Latest / Faith Church Podcast / Keep Your Zeal | Pastor Kami Palmer | Faith Church

Transcript

Keep Your Zeal | Pastor Kami Palmer | Faith Church · Faith Church Podcast

0:00
I want this week to do a bit of follow -up from
0:06
Darren's sermon last week. How many of you remember
0:09
what Darren preached about last week? Go ahead,
0:16
everybody. Okay, zeal. You sounded very zealous
0:20
as you informed me of what he preached on. We're
0:25
going to have to work on your zeal, I think.
0:28
So he preached on zeal, and he did that out of
0:33
2 Kings chapter 13, and I'll just quickly read
0:37
this verse. You can go back and listen to it
0:39
online if you missed it, but it was where Elisha
0:43
had become, he was on his deathbed. Elisha the
0:46
prophet was about to die, and King Joash is coming
0:50
to him. He's coming to be sad with him, to grieve,
0:55
but also often the kings of old would go to the
0:59
prophet to receive some direction from the Lord
1:02
on what they should do. And so he was still at
1:06
the place of needing direction. One final thing,
1:09
Elisha, before you die, what should I do about
1:11
the Syrians? And so he got some direction, and
1:15
at the end of the direction, in 2 Kings 13, verse
1:20
18, He had told him, take the arrows. So he took
1:25
the arrows and he said to the king of Israel,
1:28
strike the ground. So he struck three times and
1:32
stopped. And the man of God was angry with him
1:36
and said, you should have struck five or six
1:40
times. He was not happy with this half -hearted
1:45
striking the ground. Okay, one, two, three. That
1:50
made Elisha mad. No. He said, you should have
1:57
struck it five or six times, then you would have
2:00
struck Syria till you had destroyed it. But now
2:04
you will only strike Syria three times. It's
2:07
interesting he doesn't say, you should have done
2:09
it five or six times, and then you would have
2:12
struck Syria five or six times. No, he said you
2:17
would have struck Syria until it was destroyed,
2:20
which in my mind I'm thinking could have taken
2:22
10, 20 times, but there was no limit if he had
2:27
been wholehearted in his striking the ground.
2:30
But because he was half -hearted, he was limited
2:34
to his half -heartedness the three times. Wow,
2:38
I didn't even get that. That just came to me
2:40
just now. I didn't even get that in my preparation
2:42
time, but that's mind -blowing to me. It really
2:46
doesn't matter how many times he would have struck
2:50
it had he done it in zeal. If he had done it
2:54
just the five times, but with a heart of zeal,
2:57
there would not have been any limit on how often
3:00
they would have struck Syria. They just know
3:03
they would have destroyed Syria. But because
3:06
he was half -hearted and lacked zeal, he was
3:10
limited by his zeal. You should chew on that
3:17
this week. I'm going to chew on that this week.
3:21
So that was Darren's sermon last week. What I
3:25
want us to follow up this week is how to sustain
3:30
zeal. Many of you responded to the altar time
3:37
for zeal. I want to be zealous for God. And many
3:43
of you came forward. To say, yes, I want that.
3:47
Now, I love a good altar encounter just like
3:51
anybody else. And I can look back on my life
3:55
and recall significant altar moments where God
4:00
did amazing things in my life. But where the
4:05
transformation in my life happened took place
4:10
as after the encounter, I took it home to walk
4:15
it out. And to be honest, I can recall specific
4:18
encounters where I'm in the encounter and I am
4:23
also thinking, I don't want to go home and wake
4:26
up Monday morning because I'll have to deal with
4:29
reality. I'm in this heavenly zone right now.
4:35
Where I don't have to face a spouse. I don't
4:38
have to face a child. I don't have to face my
4:41
finances or my health. Jesus, could you just
4:44
take me now? Let's all just be raptured right
4:48
now in glory. Wouldn't that be wonderful? But
4:51
no, I had to go home and walk it out. And so
4:55
the God encounters, the breakthroughs have been
4:58
significant for me. But the significance only
5:04
goes as far as we walk it out Monday, Tuesday,
5:08
Wednesday. And so I want us to, for a few moments
5:12
here, look at three areas that are going to help
5:15
us not just say, yes, I want to be zealous, but
5:20
how can I sustain it in life? And so we're going
5:25
to look in Galatians chapter 4 this morning.
5:28
And we're going to be starting in verse 17. But
5:31
I want you to understand some of the issues that
5:34
Paul is addressing with the Galatian church.
5:39
You have to remember that there is this new covenant.
5:43
Once Jesus was resurrected and ascended, a new
5:48
covenant was put in place. And you have to remember
5:52
that as part of that, things like Peter having
5:55
a vision of all of the unclean food and realizing
6:00
it's all been made clean now. And so they had
6:04
this huge shift in culture. All of these rules
6:08
and laws that had identified who Israel was,
6:13
who the Jewish people were, are now a whole nother
6:17
thing. And they're having to learn what that
6:20
looks like in the New Testament, where we are
6:24
free now. We can eat what we want now, right?
6:31
This is, I mean, if we think about how hard we
6:35
have sometimes with change, I know a lot of times
6:40
people, oh, I want. Like Darren often likes to
6:43
bring out songs from the 80s and I'll roll my
6:46
eyes at him because those are his preference,
6:50
right? And so sometimes just little things are
6:55
hard for us in change. Can you imagine when it
6:59
has been for thousands of years a cultural identity?
7:03
And now all of it is permissible. Not at all
7:07
beneficial, but it's permissible. And so what
7:11
they began to experience in that early church
7:13
were teachers, false teachers coming in that
7:17
were trying to get them to come back to living
7:22
according to the law. And Paul had no tolerance
7:26
for it because what that says is, is that the
7:30
sacrifice of Christ is not enough. It says that
7:34
we also have to fulfill all the law as well as
7:38
have the sacrifice of Christ. And he had no tolerance
7:41
for it. And so they were trying to seduce them
7:44
back into bondage. That's what's happening in
7:50
Galatians. And so in Galatians 4 .17, it says
7:56
those people are zealous to win you over. It's
8:02
not just that they were trying to woo them back.
8:04
They were zealous to win them over. But for no
8:11
good. What they want is to alienate you from
8:17
us so that you may have zeal for them. They wanted
8:24
a transference of affection, of zeal, of loyalty.
8:30
To them and their teaching. And he goes on to
8:35
say, here is our primary text. It is fine to
8:42
be zealous. Provided the purpose is good. And
8:50
he gives a second qualification. And to be so
8:55
always. not just when I am with you. Okay, so
9:01
here's what happens. Paul would show up. Okay,
9:05
here's what it's like. It's like when our new
9:07
superintendent last fall called Darren on a Saturday
9:13
night and said, hey, I'm going to be at your
9:15
church tomorrow. And then it was me texting our
9:21
leadership team saying, hey, the superintendent's
9:24
going to be here tomorrow. Everybody on their
9:27
toes. This is what it was like for Paul. He would
9:32
come to town to visit the churches, and they
9:36
would all, their zeal and their faith, yeah.
9:42
And then he would leave town, and what would
9:45
happen? Would get lax again. Oh, the little things
9:49
don't matter. Oh, the... The spiders that I see
9:56
if I know that the superintendent's coming, I'm
9:59
checking for. But I don't care if you got to
10:01
come to the altar and face the spider web. This
10:05
is what was happening. They had zeal when Paul
10:09
was with them, but their zeal waned when he was
10:12
not. And he's saying, listen, it's good to be
10:15
zealous. But you have to have a good purpose
10:20
and you have to always. Be zealous. You have
10:25
to have a zeal that is not a roller coaster ride.
10:32
What it comes down to is this. There is an inward
10:39
stimuli and an outward stimuli. And so what they
10:46
were experiencing in the Galatian church, Paul
10:50
was their stimuli. And so when Paul, and he was
10:53
an outward, when Paul came, it stimulated them
10:57
to zeal. But they did not have an inward stimuli
11:02
to spur them on towards zeal. And to sustain
11:08
zeal, there's this transference that has to happen.
11:12
And I think it is really the place of maturity,
11:15
becoming spiritually mature. anybody that has
11:24
children. And we don't just leave the children
11:27
to raise themselves, do we? Few of them are going
11:32
to have the inward stimulation to eat their vegetables,
11:37
clean their room, treat people, share their toys.
11:41
That's why they have parents to provide the outward
11:45
stimulation toward that, right? Maturity, hopefully
11:49
as they become adults, They will begin of their
11:54
own accord without you overseeing it, will be
11:58
stimulated to be kind to people, to clean their
12:03
stuff, to do their laundry, to manage their finances,
12:07
right? It is a process of maturity. And so there's
12:13
nothing wrong with needing outward stimulus in
12:17
our zeal. But the goal is that we begin to grow
12:23
up into it coming from within. I don't need to
12:28
call an elder or the pastor in this moment. Not
12:32
that there's anything wrong with that. I call
12:34
people to pray for me. But it shouldn't be every
12:38
day. It should be, I know what it is within me
12:42
to reach out into heaven. And it's a place of
12:46
spiritual growth and maturity. I think this word
12:50
zeal is interesting because there is emotion
12:54
attached to it, right? We do feel some emotion
12:58
and zeal. If I'm zealous for something, it should
13:03
encompass my mind. It should encompass my emotions
13:08
and my body, my actions. And I think of the word
13:11
is very similar is passion. And I remember years
13:16
and years ago at a women's conference at my mother's
13:20
church, sitting with a group of women, and one
13:22
woman going on about how passionate she was.
13:27
And what she meant is that she is an emotionally
13:33
passionate. She liked wild colored hair. She
13:39
really meant zest for life. zestful person. Loud.
13:47
She liked crazy. In her mind, that was passion.
13:52
But what I find interesting is that the word
13:55
passion is actually an English word that comes
13:59
from Latin, passio. And do you know what that
14:04
word means? Suffering. It means suffering. It
14:12
was not until about 1200 that the word passion
14:17
entered the English vocabulary. In 1200, from
14:23
the Latin word meaning suffering and endurance.
14:28
It's where we get the term the passion of Christ.
14:31
Because what was Christ doing? Suffering and
14:35
enduring. And so we hear these terms like zeal
14:40
and passion. And they're good. But I think we
14:46
have a false conception of what it means. That
14:50
I'm always going to feel like worshiping. I'm
14:52
always going to feel joy. I'm always, that is
14:55
zeal and that is passion. And the truth is that
14:58
it usually means suffering and endurance. Aren't
15:03
you excited? I think you liked Darren's sermon
15:05
on zeal better than this one. Here's what made
15:11
me begin to think about this while he was preaching
15:13
last week. I began to think of 9 -11. And do
15:19
you know what happened? And if you all follow
15:22
anything in the church world, we had so many
15:25
articles and so many people talking about this.
15:28
What happened following 9 -11 was an influx into
15:32
the church. And now where are the people? It
15:36
doesn't last long. It made me think of Charlie
15:40
Kirk. Because what happened after Charlie Kirk's
15:44
death? An influx into the church. I know we had
15:50
some, and I haven't seen them in months and months.
15:54
I think of Gary. And do you know how many people
16:01
Darren and I talked to after Gary passed that
16:05
felt... Ah, Gary has gone. People need to rise
16:09
up now because Gary's gone. They need to walk
16:13
his shoes. They need to fill his shoes. And they
16:16
began to come to church and they began to rise
16:19
up. And slowly they're here less and less. What
16:27
is that? That is outward stimuli. There were
16:32
these moments that fanned zeal. that fanned passion.
16:38
And then we lose, we get away from the immediate
16:42
feelings of grief, of fear, the immediate feelings
16:47
of how close we are to eternity, how fleeting
16:52
this life is. We get further and further away
16:55
from that. And what happens? The zeal begins
16:59
to wane. The passion begins to wane. And I know
17:05
I'm really kind of preaching to the choir today
17:08
because you guys are coming day in and day out.
17:13
You're a zealous people. So I know that in a
17:18
lot of ways I'm preaching to the choir, but I
17:20
want to encourage you in it because the temptation
17:25
is. I told Pastor Araya this morning, I kind
17:31
of wanted to just stay in my sweatpants today.
17:36
I was so tired and after the accident and I was
17:40
just, I could just really just sleep in today.
17:47
But there's a passion that drives me. There's
17:50
a zeal that drives me. And no longer. Are they
17:57
subject to what is happening in life? Pastor
18:04
Gary may have lit a flame, but I've done the
18:10
job to blow on the flame, to feed the flame,
18:14
to sustain the flame, right? And so there are
18:21
three things I want us to quickly walk through,
18:23
and then we're going to conclude around the table
18:25
of the Lord. How to sustain zeal in your life.
18:31
And the first way to do it is to guard the direction
18:36
of your heart. These are going to be three very
18:40
simple things, but if you think about how you
18:44
feed fire, It's very simple things. You feed
18:49
it some wood. You blow on it a little bit. Give
18:51
it some oxygen. Sometimes you give it a stir.
18:55
It's not complicated, but it will sustain your
18:59
fire. And so these are three simple ways. They
19:04
don't sound very profound, but if you want to
19:07
sustain zeal in your life, there's no getting
19:11
around them. And the first one is guarding the
19:14
direction of your heart. I want us to go to Proverbs
19:18
23, and I'm going to read verse 19, and then
19:23
we're going to back up a little bit. But I want
19:24
to start in verse 19. And he says, hear my son
19:29
and be wise. Now, how many of you want to be
19:32
wise? I want to be wise. And guide your heart
19:40
in the way. That's what it says. I love that.
19:44
Guide your heart in the way. We're talking about
19:50
the way of the Lord. What this means is that
19:53
you are not subject to people. You are not subject
19:57
to circumstances. You have the power and the
20:01
authority to guide your heart in the way it should
20:05
go. You are not a victim. In trauma, in problems,
20:12
in difficulty, you are empowered to guide your
20:17
heart in the direction of the way. I love that.
20:23
That's what they called the new believers in
20:25
the New Testament. Followers of the way. Guide
20:31
your heart in the way. And so let's go back.
20:36
It's going to tell us a little bit how to do
20:38
that in verse 17. Two ways to guard the direction
20:42
of your heart. One is to guide it away from the
20:47
loves of this age. This is where zeal begins
20:53
to wane. When the things of this present age
20:57
become all -consuming. And suddenly our heart
21:04
is tangled up in it. And verse 17 says, do not
21:09
let your heart envy sinners. You're seeing all
21:15
of the people at your work that don't follow
21:18
the way of God. They're all flourishing, making
21:22
money, have kids, doing amazing things. And you
21:26
just see hardship, hardship, hardship. Do not
21:30
let your heart envy sinners. I love what Kathy
21:34
said. All that is needed, the salvation of my
21:41
soul. But be zealous for the fear of the Lord
21:48
all, everybody say all, all the day. What did
21:54
Paul say? If you're going to be zealous, be so
21:57
always. Be so always. So, do not envy the sinners
22:05
in your heart and be zealous for the fear of
22:09
the Lord all the day. And the second is to guide
22:16
your heart toward its eternal destination. Verse
22:22
18. For surely, here's your hope, surely there
22:27
is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut
22:31
off. This is why we are continually saying, look
22:36
to his coming. Look to the next life. Don't get
22:40
too settled here on earth because we want our
22:43
eyes continually on the prize. Our hope is not
22:48
in overcoming in this age. Our hope is in overcoming
22:52
death and forever overcoming with Christ. This
22:57
is our hope. And so when we are guiding our heart,
23:02
See, the enemy would want you to focus on getting
23:05
rooted here on this earth. And then there comes
23:09
a moment when you realize those roots don't go
23:12
very deep. In a moment it ends, and then everything
23:17
you've built for this life is done. Our heart
23:25
gets, the enemy wants your heart to be consumed
23:28
with this life. And it's not bad, and I'm all
23:34
about stewarding it well. But I'm stewarding
23:38
it for his kingdom. I'm stewarding it on my way
23:41
to where my heart, that's where my heart has
23:46
been placed. I've guided my heart, and I've said,
23:50
heart, you don't belong here. Heart, you belong
23:53
in eternity. And so I am guiding everything toward
23:58
where my heart is destined in eternity. Romans
24:08
12, there's one little verse, and the beauty
24:12
of the New Testament is there's a lot of writings
24:15
on how to live this life. There is a lot of practical,
24:19
you're children of the light, here's how you
24:22
live as children of the light. You're a Christian,
24:26
here's how you live as a Christian. Here's how
24:29
you treat people as a Christian. There's so much
24:32
writing in the New Testament concerning how to
24:35
do that. And in the middle of that, in Romans
24:39
chapter 12, there's a whole passage on that,
24:42
how to treat people. It says in verse 11, never
24:45
be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor
24:51
serving the Lord. Again, a choice here. If I
24:59
can get you to see this, that you have choice.
25:05
That you can decide your spiritual fervor. That
25:10
nobody's going to decide it for you. That nobody
25:13
can take it from you, but also nobody can give
25:16
it. It's up to us to keep our spiritual fervor.
25:22
And we do that by guiding the direction of your
25:26
heart. You can't just let it be and think it's
25:30
going to go where it should go. That would be
25:33
like raising children and not directing them.
25:36
You think they're all going to go the way they
25:38
should go in that case? No. Our hearts have to
25:42
be governed by our spirit, by our spirit man.
25:47
Our spirit man tells our heart where to go. And
25:53
so we guard the direction of our heart. The second
26:00
way we sustain zeal is, again, a choice. We can
26:07
guide the direction of our heart, but we also
26:11
have to choose how we're going to live. Okay,
26:14
that's our second. Choose how you live. In Titus
26:20
chapter 2, and starting in verse 11, salvation
26:29
has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
26:35
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
26:39
how? Soberly, righteously, and godly in this
26:44
present age. Again, we're choosing how we're
26:50
going to live this life while we wait for the
26:52
glorious return. And we see that in verse 13.
26:57
Why should we do it? Looking for the blessed
27:00
hope and glorious appearing of our great God
27:04
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you see the connection
27:10
they keep making in all of these verses? Wherever
27:14
it is telling us to keep your fervor, to keep
27:18
your zeal for the Lord, wherever it is telling
27:21
us, here you need to say no to the things of
27:24
the world, the things that your flesh would like
27:27
to feast on, they are always connecting it with
27:32
the return of Christ. They're not wanting us
27:37
to just do, we're going to suffer to suffer because
27:41
that's what it is to be a Christian. But no,
27:43
what we're doing is we're cutting off things
27:45
that would hinder us in our journey, in our pilgrimage
27:50
to our forever home. And so they always are connecting
27:55
over and over and over again. We do this looking
28:01
for his coming. We do this because he's returning.
28:05
We do this because Jesus is the prize that we
28:09
are going after. Always is the connection. Because
28:12
there's more than what there is to just live
28:15
for in this life. And so we have to choose how
28:20
we're going to live with intentionality. Cannot
28:24
be emotionally driven. We have to be driven by
28:30
the word of God and the ways of God. And so we
28:35
guard the direction of our heart and we choose
28:37
how we're going to live life. And here is the
28:41
sweet sauce of sustaining zeal. The third one.
28:50
Live in relationship with the one who is zealous
28:55
for you. Live in relationship with the one who
29:02
already showed us his zeal for us. In Titus chapter
29:14
2, if we look a couple of more verses down, it
29:18
says that he gave himself for us, that he might
29:22
redeem us from every lawless deed and purify
29:27
for himself his own special people. You belong.
29:32
I belong to him. It finishes that sentence with
29:38
zealous for good works. Okay, so he redeemed
29:45
us from every lawless deed. He purified us as
29:49
his own special people. A people that are zealous
29:55
for good works. I know in your mind you might
30:02
be saying, well, that means that there are things
30:03
I have to do for God. But I would have us go
30:06
to Revelation chapter 2. In Revelation chapter
30:13
2, we have here in this segment, he's addressing
30:18
all the churches in Revelation. And we find ourselves
30:24
at the church of Ephesus. He says in verse 2
30:32
to Ephesus, to the church of Ephesians, I know
30:37
your works, okay? Well, we just read that we
30:41
should be zealous for good works, and here he's
30:44
saying to them, I know your works, your labor,
30:49
your patience, that you cannot bear those who
30:54
are evil. I know that you have tested those who
30:58
say they are apostles and are not and have found
31:02
them liars. And you have persevered and have
31:06
patience and labored for my name's sake and not
31:11
become weary. That sounds like an awesome believer.
31:17
And he's acknowledging their what? Good works.
31:24
And as good as all of that is, still he has something
31:28
against them. Those are not the works that Jesus
31:34
is looking for. He goes on. He says, nevertheless,
31:42
in verse 4, I have this against you. You left
31:48
your first love. And here's our key. Remember,
31:55
therefore, from where you have fallen. Think
31:59
about when you were first saved. Repent and do
32:07
the first works. Interesting. So there were obviously
32:14
works they were doing in the thrush of first
32:18
love. That were different from the works he acknowledged
32:23
at the beginning. As good as those were. They
32:28
were not the works that Jesus was looking for.
32:33
Do the first works or else I will come quickly
32:37
and remove your lampstand. What are the works
32:42
of first love? What are the things that you did?
32:50
And the beginning of your marriage that maybe
32:52
40 years later you no longer do. What are those
32:59
things? I think that they are works that are
33:05
works that fostered love interaction. The works
33:16
that maybe You did for one another that 30 years
33:22
later, yeah, you can do those. You don't need
33:27
to do those anymore. There is a work that Jesus
33:31
is looking for from us that is not about your
33:36
labor in the kingdom. As much as I feel like
33:40
he's showing them appreciation for that labor,
33:43
I feel like he is affirming All of the hard things
33:49
they've walked through and endured. I feel like
33:53
he's affirming those things. But it's the leaving
33:58
behind. If they had just carried the first works
34:03
along with them in the later works. And so I
34:09
think when we go back to our verse in Titus,
34:12
where it says that he purifies for himself his
34:16
own special people, zealous for good works. It
34:22
is a good work that is born out of love affair.
34:26
It is a first work born out of knowing the lover
34:32
of your soul. And to sustain zeal means you've
34:42
got to do the things at the beginning. You've
34:45
got to remain in the first love. You've got to
34:54
remain in, we say that word passion, now I've
34:59
kind of changed that dynamic a little bit, the
35:02
zeal for one another. That you had at the beginning,
35:08
he's looking for in us. And if we will, abide
35:15
in the first love works. How many of you remember
35:22
when you first came to Christ, your zeal for
35:25
the word of God? You couldn't get enough of it.
35:32
Every time the church doors were open, you were
35:35
there. You couldn't get enough. You couldn't
35:39
get enough of one another, the body of Christ.
35:43
First love works. And even if we no longer feel
35:50
that first love, if we will engage in it, in
35:57
those works, do you know what will happen? It's
36:02
kind of like if you're trying to light a fire
36:04
and you cheat and you spray some lighter fluid
36:09
on it, right? If you will begin to engage again
36:15
in first love works, Jesus, I'm just going to,
36:20
I'm in my secret place with you. And I am, you
36:26
know, when Darren and I were dating, we didn't
36:29
want other people along. want other people hanging
36:35
out with us. And sometimes we allow into our
36:40
secret place other things, other cares, other
36:45
concerns, other people. And there is a time and
36:48
a place before the throne room for that. But
36:51
there is in the secret place a place where it
36:54
is you and it is Jesus. And you're just there
36:58
to commune and have love relationship. You're
37:02
just there to worship. You're not there thinking
37:05
about all the problems of life. You're just there
37:08
to worship and to commune in love. I guarantee
37:13
you, if you will engage in that, what is that?
37:18
That's first love works. If you will engage in
37:23
that, it will change your zeal. It will change
37:30
your... sustainability of zeal. And as soon as
37:36
I start to feel like I'm away from that, it's
37:41
my sign I need to just get back. I need to forget
37:45
about all of you. I need to forget about all
37:49
of them. I just need to be with the lover of
37:55
my soul. And if we will spend time, nobody can
38:01
give you zeal. You might get inspired by being
38:05
around zealous people, but nobody can sustain
38:09
zeal for you. It is only you and Jesus. There
38:18
is no shortcut. There is no other way. to sustain
38:24
zeal, but to be with the lover of your soul.
38:30
And it's a beautiful call. It's why one of my
38:34
favorite songs right now, we sing it every once
38:38
in a while, is What a God. Because if the highest
38:44
place I reach is at your feet, then I've done
38:52
it all. If the best thing that I've seen is your
38:57
glory, then I've seen it all. And sometimes we
39:05
get awfully distracted even in kingdom and we
39:08
get away from first love. We get away from the
39:11
secret place with just the bridegroom. And the
39:15
bridegroom is calling you back. He's in the secret
39:20
place and he wants to be with you. He wants to
39:26
be with you. Not the pastor, not the worship
39:31
leader, not your neighbor. He wants to be with
39:34
you in the secret place. And so this morning,
39:41
I'm going to ask the worship team to come. And
39:44
the ushers are going to begin to distribute communion.
39:49
This is why I love the table of the Lord. Because
39:56
the table of the Lord re -centers my life. The
40:02
table of the Lord draws my attention to the one
40:06
that is so zealous for me that he gave his life
40:11
for me. And when my eyes are fixed on that zealous
40:21
one that gave his life for me, Do you know what
40:26
that begins to stir? Zeal. Zeal. And so this
40:36
morning, I want us to be a people not just wanting
40:44
an emotional experience at an altar, although
40:48
they're good. But I want you to walk out here.
40:53
committed to these three things. Go ahead, men,
40:55
you can begin to distribute. As we come to the
41:00
table of the Lord, I'm going to ask that we would
41:04
make a fresh commitment in guarding the direction
41:08
of our hearts. And sometimes you have to let
41:16
go of things, good things. At this table of the
41:24
Lord, I want us to think about how intentional
41:28
we're being with our life. What we're building
41:33
towards. At this table of the Lord, I want us
41:44
to maybe oil the doors of our secret place. Maybe
41:49
they've gotten a little squeaky from unuse. But
41:54
the bridegroom is calling. As much as he loves
42:00
all of the things that you do for the kingdom,
42:03
what he's after is your heart. What he's after
42:08
is time with you in the secret place. He didn't
42:14
die on a cross for you just to do good things
42:20
for him. He died on a cross. So that you would
42:24
have a love affair with him. Jesus. The table
42:43
of the Lord is a place of examination. It's a
42:47
place to examine our hearts, our lives. And so
42:51
for just a few moments here, I want us to just
42:53
quietly look at where we've let our heart go
43:00
to. I want us to look at how we've chosen to
43:03
live and build our life. And I want us to begin
43:07
to think about our use of this secret place.
43:11
Just for a few moments here. This might be a
44:34
moment of repentance. Jesus told the church of
44:41
Ephesus, repent of these things. Repent that
44:47
you have stopped doing first love works. You
44:53
will receive life. Repentance, all it really
44:58
means, it's more than an I'm sorry. I'm sorry's
45:05
don't mean a lot if you then don't quit doing
45:08
the thing that caused the pain. But repentance
45:14
is to change your mind and to go a different
45:18
way. And some of us might need to do life a little
45:24
different. We might need to make space for the
45:31
secret place. We maybe have let our heart have
45:40
its way without direction. And we need to change
45:46
that. This is simple repentance here. Lord, what
45:50
do I need to do to change that I may walk in
45:55
zeal? Lord, as we come to your table, we don't
46:23
want to be like the empty nesters who spent their
46:29
whole marriage busy doing life, busy taking care
46:34
of kids, busy with careers, and never doing the
46:38
works of first love and are suddenly alone together
46:43
again and they don't even know their spouse.
46:52
Jesus, we don't want to be so busy in your kingdom
46:55
that we don't know you. We don't want to one
47:03
day as we're standing before you, Lord, look
47:09
at what I did. I even prophesied. And Jesus,
47:15
you say I never knew you. Lord, We want to be
47:23
consumed, above all, with first love, with the
47:29
secret place. And so as we come to your table
47:34
today, we take up your bread, which is your body.
47:41
This body in which we become one with. Even as
47:47
a man and a woman becomes one, as we partake
47:51
of this body, one with your body, a place of
47:57
deep intimacy and love that feeds zeal. And as
48:03
we take of this body, would you feed the zeal
48:08
and the fervor of our spirit today? May it awaken
48:13
this body of yours that was broken for us, that
48:20
was slain for us. May it be the sustenance of
48:25
our zeal as we partake of it today. In Jesus'
48:32
name, let's partake of his body this morning.
48:53
And we take the cup. The cup that is the promise.
49:01
The cup that represents the new covenant. The
49:06
cup that reminds us that there is another cup
49:09
that we will one day drink at the marriage supper
49:12
of the Lamb. Where we are face to face with Christ.
49:17
And so this morning, Jesus, we take this cup
49:20
in anticipation. We take this cup with joy, knowing
49:27
that it's just around the corner in such a little
49:31
time that we will be face to face with you partaking
49:35
together. And so with great anticipation and
49:40
great thankfulness, we partake this morning of
49:44
your cup in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord. Praise
49:58
the Lord. Can you just stand with me and can
50:02
we just for a moment worship the Lord? Thank
50:06
you, Lord. Before we leave, just for one more
50:10
moment, worship him.