THE POWER OF NEW PASSION
Mk. 12:30
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: MOON ROCKS
1. When the U.S. landed men on the moon, one of their missions was to bring back some moon rocks for study.
2. NASA turned over one rock for study to the Univ. of Texas science department, another to Rice University, and a few others to selected prestigious universities.
3. Texas A. & M. was offended that they were overlooked and didn’t receive a moon rock for study. Having no more moon rocks, NASA substituted by sending them a “cow chip.”
4. U.T. & Rice turned in reports that their moon rocks were mainly composed of minerals such as olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase feldspar.
5. After a year of study, Texas A. & M. issued their report, which read, “We are happy to announce that we have confirmed, that the cow - did in fact - jump over the moon!”
B. VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gez-NEqM944
(only show the first 41 seconds, please....)
C. THESIS
1. What are you passionate about? I don’t believe LOVE is “doing right” or “keeping God’s commands” or even “being patient and kind.” That’s what love looks like when it walks & talks. BUT LOVE…IS…PASSION!
2. Q -- DO YOU HAVE PASSION -- FOR GOD? If someone looked at your life, would they say YOU HAVE PASSION?
NOT for missions, NOT for ministry, NOT for evangelism –
BUT FOR GOD!!!
3. I can’t stand it when Christians tell people, “You’ve got it all – a good job, great spouse, good kids, money, house, car – all you need to add is Jesus.”
4. NO! YOUR LIFE IS WORTHLESS APART FROM JESUS CHRIST!
5. Someone told me, “I have a new relationship with the Lord.” Really? Do you have a new relationship with SIN? Because if you don’t have a new relationship with sin, then you don’t have a new relationship with the Lord!
6. Heaven’s going to be a wonderful place – a place without sin. Many say they want to go there, but they really don’t. I can prove it to you – because they don’t want it NOW!
7. We’re looking this morning at the POWER OF A NEW PASSION. My title is, “Passion for God.”
I. GOD’S CALL TO BE PASSIONATE
A. GREATEST COMMAND? BE PASSIONATE!
1. One day a man walked up to Jesus and said, "Lord, what’s the most important thing in the Bible?" Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mk. 12:30.
2. In other words, “Nothing matters more than that. That’s the number one thing in life. I want you to love Me passionately." God doesn’t want you to love Him half-heartedly, but with all your heart and all your soul.
3. Mark 12:30, Message Bible, reads, "Jesus said, ’Love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy."
4. God is saying that in our relationship with Him, He wants us to put some muscle into it – some energy, emotion, spark, enthusiasm, zest!
B. GETTING SIDETRACKED
1. Everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate. I’ve had helium balloons get loose and go up to the ceiling. Someone said, “How do we get them down?” “Don’t worry about it. They’ll be down by morning!”
2. A lot of times we’re like that. When you first become a believer and you discover God’s love for you – you’re so excited about it. Your sins are forgiven! God is going to blessing is on you! You now have a future home in heaven! But as time goes by you begin to lose your steam, life becomes normalized.
3. When I was converted at 20 years of age, I fell in love with the Lord Jesus. I began to devour His Word….talked to Him constantly….witnessed….so overzealous that I ran off all of my former friends.
4. This loss didn't affect me that much because I was so in love with Jesus that nothing else really mattered to me. But the newness can fade over time.
C. PASSION CONTAINS THE SEEDS OF ITS OWN BLESSING
1. We all want God’s blessing on our lives and our kids. THE KEY IS NOT TO ASK GOD TO BLESS WHAT YOU’RE DOING, BUT FIND OUT WHAT GOD IS BLESSING, AND BEGIN TO DO THAT!
2. David was “a man after God’s own heart,” passionate about God. He wanted to do what was on God’s heart – God’s perfect will, or as close as he could get to it.
3. That very trait endeared David to God. God wants more people thinking that way. So God always pours out His blessings/ Spirit on those who put His kingdom first, who’re seeking His best will.
4. John is called "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (Jn. 13:23). Mary the sister of Martha sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. She chose the “better part” of fellowshipping with Him. Her friendship connected with Jesus.
5. When Lazarus died, Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (Jn. 11:21,32). Jesus gave her comforting words.
6. When Mary said the exact same words, it says, “When Jesus saw her weeping…he was deeply moved in spirit” (33) and went to the grave and raised Lazarus from the dead. Lesson? Passionate people caused passion in Jesus!
7. God called Himself the friend of Abraham (Isa. 41:8), generations after Abraham. If you make yourself a friend of God, God won’t lightly forget that relationship. Passion for God brings its own blessing!
II. STAYING PASSIONATE
A. PASSION KILLERS
My passion for the Lord has waxed and waned over the years. I’ve battled with many “passion killers.” Some of those are:
1. UNBALANCED SCHEDULES – with work night and day, 4 kids born and raised by us (babies & toddlers); piano lessons, karate, baseball, football, school band, ballet, hunting, fishing, church events, family functions, business meetings & a million other things to distract people from focusing on the Lord. Jesus called them the “cares & affairs of life.”
2. UNCONFESSED SINS
a. HUMOR: Boy Confessed the Wrong Sins
*Catholic School; each week the students went to confessional to confess sins. Priest asked them to write them down to save time. Priest heard boy open his list, "I lied to my parents. I disobeyed my mum. I fought with my brothers and…" There was a long pause. Then a small angry voice said, "Hey, this isn't my list!"
b. Few things rob us of joy, of confidence, and of our passion, more quickly than guilt. We try to rationalize sin, "It’s ok. Everybody’s doing it. It’s no big deal."
c. But subconsciously, we know it’s not right. When we go before God to pray, the enemy points his crooked finger at us and says, “You know that sin is displeasing to God.” So we’re robbed of confidence/ faith before God.
d. God wants you to be free from guilt. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
e. God promises that when you confess and forsake your sins, He will freely & completely forgive of those sins!
3. UNFORGIVENESS cuts us off from the grace of God. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” Mt. 6:14-15.
4. AN UNCLEAR PURPOSE Prov. 29:18, “Where there’s no…”
a. If you don’t know the purpose for your life, why God put you here, you’ll certainly never accomplish it. Life without purpose is pointless. Passion and purpose go together.
b. When you have a clear purpose, living for a cause greater than yourself, it can fuel your passion. If you’re only living for yourself, that’s pretty pathetic.
5. AN UNDERNOUSISHED SPIRIT will kill your passion.
a. Every day you’re going to have distractions, disappointments, conflicts, challenges, problems, pressures, frustrations and fears. All of these things fall in on you to shrivel your heart and shrink your spirit. So you must intentionally nourish your spirit.
b. If you don’t do it, no one else is going to do it for you. You need times of worship … fellowship … God’s word … to serve … to share your faith, to help keep your passion alive.
c. HUMOR: You need to be in church! A Pastor grabbed a member who only came 2x a year and said, “Bill, you need to join the Army of the Lord!” He said, “Pastor, I’ve already joined the Army of the Lord; I’m just in the Secret Service!”
B. KEEPING YOUR PASSION
1. Romans 12:11 says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor." Keep the fires going in your life. Notice, it’s not automatic. It’s a choice.
2. Paul said, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you…” 2 Tim. 1:6. So there’s something we can do determine our level of fire for God.
III. HOW TO CULTIVATE PASSION
A. JESUS STATED THE GOAL
1. "And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26 NKJV).
2. How could I love Jesus like God the Father loves His own Son? He’s devoted to the Son. His eyes never leave the Son. All that the Father does He does for the Son. Jesus prayed that we would be driven by that same single-eyed passion.
3. It has to be something that God keeps alive in us and on the other hand, we have a part to play in keeping the fires burning too!
B. 3 INDISPENSABLE THINGS WE MUST DO
1. TIME TO KNOW HIM
a. We must set aside time to get to know Jesus. If we don’t spend time meditating in His Word, talking with Him, and listening to Him, we’ll never progress very far in acquiring passion for Him.
b. We must set aside a regular time for personal meditation in the scriptures and prayer. We must never allow this time to become mechanical or ritualistic.
c. We must remember that it is possible to read the Bible like a Pharisee and never hear the voice of God (John 5:37). It is possible to let our prayer time degenerate into nothing more than taking a shopping list to God.
d. We must remind ourselves that the purpose is to meet with a real Person. The problem isn't that we don't know this, the problem is that we don't do it. We must DO IT!
2. REMOVE BARRIERS
a. Correct our lifestyle deficiencies. Begin to act out the Word. Steal no more, stop lying, stop looking at your neighbor’s wife, don’t watch filth, begin living as holy a life as you can. Try to be kind and patient.
b. God knows we won’t be perfect, but He wants us to try as much as we can. Don’t make excuses. Own up to your sins and try to change! The blood of Jesus has the power to free you from guilt and bondage. Receive it!
3. ASK FOR PASSION
a. Jesus stated that “the love with which You[the Father] loved Me may be in them" (John 17:26 NKJV). Thus we should pray fervently and continually that God fill us with that love for Jesus.
b. If God doesn’t give me that passion for the Son of God, I will never acquire it. But it’s the task of the Holy Spirit to "shed abroad the love of God in our hearts" (Romans 5:5).
c. So we pray, "Father, grant me an impartation of the Holy Spirit to love the Son of God like You love Him!" When it happens, others will know it; “they marveled and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” Acts 4:13.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION PASSION: “THE REAL THING”
1. There is a tale told of that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: "I wish you would explain to me something." "Well, what is it? I don't know that I can explain anything to a preacher."
2. "What is the reason for the difference between you and me? You are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the crowds come wherever you go. I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all."
3. Macready's answer was this: "This is quite simple. I can tell you the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction." [G. Campbell Morgan, Preaching, p. 36.]
4. When we don’t have passion, it says to the Lost that we don’t really believe the Gospel is true!
B. ILLUS.: THE POWER OF ONE DEGREE
1. The power of steam brought a revolution to the whole world. Even today, many great machines (including nuclear reactors) produce power by producing steam.
2. Water boils at 212 degrees. Until then it’s just hot water, but at 212 degrees it turns into a vapor and expands greatly, producing pressure to turn wheels, etc.
3. At 211 degrees, no steam. At 212 degrees – steam! That one degree of heat makes all the difference between having power or not.
4. It’s the same with us. We can be going through the motions as a Christian and not have the power of God. What we need is that last “degree” -- of PASSION! Passion for God puts us into contact with God, and He responds to a passionate heart with power!
C. THE CALL
1. C. S. Lewis said it like this, "The only thing Christianity [Jesus] cannot be is moderately important." He’s either not important at all or the most important thing in the world!
2. HOW MANY OF YOU NEED A NEW PASSION FOR GOD?
The 3 Indispensables: Make Time to know Him, Remove Barriers, and Pray for Passion.
3. Let’s come to the altars and ask God to fill us with a new passion! Fan the flames to get your fire going!
4. How many would like to make certain their sins are washed away? We’re going to pray for the blood of Jesus to cleanse us. Join me in prayer.
5. BAPTISM SERVICE. Please come if you are saved but have not been baptized or you have a new commitment.
[This message is mostly a synthesis of Rick Warren’s “Reigniting Your Passion for God” and Jack Deere’s “Passion for Jesus,” with a little Paul Washer in the introduction.]
