Sunday, July 02, 2006
Rekindling Your Passion for the Lord
(Psalm 42:1-2)
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
Introduction:
Have you ever been really, really thirsty? When you’re so craving water so bad that you’ll even drink it out of a hot drinking fountain? When was the last time you were thirsty for God? When was the last time you felt the immediate demand, that craving inside of you to be with God, to listen to God, to serve God? Like we talked about last week, it is altogether too easy sometimes to forget how blessed we are to know God and to take for granted that He’s always right there for us. Sometimes we “forget our first love” and we fall into a cold, stale relationship with God (on our side of it – He always loves us passionately and never changes!). Our love and thirst for God can grow dull over time. So today we are going to look at some biblical steps to spark your spiritual fire, and to renew the passion in your relationship with God. Our first tips will come from Paul in Colossians…
(Colossians 4:2-6)
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
1) WATCH AND PRAY FOR HOW GOD IS AT WORK AROUND YOU
Good relationships don’t happen by accident – they are worked at, and take an investment of quality time. You don’t just wake up one day and all of a sudden have a newly passionate relationship with God! Daily, quality, focused prayer (“devote yourselves to prayer”) is a sure way to draw closer to God. This is a very simple and very obvious instruction, but how many people really “devote” themselves to prayer? You see, as you pray and draw closer to Him, He will make your calling and purpose in life more clear to you – and when you embrace that God-given purpose and the ministry opportunities He has placed around you, every day with God becomes exciting. There is never a dull moment when you are watching and praying for God to use you. As your prayer life increases, you will more in tune with how God is at work in and through your life. It is a tremendous joy to watch God at work! Be watchful and observant for how God opens doors around you for you to spread His Word and to be “salt and light” in the lives of others. We miss a lot of exciting opportunities simply because we are not looking. We often sleepwalk through life with blinders on, oblivious to the work of the Spirit. One of the benefits of prayer is it helps us stay focused on God and others instead of ourselves, so that we will recognize God-given opportunities when they arise. And let me tell you, there is nothing in the world more exciting and stimulating that being used as God’s instrument in the process of new people coming to know Christ – it is an honor and a privilege. So watch and pray, and see every day, every moment, as a fresh and exciting new opportunity to be used by God. Sometimes our passion dies because we have stopped praying, or have gotten into a rut in our prayers. We gradually drift away from God. But we can avoid this. People who spend time in prayer, and watch for the connections between prayer and daily life, are people who are excited for the cause of Christ. Especially when we remember that with God, all things are possible! The greatest joy of the Christian life, besides having a relationship with God, is introducing other people to Him. Yet so few Christians seem to sincerely care about that as a priority. (And by the way, if that doesn’t bring you joy, it’s time to examine your relationship with God and whether you have one – check your spiritual pulse for signs of life). The angels in heaven rejoice every time even one soul gets saved. When we start to see each person as a child of God, and a potential Christian, and that God can use us to make an eternal difference in peoples’ lives, life becomes more meaningful and joyful. That means we must “make the most of every opportunity” and every conversation, being the “salt” that we are supposed to be. This passage doesn’t even necessarily mean “preaching” to people – but just sharing naturally about God and what He’s done in our lives in our everyday normal conversations. In each conversation, we decide whether we care enough to make it a potentially life-changing one or not.
2) COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
(Psalm 103:1-5)
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
We should never become nonchalant about the amazing things God has already done for us, even if He never did another thing ever for us. We need to take time to remember the blessings in our past. Sometimes we lose our passion simply because we don’t take enough time to remember and praise Him. Don’t live in the past, but always remember how God has been faithful, and against all odds has brought you to where you are today. It is so easy to forget the Cross, the forgiveness, the comfort, the strength, and the answered prayers from over the years. But when we take time to count our blessings, a sense of joy and gratitude begins to bubble up on the inside, and motivates us to draw closer to God and to serve Him in the present.
Speaking of the present, we should count our present blessings as well as our past ones. When we concentrate on the negative (don't be a spiritual "Eeyore", lol) we lose sight of God – but when we concentrate on the positive, we grow more thankful of God. Think about Philippians 4:8… think on THOSE things, and experience joy and passion. We can also count the glorious blessings that await God’s children in the future… we don’t have to get beaten down and have the joy in our walk with God stolen by feelings, emotions and circumstances. We have the eternal perspective, and we know how the story ends, no matter what may happen on this earth!
3) WEED YOUR “SOIL”
In the world, you weed the soil and get rid of the dry brush so that fires won’t start. Well, in the spiritual world, you weed the soil in your soul, so that a fire (of passion for God) WILL start! We need to weed our lives of all the distractions that take our mind off of God.
(Luke 8:14)
The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature.
It is hard to be a passionate Christian if God is blocked out by your own whims, desires, and comforts – or even your stresses. Is there anything in your life that keeps you from being close with God? Is there anything in your life that robs your energy and time, so that you are so overly tired that you don’t have time to serve God, and to commune with Him? God should not be ignored. Watch out for the worries, riches, and pleasures that choke off our spiritual growth, and take our passion with it. Obviously, sin (which includes worries, riches, and pleasures) causes major separation between us and God, and causes us to drift spiritually.
(Isaiah 59:1-2)
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
In other words, there’s nothing wrong with HIM – we separate OURSELVES sometimes because we don’t like to submit. His passion for you is just fine, thank you! This passage highlights the first thing to get straight if you are serious about wanting to renew your passion. Sin or iniquity means “self-rule” – and you can’t be close to God if you’re ruling yourself, in a state of rebellion against Him. Sin deadens our desire to serve God, it replaces God, enslaves us, and puts the focus on ourselves. It causes us to lose sight of our priorities, our purpose, and our true needs. It puts the focus on the flesh instead of the Spirit. The only thing that can separate us from God is our sin – but that’s not an excuse, because forgiveness and reconciliation has been made available to us. We’ve got to declare war on sin and take it much more seriously, and not be nonchalant about it – in many cases it is the one thing stopping us from fulfilling God’s highest purposes for our lives. Don’t let sin rob your passion! (Remember, Satan came to steal, kill, and destroy…)
Conclusion:
If we follow these biblical teachings, not only will we have more joy in our lives, and more passionate fire in our relationship with God – but more new people will come to know Christ as well, and our church will be spiritually alive. New members help keep the passion and the joy alive in a church body, because they don’t take things for granted like how people who have been a Christian for a longer time tend to do. But no matter how long you’ve been a Christian, there’s really no excuse to sit back and let the passion fade (it doesn’t have to be inevitable). If it has, it is due to choices you have made – it’s not God’s fault. He loves you just as passionately today as He did when He sent Jesus to die on the Cross for you. The ball is in our court – how are we going to respond to His amazing love? This summer is time for revival, both individually, and collectively! Our theme this summer is “The Romans 12 Summer” – and let me tell you, when you’re living life as a living sacrifice, using your gifts to serve and encourage others like Romans 12 teaches, that is not a boring life or a bland relationship with God. Obedience to God is what brings true joy and keeps your passion alive, instead of deadening it with sin and selfish disobedience. Just think of all the eternal fruit that God can use your life to produce, even over the course of this summer! Today is the day to get things right with God… He’s just a prayer away! Putting it off is Satan’s tool…
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
Introduction:
Have you ever been really, really thirsty? When you’re so craving water so bad that you’ll even drink it out of a hot drinking fountain? When was the last time you were thirsty for God? When was the last time you felt the immediate demand, that craving inside of you to be with God, to listen to God, to serve God? Like we talked about last week, it is altogether too easy sometimes to forget how blessed we are to know God and to take for granted that He’s always right there for us. Sometimes we “forget our first love” and we fall into a cold, stale relationship with God (on our side of it – He always loves us passionately and never changes!). Our love and thirst for God can grow dull over time. So today we are going to look at some biblical steps to spark your spiritual fire, and to renew the passion in your relationship with God. Our first tips will come from Paul in Colossians…
(Colossians 4:2-6)
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
1) WATCH AND PRAY FOR HOW GOD IS AT WORK AROUND YOU
Good relationships don’t happen by accident – they are worked at, and take an investment of quality time. You don’t just wake up one day and all of a sudden have a newly passionate relationship with God! Daily, quality, focused prayer (“devote yourselves to prayer”) is a sure way to draw closer to God. This is a very simple and very obvious instruction, but how many people really “devote” themselves to prayer? You see, as you pray and draw closer to Him, He will make your calling and purpose in life more clear to you – and when you embrace that God-given purpose and the ministry opportunities He has placed around you, every day with God becomes exciting. There is never a dull moment when you are watching and praying for God to use you. As your prayer life increases, you will more in tune with how God is at work in and through your life. It is a tremendous joy to watch God at work! Be watchful and observant for how God opens doors around you for you to spread His Word and to be “salt and light” in the lives of others. We miss a lot of exciting opportunities simply because we are not looking. We often sleepwalk through life with blinders on, oblivious to the work of the Spirit. One of the benefits of prayer is it helps us stay focused on God and others instead of ourselves, so that we will recognize God-given opportunities when they arise. And let me tell you, there is nothing in the world more exciting and stimulating that being used as God’s instrument in the process of new people coming to know Christ – it is an honor and a privilege. So watch and pray, and see every day, every moment, as a fresh and exciting new opportunity to be used by God. Sometimes our passion dies because we have stopped praying, or have gotten into a rut in our prayers. We gradually drift away from God. But we can avoid this. People who spend time in prayer, and watch for the connections between prayer and daily life, are people who are excited for the cause of Christ. Especially when we remember that with God, all things are possible! The greatest joy of the Christian life, besides having a relationship with God, is introducing other people to Him. Yet so few Christians seem to sincerely care about that as a priority. (And by the way, if that doesn’t bring you joy, it’s time to examine your relationship with God and whether you have one – check your spiritual pulse for signs of life). The angels in heaven rejoice every time even one soul gets saved. When we start to see each person as a child of God, and a potential Christian, and that God can use us to make an eternal difference in peoples’ lives, life becomes more meaningful and joyful. That means we must “make the most of every opportunity” and every conversation, being the “salt” that we are supposed to be. This passage doesn’t even necessarily mean “preaching” to people – but just sharing naturally about God and what He’s done in our lives in our everyday normal conversations. In each conversation, we decide whether we care enough to make it a potentially life-changing one or not.
2) COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
(Psalm 103:1-5)
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
We should never become nonchalant about the amazing things God has already done for us, even if He never did another thing ever for us. We need to take time to remember the blessings in our past. Sometimes we lose our passion simply because we don’t take enough time to remember and praise Him. Don’t live in the past, but always remember how God has been faithful, and against all odds has brought you to where you are today. It is so easy to forget the Cross, the forgiveness, the comfort, the strength, and the answered prayers from over the years. But when we take time to count our blessings, a sense of joy and gratitude begins to bubble up on the inside, and motivates us to draw closer to God and to serve Him in the present.
Speaking of the present, we should count our present blessings as well as our past ones. When we concentrate on the negative (don't be a spiritual "Eeyore", lol) we lose sight of God – but when we concentrate on the positive, we grow more thankful of God. Think about Philippians 4:8… think on THOSE things, and experience joy and passion. We can also count the glorious blessings that await God’s children in the future… we don’t have to get beaten down and have the joy in our walk with God stolen by feelings, emotions and circumstances. We have the eternal perspective, and we know how the story ends, no matter what may happen on this earth!
3) WEED YOUR “SOIL”
In the world, you weed the soil and get rid of the dry brush so that fires won’t start. Well, in the spiritual world, you weed the soil in your soul, so that a fire (of passion for God) WILL start! We need to weed our lives of all the distractions that take our mind off of God.
(Luke 8:14)
The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature.
It is hard to be a passionate Christian if God is blocked out by your own whims, desires, and comforts – or even your stresses. Is there anything in your life that keeps you from being close with God? Is there anything in your life that robs your energy and time, so that you are so overly tired that you don’t have time to serve God, and to commune with Him? God should not be ignored. Watch out for the worries, riches, and pleasures that choke off our spiritual growth, and take our passion with it. Obviously, sin (which includes worries, riches, and pleasures) causes major separation between us and God, and causes us to drift spiritually.
(Isaiah 59:1-2)
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
In other words, there’s nothing wrong with HIM – we separate OURSELVES sometimes because we don’t like to submit. His passion for you is just fine, thank you! This passage highlights the first thing to get straight if you are serious about wanting to renew your passion. Sin or iniquity means “self-rule” – and you can’t be close to God if you’re ruling yourself, in a state of rebellion against Him. Sin deadens our desire to serve God, it replaces God, enslaves us, and puts the focus on ourselves. It causes us to lose sight of our priorities, our purpose, and our true needs. It puts the focus on the flesh instead of the Spirit. The only thing that can separate us from God is our sin – but that’s not an excuse, because forgiveness and reconciliation has been made available to us. We’ve got to declare war on sin and take it much more seriously, and not be nonchalant about it – in many cases it is the one thing stopping us from fulfilling God’s highest purposes for our lives. Don’t let sin rob your passion! (Remember, Satan came to steal, kill, and destroy…)
Conclusion:
If we follow these biblical teachings, not only will we have more joy in our lives, and more passionate fire in our relationship with God – but more new people will come to know Christ as well, and our church will be spiritually alive. New members help keep the passion and the joy alive in a church body, because they don’t take things for granted like how people who have been a Christian for a longer time tend to do. But no matter how long you’ve been a Christian, there’s really no excuse to sit back and let the passion fade (it doesn’t have to be inevitable). If it has, it is due to choices you have made – it’s not God’s fault. He loves you just as passionately today as He did when He sent Jesus to die on the Cross for you. The ball is in our court – how are we going to respond to His amazing love? This summer is time for revival, both individually, and collectively! Our theme this summer is “The Romans 12 Summer” – and let me tell you, when you’re living life as a living sacrifice, using your gifts to serve and encourage others like Romans 12 teaches, that is not a boring life or a bland relationship with God. Obedience to God is what brings true joy and keeps your passion alive, instead of deadening it with sin and selfish disobedience. Just think of all the eternal fruit that God can use your life to produce, even over the course of this summer! Today is the day to get things right with God… He’s just a prayer away! Putting it off is Satan’s tool…
