Zoe makes Zeo
How What are you passionate about? What’s getting you fired-up at the moment?
Passion stirs us. It stimulates what we do, how we think, and how we feel about ourselves and others. Passion is that intense enthusiasm for something.
Because we’re all different, we all have different passions. Here at Chester Road Baptist Church we have so many passionate people.
There are those passionate about their hobbies: Daimler cars (Edwin), painting (Geraldine, I have one of your paintings on my office wall), model railways (that has to be Mike)…
Some are passionate about activities: horse dressage (Norma), competitive dog showing (Joy.. and Alfie!), restoring antique German clocks (Colin)…
Some of you are passionate about causes: ending food poverty (Wendy), protecting badgers, becoming carbon-neutral…
And then there are those who are passionate about lost causes: Derby County (Chris), Notts Forest (Martin), Wolves (Ian), West Bromwich Albion or, as Wolves fans call them, Sandwell Town (Colin - the other one!)
Passion helps us to become a more complete, rounded version of who we were made to be. Our passion pushes us to go further, whether it’s the love you have for someone or something. When you have a passion, you invest time and energy in it.
It drives you, energises you, motivates you, excites you.
Not everyone always gets your passion. They don’t see what you see.  That’s usually because they haven’t had that same experience as you.
Today, we’re thinking about passion.
Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome. It’s the section, book in the Bible called Romans.  Though he wrote it 2,000 years ago, it’s a message for today. In Romans chapter 12 he says things like:
•	Hate what is evil; cling to what is good
•	Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
•	Share with those who are in need.
•	Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
That’s a message for us - for you and me - today. Who doesn’t think we need more of that in the world today?
We’re going to focus on verse 11:
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.”
Paul talks about ‘zeal’ and ‘fervour’ – words we don’t often use in our everyday language. Remember, Paul was writing in Greek, not English. If your passion is Ancient Greek, then you’ll be comfortable reading Paul’s original text. But, for the rest of us, we have to rely on translators to turn Paul’s writing from Ancient Greek into English. Good translation requires the translator to understand and translate the original meaning, what the author intended to convey.
Paul uses two contrasting words: one we are called TO do; one we’re called NOT to do. 
“Never be lacking in OKNEROUS (zeal), but keep your ZEO (spiritual fervour).”
“Never be lacking in OKNEROUS zeal” - that’s what we’re NOT to do
“..but keep your ZEO spiritual passion” - that’s what we’re called TO do
So what about this ZEO? It’s to be on fire for something, burning with passion. Eugene Peterson’s The Message puts it like this:
“Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fuelled and aflame.”
But this Greek word Zeo is also about bubbling over with enthusiasm. Think of when you open a bottle of Prosecco or champagne. When the cork is released, the Prosecco can’t help itself. It bubbles over with enthusiasm – ZEO
Who knows what an onomatopoeia is? Ask a 7 year old. It’s a word that sounds like what it means or describes. So if Edwin drives his Daimler and has a crash; the word ‘crash’ sounds like a crash. And when Colin repairs an antique German clock and it starts going tick-tock, that words sounds like the clock going tick-tock. 
In the same way, the Ancient Greek word zeo is an onomatopoeia because it sounds like bubbling, like Prosecco bubbling out of the bottle into a glass.
Paul is saying, be the like Prosecco. Be enthusiastic, and allow your enthusiasm, passion, spiritual fervour to bubble over, to over flow. Don’t try and hold it all in. Don’t hold back. If it’s there.. let it come out. It’s natural, normal, healthy.
Paul was talking specifically about a passion for God, an infectious enthusiasm for God’s gift of life. Be on fire for God. This isn’t just about having a belief in God, keeping God in just one compartment/ drawer of your life. It’s ‘access all areas’. It’s about being consumed by God. If Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life – the essence of all reality – then it’d almost be a miracle not to be overflowing with enthusiasm, passion for the things of God.
Love God with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength – with all that you’ve got. It’s about being passionate for God.
We don’t make ourselves zeo, passionate. We aren’t the source of this. So, where does this Zeo come from? It comes from that other Greek word we’ve been looking at, Zoe: Zoe, the life God always intended for you. Zoe and Zeo go together, like salt and pepper. Zoe makes Zeo, Zoe leads to Zeo. 
When we allow our spirit to connect with God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, there is a spiritual reaction. Zoe bubbles over in Zeo. When we begin to accept Zoe, the life God always intended for us, it bubbles over in Zeo, spiritual fervour, excitement, passion.
The Psalms are full of Zeo. Psalm 45 says:
“My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skilful writer.”
Again, The Message puts it:
“My heart bursts its banks, spilling beauty and goodness. I pour it out in a poem to the king, shaping the river into words.”
We’re so excited about what God has done for others, for everyone, in Jesus Christ, it’s as if our heart bursts its bank; it can no longer be contained, tamed, controlled, suppressed.
Or Psalm 63:
“God—you’re my God! I can’t get enough of you!
I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God,
    traveling across dry and weary deserts.
So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open,
    drinking in your strength and glory.
In your generous love I am really living at last!
    My lips brim praises like fountains.
I bless you every time I take a breath;
    My arms wave like banners of praise to you.
We respond physically, emotionally, as well as spiritually, to God. We communicate feeling with our facial expressions, we lift up our hands, we dance like no-ones watching. It’s as if we can’t contain what God is doing within us anymore, and we reach out to God. We worship with Zeo passion because we are so in awe of who God is and what He has done.
And we also serve with zeo passion. Again, we have some very passionate people who serve so well/ hard.  Problems arise when we serve out of guilt – “I’m so bad/ so unworthy. How can I make God and others like me more?”
Or when we serve out of pride and ego – “Look at me. It’s all about me – serving me.”
Instead, true service comes out of zeo passion – “I’m so consumed by what God has done, says about me, and wants to do in others, I count it such a joy to serve with God.”
So, what about that other Greek word, Oknerous? It means to not ‘hold back’. What is stopping you from going all-out for God? What holds you back from being more expressive in worship? 
For some, it’s shame. What will others think of me? The Victorian era, which historically ended in 1901 with the death of Queen Victoria, brought us many good things. But it was also characterised by a prim, repressive, suppression of feelings, passion. Victorian attitudes to etiquette, emotion, sex… Control and the projection of power was everything. Submission was weakness, Vulnerability was a sin. Our church was planted as the Victorian era was about to end. But Victorian attitudes didn’t die with Queen Victoria, they continued – and sometimes still do, passed on from generation to generation.
What more of God could we EXPERIENCE if we opened ourselves more to Him?
What more could God do IN us, if only we let Him?
What more could God do THROUGH us if only we were more zeo passionate for Him?
Sometimes we want to retain control, we want to be Lord of us, when, all along, God is saying He is the Lord of Lords. He wants us to surrender our control to Him, to trust Him and His ways.
We worry that, if we surrender control to God, what will happen to us. What if we get emotional and cry? What will others think of me? If I had a hymn book to hold, then I wouldn’t be tempted to clap or, worse still, lift up my hands. That’s oknerous - holding back and Paul says, “Don’t be OKNEROUS holding back, lacking in zeal
If we want to see God’s Kingdom released in others, we need to see his Kingdom first released in us.
So, let’s “not be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.”
DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk