The Passionate God

Life seems to dry up our energy leaving little left for God or the church sometimes. Sometimes life gets so crazy that little can be done for the drained state we find ourselves in daily. How would you like to be totally reinvigorated from the inside out? How would you like to rekindle the passion you once had for God? Today I want to tell you about three ways the Master Builder can bring passion back into your life.

Read Scripture & Pray!

The men and women who do that show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show great passion for what they do. There are several shows out there like this. If you aren’t familiar with the show, these people go to a person’s home who has been chosen to receive a renovation of their home. The person agrees to let them renovate their home with the hope of seeing it changed into something incredibly beautiful. These men and women have four days to completely renovate the house. The house gets absolutely demolished during the project as they rip out walls, ceilings, and entire kitchens and bathrooms. Yet, when they are all done, the place they have designed looks absolutely magnificent.

I read online about a very specific episode where they built a new house for a single mom with somewhere around 7 children living with her. She had adopted many of the children because they had severe health related issues and wanted to give them a loving caring home. They had so many volunteers willing to help that they actually had to turn them away. They demolished a 3,000 square foot home so that they could build one over 1 ½ times that size. They only seem to pick the most worthy people to do renovations. This is where the passionate man and these people aren’t the same.

Let me tell you about another builder with a passion like no other. His passion changed the world from the inside out. That passionate man I am referring to is none other than Jesus Christ. He doesn’t just pick the worthy or deserving but actually picks the “undeserving” and those who have a “good” life. He wants to do an extreme makeover on your life. He wants to absolutely change your very existence into something beautiful and better than it was yesterday or today. He is absolutely passionate about God the Father and He wants to bring that passion into your life. Turn to Matthew 21:12 and follow along with me and you will see how passionate Christ is for Godliness. If you accept Him as your Savior, You will be changed. He will change you from the inside out in three specific ways: He will break down the walls of pride and sin, he will reinforce the weak areas in your life, and he will leave you with a reason to rejoice.

Before any great work project, you must begin by removing the old to place the new.

Bringing Down the Walls – Matt. 21:12-13

“Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber’s den.””

This is one of the very few instances when Jesus’ actually exhibited any form of anger whatsoever. The common view that Jesus was a happy-go-lucky guy who made everyone’s lives better isn’t even close to showing all of his attributes. He was deeply and sincerely passionate about God and God’s precepts. The temple of the Old Testament was an institution by God for worship. So, why was Jesus so upset? People were in the temple courts. The real problem comes when we realize that these money changers were ripping their customers off. They said that if you didn’t have the right type of currency, you couldn’t give to God. The animal sellers would examine people’s sacrifices, tell them that they were faulty, and would then go to sell them a better animal. They bought the animal for half of its value and then sold it for double. They were literally robbing the people! Jesus runs through flipping tables over and kicking these men and women out of God’s temple.

1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that the Old Testament temple has been replaced by a better, newer, and more portable temple: the follower of Christ! Yet, in us resides a continual desire for sin. When we lived in Moberly, MO, I worked for my landlord helping him fix up houses. In the middle of the summer, right before college was to resume the next fall, he told me that he needed help fixing up a house. I said, “Sure, why not, I could use the money.” I told you about this house a little ways back but it had to be the nastiest place on the planet. Animal feces covered the walls, floor, refrigerator, etc. I used hospital grade chemicals to keep myself and the floor sanitary. Let’s just say I scrubbed like mad to clean everything up. I was there cleaning for probably four hours in just one room. The people who lived there always looked as though they were clean and healthy and yet this is how they lived on the inside of their home.