PASSION FOR GOD AND HIS HOUSE, PART 2
With Pastor Johnny Awanyo
Topic Scriptures: John 2:13 – 17; John 4:34 AMP
Last week, we started a new series, titled “Passion for God and His House.” We learned that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when He walked the earth, was a man of passion. He had passion for God, for the people of God, the house of God, and the things of God.
We defined passion as a “strong extravagant fondness or enthusiasm or desire for somebody or something”. Passion is not an ordinary liking. Passion is strong. Passion is intense. You can easily go overboard with it. When you are passionate for somebody or something, you are able to do things lavishly for them and you don’t hold back.
In every field of pursuit, you’ll find that those who excel and do well are people of passion. This is not a coincidence: passion is usually a prerequisite for success in life.
Take Martin Luther King, Jr., who spearheaded the Civil Rights movement in America. Take also Nelson Mandela, who fought against Apartheid rule in South Africa.
Closer to home, we can mention Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana and the founder of our nation. These men were unquestionably men of passion.
It reminds me of a story told to me by a friend a long time ago. This friend of mine was driving one day. Looking to the side of the road, he saw a young lady, a young lady seemingly in the grip of intense emotion. She appeared to be talking to herself. At a point, she knelt on the pavement and lifted up her hands. Curious, my friend parked his car and went to find out whether this young lady needed any help.
When he got to her, he noticed she had earpieces in her ears and was listening to a worship song. Tears were streaming down her face. When my friend asked her what the problem was, she replied: “I’m in love with Jesus!”
That’s what we call passion. Passion so strong that she couldn’t even control herself.
There are other words that can be used in place of passion, like zeal, heat, affection, devotion, dedication and warmth. In another sense, passion can also mean anger or resentment, which Jesus Christ exhibited when He drove the merchants out of the Temple. He was angry about what was going on.
Last week, we went through a lot of scriptures to see for ourselves that Jesus Christ was a man of passion. And the Bible teaches us that as Christ was in this world, so must we also be (1 John 4:17).
So if Jesus was a man of passion, we cannot be anything less.
We must therefore be passionate about God, about the things of God, the House of God, the work of God, and the people of God. And not only with God, but with very other area in our lives.
In light of this, I want to try and convince you again about why passion is important in life and our walk with God.
WHY PASSION IS IMPORTANT
Passion is like fuel. It drives and motivates you in anything you set out to achieve. A person without passion is like a car with an empty tank: you may try to move forward, but soon enough you will come to a grinding halt.
This explains why we give up on many things, why we quit when we meet difficulties and challenges: because there is no passion for them.
But passion provides endurance.
In Genesis 29: 14 – 30, we see the story of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob loved Rachel and wanted to marry her, but Rachel’s father, Laban, demanded that Jacob work seven years before he could marry Rachel. What a bride price! And Jacob worked those years, but the Bible says in verse 20 that they seemed like only a few days to him!
The story doesn’t end there. After the seven-year period was up, Laban tricked Jacob by giving him his first daughter Leah instead of Rachel, then demanded that if Jacob truly wanted Rachel, he would have to work seven more years. And Jacob agreed!
Imagine working 14 good years just to marry a woman. But it did not affect Jacob’s love for Rachel at all! Do you know why?
Jacob was passionate for Rachel!
Where there is passion, even hard work feels like play – and comes with a lot of pleasure. This is one of the ways to find out your life’s work: look for the thing you’re most passionate about, and follow through with it. It will lead you to a lot of fulfilment and satisfaction in this life. If what you’re doing now is a burden and a struggle for you, then perhaps it’s because that’s not what you’re really supposed to be doing.
When it comes to God and the things of God, passion is one of the things we must cultivate. We can never get far with God if we don’t have it.
Without passion, we will not serve God well. We will turn away from Him when we meet challenges. We will struggle to pray, to read our Bibles, to work for God, to give to support His work, and to come to church regularly. Following God will become a burden, not a delight.
When you are saved, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have challenges. But even when you’re going through challenges, there must be an earnest desire in you to do well.
What’s sad is that when we are pursuing other things for our own ends, we don’t allow challenges to stop us. We push through to get what we want. So why do we always have excuses as to why we can’t serve God as He deserves and demands, with all our hearts and all our minds and all our souls? (Mark 12:30)
I want you to chew on what we’ve shared today. Ask yourself: do you have passion? Is there something burning inside you, a certain fuel driving you to not give up on serving God? Where there’s passion, even when we don’t yet have what we’re praying for from God, we never give up.
We must have passion.
And by the grace of God, we will have it. So help us God!
