The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "Im going to do something with my life today." Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull. God created you with the emotions to have passion in your life and He wants you to live a passionate life. Passion is what mobilizes armies into action. Passion is what causes explorers to boldly go where no mans gone before. Passion is what causes scientists to spend late night hours trying to find the cure to a dreaded disease. Passion is what takes a good athlete and turns him or her into a great athlete where theyre breaking records. Youve got to have passion in your life.
One day a man walks up to Jesus and he says, "Lord, whats the most important thing in the Bible?" And you know what the Great Commandment is. Weve talked about it many times. Jesus said, "I want you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Nothing matters more than that. Thats the number one thing in life. I want you to love Me passionately." Nothing else matters in life if you dont love God passionately. God doesnt want you to love Him half-heartedly. He wants you to love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.
I love the paraphrase of that verse, Mark 11:30, from The Message "Jesus said, Love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy." Circle the word "passion". That word, in Greek, is the word "heart." God is saying I want you to put some muscle into it, put some energy, put some emotion into your relationship with Me. Dont be a wimp about your relationship with Me. Dont be namby-pamby. Dont be half-hearted. Give it all youve got. Jesus is saying, "If youre going to follow Me, youve got to go it with passion. Youve got to give it some oomph, some spark, some zip, some enthusiasm, some zest. I want you to live passionately."
In fact, this truth is all through the Bible. The Bible tells us that were to seek God passionately. Were to love God passionately. The Bible says that were to serve and obey God passionately. Were to trust God passionately. Then as if you didnt get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
Heres the amazing thing. In America its ok to be passionate about anything except God. That is not politically correct -- to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about restaurants (and some of us really are). But I cannot be passionate about God. Thats a no-no.
I type in the phrase "a passion for..." into Amazon.com and found a couple hundred books with that title. Theres a book call A Passion for Birds, A Passion for Books, A Passion for Cactus, A Passion for Chocolate (thats understandable), A Passion for Fashion, ... for Fishing... for Flying, ... for Gardening, ... Golf, Hunting. Theres even a book called A Passion For Mushrooms (somebodys smoking them probably is what hes doing. Hes not eating them -- putting them in a salad. Hes smoking those things.) A Passion for Needlepoint, Pasta, Ponies. Theres a book called, A Passion for Potatoes, for Roses, for Shoes. Theres even a book called A Passion for Steam. I cant figure out what that ones all about! I dont know why youd get passionate about steam.
But in our culture its ok to be passionate about anything except your religion, except your faith, except your relationship with God. I can go to a rock concert, or a political rally or a baseball game and I can shout my head off. I can get excited. I can get hoarse from yelling so loud. When my team loses I could cry. Nobody thinks thats a big deal. When my team wins I can jump up and dance around and wave my hands in the air. If I do that at a game people go, "Hes a real fan!" If I do that in church people say, "Hes a fanatic! Hes a nut case." You dont want to get too emotional about your faith. Its ok about anything else but not that.
Romans 12:1 "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor." Keep the fires going in your life. Circle the word "keep." Notice, its not automatic. Its a choice. Its a discipline. Its something you must maintain. You are not by nature passionate about God. Its something that you must choose to do. You get distracted and everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate about God. So He says keep your passion going. Keep the fires going. Its a discipline. Its not just automatic.
This kind of thing -- being passionate about God has nothing to do with either your personality or your age. Our church is filled with hundreds if not thousands of senior believers who have walked with God a long, long time and are still passionate. I could give you hundreds of names of people in our church who have lived passionately for God for years and years and years.
Last night, Bill Bright died -- the founder of Campus Crusade. We lost a giant in the land last night. Yet I was always amazed by Bill Bright. I knew him quite well. In his eighties he was just as passionate as he was many, many years ago. He never let up. It has nothing to do with your age. It has nothing to do with your personality. My wife Kay by nature is quite an introvert. Yet I dont know anybody more passionate about God than my wife.
Everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate. And it dissipates your energy. On Friday we had a birthday party for Matthew, one of my boys, who turned eighteen. We had some helium balloons and they got loose and they went up on our high ceiling and we were wondering how to get them down. Tom said, dont worry about it. Theyll be down by morning. And the truth is, it wasnt even that long. In just a few hours they began to dissipate, lose their steam and come back down.
A lot of times were like that. When you first become a believer and you really understand what a good deal youve got you get excited about it, "This is quite a deal! All my sins are forgiven. I now have a purpose for living, and I now have a future home in heaven. What a deal! And you get excited about that when you give your life to Christ and youre pretty passionate. But as time goes by you begin to lose your steam. You begin to lose your zip, your zest, your enthusiasm. What happens? Why does that happen?
Thats what were going to look at today. As we go through Gods word were going to look at seven passion killers, things that rob the joy out of your life. I thought this would be a very appropriate message, right in the middle of the dog days of summer, when nobody feels very passionate about much of anything. You want to chill back, lay back a little bit. So were going to look at these passion killers. I want you to use it as a checklist. Because God says, I want you to love Me with all of your heart.
Seven passion killers and what keeps you from having that constant passion for the Lord.
1. An unbalanced schedule
That means either if youre overworked or you are under worked youre going to lose your passion for life and lose your passion for God. Life is a series of seasons, the Bible says. Theres a season for everything. And theres a rhythm to life. You need both in your life -- both input and output. You need both rest and work. And too much of either will cause you to lose your passion. Too much work will cause you to lose your passion. Too much nothing -- boredom -- will cause you to lose your passion too, if youre not working enough.
My guess is, in a crowd this size, half of you need to work less and half of you probably need to work more. Were all different in our personalities. And you can go to either extreme. Psalm 127 "Its senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing that youre going to starve to death;, for God wants His loved ones to get their proper rest." Thats a good verse for your refrigerator door. God wants you to get your proper rest.
Some of you the problem is youre always giving out. Youre always helping, youre always sharing, youre always serving, youre always working, youre always being generous. And you never take time to recharge. If you never take time to recharge youve got unbalanced on the ministry side, on the work side, youre going to eventually get compassion fatigue.
What is compassion fatigue? You just stop caring. You dont care about God any more, you dont care about other people any more, you dont care about anything anymore. Why? Because youre burning out from too much work, from too much service. When you care and care and care, eventually you get this compassion fatigue.
Others of you here, youre the exact opposite. Youre always taking in but never giving out. You go to Bible studies, you listen to teachers on the radio, you listen to tapes, you go to seminars, you go to Christian concerts, you go to workshops, you come to church all the time. Youre always learning, always taking in, always growing in the input. But youre not giving out any. You dont have any ministry, you dont have any mission. Youre not really helping anybody. Youre just taking all this food in getting fatter and fatter and fatter till pretty soon were going to have to roll you down the aisle. And thats where we get the term holy rollers. Some of you are holy rollers. Youre taking in all the time and youre never giving out.
I dont know which one is your problem but my guess is one of them is. You either have too much output and not enough input. Or youve got too much input and not enough output. Youve got to decide that. Im sure God can help you out.
Let me give you a little shock though. Bible study without ministry is extremely dangerous. Because the Bible says in James 2:17 "To him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is sin." Do you realize that the more you know about Gods plan for your life the more responsible you are to God for that knowledge. And the more you know, if you dont do anything about it, you are simply increasing your judgment. Youre increasing your responsibility. Because God holds you accountable for what you know. So the Bible tells that you need both in your life -- input and output. You need work and you need rest. You need balance in your schedule.
Whats the antidote for that? 1 Timothy 4:7 "Take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit."
How do you do that? One word. Balance. We all know to be physically fit you have to have a balanced diet. And to be spiritually fit you have to have a balance of Gods five purposes for your life in your life. You need to have time to worship with God private and corporate. You need to have times when youre fellowshipping with other believers. You need to have times when youre reading Gods word and growing as a Christian. You need to have times of ministry -- service -- where youre giving out and using your abilities. And you need times of mission where youre sharing your faith with others.
If you tend to go to seed on one of those purposes -- you have a lot of fellowship but nothing else. Or a lot of Bible study and nothing else. Youre going to get imbalanced. And you will inevitably lose your passion. Youre going to go, "How come I dont feel as close to God as I used to be?" Because youre out of balance. Thats the number one reason.
2. An unused talent
An unused talent will cause you to lose your passion for life and your passion for God. 1 Peter 4:10 says "Each of you has been blessed with one of Gods many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gifts well." Notice God gives you certain talents, abilities, personality, gifts -- the shape that Hes given you -- and those gifts, those talents that youve been given are not for your benefit. Theyre for the benefit of other people. My gifts are for your benefit. Your gifts are for my benefit. You are to use those gifts in the service of other people. God has given you a special role in this world. He wants you to make a contribution with your life. God says, I have given you these gifts and talents.
If you dont use your talents youre going to lose your passion. God did not give you special abilities just to sit on them and do nothing about it. God says I want you to use it or youre going to lose it.
Let me get real specific. If you are stuck in a job that does not use your talents to any degree you are inevitably going to lose your zeal and zest and passion in life. Its going to burn you out. Studies have shown that 70% of all Americans are in a job that does not use their talents. Thats tragic. That makes God sad. Because God did not give you talents and then say, "Dont use them. Just go make some money." Theres something more important than money. That is using what God gave you. God is grieved when He looks and sees you in a job thats not using your talents. Hes going, "What do you think I gave you your talents for? Just to sit on them?" No. If you do that youre going to lose your passion.
If youre in a job right now that uses only 30% of your talent thats going to give you what I call a 70% boredom factor. Does that make sense? Youre bored by your job because its not using the talents that God put in you. A lot of guys are stuck in a job they hate, that arent using their talents. They lose their zest for life. Why? They arent using the talents God gave them.
1 Corinthians 7 "Each one should live his life with the gifts that the Lord has given him." God gave you gifts and abilities and talents to use.
The reality is youre never going to find a job that uses 100% of your talent. Youre never going to find a job that is 100% fulfilling. Why? Because God never meant for you to find 100% fulfillment through your job. Your life is more than your job. He wants you to have a ministry. Thats why you need a ministry in your church to use the talents youre not using in your job. Because no job could possibly use all the talents God has given you. So you need a job but you also need a ministry that expresses what youre good at. Thats why we here at Saddleback encourage everybody to find a ministry.
Let me say this as your pastor because I care about you. If you are in a job right now that is killing your passions, get out! Get out! This is America, folks. Nobodys holding a gun to your head. In a lot of countries you dont have a choice on where you work. But you do in America. And it is not good stewardship and it is not wise use of your time and life to be in a job that doesnt use the talents that God gave you. Its no wonder you lose your passion and zest.
You probably cant do it over night -- cant go out tomorrow and quit. But you could start planning for the transition. You start making preparation. Part of your church familys role is to help you find your niche in life. Many of you may not know that we have a lot of different tools here at Saddleback to help you discover, develop and deploy your talents. Pastor Eric Reese has produced a great new tool called the Life Review Retreat. I want him to come and take a minute and tell you about some of the ways that are available to you.
Eric:
Thanks, Rick. About eight years ago a very close friend of mine said, "Eric one of the greatest things you can do in life is to discover who youre not so you can fall in love with who Gods made you." Thats what the role of 301 is all about -- helping you discover who you are and who Gods made you. So you can live with fulfillment and passion every day of your life. We have many opportunities from CLASS 301 which some of you maybe have taken. If you havent we look forward to seeing you in CLASS 301 in the near future. After CLASS 301 you can taken a Shape Discovery Session, which is a one-hour opportunity with someone to set down and start to sift through your unique shape. Beyond that is what Pastor Rick just talked about -- a Life Review Retreat.
What is a Life Review Retreat? Its a designated time away -- away from the noise and distractions of your daily life to pause long enough to allow God help you realize where youve been, reflect on who Hes made you and respond to where Hes leading you.
This last service a lady came up to me and she goes, "I just got back from a week of vacation. It sounds like a Life Review Retreat might be the best investment of a vacation I could make this summer." For some of us maybe this summer is the time to take that Life Review Retreat. If so, theres information on the patio. We would love to partner with you as you start to fall in love with who Jesus has made you because God wants us to live with fulfillment every day of our lives. Not frustration. Well be outside for you. We look forward to meeting you. God bless you so much.
Tom:
In fact, if youre interested in the Life Review Retreat that Eric just talked about why dont you pull out one of those response cards sometime during the rest of the service, fill out your contact information on the front and on the back write "LRR" for Life Review Retreat and hell get you some more information.
Theres a third cause for a loss of passion in our lives.
3. An unconfessed sin
This is a big one. Few things rob us of joy, rob your confidence, rob your passion, more quickly than guilt. Heres how it works with us with guilt, the sin in our lives. We dont walk around thinking, "I have a sin in my life. I am a guilty person." No, we rationalize it consciously. Consciously we think, "Its ok. Everybodys doing it. Its no big deal." But subconsciously it gnaws at us. Subconsciously whenever it gets quiet that guilt pops into your mind. Subconsciously right now as Im talking about it, it begins to pop into your mind.
Heres the truth about us as human beings. We cannot feel enthusiasm and guilt at the same time. You cant feel guilt and passion at the same time because guilt by its very definition robs you of passion. Psalm 38:4&6 "My guilt has overwhelmed me li
One day a man walks up to Jesus and he says, "Lord, whats the most important thing in the Bible?" And you know what the Great Commandment is. Weve talked about it many times. Jesus said, "I want you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Nothing matters more than that. Thats the number one thing in life. I want you to love Me passionately." Nothing else matters in life if you dont love God passionately. God doesnt want you to love Him half-heartedly. He wants you to love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.
I love the paraphrase of that verse, Mark 11:30, from The Message "Jesus said, Love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy." Circle the word "passion". That word, in Greek, is the word "heart." God is saying I want you to put some muscle into it, put some energy, put some emotion into your relationship with Me. Dont be a wimp about your relationship with Me. Dont be namby-pamby. Dont be half-hearted. Give it all youve got. Jesus is saying, "If youre going to follow Me, youve got to go it with passion. Youve got to give it some oomph, some spark, some zip, some enthusiasm, some zest. I want you to live passionately."
In fact, this truth is all through the Bible. The Bible tells us that were to seek God passionately. Were to love God passionately. The Bible says that were to serve and obey God passionately. Were to trust God passionately. Then as if you didnt get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
Heres the amazing thing. In America its ok to be passionate about anything except God. That is not politically correct -- to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about restaurants (and some of us really are). But I cannot be passionate about God. Thats a no-no.
I type in the phrase "a passion for..." into Amazon.com and found a couple hundred books with that title. Theres a book call A Passion for Birds, A Passion for Books, A Passion for Cactus, A Passion for Chocolate (thats understandable), A Passion for Fashion, ... for Fishing... for Flying, ... for Gardening, ... Golf, Hunting. Theres even a book called A Passion For Mushrooms (somebodys smoking them probably is what hes doing. Hes not eating them -- putting them in a salad. Hes smoking those things.) A Passion for Needlepoint, Pasta, Ponies. Theres a book called, A Passion for Potatoes, for Roses, for Shoes. Theres even a book called A Passion for Steam. I cant figure out what that ones all about! I dont know why youd get passionate about steam.
But in our culture its ok to be passionate about anything except your religion, except your faith, except your relationship with God. I can go to a rock concert, or a political rally or a baseball game and I can shout my head off. I can get excited. I can get hoarse from yelling so loud. When my team loses I could cry. Nobody thinks thats a big deal. When my team wins I can jump up and dance around and wave my hands in the air. If I do that at a game people go, "Hes a real fan!" If I do that in church people say, "Hes a fanatic! Hes a nut case." You dont want to get too emotional about your faith. Its ok about anything else but not that.
Romans 12:1 "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor." Keep the fires going in your life. Circle the word "keep." Notice, its not automatic. Its a choice. Its a discipline. Its something you must maintain. You are not by nature passionate about God. Its something that you must choose to do. You get distracted and everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate about God. So He says keep your passion going. Keep the fires going. Its a discipline. Its not just automatic.
This kind of thing -- being passionate about God has nothing to do with either your personality or your age. Our church is filled with hundreds if not thousands of senior believers who have walked with God a long, long time and are still passionate. I could give you hundreds of names of people in our church who have lived passionately for God for years and years and years.
Last night, Bill Bright died -- the founder of Campus Crusade. We lost a giant in the land last night. Yet I was always amazed by Bill Bright. I knew him quite well. In his eighties he was just as passionate as he was many, many years ago. He never let up. It has nothing to do with your age. It has nothing to do with your personality. My wife Kay by nature is quite an introvert. Yet I dont know anybody more passionate about God than my wife.
Everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate. And it dissipates your energy. On Friday we had a birthday party for Matthew, one of my boys, who turned eighteen. We had some helium balloons and they got loose and they went up on our high ceiling and we were wondering how to get them down. Tom said, dont worry about it. Theyll be down by morning. And the truth is, it wasnt even that long. In just a few hours they began to dissipate, lose their steam and come back down.
A lot of times were like that. When you first become a believer and you really understand what a good deal youve got you get excited about it, "This is quite a deal! All my sins are forgiven. I now have a purpose for living, and I now have a future home in heaven. What a deal! And you get excited about that when you give your life to Christ and youre pretty passionate. But as time goes by you begin to lose your steam. You begin to lose your zip, your zest, your enthusiasm. What happens? Why does that happen?
Thats what were going to look at today. As we go through Gods word were going to look at seven passion killers, things that rob the joy out of your life. I thought this would be a very appropriate message, right in the middle of the dog days of summer, when nobody feels very passionate about much of anything. You want to chill back, lay back a little bit. So were going to look at these passion killers. I want you to use it as a checklist. Because God says, I want you to love Me with all of your heart.
Seven passion killers and what keeps you from having that constant passion for the Lord.
1. An unbalanced schedule
That means either if youre overworked or you are under worked youre going to lose your passion for life and lose your passion for God. Life is a series of seasons, the Bible says. Theres a season for everything. And theres a rhythm to life. You need both in your life -- both input and output. You need both rest and work. And too much of either will cause you to lose your passion. Too much work will cause you to lose your passion. Too much nothing -- boredom -- will cause you to lose your passion too, if youre not working enough.
My guess is, in a crowd this size, half of you need to work less and half of you probably need to work more. Were all different in our personalities. And you can go to either extreme. Psalm 127 "Its senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing that youre going to starve to death;, for God wants His loved ones to get their proper rest." Thats a good verse for your refrigerator door. God wants you to get your proper rest.
Some of you the problem is youre always giving out. Youre always helping, youre always sharing, youre always serving, youre always working, youre always being generous. And you never take time to recharge. If you never take time to recharge youve got unbalanced on the ministry side, on the work side, youre going to eventually get compassion fatigue.
What is compassion fatigue? You just stop caring. You dont care about God any more, you dont care about other people any more, you dont care about anything anymore. Why? Because youre burning out from too much work, from too much service. When you care and care and care, eventually you get this compassion fatigue.
Others of you here, youre the exact opposite. Youre always taking in but never giving out. You go to Bible studies, you listen to teachers on the radio, you listen to tapes, you go to seminars, you go to Christian concerts, you go to workshops, you come to church all the time. Youre always learning, always taking in, always growing in the input. But youre not giving out any. You dont have any ministry, you dont have any mission. Youre not really helping anybody. Youre just taking all this food in getting fatter and fatter and fatter till pretty soon were going to have to roll you down the aisle. And thats where we get the term holy rollers. Some of you are holy rollers. Youre taking in all the time and youre never giving out.
I dont know which one is your problem but my guess is one of them is. You either have too much output and not enough input. Or youve got too much input and not enough output. Youve got to decide that. Im sure God can help you out.
Let me give you a little shock though. Bible study without ministry is extremely dangerous. Because the Bible says in James 2:17 "To him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is sin." Do you realize that the more you know about Gods plan for your life the more responsible you are to God for that knowledge. And the more you know, if you dont do anything about it, you are simply increasing your judgment. Youre increasing your responsibility. Because God holds you accountable for what you know. So the Bible tells that you need both in your life -- input and output. You need work and you need rest. You need balance in your schedule.
Whats the antidote for that? 1 Timothy 4:7 "Take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit."
How do you do that? One word. Balance. We all know to be physically fit you have to have a balanced diet. And to be spiritually fit you have to have a balance of Gods five purposes for your life in your life. You need to have time to worship with God private and corporate. You need to have times when youre fellowshipping with other believers. You need to have times when youre reading Gods word and growing as a Christian. You need to have times of ministry -- service -- where youre giving out and using your abilities. And you need times of mission where youre sharing your faith with others.
If you tend to go to seed on one of those purposes -- you have a lot of fellowship but nothing else. Or a lot of Bible study and nothing else. Youre going to get imbalanced. And you will inevitably lose your passion. Youre going to go, "How come I dont feel as close to God as I used to be?" Because youre out of balance. Thats the number one reason.
2. An unused talent
An unused talent will cause you to lose your passion for life and your passion for God. 1 Peter 4:10 says "Each of you has been blessed with one of Gods many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gifts well." Notice God gives you certain talents, abilities, personality, gifts -- the shape that Hes given you -- and those gifts, those talents that youve been given are not for your benefit. Theyre for the benefit of other people. My gifts are for your benefit. Your gifts are for my benefit. You are to use those gifts in the service of other people. God has given you a special role in this world. He wants you to make a contribution with your life. God says, I have given you these gifts and talents.
If you dont use your talents youre going to lose your passion. God did not give you special abilities just to sit on them and do nothing about it. God says I want you to use it or youre going to lose it.
Let me get real specific. If you are stuck in a job that does not use your talents to any degree you are inevitably going to lose your zeal and zest and passion in life. Its going to burn you out. Studies have shown that 70% of all Americans are in a job that does not use their talents. Thats tragic. That makes God sad. Because God did not give you talents and then say, "Dont use them. Just go make some money." Theres something more important than money. That is using what God gave you. God is grieved when He looks and sees you in a job thats not using your talents. Hes going, "What do you think I gave you your talents for? Just to sit on them?" No. If you do that youre going to lose your passion.
If youre in a job right now that uses only 30% of your talent thats going to give you what I call a 70% boredom factor. Does that make sense? Youre bored by your job because its not using the talents that God put in you. A lot of guys are stuck in a job they hate, that arent using their talents. They lose their zest for life. Why? They arent using the talents God gave them.
1 Corinthians 7 "Each one should live his life with the gifts that the Lord has given him." God gave you gifts and abilities and talents to use.
The reality is youre never going to find a job that uses 100% of your talent. Youre never going to find a job that is 100% fulfilling. Why? Because God never meant for you to find 100% fulfillment through your job. Your life is more than your job. He wants you to have a ministry. Thats why you need a ministry in your church to use the talents youre not using in your job. Because no job could possibly use all the talents God has given you. So you need a job but you also need a ministry that expresses what youre good at. Thats why we here at Saddleback encourage everybody to find a ministry.
Let me say this as your pastor because I care about you. If you are in a job right now that is killing your passions, get out! Get out! This is America, folks. Nobodys holding a gun to your head. In a lot of countries you dont have a choice on where you work. But you do in America. And it is not good stewardship and it is not wise use of your time and life to be in a job that doesnt use the talents that God gave you. Its no wonder you lose your passion and zest.
You probably cant do it over night -- cant go out tomorrow and quit. But you could start planning for the transition. You start making preparation. Part of your church familys role is to help you find your niche in life. Many of you may not know that we have a lot of different tools here at Saddleback to help you discover, develop and deploy your talents. Pastor Eric Reese has produced a great new tool called the Life Review Retreat. I want him to come and take a minute and tell you about some of the ways that are available to you.
Eric:
Thanks, Rick. About eight years ago a very close friend of mine said, "Eric one of the greatest things you can do in life is to discover who youre not so you can fall in love with who Gods made you." Thats what the role of 301 is all about -- helping you discover who you are and who Gods made you. So you can live with fulfillment and passion every day of your life. We have many opportunities from CLASS 301 which some of you maybe have taken. If you havent we look forward to seeing you in CLASS 301 in the near future. After CLASS 301 you can taken a Shape Discovery Session, which is a one-hour opportunity with someone to set down and start to sift through your unique shape. Beyond that is what Pastor Rick just talked about -- a Life Review Retreat.
What is a Life Review Retreat? Its a designated time away -- away from the noise and distractions of your daily life to pause long enough to allow God help you realize where youve been, reflect on who Hes made you and respond to where Hes leading you.
This last service a lady came up to me and she goes, "I just got back from a week of vacation. It sounds like a Life Review Retreat might be the best investment of a vacation I could make this summer." For some of us maybe this summer is the time to take that Life Review Retreat. If so, theres information on the patio. We would love to partner with you as you start to fall in love with who Jesus has made you because God wants us to live with fulfillment every day of our lives. Not frustration. Well be outside for you. We look forward to meeting you. God bless you so much.
Tom:
In fact, if youre interested in the Life Review Retreat that Eric just talked about why dont you pull out one of those response cards sometime during the rest of the service, fill out your contact information on the front and on the back write "LRR" for Life Review Retreat and hell get you some more information.
Theres a third cause for a loss of passion in our lives.
3. An unconfessed sin
This is a big one. Few things rob us of joy, rob your confidence, rob your passion, more quickly than guilt. Heres how it works with us with guilt, the sin in our lives. We dont walk around thinking, "I have a sin in my life. I am a guilty person." No, we rationalize it consciously. Consciously we think, "Its ok. Everybodys doing it. Its no big deal." But subconsciously it gnaws at us. Subconsciously whenever it gets quiet that guilt pops into your mind. Subconsciously right now as Im talking about it, it begins to pop into your mind.
Heres the truth about us as human beings. We cannot feel enthusiasm and guilt at the same time. You cant feel guilt and passion at the same time because guilt by its very definition robs you of passion. Psalm 38:4&6 "My guilt has overwhelmed me li