Passion For God
Matt. 22:37
A lawyer once asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment. I believe that Jesus' answer probably shocked him. See, the Pharisees had over 300 commandments that they had made up. They had gotten so caught up in the law, in keeping the law that they had forgotten what was the purpose of the law... to help us see the error of our ways, errors that separate us from God and also to cause us to seek reconciliation with Him.
Behind the giving of the law was not anger and legalism, and wrath ... but it was love and a desire to have a personal passionate relationship with man. Making all of those laws mad the Jews begin to worship the law instead of the person. They came to have a relationship with the law ... not the God. I believe that was what Jesus saw in the lawyer who asked the question. He was an obvious plant of the Pharisees in order to entrap Jesus in a sting operation designed to get rid of Him. When Jesus looked into the heart of the lawyer he saw passion ... for the law, for legalism. But spiritually ... Jesus saw a dead, dry, parched emptiness.
There was no relationship with, any passion for God.
So rather than give a discourse on all of the law ... a dead issue ... Jesus turned to what was really important...PASSION FOR GOD.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind"
I could stand here today and preach on three ways to love God ... heart, soul, and mind.
But, like Anthony Campolo, in his book, "Carpe Diem", I believe that Jesus' verbal inflection and emphasis would have been on the word "ALL". He was referring to the intensity that God was looking for in his followers.
"What God is looking for are people whose love for Him is so intensely passionate that its only analogy here on earth is what goes on between young lovers who burn with desire for each other and who embarrass those around them by their inability to control themselves in public. "
It was the DESIRE on the part of David that made him so pleasing to God.
In fact, one of the best proofs that God is not satisfied with just doing things right or doing the right thing is God's words to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2.
Here was a church that was doing the right things ... the things that God commanded.
"I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and how thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my sake hast labored, and hast not fainted"
That is high praise ... God is saying that they have done a great job of doing the religious things. They get an A for effort.
But you cannot read this without hearing in God's voice a ... distance, a blandness, a yawn … A DISAPPOINTMENT.
But why, why would God be disappointed if they have done such a great job?
Something is missing... PASSION!
Even though they were not guilty of disobedience and probably scored well on their own score sheet... God was disappointed because what was not there ... Passion!
"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee ... because THOU HAST LEFT THY FIRST LOVE."
They had lost that passion that deep desire for God that had marked their early experience.
Now, they had gotten into programs and ministries and teaching and doing things and had lost the passion for the person.
I'm not saying that God would rather have immature followers who just have the passion but no maturity ... or that passion is better than obedience.
I'm just saying that for God ... Passion is of ultimate importance.
If he could only have one ... I know he'd choose passion
Passion will lead to obedience
Obedience does not necessarily lead to passion.
There is the legend of a boy named Sidharthra. He had a desire to know God. He heard of a guru who knew more of god than anyone. He found the guru and asked him, "How can I find God?"
The guru took him to the edge of a lake.... suddenly he grabbed the boy and thrust his head under the water. The boy tried but could not escape the iron grip of the guru. Just when it seemed that his lungs would burst and his life would end the guru pulled his head out of the water. The boy gasped to regain his breath.
Then the guru said, "When you want God as much as you wanted air ... you will find him."
That is what David knew when he wrote "As a deer panteth for water, so my soul after thee, 0 God." Ps 42:1
However, there are two obstacles to passionate love of God.... Guilt and Anxiety
"both are demoniacally contrived evil spirits"
1. GUILT.
Guilt is what keeps us focused on the past. .. And as long as we live in the past, we cannot live in the future ... and that is Satan's desire.
There are two days that mean nothing to Satan ... yesterday and tomorrow.
Satan does not care what you did yesterday
you may have preached a great sermon, sang a great song that gave God glory, led 88 people to Christ ... all he cares about is today.
He does not want you to pray today
grow today
witness today
In fact he will use yesterday against today.
He loves to use pride to cause you to be locked in yesterday's victories ... because you are doing nothing today.
Many Christians and churches are locked in yesterday and Satan loves it.
He will also use GUILT to keep you locked in yesterday ... so burdened and ashamed and demoralized by yesterday’s failures that you are paralyzed today.
Guilt creates fear in us and makes us weak.
It will suck all of the passion out of your life for anything.
(((Like the priest in The Scarlet Letter)))
It may be conscious or unconscious.
Unconscious guilt is still guilt and you deal with it unconsciously ... by repressing it.
But it is there and will come out in some form.... usually Depression.
A dark cloud of despondency hangs over our whole life because of unconscious guilt.
Only with professional help can you dig down through the layers of repression and denial to get to the root cause ... something that caused us to feel guilty.
Depression leaves you totally useless to God and totally unconcerned about spiritual things.
THAT IS A VICTORY FOR SATAN ... guilt has worked.
I am not saying that ALL depression is caused by guilt. It is often the result of biophysical factors and can often be treated successfully with drugs.
But for many people depression is caused by repressed guilt.
Psychologists even admit that awareness and honesty about sin and guilt in our lives is a prerequisite for mental health.
We must be freed from the sin of the past if we are to feel passion in the present.
Unconscious or conscious ... if it is there it will diminish our capacity to experience life or love God with any intensity.
The good news is this THERE IS A CURE ... A 100% CURE!!!
The cure for sin is so simple...
"If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
There is no need to live in the present weighed down with the load of yesterday's troubles.
Jesus died to forgive those sins ... HE WANTS TO ... you don't have to be ashamed to ask. ... HE WANTS YOU TO ASK
Did you ever see a relay race where one racer is waiting for the baton ... you know the excitement... jumping up and down … shaking his hand, body poised to explode in a burst of speed...
Picture Jesus that way.
He is just waiting for you to ask and BOOM ...he is off removing EVERY SIN.
He doesn't want to scold, he is waiting to forgive.
Don't feel like you are a bad person ... like you are guiltier than others ... the bible says, ''for ALL HAVE SINNED ... "
''ALL we like sheep have gone astray, each in his own way, but the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. "
And when you are forgiven, when the sin is confessed and removed, God does not see you are second class because you had to be forgiven again
He sees you are totally pure, no residual effect.
"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. 5:21
When you have been forgiven by God ... and yourself ... you are truly free.
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
Free to experience life: free to approach God: free to ask of God: free to receive from God ... free to experience God with PASSION.
"The God whom you once feared because you thought you deserved his condemning judgment can become your friend and the lover of your soul.”
The God who W AS far off will then be within you and take away your guilt.
2. ANXIETY.
Another day that Satan cares nothing about is Tomorrow
He will use fear and anxiety of what tomorrow might bring to paralyze you today.
And did you know that most anxiety about tomorrow comes from fear of death.
The consciousness of death overcomes us all ... little by little.
We become more and more aware of our own mortality.
The grim reaper becomes more and more real... much closer on the horizon than he was yesterday.
It happens because we have friends and relatives die... our age ... or younger.
It begins to come home to us that we are not immune or immortal.
Oh, sure when you are younger than twenty-five ... death is just a concept... something that you believe in but don't take seriously.
But as the years go by the realization grows ... Death becomes more and more a part of your thoughts.
Soren Kierkegaard said that "We are like smooth pebbles thrown so as to skim and dance over the surface of the water. But we feel ourselves running out of momentum, and we fear that the inevitable moment is coming when there will be nothing left but to sink into a hundred thousand fathoms of nothingness. "
As the shadow of death grows ... it shades out the joy and happiness, and energy of life.
Things lose their sparkle and begin to seem dim.
That is what Solomon was feeling when he wrote Ecclesiastes… Vanity, vanity, all is vanity... there is no happiness under the sun ... you look here and you look there but there is no happiness ... just death and gloom.
Life loses its childlike spontaneity and excitement.
Even those that deny being anxious about death is really, deep down, troubled by it.
The fear is not of death so much as it is the fear of not being.
We stand at a graveside and we wonder... even Christians ... is it true? Is there really a heaven? What if there is nothing but the grave.
We fear not being, that we will cease to exist.
That life will continue, that we will be forgotten, and that we will cease to be.... THE END!
That is where Faith comes in.
That is where the good news is such a help. There really is a balm in Gilead... that heals the sin-sick soul.
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST!!!
By the death of Jesus Christ we are freed from the crippling effects of sin and guilt.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave... his victory over death we find and take
HOPE!
Because I know that God has the power to defeat Satan, the grave and death ... to reach right down into hell and lift up the soul of His son and the gates of Hell could not prevent him ... because my God had the power to reach down into the grave and lift up the body of his Son and breathe life into it... and the power of death was useless against God ...
because not Satan, not death and not the grave could stop God... I know that same power is going to be there for me.
They can't hold me either.
AND THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS DEATH AND THE GRAVE WILL NOT HOLD US ... GOD WILL RAISE US UP TOO.
''If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Rom. 8:10-11
"God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power." 1 Cor. 6:14
This is the Good News that drives out the fear and anxiety over tomorrow and death, and frees us to be passionately involved in life... here and now.
There was a 95 year old woman who would always greet her pastor with, "Well, Pastor, it won't be long now. Anytime now I'll be seeing Him face to face. It may be today."
The good news of her victory over sin, Satan, death and the grave... of her home in heaven and eternity with her Lord God ... freed her from anxiety.
She did not live with fear of death or tomorrow.
She was able to live everyday to its fullest, enjoy the small things.
Death no longer encroached on her today.
Instead of the future and death encroaching on her present, the future brought hope and peace and made today a good place to be.
So now we can understand more fully what Jesus meant when He said, "I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly."
We have life uncrushed and unhindered by the guilt of yesterday or the anxiety of tomorrow.
And when we are set free from guilt and anxiety ... then we can truly experience ABUNDANT ... FULL... OVERFLOWING LIFE.
And we can also be set free to love God ... passionately!!!!
Do you lack PASSION in your life?
In your marriage
In your work
In your spiritual life
Perhaps it is crushed by fear of yesterday or tomorrow.
Guilt about the past or anxiety about the future can be cured right here.
How?
CONFESS--- your sin
ACCEPT --- eternal life
