Harnessing Your Passion

This evening’s message is entitled “Harnessing Your Passion.” “Harness” means “to tie together,” and “to yoke.”(1) You know what a yoke is, right? It is “a wooden bar or frame by which two . . . oxen are joined at the heads or necks for working together,” but it is also “the control device for an airplane.”(2) Therefore, to harness our passion is to take control of it.

It has been said, “The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess.”(3) We need to harness or control our passion, for way too many of us allow our passion to get out of control. Instead of controlling our passion and utilizing it for good, we allow it to go unchecked and it only results in harm, to both others and ourselves.

We will work through this message by addressing a few questions. The questions I will ask that I will attempt to answer in a step-by-step manner during this sermon are: “What is passion?” “Is anyone here passionate?” “Why should we harness passion?” and “What should we be passionate about?” Answering these questions will be accomplished by the use of Scripture and by looking at the way certain biblical characters, such as the apostle Peter and Jesus Christ, handled their passion. So, if you are curious to see what this is all about, then we will begin with our first question!

Question # 1: What Is Passion?

Our first question is “What is passion?” The word “passion” has multiple meanings. “Passion” can mean “suffering,” as in the “Passion of Christ” referred to in Acts 1:3,(4) which says, “To whom also He [or Jesus] showed Himself alive after His passion . . .” (KJV). This meaning is where we derive the term “passion play” during Easter time. “Passion” can also refer to “physical lust,” as seen in 1 Corinthians 7:9, which says, “But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion” (NIV).

The way we will come to understand the word “passion” during this evening’s message will be in the sense of “zeal,” “ardor,” “love,” or “eager desire.”(5) We are going to focus on the more positive meaning of passion, the kind of passion that can motivate us to do great things, especially great things for the kingdom of God. It has been said, “Passion is a universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless.”(6) Therefore passion, as we will come to understand it tonight, can be a good thing.

Question # 2: Is Anyone Here Passionate?

Our second question is this: “Is anyone here passionate?” To do something passionately is to do it with a strong feeling.(7) So, let’s take a look at a man in the New Testament who was very passionate, that we might possibly gain a glimpse of ourselves and know whether or not we too are passionate. The fellow I am going to focus on is Peter, and we will see that he definitely went about doing everything with a strong feeling. In fact he took just about everything he did to its extremity. So, let’s take a close look at this man of extreme passion!

First of all Peter was a man of extreme action. One time when Peter was out fishing, he saw Jesus sitting on the sea shore, and so Peter jumped out of the boat and swam to Jesus, while John calmly rowed to the shore in a small boat (John 21:7-8). Peter was a man of extreme faith. It was Peter who boldly confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:15-16), and it was Peter who stepped out of the fishing boat to walk on the water to meet Jesus (Matthew 14:28-29). Peter was also a man of extreme curiosity. Peter didn’t hesitate to ask Jesus about the meaning of His parables (Matthew 15:15). He was also the one to ask Jesus when the end of time would come (Mark 13:3), and to ask Him who would betray Him (John 13:21-25). Now, these acts of passion seem somewhat good; however, not everything Peter did through his passion was good.

You see, Peter was also a man of extreme fear, for out of fear for his life he denied Jesus three times before the morning rooster crowed (Matthew 26:69-75). He was a man of extreme pride for he had the nerve to rebuke Jesus when He spoke of His nearing crucifixion (Matthew 16:21-22), and he refused to allow Jesus to wash his feet (John 13:5-8). We can see that Peter was a man of extreme anger, for when Jesus was being arrested by a detachment of soldiers from the chief priests and Pharisees, Peter decided to cut off an ear of one of the soldiers (John 18:10).