What are you passionate about? What gets you excited, on fire and your heart pumping? Could be anything. Could be your kids. I know some people that are really [pumped about their kids. Could be your hobby –some people can go on for hours about stamp collecting or fly tying. Could be your work, your sport, anything.
You can tell what someone is passionate about something. They talk about it, they language, their body, their tone, their eyes, everything about them lights up and they really get excited.
I want to make a bold statement here. All of the things that you can get excited about, passionate about –as good and as worthy as they may be, pale in comparison to being passionate about God. If there is one thing that is really worth getting passionate about, it is God. All other things, all other people pass and fade, spoil, disappoint or just get to be old but God…!
One of the things that I think we, as a church in the 21st century, have lost is our passion for God. We have lost our delight in the creator of the universe and the giver of life. We have become excited about hockey, enamored about soccer, emboldened about breaking embargos, emphatic about leaking oil, and a host of other things but we have lost our enhancement with God.
For many, our relationship with God has, become one of duty rather than delight. The pleasure of knowing God, growing in God, talking about God, singing, thirsting, desiring and passion has been replaced performance. We come to church, we sing a song, we give something in the offering, we smile at the pastor and then go home –our religious experience has become a ritual with little or no heart.
And this is nothing new. Over the centuries there has been this ebb and flow of ritual rather than relationship, duty instead of delight, works instead of wonder, performance rather than passion. Even back to the time of Jesus the people of God, called by God to be his chosen race –Israel, had become a people of ritual, duty, performance and works. They had lost the relationship, the delight, the passion, the wonder of God.
Imagine, men, that on the day of your anniversary you arrange to have a dozen roses sent home to your wife. You walk in the door that evening and your wife runs towards you with a big smile and tears running down her cheeks. “O thank you so much for the wonderful roses,” she says and holds out her arms to give you a big embrace. As she goes to put her arms around you, you stop her and say, “It was nothing, just my duty and performing as your husband.” (analogy from Pleasures Evermore, by Sam Storms). How would the rest of your anniversary go?
This morning, you may feel somewhat apart from God, perhaps your spiritual journey has stalled or does not seem to be moving. Maybe you have, like I suspect most Christians, fallen into a pattern of performance rather than passion, ritual rather than relationship, duty instead of delight, or work instead of wonder. This morning I want to encourage you, strongly encourage you to set your eyes again upon Jesus, upon the giver of life and light. To turn your attention on the one who is worthy, the one most worthy of your passion, your attention, you heart.
Let me read a passage for you. It begins with what Sam Storms calls and apostolic “OH!” Romans 11:33-36.
Paul has been giving a powerful lesson in theology in the first 11 chapters of Romans. The deepest and most profound book of the New testament and perhaps one of the greatest pieces of Christian theology ever written, Paul has led us through this wonderful journey of grace. And then He suddenly bursts into song! Look back to chapter 1 where Paul speaks of the fall of mankind and our enslavement to sin, to chapter three and the there is no one righteous and all fall short of the glory of God, then his moving to faith in Christ as our salvation, , our life in the Spirit in chapter 8 where he makes statement of our being more than conquerors in Christ Jesus (read 37-39). Then moving through God’s working in the nations of Israel and then its like he builds up to this point and “OH!”
OH this great and wonderful God, OH, the depths of his wisdom and love. OH! To Him be glory forever! Church, where is our OH!? This God, our God who created the universe with a breathe, this God, our God who holds creation I the palm of his hand, this God our god who breathed life into this ball of dust and clay and called us friend. This god, our God who went the extreme act of love in giving his life for us that we could and would be in relationship with Him. This god, our God who gave his body –broken for us. This god our god who gave his blood –shed for us. This God, our god, who gives us his Spirit to empower, protect, heal, secure and seal us as his won. This God, our god who gives joy and peace and love. This god, our god who holds out his arms to us and says come. This God, our God who takes delight in us. This God, our God who even when we rebelled, rejected, turned from ,mocked and scorned still expressed his love. This God our god, who is worthy of our praise, our adoration, our devotion, our passion, our delight. This God, our God who is worthy of our OH!”
This God is worthy of our devotion, not duty. This God, our God, who desires relationship not ritual. This god, our God, who calls for passion and not performance.
When we come to something like communion, does it capture our heart anew about he wonderful thing God has done. Does your pulse race when you take up that piece of bread and realize the immensity of what Jesus did for you? When you take up that cup, does your hand tremble at the thought of Jesus incredible love for you? When you hear the words –this is my body, this is my blood, does it ignite a passion in you and rekindle a flame of wonder in this incredible God who did an incredible thing at an incredible price.
Do you fall in love again, anew, deeper with Jesus? And by love I mean enchanted, enamored, engrossed, enthralled, enraptured, entranced, enravished, excited, enticed, astonished, amazed, awed, astounded, absorbed, agog, beguiled, bedazzled, startled, staggered, smitten, stunned, stupefied, spellbound, charmed, consumed, thrilled, thunderstruck, obsessed, preoccupied, intrigued, impassioned, overwhelmed, overwrought, gripped, rapt, enthused, electrified, tantalized, mesmerized, monopolized, fascinated, captivated, intoxicated, infatuated and exhilarated? Or simply put, “OH!” (Sam Storms –Pleasures Evermore)
OH, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Oh, the depth of the riches of love in Christ Jesus, oh, the grace poured out to us. Oh the wonder of his majesty. Oh!
As I said earlier, you may feel somewhat apart from God, perhaps your spiritual journey has stalled or does not seem to be moving. And let me add that you may be burdened or struggling with a sin in your life. Maybe you have, like I suspect most Christians, fallen into a pattern of performance rather than passion, ritual rather than relationship, duty instead of delight, or work instead of wonder. This morning I want to encourage you, strongly encourage you to set your eyes again upon Jesus, upon the giver of life and light. To turn your attention on the one who is worthy, the one most worthy of your passion, your attention, you heart. This is what god made us for. To quote Sam Storms who sparked this message in my heart, There is an ineradicable, inescapable impulse in your heart to experience God precisely this way. May God kindle afresh in our hearts the flame of fascination with he who is, the marvel and wonder of what he has done and will do. May he restore in His people the mystery and the excitement of the knowledge of all He is for us in Jesus! That we would regain the “OH!” of our relationship with and response to God.
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