Keep Your Passion Alive

In this powerful sermon delivered at Legacy Church, Pastor Josiah, a Canadian church planter from Gatineau, Quebec, shares his heartfelt journey of founding La Chapelle during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with a small team that dwindled under restrictions, Josiah’s faith and perseverance led to remarkable growth, with 305 attendees at Easter and an average service size of 100-150. Through personal anecdotes, including his family’s sacrifices and humorous moments like his preference for "man purses," Josiah connects with the congregation, highlighting the importance of passion in ministry.

Drawing from Philippians 1:12-26 (ESV), where the Apostle Paul reflects on his imprisonment and unwavering commitment to the gospel, Josiah outlines three key principles to "keep your passion alive" for serving God:

1. Reignite Your Passion: Choose to serve others’ needs over personal comfort, mirroring Paul’s decision to remain in the flesh for the church’s benefit despite longing to be with Christ.
2. Seize Opportunities in Trials: Like Paul, who shared the gospel even in prison, believers should look for ways to proclaim Christ amidst hardships, as illustrated by Josiah’s experiences during Gatineau’s church-planting struggles.
3. Pursue Jesus Christ: A life consumed by Christ, as Paul exemplified, ensures passion remains alive, preventing distractions like comfort or personal trials from derailing one’s mission.

Josiah’s message is both a testimony of God’s faithfulness and a call to action, urging believers to live sacrificially, embrace opportunities to share their faith, and pursue Jesus in every sphere of life. Through stories of transformed lives in Gatineau and a mission trip to Indonesia, he underscores the transformative power of saying "yes" to God’s call, no matter the cost. The sermon concludes with a heartfelt prayer for renewed passion and a challenge to surrender obstacles hindering one’s commitment to God’s mission.