As we begin wrapping up our week on the desires of every heart, today we're going to explore our innate desire to be passionate,

how you were made to live passionately and wholeheartedly, and how to direct that passion and energy towards the things of God.

Welcome to the First 15 podcast. Let's dive right in.

Our scripture for today comes from Mark 12, verse 30, which says, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Passionate devotion, love, and purpose captivate us.

As a culture, we cling to stories like Romeo and Juliet, Gone with the Wind, Don Quixote,

the Count of Monte Cristo, and Les Miserables for the passionate actions of these characters.

These stories evoke within each of us a desire to be equally passionate in our own lives.

We long to give ourselves completely to something or someone that our lives might have true purpose.

Humanity is captivated by passion because we were created for it. God created us with a desire to be

passionate that he might satisfy that desire with his plans. The Bible is the ultimate story of passion.

It's the story of God coming down to us and giving himself completely for us to the point of death.

Defeating death, he now desires to use us as passionate children to lead the whole world to salvation and freedom

that our lives would impact eternity.

You were made to be passionate.

But oftentimes church is the last place you think of as passionate and wholehearted.

So often we in vocational ministry are scared to lose our volunteers and congregation by asking

too much of them.

So we never present them with an opportunity to live as passionately as God intends.

The truth is that God wants all of you.

He's calling you to live a life of passionate surrender everywhere that you go.

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