach this a lot. We shouldn't forsake men together. And I know for me personally, there are times where I was more concerned about the gathering because the gathering, whether it was empty or full, would determine whether I had a good day or not. Yeah? Because a full house is a success. A half empty house feels like failure. And you can talk about men together, men together, as much as you like, but if you're not doing it for the sole purpose of encouraging, you're missing the mark. Because this is the reason why we come together, whether we're in life groups or whether we're in church or whether we've got friends coming around to dinner. It's all about encouraging, spurring one another on. It's about looking into one another's eyes and saying, man, I can see you doing this, doing that, calling out the destiny of God. Or you put your hands together, yeah, you can do that. Awesome. And encouraging us to go further and higher than we could ever go in our own strength. That's why the Bible says two are better than one. Because if one falls over, who's there to help them up? We're in this journey together, this journey of grace. Free to receive mercy, we're freely giving it out to others. You see, as a leadership team, we wanna transition the thought of pastoral care to church care. Because pastoral care gives us the thought that it's about an individual, a pastor, doing all the caring. You're the shepherd, we're the sheep, come. I need shade. I don't know where that came from. I was thinking about sheep. Then I realized I had a beard. Yes, I need shade. Come pastor, fix me, help me. But that's not how it works. It's about us together. Caring for one another. That's why we really are pushing life groups because in that life group scenario, there's those relationships that are built and established that can only really be established in that space than in church space. Sunday morning, we see the back of one another's heads more than we do actually face-to-face, right? It's not that opportune in building deep connections, but in a life group scenario, there's connection and there is care. Passion for people. Passion for people. Final verse, then I'm finished. Praise the Lord. Ecclesiastes 4, 9-10, I've said this already. Two are better than one because they have good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. We are a church about helping others up. We're a church about caring for others and loving others. We're a church about extending grace. And if we make a mistake, we're not falling from grace, we're falling to grace. Yeah? Amen. Let me pray for us. Father, I thank you that we're here today.