PASSION FOR GOD AND HIS HOUSE, PART 3
With Pastor Johnny Awanyo
Topic Scriptures: 1 John 3:1, NIV; Romans 8: 38 -39 KJV; Ephesians 3:18 – 19, NLT
For the past couple of weeks, we have been learning on the topic of “Passion for God and His House”. We have defined passion as a strong and extravagant fondness or desire for a person or object. These qualities often go hand in hand with love.
God loves us. We know this. I don’t think there is anybody reading these words who doubts that God loves us. Our challenge, however, is that we do not understand just how much He loves us. We don’t understand that God loves us passionately.
Truthfully, we will never fully understand God’s love because of how huge it is. That is why 1 John 3:1 says to see what great love the Father has lavished on us. This is a common trait of passionate love. It is ready and willing to go above and beyond in its gifts and offerings. In Romans 8: 38 – 39, the scriptures tell us that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Passionate love is resolute. Nothing can take it away. Then in Ephesians 3: 18 – 19, the Bible says we should pray to understand the vast dimensions of God’s love.
Now, just as God loves us passionately and is passionate about us, He is expecting us also to love Him in the same way. It is a very painful thing when you are passionate about somebody, pour your heart and resources out for them but you don’t get a reciprocal response. That is the pain we cause God when we are not passionate about Him.
Jesus Christ, our Great Example, had a lot of passion for God. You and I, therefore, must seek to be passionate about God in the same way. It is only right and proper.
WHY PASSION IS IMPORTANT
The first reason passion is important, as we learned last week, is because passion is like the fuel that drives and motivates you in anything you set out to do and achieve. Without passion, you can easily give up on something you set out to do, especially if you encounter challenges and roadblocks along the way. But where passion is, even hard work begins to feel like play.
Let us look at some other reasons:
- Because passion gives you direction and a sense of purpose (John 4:34, AMP)
Jesus in this scripture tells us plainly what sustained and drove Him while He was on this earth. That has to do with passion. It gave Him a sense of direction and purpose. That’s why He could talk about accomplishing and finishing the assignment the Father had given to Him.
What you are passionate about guides and directs you in this life.
- Because passion is infectious. It can inspire others to believe in your venture. (Matthew 4: 17 – 22, NLT)
When you’re passionate about what you’re doing, it attracts certain people to you. Those people are drawn to the vision and the passion you have for that vision. People are looking for something that will give them purpose in life and are drawn to people who seem to have that.
This, I believe, is what convinced Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John to abandon their fishing business and follow Jesus in Matthew 4: 17 – 22. They had likely heard about Him and knew the passion He had for the message He was preaching, and that was enough for them to leave everything and follow Jesus.
Perhaps the reason we don’t have a lot of people following us to church and/or giving their lives to Christ is because they can see that we don’t have any real passion for God.
- Relationships thrive better where there is a good level of passion.
Think about different types of relationships: marital relationships, work relationships, friendships, etc. The ones that do better are the ones that have a certain level of passion attached. Take marriage for example. Marriage is a lot of hard work. If there is no passion, it is easy to get fed up and walk away and out of the marriage.
Even work relationships share this trait. If you’re working people who aren’t passionate about what they’re doing, you will wind up very frustrated.
- Passion can lead to personal fulfilment, happiness, and satisfaction. (Hebrews 12: 1 – 2; Philippians 4:1)
It wasn’t easy for Jesus Christ when He had to come and pay the price for our salvation. One of the reasons He persisted in spite of all those difficulties was His passion for what He had been sent to do. I believe that He could endure and press on because He knew there was a certain joy that awaited Him on the other side of His suffering.
So in Hebrews 12: 1 – 2, the Bible clearly tells us that Jesus endured the pain and the shame of the cross because of the joy that awaited Him. That’s why He didn’t quit.
And in Philippians 4:1, the Apostle Paul calls the church his joy and his crown. His ministry journey wasn’t easy, but he knew there was a joy waiting for him in the success of the church. May God stir up strong passion in our hearts for Him today!
But each and every one of us must be honest with ourselves. We must begin to question how passionate we are about God, because we all have passion for something. Some of us are passionate about sports; others are passionate about money; yet others love our families with all our hearts.
But when it comes to God, that same passion is all too often missing. And let me tell you: it pains God. He has loved us with an everlasting love, a lot that cost Him His only begotten Son. It is that same love that made Jesus face the cross resolutely without trying to spare Himself the pain and humiliation.
In light of all this, God is looking for a certain kind of response from us, but sadly He’s not getting it. When it comes to God, we hold back. We struggle to get involved in the work of God. We struggle to give at a sacrificial level for the things of God. the problem is not that we don’t have passion at all. The problem is where we have chosen to direct those passions, and how God is so very often left with our scraps. And cause the Father hurt and grief all the time.
It is not right.
God is speaking to all of us. Some of us used to be so on fire for God; it is time to come back. It is time to defy the situations that tempt us to hold back from God. We must never, ever forget that our service is to God, and not to people. God is the one with whom we have to do, and I pray He helps us burn with passion for Him again. Amen.
