[Rudy Rangel] In March of this year, if you looked out over the horizon of… if you were on the beach of Antigua, which was beautiful that day… you were out on the beach and you were looking out over the ocean, you would have seen a little speck out in the middle of the ocean. Just a tiny, little speck. It was a beautiful morning, you know, you had that nice golden color coming off of the ocean from the low sun. And what that little speck was, was 93 days earlier, on December 6, 2016, Chris Bertish, he is a South African big wave surfer.

He left the coast of Morocco, you know, from in Africa, in a one-man vessel traveling across the Atlantic Ocean. And he did it alone. He did it absolutely alone. He did most of his work at night to avoid the sun, you know, being out in the middle of the ocean, it's like being on a mirror, so, he would have gotten fried if he didn't do this.

But he did a lot of his work at night. On his journey, he had to fend off sharks. He had to fix a leak in the hatch of his vessel. Even at one point, he damaged his rotator cuff on the journey, so he had to deal with a personal injury.

The vessel that Chris Bertish was navigating was a stand-up paddleboard. No motor, no sails. Stand-up paddleboard. Now granted, it was a souped-up stand-up paddleboard, you know? He had to make this ocean-ready so, you know, for the most part, he stood on the flat deck of it. But there was, like, a little place where he can go in and hunker down when the weather got rough.

But here he is, just a man. No motor, no sails, paddling across the Atlantic Ocean. He paddled a marathon distance every single day. Can you imagine? After 93 days on the open ocean, he traveled over 4,500 miles, from Africa to Antigua.

Why did he do that? Well, charity. That's why you do things nowadays. He's collecting money for charity and, you know, to push himself. Here, this guy's a big wave surfer, he's used to big adventures. Whatever the cost, whatever was going through the mind of Chris Bertish at this time, he couldn't have done this half-heartedly.

I mean, this is a massive undertaking, to cross the ocean. He couldn't have done this half-heartedly. This is not a half-hearted undertaking this man was taking. To travel across the Atlantic Ocean, you know, it takes a big investment. He knew what was at risk.

You know, his life was on the line. This is… anything could go wrong. To travel across the ocean, you know, he had to research and immerse himself in like, "What is the latest gear? What is going to make me survive this trip?" He had to find out what was out there.

The navigation equipment, survival gear, you know, he had to eat 6,000 calories a day just to keep up with the amount of energy he was burning. He had to do all this research to find out what he can do to physically make it across the ocean. He immersed himself in the engineering of his vessel. Before he even started, Chris Bertish had to understand in his mind that he was going to make it. He had to see and know that he was going to make it across the ocean.

You can't just kind of say, "Well, I think I can do it so I'll give it a shot." He had to know. I think that you can say that this man was absolutely zealous about this trip. About this crossing. And we read in the Scriptures and know that we are supposed to be a zealous people.

We're supposed to have an enthusiasm for this way of life. How? How do you do that? A lot of us have been here a long time, you know, raised in the Church. Been at it year after year, you know.

We always say, "Who's been at 50 Feasts of Tabernacles?" You know, how do you maintain that zeal that you've had in the past? You know, sometimes the trials of life, they leave us weary. So how do you get it back? How do we live a life on fire for this way of life?

How do we find that zeal? How do you get your zeal on? What's interesting is that you know, God gave us this to learn from and it's a book of stories and instruction. And this is, you know, what we have to work with and find our passion. Let's go to Acts 22 as we begin here today. Acts 22. So at this point, Paul has been accused of teaching against, you know, what was traditionally been taught, and also bringing Greeks into the temple.

And we read in… let's see here, let's start at the end of chapter 21, Paul being led into the barracks. This is verse 37 of chapter 21. “He said to the commander, ‘May I speak to you?’" And, you know, he's being accused at this point of bringing Greeks in, you know, everyone had things to say against him. And the man says to him, "Can you speak Greek?"

Verse 38, "Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion?” “Are you this other sort of rabble-rouser that we know about?" And then verse 39, Paul said, "I am a Jew. I'm from Tarsus, a citizen of no mean city. I implore you, to permit me to speak to the people."

“So when he had given him permission, Paul stood up on the stairs, motions with his hands to the people. And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying, ‘Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now. And when they heard that he spoke to them in Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent.” So then Paul goes on here, verse 3, "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous towards God as you are today. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women."

So here's what's happening, you know, all these people are against Paul. You know, they're like, "Let's get him." "Get him." "Send him to the barracks." And he's saying, "Whoa, whoa, you know, let me speak. I see how passionate you are against the way that I'm living my life. And I, too, I, too, was just like you. I, too, was just, you know, ravaging against this church, against men and women. I, too, was on fire against, you know, what I'm actually preaching today." And then he goes on and he tells the story of his conversion.

You know, what's interesting about God calling Paul is like Paul was this crazy, passionate person. Taking Christians off and putting in them in jail. Watching Stephen get stoned, as far as we could tell. He was zealous and passionate and God called this man. You know, so much so that the apostles, they were afraid of him when he came to them.

And he would say to them, "I see how much you are feeling towards me right now and that's not a bad thing. But, you know, you have to understand that, the passion that I had, there's nothing wrong with it when it was redirected in the right way. God took what I had, this, you know, because there are some people who are very passionate in their lives, and when it's directed in the right way, you know, God can use that for such good. And that's what God did. He called a passionate person, so much so that he was, you know, committing major sins against the Church until his eyes were opened.

Under the evangelizing and teaching of Paul, his zeal, you know, the Church just grew at that time. Just absolutely blew up. We should often measure the amount of zeal we have for God. You know, because if we're not sort of intentional about our relationship, you know, we can't just passively find our way and fumble our way into the Kingdom. We have to be intentional about our relationship with God and the understanding of His way of life.

Because if we don't, it's easy to just slip away. It's easy. It's easy to fill ourselves, you know, when we have hardships, with other comforts, you know. I remember years ago, at one of the winter family weekends, Mr. Petty gave that sermon about, "What do you fill in your hole with? Do you fill it with what's right? Or do you fill it with, you know, drinking, or, you know, eating too much or whatever? You know, what do you fill it with?"

We need to find ourselves zealous for this way of life. We need to find ourselves on fire for God's Word. How do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it if you've lost it?

You know, when life's trials break you down and you feel weary and you just feel like, you know, "I don't have it in me. I just don't have it in me," what do you do? I'd like to talk about three things today as we sort of reflect on our own passion and our own zeal about this way of life, that we can sort of use it as a barometer of where we're at and how we can gain that zeal back. Let's go to Matthew 4. Book of Matthew here.

Matthew 4:18, “Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then he said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”

So here we have Jesus calling fishermen. These guys, their whole livelihood was fishing. They were invested in fishing, you know? They had all the gear, they had everything that they needed, they had taken, you know, all the resources to get the next fishing gear that they needed. You know, they had invested everything.

And as soon as Jesus calls them, they just drop it all. They just dropped it all. Everything that they had ever worked for. The first thing that we need to analyze in ourselves is, how much have we invested? Here, these guys invested everything. Jesus called them and, you know, they said, "Okay, we're in."

You have to invest completely. You have to invest completely in this way of life. And they didn't just leave their occupation. It says they left their dad. They are in the boat, you know.

I wonder what their dad was thinking, you know? “Hey! Where are you guys going? We got work to do," right? That's what dads say. “Immediately they left their boat and their father.”

You know, leaving your family and your livelihood, back then? Nobody did that. You know, it wasn't like today where you could find a job. You know, "I'm not really happy, I'll find another job." And you go on, like… this was everything.

“This is the family business. We're fishers. We're fishermen, that's what we do. That's what my dad did. That's what his dad did.”

Leaving one's family and livelihood, this is rare. This was serious commitment that they were making. You know, this was a major occupation on the Sea of Galilee at that time. You have to be conscious of the investment to this way of life. You can't just passively fumble your way into the Kingdom.

You know, these guys, as Jesus called them, they said, "Okay. We're in." You know, "What do we do? What's next?" This is such an encouraging story because, like, for me, like, I'm a guy who is really… I make the safe choices.

I make the safe choices. I'm sure some of you, you know, you're more risk takers than I am. But this was a huge risk. They invested everything.

When we were, you know, sort of finding ourselves, you know, "I'm not really that zealous." Like, we have to imagine, we have to think about, you know, "Have I made this kind of investment? Or am I just partially in? Am I just kind of in?" These guys were totally in.

These guys were totally in. We can see a contrast to this story if we go to Matthew 19. We can see the total opposite reaction, actually. Matthew 19, starting in verse 16, “Now behold, one came and said to Him, ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may enter… they might have…” excuse me… “that I may have eternal life?’"

“He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ And he said, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘“You shall not murder,” “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “Honor your father and mother,” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”’ And the young man said to Him, ‘All these things I've kept all my life, you know, I kept from my youth. What do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, and sell what you have. Give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.’"

And this is the saddest part: “When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” This is in complete contrast when He called His disciples. You know, this was a seemingly good Christian kid, keeping all the commandments, you know, from a young age. I remember, as a little kid, you know, putting my tithe in a little envelope or a jar or whatever I had, you know? A lot of us are that way, you know.

We grew up this way. But this story I think is, you know, for us who has grown up in the Church, is really powerful because, you know, what's holding us back? He couldn't invest everything. There were too many things holding him back.

He had so many good things, he's like, "I can’t… I can't give that up. It means too much to me." So we have to ask ourselves, you know, what's holding me back from investing everything? Job? Money? Status, friends, what is it? Pleasure? Distractions?

You know, what is it? This is something that we have to analyze for ourselves is, you know, am I completely invested? Or is this way of life just something I do, you know, along with some of the other things I'm really passionate about? To gain zeal, you need to follow God and we have to be excited about this way of life and it takes investment.

It takes us, you know, giving up some stuff. God knows you, He knows me, He knows our human nature, and He needs to see a little bit of commitment. He needs to see commitment. If you have found your zeal waning, examine, examine yourself. Have you made that investment?

Have you made that total investment? Those disciples did. They dropped everything that they had ever known for this new adventure. Go back just a couple pages to Matthew 13. A couple chapters.

Very familiar parable here, Matthew 13:45, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” What are we willing to give up? What are we willing to invest? You know, our big wave surfer, he was putting it all on the line. He knew things could have gone south pretty quick.

We have to be totally invested in this way of life and you will find yourself, you know, more zealous. When you have put all your eggs in this basket of this way of life, you know, that's what we got. And you will find yourself on fire for this way of life. The next step to becoming more zealous, as we're analyzing ourselves, is to immerse yourself. Immerse yourself.

You know, like a new language, you have to immerse yourself in a culture, you know, to really get the full… to develop a new language, that's when you really learn how to have that new language. You've invested your time already, you know, you've learned words. If you go to a different country, you've learned how to speak. But then you learn that new language when you plop yourself in there and you sort of experience the culture. You have to immerse yourself.

You know, our big wave surfer, Chris Bertish, he didn't just invest everything he had. Like, he invested a lot, but then he had to find out… you know, he was a surfer… he had to find out, you know, "What kind of navigational equipment do I need? What kind of survival gear do I need?" A few years ago, Judy and I, we were binge-watching Survivorman. Mostly my fault because I really fell in love with Survivorman.

Those were fun to watch. You know, but the ocean one is the one he had to bail out on. It was a tough one. He had to call and say, "This is too dangerous, I'm not doing this." You know, and here we had us this guy, "I'm going to go across the ocean by myself. I got it."

He had to immerse himself and find out, you know, all those difficult things that can come about. You can watch videos of this guy on the internet on his, like, souped-up paddleboard. He can lock the hatch and the whole craft can actually tumble around and then right itself when the waves sort of settle down, you know? And there's videos of him there and he's got, like, his hands on all the walls, holding himself so he doesn't just flop around in there.

He had to think about all these things. He had to immerse himself, you know, to design this craft so it does that. How immersed do we have to be? How immersed do we have to be in our Christian lives?

You know, when we read the book of Acts, Paul, he called the way of life they were going, "the way." And I think that's the perfect word. "The way." It's a very good term to use because, you know, it's not just something we're doing. It's who we are.

We've immersed ourselves in everything. This is a way of life. It's everything. That's how immersed we have to be. We have to be so immersed that we say, "Well, that's just the way I do it. This is the way.”

You know, aren't your neighbors asking? "Well, it's the way we do it. It's the way that we read the Bible. This is the way." That's how immersed you have to be. It's all-encompassing.

It's a way of life. To be a part of that way of life, you have to invest? Yes. But you have to immerse yourself in everything. Let's go to Psalm 119, we can find a couple of ways of how we can immerse ourselves.

Psalm 119:97, when we find ourselves lacking zeal, we have to immerse ourselves, 119 verse 97, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding of all of my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I have kept Your precepts.”

You know, this is what we have to do. We have to meditate on all of this. You know, my mind, sometimes I'm just filled with all the tasks that we have to do, right? Sometimes I think we will find ourselves more at peace if we just, you know, go back to the basics. Read God's Word and just think about it.

Just meditate on it, you know, immerse yourself in God's Word. And those sounds like basic things, but it's essential if you want to keep your zeal. It's essential. If you want to have zeal for this way of life, it's the basic things that will help you keep your zeal. Because what happens is you start to drift.

When you start to drift from the basics, you start to lose connection with what you fell in love with in the first place. It's always about the basics. You know, pro athletes, they begin as a young kid with zeal for the game. You know, that's how they begin.

It's like, "It's everything I want to do," and it's got to be the same for us. This year… I'm sorry but most of the news I get is either world news or baseball, so, I have more baseball stories than one man probably should, but I got a story about this baseball pitcher, he forgot how to throw the curveball. He couldn't do it anymore.

A pro athlete. So he sat down at spring training this year and he said, "I got to figure out what," you know, he used to throw this wicked curveball, "I got a find out what I did, what's going on.” So he started to do some research and find out, and he's watching video of himself. And he basically, he had to go back to the basics of just learning the mechanics of throwing a curveball.

You know, sometimes for us, we can't just stay at this high-level, sort of, you know, theology but, you know, what are the basics? And this is what this pitcher had to do as well. He was going back and he found a video of himself teaching kids how to throw a curveball. And you know what it was? He was holding it wrong.

He was holding it wrong. He had to go back to the basics. You know, this, the peak, the pinnacle of sportsmanship, this pro baseball player, pitcher, and he forgot how to do it. You know, he's such a high level for so long that he needed to go back and find just the mechanics of it again. And he found it in his own video.

He rediscovered the love for that pitch. It goes for us too, you know? Sometimes we go about, you know, you're studying God's Word, we stay in this high level of theology, but sometimes we just have to go back and fall in love with the basics again. That's how you rekindle your zeal.

Let's go to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11… 2 Corinthians 11:3, “I fear less somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity” or purity, “that is in Christ. For if he comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted — you may well put up with it!”

We have to find our love for the basics. You know, here Paul is writing that he's concerned that someone else is going to come, have some other crazy idea and say, "Oh, yeah. This is in the Bible. This is what we got to do." And you just, you'll fall for it.

That you will, "Put up with it!” as it says here. He was concerned that, you know, there is a simplicity to this way of life. And sometimes as we've been going through the grind, you know, that simplicity kind of is like, "Well, you know, we've kind of done that." Yeah, that's right.

Basically, we read this book, we do it, and we overcome. That's pretty much it. We overcome, we become, you know, we are in a transforming way of life. That's our goal. We have to be careful to not let that repetition bore us.

You know, we can't always go out there, "Look, I need to find something new. What is the new thing? What do I read on the internet? What's the new thing that I can find and hold onto and make me excited again?" That's not it.

It's rediscovering, you know, the simplicity, the purity, of this way of life. We have to immerse ourselves in our love for the simplicity and the purity of that. You know, read what it says. Do it. Overcome.

And keep doing that. We can't let the repetition of that bore us. If you find yourself drifting from the love of this way of life, immerse yourself in all that you can. Go back to the basics. Find out what it is.

What did you fall in love with in the first place? Immerse yourself in study and prayer. Meditation. We have to immerse ourself in this way of life.

Let's go back to John, John 17. John 17, this is another way we can immerse ourself. Verse 20, this is a prayer of Jesus that we read, you know, many times prior to the Passover. Verse 20, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.”

That's us, you know? We've believed through their word, “that they may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me and I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.” I think that, you know, sometimes I'll read this and that "just as" is kind of intimidating, you know?

"Just as." If we find ourselves where we have lost our zeal, we need to immerse ourself in the culture of, you know, our little community here. We have to immerse ourself in our church. You know, God is definitely… He called us all individually and He cares for us all individually, but He wants us to come together as one. If you find yourself, you know, at times, you've lost that zeal, it's not the time to say, you know, "If I miss services this week, it's okay." It's not.

It's not. You know, that "just as," you and I are close, you want us to be close? "Just as?" I think that's going to take a lot of work for us. But to become zealous for this way of life, if that's our goal, man, what a people we'll become. God has called people individually, yeah, but He wants us to be a part of something.

If you've lost your zeal, immerse yourself in this way of life. I remember a few years ago, we did the Feast video and something that was said in one of the interviews, I'll never forget. And the person said that for a congregation to really grow and become one is if they intimately involve themselves in each other's trials. And I know that to be true. When you have friends that are going through something and you are just, you're in there with them, right?

You just, you connect on a way that you're, we don't just do it passively through services and the, "Hey, how you doing," conversations. But intimately involve yourselves in the lives of your brothers and sisters, you know? You will find a passion for this way of life. A passion. Let's go to Titus real quick.

Titus 2, another way that we can immerse ourselves. Titus 2:14… breaking into a thought here “Jesus, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” Jesus Christ, who gave Himself that we might be redeemed, you know, and purify for Himself a special people who are on fire for doing good things. Another way to immerse yourself is to just give of yourself. Do good to others.

Us here, do good to each other. You know, outside of the Church. And, you know, that's exactly what Jesus did. He gave of Himself. He immersed Himself so much. He gave Himself.

You know, we are expected to do good, and doing so kind of gets us out of our own sort of funk. And we will become passionate, you know, "I need to be there for that person. I need to help them." If you lost some zeal, you know, these three things: to immerse yourself, you know, do good for others, find yourself immersed in the culture of our church and in the studying of God's law and you will find yourself more immersed and more zealous for this way of life.

The third thing that we need to do, as a people seeking to be zealous for this way of life, is to see and believe in the outcome. See and believe in the outcome. You know, once we've made a total investment and we have immersed ourselves in studying the word and we've immersed ourselves in the culture of the Church, you know, I find it's those times I'm doing all the right things and everything's clicking that, you know, the Kingdom of God is not this sort of far-off sort of thing. Like, it's real. I see it and I feel it and it's super-exciting!

You know, it's real! And it seems like all these things when you're doing the right things, it's not just like, "Oh, yeah, this Kingdom of God deal, we're kind of looking forward to. But, you know, I kind of want to make sure that I get all these other things in my life now first." Like, when you see it, you're like, "That's number one." And I'm excited for it.

When you put all the important things first, you know, the Kingdom, it's so real. God's plan is so real and you'll see it and you'll believe it. It's tangible. God wants us to have that same kind of hope. Go to Hebrews.

He wants us to have hope in that future. Hebrews 11:13 says this, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth.” Like, it was so real to them, they, you know, are the forefathers that we read about, the heroes of the Bible, I mean, they went through things that us, in our modern day and culture, it's just like, "Wow, I can't believe that they did that." But they did it because they'd seen from afar off, you know?

They had distractions like we do. They lived a life that, you know, had trials, doubts, times of doubt, but they were able to overcome. They were invested, they immersed themselves into following God, and this is the outcome. This is the outcome.

Verse 16 says this, “Now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” Man, that is motivating. He's not ashamed to be called their God. You know, doesn't that give you hope?

There's times in our lives, you know, that I've commented on, I said, "You know what? I think today, God is probably not proud to be my God." But that's what's so great about His plan, you know, and the overcoming that He has for all of us. You know, that we can overcome sin. And that the next day is a new day of overcoming.

And here, you know, these heroes of faith we can look to, they saw it. They saw it and they believed in it and they were able to act on it. You know, meditating on the lives of these individuals, it puts things into perspective. We can be encouraged by their faith. By their faith.

We can be encouraged by their people's faith. Let's go to Psalm real quick, Psalm 51. I don't think it's something we always talk about, but I remember growing up in the Church, there was a couple of the ladies that I would always talk to and they would share with me stories of their faith. You know, I was encouraged by those. I think it's something that we don't always talk about.

We can be absolutely encouraged by other people's faith. Sometimes humility gets in the way of us saying, "Yeah, yeah, I don't really want to share that," and say, you know, "I was able to kind of overcome this." But, man, it is encouraging for young people growing up in the Church, it is super-encouraging to hear stories of faith. Here in Psalm 51, which is the prayer of David's repentance that we read about.

Verse 12 says this, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, uphold me by Your generous spirit.” You know, the New Living Translation says it this way, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and make me willing to obey You.” You know David is asking God, "I fumbled. I messed up big-time, and I need help with my joy of this way of life. And not find the joy of, you know, today and the pleasures today that are offered to me. Help me to restore the joy of Your salvation."

Ask God to help you find that zeal. Ask God to help you find that zeal, and that love and the enthusiasm for this way of life. You know, especially if our zeal has waned because of sin that has separated us from God. Ask Him. Ask for help.

“Make me willing to obey You and restore the joy of Your salvation.” We're supposed to be a people on fire for this way of life. You know, you read in the Acts and, you know, after Stephen was martyred, all these people who saw it, they went out and they told everybody. We have God's Holy Spirit. Yes, sometimes we find ourselves fatigued, you know?

We're people. And the zeal may not be there. The race that we run is a marathon, not a sprint. Crossing the ocean for this man, as impressive as it was, was done in 93 days. Some of you guys have been here a long time.

We're still on that spiritual journey, but we're not alone. We're not alone. As we wrap up here, let's go to Revelation. This is to, one of the letters to the churches here in Revelation 2, “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have preserved and have patience and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.”’”

You know this is a church who knows evil when they see it. They know a false teacher when they see it and they call it out. They know the truth. Verse 4, “Nevertheless I have this against you, you have lost…” or “you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place — unless you repent.”

It's more than just hating evil. We have to be more than just people who recognize evil and call it out. We have to love and be on fire for this way of life. We have to be excited. When you find yourself not excited, you know, this is what we're talking about today.

The people who, yeah, they know the truth, they call out evil, but they're just kind of… all the good, the good is just okay. We can be a church that has doctrine right, we can recognize false teachers and persevere, but there has to be more. There has to be a love for the truth. Do the first works. You know, right now is an exciting time for the Church.

You know, right before the fall Feasts, we all kind of are geared up and we're talking about where we're going to go and what we're going to do. Right now, it's a good time for zeal and excitement in the Church. But, you know, throughout the whole year, when we kind of don't get something out of it, that's when we also have to have this zeal and this excitement. Ask yourself, when you find yourself not on fire for this way of life, "How invested am I?" And immerse yourself in God's Word and in the culture of our community here.

Ask God to help you see the outcome. You know, the good of His plan. And by doing so, you can reignite the passion, the excitement. You can be a light to the people around you in your neighborhood. Zeal is more than just an emotional feeling.

It's an outcome. You should see fruit of it. An outcome to what you have put in, to what you've invested, to what you've immersed yourself in. Verse 7 of Revelation says this, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise for God.”

So how do you get your zeal on? You know, take stock of how invested you are. Immerse yourself in the Word and in this church, culture, and believe in the outcome and you will reignite and rekindle that first love.