Be Fervent in Spirit, Be Like Apollos (Part II)

Today we are working on finishing up a series that I’ve been calling Passion, Urgency, and the Culture of our Church. And the overall point of the series is simple.

We want the Culture here at Legacy to be marked by Passion and Urgency

And when I talk about passion being a part of our culture, I want you to understand that passion is more than simply being emotional about something. When we are passionate about something it usually involves our emotions, but it is more than that. Let me put it this way.

Emotion is a spark. Passion is a long lasting fire.

You see, people come to church and have emotional experiences. They enjoy the music, and that particular Sunday the message hits them especially hard. And it gives them an emotional charge. And listen to me here. That is a wonderful thing. I want everyone in this room to have that experience every single Sunday. But often times people have this emotional experience in church and they say man I’m ready to go all in on the Jesus thing, and then they vanish. And my point here is that the person who does this is not passionate about God and the things of God. Emotion flashes, but passion endures. Passion is proven in the patterns of your life.

You can tell what a person is passionate about by watching:

•     where they spend their time,

•     where they spend their money,

•     where their mind drifts when nothing else is demanding their attention,

•     by what they’re willing to sacrifice for.    

And here is another quick point about passion.

Passion Always Costs Something.

When we are passionate about something it costs us something. Think about your hobbies. Think about the time you invest, and the money you spend. There is a cost to being passionate. And being passionate about something causes us to rearrange our priorities. In other words, we shift our schedules around to make time for what we are passionate about. And this often means saying no to lesser things so we can say yes to our passions.

So, passion then...

Passion is an inward fire that produces consistent action toward what we love.

That is what I want to define our church. I want to be a body of believers who are full of an inward fire that is driving us to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let’s quickly talk about urgency. And this one is important because we have such limited time in this life. Don’t buy into the idea that we have plenty of time to get serious about God. The world tries to convince us to that we need to get everything else in our life taken care of first, and then we can make time for God. Its the “as soon as I get through this mentality”. It is as soon as the kids are a little bit older and easier to manage then we will get back into church routine. But then it turns into as soon as the kids get through this travel ball phase, then we’ll get back in the church routine. Or it’s the my job is just crazy right now, but as soon as things calm down, I’m getting back in the saddle.

Listen to me. The world will always be putting things in your life to stop you from seeking God. Always. If you adopt the as soon as I get through this mentality that will last your entire life. The world is designed to distract us and pull us away from God. That is literally the goal of this entire world system. That is the satanic strategy. It’s the matrix. And just like Keanu Reeves we need to take the red pill and wake up to the reality that the world around us is meant to deceive us, distract us, and enslave us. It doesn’t matter to Satan what you are doing, as long as it has nothing to do with God. You see, the enemy seeks to keep us obsessed with ourselves and everything we’ve got going on in this present age.

But the Bible says the opposite. The Bible says don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen for the things which are unseen are eternal. And the Bible teaches us to number our days. And when we start to number our days, when we start to actually count how many Sunday’s we actually get, then we realize time is short. We realize that time is short and that we need to start acting urgently. And when we gain a sense of urgency we start to move with a purpose, instead of drifting away from God.

Two weeks ago I shared a couple of slides to show the difference between urgency and complacency. Let me show you these again as we finish up our review.

 Urgency means:

•     acting now

•     feeling the weight of importance

•     moving with purpose

Complacency means:

•     feeling no need to act

•     being satisfied with the status quo

•     losing the sense of importance

•     drifting instead of moving

Here is the point. We can never let ourselves become a lukewarm, complacent church. We want to be a church that is full of passion and urgency. Or let me use a word that we learned last week. We want to be a church that is fervent in spirit. And this brings us to the title of today’s lesson, which is part II of last week’s lesson.

Be Fervent in Spirit, Be Like Apollos (Part II)

Ok, so as we get ready to jump back into the book of Acts let’s ask God to help us understand His word. Let’s pray.

Last week we were introduced to a person named Apollos, and we learned quite a few things about Apollos. And one of the things we learned about Apollos was that he was “fervent in spirit”. In fact, let’s review a couple of the verses which give us Luke’s description of Apollos.

Acts 18:24 NKJV

24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.

And man, I said this last week, but I need to say it again — I love this guy. This is the kind of believer we should all strive to be. Luke tells us Apollos was eloquent, and when we dug into that word, we found that it means he spoke with precision and elegance. In other words Apollos spoke and taught with the kind of clarity that comes from careful study and a deep understanding of the word of God.

In fact, this verse goes on to say that he was “mighty in the Scriptures”. Now the word mighty here, can mean capable and in this context it could also be translated “well-versed”. So, Apollos was an eloquent speaker as the result of His study, and He was well versed in the scriptures. In other words, Apollos knew his Bible. He was mighty in the Scriptures. He was well versed in the Scriptures. Apollos was a man of the word of God.

Legacy, everyone in this room should be mighty in the Scriptures. We must be well versed in this book we call the Bible. This is the place we go to hear from God. This is the way God reveals Himself to us. And as Paul says, this is what the Holy Spirit uses to transform us into likeness of Jesus Christ. Paul says the word of God acts like a mirror the reflects the glory of Jesus Christ back at us. So, we need to constantly be looking into this mirror. We need to be well versed in the scriptures, We need to Be like Apollos.

Moving on to verse 25...

Acts 18:25 NKJV

25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.

Let’s zero in on this “being fervent in spirit”.

What does the word fervent mean? Well, the word in the Greek simply means something like “be enthusiastic; be excited. But it can literally mean to boil. Here is one of the definitions we talked about last week:

Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament

ζέω — to be or become emotionally inflamed, conceived of as water boiling.

You see, Apollos had two elements that we as Christians need to have. He was fervent in spirit. This means he was fired up. It means he was emotionally charged. He was at the boiling point spiritually. Apollos had an internal fire driving him toward the thing that he loved. In other words, Apollos was passionate about the things of the Lord, but he had something else going for him. Look back at verse 25

Acts 18:25 NKJV

25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.

Apollos had the knowledge to back it up. Apollos had passion, and Apollos taught accurately the things of the Lord. We need both of these elements. We need passion and accuracy. The point that I want to drive home here is that we need our passion to drive us to put in the work. Listen to what the Apostle Paul tells the church at Rome.

Romans 12:11 NKJV

11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

Let’s tackle the first part of this verse. Paul says, “not lagging in diligence”. What exactly does that mean. Well, I like the way the King James translates it. Instead of saying, “not lagging in diligence” like the NKJV the good old King James says, “not slothful in business”. So, what is Paul saying? He is saying Don’t be lazy. He is telling his readers to not to be sluggish or slothful in matters that pertain to their faith.

Not let’s talk about the word diligence for a minute.

When Paul uses the word diligence, he’s talking about an earnest commitment to the task at hand. He is talking about eagerness, and intentional effort. The Greek word carries the idea of leaning forward into something. It carries the idea of giving yourself wholeheartedly to a task because you believe it matters. Diligence is the opposite of coasting or drifting. It’s the opposite of spiritual autopilot. It’s the mindset that says, “If this is for the Lord, then it deserves my best.”

And that’s exactly what we see in Apollos. His fervency didn’t float on emotion alone. His passion pushed him to study, to learn, to grow, and to sharpen his understanding or the word of God.

Passion is never a substitute for diligence. It should produce diligence.

This is where many believers struggle. We want the fire. We want the emotional charge. but we don’t always want to put in the work that sustains the fire. We want to feel fervent, but we don’t want to practice diligence. Yet Paul ties these two ideas together on purpose: not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. In other words, diligence fuels fervency, and fervency fuels service.

If you want a fire that lasts, you have to tend it. You have to feed it. You have to guard it. You have to show up to church Sunday after Sunday with a heart that says, “Lord, I’m not coasting. I’m not drifting. I’m not being slothful in the things that matter most. I’m leaning in.”

That’s diligence. And that’s how passion becomes more than a moment, more than just a flash of emotion. That is how passion becomes a lifestyle.

Listen, I know how easy it is to put our Bibles down and let the world dictate what we think. It is so easy to slip into that, “I’ve had a rough week. I make sure and go to church next week”. Then a month goes by and we still haven’t been to church. Only the word of God has the power to break that worldly mindset. Only the word of God has the power to renew our mind and transform us so that we live based on Biblical reality, not the worldly allusion that sucks us in.

As a young adult I lacked diligence is every area of my life. I just could never seem to keep it on the straight and narrow. I always gave into temptation, and self-control was this allusive creature that always escaped me. Looking back on my life, I was a undisciplined, slothful drunkard who brought God’s temporal judgment on myself. I was calling up the name of the Lord for help, while at the same time disrespecting Him with my lifestyle. I just couldn’t understand how to be diligent in my approach to Godly living.

But today, my life is completely the opposite. I’m extremely diligent in my pursuit of God. In short, I found the missing piece of the puzzle that led to diligence in my lifestyle. It all started with my mind. If your mind isn’t being exposed to the word of God, you will not progress as a Christian. You will struggle with sin, and you will get trapped in the making church when I feel like it, cry out to God when I mess up, and then disappear again when things get better mode of living.

Legacy this year we are going to break out of this lukewarm cycle. We are going to lean in. We are going to get serious about the word of God, and that will lead to us being fervent in spirit. I know it will happen, because I’ve experienced it for myself.