Passionate about God
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro -
I think that you will agree with me that we live in a culture that is increasingly moving away from the Lord. A couple of weeks ago, we studied Noah on Wednesday. You can go to our website or FB to hear that message again. Just as it was too late when God closed the door on the ark, it will be too late again.
37 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 38 In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. 39 People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.
We live in days like the days of Noah. Wicked… immoral… what is right is said to be wrong… people are just going along doing their thing… not paying any attention to God. One day it will be to late, but God is patient.
12 That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Turn to Jesus now. God gives us chance after chance to turn to him. Last year, many of you lost a lot… jobs… normality… health… Look what God says
25 The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you.
If we will turn to the Lord, he will restore us. Job had more after he lost everything than he had before.
OK… We want to be passionate about the Lord...
Theme verse for the series…
18 Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
Jesus said that nothing will destroy the church… His church.
We want to look at some Biblical Distinctive’s of what THE church should be.
Check this out… Here is what we want our church… the church to be
I see a church where the people have found a relationship with God instead of religion and where living for God is no longer a duty, it’s a joy.
I see a church where the people have found a relationship with God instead of religion and where living for God is no longer a duty, it’s a joy.
We want people to enjoy serving the Lord. We want church to be like a breath of fresh air. What if worship was a delight… serving was a delight…
What would we have to do for that to happen?
We have to have a passion.
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”
Church was never intended to be boring. Rick Warren used to say it was a sin for church to be boring. Too often we make church a bunch of rules… That’s not church.
There are so many things we get excited about… LSU… Saints… then we come to church and we sit like nothing is happening. Are you kidding, we serve an awesome God who is moving in you and doing miracles all around us.
11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
A friend of mine told me this week that he wants to on fire for Jesus… not lukewarm. We want to be on fire.
Four Areas of Passion
Four Areas of Passion
Movies show Jesus as a serious guy. .. all serious and boring. Listen… He was a kid Magnet . Do you know what kind of a person you have to be to be a kid Magnet ? You have to have some candy in your robes for that to happen.
14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” 17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”
These four passions I am going to talk about are also things we can be lukewarm about.
1. Passion for Prayer
1. Passion for Prayer
We tend to get subdued when we pray… King James…
13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”
Church is supposed to be a place of prayer.
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
We need to be earnest or fervent in our prayer. Earnest prayer isn’t just a quick prayer or quite prayer. Pray should be exciting. It’s ok for you to pray out loud during prayer times.
Too many churches have reduce prayer to a dull time. Joke - prayer circles…squeeze hands… unspoken prayer request.
We need to go after God in prayer. That’s why we do 21 days of prayer at the beginning of the year.
What do you do it your prayer passion has gone out… ?
Make Prayer our first response, not our last resort
Make Prayer our first response, not our last resort
Before you try to figure it out… pray about it.
2. Passion for praise and worship
2. Passion for praise and worship
Worship needs to be energetic.
30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’
Does that sound like boring or dull.
David was passionate about praising the Lord…
1 Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Sing… clap… dance… raise your hands…
Double Dog dare… give the Lord your best. Don’t just toe tap…
David and Israel lost lost the ark to the Philistines. Eventually David went and took back the ARK. While they were carrying it back, they stopped every 6 steps and then they would stop and worship and offer a sacrifice.
20 When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!” 21 David retorted to Michal, “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. 22 Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am distinguished!”
We need to take David’s attitude toward praising…
We need to be passionate for the Lord.
Sign - pardon our noise, it’s the sound of freedom… air-force base.
Navy Air station in SC and the planes taking off would make so much noise it would cause wrecks on the highway. So they put up a sign that said…
Pardon our noise, it’s the sound of freedom
Talk about it
For us - pardon our noise, this is the sound of someone whose been set free
Listen to me. when you’ve been set free, you need to make some noise. When you get free, it’s exciting.
15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.
We should offer him a continuous sacrifice of praise. Give God some praise right now…
We give God what He deserves, not what we feel.
We give God what He deserves, not what we feel.
He didn’t say if you feel like it… shout… He said shout to the Lord all you people.
3. Passion for Purity
3. Passion for Purity
Not perfect… Hate what is evil and cling to what is right.
Our Culture is mocking the church… they are mocking you and I, but we will stand firm in our beliefs. And one of those beliefs is that we will have a passion for purity.
The Israelites had slipped further into sin until the point where God sent a plague to destroy them but Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, saw the sin and did something about it. So God said,
11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being as zealous among them as I was. So I stopped destroying all Israel as I had intended to do in my zealous anger.
Another time, Jehu was going after the wicked descendants of Ahab. He saw Jehonadab and asked him to come with him…
16 Then Jehu said, “Now come with me, and see how devoted I am to the Lord.” So Jehonadab rode along with him.
Jehu wanted him to see how devoted to the Lord he was. We want the world to see our devotion. Jesus said to let your good deed be seen by the whole world.
16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Listen to me,
Let’s be a voice, not an echo
Let’s be a voice, not an echo
We need to have a passion for purity… for holy living.
4. Passion for people
4. Passion for people
God’s passion is for people so ours better be too.
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
We need to do every thing we can to reach people with the message of Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone to miss heaven. I don’t want anyone to miss out on a rich and satisfying life…
God loves people.... that’s why he created them… it’s why He sent Jesus to redeem us… it’s why he has given us the mission to bring people back to him.
If we grow we will add services…
Paul said
24 But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.
Remember, a life not lived for others is not a life
Remember, a life not lived for others is not a life
If you are bored and hurting, you may be too focused on yourself. We need to focus on others. Remember when you first gave your life to Christ? You couldn’t wait to tell others. Let’s tell them.
We have to be passionate about God. Look at what Jesus said,
4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
This year, I want each one of you to get your fire back… to get our fire back, we have to turn back toward God and do the things we used to do when we first were saved.
Think about the time when you loved prayer more, bible study more, worship more, people more...
Then Jesus gives us the chance to repent. But he also gives a warning…
Prayer -