Live Passionately, Joshua 1:6-9
Introduction
In the second section of Kerry & Chris Shook’s book “One Month to Live,” Pastor Shook draws a comparison between the brevity and fast paced reality of our lives to a ride on a particular roller coaster. Interestingly it is a roller coaster that I too have ridden, only a sister coaster at Santa Cruz, California, rather than Oklahoma City as the author of the book. While Chris Shook is a fan of roller coasters, I am surely not. As a child I always wanted to be the kind of person who liked roller coasters. I wanted desperately to want to ride a roller coaster, but the always seemed and seem much more like a couple of minutes of torture than a couple of minutes of thrilling adventure. My step-father, who has been in my life since a young child, on the other hand, loves roller coasters. I remember going to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk once as a child, perhaps the 5th or 6th grade. Tim and I got in line for the Big Dipper roller coaster. It is one of those old wooden roller coasters. You know the kind, like the Grizzly at 6 flags Great America on the West Coast, and others. As you walk up the stair case to the roller coaster you see rusty bolts holding large and small rough hewn lumber together. As the roller coaster crashes and turns for those up ahead of you the sight of the wood bending and contorting fills your heart with fear, for me at least, sure that after so many tens of thousands of rides, it will be my ride when the whole thing finally comes crashing to the ground causing my roller coaster car, with me still buckled safely inside, is flung through the air like a rock proceeding from a sling-shot! The ride is no more comforting than the anticipation of the ride. First there is the clink, clink, clink of the chain dragging the heavy car up the first major incline. Then the steep plummet which only begins the madness of jerking and tossing, twisting and turning, until you finally come screeching to a stop; hair frazzled, stomach highly unsettled, glad that it is over. I was as a child and remain to this day not a fan of roller coasters, though my step-father and now my children have from time to time dragged me onto them even in adulthood.
Pastor Shook, the author of the book that is helping to shape our journey through the answering of this question, what is I knew that I only had 30 days to live, is right in his assessment that roller coaster rides have much in common with this passing, brief, wild-ride, of a journey that we call life.
Roller coaster rides don’t last long. This life is often filled with fear and tussling.
We don’t always know what to expect around the next corner. In fact, we seldom know what is waiting for us at the top of the next incline as we are clink, clink, clinking up to the summit for the next drop.
Like roller coasters ride this life moves with a dizzying fast pace. I have traveled the latter years of this life with many brothers and sisters in Christ and I am convinced that most often, the brevity of this life makes itself known before we were ready.
Perhaps for many of you it seems only yesterday that you were having children, now they have children, and so do their children. For those of middle years it may seem that only yesterday we were running for the monkey bars on the playground, now work and other commitments has us seldom with time to play.
The roller coaster ride of life is happening now. If we would make the most of this life we must learn to live it passionately, making each moment count!
Transition
Too often though, “we play it safe and settle for far less than we were made for.” (30 Days) For a lot of people, their favorite day of the week is someday. I’ll do that, we say, when I get “a round to-it.” Well, for those of you who don’t have one; just take a look inside of your bulletin.
We have provided you with “a round to-it” so that you will no longer have a reason to procrastinate the good things and passionate life that God is calling each of us to live!” (a circle of paper with the words “to-it” printed on it)
If we would be people of passionate living for Christ then we must become people of passion in our present circumstances. At the very center of God's will for your life is not a place of perfect circumstance, but a place of perfect provision and grace. "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." (1 Timothy 6:6-7 NIV)
This morning my method will be to discuss the source of passion in the Christian life. I will do this by personal example through a discussion of my passion in the spiritual life, along the way pointing to our ultimate source of life, hope, and yes, passion. It is my earnest prayer that the Holy Spirit will stir our hearts today.
Exposition
The central theme of this message, simply stated, is this: Both passion and peace are found in falling deeply in love with the life God has given to you and the God from whom it proceeds. We won’t get a second chance at life. If we are to use this life in a manner befitting the one who gave it, we must live it passionately.
“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV) God has commanded us to bring glory to Him, not to waste our days.
There are many things about which I am passionate. My family, my wife and children, are foremost. I, like any of you, would gladly give all in defense of my family. Consider this, giving your all in this life is a primary way of doing that.
In other words, when we live as though we are not living, when we just go through the motions, we rob our families of our best selves, we rob God of His greatest use of our lives, and we rob ourselves of the joy that comes in allowing God’s glory to fuel passion in us for this life.
All of our days are to be used to bring glory to Him in our marriages, our relationships, our jobs, our hobbies, our thoughts. To have the power to do that, we must be plugged into the source of power.
I remember when I first starting working with computers as a photographer in Yuma, Arizona. I was the NCOIC, the Sergeant, of my section as we transitioned from wet chemistry photography to digital imaging and, as such, greatly increased our dependence upon computer technology. Up to that point I had been a tank crew chief, I knew precious little about computers, or digital photography for that matter, at that time. I recall spending one entire afternoon, several hours, time that I will never get back, unable to get a digital printer to function properly. I read the manuals, attempted to install and reinstall it to the computer. Nothing worked. Finally, out of desperation I called a computer repair specialist from that department on base over to the photo lab and he thought me a valuable lesson: always start at the source. The electric plug for the printer was plugged into the wall, but not the back of the printer.
Friends, fruitful living, empowered passionate faith, starts at the source.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5 NIV)
We are created to be connected to Christ in order to bear fruit. Why, oh why, are we content chewing gum at the table of the Lord!? Why, dear child of God, do you accept the meagerness of the thought life and life patterns of this world, when Christ is calling, God is offering Himself to you and to me!
The passion that fills my heart is rooted in what Christ has done for me and more than that; it is rooted in who He is. I am passionate about God’s glory because He worthy, and that is enough.
I am reminded of His worth because of all that He has done for me. The God who has carried me through many dark places in my life, stands, even now, knocking; won’t you open the door and let Him come in?
You know the enthusiasm with which I live out and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not drama for effect. I desire not to produce so much heat and smoke but light because I have been consumed with the light of Christ!
My heart has been arrested by the love of God and I am a slave to Christ. This sinner’s heart has been set free. I live freely, passionately for Christ because I am overwhelmed by mercy and long only to be an instrument of grace!
You cannot give away what you don’t have. Loud speaking, polished technique, oratory skill will never replace the passion that flows from a hunger for God. This is true of the preacher and it is true for every believer.
Neither I nor you shall, in this life, know perfect connection with God; the true mystic, seeker, is one who is consumed by a hunger for God. This hunger is both a blessing and a curse. It is fully realized only when the mystic understands that the hunger drives a pilgrimage which will never be fully realized in this life.
The pilgrimage seeks but never finds full satisfaction for the hunger. The journey is the prize. The sojourn is the destination. If we are to live lives of passion, we must be connected to the source of all life in the universe. Our passion for life is the fruit of God’s life residing within us.
It manifests itself as a passion for Christ to be revealed in this area of our life, that area of our life, and all areas of our life. When I think of all that God has done for me in salvation alone, rescuing this sinner from the error of his ways, I am amazed, astonished, compelled, fueled with passion for the life He has given me.
If the burning ember of God’s limitless love and grace is dropped deep within our soul, will we not burn with passion? Or, having suppressed the ember, covering it with wet blankets of pride, will it merely smolder – producing smoke and some heat rather than blazing fire and light?
Conclusion
My friends, if we are to live passionately, as God has called, as Jesus Christ our Lord has modeled during His earthly ministry, we must abandon ourselves to His purpose and be willing to take the terrible risk of greatness.
Why be satisfied with a mediocre faith and a mundane life? Why dip your toes in the pool on a hot day when you could sail into the pool and be covered by grace!
Ephram is a real risk taker. He has the scars to prove it too! Recently, at a friend’s house playing, he decided that he was ready to tackle the monkey bars. He climbed his way up to the first monkey bar, he needed a little help reaching it but then he smiled big and tried to reach for the next bar, I caught him before any real damage was done and then he wanted to try again, and again, and again! It lasted so long I was honestly a little tired of doing it! While his persistence can be a little tiring, I admire my little Ephram because he is passionate about living! By God’s grace may that passion never be drummed out of him by the naysayers, the worry warts, or those who write the safety instructions for children’s toys!
He always has his share of scrapes, bruises, and band aids. He also has a passion and zeal for life that I want to imitate. Why do we lose the zeal of childhood in the responsibilities of adulthood!? We who are called Christians are called to be above all things, passionate followers of Jesus Christ, right up to the Cross!
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” (William Shedd) “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor to the children of men as a while experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. “ (Helen Keller)
If we would live passionately and find fulfillment in this life, as children of God, we must be willing risk greatness, secure in Christ, abandoned to God’s will for our lives, not content with this world; having one foot in this world and desperately clinging to the world to Come; dissatisfied with the meager satisfactions of this life; longing for the only thing that will satisfy us eternally – Christ!
“We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” (I Corinthians 4:10-16 NIV)
On the roller coaster ride of this life, it is my prayer that God will shape and transform all us into fools for Christ, burning with the embers of passion for life, which proceeds from fire blazing from the love of God. Amen.
