I'd like you to take your Bible and turn to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Just a few minutes, we're going to read from verse 7 to verse 14 in just a minute. We'll give the teenagers some of their, some will be coming in for the service and we'll let them make their way in here. This morning, we have the Lord's Supper as well. And normally what we'll do is we'll have the Lord's Supper early on in the service and then we'll continue on and then have the rest of the service. But we're doing it just the opposite today. We'll be having the message and then we'll be having the Lord's Supper that will follow. Now, because of that, I'm conscious of the fact that our time is limited because I've got to stop in time to have the Lord suffer and still get you out at a reasonable time. And do not worry, we will do that. But because of that, in this series of messages on how to get plugged in to God, I'm using this morning's message as an introduction to the series. So instead of dealing with specific things, as I will the next following weeks, I'm going to lay down the premise of the series, and I'm going to lay a foundation upon which every other Sunday service will be built as we look at how to get plugged into God. Now, let me say that if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the obvious way to get plugged into God is trust Christ as your personal Savior. No one gets plugged into God without the Lord Jesus Christ being their Lord and Savior. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says, Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ is the source of a relationship with God. But the premise of this series is not to find those who are out of a relationship with Christ or non-believers and to get them in a relationship with Christ, though we always stress the gospel every single time we gather together. We want to stress the gospel. Paul says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation. We always have to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we talk about getting plugged into God, We're talking about having an exciting Christian life. We're not talking about a monotone life. We're talking about an exceptional Christian life. My goal and my challenge in these next few weeks is that all of us would be more on fire for God, more enthused about God, more excited about the things of God. How to have God flow through us in such a way that we're not just theologically sound, but we are excited about what Christ has done in our life and what Christ is doing in our lives. Sad reality is many Christians choose not to live that way. I mentioned this series to our staff and I was talking to the pastoral staff. We meet three times a week and we're together about an hour and a half. We pray together. We plan together. We share. We philosophize. I try to spend that time teaching some of our young staff about the ministry, philosophy of ministry. And I was talking to them about how do you get plugged into God? And I wanted to get their answers. And of course, all the obvious choices came up. Well, prayer. You get plugged into God through prayer. I said, yes, that's true to a degree. They looked at me like to a degree, what are you talking about? And then he said, well, the Bible, read the Bible. I said, well, yes, that that that's true. Church. Yes. Christian service. Yes. Being filled with the spirit. Yes. Yes. All those things are true. I said, but the reality is you can read your Bible every day and not be excited. A lot of Christians pray every single day, but they're not on fire for God. A lot of people go to church. Doesn't mean we're all plugged into God and all excited about the things of God. My challenge is to take us where we're at and bring us all to a little different level of excitement about the things of God. And this morning I'm speaking on the one thing that helps every other thing get activated. And I'm speaking this morning on the subject of passion. Because one of the things that's missing in the Christian life, or many lives, is passion about God. Whether it's reading the Word of God, you want to read with passion. It's not a history book, and it's certainly not a newspaper. It's God's holy word. We ought to be passionate about it. Prayer. We're not just communicating with a heavenly Father. We're communicating with our Savior. We're communicating with the sovereign ruler of the universe. And he wants to hear from us. We ought to be excited about that. When it comes to church, there ought to be a level of enthusiasm. David said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. He was happy about it. We too ought to be. Christian service. The idea that God in heaven could even use any of us ought to excite us. The fact that He would even let us serve is a great blessing because, quite frankly, none of us are worthy. But to think that God would let us do anything for the cause of Christ ought to excite us. We need to have passion in our lives. Our text verses is going to be in Philippians chapter three, and we see this in the life of the apostle Paul. Let's stand together, if you will, and we're going to be reading. Usually at this time I reach in my pocket for my glasses, but this last Wednesday I had cataract surgery. And so I can see, which is good. It's still a little blurry because it's only been three days, but but I can see I can read without glasses now. And what a blessing that is. We started verse seven and we're reading down through verse 14. And the Bible says, but what things were gained to me, those I count at loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things, but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but done that I might that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Praise God for that. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer and after that you may be seated. Heavenly Father, I pray that once again you would grace us with your presence. I pray that you would take this message, dear Lord, and drive it home to every single heart. Help us to be passionate about our God and about the things of Yours, dear Father. We want to love You like You deserve. We want to be excited about what You're doing in our lives and what You want to do in our lives. And Lord, I pray that every person who's come this morning could walk away from this place saying, it's been good to be in the house of the Lord. That's our prayer. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Maybe seated. As we mentioned, there's several things that will get us plugged into God, whether it's reading the Bible or prayer or church or Christian service, a list of other things we could give, but without passion. Without passion, you're just going through the motions. And I'm sad to say there's been times in my Christian life where I found I was reading the Bible because I was reading the Bible. I was praying because I was supposed to pray. But I'm not quite sure that Christ is content for us just to read to read. Or to pray to pray. Or go to church because it's the time to go. God wants passion in our lives. God had a passion for us. So much so, He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for our salvation. God so loved. It didn't say God loved the world. It says God so loved the world. His passion. He gave His only begotten Son to die for our salvation. God has a passion for us. God hears our prayers. God works in our lives. God saved our souls. God sees our future. God maps out our life. He's passionate about every one of us. Individually. Not just as a whole, but individually. God's passionate about your life. Very least that he could expect that we too could be passionate about him. What he's doing. And wants to do in our lives. This morning as we look at this subject, just by way of introduction, in the next weeks we're going to be talking about how to be passionate when it comes to the Word of God. And I'm telling you this, it will revitalize how you read God's Word. When you realize it's God's holy word and it's God's message and He wants to speak to you, you're not just reading words, you're hearing from God. Then we'll talk about how to be passionate in prayer. The Bible says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Not the prayers of a righteous man, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. And so we'll talk about fervency in prayer. We'll talk about church and how to be excited. How to be thrilled that we're in God's presence and we've assembled together and it's all for Him. We'll talk about Christian service. The Bible says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. The Bible says, Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not as unto men. With your whole heart. I'm afraid sometimes we're satisfied if we find ourselves going through the right motions. But the secret is to go through the right motions with the right attitude, which is a heart for God. And how can you think about God and not get excited when you think of all he is and all he's done? to the fact that I was hell bound and now I'm heaven bound? It doesn't get better than that. The worst thing that can happen to us is we die and go to heaven. That's a good deal. And whatever we have to suffer here on this life, it's for a little season and then eternity with God. in a place He has prepared for us. I want to challenge us in our passion for God. Three simple statements I'm going to make and will be done. The first one is, throughout Scripture, you're going to find that everyone who got plugged into God had a passion for God. Everyone who got plugged into God had a passion for God. And you're going to find that all through Scripture. I don't have time this morning just to go through the Bible, but throughout this series, I'm going to be bringing into people, bringing to our mind people mentioned in the Word of God who had a passion for God. And it goes way back with Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham, and the list just keeps going. But we see that in Psalms 42, verse 1, David says, as the heart paneth after the waterbrook, So paneth my heart, my soul, after thee, O God." Hear this picture of this deer who's in the desert, arid place, not in Oregon with the trees and the water everywhere, but in Palestine where it's high desert or arid. And this deer is thirsty for water and pants after the water brooks. And David says, So paneth my soul after thee, O God. That passion that David had for God. That's what we need and that's what we want. It's a passion for God. The Bible says in 2 Kings 2, verse 14, this is the story of Elijah and Elisha. And you recall, Elijah has gone up in a whirlwind and Elisha is there and the mantle of Elijah falls down from heaven and he picks it up. And he goes over to the River Jordan. And Elijah and Elijah have come across River Jordan on dry ground because on the other side, Elijah, the great prophet, the man of God, took that mantle and hit the water and it parted. And Elijah and Elisha walked over while the sons of the prophets watched them. Now, on the other side, Elijah, the master, the prophet, has gone up into heaven. Elijah has prayed for a double portion of Elijah's spirit. Elijah says, you've asked for a hard thing, but if you can get my mantle when I go up to heaven, you can have it. And he caught it. So, Elijah goes up to the River Jordan and he says, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And he takes the mantle and smotes the river Jordan, and it parts. And he walks across on dry ground while the sons of the prophet are looking like, whoo, look at that. But he didn't say, where is the Lord God of Elijah? He had passion. He's crying out to God. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? I'd like to suggest that God of Elijah is still alive today. He's still alive. And though we're not looking to part the Willamette, or the Clackamas, or the Malala, or the Columbia, we are looking to see God work in our lives. I'm not content to just live this life and wait till heaven. I want God using me now, here and now. I want to sense God's moving in my life. God wants to use us to be a blessing to a lot of people, but it will not happen unless we're passionate about the things of God. If we as God's children do not get excited about the things of God, how can anyone who does not know God ever want what we have? You don't witness like, you need to get saved so you can get what I got. That's like saying, I've got the measles, you want them? No! No! But if we could get excited about God and get plugged into God, there would be excitement in every single area of our lives. Our families would be exciting. Our jobs would be exciting. Our lives would be exciting because we have God working through us. We're plugged in. And people would want what we have. How can God work in a life and you not want that? That's what I want. That's what all of us need. The Bible tells us throughout Scripture, instance after instance after instance of the different individuals who were plugged into God and had a passion for God. The second statement I want to make this morning is God uses the circumstances of life to bring us to a place of passion with God. God uses the circumstances of life. To bring us to that place of passion. In other words, let me illustrate it like this, it's it's one thing to pray. For God to touch the life of someone. One of our members may be going through a time of sickness or through a certain trial. And certainly we ought to pray for them. I've been praying for Glenn White this week and others in our church going through some physical challenges and facing some difficulties. And I've been praying and calling their name out to God. But then one day it's your mother. One day it's your son or your daughter. One day it's you or your wife or your husband. And all of a sudden, it's not just prayer, it's fervency. Lord, you've got to help. Lord, you've got to answer this. Lord, you've got to. All of a sudden, we become passionate because the circumstances of life has boxed us in, has painted us in a corner where we have nowhere else to turn but God. And God uses those circumstances, and sometimes it's our health, and sometimes it's our wealth, sometimes financial reversal, and you can't pay the bills, and you don't know what to do, and you don't know where to turn, and you have no solution for your problem, no answers. But it forces us to go to God and say, God, I've got to have your help. God uses those circumstances of life to bring us to a place of passion. The Bible tells us about several instances in Scripture where that took place. The Bible tells us about Rachel. You recall that Jacob married two sisters, Rachel and Leah. He wanted one and got another. And then found out it was a two-for-one deal. I would not suggest that. But in Genesis chapter 30, verse 1, and when Rachel saw that she bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said unto Jacob, give me children or else I die. You see, she got passionate. She's married to her husband, but her sister Leah is having child after child after child. And here Rachel can't get pregnant. And she's she goes to her husband and say, give me children or else I die. And of course, Jacob says, am I God? I'm not God. But you see, the interesting thing is she was not just saying that to Jacob, she was saying that to God. Because the Bible tells us in verse 22 and verse 23 of the same chapter, and God remembered Rachel and God hearkened to her. You see, when she was in the tent alone, she was praying, God, give me children else I die. At night she probably went outside the tent, looked up at the stars and said, God, give me children or else I die. She got passionate with God and God hearkened to her. The Bible says God opened up her womb and she had a child because she got passionate with God. The Bible tells us about Hannah. Hannah was the mother of Samuel, you recall. And she was in bitterness of soul and she prayed unto the Lord and she wept sore because she was praying for a child, a man child. And she did this at church and she was so fervent and passionate in her prayer that Eli, the priest, came by and saw her praying and quite frankly, thought she was drunk. She was so emotional. Just thought, well, you're beside yourself, woman. What are you doing? This is church. And she says, don't think me as the daughter of Belial, which means foolish woman. Don't think me a foolish woman. But I poured out my soul to God. Have you ever poured out your soul to God? Have you ever had a burden that was so deep, a prayer that had to have an answer? And you poured out your soul to God, and God came through for you. He said, Be it unto thee as thou hast requested. And a year later, she had a child named Samuel, the great prophet of Israel, the great prophet and priest. And of course, she lent Samuel to the Lord. And that's where we get this whole idea of baby dedications, because she dedicated her child to God. And then she even took the child and gave it to Eli at the church house to raise up. Please don't do that here. But. Been there, done that. I love grandchildren, love on them and send them home. That's a good thing. Moses. In Exodus 32, verse 32, in that chapter they've sinned against God and God's going to bring down judgment. God says to Moses, scoot over Moses and I'll destroy these children and give you a new people. I'll wipe the slate clean and you'll have a new congregation of people to take into the Promised Land. And Moses, that great man of God, makes intercession for the children of Israel. These disobedient people. And we find in that passage of Scripture something we see nowhere else in Scripture. The Bible says in verse 32, Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin... And then there's just a line. There's no words. It's just a line. And then Moses says, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. Moses says, God, will you please forgive these people? And then there's the silence. And then he says, and God, If you won't forgive your people, take me out of the book of life too. I'll just go to hell with these people. You see the passion of the man of God, Moses, as he intercedes for the children of Israel? And by the way, they were not all good people, but he was interceding with a heart of passion for the people. God uses the circumstances of life to bring us to a place of passion. You think about it this way. The times you've been closest to God have not been when everything's going good in your life. It's when the tough times came. But God used bad times to bring about a good blessing in your life. Because it's when you get your back up against the wall is when you know how real God is. And once you know how real God is, you know you're going to be okay for the rest of life. The third thing I want to mention is this. God having brought about passion through the circumstances of life, we find that it has a residual effect that carries over until the next circumstances of life awakens our passion for God all over again. In other words, you do not have to have a life full of circumstances and setbacks and tragedies and everything to have a passion for God. We go through difficult times. It drives us to God. It gets us plugged into God. We have a passion in prayer, a passion in the word of God. I was talking to someone just two weeks ago, and he was saying how that when he got involved in something and he had to spend a week or two in jail, and he said, I think I read the whole Bible in two weeks. I mean, I've just there's something about, you know, sitting in that cell that you get a little passion. Can I have a Bible? Can I pray? Yes. It plugs you in. And the circumstances of life, but it has a residual effect. It doesn't just die when the circumstance is over. It stays with you. You realize that if God helped you through that, God will help you today, and God will help you tomorrow, and God will help you next week, and next month, and next year. There's a residual excitement and passion for God having gone through those circumstances of life, and sometimes And sometimes when our heart gets a little cold to the things of God, another circumstance comes and it awakens our passion all over again. It has residual effect. God uses the circumstances of life and those circumstances and that passion has that residual effect. It stays with you a long time. Yesterday at men's prayer breakfast, I alluded to an illustration I'll share this morning. I was reading an article and it was talking about missionaries in the eighteen hundreds coming out of England, some out of Scotland. And these missionaries were called one way missionaries. One way missionaries, you see, they didn't pack all their belongings in luggage or crates, they built a coffin. And they packed all their belongings in a coffin. And when they went to the mission field and they said goodbye to their loved ones, they knew that they would never see them again. Until they got to heaven. They were one way missionaries, they bought one way tickets. Because they knew they'd never come back. One of those was a man named A.W. Milney. A.W. Milne, I was thinking Warner Milne, but actually his name was William. So it's not the same. A.W. Milne was a missionary out of a Presbyterian group in Scotland, and he was called to be. A missionary went to the New York, New Hebrew, Hebrews Island. And many missionaries were leery about going there because they were headhunters and they'd killed every other missionary who had gone there. And someone asked him while he was going around trying to raise prayer support, aren't you afraid to go to that island? They could kill you. And he says, no, I'm not afraid to die. He said, I died to self a long time ago. I'm content with the fact that I'm a dead man in Christ, I'm going to live as long as I can for Christ. But after that, I'm going to heaven. I have already died to my own wants and wishes. He went to the islands there with headhunters and he ministered for 25 years. And then he died. And they put him in the same coffin that he carried with him. And they buried him in the middle of the village. And they put a sign on the outside right there. where he was buried. And they put a sign and they put it in the middle of their village. And here's what it said. It gave his name and it said, when he came, there was no light. When he died, there was no darkness. You see, he had led the whole island of headhunters to Christ. But it was because he had a passion for the things of God. And you read these great stories about God using great men and great women in history. And one of the things they have in common was not what church or denomination they came from. It was not always every belief was the same. But when God used a man or a woman in significant ways, it was always because they had a passion for God. Gentlemen, ladies, I suggest that's what the church of the Lord Jesus Christ still needs today. It's time for us to be passionate about the things of God. We get excited about every other thing. Quite frankly, I was getting excited last night watching a team play football. All those ducks did good. I recorded it and yet I'm checking the because I was someplace else and I was checking the score and they said, Pastor, I thought you record it. I love it better when I know what the ending is. When I know we won, I really like watching it. But I've read the book and we're all winners. So we ought to live an excited life because we know what the outcome is. We've won. And through Christ, we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. And we ought to live every day as excited as possible because we've already won and the victory has already been pronounced. And we're going to be we're citizens of heaven now. We're just not living there, but it's all we already have title deeds to our mansion in heaven. Let's have a passion for God. The challenge for this week is, in the next 24 hours, I want to challenge all of us as believers to have a time we get alone with God and get passionate, whether it's your prayer life or whether it's your Bible. When you read your Bible, don't just open it up and say, Lord, this is Your Word. This is from You. This is what You want for me. And then you read it and it's not words. It's God communicating with you. And when you pray with passion, you're not just saying words, you're not just going through a prayer list, but you're pouring your heart out to the God of the universe, and He hears, and He answers, and He works in your life. It's time to put passion back into the regular, normal things we do in the Christian life. by saying, if you're here this morning, do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. The greatest thing that would ever happen to you is you become God's child. You become a Christian. And you become a Christian by simply inviting the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. It's not what church you join. It's not getting baptized. It's no other religious thing. It is inviting the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone paid your sin debt on Calvary's cross. And if you trust Him as your Savior and invite Him into your life, He'll save you like that. The Bible says He'll save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. There's never been a seeking sinner come to the Savior and go away disappointed. He will save all that come unto Him. You ask Him. The Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You ask him to save your soul, he'll do it like that. And the good news is, once he saves you, he settled that. You don't have to get saved and then get saved again and then you mess up and get saved again. And no, no, no, no, no. He saves you. He settles that. If you're here this morning, you've never been saved and you don't have that assurance of salvation, you need to settle that. We're going to have a word of prayer, an invitation. We're going to invite people to make a trip to an old fashioned altar. Maybe as a believer, there's something you need to pray about. Maybe you need to trust Christ as your savior. Maybe God's spoken to your heart about placing your membership here at Grandview Baptist Church. We had someone just last Wednesday come to our church, get saved, get baptized, join the church. Maybe God's speaking to your heart about decisions in your life, but for all of us, Let's talk to God about helping us to be passionate about the things of God.