Pastor Dusty 10-4-26 Called to Learn Sent to Serve Week 4

0:00Very thankful for all of our teachers and volunteers that help with the children's church classes. It's very, very much appreciated. The people that give up their time to go and be with the kids, bouncers just go over and set, just hang out, and it's a really, really special thing. So if you haven't done that, try to get involved at least doing a bouncer thing. It's really fun. At least maybe once. You don't have to continue to do it over and over again, but try it one time, see if you like it. We call them bouncers. It sounds like we're kicking kids out or something, but really all we're doing is just making sure that the kids don't overtake the classroom and hijack it and tie up the teacher and hang them out somewhere. So we're just trying to make sure that that doesn't happen, which that never happens. But it's a really good time. We have a good time over there. I'm thankful for all those teachers. Continue to pray for them as they do those things and serve in the church. I believe that we all have a calling on our life to serve in some aspect in the church,

1:03whether that be greeting or serving in some form, cleaning, whatever that looks like for you. We all have a calling and we all have a purpose. And today we're kind of going to talk a little bit about those callings and the things that are inside of us, how we're uniquely made and how we all have a fire and a passion inside of us that maybe you've had your whole life that you've kind of looked at and maybe thought this could be either a good thing or a bad thing. And sometimes it's both. So we're going to look at that in awful aspects today and we're going to be continuing in our series that we've been in. And we're going to be talking about James's brother, who past your been talked about last week, James. We're going to be talking about his brother John this week. So I got my, I'll be sure it on. It's been Albi's birthday week. Ever since life has gone once. Last week past your been mentioned in his sermon, how you have to say things eight times

2:04for people to finally get it. And so it was really funny. I like to tell a story if I can, when I break hand. But Albi was getting ready to do a children's church meeting with the volunteers and the teachers. And she had stayed up and she had done all the slides and she got everything ready and she was excited to come here and talk to the adults about teaching and volunteering and doing the things. And the night before past your been entered into her dream with that saying, hey Albi, he was there at the, she was at the training. He was there with her. He's back where Leslie's setting. And he said, now listen, you have to make them say this eight times. And in the dream he told her to tell everybody to say, ever since life is on once, eight times. And if you're wondering what ever since life is on once means, join the crowd. We're trying to figure that out. We can't figure it out. But we know it's profound because we can't figure it out.

3:06So it can't just be that it's nonsensical. It has to be that it's overly profound and our brains can't comprehend. So anyway, we have a shirt made of it and says ever since life is on once, it's a quote from Albi and I wear it and she hates it. And but anyway, I put that in the slide that day. She didn't know. She told me about her dream, big mistake. And I put it in the slide and she made people say ever since life is on once. It's funny. Anyway, we'll keep going. Good to see you guys. I'm glad that you're here. You know what? The fact that you're here today is pretty much a miracle. If you thought about that, the fact that you're sitting right here in the seat where you're at in time is pretty much a miracle. It's kind of wild to think about. Some of you have maybe not even from here. Maybe you're just here for a visit or maybe you're just here and you haven't been here in a while or maybe this is your every Sunday kind of hang out, right? You're here every Sunday and this is what you do. The fact that you're even here on earth is kind of crazy.

4:07I think the statistic for you to be born is something like one in ten. And I'm going to butcher this number because I read it two days ago. So just this isn't the right number. But it's something like this. One in ten to the 267 million 877,000 power. Okay? That's how crazy that is. So to put that into perspective, the fact that you're here is nothing short of a miracle just here on earth in general. You are a miracle to be here. If you think back to all the things that had to happen throughout your lineage, every single person had to meet perfectly. And everybody is so anyway. But it's a miracle that you're here. What that tells me is one thing that you're here for a reason, that you're here for a purpose. And that God has something for you specifically in this moment that you need to hear. Now, am I saying that I am the great conduit that is going to bring this?

5:12No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, isn't it funny that you're here? It may seem just like this is a natural thing for us, but it may not be. But I'm glad you're here. And I'm glad that God has something for us. And today we're going to talk about John, who is a human being, much like all of us. We're all humans, right? Anybody? Not human? I almost got you. I figured somebody would finally give it up. Like, no, I'm not. You know, but that didn't happen. Okay. So, man. Come on, guys. Wake up. Wake up a little bit. But. So anyway, John, human being, we're all human beings. And guess what we all have? We all have a unique purpose. We've all been created uniquely and wonderfully made. I have a little thing that I wrote out. And I want to see if you hear yourself in this, in this verbiage, in this writing that I have here. Just try to hear yourself in it. Try to find yourself somewhere.

6:14There was a person who once loved very deeply. But also they felt very deeply, okay? A person who was passionate, intense, and sometimes they were quick to react. Does that sound like anybody? Any quick reactors in the crowd? A person who wanted to be close to Jesus and wanted to be part of what Jesus was doing, but sometimes that passion got the best of them. Does that sound like anybody? Anybody ever let the passion get the best of you? Sometimes the words came too quickly. Uh-oh. Sometimes the response was too strong. Uh-oh. Sometimes ambition gets mixed with your faith. But Jesus didn't give up on this person. No, Jesus stayed close, thank God. And over time something began to change and shift. The passion that was there didn't disappear. The intensity that was there didn't disappear. But Jesus began to refine it, reshape it, and more importantly he began to redirect that

7:18passion. And eventually the person who we're talking about today, who once tried to call down fire on a group of people, became the person who wrote over and over and over and over again about the power of love and what that can do in your life and how important that is and how God is love. So yes, we're talking about John. And hopefully if you heard yourself in that, I hope you did. I know that if you're a human being you most likely did. But I think we all have a little John in us. I think we all have a little bit of passion in us. Sometimes we let our mouth go before we even think about it. Sometimes we say things to the ones we love the most and hurt them, tear them down. Sometimes we let our quick reactions to get the better of us. We're all human beings, right? We all declared that already. We've already talked about it. We're human. John was a human. And so thank God and thank Jesus that he did not leave John but that he stayed there with

8:22him and he began to refine this passion that's inside of John. So the question that I want you to kind of answer today at the end of all of the sermon, the talking, all this stuff that we're going to be doing, I want you to be able to answer the question one, what is the fire that's inside of me? What's that look like? What's it doing? What is that? What kind of passion do I have? What kind of fire is in me specifically? And then two, what is Jesus doing with my fire? What is he doing with my passion? What is he doing with my zeal? What is he doing with me as a human being, how he created me? Because each one of us, as I said, were uniquely made. We were formed and created. He knew us in our mother's womb. The Bible tells us that he has plans for us, which is great news for me. I love that there's a plan, and this isn't some crazy crap going on that I can't deal with, you know what I mean? There's a plan. Thank God for that.

9:24But what is Jesus doing with your personal fire? What is he doing with you as a Christian? Are you just here every single Sunday? Are you just out and about in the highways and byways? What is your calling? What is your purpose? What is that fire? What is that passion? I want you to know. So I want you to be thinking about that throughout this sermon. What is it? What's inside of me? Some of you probably already know. Some of you probably already can identify what that passion looks like inside of you. Maybe that is that kind of John passion that is quick tempered, quick to react. Maybe it is not that. Maybe you're not that person at all. Maybe it's something about ambition or courage or creativity. Maybe you have something going on inside of you that you can't explain. Maybe there is a competitiveness to you. Maybe you're just overly competitive and you don't know why. But you have to compete in some way. Some way shape a form. Even if it's like quietly competing, some people are always like quietly competing with people. They're like, ah, I got them.

10:24A beetle. You know what I mean? There's those people. And those people who are out really competitive are like, yeah, I beat you. I'm going to beat you. Those kind of people. Maybe that's you. Maybe that's your passion. Maybe that's inside of you. I don't know. But what you can be sure of is that you've all been uniquely made and that you all have something inside of you. There's something in there that Jesus can use and reshape and redefine. So try to figure out what that is. Some of you already know. And then also we're going to try to figure out what is Jesus going to do with it. Because I don't think it's just an accidental thing. But to kind of paint a picture of John and who he is, we're going to look at a couple different passages of Scripture. But before we jump in all of that, I do want to pray really quickly for you all. And I want you to pray too. I want you to pray that Jesus would show you those two things that we just talked about. And really just ask that the Holy Spirit would guide you into this. Because I don't think that I'm like the most perfect R-rated or I don't feel like I'm

11:24the most gifted pastor or whatever. I don't feel like that's me. But I do know that the Holy Spirit can speak to you and say things to you while I'm talking to cause you to want to change your life. So what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask you to ask the Holy Spirit to do some kind of a change in you to begin to speak to you and teach you and guide you like you promised you would. I'll pray for you too, but I'd like you to pray that as well. So let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for this group of people. God I pray that in this moment that you would begin to speak to them, that you would send your Holy Spirit as a helper, as a comforter, God that you would begin to reveal to them those intermost aspects. And like I said, God, I know that you probably have already identified, like they know. They probably already know what that passion looks like inside of them. But maybe there's people in here that don't. So God, I pray that you would begin to show them, to begin to like say, hey, this is it. Maybe this is it. Maybe this is it.

12:25And then show them also what you're going to do. How are you going to reshape? How are you going to redefine that fire? How are you going to more importantly redirect that personality trait to make it into something that you can use and utilize? And I pray this in Jesus' holy name, amen. So I want to take you to Luke 9, 51 through 56. And this is the story of Jesus. He's getting close to the time to where he's getting ready to ascend back to heaven. And so he's making his trips around. And the scripture says this, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him because his face was set towards Jerusalem.

13:28And when his disciples, James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down and consume them? But he turned and rebuked them and they went on to another village. Now what's the context behind this scripture? Yes, we see that there's a reaction there. We see that there's a response there to rejection. Anybody been rejected in their life? People love being rejected, right? It's a good feeling. I love it. I can't wait. I can't wait. You know, it's exciting times. I recall in my life a lot of rejection that I've gone through in life. But I recall a specific period in my life where it felt like I was only getting rejected over and over and over and over again. And it was at a time when I needed a job really bad and I couldn't find one. And I had had like, I don't know, I'm just going to guess, like 10 interviews maybe,

14:29like a lot of interviews over this period of time, which was great. I was getting these interviews, right? And every single one of these interviews that I was going to, I was like, I'm crushing these. You know what I mean? I was like, man, I'm doing a really good job, right? You ever just feel like that? You leave it like sometimes you feel you leave an interview and you're like, man, I butcher. They asked me a question and I fell off the deep end. And I started talking about goats or something. You know, something crazy. But there were like every time I left, I called out and I was like, dude, probably be getting a call pretty soon. You know, like it's going to happen. And yeah, I would get a call, but it would always be like, yeah, we're going to go with somebody else. And so, wow, you know, the first couple, I was like, they're lost. You know what I mean? And then after several of those, I start to go, I'm not good enough for anything. I don't have what it takes to do anything. I feel horrible about myself. I feel rejected. I feel depressed.

15:29I feel all these different crazy feelings that I'm sure you felt too in life, but that feeling of being rejected can cause you. And especially if it's over and over again, it can really cause you to feel a certain type of way that's not fun. And I began to feel that way, but you can see it here that there's this response to this rejection that is, well, it's kind of crazy. Really? It's like you get rejected or you're still going to ever like cut you off or something in traffic and you meant, man, I hope they wreck. You ever said something so crazy like that? You ever get crazy like that sometimes? Come on somebody. People in the room are crazy. Come on. You ever say stuff like that? There's crazy times in life where you're like something happens and it's like irrational. You say something that you know. As soon as you say it, you're like, okay, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have thought that. That was awful. That was terrible. But you say it or you think it, you're like, man, be funny if their wheels fell off.

16:32Something crazy. You're laughing because you know it's true. Right. We know. I know where I'm at now. We're in church. All right. So, you know, that happens, right? Those things happen to us. Why? Because we're human beings. Because we have passion inside of us. Because we have a fire there. And sometimes we don't know how to handle it. We don't know how to direct it. We don't know how to point it in the way that's going to help us. And certainly John doesn't because they get redirected and he wants to kill all of them. That's his response. It would be like me saying, you know, I got rejected. I'm going to go down there and shoot them all. Does that sound crazy? Yes, because it kind of is. This is the response that John has. He says, I'm going to kill everyone of them. You want us to kill them all? We'll kill them all. They don't want you here, Jesus. Earth is better without them. Kill them. Right? That's what they're thinking. That's what they're wanting to do. It seems crazy when you really dive into it to read it.

17:33You're like, oh, they don't like Jesus. I don't like them either. But if you really think about it, they're human beings. These are Samaritans. These are people that they don't have, I mean, they have a lot of differing beliefs, but they accept the penitook, the first five books of the Bible. They look at those things. They observe those things just like the Jews do. You know, they have a lot of similarities in their beliefs. There's a couple of things here and there that they don't and they're pretty serious about them. As you can see, they're so serious about them that if someone's going to a Jewish synagogue or a Jewish worship center or something like that, they wouldn't let you. Let you stay in their city. It'd be like traveling somewhere far away, getting there and then finding out your Christians saying, keep moving, pal. Keep on moving because you're not wanted around here. Or finding out that you're a certain political party, keep on going. You're not welcome around here. We don't take your kind. This is the kind of thing. They're so overly zealous about their religion, about their beliefs that they're not willing

18:35to even entertain the idea that somebody else could even stay in their presence. This is the kind of irrational thinking that's going on in all their minds. So they're being rejected. John is wanting to kill these people. Jesus rebukes. The word rebuked that word in itself, we say it fast, right? He rebukes them. We think, all he turns on goes, shut up. Or something. You know what I mean? I don't want to put words in Jesus' mouth. I don't know what he said. He probably didn't say, shut up. But I imagine he said something like, hey, dude, that's not what I called you here for. I called you to something greater. We're not here just to kill people that don't agree with me. We're here to love people. We're here to be here and to take care of people and to serve. And you'll see that a little bit later on in Scripture, but we're here to do these things. We're not here to kill them. We're here to love them. And so thank goodness for a rebuk from Jesus.

19:36Our Holy Spirit that we have inside of us teaches us and guides us. We all have this that helps us and leads us into these different situations. So it's important to know that, yes, you're a human being and you're going to come short and you're going to think things you shouldn't say. And you're going to have irrational anger moments and you're going to say things like, oh, man, we'll be fine if they trip and fill it on them steps. You know, you're going to say weird stuff like that in your head, probably, probably, maybe. I don't know you, but if you do, just know this. Jesus can take that and redirect that into something good. All right. So this is the type of person that John is and he begins. So they go into the next place and laudite all life goes on, right? But I think he puts this in there. This is in Scripture for a reason. He could have left that out because it doesn't make John James look great. Right? Their disciples are writing these books. They're writing the gospels. It doesn't paint a great picture that they just want to kill somebody that rejects them.

20:37That doesn't make them look overly great. But he put it in there to show that there's a process that's happening in your life. In your Christianity, there's a process. There's stages that you're going through. And I feel like sometimes in the church, we get this mindset about us that says, we're going to become a Christian and we're going to change overnight. I've heard so many testimonies in my life and I love this and thank God for these testimonies. But they're just like, you know, I'm not the same person I used to be. I'm different. Well, I'm here to say, I'm kind of the same person. I'm like, I still have a lot of those same, like my personality is still the same. My mindset, sometimes I get angry. Sometimes I say things I shouldn't say. But there's a difference that's happening over time in me that the Holy Spirit is refining and redefining who I am constantly and shifting me and making me and molding me into what

21:41He needs me to be. And thank God for that, that there's a process. And so you don't have to change overnight. If you're a new Christian, I'm here to tell you that if you don't have it all together yet, okay, it's okay. All right, it's okay. Take the pressure off yourself for a minute. Oh, goodness gracious. You don't have to be perfect all the time. Thank God, amen. I'm so grateful for that. I don't have to be perfect because Jesus is perfect. And He's going to refine us the way He needs to refine us, okay? So but sometimes it's not always just irrational thoughts that pop into our head. And also is the type of person that is pretty ambitious. Any ambitious people in here? People want to be something when they grow up. Somebody that are already somethings when they grow up. Somebody that saw something and went out and got it, huh? Any people that opened a business and was like, I'm doing this thing. I'm going to be this. I'm going to be that.

22:41Any ambitious people in the room. Last week, last week Pastor Ben kind of talked about this a little bit in his sermon and actually he brought as an illustration, he brought the Freenos and the Butler boys up here or the sons of Butler, whatever you want to call them. We have the sons of Thunder and the sons of Butler. But they were up here to demonstrate that they wanted to be where, where did they want to sit? Right, exactly. In the scripture, we'll read just a little bit of it here in a second. But they asked, they're like, hey, we want you to, I love it because they're like, we want you to do what we ask you to do. Have you read this? Listen. He says, here it is. And James and John, the sons of Zebidi, this is Mark 10, 35 through 45. And James and John, the sons of Zebidi, came up to him and said to him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.

23:45What? I mean, as your kids, amin' as your kids, every came and said, Dad, we just want you to say yes to what I'm getting ready to say. And in your infinite wisdom, have you said, I want to hear the question or do have you said, yeah, I'll do, yeah, whatever you will do. Yeah, all right. If you're smart, you're going to say, hang on, I want to hear that question first. You know, I'll be asking this all the time. That's what you do whatever. And I'm like, okay, I'm not very smart, apparently. But anyway, so they just say, I want you to do whatever we ask you to do. And Jesus is like, all right, these people are crazy. But anyway, he says, what do you want me to do for you? He asked the question, what do you want me to do? Let me ask that first. And they say, grand as to sit, one at your right and one at your left when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking. First of all, are you able, and then he asked them a serious question, are you able to drink from the cup that I'm able to drink? Are you able to be baptized into the baptism that I'm baptized into?

24:47Are you able to handle these things? And then they say, yeah, and he says, well, guess what? You're going to be. You're going to do these things. And you're going to realize eventually that it's not all the fun and games. But he says one thing very particular. It's not up to me who sets up my right hand and left hand. But what we see here is a picture of John and James both. But we see a picture of John who's very ambitious. He is one of the inner circle of Jesus. He has been walking around with his rabbi, his teacher. He's been learning. He's been growing. He's been doing the things, right? Putting in the work, going ahead, getting things set up, doing this, doing that. Making sure things get done. He knows his worth. Have you ever gone to your job and said, man, I work hard, I want to raise. Anybody ever done that? There you go, Mary, get it. Good. Have you ever went to your, you're said, listen, I've been working here for this many years. I deserve a promotion here. I want promoted. Have you ever had that kind of ambition? Are you work?

25:48You should. You should have that ambition. I hope. But there are people that are like, you know what? I'm good where I'm at. Those are, that's fine too. Maybe that's not you. Maybe this isn't you. Maybe you don't hear yourself in this side of John. But he also has this sign that's very ambitious. That's very like, hey, I want what's mine. I want recognized. I want you to let me set right next to you in heaven. I want people to see that. I put in the work down here with you. And Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking. Plus, I can't even grant that. So what you're going to realize is this. And he says to him, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. Whatever would be great among you would be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

26:51For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He's saying, you're asking for this recognition. What I'm trying to give you, do you see the refining? It's not like he's, he's saying, John, you're so stupid to ask that question. He's saying, no, no, no. If you want to be great in heaven, do this. Do this instead. Serve people. Love people here. Consider yourself less than these people. Like just be a servant to these folks. If you want to be great in heaven, serve. He's refining him. He's shaping him. He's molding him. He's not saying, John, get out of my presence. You're so ambitious. It's driving me nuts. Get, go. Get somebody else that doesn't have this saying, oh, he's saying, this is great. You want to be great. I want you to be great. Let me show you how to be great. Let me show you how to get what you're going after. Let me show you this thing that called serving, called servanhood.

27:55And so there's a redefining. There's a refining. There's a, there's a redirection happening. And it's constant throughout our lives and throughout the Christian walk. You are being reshaped and redirected constantly. Maybe you don't see it. Maybe you've been praying for something specific. Maybe it's that thing that you just seem to try to pray about all the time. Maybe that passion or that thing inside of you is the thing that you've been asking God to take away from you all these years. You're like, dude, it keeps getting me in trouble. I keep saying things I shouldn't say. I keep acting in ways I can't, I shouldn't act that way. Take this away from me. God, I don't need it anymore. It's not serving me or doing any good. Is that you? Maybe that's going on in your life. Maybe what God is saying to you is, no, I don't want to take it away. I want to redirect it. Maybe it hasn't been taken away from you because he intends for you to keep it. And to use it for his kingdom. And to use it for your good and your glory or his glory.

28:57Sorry. That's what he wants to do. I think that sometimes we try our best. We want to be so Christ-like that we forget we want to do it overnight. Everything is instant gratification with us anymore, right? Everything that we do is instant gratification. We get it right now. We want it right now. It's all right now. It's so cool. We love it. But man, is it just kind of ruining some things? It's ruining the process of a couple of things. Like slow down a little bit. I'll let Jesus work in your life. Try to look back just to the tab and see that Jesus is doing something in your life and redirecting you and reshaping you in a way. Try to see it. Try to look back and see it. If you look at these little things that's going on in your life and you see the intricate details that he's playing out in your life, you will see Jesus throughout that tapestry.

30:00You will see him working and doing things throughout your life that you can... There's things that's happened to me in my lifetime that I think this is absurd and why is it happening? And then 10 years later I can look back and go, wow, if that didn't happen, I wouldn't be standing right here right now. It seems crazy. But Jesus can do things and He sees things in a way that you'll never understand. And sometimes we do understand, but it takes us years to know it. So I'm asking you to look for that. Look at those things. Understand that you are created specifically for a reason. You have a passion inside of you for a reason. Maybe it's not this terrible thing. Maybe it's intended to be used for the kingdom. Maybe it's intended to be used for Him instead of you saying, get rid of it. So Paul says in the scriptures, he says, I have this thorn. Whenever the enemy wants to, he can just push it. Boom, boom, boom. And he asks over and over and over and over for this to be taken away from him.

31:07God take it, take it, take it. And he never takes it. Does that seem like a Justin loving God? You would think you'd just take it, right? But what he says is that your weakness is where I'm going to show you that I'm perfectly strong. I can take your weakness and I can make it into something great. I can take what you're weak at and make it something that only I can do. Something crazy, something insane, something miraculous like you being here today. It's miracle. God can take your weakness and make it into a strength. That's good news. Amen. That's exciting news. He can be what we have been and Jesus can redirect it and reshape it into something that is going to work for our good. How will you? That is such good news to me because, and I'll tell you why, this makes me so excited because I am this person.

32:07I am like a John. The more I read about John and learn about him, I'm like, dude, that's me in here. I'm in this story and it's good to know that it doesn't stay the same always, that there's something happening. I hope that you see that and you see yourself in here as well. I hope that you see this. There's a big shift that happens and it's a beautiful shift. We have to go to another portion of the scriptures. First John, chapter four, to see it. First John, chapter four, verse seven, starting at verse seven, we'll go on for a little while. I want to read this passage to you because the person that I've been describing to you and the person that writes this scripture, it's going to seem like, like who is this?

33:08You know what I mean? Like who is this person? And this is why I think when people say, I'm a different person than I was, I'm not the same man. Well I think John is the same man. I just think that he's been redirected and refined. He says this. He said, beloved, beloved, let us love one another. Does that sound like the man that said, I'm going to kill these guys? No, it doesn't. Our love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be appropriation for our sins.

34:11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and he loved and his love is perfected in us, a shaping, a redefining, a refining. By this, we know that we abide in him and he and us because he has given us of his spirit. Thank God for his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe that love or the love that God has for us. This does not sound like a human being that was just calling down fire.

35:11And no, the answer is no. This didn't just happen two months ago, probably. This wasn't just last week that he was calling down fire. Now this week he's talking about love. This is a process over years, right? This is a process over time. This is something that has happened over and over and over. A redirection here, a redirection there, a rebuke here, a rebuke there, being shaped, being shown that we can do something different in our life. I'm sharing with you good news this morning and I hope within everything in me that you are hearing the good news in this, that Jesus died for your sin. That's good news. That he sent to us a Holy Spirit to help us and to redirect us and to teach us and guide us. Amen. Thank God for that. That you are uniquely made.

36:13You're different. And that's okay. You're made for a purpose. You're made for a reason. You have a passion inside of you. You've been probably trying to, let's push that down. Maybe God's saying, let's reshape it. Let's redirect that passion. Let's get you doing this. Let's get you doing that. What's your passion? What is it? What's it look like? Is it the competitiveness? Are you wanting leadership in life? Do you need recognition? What is that passion inside of you? What is it? Do you need people to see that you've done good? Do you want people to acknowledge that in your life? Are you super courageous and ambitious? Do you have like strong convictions and values? Like what is that? What is inside of you right now? I don't know. You're different than me. I can tell you mine. I can share that with you. I don't know what yours is. Guess who does?

37:16Thank God he knows. He created you wonderfully made. You're wonderful. All of you. You're wonderful. Lest I said, she loves seeing your beautiful faces. I too like to see your beautiful faces. They're all different. They're unique. I know who you are by looking at you. He knows who you are. He knows the innermost thoughts of your mind. He understands what you're thinking about right now. He's probably thinking, yeah, I created you. I know you're hungry right now. I know. I know you want him to shut up and get going. I know. I know. But there's a redefining happening. There's a reshaping that can happen. So what? There's a couple things. I want to ask you, and as Leslie will play, I just want to ask you a couple things. One, if you are not a Christian and you've not accepted this whole Christianity thing and you've not said, hey, I know that Jesus is a Savior who died for me. If that's not you, you're going to have that opportunity to respond to that today.

38:20Secondly, I hope that you know what that passion is, but if you don't, I'm just going to really pray hard that you find it in life. Like what's that look like? And it's different for every phase of your life. When you're young, it may look different than when you're a little older. You may not. You may think, well, I've accomplished everything in life and I'm good. I'm just going to sit here and ride it out. No, God still has plans for you. He still has a goal in mind for you. He still has things that you can still do. There's still serving that can be done. He says, John, if you want glory, serve. And he's saying that to you too. He's saying it to me too. He's saying it to us. And then third, I want you to just pray that God will continue. Maybe he's not asking you to get rid of this thing. Maybe he's asking you to reshape this thing and redirect it. Someone asked for that too. You'll have the opportunity to respond to those things.

39:21So if everybody just bow their head close their eyes, but nobody looking around, I just want to ask you, hey, if you're the type or if you're the person, you know Jesus died for your sins and you understand that he is Lord. And you want to accept that free gift of salvation this morning, but that's you. I want you to raise your hand. I just want to pray for you. I'm not asking you to come up. Amen. God sees that hand. Thank you. I'll put it down. Anybody else? There's a calling on your life. And you can step into that calling right now and begin moving toward. What you're supposed to be moving toward. Anybody in the room? Awesome. Thank you. Second question. What's that passion look like? What is that in you? What is it?

40:27Some of you probably knew exactly what it was when I first started talking this morning. Some of you maybe have figured it out over time. Maybe some of you still don't know. I want you to know that whatever phase you're in right now, that's okay. You do? Great. You figured it out. Great. You haven't yet. Great. You will. And we're going to pray that Jesus won't do that for you. Reveal it to you. And then now, if that's you and you know what that passion is, you figured that passion. Now, you know what that is. Maybe it's something you prayed about a lot, but guess what? It's never left. God didn't intend for it to leave. So I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit when I asked Jesus to begin to mold that and shape it and redirect it. How about that? Let's pray a different way. We've, in Sanities doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes, right? If you've been praying over and over for God to take something, he's not taking it. Is he going to take it? He might. But maybe he just wants to redirect it. So let's pray about that too.

41:28So let's pray together. If you pray out loud, pray out loud, if you want to pray yourself, pray yourself, it's up to you. But, Father God, thank you so much again for this awesome opportunity, Jesus, to be able to speak to this group of people, to be able to bring a truth out of your word and present it to them and allow them to be able to change their life and shape their life accordingly. God, I know that your word does not return void. I know that. And so we see that today, Father. We see people who were in this room who said, I want to accept what Jesus did in the cross. So for those people, that was you. I want you to say something similar to this to Jesus. Just say, Jesus, I'm sick of doing things my way. I want to make you the Lord of my life. I believe that Jesus died for my sin and was raised and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father. And I accept that free gift and I express with my mouth and with my heart that He is

42:32the Lord. I accept that free gift of salvation. That was you and you said that amen. Thank God for that. And for the people, Father God, who are here, who know what their passion is, they know what that desire is, they know what that personality trait is that you have inside of them that you made them. Father, I pray that you would begin to show them how they can use that. So how they can redirect that, how that can be used for your kingdom purpose, how you can make things that seem crazy into something amazing and miraculous. Show them God, teach them, help them, guide them, send your comfortors, send your Holy Spirit here to guide us and to lead us and to shape us into what you want us to be. For your glory, for your glory, help us Father God. And I ask these things in your Son, Jesus' name.

43:34And everyone said amen.