2002: The Paradigm of SPIRITUAL Passion
Acts 2:42-47
Sunday, January 20, 2002
Larry L. Thompson (2002)
INTRODUCTION:
Every year on this Sunday I give what I have called, “A State of the Church” message. It is a prayerful and pray both honest and insightful look at where we are today a church family.
As we begin this State of the Church message we must always begin with our Vision. It is at the point of our vision that we can gauge the progress of where we are and also where we need to be.
“OUR VISION IS TO BE A BIBLICALLY BASED, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF BELIEVERS, GLORIFYING JESUS CHRIST TOGETHER, BY BUILDING RADICAL RELATIONSHIPS FOR CHRIST.”
From this vision the Lord gave us our Community Orientation to help all of us to be on the same page. The basis for our Community Orientation came from Acts 2:42-47. READ.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. [43] Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. [44] All the believers were together and had everything in common. [45] Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. [46] Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, [47] praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Last week we talked about the joy that has been ours this past year to share what I called, “The Peace in the Pew!”
“All the believers were together and had everything in common.”
Today, it is time to look at this New Year and ask ourselves this question: “Are we in alignment with Acts 2:42-47?” If that text was the basis of what should happen within a New Testament Church and we see characteristics that are not present then we must ask what is missing? I believe what is missing is what I will call “Spiritual Passion for God.” In order to understand the importance of this spiritual passion I would now say that what we need for 2002 is…
I. 2002: A NEW PARADIGM OF SPIRITUAL PASSION
Please read again our passage of today
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. [43] Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. [44] All the believers were together and had everything in common. [45] Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. [46] Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, [47] praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Do you see or hear from God’s word an underlying theme throughout these verses? If not may I help you and share with you what I KNOW God has placed on my heart for today? Throughout not only this text but each time I am reading about God’s church flourishing I see two absolute essentials: 1) A Consuming Passion for God and, 2) A Common Plan for Growth.
Allow me to state what must be completely clear: TO BE WHAT GOD DESIRES US TO BECOME WE MUST INDIVIDUALLY AND CORPORATELY EMBRACE A NEW PARADIGM FOR OUR MINISTRY THIS YEAR IN 2002. This new paradigm begins with…
a. A CONSUMING PASSION FOR GOD
Let me first review with you the focus of the organized evangelical church in America for at least the past 26 years in which I have been involved in ministry…the paradigm has been to develop new strategies to win and influence our world for Christ. Before I go any further let me say there is nothing wrong with new methods and strategies, every organization changes or it dies. This is not an attack on new strategies, ideas or methodology. This is a clarion call to join me in surrender to God as we ask for Him to show us our need for spiritual passion.
DEFINITION OF SPIRITUAL PASSION vs. SECULAR PASSION
SECULAR PASSION: Webster defines “passion” as, “emotion, the state of being acted upon resulting from external forces, an intense driven feeling; can be either an outbreak of anger or ardent affection.” In the Bible the only use of the word “passion” refers to it in the negative such as any bodily desire which leads to sin.
Romans 6:12 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires (passions).”
Galatians 5:24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”
SPIRITUAL PASSION: While secular passion is an emotion that results from external forces, spiritual passion is an ACT OF WILL, AN ACT OF OBEDIENCE to Christ based on my encounter with Him and the presence of God’s Holy Spirit living in my life.
PASSION is used on one occasion in the New Testament (Acts 1:3) to mean the suffering, “Pascho,” (posk ho) which Christ endured from the night of the last supper until His death. The Passion or suffering of Christ was not a result of external forces but related to His perfect desire to perfectly obey the Father and to do the will of the Father.
Acts 1:3
“To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
Illustration of Spiritual Passion: John Wesley
John Wesley was a small man. He weighed only one hundred and twenty pounds. Samuel Johnson said of him, “His conversation is good, but he is man who is never at leisure. He is always driven by God in an intense desire to obey him even if it means he must go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do.”
Wesley’s legs were “unfolded” for his ninety years. He had his Spiritual Passion. He virtually lived to be in fellowship with Christ, obeying Him, daily in the saddle, on horseback far and near to tell others of his Savior.
We must understand that it is ONLY THROUGH A PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS CHRIST AND THE APPLICATION OF HIS SACRIFICE IN OUR LIFE CAN WE TRANSFER FROM SECULAR PASSION TO SPIRITUAL PASSION.
If the New Testament Church is built by our programs or strategies, WITHOUT SPIRITUAL PASSION, then we are facing certain failure and decline. Think with me for a moment about some of the strategies of church in America…
• Elect the right politicians who share our convictions and that will change our society and help build the church
• Work tirelessly on laws that will have a spiritual or moral impact on our nation and if we pass the right laws then that will impact our society and help build the Church
• Use all the media tools available to us to expose a lost nation to Christian principles and to the Christian life
• Enroll as many of our children as possible in Christian or private schools and protect them from the sin of the world and that will change our society and help our churches to grow
• Develop of competent marketing strategy that will compete with what the consumer sees in our society and that will capture their attention and then change our society and fill our church
• Offer more conferences, build coffee houses, new buildings and that will be the catalyst for our growth
Listen to me! There is absolutely NOTHING WRONG with any of the proposals that I have just shared with you. The truth is that in every one of these areas we are able to see that God has blessed and there is fruit…but can we really survive with just some fruit, a little fruit, or sick fruit?
The answer is no. Listen carefully, thousands of churches that are:
• Fine tuning their worship services
• Starting new and innovative programs
• Spending millions in advertising to attempt to influence the spiritual and moral thinking of our society
• Billions of dollars to grow staff and build new facilities to aid the growth in the ministry.
My dear brothers and sisters of Christ…we are doing all of this TO REACH THE LOST,
YET EVERY STUDY YOU READ SAYS THAT THE PEOPLE OF OUR NATION ARE
TURNING THE DEAF EAR TO ALL WE DO…THEY ARE NOT IMPRESSED AND
THEY ARE NOT RESPONDING. So what is MISSING? SPIRITUAL PASSION!
• We are missing the real, the pure passion for God. Do you know why the church did what the church did in Acts 2? Because the spirit of God had ignited a spiritual passion within them! His people were changed, they were different. You didn’t have to beg them to do what God told them to do, they simply obeyed and they obeyed with joy because they had a PASSION FOR GOD. They were single minded to His work, they made a serious, spiritual commitment to a live and living Messiah.
How many Christians do you know have articulated that their life’s purpose is to do everything they can to fulfill the Great Commission? How many Christians get out of bed every morning and say, “I can’t wait to see how many people I can tell about Jesus Christ today.”
Illustration Regarding Lack of Passion for the Great Commission:
Barna Research Group in a nationwide survey conducted in the first quarter of 2001 asked this question: “Please describe your goals in life.”
The survey found that almost 9 out of 10 adults classified themselves as a “Christian,” by the following definition, “I am personally committed to Jesus Christ and have confessed my sins and I believe that I will go to heaven when I day because of God’s love and grace through Christ.” STRONG DEFINITION! Yet not one of those who said they were Christians declared that their life goal was to be a “fully committed follower of Jesus Christ and to participate in making Christian disciples.”
Where then did we miss the mark and change to the program paradigm?
I’m not that smart but if this is not the reason I would venture to say that it was a great contributor to the problem of the “program-paradigm.” I feel it must have been when man begin to attempt to evaluate and determine the “success or standard of success” for ministry in our nation. I feel certain that it must have happened innocently and perhaps even to help support the true biblical model for New Testament success however, when WE WENT TO THE “THREE “B’s” TO EVALUATE SUCCESS IT ALL STARTED! What are the Three “B’s?” They are Bodies, Baptisms and Budgets…
• Attendance, # of Baptisms and Budget Records replaced the criteria of how many developing disciples do we have in our fellowship who are passionate about their commitment and authentic in their faith? Because when churches are evaluated by those criteria then I can assure you from biblical history, biblical truth and example that we will see things differently in the Body. WHEN PASSION IS PRESENT…
o Brothers and sisters who worship not for 90 minutes on Sunday but they know the importance of their daily worship
o Brothers and sisters who are constantly growing in their faith and understanding of God’s word while obediently making personal application to their own lives.
o Brothers and sisters who seek to be in submission to the direction of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.
o Brothers and sisters who have spiritual lives that are sensitive to sin and know the conviction of the Spirit immediately and then respond in repentance.
o Brothers and sisters who TRULY know they are not owners of their possessions but they are stewards and you don’t have to beg them to do what is right nor do you have to harass or manipulate them when there is a need.
o Brothers and sisters who live for a deeper relationship with Christ and constantly seek to grow in fellowship with one another.
o Brothers and sisters who immediately respond to the needs of another Christian member of the family when the need is communicated.
o Brothers and Sisters in Christ who constantly aware of those within their circle who need Christ and are always looking for the opportunity to sow the seeds of the Gospel.
o Brothers and sisters who are radical in their personal relationship with Christ and with one another and those radical relationships are noticed by all within and those outside the church.
o Brothers and sisters who understand the real implication of prayer, the power that is available to us when we pray and the weakness when we don’t pray.
o Brothers and sisters are INTENTIONALLY taking the initiative to discover their spiritual gifts and talents and then to use them for the benefit of the body by serving without having to be begged to serve.
KEY QUESTION: “WHY WOULD THIS CRITERIA AS OPPOSED TO ‘BODIES, BAPTISMS AND BUDGETS’ be a better indicator of genuine biblical success in the church?”
Because THEN WE ARE NOT COUNTING WITH NUMBERS for the purpose of allowing the flesh of man to pursue secular passion, we are COUNTING LIVES, TRUE PASSIONATE, CHANGED AND COMMITTED DISCIPLES OF Jesus Christ.
Do you agree? YES? I would agree with this statement as well but if we agree then we need to follow it with another question. Why don’t we make the passion paradigm shift? Because we know in our heart that what I have just shared is true but we also know in our heart that we aren’t certain that we can be serious about being a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. So we will just continue to deceive ourselves in thinking what we are doing is passionately building us into fully devoted followers of Christ while our family members, our friends, and our neighbors our work associates and those all around us die and go to hell. We have lost our influence to change our culture and the only way to recover it is to start in our lives, one by one, to make that difference. Until we make that commitment, we can have bigger budgets, better programs, more staff, and nicer buildings but continue to live in homes and a nation that makes NO CHANGE TOWARD SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND PURITY.
CONCLUSION:
So how do we take the first step? We understand the Biblical Plan for growth is a common plan but every child, student man, woman, married or single. It is the biblical plan for spiritual growth and the opportunity to evaluate the success of your spiritual growth and your spiritual passion. If we get passionate about Christ we will never have to worry about the BODIES, BAPTISMS AND BUDGETS!
b. A COMMON PLAN FOR GROWTH
• We must have a PASSION paradigm shift from trying to “reform” and do better to submitting to the Holy Spirit through spiritual conviction and repentance!
• We must have a paradigm shift from constantly attempting to develop programs to help people and instead focus on the people and allow the investment in people to give direction to the program
• We must have a paradigm shift from always trying to build consensus in the body to building character in the Body
• We must have a paradigm shift from the teaching and preaching that continues to repackage the Bible stories to making personal application of biblical teaching and expecting people to apply truth to their life.
• We must have a paradigm shift from franticly trying to “fill our positions” to instead we will intentionally “fill our people” by equipping them to do the work of the ministry.
• We must have a paradigm shift from worrying about what will be our next activity so that we can keep the people we have to understanding that if we keep people by having another activity then someone else will someday have a better activity. There is nothing wrong with activities but the focus is not developing the activity but developing the authenticity of the believer.
So I have come to the conclusion for this NEW YEAR…what good is peace in our pews if it is not accompanied by a growing passion for Christ? What good are our programs if the people in the programs are not developing an authentic, passionate relationship with Jesus Christ that is so radical that the whole world is taking notice?
What good is it without making a shift to the passion paradigm…good enough to be about as good as all the rest of the churches in America and friends…that’s not good enough!
