Live Passionately
Defining Passion
Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language:
“Any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, compelled by or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling”
- Passion can be related to the words; enthusiasm and zeal.
- Passion is the driving force behind all great achievement. Whether it is in art, literature, or music, achievement is rooted in passion.
- Passion is the key to athletic accomplishment, record breaking performances and championships.
The Apostle Paul expresses passionate living this way in Romans 12:10-11:
- “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
- The idea of “fervent in spirit” is a picture of water boiling; this pictures energy, action and heat.
Jesus states this zealous and fervent spirit for the Lord in Mark 12:30:
- “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”
- Other passages on zeal, which is a good biblical word that mirrors passion: Galatians 4:18, 2 Corinthians 7:10-11, John 2:17
- Regardless of your personality type, God made you to feel things deeply. God wants you to have a passion about your walk with Him
- The Lord knows that we need a passion for Him, His work and His Kingdom if we are to live a life with eternal impact.
- If you only had one month to live, would you not live it with passion, zeal and fervor?
A Biblical Example – Core Lesson Passage: Luke 5:18-26
18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.
20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”
This is a picture of passion and determination. These four men decided nothing would keep them from the goal of getting their friend to Jesus!
Notice the crowd’s reaction in verse 26: “We have seen strange things today”
- They could have said, “We have seen remarkable things today!”
- The remarkable things they saw and heard were not only the things Jesus said and did, but also the extreme actions taken by the friends of the paralyzed man.
- When we give our lives to live for the Lord with passion, we will also see remarkable things that we would never see when living our lives in the “hum-drum.”
- Too often our nature is to sit back and wait for the Lord to bring the remarkable to us, but amazingly He calls us to live our lives with passion! It is in the context of our faith and passion that the Lord works in our lives!
Remember what Jesus said in Mark 12:30
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”
- Just like the crowd kept the men and their needy friend away from the Lord, our crowded lives can keep us from being close to the Lord.
- Bad habits, procrastination and the distractions of this world cut us off from the life that satisfies and gives our lives real meaning.
- How can we remedy this situation?
This passage teaches us four things we can do to live with passion:
- Do Something Drastic!
- These guys in the passage did just that! Look at verse 19 again:
“And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.”
- When our lives are over-crowded, full of distractions and blurred priorities, we won’t fix it with a few adjustments. We must stop and do something drastic.
- When left to ourselves, our lives naturally gravitate to spiritual chaos, apathy and lifelessness.
- WE MUST ASK THE CLARIFING QUESTION: IF YOU KNEW YOU HAD ONE MONTH TO LIVE HOW WOULD YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE?
- Why don’t we live our lives like this all the time? Because we let little obstacles stop us in our tracks.
- When the men were tearing off the roof of the house, did they think about how much it would cost to fix it? I doubt it!
- It was “just” a roof and their friend was paralyzed. Suddenly, they clearly saw what was important.
- While we likely have more than one month to live, we need to consider a more drastic lifestyle.
- Remove the Obstacles!
- Living your life for the Lord and eternity is directly related to time.
- Many of the obstacles that keep us from living our lives for the Lord and His Kingdom are time related
- You can have 20 or 30 really good things to get done and be involved in, but do they get you to your spiritual goals for your life?
- So, how do we choose?
- THE PRINCIPLE TO USE: “Today I choose only the things I would do if I knew I had a limited time to live.”
- They are not the things that get you monetary rewards, have deadlines, or material things.
- The important things are your walk with your God, your marriage, your family and all the things that make an eternal impact.
- So far, here are the steps to a life lived with passion:
- Realize what is truly important in your life
- Remove the obstacles that are in the way
- Do something drastic
- To the friends of the paralyzed man in Luke 5, the crowd was an obstacle, the roof was an obstacle; but to get their friend healing they had to push by both obstacles.
- Expect the Unexpected!
- You set a plan, you set new priorities and life interrupts you when things don’t go according to plan.
- We love to be in control, but when we can’t control the situations we must not just give up.
- That is when we surrender control to the Lord.
- The friends in Luke 5 experienced this very thing:
- They planned: They knew where Jesus would be.
- They got enough men to carry him.
- They arrived at the right time.
- But: they had not planned on a crowd, a press so great they could not get through.
- There was no way to get to the front door.
- They could have said:
- “Well, we tried.”
- “It not our day.”
- “We’re sorry old buddy; we tried to get you to Jesus.”
- “It’s just not working out for us.”
- “We gave it our best effort.”
- They changed their plans when they encountered the unexpected.
- Remember: its passion, zeal, fervor that makes us roll with the punches in life.
- They got creative …. “Let’s go through the roof!”
- Another unexpected action in this passage is in verse 20 when Jesus forgives the paralyzed man’s sins:
“When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
- Learn to expect the unexpected because Jesus knows what is best for you.
- When your plans get interrupted, trust the Lord. If you get frustrated you will lose your passion.
- Give the Lord His Space to Work!
- Another key phrase in Luke 5:19:
“And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.” (emphasis added)
- “into the midst” means they placed their friend right in the middle of the crowd
- In our crowded lives we need to make sure that we are making space for the Lord to work in us.
- Even Jesus made space for the Father when He walked on the earth.
- Mark 1:35-37
35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
- In effect, the crowd was saying, “Jesus, you are disappointing people, you need to hurry. You need to meet needs. People are sick and hurting!”
- Jesus knew time with the Father would save time in the long run.
- The secret to maintaining passion and zeal is spending time with the Lord.
CONCLUSION:
- Knowing they had one month to live, a Christian with a converted heart would look at it differently than a person with a worldly heart.
- The worldly person would seek to indulge themselves in pleasures or sink into total despair.
- The Christian sees life from a different perspective.
- The knowledge that he only had one month to live would surely awaken any believer’s heart to eternity.
- Let’s allow the Lord to awaken our hearts now even though eternity does not seem to be looming just 30 days ahead.
- It all begins with a passion for living our life for the Lord – PASSION, ZEAL, and FERVOR!
*Notes are from fbcFOCUS University Ministry class (October 18, 2009). This is a church-wide study at First Baptist Church, Fort Smith, Arkansas and is taken from the book One Month to Live by Kerry and Chris Shook.
DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST One Month to Live – Passion (10-4-09).