JOE: Welcome to FJM TV. I'm Joe Jordan. I'm here with Cristy and
Gina, it's great to have you guys today, another day to know
Jesus, another day to serve Jesus. And another day we are
praying to be used by Jesus and we just want to welcome you, our
friends, our guests, our partners. And if you're new to
the show today, you're like, what is this? Fred Jordan
Missions is a ministry that's been around 80 years this year.
Since 1944, we've been serving the homeless, the helpless, the
hopeless with the hope of Jesus. We kind of do it in two ways. We
declare and we demonstrate God's love. We declare by sharing
God's word and his love, and that God has a plan for us all.
And he sent Jesus, his son to die for us all that we could
have life and a life abundantly, forgiveness of our sins, but we
also demonstrate God's love because you know sometimes
telling a child on Skid Row or in poverty or telling a man or a
woman who lives on the streets and you know that's their
bedroom, that's their bathroom, that's their kitchen. I mean, on
the streets of Skid Row, a mean cold and dirty place. You know
God loves you, God loves you, God loves you, but then they're
hungry. Sometimes it's hard for them to really understand that
and to believe that. That's why we demonstrate God's love. And
Jesus did the same thing. He demonstrated the love that he
had for people by caring for them and meeting their needs, by
healing them or feeding them or clothing them or whatever Jesus
was doing when people had needs. Jesus stepped in. And so how can
people, Gina, how can they get involved if they want to come
and see the mission, if they'd like to volunteer or give?
Because you know we don't take state, federal, local money. We
don't take government money because we don't want to be told
you can't say the name of Jesus. We're not going to do that.
We've been offered money many times by many different sources,
but the minute they say, you can't open the Bible or you
can't tell people about Jesus or you can't talk about God, it
doesn't matter how much money someone gives, we're not going
to, and we've never compromised. So we count on friends like you,
but how have we gone all these years?
GINA: That's right, because you have declared the name of Jesus
daily, there on the mission to those that are hurting. So I
mean, the proof is in the pudding, as they say, 80 years
of the Jordan family being so faithful. Viewers like you,
being faithful, giving of your prayers, your love, your
support, your financial support, and the need is greater now more
than ever. With everything that's going on in this day and
age, people are hurting and daily we have the doors open to
give them. You never know what it is that we have at the
mission. If it's a blanket when it's cold and socks and a snack
during the day, we have one area of the mission that's open all
day where they can come up and get whatever we have to give at
that time. And so when you give with your finances, we have that
supply full for them. But then also when they're on the
streets, they get to come in and they sit in the chapel, they
hear about Jesus and they feel safe. You know for some of them,
it's not getting by a day, it's minute to minute really, there
on Skid Row. So they come into the safety of the mission for
that hour, and they're just loved on. They're told that
they're loved and then they're fed a warm meal. So we need your
financial support to continue to do that. We've got events coming
up also and that we need volunteers. So go to fjm.org,
see how you can volunteer, and if it's on your heart right now,
go and give financially. No amount is too small or too big,
so we would appreciate it. Thank you for your faithfulness.
JOE: Yeah, for sure, and God just takes all of us and puts us
together to accomplish this great vision that God gave.
GINA: Yeah, and today we're talking about purpose you know
and that goes along with giving and supporting is a part of our
purpose when we love the Lord is to give.
JOE: Yeah, and we're going to talk about that passionate
purpose and living a life with passionate purpose. And you know
you can have passions. Like I have passions. I have a passion
to play softball and tournaments, and I have a
passion to ride my dirt bike. There's a lot of passions, but
those are more like passions about me. They're not wrong.
They're not wrong. We can all have passions but they're more
like about self. And they're more selfish about me, which
again, I'm not saying it's wrong. We can have passions that
are all about us.
GINA: It's fleeting a little bit.
JOE: Right, but when you have passion that has purpose, that's
what we want to talk about because purpose focuses outside
of us. And so having a passionate purpose in your life
will help guide you in everything, all your choices,
the way that your direction in life is shaped. It all has to do
with finding that purpose and then putting passion behind it.
I kind of say it like this, it's kind of like a GPS. A God GPS
though, because I don't know about you, I talked to a staff
the other day who was trying to get through some traffic and get
to the office and they used Waze or they used you know Maps or
something. You know, put it this way, if you've ever used Waze or
Maps or your navigation in your car, it's not perfect. I'm
telling you sometimes you know my wife's like, oh, put in Waze.
And I'm like, yeah, I think I'm smarter than Waze today.
GINA: What? It's a boy band that sings my directions. It doesn't
get any better than that.
JOE: Yeah but sometimes getting your directions from anyone but
God can take you down a wrong street and get you there late.
But I just want you to know this. If you have God's purpose
and then put passion behind that, you can have a great life
of fulfillment. In fact, in Matthew 22:37, it says this,
Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all of your heart,
with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, the greatest
and first commandment. The second part to that is not only
to love God with everything, but then love others. Love your
neighbor. And that's what we try to do at Fred Jordan Mission is
love God with everything and then share that love with those
in need, those who are our neighbors and our guests. You
know passion's a great thing as I said, God made us to live with
passion and to live in passion with the things that guide us in
life but passion without purpose gets us nowhere. We can put all
of our passion into doing good work, but without a clear
purpose and a goal, we will never achieve the outcome we're
looking for. I really love that. Passion is more narrowed. It's
pointed, it's personal. While purpose is wider, it's broader,
and it invites a long-term vision in our lives. Focus on
benefiting others. Purpose focuses more on those that
you're called to serve than about you. And I love that
because you know growing up and everything, I always saw my mom
and dad's passion and purpose serving those on Skid Row and
through the ministry of this television program and sharing
God's love and demonstrating God's love. But you know I had a
lot of passion that was very selfish. You know I want to play
football, I'm going to go to college. I played football. You
know I want to do this, I want my passion to be all about me.
And again, there's nothing wrong with having passion in things
you do, but if your life is only passionate about the things that
you want out of life and it doesn't focus on how to benefit
others, it's going to be pretty empty. And so we want to share
today from God's word about some of this, and Ephesians 2:10 I
think is a great passage for us to look at. It says this, we are
God's handiwork created by Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for all of us to do. God has
prepared things that are kingdom focused, that benefit the
kingdom, that benefit others, and we are called to do those
things to honor and glorify him. So this is purpose, knowing that
we have God guiding us, directing us, and giving us a
plan for our life, and then pouring purpose into that, that
gives meaning to life, and also it honors God by contributing to
those kingdom things and kingdom purposes where fulfillment
comes. So ladies, as we're talking about purpose and
passion and all of this and how to have a passionate life, a
purpose, how has passion and purpose always lined up in your
life or has it?
CRISTY: Yeah, yeah you know I think about one of my first
passions when I was like six years old. I remember my dad
bought me my first camera. Digital cameras had barely come
out, the viewfinder was like tiny. I was like six, seven
years old, and I fell in love, fell in love with taking
pictures, capturing moments, you know capturing people, and it
just became this passion throughout my life and you know
throughout my life, God gave me different opportunities you know
to combine that with purpose in church, you know whether it was
for church or even here, working with FJM, taking pictures, stuff
like that. But you know I think I didn't realize until later
that it doesn't always look in such a conventional way. It
doesn't always look like, oh, you know you're passionate about
photography, then you're going to become a church photographer
or something, you know? I remember in high school
sometimes I would do family photo shoots for families for
free, and I would just bless the family that way because when our
life becomes about loving God with our whole heart and loving
others as ourselves, every passion God can transform into
purpose. And it's so cool like we don't have to say, okay, I
liked photography. Now I can never do that in a normal way.
Now I have to do it through ministry. It's like, no, you can
actually just use your everyday passion for him. You know some
people do, and that's great. There's bikers for Jesus and
they start all these ministries based on their hobbies, but you
don't have to do that. You know as you were saying about
football, I think of like Tim Tebow, people that literally use
you know what God had given them and their passion for that sport
and used it to glorify him. The fact that everything we do in
life, if we love God fully and love others as ourselves, we can
use to glorify God is just something so beautiful. So you
know I would just encourage everybody that you know when you
think of passion and purpose combining, just think of what
you're already passionate about and think of how you can bless
others if there's people involved, there's always an
opportunity to have purpose.
JOE: Yeah for sure. And Gina, if you think about it, like, when
you apply passion to your purpose and your calling from
God, how does that work out? And how do you feel about that?
GINA: Well, if you don't have a purpose with your passion, it's
like a ship without a rudder. You're just aimlessly going
through, just like you were talking about football, and I
love horses and we love to have our fun times, whatever, but
when there's not that purpose, we're just aimlessly going. It's
not fulfilling. And so, and someone says, well, I don't know
what is my purpose? You know? And like you were saying, think
about what you really love. Take that time to be still before the
Lord and let him show you. It's usually those little gifts, like
you're taking pictures, it's in there, it's bubbling up. It's
like and whatever's in your heart that you have a passion
for, give it over to the Lord. Do it as unto the Lord and just
watch how. You know I'd always like to say that our thoughts
arrive at our destination before we do, and when we have a clear
picture of where we're going, what we want, what our gift is,
and then like you were saying too, apply the love of the Lord
with that. I mean, just amazing things can happen. It will be
very unconventional sometimes, and it might be conventional,
but this is my commandment that you love one another. So when
you apply that with the love and having the focus, it's just
amazing what God can do. But it also is very important to have a
clear picture
JOE: Yeah for sure. And so our encouragement to you today is
love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your
strength, your mind, everything. And then love others and see, by
asking God how you can be involved in blessing the lives
of others with your passions. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.
ANNOUNCER: Jesus once said, what you do for the least of these,
you do for me, with your generous support, Fred Jordan
Mission has been fulfilling this calling for over 80 years by
feeding hungry people here on Skid Row. Together we made a
difference. Together, we have given hope to those less
fortunate. And together we have demonstrated the love of Jesus
to those in need. We deeply appreciate your support, and we
ask that you please continue to give to this life-changing
mission. Go online to give at fjm.org. Whatever the amount,
great or small, your donation is greatly appreciated.
ANNOUNCER: Join the conversation by connecting with us on social
media. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.
Visit us at social.fjm.org.
JOE: Well, welcome back. We're talking about passionate
purpose. And you know if you haven't found your purpose in
life today, I just would suggest go to God, ask God, Hey, God,
you've given me gifts and talents and abilities. You have
blessed me with so much, and I just want to use it for you,
loving you, but I also want to use it to bless others. So show
me, and he will, he's very faithful. You know in thinking
about this though. I think about like those times in my life
where you just kind sit on the fence. It's not good. It's not
bad. You're just kind of there. Sometimes I thought of the word
you know mediocrity. You're just kind of like you know, you're
floundering.
GINA: That's a terrible place to be.
JOE: Yeah, you're floundering, you're listless. You know you're
just, like you said, a ship without a rudder. You're
aimless. All those words characterize mediocrity, and
it's just not a good place to be. But when you have an all
consuming relationship with Jesus, there's clear purpose,
because God will guide us. He will direct us. And so today, I
was you know thinking about this and thinking about you, our
viewers. Do the failures and frustrations of your past
demonstrate a need for God, a need for Jesus in your life
today? Do uncertainties of the future, demand the power of God
in your life today? You know if you don't have God in your life,
then you're going to be listless. You're going to be
kind of on you know that big sea and maybe the motor's going, but
there's no rudder. So you don't know where you're going to crash
or where you're going to end up. But if you have God leading you,
you don't have to live a life of mediocrity because when you have
the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, as your guide, as your
Lord, as your savior, like there's not a better directional
person to give you direction on how to get there. So if you're
living in crisis or mediocrity, just give your heart to Jesus.
Cry out to God and he's not only willing and able, but he will
give you passion to put into a purpose so that you can make
something of your life more than just about yourself. Because
when we live our life for Jesus and for helping others, it's so
fulfilling. And you know that's fulfillment, not just in
blessing others, but the fulfillment we get from it, from
knowing that we're serving God and honoring God and our passion
is to be fulfilled in those things. Like what a blessing it
is for us. I just love that. So don't let your failures and
frustrations of your past get in the way of your future and what
God has for you. Just trust God and ask him for purpose. But
Gina, how can someone who's struggling with finding their
purpose, find their purpose in their life, how can they you
know stop with just kind of living in that, sitting on the
fence thing and just jump on board fully and find
purpose and put passion to it and start
really being fulfilled in their life?
GINA: Well, it's a miserable place to be because I know I've
been there before when I just didn't know where I was going,
and I was just feeling like, Lord, what is it that you would
have me do, you know? And it's frustrating, but you know what?
The minute, and I love so many of the volunteers there at Fred
Jordan Mission, when we have events and they come down and
volunteer, I mean, that's one step in the right direction
because sometimes they've been through a horrible situation and
or have lost a loved one or something tragic actually has
happened, and their normality of what they used to do or their
identity is kind of lost. And they're like, what do I do next?
Well, going and volunteering is just one step in the right
direction of getting your eyes off of yourself and being His
love extended, this is my commandment that you love one
another and get out there and see how you can help someone
else you know and that in of itself is one step in the right
direction that gives a passion and gives a purpose, you know.
And then just again, going back to what that thing is inside of
you that you really love doing and just giving it over to the
Lord and let him like turn that light on inside of you and give
you that passion and just move forward boldly, fearlessly,
knowing that you can do all things through Christ who gives
you strength and power. You know so sometimes a step in the
right direction is just getting our eyes off of our
situation and helping those around us.
JOE: And then just trusting God. I mean, I've heard of a lot of
preachers and evangelists and great speakers that they had
speech impediments. They had fear of crowds, fear of people.
They didn't feel like they could put together three sentences
correctly. And it's amazing that when they put their trust and
faith in God and ask, yeah, but they ask God, you do such a
great job though. But there are people that literally won't
speak in front of people or share their testimony or their
faith because they just, they're gripped with fear that they're
going to mess up. But man, when you just trust God with
everything and ask him to help you, some of the greatest
speakers in the world have just looked to God, and God has used
them to reach millions. And I've even heard, like whether it's
Billy Graham or someone else like that, that they would get
up before crowds and just be like in fear, but God just takes
over and you just go for it. I know for me, you know I've spoke
at big churches, big outreaches with thousands. I think you know
I've spoke, I think in front of eight or 10,000 before, and it's
just like you get up there and you're like, wow, this is scary
and everything else, but you know you just go for it, you
have to. And as you do everything to just love and
honor and obey God, he does his thing and he works through you,
and he fulfills that purpose with the passion that you have,
but it's not always easy to us. So how would you
encourage someone to find their purpose if they're
struggling with trying to find it today?
CRISTY: Yeah, you know I would say, say yes to the
opportunities already in front of you because I think it's easy
to think when we think of purpose, it's like this specific
pathway, or we think it has to look like this. You know I
remember when I was young and I had moved out of state in high
school and I had come back and you know I had been a youth
leader and all that. So I was trying to get involved at my
church and I remember the youth pastor telling me, well, Cristy,
I don't know if you're going to live here like next month. And
he's like, so you kind of have to stay put for a while. And I
remember thinking like God couldn't use me because my life
was everywhere and I remember just being in tears. But then
that year, I just started saying yes to every opportunity that
presented itself. You know I remember the church had a
missions trip to Mexico, they're like, Cristy, you want to be a
translator? I was like, sure. So I just went to that. They're
like, we're going to wats, do you want to you know plan a
whole skit. I'm like, yes. And I started saying yes to all these
opportunities. You know we were doing a new believers class. Do
you want to do it? And so I just said, yes, yes, yes. And that
led me to so much more opportunity in ways that God
used me. And here I was thinking, because I couldn't
serve in the specific way. You know and then I did end up
serving in that specific way for years, four or five years you
know but I just I would encourage anyone to just say yes
to the opportunity in front of you because your life might be
in crisis to where you can't serve in certain ways. But that
doesn't mean that people aren't in need. That doesn't mean that
there's literally purpose to be lived out all around you. Just
say yes to the opportunity in front of you.
JOE: For sure, that is good. And as we kind of finish up this
message, Jesus wants us to live a life that is deeply
passionate, that is passionate about what we do and about the
purpose that we are here to serve God by. He knows that
everything that he has given us can be used for His glory if
we're just willing to empty ourself and just say, here I am
Lord. And you know what? You may be broken. You may just be like,
I don't know. I don't have much, but you have a lot. God has
given you gifts and talents and abilities, and He wants to use
you. So let God take that passion that you have inside of
you, and if not, and it's not inside of you, let God stir up a
passion inside of you for that purpose that he has for you, so
that you can put the two together and live a passionate,
purposeful life honoring God following His plan, because I'll
tell you what, there's nothing better than fulfilling that.
Stay tuned.
JOE: Here at Fred Jordan Missions every day we see all,
all types of people. I remember as a kid, my father Fred and my
mom, Willie, teaching me a song about Jesus loves the little
children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white. We are
all precious in God's sight. I still know that song. I taught
it to my children and that's exactly what we see here at Fred
Jordan Mission every day, red and yellow, black and white,
every single person that you could think of from children all
the way to seniors are here on the streets living in LA, and
they come to our doors to be loved on, to be shared with that
Jesus loves you and Jesus saves. You know we hand out water, we
hand out drinks, we hand out snacks. We preach the gospel. We
have hot meals, we do special events. But if you want to know
who comes through our doors, it's all of us. There's no
certain person, there's no certain look. But like I said in
that song, red and yellow, black and white, we're all precious in
God's sight. That's who we see here every day at Fred Jordan
Mission. People from all around this country that end up
on these streets can come through our door and we
will serve them as we declare and demonstrate
the love of Jesus to those in need.
JOE: Well, thanks for being with us today. Again, if you are
lacking purpose or you're floundering a little bit, or
just mediocrity set in, I've been there. We've all been
there. Like that's just part of human behavior. Sometimes we
fall into those ruts and stuff, but today, I just encourage you,
look to God, ask Jesus, and they will help you out of that and
get you on the right track. Ask God for purpose, if you don't
have it, then ask God to put all the passion inside of you
towards that. Use your gifts and abilities to bless others. And
that's what we try to do every day at Fred Jordan Mission is
encourage those. We have second, third, fourth, fifth generation
Americans living on the streets of Skid Row without purpose and
without passion, but with your help, we continue to reach out
to them. And you know what? It makes a difference. We've seen
ones that were living on the streets, come to know Jesus, get
off the streets and then give back because of friends like
you. Look today at Fred Jordan Mission, fjm.org and see how you
can be involved because together we can make a difference as we
have for 80 years. God bless you.
FEMALE: (Singing) We will overcome this sorrow. We will
see the dawn tomorrow. We will soldier on down this road as we
reach for hope, reach for hope.
ANNOUNCER: Please will you join us in feeding hungry children
and their families by phoning today, 844-FJM-FOOD
or donating online, fjm.org. That's fjm.org or
mail your check to Fred Jordan Mission, PO Box 12345,
Covina, California 91722, please will you help?
FEMALE: (Singing) Reach for hope.
ANNOUNCER: The preceding program was sponsored by generous
friends and partners of Fred Jordan Missions.