Passion and Purpose

Oh, come on. Just a little bit longer. Just lift your voice. Love Jesus. God, we need you in this house. We need you in this house. We need you in this house. Oh God, come on. Come on. Come on. Would you linger just a moment? Come on. Would you linger just a moment in the presence of the Lord? Hallelujah. Come on. If you got the Holy Ghost, why don't you just take a few moments and pray in the Holy Ghost? Come on, let that river of living water flow out of you. Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Hallelujah. Clap your hands unto the Lord if you're thankful to be in his house. One more time. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Book of 2 Kings, chapter 13. This is a very familiar text to most of us here tonight. And I want to try my best to relay to you what God laid upon my heart and give honor today, brother Booker, this wonderful church for putting on meetings like this. They're doing this because they have a burden to see the next generation of apostolic young people go forth and be empowered. Thank God for your pastor. Thank God for services just like this. Amen. Amen. Amen. And I completely concur with Pastor Booker. It was settings just like this that God changed me. God called me to preach. God challenged me. A lot of times we want to be changed, but we don't like to be challenged. But I like it when God challenges me. Amen. Amen. I'm glad to be here and I love you, brother Booker. Again, thank you so much for allowing me to stand and preach to these wonderful young people. I love young people. I love young people and I have a burden for you and I pray for you every day.

And 2 Kings chapter 13, we'll begin reading in verse 14. I apologize in advance for a little bit of a lengthy reading. Not too bad, though. You know, when I was a kid, the style of preaching was just the more scriptures you read, the longer you were going to preach. That is not the case today. So don't get worried. Now Elisha was fallen sick of a sickness whereof he died. Joash the king of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face and said, "Oh my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." And Elisha said unto him, take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. He said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it. And Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, "Open the window eastward." And he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot." And he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of the of deliverance from Syria, for thou shalt smite the Syrians and Aphil till thou have consumed them." He said, "Take the arrows." And he took them. He said unto the king of Israel, smite upon the ground, and he spoke it thrice, and stayed. The man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou should have smitten five or six times. Then hast thou smitten Syria, till thou hast consumed it. Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. And Elisha died and they buried him and the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. I know this is not going to make much sense now, but hopefully by the time I'm done, what I'm going to talk about will make a whole lot more sense than my title, but God will help us. I just want to talk to us today about a hermeneutical view of passion and purpose. Passion and purpose. Amen.

Would you help me right now by taking your time and just put your Bible to the side? Take your time and clear your head. Everything that's going on in this room today, clear all the distractions out. And I know you've got friends here and you may have a boyfriend or a girlfriend here, but could you just set that on the side for the next 30, 45 minutes? Come on, take some time and just discard all of that stuff for a minute and plug into what the Holy Ghost is doing. God, right now we ask you, Lord, to have your way in this house. We ask you, God, to anoint us. Let there be apostolic dominion that is released in this place today. Let there be a revival fire that is birthed in some young person, God, that they will never be able to put out. God, give us a heart to work for your kingdom. Give us a heart to do your work. Oh, we pray God right now that the spirit of passion and purpose would come upon us in Jesus' name we pray. Would you give the Lord one more hand clap of praise? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise be to the name of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated in the fear of the Lord.

I want to take my time today. So, please forgive me if I'm not screaming and standing on the pull pit by the time we're 10 minutes into this. But I promise you, I'm going to obey the Holy Ghost. I want to establish which Joash we're talking about here because typically when we say say the biblical name Joash, we automatically go to Joash of Judah whom was seven years old and saved by his aunt and all that wonderful stuff. And that's a wonderful story. But that is not this Joash. This is the Joash of Israel who the Bible says did evil in the sight of the Lord. He was not a good king but an evil king. He made God's people to worship false gods. And most theologians will tell you that Joash while he outwardly would come to church and would worship the one true living God. He would build idols for many pl in many places in his home. And so he tried to connect with the people of God. He tried to connect with the people that worship Yahweh, if you will. He tried to connect with the people that would go to church every day and worship and bow and sacrifice before the Lord. And then on the other hand, he tried to connect with the idol worshippers. Can I tell you young people, you can't have it both ways. The Bible tells us that I would that you'd be hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm, I'll spew you or vomit you up. I'm telling you here on this Saturday morning that it is the will of God for you to figure out what you believe and give it all you got. God's not looking for a half-hearted Christian. God's not looking for half-hearted apostolic. I'm in this and I'm in it all the way. Hallelujah.

We read about this king here in his last recorded encounter. As a matter of fact, it's the last recorded encounter that anyone has with the prophet Elisha. Elisha knows the life of Joash. Joash has lived an evil life. We'll just put it that way. But regardless of that, Elisha is connected to him because Joash is smart enough to know I need a preacher. I Lord help me. I don't want to mess with this too long. But even though he's living in sin, he still recognizes that I need a preacher. I need a prophet in my life to prophesy to me. I need a prophet to lay his hands on me. And so regardless of good king or bad king, you go through the book of the kings and you find that most of them were wise enough to realize that they needed a prophet in their life. I don't know what the relationship was between Joash and Elisha because we don't have as big of a glimpse into their life as we do men like Ahab and David. But we do know that there is some kind of relationship here. And this is indicated by the way that Joash approaches Elisha. It is no doubt that Elisha has prayed for the repentance of Joash. He was the prophet of Israel pleading with God for mercy and asking for Israel's salvation. And when Joash comes into the room where Elisha is, he comes weeping. And he begins with the words, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." And for Elijah, there is some sort of a flashback because the last time this phrase was spoken, it was spoken out of his own mouth as he stooped over to pick up the mantle of the man of God. And Elijah looks at this evil king. And my mind wonders, Pastor Booker, was he wondering? Is he coming to a place of repentance? I wonder if just for a moment if there was some kind of hope that began to bubble up inside of Elisha that said, "What would happen if the king of Israel repented and when I went on, he picked up the mantel of the prophet and ruled Israel as a king and as a prophet of a most high God." I wonder if Elisha begin to sit back and think, "Could God have changed his heart?" It hasn't been for Elisha like it was Elijah. Elijah had a young man following him around, but Elisha it ain't been like that. And maybe he thought, "Is this the guy that I'm supposed to give my mantle to? Is this the one that's going to be the next prophet that's going to take Israel on, that's going to pray for Israel when I'm gone? Is this the man that will be God's mouthpiece to his people?" Think of what kind of kingdom it would be. Israel's in shambles. They've been worshiping Baal and Chimosh and Mollik and all these gods. What kind of kingdom would it be if a prophet was the king? And you can't hurt a guy for dreaming, right? I mean, let's put it where we live. What kind of kingdom would it be if the United States of America had an apostolic president? That's the kind of stuff that Elisha is thinking right here. I knew I'd get your attention there. Praise God.

So he takes the king and he says, "Get a bow." And he gets a bow. He says, "Put your hands upon it." And Elisha puts his hands on the hands of the king. What is happening here is God is giving Joash purpose. He puts the bow in his hand because purpose, hear me, purpose is always handdriven. In the kingdom of God, when you're dealing with purpose, it's always with what you have in your hand. A man that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy for the kingdom. That God is not looking at what you have in mind. Oh, I'm gonna preach now. God's not looking at what you got in your heart until you learn how to get what's in your heart in your hands. You're ineffective in living for God. And you're ineffective in the kingdom until you learn how to take what God put in your mind and put in your heart and you get it in your hand and you put God and you start working in the kingdom like you've never worked before. Get something in your hand and go to work. Hallelujah.

Everything is in place. He's got the hand of the prophet on him. Listen, I'm trying to save a young person right now. Everything is in place. He's got the hand of the prophet upon him because true prophetic anointing comes because of purpose. He's got the purpose of God symbolically in his hands. And now the purpose of God is given direction. Open the window eastward. And he does it. And he tells him to shoot. And he does it. And it's the eb and flow of prophetic purpose as it's being parted. And God is saying, "I'm giving you purpose in your hands." And now because there's purpose in your hand, you can have victory over your adversary.

Elisha is giving him direction and Joash is responding with purpose. The preacher's preaching on Sunday morning and a young man is sitting there taking notes and finding out how he can implement this into living his Christian life. Pastor's wife is teaching a young lady's class on how to be holy and how to be a prayer warrior. And she's sitting there and she's taking notes and she's getting the tools that she needs, Pastor Booker, in her hands. Direction. It's the eb and flow of the supernatural. And now I can imagine Elisha is almost beside himself. He's had to be helped out of the bed. He's on a cane. I don't know. I'm just telling you how my little Sunday school brain works. Man, I'm so slow. They help me back in Sunday school. So I got to spend a lot of time looking at those little pamphlets. This is just how my little Sunday school brain works on Saturday morning. I can see Elisha. He's on his cane and he gets up and he makes his way to the window with Joash and he tell him, "Good, good, good, man. You're doing good. I'm so proud of you. This is exactly what I had in mind." And now the joy and the hope it's growing because he's really going to do it. He's going to pick up my mantel. He's going to preach. He's going to be the prophet of Israel. And I can see he's almost just again, let me preach like I'm a country boy today, okay? He's in a lather. He's worked up. He's My God, this is something I ain't never seen anything like this before. He's never seen Joash act like this. And now Joash is weeping and Joash is calling him his father. Joash is giving him the same words that he gave when he picked up the mantel and he's following his instructions. He's got the weaponry in his hand. He's got purpose in his hand. And he's got the prophetic flow coming through him. He's anointed with purpose and Elisha is excited and he says, "Good, good, good. Now get some arrows." And he gets them. And Elisha is thinking, "My God, I can't believe this." And so he picks up the arrows and he says, "Smite the ground." And he smites the ground three times and he stays. And the man of God becomes wroth. And when you look at the etmology of the word wroth, it means he was grieved. I knew it was too good to be true. I thought this was really going to happen, but it's too good to be true. He has passion in his hands, but he has no passion. He has purpose in his hands, but he has no passion in his heart. He's got prophetic flow in his hands, but he has no passion in his heart. And so the weaponry is there and the prophet's there and the mantle is there, but he doesn't have anything in his heart that'll make him get up in the morning and go out against his enemy. He don't have anything in his heart that'll flow.

Can I tell you today that purpose without passion is powerless. And you can have all the purpose that you want, but until you get passion married to your purpose, you'll come to church, and you'll shout a little bit and you'll dance a little bit and you'll pray a little bit, but you'll go right back into the hell hole and you'll go right back to your sin. And you'll go right back to your failure because you got purpose, but you have no passion for the purpose. Hallelujah. When you have purpose but no passion, you end up with no power. And the devil keeps doing what he's always done because you can read about Joash and you find that the idols keep being built. And you can find that Israel stays in disarray. When you read about Joash, you figure out really quickly that he can't figure out how to live for God. He's got prophetic purpose, but he has no passion. And because of that, he continues down a trend of failure and living for God. He had a relationship with a preacher. He had a relationship with the church. He had purpose. He had a destiny. But he had no passion. Cuz you can read. I don't have time to read it all. Will you just trust me today and go home and study it and come back later? But you can read and find out that the high places were not taken away. And the people still sacrifice and burn incense in the high places. That's all a type and shadow of dominion. That's why the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. These mountain regions, these high places. And I believe that there's spiritual context of where we're preaching right now here in SoCal. These mountain ranges were spiritual boundaries, borders, and they would set up gods on these high places. And they believe that that's where the gods would come and settle down with them. And people continued to set up idols in high places. People continued to worship false god because one man had purpose with no passion. He had purpose, but he didn't have power because he didn't realize that I can't just take what I have in my hands and not apply it to something that I have in my heart. God does his part by giving us purpose, but then it's up to you to give passion. God does his part by giving you an expected end. God does his part by giving you a ministry. God does his, you hear me, young man, young lady. God does his part by calling you to preach. But you got to do your part. It's not enough to just be called. It's not enough. You got to be passionate about it.

I believe that when I'm chosen, that's all I need. Well, I'm going to tell you tonight that you are sadly mistaken because we shout so much. Thank God for the scripture. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9. You are to be able to quote it. Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. And we use this scripture casually, and we shout about it at youth meetings. You see, but a proper hermeneutic understands that the third law of hermeneutics is context. All right. And in order to get the context, Brother Booker, you got to read what's in front of it, and you got to read what's behind it. See, we're shouting about being a peculiar people and a royal priesthood. But back up to First Peter chapter 2 and verse one, and it says, "Wherefore laying aside all malice and g and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, I feel like preaching on a Saturday morning." See, you can shout about being a part of the priesthood, but until you do what First Peter 2:1 says and you start discarding things that are in your life, that comes through passion. Cuz you can read your Bible and when you start reading about the Levitical priesthood, you'll find that just because you were a Levite didn't mean you got to be a priest. Because to be a priest, you had to live a certain way. Being called is God's part, but being a priesthood, that's up to you. Y'all are not going to help me preach on Saturday morning. You ain't got nothing to do with being chosen. God chose you before you were even in your mother's womb, Jeremiah. God chose you, Moses, when you were in the basket. God chose you, David, while you were out in the pasture. But if you keep sitting around and watching sheep, if you just keep sitting around and not doing anything to go towards the purpose that God has given you, you'll waste your life in a pastor watching sheep. If you don't believe you can be a part of the Levites and not be a priest, why don't you ask a man by the name of Kora how that worked out? Because when you got purpose, I wish I had the time to preach all of this. Cory, you've got purpose. He was to carry the instruments of worship from point A to point B. That's purpose. It's handdriven. Every day when he put my God, I feel the Holy Ghost. When in the book of Numbers, I think it's chapter 16, when he's given his job title, we see that he goes to the house of God and he puts these things in his hands in satchels and he puts them on a pole in satchels and he carries them from point A to point B. I'm talking about the most holy things that were inside of the house of God. And he didn't realize that there was purpose in that. The problem was Kora didn't have any passion for what God called him to do. And he ended up getting the ground to swallow him up because he couldn't figure out how to marry passion and purpose together. He couldn't figure out that I might not be Moses, but that doesn't mean I'm not I don't play a part in what God's doing. You see, just because you're not the pastor, oh, I'm going to help a young man right now. Just because you're not pastoring or just because you're not the youth director or just because you're not the service leader doesn't mean that you don't have value. You are chosen. But maybe the reason you haven't got a position yet is because God's waiting to see is if you're willing to marry your purpose with your passion and put it all together so that you can walk and talk in the power of the Holy Ghost.

You can be chosen and not be capable. Because you can look at men like Hafna and Phineas that were chosen. But they were incapable because the only thing they understood about the house of God was purpose. All they understood is I go to work at the house of the Lord. And I sacrifice and I do this before the people. You can be seated. I'm not done preaching. You better be careful when you're doing stuff when it's just because of the people. And then they'd go behind closed doors and because there was purpose but no passion, they perverted the use of the temple and the tabernacle. They were chosen, but they weren't a royal priesthood. Chosen generation. That's God's part. Royal priesthood. That's my part. That's me living like a priest. That's me understanding that if I'm going to be a priest, I have to lay aside some things and that only come because my flesh doesn't want to lay aside the things that I have to lay aside to become a priest. My flesh doesn't want to lay aside entertainment. And my flesh doesn't want to lay aside sexual immorality. My flesh doesn't want to lay aside the little G gods of this world. My flesh doesn't want to lay aside walking like the world and talking like the world and being all caught up in the sports world that we live in. My flesh doesn't want to lay that aside. But I understand that I'm chosen. But it doesn't do me any good until I step into the role of a priest and lay aside these weights that do so easily beset us.

Pastors, I'm going to help you right now because I've heard preachers all over the country take whole sermons and preach about the differences in weights and sins. And we forget that the Bible says to lay them both sit down. Can I help you, young man, young lady? You keep trying to decipher if it's a weight or if it's a sin. Can I tell you it don't matter if it's a weight or if it's a sin. You're commanded by God to lay the weight and the sin. If you're going to be a priest, if you're going to fulfill the purpose that God has in your life, you've got to lay down the weight and the sin. Well, I'm not sinning, preacher. I'm just meddling a little bit. No. Laid down the weight and the sin so that purpose can come alive in your world. When you have purpose but no passion, you can shout on Sunday and sin on Monday and not be convicted. Yeah. When you have passion but no purpose, you can come to church and teach a Bible study and go home and watch pornography and not have any conviction because you're being seared. Your conscience is being seared into the place where you think that, well, as long as I'm being used and as long as I have purpose, that means I'm saved. But your purpose is powerless until you get the passion to crucify your flesh. I preached to you last night about having unprecedented revival. I'm trying to teach you how to have it today. I'm trying to teach you that you can't just walk into your city and have revival if you're not a priest. And you can't be a priest if you don't have passion for the things of God. Clap your hands and give God praise.

We've established what purpose is without passion. We've established that it's powerless. But can I ask you a question? Can I flip the coin because I'm gonna preach both sides of this. What happens when you have passion but you don't know purpose? What happens when you take men like King Saul? Saul was a man that started, right? Truth be told, though, he was never supposed to be king. Am I in the book? Y'all still with me today? I know it's Saturday morning. You stayed up at 4:00 in the morning, but I'm preaching right now. Wake up. He was never supposed to be king. God told Samuel, he said, "You know what? They should let you rule this thing. And they should let the prophet do it. But because the passion of the people, it was the passion of the people that made king Saul king rather than the purpose of God. And so it's a theme that remains throughout the reign of Saul. Saul starts out quite right, walking head and shoulders higher than anyone else in the kingdom. He's a strategist in battle. But we roll into 1st Samuel chapter 13 and a problem presents itself. The Bible says that there was no smith in Israel and that there was only a sword found in the hand of Saul and Jonathan. Oh, help me God. Flip the page one page and you find that Jonathan is getting ready to go into battle. Remember purpose is hand driven. What do you have in your hand? And while Jonathan is in the battle, where's Saul? He's sleeping under the pomegranate tree. And you read your Bible and it'll tell you that Jonathan, come here, brother. Jonathan and his armor bearer. Turn around. Yo, your name is Jonathan. Man, I could have picked a better guy. I'll be the armor bearer. Jonathan and his armor bearer turned back to back. Am I telling the story right? And they slay the Philistines. I got a question. Whose sword was the armor bearer using? Cuz there's only two swords in Israel. And there's not a smith. And while Jonathan's sleeping under the pomegranate tree, there's an armor bearer with Jonathan that's got a sword. Where'd they come from? Yeah. I know this is just my opinion, but can I preach to you maybe tonight or this afternoon that Saul said, "Just go ahead and take my sword." Say, "Well, he didn't know he was there." Well, how long had he been carrying Saul's sword? He didn't know that they were gone. I know that, but how long? And he said, you know what? Because when you got passion but no purpose, you're quick to handle off the weapons of warfare to somebody else and say, "Let somebody else win the battle." And you'll want to overcome what you're going through by writing the cattail of your best friend's prayer life. When you got passion but no purpose. You see Saul, all you're worried about is a position. As long as I'm the king, as long as people look at me and bow their knee, as long as I'm the youth director, as long as I get to the point where I can lead a song, as long as I get to the point where I'm in a choir and I got a position, I got passion. But I don't understand that passion is passion without purpose is dangerous. It's detrimental. Tell me something. Just as much as you're powerless when you have purpose but no passion, you're perilous when you got passion with no purpose. Because then you don't care about what happens to the people around you. You're just sitting under the pome pomegranate tree enjoying your little position.

I again I don't know where he got the sword from, brother Booker. And he might have just found it, but just something in me wonders how long had he been carrying He was the armor bearer. I get that. But how long had he been carrying the sword of Saul? There was something in Jonathan that said, "I'll carry my own sword." But his armor bearer is there. Whose armor does he have? You see, cuz when Saul starts messing up, he's got passion, but he don't have purpose. It's not very long. And he messes up. And God speaks to him and says, "You kill them all. Make sure you kill AAG. Make sure you kill the sheeps, the goats, everything that you see, slaughter it." Right? The man of God comes down and he hears the loing of sheep and he's mad. I'm going to tell you what. Sometimes your preacher's got a right to get mad cuz he's been Oh, help me God. He's been preaching to you and telling you you need to kill this and you need to kill this, but he hears the loing of sheep and then you want to get an offended attitude because the preacher calls you in his office and he seems a little red-faced because he Why's he got to pick on me? Don't he know who I am? Don't he know how much money my mom and daddy gives to this church? Oh, I'm going to stomp on it right now. Don't even know how long my family's been in this church. You want to know something? He's not worried about how much money your family gave. He hears the loing of sheep and he's wroth in his spirit cuz he's been preaching and telling you, you got to kill it all. This is what happens when you have passion but no purpose. He gets the king there and he's bound hand and foot and I don't have time to preach all of this, but we find that Saul is hiding from Goliath because he's afraid quote unquote of the giant. I don't believe he's afraid of the giant because if you study your Bible and you'll study history, you'll find out that Aag was a giant, too. And Aag historians say, was approximately six inches taller than Goliath. It's not that. He's done lost his anointing. He was still anointed when he captured AAG, but the anointing has departed him now. He learned how to live in the position until God said, "Okay, I'm taking the purpose out of your hands and I'm gonna put it in the hands of somebody else that has passionat." And that's why when David comes before Saul and he says, "I can kill Goliath." He says, "I don't need all this stuff. I haven't proved it. I'm going to use what I've got in my I'm going to use the purpose that God given me, and I'm going to marry it to the passion that God has given me, and I'll see this giant killed."

Saul has the giant AAG bound with chains. And you see what happens? The man of God has to show up. Because when you have passion with no purpose, you don't have anything in your hand that can kill giants. And so the preacher has to show up and the preacher kills the giant. The preacher cuts AAG into little pieces because he's just learned how to depend on somebody else's on his sword in somebody else's hands. Pray for me, pastor. I'm struggling. Pray for yourself. Is that okay, Pastor? I need you to fast for me. Fast for yourself. I'm sick and tired of watching young people use this excuse. And preachers, I pray to God y'all stop preaching it. I don't think this group of guys are preaching it, but I've heard preachers my whole life, boy, I'm telling you, this generation seeing stuff like I ain't never seen. And young people are using that as an excuse to get out and act immoral and saying, "Well, my pastor's pretty much telling me he couldn't do it if he was my age." That's a bunch of hogwash. You need to learn marry the purpose and the passion. God called you for such a time as this. You might be weak, but pray for yourself. Get a sword in your hand. Get passion in your heart. And watch God bring victory to your city. Watch God bring victory to your church.

See, cuz passion purpose is emotional. I'm going to help you. Yeah. That's why on Sunday morning and Sunday night, you shout and on Tuesday you're in the deepest, darkest valley you ever walked in when you get to midweek service. And any little thing in the church, oh God, I feel like I'm preaching right now to somebody, any little thing in the church causes you to be hurt. Well, they didn't tag me on Instagram at Youth Explosion 2022. You know what you are? You're a wimp and you need to mature and grow up. That's what people with all passion and no purpose do. It'll be that one person in the youth group that if there's drama, I'm just going to preach to young people today. They're going to be involved in it. If there's some kind of deal going on and there's no unity and we can't pray together because they said, he said, she said, that's what passion with no purpose does. And so, like Saul, you got to have a minstrel to come in and play you a little tune and soothe your spirits and get you back in this right spirit before you can even have revival. So play my favorite song, please team. Give me a solo on Sunday night at the choir. Pastor, pet me a little bit and everything will be all right. No, you need to get in the trenches and marry your passion with purpose.

Tell you how detrimental passion without purpose is. There's a biblical word for it. And when you experience passion without purpose outside of the realm of marriage, we call that fornication. And what ends up happening when you have passion without purpose is you end up with things that you're not mature enough to handle. And then not only do you are you raising something that you're not mature enough to handle, you've got to deal with the psychological junk that I've wasted my life. And now you're in a rat race with those that are around you trying to make up for lost time because you let your passion overrun your purpose.

This is part of this whole Saul story I never got. Saul has a hero on his side. This guy killed a giant Yeah. 200 Philistines. And instead of parading him around in the streets and saying, "This is the hero of Israel, this is the guy I want on my side," he gets jealous of him. Can I tell you tonight that jealousy is born from undirected purpose. It's there, but you ain't got it in your hand yet. And all you know how to do is be passionate. I really do believe I don't have Bible to back this up. This is just my belief. And if you disagree, that's fine. But I believe that that's why David would write the psalm, try the reigns of my heart, oh God. And what he was saying is, God, I have passion for the things of you and I know I have purpose because you've called me to be king. But just try the reigns of my heart. Now, I'm a horseman, okay? I know how to preach about the stuff I understand. Dogs, flathead biscuits, horses. I get all that stuff. Biscuits and gravy, tenderloin and bis. I got it. Woo. Hallelujah. I get all that. And as a horseman, I understand that there's this deal that the longer you ride this horse and you get into the groove if you will and that horse understands the way that you're moving and it comes to a point to where I'm riding a horse and I don't even need reins. I don't even have to put the bit in his mouth. All I have to do is take my finger and touch his neck. Change my pressure just a little bit from one side to another. Can I preach to you? Maybe that's why you're so unfulfilled in living for God is because you got a bit in your mouth. And with everything God's doing, he's trying to turn you. And the pastor's trying to turn you and you're not sensitive enough because you're so passionate, but you don't have purpose. And so there's a wild animal inside of that horse that can run and be free. But as I direct his purpose, now I can move a cow from pin A to pin B. As long as the bits in his mouth and he's fighting the bit, I can't do anything with him. But the moment he becomes sensitive to my touch now, he has a purpose. And I'll tell you, good horses, and I know this is just simple preaching, country boy preaching, but I'm feeling this on the Holy Ghost. Good horses once they figure out their purpose, their purpose becomes their passion. And then when you walk in the barn, they're doing everything they can. Pick me. Pick me. Don't pick that horse down there. Pick me. I want to get out today. Their purpose becomes their passion because they understood like David, try the reigns of my heart. I just want to be in a connection with my master to the point to where all he has to do is point me in the right direction and I'm passionate and I've got purpose and so I can walk and I can talk in the purpose and the passion of God.

Musicians come. What happens again I really wish I could have preached this in a three-part series. I didn't have time to preach it all today. What happens though when you marry purpose and passion? I tell you what happens. You get guys like Jeremiah whom we call the weeping prophet. I'd call that passion. Jeremiah, I know the ways that I've laid out before you. I've got thoughts of you, buddy. They're good and not of I got a purpose. You understand a young man named Jeremiah, how of an how much of an anomaly he is? He stands before kings and false prophets and professes doom at 16 to 17 years old. Not because he's passionate alone, not because he's purpose alone, but because he marries the two. Oh God. And I don't know about y'all, but to me, Jeremiah and Isaiah, those are my guys here. There's not a more decorated prophet that prophesied so many things that came to pass in Israel's history than Jeremiah because he married purpose and passion. Try the reigns of my heart.

I tell you what happens when you marry purpose and passion. You get a young lady by the name of Esther who was brought into the kingdom for such a time as this. And she's afraid and she's scared. But her passion is bigger than her fears. You want to know how to overcome insecurities and low self-esteem? Find your purpose. Find your passion and marry the two. So I don't know how to find my purpose and I don't know how to find my passion. I'll tell you how. Become find purpose and passion in prayer. Find purpose and passion in fasting. Find purpose and passion in teaching Bible studies. And if you do those three things, you do those three things out of that morphs your own personal I don't know any other way to say it than ministry. It's your own walk with God for you to walk in. You got to have a relationship of purpose and passion that is not driven by what your pastor says. That's not driven by what your mom and dad says that I'm purposed and I'm passionate about this because God placed this in my heart. So, preacher, you don't have to go buy another van. I just got my first car and instead of going hanging out with all my friends, I'll go pick up bus kids that we don't have enough room to fit on the bus. Pastor, you don't have to call youth prayer meeting. I'm going to be there Friday night at 7:00 instead of out in town making the rs. I'm going to be at the church praying. I know you didn't call it, but I've got purpose and I've got passion living on the inside of me. And so, I'm going to close myself up at the house of God.

The promise comes when you have places that you need to go. You have purpose that is beyond you. This is how you get pro promise. And passion carries you past the door, the doors of death, if you will, to walk into a room where a king is sitting and he might extend the scepter and he might not. My purpose has brought me here. But the only way promises fulfilled is when I have passion for purpose. When it's beyond things that I can control, I can't touch it. I can't feel it. But I'm passionate and I've got purpose.

Tell you what happens as the singers come. I'm closing. Make your way to these altars right now if you will. I'll tell you what happens when passion and purpose collide. Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. You know what happens when passion and purpose collide? Salvation for the world. And I'm not telling you that you can do what Jesus did. Jesus died. He was the only perfect sacrifice. But he's Christ in you, the hope of glory. The hope that this world has is Christ in you. Passion and purpose that say I can't save the world, but I can change the world. I take it a little bit further than that. You don't even have to change the world. You just have to change your world. You may never speak on a public stage with 25,000 people. You don't have to do that. Just change your world. That's right. Let them see passion and purpose collide. Let them see divine destiny of God come into your life at a youth meeting and you pray until it becomes all you want.

I'm just going to tell you the reason I'm here. I'm a young man, Brother Booker. I don't deserve to be preaching to these young people at 30 years old. I'm telling you, as far as I'm concerned, I don't have enough corn in the crib. I've been preaching since I was 9 years old. I'm not here I'm not pinning any roses. I'm just telling you. And the reason I'm standing here at Youth Explosion right now is because as a 14, 15, 16 year old boy, I had struggles just like you had. I fought the bit. No, I don't want to do it. Just like you do because I understood that to be a priest, got to lay some stuff down. And I don't get it all right. God, help me. I'm striving every day to learn how to marry purpose and passion better in my life. But the reason I'm standing here as young of a man as I am before you is because one day I finally said, "You know what? My way ain't is miserable. Let's just be honest. It ain't going to work anyway. You're right. There's people under the sound of my voice, I'm sure, here today that could give you a testimony that I backslid and I walked away from God and I was more miserable out there than I was in here. Why not take all of the frustration of why things aren't working, things are not going right, and channel it, harness it into finding purpose and passion in your walk with God.

Every head bowed, every eye closed, every hand lifted, I would lead you in prayer. But whether you have purpose without passion or you're standing on the other side and you have passion without purpose right now, you got to find your own way of praying this prayer. And sometimes all you can say is, "Oh, God." And sometimes all you can say is, "Jesus, help me." And sometimes all you can say is, "Lord have mercy." But whatever it is right now, you need to pray that prayer till passion and purpose collide inside of you. Come on, lift your voice. God, I'm not just interested in the pull pit. I'm not just interested in a position, a solo being known. God, let purpose and passion collide inside of me. Come on. That's it. That's it. That's it. Lift your voice. Let there be a sound. Let there be a sound. Create in me a clean heart. Renew in me a right spirit, oh God. Come on. You've been hiding on the back side of the pasture without with nothing but passion. Let it marry purpose. I'm preaching to some young men right now that you've got arrows in your hand and God's saying, "I've gave you purpose in your hands, but now where's the passion in your heart? Strike the ground. Strike the ground. Strike the ground." Come on. I'm preaching to a young lady. You were brought into the kingdom for such a time as this. But are you going to walk into the king's room? Let purpose and passion collide in me. Come on. You're getting your call right now. You're getting your purpose right now. Come on. Come on. Well, I know you've got that facade of you got it all together, but I wish you'd take down that facade just for a moment and let those tears flow down your face. Come on. Come on. Come on. Hallelujah. Come on. Come on. Lift your voice. Come on. Lift your voice, God. Whatever you need me to do, if all you call me to do is pick up trash in the sanctuary, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the seat of the scornful. I agree. I'll say yes. I'll say yes. Come on, lift your voice. Let that be your prayer right now. God, I'm submitting to your will. God, I'm submitting to your way. Not only am I going to submit, but I'm going to give everything I have to it. Yes. I agree. Say yes. Come on, young lady. That overwhelming feeling that's coming over you right now is travail. Why don't you let it go? Why don't you let it be birthed in you right now? Come on. Why don't you pray like your grandmama used to pray? Come on, young man. That overwhelming bird and those tears flowing down your face, that's a spirit of travail.