Be Passionate

Rom 12:9-13

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Zeal means to be hot. Boiling. Burning. Studies have shown that enthusiastic people get better breaks. They’re promotes more often and have higher incomes and live happier lives.
1. Enthusiasm is a great English word. It is a word that is built deeply into the victorious spirit of man himself.
2. En-In; Theo-God. Full of God.
3. Eight undeniable quality of a winner is that they stay passionate throughout their lives.
  1. Passion in serving God.
  2. Passion in serving their families.
  3. Passion in serving in their careers.

1 Thess 5:19

19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire;

2 Tim 1:6

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God,

You have a responsibility to keep the fire burning.
1. Story of judgment, and last thing God said that he hated was they put out the lamps. King Hezekiah, though he was only 25 years old, got the lamps burning, and his reign was successful.

2 Chron 29:7-8

7 They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes.

The previous generation of Hezekiah failed God by not keeping their lamps burning.

Rev 2:4-5

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Ephesus held to orthodox doctrine. Yet, they forsook the passion of serving Christ.
1. Judgment “remove your lampstand.” Why? no fire.
2. Only church threatened to have their lampstand removed.
3. First Love. Remember when you first dated.
4. Ephesus like an old passionless couple married for 30 years:
  1. Don’t hold hands
  2. Don’t kiss
  3. No passion in the bedroom.
  4. No flowers.
  5. No sweet words
  6. No trying to make the other happy.
5. Forsook their first love, not “lost” it. If I lost it I may never be able to find it. But if I forsook it, I know where I left it.

Benefits of Passion:
1. God opens doors for you.
2. God gives you promotions
3. God causes your steps to be ordered by the Lord.
4. God gives you favor with others.

Three causes of passion:
1. You love because felt love back.
A heard a girl liked me, so I started to think a lot about the girl.

1 John 4:19-20

19 We love because he first loved us.

Prov 13:12

12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Feeling blessed.

Don’t let God blessing become common to you.
Salvation, marriage, kids born, job. answered prayer, protection.
Story of Captain Sully, landed plane on Hudson. Man said, “I was alive before, but now I’m really ” page 150

Prov 14:14

14 The backslider gets bored with himself; the godly man’s life is exciting.

TLB

1. Two causes of boredom:
  1. Doing something that is too easy.
  2. Doing something that you perceive is too hard.
2. Too easy. This means you should be challenging yourself.
  1. Do more.
  2. If you are doing something too easy, then you are backslidden.
  3. Fire spreads.
3. Too hard. Boredom can be caused by learned
  1. Make everything seem hard.
  2. Make your bed, clean your room, take out the trash, do your homework.
  3. Older: work, cooking, serving God

Phil 4:13

13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Gal 4:18

18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good,

Passionate about the wrong things.
1. Adam and Eve passionate about the wrong fruit.
2. Passionate about the other woman, about drugs, about making money and forget God.

Zealous about past hurts.
1. Bore-dom. Bear and Dominion. Things you bear that have dominion over you.
2. Let go of the past.
3. Windshield and rear view mirror.
4. Story: Woman with open heart surgery. Routine. Stop the heart. Blood flowing back restarts the heart. Drugs to restart the heart. Massage the heart. Finally, doctor said, “Mary, I’ve done everything I can do. Now I need you to tell your heart to beat again.” page 166