Passion

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Let's pray. Lord God, this is your day and we know you have shaped us, you have formed us, you created us out of your love, you redeemed us because of that love, and you continue to work in us your will. And we just pray, Lord, in this series as we continue to learn more about the shape, the unique shape you've made each of us, Lord, that you would teach us even more so about you, not about us, about you, your kingdom, your ways in this world. And we pray for that here right now in Southwest Florida specifically, where you have planted us at this point in time, that you would use us, the shape that we are, for the sake of your glory, that we can serve others and glorify you. And not just here at Thrive, Lord, we thank you that there are many other churches, many other expressions of your gospel here in Southwest Florida. And we pray together, the one church that we are, that we can glorify you and serve others, so much so that there is a movement across this area that can only be traced back to this gospel message of Jesus Christ. So bless all the churches this morning in this area, all the campus ministries at Florida Gulf Coast University, and bless us now by opening our ears to hear you and receive everything you'd have for us from your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You are a piece of work, that's what we've said, and not just any piece of work, okay, not just any piece of work, but God's piece of work. And the verse that we have used in our series is Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And that word workmanship, as if you recall from the first week and last week I brought it up, it's the Greek word is poiema, where we get the word poem. So you are a poetry, a masterpiece, a story that displays God's glory. You are poetic, whether you stumble over poetry or not. You are something more than just a thing, but you are God's wonderful poetry. I just love that Paul used that word. He only used it a couple of times, but specifically here that you are God's poetry. Is that cool? You are his epic poem. And so last week we also talked about then after that, whoa I got a watch so that my laptop doesn't fall off today, last week we looked at the fact that every one of us, and we use the word shape to also be an acronym, right, for spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experience. And last week we talked about how the Holy Spirit has gifted each of us in a supernatural way for ministry. So it's something beyond just what I can do naturally. It's something that the Holy Spirit, and the fact is God has gifted us each in his own way. All of it is an aspect of the ministry of Jesus Christ himself. So you and I continue the ministry of Jesus Christ. In fact, as we said last week, which was shocking, and I got that response, and it's in the Bible, but it's like we read, it's like Jesus said, greater works are you going to do than I did. Yeah, that's what it is. John 14, read it sometime. It is shocking, but the billions of Christians around the world are doing greater work together. Jesus never got to Africa, and Jesus never got to Asia, and Jesus never got to the United States, but he is here now. And the greater work he's doing on all the continents through all of his people, it's amazing stuff, and we are so thankful for that. This week I'm excited because we are on to H or heart, and it's for what motivates you, the passion, what ticks you off, and what makes you tick at the same time. It's your heart, motivation, compulsion, you know, just whatever motivates you and what we're looking at. And the passage today is from 2nd Corinthians 5 13, where Paul writes this, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he who died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised again. So that's our text, and today we're going to see that everyone's motivated by something, but as Paul talks about here in this passage, when a person becomes a Christian, there is a transformation, a change, a total reworking of our motivation, so that we have something more foundational, more important than anybody else, that God gives us his motivation for this world, his motivation for everything that he has done becomes your motivation as well. 2nd Corinthians 5. So we're going to look at this in three points today. You're used to three points by now. Sometimes I do four, which is scary. I can't come up with two. It's three again. Why matters. We're going to look at that. Then what matters, and then also how matters. Who, what, when,...