Its Time for passionate Christians
1 John 3:13
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
When you ask many Christians how passionate they are about God 90 percent if that will say they could be more passionate.
In a youth meeting my wife asked the young people on a scale of one to ten how passionate they were no tens we a few six to eight, if I was to asked the same question this morning I’m sure the results would be same.
When we look around the world we can see passion in many peoples lives we can see the effect that it has on the lives and the success it brings to people.
For example Tiger woods- Golf, Michael Jordan- basketball and David Beckham football I think we could all say that these people where passionate about the sport at times in there lives that had to make a sacrifice that had to work hard all they wanted to do was to play their sport.
In the world of business one of the most successful men is Bill Gates or Donald Trump they are passionate about what they do and they are a success. They all worked hard to get were they are today and if they want to stay on top they have to work just as hard, but what is their driving power simple it is PASSION
it may be passion to win,
passion to be the best,
passion for fame
or passion for money.
How is your passion directed
We all are passionate about something, in my church most of the are passionate about their football teams
They can tell all the stats about their team when all the men get together 80 percent of the time that’s what they talk about and at times they can get very hot headed or offend if you say anything bad about their team. In some cases they will skip church if their teams gets beat.
What do you talk about all the time what gets you excited what drives you?
Have you ever seen the film “Chariots of Fire” It is about a man called Eric Liddell who ran in the 1924 Olympics and won the gold medal in the 400m Eric had a passion for his running put is passion for God was stronger. Eric was to run in the 100m as this was his event , but it was being held on a Sunday and because he was a Christian he refused to run. In the film he was brought into a meeting and was but under a lot of pressure but he stood his ground. He was prepared to give up his dream because his passion for God was greater than a race. In the end he ran in the 400m The day of 400 meters race came, and as Liddell went to the starting blocks, an American masseur slipped a piece of paper in his hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, "Those who honour me I will honour." Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand. He not only won the race but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds.
We read of many people in the Bible who where passionate about Jesus He was there every thing. their life. their hope they where willing to lay their lives down for him he was their passion He was their reason for living.
The hardest person to stop is a passionate one
We God births a vision in my life no one can stop me when they are full of negative words I would think to myself they haven’t got a clue this is going to work, in one or two cases I had to leave the room in the end if they don’t change I will work on with out them my focus is on God and the vision that he has birthed in me. I’m sure people get bored with me because the only thing I will be talking about will be what God has put on my heart.
When we are Passionate about God He will be the person we will be talking about He will be who you thing of when you get up in the morning He will first in all that you do.
When your faith is put to the test the world will know where you stand.
When you are passionate you will draw a line in the sand.
When we are passionate we will have a boldness a fire that cant be put out.
When the world brings in laws that are against our faith we will stand and passionately fight for God.
For too long has the church sat by saying I don’t want to offend people our children are paying for that now.
For some reason the church doesn’t what to speak out encase we are accused of being different
1 John 3:13
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
Our children will suffer for our lack of passion
What we let go now will come back to haunt our children.
My daughter does English Literature at school and as part of her course she has to read certain books she came home from school very worried, because of the book she was given to read because in first few pages God’s name was taken in vain and there was quite a few swear words, she was told that she would have to read this out on class, but she was refusing to read it out.
I contacted the school and spoke with he head of the English dept. I told them it was a against my daughters Christian believes and she will not read this book out, to my shock I was told I was the first person to ever complain about this book and the school had Christian teachers to had no problem teaching this book because in the end the story line says you should not kill. What about the commandment thy shall not take the Lord’s name in vain?
In the end my daughter didn’t have to read out the book in class.
In the USA it is against the law to pray in school, ask your self where were the Christians when this law was passed.
Its interesting to note that when candidates run for election they say the votes from Christians can sway the out come, if that is true why are laws like this passed.
Simple we as Christians have lost our passion we sit and say nothing because we don’t want to look odd.
Did you know they church was not called to have great meeting were we get a touch we are called to be Christ’s voice.
There will be many laws that the government will try to put through in the future.
The church is a sleeping giant and what is the best way to kill a giant? Wait untill its sleeping.
Its time to burn with a Holy passion
We all have heroes in the Bible one of my heroes is Peter
Must people will remember him for disowning Jesus three times, but on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell upon him he was a changed man,
full of fire
full of boldness
full of PASSION.
Church if you want passion in your Christian walk if you want to over come fear of man you need the Holy Spirit in your life.
The reason why we have no Passion is because we let the world tell us how a Christian should be.
Matthew 21:12
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
When I read this I can picture it in my head people running for cover money rolling across the ground birds breaking free from their cages.
I wonder did these people give a second thought the next time they came to set up in the temple.
You can just image what they would be thinking what if Jesus turns up?
Church the world is laughing at us
Its time we stopped playing church its time to take back what we have let the devil steal.
Ephesians 6 10-18
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
This morning as I close who will stand with me and claim the weapons God has given us and live a passionate life for God.
