Aligning My Passion with Jesus’s

Intro

Thank you for having me here. I’m excited about today, this opportunity, and to share with you what God has laid on my heart.

I want to align my passions with the passion of Jesus. I want to see and experience God do amazing things in my life and in this place, on this peninsula and through his church. I want to see people come know (truly know) God. If God is calling us to partner together to reach this place for him, I want to align my heart with his and his mission.

How about you? Do you want to do and see this too? It’s a heavy question. It requires something of you.

I grew up in a Christian home that was very musical. My mom was a music minister in the late 70s early 80s. My dad served as a deacon and taught classes often. I’ve been playing the guitar for over 3 decades now. I know, it’s a miracle, because I’m only 29. But ever since I learned to speak, my parents instilled in me a passion for the word of God, for his truth, and the power of Christ to save, as well as the expression of that love and passion through music.

When I was about sixteen, my grandpa, on my mom’s side of the family, who had served as a pastor for many years, asked me what I wanted to do with my life. At the time, I had no good answer. I thought computers, like my dad, would be a good thing to do. He looked at me and said, “Have you considered ministry? Let me tell you, there is nothing like it. You get to serve God and watch him do amazing things in people’s lives. You get to be a part of his work and find true purpose.” That little conversation changed me.

I went to Bible college in Missouri, where I met my wife, Anastasia, and started our family. I served in a few churches and traveled with a worship band playing for different venues. I got to be a part of what God was doing. While playing, we occasionally signed autographs. That was weird. It felt weird. My buddy in the band said, “Why don’t you turn it into a ministry?” So I added a Scripture reference:

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (

After graduating college, I was called to help plant a church in Colorado. So we packed up our little family and moved west. It was probably the first time in my life where my faith took a major leap. I had no clue what was about to happen; all I knew is that this was what God wanted me to do and he was going to do more than we ask or think.

We served there for fifteen years! We watched God do amazing things. He blew our minds. He did more than I could ask or think, and I got to be a part of it. Ask me about that experience later.

Well, God decided he’d blow our minds even more…enter 2020. Remember that year? Well, for me, it was a wake-up call. God was calling me into something new and I couldn’t figure out what it was at first. Has that ever happened to you? So, I went back to school for my Master’s Degree and started new ministries in the church. But God wanted me to do something even more challenging. He wanted me to change what I was doing. In faith, we stepped down from ministry.

The next week, I got a call about a church in Tulsa, OK. To make a long story short, we moved from Colorado, the place of mountains, scenery, a wonderful climate, clean air, and the church family we dearly loved to the flat, boring, brown lands of Oklahoma. So many people asked us, “Why?” There is no other explanation other than God did this to us. Lol! At the time, it’s what he wanted.

Now, we find ourselves in a season of change once again. This moment in our lives has been one of the most challenging we’ve ever faced. We don’t know what God is going to do. There have been questions of purpose…will we make it? Let me tell you: for all the opportunity of doubt, for all the questions of purpose, for all the heartache we’ve faced, God is still faithful, he is on his throne, and he reigns! Sure, there are times we feel like we’re lost. But I believe that those who feel lost can be found because of Christ.

You might be feeling this way today.

Have you ever felt like you are unsure of where you are headed, your purpose in life, or your future? Have you ever felt lost? Living with purpose, knowing where you are headed, and being sure of your future sure does feel good. Some of us might feel that way right now. We know why we’re here, what we’re doing, who we’re doing life with, and exactly how to go about it. We set a goal and work to achieve it.

Yet, I think, many of us struggle with the opposite. Many of us might be feeling lost in our purpose, passions, and pursuits. If you’re not struggling with this now, you’ve most likely know what I’m talking about. You’ve gone through the experience before. The doctor called and gave you bad news. You walked into the workplace only to discover you don’t work there any more. One of your children let you down.

However, there is nothing quite like being found. And in Christ, you can be. Being found in Christ recenters our purpose, future, and hope because we belong to something greater than our problems, fears, and doubts.

What if I told you that you can be found, have a sense of belonging, and receive purpose, future, and hope? You do not have to remain lost. You do not have to be alone. You can be found.

Jesus teaches that life is meant to be lived in connection with God, the source of life. And Jesus’s sole purpose in coming to earth was to demonstrate God’s heart of this truth. Jesus was passionate about this. We are going to look at Jesus's heart for pursuing those who are far from God to bring them into his kingdom.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (

Right now, if you’re feeling lost, what I want to do is draw our attention to Jesus. Maybe you feel lost in your finances, relationships, or work, or something else. We need to look at the face of Jesus. Oftentimes, that feeling of “lostness” indicates that something is messed up. Well, the first thing I want to point out is that:

Jesus attracts messed up people.

Look at the crowd that was coming to him: tax collectors and sinners. These were often paired in Luke's gospel. They refer to reprobate Israelites, people who had fallen off the deep end. In essence, sinners were those who failed morally because they were not loyal to God's covenant, forfeiting their relationship to God because of the way they lived, and tax collectors were not respected by the Jews and were seen as traitors. They worked for Rome, the imposing rulers, enemies of the nationality of Israel. These were the people "drawing near" to Jesus. Something about the way Jesus was in life drew the lost toward him…the ostracized…the compromised…the broken.

However, there were some people there who had a problem with that (Pharisees and scribes).

Nerd Moment!

διαγογγύζω (diagongyzō): to grumble audibly.

διαγογγύζω (diagongyzō) - used twice in the whole of the NT, both times in Luke and both times where when Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors (Luke 19 - Zacchaeus). In the Greek, it means to grumble audibly. They had no intention of keeping their disproval quiet. They wanted others to hear.

Used 7 times in the LXX.

Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon II. לוּן

לוּן

(loon) Ex. 15:24 (no water); Ex. 16:2,7–8 (no food); Num. 14:2 (promised land too difficult); Num. 16:11 (jealous of priesthood - Korah, Levites); Dt. 1:27 (synonym, different Hebrew word )

Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon רָגַן

רָגַן

(rahgan), malicious whispering, backbite, slander - in reference to people accusing God of bringing them into the wilderness to die [can't face giants]); Jos 9:24 (loon - people against Joshua for they made a covenant with people they were not supposed to make a covenant with). What I found fascinating was that the word loon was commonly used to mean "to lodge" for a night, "to stay or continue," or "to remain," as in, nothing can remain until morning. In Psalm 59:15 it was translated as "growl." Essentially, the word was used to connote something that you could not get over or move on from. Something that stays on your mind that you can't get past and have to "lodge" there for a bit, so much so that something must be said or done.

Each case in the seven passages translated as “grumbling” has to do with people grumbling against a leader or God because they did not like what they were doing. They were uncomfortable with their situation, even after God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt. The grumblers in the wilderness were people who would ultimately not enter the promised land.

However, in each case, grumbling caused division. Grumbling set the people at odds with God and missed his point, missed his priority.

For the Pharisees, they saw Jesus as someone who attracted the worst kind of people. They had an assumption as to who Jesus was supposed to be and was surprised to find him welcoming them into his presence. Jesus’s teaching and activity of grace, love, forgiveness, and hope were attractive to those who needed it most, yet their presence was repulsive to those who thought they already had it.

All of us need to be thankful for this! Let’s be honest today and declare that we need Jesus, we’re messed up, we’re sinners, people who have failed morally, struggle with living for the purposes God made us for, struggle with living the holy life; we can be mean, heartless, take advantage of others for our own benefit; we tend to betray those we are supposed to love with gossip, the silent treatment, revenge; we make compromises to help ourselves get ahead at the expense of someone else’s failures. We are broken and need a Savior from this way of living, and our propensity to do so.

Thank God for Jesus! He wants to be with the broken, the lost, the hurting, the sick (even the sick-minded), and make them whole. Not just whole, but holy! He attracts broken people because he can truly mend them.

However, we cannot allow presumptions of Jesus to overcome a welcoming spirit to the broken, like the Pharisees (great followers of the instruction of God, adherers to the his covenant law, experts at understanding Scripture). If you categorize people in a way that allows you excuse yourself from bringing hope and healing to them, then the Jesus you profess to follow is not the one from the Bible but something else. The unfortunate reality is that, just like those in the OT didn’t enter the promised land because of grumbling and had to wander for 40 years and die outside of it, it makes me question: what kind of promised land am I excusing myself from when I grumble against the things of God? Against his mission or purpose to find the lost?

The New Testament calls the church the body of Christ. So the church is supposed to live and breathe the same kind of work Christ was doing when he walked this earth. If the broken, forgotten, unlovely, repulsive, messed up, sinners, and tax collectors of our day are not attracted to the church, this body of Christ, can we honestly say we are aligned with the mission and heart of our Savior? Jesus wants to lead everyone to the promised land, to the place where God and man are in deep and meaningful relationship, devoid of all pretense, sin, and falsity. The church needs to be the place where “those people” (broken) can find fulfillment that only Jesus can give. We’ve probably heard it said before, especially if you’ve been in the church for awhile, but the church is supposed to look less like a clubhouse and more like a hospital.

Later in the parable, Jesus makes it very clear, not only does he attract these kinds of people, he diligently pursues them until they are found. Why?

Jesus is passionate about the lost one.

In his excellent study of the famous Biblical passage on shepherds, (The Good Shepherd: A Thousand Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament), scholar Ken Bailey provides a bit of context behind shepherding in the Middle East:

Shepherds in Lebanon, and in the Holy Land (in addition to some of my students), have told me that once a sheep knows that it is lost, it tries to hide under a bush or rock and begins quivering and bleating. The shepherd must locate it quickly lest it be heard and killed by a wild animal. On being found it is usually too traumatized to walk and must be carried back to the flock or to the village.

In this parable, Jesus is portrayed as the shepherd. He's the one who left the 99 to look for the 1 until it was found. He didn’t give up. Jesus contrasted himself with the Pharisees. They want to distance themselves from those who've distanced themselves from God. Jesus wants to bring them into the fold. The mind of the "saved" is juxtaposed (set alongside for comparison) with the mind of the "Savior."

Let’s play this out. If the Pharisees were the shepherds, they would leave the lost to die. Or, what they were actually doing, was standing there condemning them in front of the Good Shepherd. “Serves them right. They did this to themselves. I’m not going to help and you shouldn’t either, Jesus. They deserve to be lost and suffer the consequences.” This is truly ironic, because they were the spiritual leaders of Israel and did not reflect the heart of God!

Thank God they aren’t the true shepherd! Jesus's mind is on drawing those who are far from God near to God.

Jesus saw a reality that the Pharisees and scribes missed: all these people, all those Israelites who wandered away, made compromises, and weren’t living up to the standard of being a God-follower, were all people who were created by God and were meant to be in a relationship with him. All were meant to be in the fold. They were lost, and they were noticeably missing. Jesus noticed they were missing and to him, that was not right. To Jesus, every “sheep” matters. I know we might write off the one sheep in such a large herd. There’s a tendency to think that way. After all, they procreate. More will come. But Jesus does not do that. The one matters.

Every ONE matters to Jesus.

Let’s allow that to sink into our hearts and minds today. Maybe you need to hear this. You’ve made compromises, you feel lost, you are going through some heartache and are crying for some help, a savior, you don’t know how to get out of the situation you’re in. Let me tell you, Jesus is pursuing you right now! He wants you found. Why? Because you matter to him. If you are struggling with your significance in the grand scheme of humanity, Jesus views you as precious and desirable and is pursuing you right now. He wants you! He’s looking for you and is so persistent that he will not stop until you are found. He wants to rejoice in your belonging with him.

For those of us who have been Christians for a long time, we need to realize that the people we try to avoid, those people we meet in the store with unruly kids, who might have a certain smell or look, those who live in the trash heap with terrible living conditions, those who struggle financially and don’t have enough, or whatever situation that makes them so noticeably unholy, they matter to Jesus. And as members of the body of Christ, we want to align our passions with the passion of our Savior. They need to be found! It is the role of the believer to not actively avoid but actively pursue, just like Jesus did.

The Pursuit is Intentional.

Jesus speaks of himself as the shepherd who leaves the 99 in the open country to search for the one that is lost until it is found.

I want to turn back to Luke 14, just a little before this section we read today. I think it enlightens the context of what Jesus was addressing with this parable.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (

This is a very eye-opening passage. I struggle with this every day it seems. Jesus identified three criteria or markers for being his disciple, a follower of his. 1) Hate your family. If I don’t, I cannot be a follower of Jesus. 2) Bear my own cross? It means to carry my own symbol of torturous death. If I don’t, I cannot be a Jesus-follower. 3) Renounce all you have. If you don’t, you’re no follower of his.

Some of you might be looking at me and thinking, this is the guy the elders want us to vote on for a church-plant? NOPE! Ha! No, this is the Jesus who calls you to follow him. It’s not about me, it’s about him. The letters in my Bible are red. The interpreters use that color to mean that Jesus spoke these words. It’s time to listen to him. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Jesus does not expect the call to come to him to be considered casually. I like what Justin said a few weeks ago about the Rich Young Ruler, “True discipleship treasures Jesus above all.” Here, Jesus specifies that he goes above your family, your life, and your possessions. In fact, He is all there is. He is your family, life, and possession. Scripture speaks to this over and over again. Ross mentioned a couple weeks ago that God requires every ounce of every facet of energy you have to offer from your life…everything, complete submission to his will. There might be something you’ll need to give up for the sake of following where Jesus leads. How much greater would it be if everyone you valued followed him too, aligned their passions with the passion of Christ too. That’s what the church is meant to do!

If we are going to be committed followers to Jesus, he tells us what to do to become part of his fold, to be found: repent.

Repentance connects with the heart of heaven.

This is what causes a heavenly celebration. This is the cause of the joy of heaven!

The Greek word for “repent” is μετανοέω. It means to “know after.” You know longer know your own way but a new way. Another way to understand the word is to “turn around” or “change your mind.” The way in which you live should not remain the same after you turn to Jesus.

Repentance runs deeper than a verbal declaration; it is a life-change. It is the appropriate response to God’s offer of forgiveness, to what he has done for you by sending Jesus to the cross to die for your sins. To turn to Jesus is to turn from the way you were living. Instead of living a way that is consistent with what is lost, you live in a way that says you’ve been found.

Repentance should be a daily activity for someone who desires to follow Jesus. He needs to transform every facet of our lives. Repentance means we are being honest, even verbally honest, about our shortcomings, sins, mistakes, doubts, fears, and hesitations to align our lives with the desires of Christ.

Upon repentance is the need to learn how to live this new life in Jesus. As Justin said last week, “Jesus is model, motive, and means (way).” You need to learn how to follow in Jesus's steps by looking at his example. We call that discipleship. It's learning the rhythms to the beat of God's heart. It means we need to prioritize Scripture, prayer, worship, and meeting with the church.

But there’s one more thing that often gets overlooked:

Found people follow Jesus to find the ONE who is missing.

Looking for ONE is not predicated on skill or gifting but your devotion to Jesus. If you’re focusing your attention on Jesus, he will lead you to the ONE because he has a passion for them.

Thus, a church dedicated to pursuing Christ will pursue the lost one because that is exactly what Jesus is doing. This is what Jesus was calling the Pharisees and scribes to do, to think differently about the people they’ve excused. If people are struggling to live up to a holy standard, the aim of the holy is to reach out in love to point them to a holy God who can make them holy through faith in Jesus. Here, the call to repentance was not simply toward the sinners and tax collectors, but also to the Pharisees and scribes. The mind and heart of the kingdom of God shatters earthly categories. We cannot allow worldly categories to distort the love of God or the love for people that every Christian is called to express. It’s about loving Jesus so we can love others well.

Remember from last week, Love says, “There you are!” This is the heart of heaven. This is the joy expressed toward those to turn around, change their mind, and say “yes” to Jesus.

English Standard Version Chapter 28

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (

See, I want to be a person who celebrates with heaven. I think Jesus clearly wants his church to celebrate with heaven. If we want to celebrate with heaven, then the lost do not get neglected. The lost are sought after until they are found. That’s what Jesus is still doing today, and that is what he is calling his followers to do as well. A true disciple makes more disciples. This is a priority that I want to be at the heart of church plant.

So, what is it we need to do? How can we get started? You can get started today! You don’t have to wait until the church gets planted.

Pray for a passion for those missing from the kingdom.

We need to repent of constantly thinking about how we can set up our kingdom and set our focus on God’s kingdom and what he desires. We need to repent of a half-hearted faith that continually takes the blessing of Jesus without sharing it with others. We are meant to share it. Pray that he stirs up that passion in your soul so you can align with the heart of your Savior.

Intentionally go places and look to love people.

Jesus paid attention to those who were missing and intentionally went to them to bring the love. Every action was stimulated by compassion.

Pray for the ONE missing from the kingdom.

God is the one who calls the ONE to repentance. He is the one who works on hearts to bring them to restoration. We are conduits of his love to the world around us. All of this begins and ends with him. If we are to align our hearts with the heart of Christ, there may be some things we need to give up to do so. I think one of the best ways to begin to reorient ourselves around the heart of Christ is to pray for those who don’t know him. We begin to prioritize people over things, his kingdom over our own.

View the next person as one called to belong in the kingdom.

Start building and cultivating a relationship with them. Be a friend to someone. That’s how Jesus did it. It’s about making a small difference one life at a time.

For those of you who feel lost today, there’s something you can do too.

Let Jesus find you today.

Change your mind about him. He is pursuing you because he loves you deeply and wants you with him.

Maybe you’re thinking that this call is too big for you, or you’re not cut out for this kind of thing. Well, I’ve got good news. God is still capable of doing more than we ask or imagine, more than we can comprehend. And I want him to do that in me, through the church, the church-plant, and through you. After all, it’s not by our power that the work of the kingdom is accomplished: it is his power that works through us and in us. We are not trying to set up an eternal kingdom for ourselves. We align with the eternal kingdom that’s already been set up victoriously in Christ. And let me close by saying this:

English Standard Version Chapter 3

21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (