Fervent in Spirit

Romans 12:11, "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." I want to speak to you tonight on that phrase, "fervent in spirit." God bless you, please be seated. If you have your Bibles open to Romans chapter 12, you can follow along. I know many folks use a phone, a device, but you can scroll back. Paul opens this amazing chapter with what to many of us are well-known verses. I beseech you therefore, brethren and sisters, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Some translations say rational worship. "And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God." So powerful. And then Paul merges into some teaching on spiritual gifts, verses 3 through 8. "I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. As God has gifted you, walk in that gifting." And then he teaches wonderful practical advice, and mostly about the ministry gifts. And then Paul transitions into speaking about some just one-liners. There are some powerful pithy one-liners. Romans 12:11, "Not slothful in business," our text, "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant or constant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of the saints, uh given to hospitality." All of those phrases are sermons. They could be tremendous messages that you could preach. But in this particular verse, that Paul speaks about not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, he makes a point both from the negative perspective and also from a positive perspective. Do not be lazy in business. Do not be apathetic in your walk with God. Remember that the business he's just taught on is the business of ministry, your gifting, your calling. I think this phrase has broad application, uh that the diligent soul makes fatter rich. And if you live your life and you're slothful, lazy, if you're not diligent, uh then you're going to lose a lot without even trying. Amen. Don't be apathetic, but be fervent in spirit, be passionate. And the result of these commands, or the purpose of them, is so that you can do this, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, to serve the Lord. This is the context of this verse. So the focus of my message tonight is this call of God to be fervent in spirit. Extemporaneously, I spoke about this a little bit, maybe in the second service on Sunday. It wasn't preaching Sunday. What a great message we heard from Brother Kenneth Stewart, amen? What happened to the Smiths, the people who make the weapons of warfare, those prayer warriors? Uh there are two words that are somewhat interchangeable in our English Bible, fervent and zeal or zealous. The Zealots were a a religious sect that existed in the time of Jesus. fervent in spirit, uh my may use other scriptures that say zeal or zealous, because they they can mean the same thing depending on the context. Fervent means to boil or to burn. You might have grown up in church hearing people say to be on fire for God. In in non-spiritual environments, if somebody's really playing a good game, they might say, "Man, they are on fire. They're on fire." So that's what it means to be fervent in spirit, to be on fire for God. Zeal is a passionate enthusiasm for a cause. You are zealous about something that really matters, a passionate enthusiasm, and there can be nuances of meaning in that. In the beginning of Jesus' ministry, John records an early cleansing of the temple. The synoptics record a latter cleansing. John 2:17, after Jesus cleansed the temple, the disciples remembered a verse of scripture, Psalm 69:9, "And his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." Consumed with a passion, with a zeal for things that matter to God. Jesus had a passionate enthusiasm for what was sacred. And when abuse and carnality converted the temple into a flea market, with much worse motives than a flea market to rip people off at church, Jesus being fervent in spirit, acted in zeal, applied to the whip, overthrew the changes of the money changers' tables, and ran them out of the temple. What does it mean to be fervent in spirit? Uh the command is to not be slothful in business, not be lazy. Uh there are other translations, and never be lacking in zeal. Never be lazy about what you're doing. Do not lack diligence. Uh the original Greek for the verb be fervent refers to being emotionally inflamed, enthusiastic, or excited. Amen. The word picture is like a pot of oil, or excuse me, water. Could be oil, but water that is boiling. It is not just sitting there. It's not cold, it's not lukewarm, but it is boiling. It is boiling over. To be fervent in spirit means you're on fire. That you're boiling over with enthusiasm about something, and obviously, since I'm a pastor, I'm teaching about our relationship with God. And Paul tells Christians to be fervent in spirit, he's telling them that their lives should demonstrate a vibrant presence of the Holy Spirit in their life that is like water that is boiling over, that is active, not passive, that is moving, not still. A pot of boiling water is active, right? Boiling, giving off steam and heat. It's not stagnant, it's not idle. Of a person, you could say that they're not apathetic. But being fervent in spirit is not just being emotional. Spiritual fervor should not be confused with irrational emotionalism. Pentecostals are sometimes accused of being emotional, as if we were human beings or something. We are emotional beings. But we're not emotional just to be emotional. I know sometimes you can get emotional about a song that's a secular song. The lyrics are moving, the the music, the melody, the harmony brings emotion out of you. There's that pathos side of us, right? Uh there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. And we may get excited in a Christian song, a gospel song might move us emotionally. But we are most moved by what is really underneath the emotional, amen? Is it because of the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and the price he paid, amen? We were just worshiping the Lord. After singing about the cross, we weren't just being emotional to be emotional. We are emotional about what Jesus Christ did for us, the price he paid for us. Godly zeal must be tempered with a solid foundation, biblical truth, sincerity, and truth, and discernment in spiritual perception, amen. Now sometimes sometimes zeal is misplaced. Romans chapter 10, Paul spoke about Israel, that they might be saved. Romans 9 through 11 are some challenging chapters in the book of Romans. Paul says of the Jews, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." They're fired up about something, but they're really astray from truth that God has revealed. In those same chapters, he talks about blindness in part that happened. Without knowledge, spiritual enthusiasm can be seriously misguided. Before Paul's conversion, when he was known as Saul of Tarsus, he was on fire for God. And he thought we, the Christians, were a cult. He thought we, Christians, threatened Judaism. And he told us in Philippians 3:6, concerning his zeal, he's talking about his life before Christ, concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Misguided passion, misguided fervor, but fervent in spirit nonetheless. He says in Galatians 1:13, "You've heard of my conversion in times past in the Jewish religion, Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews religion above many mine equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers." Misguided fervency or zeal. So our our fervency, our zeal, must be guided by the right motives and the right mission, but we should be zealous. False teachers had gone to Galatia. They were undermining the faith of Christians, telling them that they needed to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses, but Paul told them in Galatians 4:17 that they zealously affect you, but not well. You know, somebody who's really convincing, that is convinced, can move you. They can sell you something that you don't need to buy. They can be sold out to error, to heresy. And these Judaizers, they're called, they said they're zealously affecting you. They're getting you all stirred up. And he said they're really trying to exclude you. And then he says, "But but I just want you to know that zeal's not a bad thing." This is Galatians 4:18, not on the screens, but it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. I've seen people who kind of play down fervent people, zealous people. Well, they'll settle down after they've lived for God a while, and you know, they're flying, and then they're going to run, and then they're going to walk. They take that passage in Isaiah 40, you know, and and they're going to settle down to a walk. I do believe in walking with God, but that zeal should be a part of our life from the start of our conversion all the way till the trumpet sounds or we breathe our last breath. Amen. Now, I'm sure you know this, but God is drawn to passion, and he's nauseated by apathy. Amen. The Book of Revelation, letters to the seven churches of Asia. There's the apathetic church of the Laodiceans, Revelation 3:14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold. I would I love the King James spelling here, that you were wert. That's one of the more awkward King James words. Hot or cold. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you. I will vomit you. I will spew you out of my mouth." Now, these Laodiceans, they're not really pagan, but they're not really what we would call a Christian. You could say they're not good, they're not evil. They're not led away by false doctrine, but they're not addicted to the truth. They are listless, indifferent, seem to care little whether their their province falls apart, pagan takeover, everything goes upside down, corrupt. They're just kind of happy to be there as long as they're not persecuted, thrown in jail, as long as they can fit in with the culture, they're okay. You're okay, I'm okay. That's the Laodiceans. They really don't have a zeal for revival or truth or conversions, and they don't have zeal for their own salvation or for the salvation of other people who are on their way to hell. They're not so bad that they're going to quit coming to church. They're the church of Laodicea. They're written to by the Lord. Jesus speaks to them. John records it. But they're really not given up. They're kind of hanging on. You know, just going through the motions. And like some people today, they're happy to get along and go along with the flow of culture. Laodiceans. Respectable, conforming, don't rock the boat Christians. The Laodiceans are not on fire for God. They're not against God, but they're apathetic, which is pathetic. And the Lord, his words to them are really intriguing if you think about it. He said, "I wish that you were hot, fervent, zealous." Now, that makes sense, right? We We're okay with God saying that. But then it's a little surprising that God would say God would say to them, "I I wish you were cold." I wish you were hot, or I wish you were cold. Now, why would he say I wish you were cold? That's kind of doesn't make sense. Why would he say he wishes you would go on the other side and totally be cold in their spirit toward God? Now, we know how to treat our friends, and we know how to treat our enemies. What do you do with people who frankly don't care? They're somewhere in the middle. You don't know if they're a friend or a foe. They're They're the They're the Laodiceans. They're someway in the middle. They seem like they're too good to go to hell, but not good enough to go to heaven. They're not persecuting the saints, but they're not propagating the gospel, either. They just kind of slide in there. They're lukewarm. And the Lord says, "Because you are lukewarm, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth." Now, this does not imply that if they were cold, that he would embrace them and they would be saved. He's just telling them to get off the fence. Being Being complacent, apathetic, make up your mind. Amen. Now, they say, I don't know, tepid water, kind of lukewarm water can have an inclination, doesn't sit too well on your stomach. I don't know, I can make that argument, but the Lord said, "You're just you know, you're not a whole a hot cup of coffee, you're not a cold glass of iced tea. You're just lukewarm, and I don't like it. I don't like fence sitters. I don't like double-minded people. They're unstable in all their ways. They teeter back and forth, in, out, hot, cold. He said, "I'm going to spew you out of my mouth." He It means the implication of this in the original is that they are utterly rejected and cast off. They are not saved. Amen. So the Lord honors and blesses those who are fervent in spirit. Amen. Now, the Bible calls us to to love the Lord our God with all of our heart. It is in fact the great commandment, Matthew 22:36. Master, there he's asked this by a theologian, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." And we would say with all your being, "with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." Deuteronomy 6:4, that Old Testament version of the Shema. We're to love God with our entire being. Amen. He doesn't like people, and and I would say that regardless of how God feels toward lukewarmness and lukewarm people, you cannot survive that way. It's like loving two masters, love the one, hate the other, hold to the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and mammon. You're somewhere in between, you're in no man's land. That's the Laodiceans. This is the first and great commandment. Romans 12:11 again, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Now, radical discipleship is the biblical way to follow Jesus Christ. Uh Jesus said some things that were you might say they were polarizing. You know, when John 6:66, many went back and walked with him no more, Jesus asked them, the disciples, after the multitudes walked away, he said, "Will you also go away?" Like, man, your church is down to 12 guys, you know, or less. Now you're going to give them a chance to leave? Because, you know, God cannot lie. And he's not he doesn't owe anything to any of us. And so that's what he said. So, Jesus said some polarizing things. And I'll preach one of those things on Sunday, Lord willing, about the second mile. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on Earth." Now, wait a second. I thought you're the Prince of Peace, peace on Earth, goodwill toward men. We just said that at Christmas, and now we're over here getting toward Easter. Not really, but you know, in this text, and you're saying you didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. A sword? You mean the something that divides? Yes, something that divides. Truth divides. God is not a divider, Satan is a divider. But truth divides over sincerity, over obedience. These are the words of Jesus. I'm sorry I didn't put them on the screen. It's Matthew 10:35. "For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be those of his own household." Now, that's not what God prefers. But over truth, sometimes you just have to stand while others walk away. I I we teach on the family. I love my family. I thank God for our family. Amen. Our family, our blood family. I thank God for the family of God. But throughout my life, I've lost some friends over truth. I did not reject them, they rejected truth. And there are times if you obey the Bible that you don't company with them. You don't fellowship with them. As John wrote, "We have an unction from the Holy One. They went out from us because they were not of us. If they were of us, then they would not have gone out from us." This is one of those great King James passages as well. But they went out from us that it might be revealed. And you have an unction from the Holy One to discern that that person no longer loves truth. Jesus said, "There are sometimes truth is going to divide you." And if you're complacent, you don't really care, you'll treat you'll choose convenience over conviction, you'll choose friendships over truth, you'll treat choose people over Jesus. And then, verse 37, Matthew 10, "He who loves father or mother more than me," here's the key, more than me. More than me. "Is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life tries to preserve self-preservation will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake shall find it." One of the hard sayings of Jesus. Amen. The Laodiceans don't want to be in this position where they've got to make a decision for God that may cost them a relationship. But this is what the Lord teaches. Amen. Not slothful in business, amen, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. That's what this fervency is about. Now, we all know people who are who have a passionate enthusiasm for a cause. They're zealous. They are fervent. It might be business, sports, right now, a lot of people in Georgia, and other people that have other affinities for sports teams, you know, they you can get pretty wound up and excited about that. In my personality, if I'm playing a game, I am pretty passionate and competitive. Amen. So, I understand this passionate enthusiasm. Amen. Politics, education, there are people who are passionate about the less fortunate. They're sincere. I'm not putting these people down. There are causes that need an advocate. And there are people who will advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. As Christians, we advocate for the unborn because they cannot advocate for themselves, right? When passion burns in a person, they are likely to succeed in their area of passion. I will take passion over talent any day. I will take pa- passion over intellect any day. Now, I like this and that more than I like this or that. I'll take both. We're not against baptized brains, right? We'll take them. Amen. But Paul's admonition to the Roman Christians was to direct to direct or channel their passion toward serving the Lord. You've got this passion that God put in you, but make sure you direct it toward the thing that really matters the most. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. So, I just want to ask you a question you can file away for later. But what generates passionate enthusiasm in you? What gets you the most fired up of anything? For good or bad. I mean, you know, like mad or glad. But what what is it that really gets you fired up? You know, if it is it Is it what's with the party on Sunday when somebody has received the gift of the Holy Ghost or been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins? You know, I like to say, "I live for that." Amen. That is that is part of initiation into the kingdom of God. What generates passion and enthusiasm in you? What most fires you up? I'm not saying it's wrong to get excited about something other than Jesus, as long as you're not more excited about that than him, then you're like the Laodiceans. Amen. If you are fervent, are you fervent in spirit? And is that fervency focused on serving the Lord? If you're zealous, are you zealous over a righteous cause? Amen. We're not to be lazy in business, fervent in spirit, channel our fervency in serving the Lord. But what if just what if that roaring fire of zeal that fervency has become more like a flickering flame? I mean, just admittedly, you know what you're supposed to be and where you're supposed to be and how you feel, but honestly, you're not there. You wonder, I wonder, does does fervency come naturally? And I think maybe to some degree that is true. But I don't always see fervency as outward expression in personality. I see in people in our church some that are gregarious, more demonstrative and expressive. But I know people that are part of our church family, in their nature, they're more quiet and subdued and introverted. But I watch those good people in church, and they may not be acting like everybody else, but they're fervent in their spirit. You can see on their face, you can see in the tears streaming down their face, and their hands lifted that they love the Lord their God with all of their heart, soul, mind, strength. They are all in. Amen. Some people may be more motivated than others naturally. Um and some people may be lazier than others naturally. So, just kind of clarify what I mean by the opposite of being fervent, to be lethargic, drained, worn out, run down. I shouldn't say this on a Wednesday night right after a long day. Weary, apathetic, dull, sluggish, lacking enthusiasm, lifeless, listless, lacking in purpose, no longer care. Some people over time become faithful, but they're not fervent. I'm not putting people down that are faithful, that have lost their fervency. There may be times when you function out of faithfulness. You may not feel fervent, but you're committed. You're not a quitter. You plod on. You keep your commitments. But the fire of fervency has cooled to a lukewarm temperature. Where you're unenthusiastic, apathetic, half-hearted, indifferent, uninterested, and unconcerned. And you wonder, "How long am I going to be in this valley? In this trial? In this dry place?" You wonder if it will ever change. And you wonder if the fire has ever gone out has gone out forever, and I'm just going to have to keep plodding along out of duty, out of faithfulness, out of commitment forever. Amen. Well, the Bible gives us a little clue of how to get the fervency back. Amen. Leviticus 6:13, "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out." Amen. And the fire on the brazen altar was to never go out. But how was that possible? I mean, they didn't have a gas line run to the brazen altar, you know. So, it would just always be there. You have to read back to find out. Verse 11 tells us that the priest had to go take out the ashes of yesterday's fire. There's some believers that are living on yesterday's fires and the stories of the good old days that were not that good, and they're living in the past instead of being fervent about the present. So, you've got to take the ashes out of yesterday. Amen. Leviticus 6:12, "And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it. It shall not be put out, and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering on it in order that it shall burn the fat of the peace offerings." In other words, he said, "You know what you've got to do? You've got to take the ashes out, and you've got to put another log on the fire." And the Bible said, "Where no wood is, the fire goes out." If there's a talebearer, if there's something you want to die, quit stoking it, quit feeding it. But if there's something you want to burn, then feed it something, give it something to burn. You've got to put another log on the fire of prayer and consecration. Amen. Amen. I preached about this on February 24th, 2016, according to my notes. And then I referred to a story that Brother Paul Mooney preached about this years ago, and I heard him talk about this, "Put another log on the fire." But that's what I want to tell you tonight is to be fervent in spirit is not just a continual state. You've got to get rid of some stuff that's burned out in your life, and you've got to put another log on the fire. Amen. Another log of prayer on the fire. Another log of fasting. Another log of Bible study. Another log of worship. Jude 1:20, "But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST." AMEN. I PUT ANOTHER log on the fire TO GET MYSELF FIRED UP by praying in the Holy Ghost. The church of Ephesus was a very hard-working church. The Lord spoke to them in Revelation chapter 2. He says of them, "I know your labor, your patience. You can't stand those that are evil. You've tried those that are false apostles and there's liars. You have borne carried the burden like in the heat of the day. You've got patience for my name's sake. You've labored. You haven't fainted. Thank God that the Ephesians were standing for truth. I can't bear evil. Tried the false apostles. You look at them, they're they're people that who are working for God. We have a lot of people at Atlanta West who are working for God. He said, "I know your works, your labor, your patience. You've borne You've been patient." He's uses the word labor twice, again in verse 3, and he said, "You've not quit. You haven't fainted. You're just living on duty. Some of the most committed people in these churches are in the city of Ephesus, and on Sunday, this coming Sunday, I'm going to honor our amazing volunteers. But fervent in spirit is not about work alone. It's not just about duty. It is about relationship. God created Adam, and he gave him a job to dress and tend the Garden of Eden, but it was not just about work. It was about walk. It was about a relationship. It was about living for God AND HAVING A FIRE INSIDE OF YOU OF A LOVE for the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 2:4, "Nevertheless, Ephesus, you you all are so amazing. I have somewhat against thee, because thou has left thy first love." Now, what does this mean? This first love describes the fervor that came at conversion. Amen. I can assure you that you did not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost while you were passively pondering the meaning of life. You were passionately praising the Lord. After having repented of your sins and perhaps been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're praising the Lord. The Ephesians Christians did not retain that strong and ardent affection for God. They lost it in labor. It had fallen into faithful drudgery. Where they were doing the right thing. You've heard me say this several times throughout the years, but a T.W. Barnes quote on great prophet of God has passed on that was among us. He said, and I think this is as close as I can quote him, "Many men have failed God working for God. But no man has ever failed God walking with God. Our work should grow out of our walk. It should be the overflow. It should be the result of that." I don't say this is an expert or someone who has arrived, but I make it a point that when I come to church, I am a worshiper. I try not to be preoccupied about the sermon I'm going to preach or the lesson I'm going to teach. I know I need Jesus IN MY LIFE. I KNOW I NEED A WALK with God. My prayers don't just need to be about a thing I've got to do. It's about a relationship. Amen. FERVENT IN SPIRIT. ON FIRE FOR GOD. PASSIONATELY ENTHUSIASTIC. It gives the remedy in Revelation 2:5. "Remember Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, repent and do the first works, or else I will come to thee unto thee quickly to this hard-working church, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." It's pretty heavy stuff, right? To the amazing Ephesian church. They don't put up with false doctrine, and they work really hard. But to God, he cares more about the relationship. So, he says, "I need you to remember. If you don't remember, you might think you're okay." That's why I was pretty excited about singing about the cross and encourage worship. I didn't have to do much encouraging, because you were feeling it and worshiping God. But we need to remember what God saved us from. Amen. What he brought us out of. What he kept us from if you were raised in the church. And the Bible describes Ephraim, typical of Israel, makes himself among the people. He's a cake not turned, doughy on one side, done on the other. He said, "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn't even know it. He's got gray hairs here and there, and he doesn't even know it. He looks in the imaginary mirror, and he sees himself as buff and fit and strong and viral, and he's a young man, but he doesn't even know that he's not that anymore." And that And that's Laodicea. That's Ephesus. Remember how far you've fallen. Consider the state of grace in which you once stood, and how it was when you first found God. You're more mature now, but then you were full of happiness and joy and love. You were so thankful you were redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. You had an obedient spirit, willing to do anything and go anywhere. You happily denied yourself to follow him. You're happy to be separated unto God and from the world. "Remember," he said, "how far you've fallen from that place when God saved you." And then he said, "Repent." But it doesn't tell us what to repent from. There's no works of the flesh mentioned. No sins of the spirit. The only thing that you can really identify in the Ephesians sin is misplaced priorities. That you've replaced walk with work. You know, maybe that's one of the 10 Commandments. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Whether it is a sin or it is a relationship or something that you really love. Whatever, Jesus said anything that you love more than me makes you unworthy of me. Right. And then he says, "Do the first works." Do what you did at the beginning of your walk with God. Remember those spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, Bible, worship, those foundational things? The early church, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. They just kept doing those fundamentals and it kept them fervent in spirit serving the Lord. And it's interesting here uh musicians come give us hope. I need I'm hurrying. The Lord did not tell them, "I want you to feel something." He said, "I want you to do something." Right. Said, "I want you to do the first works." He didn't say get in a really good worship service and have them modulate change keys and get a shout beat going on. That's okay. He said, "I want you to do something." I want you to do the first works. Because feeling follows doing. Emotions follow actions every time. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It has no choice but to go where you put yourself, where your money, time, talent, treasure. Right. You do what is right first and the feeling of fervency will follow. So, well, you know, Pastor, I don't feel anything. I'm sorry you don't. Sincerely, I'm sorry you don't. But don't focus on how you feel. Focus on how far you've fallen. And repent. And do the first works. Take the out of the ashes out of yesterday's consecration. Put another log on the fire. Do what is right and the feeling of fervency will follow. Be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Would you just stand, please? Let's lift our hands to the Lord right now. Would you worship God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? I love you, Lord. I worship you, Jesus. We're not responding to music, but responding to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit serving the Lord. We've got time to pray. Even parents with kids in the back, we've got some time to pray. Would you join me at the altar? And let's say, "Lord, we want to be this. We want to do this." Help me be fervent in spirit. Give me a passion and enthusiasm for your presence and your power and your work and your kingdom. Remember how far you've fallen. Repent and do the first works. Hallelujah. I love you, Jesus. I bless you, Lord. I thank you, God, right now. Isaiah said to shake off those bands. Break the note the yoke off your neck. If you feel like you're bound in a place where the fervency is gone, shake yourself to the first works. Do what you know to do and then you will feel what you want to feel.