Your Passion and Your Calling

Many of us are grounded by our fears, and what you need is some fire. Dr. Tony Evans says it's time to light up your faith.

And when you get hot enough, other folks around you will scorch. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. God not only wants you to follow His plan for your life, He wants you to be excited about it. And today Dr. Evans explains how to ignite your passion for God so His priorities become your vision.

Let's join him. Today I want to talk about your passion and your call. There's no such thing as a calling without a passion.

There's no such thing as God calling you to do something, and you're in His will and you don't want to do it. It's a passion. Now everybody has a passion. Everybody doesn't have it the same way, everybody doesn't express it the same way, but everybody has at least the potential for fire. Passion has to do with your spiritual intensity, the fire within, that thing that causes you to burn.

I've seen folk who told me they weren't emotional at a basketball game or football game and it was a great play, and they like to knock me simple, because given the right set of circumstances and the right environment, the dullest people you know will find some fire. One reason why people don't have fire is that they're not where they're supposed to be, so there's nothing there to burn. It's hard to have fire in a fireplace if there's no wood on the grill.

If you're not where you're supposed to be, fire will be missing. Today I want to talk a little bit about passion. What is passion? Generally we talk about intensity or fire. When I add the spiritual component to it, it is the God-given capacity to fervently attach ourselves to something, to someone, over an extended period of time in order to meet a need. It is the ability to, or capacity to, fervently.

That's where the fire is, to attach yourself to something or someone over an extended period of time in order to meet a need. Romans 15 verse 20 puts it this way. Paul, speaking of his own calling, if you will, says this, And thus I aspire to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build up another man's foundation. The word aspired there means deeply desired. In Romans 15, 20, deeply desired. He deeply desired to proclaim it, because a passion is a fire.

He says in 1 Corinthians 9, 16, Woe is me if I don't do this. Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 20 verse 9, it was like God's Word was like fire in my bones. And when I tried not to do it, I couldn't, because it was too hot.

You ever dealt with anything that's too hot to handle? It's a blaze. It's fire. That's passion. Passion is that which burns within you. Passion wakes you up at night, or maybe keeps you from going to sleep in the first place. Passion makes you think about the subject when the subject is not on the table.

It is the bubbling of the volcano in the soul. Passion is the fuel of calling. It is the fuel of your calling. Passion is the motivation that compels you to take action.

You just have to. The only thing that quenches passion is the thing for which the passion has been generated. In other words, the only thing that fulfills your call, if you're passionate about your call, is the call itself. Nothing else will do.

Everything else is second best. Now here's the secret to your calling and its passion. Whenever you seek your calling from the perspective of time rather than the perspective of eternity, life is flat, because God has set eternity in your heart. See, all of us have this one ominous thing hanging over us. Let me tell you, we all have it.

I don't care who you are, how good you are, what you do, how much you have. We all have this one big neon sign all over us, and it reads, temporary. If you haven't discovered this yet, even you're not very old or not very smart. It's all temporary. The movie star is a star, temporarily. It's gonna end, they gonna get old, somebody younger is gonna take their place. It's temporary.

You put all those years into raising your kids, they become adult God on their own, don't need you anymore, forget where you live, forget your phone number, tell they need money. Last year's champion is this year's ex-champion. This year's has-been. You finally get what you want only to discover you want it new and improved. You want something better.

Today's front page star becomes tomorrow, page 20 footnote. I don't know whether it's ever bothered you, but it sometimes bothers me that it's all temporary, you know? Now, we've done some great things in the church. God's been very kind to us, temporary.

No friendship, no relationship, no ownership, no fellowship can satisfy you because they're all temporary, all of it. God has set eternity in our hearts. That is, life can only be lived with an eternal perspective in mind. You know what Mary said in the mother of Jesus when she found out she was pregnant with this miracle child? She says in Luke chapter 1 verse 53, I believe, she says, you have filled the hungry with good things.

Now, she's talking about herself. Why did God choose this teenager named Mary to be the virgin mother of the Savior? She was hungry. She was hungry for God. She was so hungry for God that she got the call. She was hungry. What are you hungry for that has eternity connected with it?

Because if it's only connected with time, it's temporary. Off of the Bible, it says God stirred men's hearts. He stirred up their hearts, it says, to do the work on the house of God or to build the community back, he says, and God stirred their hearts.

Ezra won, Haggai won, God stirred them and stirred them and stirred them. That's passion. Passion is when God stirs your heart.

Any of you live with anybody, any people who stir up stuff, create mess? You know, you always starting something. When God creates a passion, he stirs something up. He stirs up this burning desire, and all of a sudden you notice that whatever this stir is matches your gifting.

That's what you're looking for. That the thing you are stirring up for is also the thing you can do, or the thing you have the potential to be able to do. You say, but how do I know what my passion is? Many people don't know it because they've simply never asked some key questions like, what makes me laugh or what makes me cry? When things bring out your emotions, they need to be checked out. They can very well be your passion. When they bring laughter out of you, you find great joy in their presence, thinking about it or doing it. You got to check that one out.

That well could be your passion. What breaks your hearts? It brings tears to your eyes. When you see that thing over there, when you see that child, you weep.

When you see that thing turned around, you laugh. Other people would see it and feel bad, but it doesn't stay with them. Because remember, passion always has tenure. Passion is never a passing haha.

You can't stop laughing. You can't stop crying, because it is all-consuming. Is there an area of interest that you just can't shake? If it wasn't for money, family, or time, is there something in your life that you would go and do? If it wasn't for family obligations, money, or the time, and you could chuck it all away and go do it, what would that be? Because many times we use those as an excuse for not following our dreams and fulfilling our passion.

When they are never meant to be an excuse. Oh, they may be an excuse for how you do it, it may be an excuse for how fast you can do it, but it has nothing to do with your passion, your burn. You have a secret ambition. If you haven't told anybody, it's just deep down. You think about it, you may say, oh, you could never do that. You know you could be saying never to God.

Let me tell you a secret. Unless you pursue your passion, you're gonna die. You're gonna die. And by that I mean you're gonna shrivel up and die. I don't mean physical death necessarily, I'm just talking about you're gonna exist. You're just gonna exist. You're just gonna get up and go to work and come home and look at television and go to sleep and get up and go to work and come home and look at television and eat and go to sleep. You know, die. Die. You know, it's like marriage. The passion that you had when you were dating, you say, what happened to that? Simple.

That's not a hard answer. What happened to the fire? Same thing that happened to the fire in your fireplace, left unattended. It dies. You go to bed and leave the fire on, okay?

You're not gonna find one in the morning, because passion has to be cultivated to stay hot. So how do we connect this thing of passion with eternity so that we get clarification on calling? Well remember our definition of calling. It's your customized purpose for which you have been ordained and equipped, but here it is, to service the kingdom of God, because remember, it has an eternal perspective always. Your calling is always linked with the kingdom of God. Once you extricate it from the kingdom of God, you may not have any idea what it is, which is why most people don't know their calling. Why don't most people know their calling?

Because of me-ism. I'm living here to make my money. I'm living here to buy my house.

I'm living here to drive my car, raise my kids. I'm here to make my mark, and the kingdom of God is nowhere to be found. Jesus said it, Matthew 6 33. He makes it absolutely clear, seek ye, what?

Thirst. Not seek ye when you have time, not seek you when there's leftovers. Seek ye first. The kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these thing stuff will be added to you.

Now, that's not what we do. We seek first the stuff, and if there is anything left over in my time, talents, and treasures, then the kingdom may have them. God will never show you your calling if it's not first.

It's got to be first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. In other words, the promotion of God's glory and God's program. Thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, thine is the glory, forever and ever.

Amen. Dr. Evans will come back shortly with a story of a man who really understood the relationship between his career and his calling. But first, today's message is part of Tony's life-changing series entitled Called for a Purpose. As we've been hearing, each of us has a God-given passion and realizing it as part of the secret to discovering your unique calling in life.

Drop the frustration and move on to greater joy as you discover your calling through the help of the Complete Called for a Purpose audio series, available both on CD and as a digital download. Best of all, for a limited time, when you make a donation to support the work of the Urban Alternative, we'll say thanks by sending you all 12 messages in this two-volume collection, along with a bonus copy of Tony's popular companion book, Discover Your Destiny, Let God Use You Like He Made You. Reach out today at tonyevans.org to make your contribution and request. This is a limited-time offer, so make your request right away. Again, that's tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to help with your resource request around the clock.

That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information for you after part two of today's lesson and this. If you're like most Christians, there are people in your life who know you but may not know Jesus. You really want to do something about that, but don't feel equipped to share your faith effectively.

In other words, maybe if you knew more, you could do more. Well, that's where the Tony Evans Training Center comes in. It's an online Bible school with classes that will take you deep into the most important core concepts of the faith. You can start with our free introductory course on evangelism, then move on to subjects like spiritual warfare, marriage building, maturing in the faith, and many more. The content is challenging, but you can move through it at your own pace anytime you're online. There's also lots of custom content from Tony and an online forum where you can get your specific questions answered.

Go to tonyevans.org and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. It's like having a seminary on your smartphone. A man one day was saying goodbye to his pastor after church. The pastor didn't really know him, shook his hand and said, What do you do, sir? Oh, he says, I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ, he said, disguised as a machine operator. I hope he caught that.

That was the kingdom answer. He wasn't just doing a job from eight to five. He super-sized it. He wasn't just out making widgets. He was using that platform as an opportunity to promote God's interest in history.

Now, God is going to show somebody like that that called him. I'm sure you all saw Titanic and what a Titanic film it was. True story. The maiden voyage from England to America of this ship. It hit an iceberg, holes were punched in it, and you saw it graphically portrayed on the screen. The awesome Titanic sank. There were 20 lifeboats, not enough for the amount of people on the Titanic. They got women and children off the Titanic. They got in the boats. The boats began to row away. The only problem is they left 1,500 people in frigid water, where it wouldn't be long before hypothermia would set in, and they would freeze to death as their organs could no longer function in the coldness of the water.

But do you notice? Tragedy of Titanic. The tragedy is that two-thirds of the boats, the smaller boats, were only partially full. You see, the folks who were saved got so comfortable in their salvation, they forgot other folk were still drowned.

And only one of the 20 boats returned. If most of them that were not filled would have returned, hundreds of more people would have been saved, but after all, they were already saved. So since I'm saved, I hope you make it too.

Kingdom folk don't think like that. Kingdom folk want to know how I can use the opportunities that God has given me and called me to to provide a lifeboat for somebody else, because God's kingdom call will always involve indirectly or directly impacting people. So my challenge to you today is to examine your passion, to look deep down inside and begin to ask yourself some strategic questions. What captures my attention? What do I dream about? We ask kids that all the time.

What do you want to be when you grow up? That's a passion question. Many of you who have discovered your passion for the marketplace have at the very same time discovered your passion for the kingdom. You just never saw what you do in the marketplace as valuable to the kingdom.

You never made that connection. So your marketplace is only connected to time. There is no eternal perspective. The space shuttle sits on a launch pad. It sits on a launch pad.

You've seen it on TV. It has a mission and a direction. It's going somewhere that has already been predetermined by NASA. The only problem, it's grounded because of gravity. Gravity says to the shuttle, you're not going anywhere.

Be still. And that huge space shuttle with all this equipment, all this power, all this personnel is grounded. That is until it is set on fire.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, blast off. All of a sudden the engines roar and you see fire. All of a sudden this earth limited vehicle, multi-ton, is now able to soar all because fire was lit under it. Many of us are grounded by our fears, and what you need is some fire. Many of us are grounded by what we were told.

We've got such poor self-esteem that even though we desire it, we don't even believe God can create enough fire to lift this mess off the ground. When you got something as big as the space shuttle, you just need a lot more fire, that's all. Just a lot more fire. You're going to go home today and the reason you're going to get home is because some spark plugs underneath your hood are going to produce fire. And they're going to produce fire, and when they produce fire, that fire of those little plugs will ignite the engine, cooperating with the battery, and your car will take you home all because there was fire.

It moves trucks that way, submarines that way, boats that way, it moves planes that way. Planes fly because of fire. Passion. And you have it. I don't care how dull you look, how thick your glasses are, how nourished you are told God has given you fire. You say, well, how do I find it if I don't know where it is? Well, then you go to God every day and you ask Him to light your fire. You go to God and say, fire starter, ignite it for me. You ask God to ignite the fire for whatever it is. It doesn't mean you're gonna do cartwheels, that may not be your personality trait.

Doesn't mean that you're gonna shout and scream because we're all different. It will mean you are lit and fit to be tied because you're on fire. And when you get hot enough, other folks around you will scorch.

Because when you get fires loose, they start other fires too. So God's richest blessing on you is you look deep within and find your passion, because your passion is always designed to lift your calling right up off the pad. Dr. Tony Evans, encouraging you to let the Lord set fire to your faith.

Just one of the powerful messages from his current series, Called for a Purpose. This two-volume 12 lesson collection will help you find and fulfill God's unique plan for your life. And right now, when you make a donation to the Urban Alternative and request this complete series, we'll be happy to send you a bonus, a copy of Tony's popular book, Discover Your Destiny, Let God Use You Like He Made You. As I mentioned earlier, we're offering this entire package as our thank you when you support the ministry of Dr. Evans here on this station and around the world. This is a limited time offer, so be sure to visit TonyEvans.org today, where you can also sign up for Tony's free weekly email devotional. Again, that's TonyEvans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our friendly team members assist.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, as you've heard, the Urban Alternative is celebrating 40 years of ministry this year, so your support is an investment in an organization that's been faithfully carrying the good news to a needy world for many years. Dr. Evans recently spoke about God's early calling on his life. 1968, our little church became part of an evangelistic crusade in Baltimore led by an evangelist named B. Sam Hart.

His organization was the Grand Oak Gospel Fellowship. It was a tent crusade, and I was an 18-year-old working on this crusade with our church. And on the first night he preached, he talked about being fully committed to being used of God, and that night is when I sensed God calling me to serve him. I really then got more involved in the crusade and got to know Sam Hart. And then he sent me to Guyana, South America to work on his crusade that was going on there, which of course is where I met Lois. So it was that crusade in 68 that started the ministry direction for me.

Your support of the Urban Alternative makes possible the important work that continues even today. So again, contact us at 1-800-800-3222, and let us say thanks for your help by sending you called for a purpose and discover your destiny. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222, or you can make the arrangements online at TonyEvans.org. It often seems like those who've accomplished the most for God have been through the worst life has to offer. Well, on Monday, Dr. Evans will explain how your painful experiences can be used to bless and build up the body of Christ. I hope you'll be with us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.