Last Sunday we talked about the marital relationship between husband and wife and Christ and the church and the kind of commitment that this holy love portrays.
This week we’re looking at the passion that should be a part of the relationship between every believer and the Lord.
Passion is an intense feeling or desire for something or someone.
It can be positive (love) or negative (hate).
We used to live over by Ithaca, NY and would drive through that city occasionally. Ithaca is a very politically liberal city and for the entire eight years of President George W. Bush’s presidency there would be signs in people’s yards expressing their hatred for him.
A police office might be passionate about his work because he realizes that the enforcement of the laws keeps our society from breaking down into total chaos and anarchy. Or a farmer might have a passion for his herd. He knows that a well fed, well cared for contented cow will produce more milk than that cow would if she was underfed, neglected and nervous.
When it comes to passion, though, one of the most meaningless phrases in the world is, “to die for”. Someone might say, “Oh, that chocolate moose tracks ice cream is to die for.” As if someone put a bowl of the stuff next to you and said, “Go ahead and eat the ice cream, but if you do, I’ll have to kill you, but, since “It’s to die for” you probably would go ahead and eat it. Right?
The Scripture we’ll be starting out with is found in 1 Kings 19:19-21.
This event takes place in a divided Jewish kingdom with the 10 tribes of Israel in the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Judah.
Elijah has just come from a personal confrontation with the Lord where Elijah is in a depression and telling the Lord that he is the only one left in all of Israel who is faithful to the Lord.
Do you ever get these incredible emails telling of some event that has taken place and you pass it on to your friends only to find out that it is not a true story? Often when I get one I will go out to Snopes.com or TruthOrFiction.com to see if it is true. But even these websites can be wrong.
Well, when Elijah complained about being the only righteous person he soon realized that he should have “fact checked” the statement with the Lord. The Lord is never wrong! His Word never fails!
Lord tells Elijah that there are at least “seven thousand in Israel - all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
So, we pick up the story in 1 Kings 19:19-21
“So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair.
“Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. ‘Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,’ he said, ‘and then I will come with you.’
“‘Go back,’ Elijah replied. ‘What have I done to you?’ So Elisha left him and went back.
“He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.”
When we jump back to verse 19 it says:
“So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair.”
It is not known if Elisha’s family owned all of the 24 oxen or if it was some kind of community plowing effort. He or his family obviously owned at least the pair he was driving because of what we later learn in the account.
However, we know that Elisha was a man of labor, a man of action.
He was working. He wasn’t sitting around hoping to be the greatest prophet in Israel some day. He was working.
Anyway, here’s Elisha plowing along and Elijah comes walking by and throws his cloak over the back of Elisha. Now, this did not mean that Elijah no longer liked his cloak and wanted to just get rid of it by throwing it onto the back of some poor farmer! This was a sign to all who were watching that Elijah had chosen Elisha to replace him as the chief prophet of the Lord in Israel.
Even more than that, since Elijah was a prophet of the Lord, it signaled that the Lord Himself had chosen Elisha to be a prophet of the Most High God.
So, Elijah says, “Whoa!!” or whatever you say to a team of oxen to get them to stop, he runs after Elijah and asks him if it is OK to go and tell his Mom and Dad that he’s leaving and that he loves them.
And then, in a final act of leaving his old life and throwing himself into the work of the Lord he butchers both of his oxen, boils them over a fire made from burning his yoke and plow and gives the meat to the people around him.
It simply says in verse 21:
“He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate.”
I don’t know how many people there were around him but the meat of two oxen would have been a feast for a lot of people.
Then he followed Elijah and became his servant.
Elisha didn’t say, “OK, now I’m the top dog!” but he went in humility to serve the Lord and His prophet.
That is passion but it was not the kind of passion that Elisha had for the Lord.
Now, Elisha could have just left his plow where it was and followed Elijah but instead he made sure that the ties to his old life were severed. He made sure that his oxen were dead, that the implements of his former life were destroyed and that final farewells had been said to his family. He didn’t just leave his former way of life he Left, with a capital L, his former way of life.
Not that there was anything wrong with being a plowman on a farm, it is an honorable vocation, but it was not what the Lord had called him to do.
How passionate are we about our relationship with the Lord? When the Lord speaks to us are we willing to proverbially kill our oxen, burn the tools of our former life and follow God with only the clothing on our backs?
Now, last week we talked about the relationship between Christ and the church being like a marriage but some people who call themselves Christians never actually get to the “marriage” part of the relationship with Jesus.
Some people want to “casually date” the Lord. It’s like, when a young guy likes a girl and every once in a while he’ll think about her and maybe give her a call to see if she wants to go out for a move or a burger or something like that. If she wants to go out, that’s fine. If she doesn’t that’s fine, too. No big deal. I kind of like her but whatever …
There’s no passion there. It’s more of a matter of entertainment.
To some people who call themselves Christians, that is what their relationship with Jesus is like. If I feel like going to church, that’s fine. If I don’t that’s fine as well. It’s not very entertaining. I like Jesus as long as He doesn’t make any demands on me. If He starts talking about “commitment” I’m out of there! That commitment stuff is for the Jesus freaks.
Then there are those who use other people as playthings and they date as sexual predators. All of the dating has one purpose in mind and it’s not good for the person who will be used and thrown out when he’s done with her.
Some people treat God like that. What can I get out of Him? There are even some preachers who preach that kind of gospel. Now, they never say it that way but the bottom line of their message is that Jesus will give you a new life that will make you healthy, wealthy and happy here on earth.
Some of the church has taken on the task of being life coaches asking such questions as:
Are you ready to create more balance in your life.
Are you ready to improve your personal or business relationships.
Are you ready to make real and positive changes in your life.
Are you ready to find and live your life's purpose.
Are you ready and willing to overcome self-limiting beliefs and behavior.
Are you ready to create plans and take action to achieve your goals.
Are you ready to achieve a sense of fulfillment at work and in your life.
Are you ready for more fun and enjoyment in your life.
Would you like to work less and make more money.
You can benefit from someone who will help you to stay on track.
There’s no mention of “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me …”
There’s no mention of sin or the repercussions associated with it. There’s no mention of giving up the things of this world or becoming a slave or servants or bond-servants of Jesus as many of the writers of Scripture described themselves.
The whole focus is me, me, me with a capital M. Jesus may be somewhere in there in those kinds of churches but only as the supplier of all of the goodies.
Christ will NOT be abused that way.
He is not our life-coach He is our Savior!
He is not our mentor, He is our Lord and Master.
He is not interested in human efforts of self improvement,
He is passionate about extending grace to you so that you can be born again into a new creature!
He doesn’t want to make you happy and comfortable as you cruise along on the road to eternal destruction, He wants to change you, your passions and your eternal destiny completely.
But He won’t force you to do so. He will extend His grace to you so that you can respond by His grace, but, He will not force you to turn to Him for salvation.
Elisha could have just stayed behind his plow and said, “Maybe later, Lord.” That was a choice he could have made but his great passion for the Lord moved him to slay his oxen, burn his work tools and abandon all for the God of Israel!
Pastors have a calling to something over which they have no control. Sure a pastor can pray and study and preach and visit and counsel and teach and exhort but he can never, ever actually bring someone to Christ.
The Holy Spirit speaking through a pastor can confront a person with their sin, even a sin that may be hidden to all others but he cannot make a decision of salvation for the unsaved person sitting in the congregation.
The Holy Spirit speaking through a pastor can confront a saved person with the sin of a passionless, lukewarm life but he cannot force a person to be passionate about Christ.
When a person hears the word of God, they and only they can make the decision to be passionate for Jesus or to just sit there like a stump.
The heart of every pastor who is passionate about Christ and His Kingdom yearns for a church full of people who are passionate about Christ and His Kingdom. But, no amount of yearning will make it so. Just as Christ died for us all, each one of us must come to Him on our own for salvation. Each one of us must fall in love with the Lord of all on our own. Each one must decide in our hearts if we will be a passionate disciple of Christ or a lukewarm one.
Do you remember that little phrase we talked about a few minutes ago, “To die for?”
People in the middle ages who were passionate about their king would go into battle and die for him.
Brave soldiers who are passionate about their country will lay down their lives for it.
Mothers and Fathers who are passionate about their children will lay down their lives to save them from harm.
If we are Christians, real, passionate Christians, we too must lay down our lives just as Elisha did, leaving everything behind for the Lord.
This is not just some spiritual mental exercise. This is a requirement modeled for us in the Scriptures.
Paul, under house arrest in Rome writes in
Philippians 1:18b-21
“Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed,
“but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Romans 14:7-8
“For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
There’s a decision to be made. No one will force you. No one can stop you. And when you stand before God you will either stand with Christ as your advocate or you will stand utterly alone. All alone.
Closing and invitation.
