Passion For The Christ

Introduction

Talk about the things that I'm passionate about:

  • Passionate about coffee – apart of life is enjoying God's creation; the roasted coffee bean
    • The search for the best coffee, the best espresso bar in Adelaide
  • Passionate about the black prancing horse, and other fine Italian motor cars – Ferrari
    • Love developed after working on those vehicles
  • Passionate about cycling – shaving legs (Man Cans Solo afterwards)
  • Passionate about young people – seeing them discover God's love for them and purpose for them
  • Passionate about my children – help them to develop skills to live a fruitful future eg watching Elise, Pastor Phoebe (encourage that)
  • Passionate about my wife – Katie is my best friend, ministry partner, looking forward to the things God is going to do this year together
  • Passionate about His church – love serving in this house, love giving my life to see this house grow and ultimately build his kingdom
  • Passionate about Jesus – I unashamedly love Him, He gave His life for me so that I could live in freedom, in eternity with Him, the very least I can do is give Him my life and love Him

And the title of my talk tonight is 'Passion for the Christ'

Peter the disciple – very passionate man

  • Faithful & dedicated – left all to follow Jesus
  • Faith filled man – left the boat to walk on water
  • Passionate about his mate Jesus, stood in the gap – cut off a man's ear
  • Wise – revealed to him by God that Jesus was the Son of the living God

With all his best intentions, sometimes he failed

  • Jesus talks about his death, Peter replies "Never Lord!" ... "get behind me Satan, you are a stumbling block to me.."
  • "I'm willing to die with you" .... 3 denials

Despite the failures, Peter continued to position himself to live for what he was passionate about.

Reading:- Acts 2:14 – 41. Read 37 - 41.

Prayer tonight is that Peter's life will encourage you

Despite failures, he never gave up on passionately following Jesus; instead he made the necessary adjustments, decisions, and kept moving forward.

Christian life was never something just to try once

Saddens my heart to see people give up on it so easily

Continually about making adjustments and decisions, putting yourself in the right position, getting up after a fall, because you never know what God might do next... as Peter experienced...

(Read the verses)

The outcome of Peter getting on with what he was passionate about...an empowering of the Holy Spirit, and 3000 people were saved when he preached his first message

I believe we can learn some things about Peter's passion from these verses

Where did Peter's passion start?

Peter developed a passion for Christ through having a strong conviction

1. Conviction - Matthew 16:16

Convictions:

  • Cause you to think
  • Develop reasons for beliefs
  • Evaluate and weigh up
  • Know where you stand and what you believe about a particular subject
  • Driving force behind your passion

Peter spoke from his heart on that day, because he had strong convictions

  • Jesus asks peter who am I?
  • Another occasion peter says "Where else can we go Lord?"

Passion is not dependant upon personality

  • You don't have to be a charismatic person, out there type person to have convictions and be passionate

Convictions will cause you to go to great lengths in order to see something happen

My convictions eg coffee – love coffee, there are certain places I will go and will not go for coffee

  • Story about Stansbury / drive all the way into city (great lengths)

The passion of Peter and John caused them to go to great lengths due to their convictions:

(Could use Acts 4, Peter & John, should we obey you or God?)

  • Men who had the presence of God in his life
  • Unwavering commitment to the truth
  • Empowered by the Spirit to do great miracles, to see people's lives restored, and therefore had great influence
  • Because of their influence, the religious leaders were threatened
  • They had him stand before authorities who had the power to execute them, and even still, stood for what he knew to be true, both about Christ and the hard hearts of the religious leaders.

Too often, Christians struggle morally when they haven't settled where they stand regarding certain issues in their life...they haven't got clear convictions

See way too many people – issues with boundaries in relationships, drinking alcohol before they turn 18, aren't honest with the likes of Centrelink or their employer

Eg. bricklaying payments

The reason we can so easily be swayed is that we haven't settled such things in our life

So...Self-check: What are your convictions? What stances do you take? Where is your line in the sand?

Take time to write these down...

  • make an agreement with yourself before God that you are not going to compromise on these things
  • share these with your mentor (accountability person) so you're doing life with others and not being secretive

As we develop strong convictions about things, our passion for Christ will increase as we are living a more purposeful and productive life

2. Confidence (Acts 2:14, Acts 3:3-7)

Peter's passion brought confidence
Peter stood up that day and communicated so clearly, so boldly

  • Stood in the face of opposition
  • Peter's confidence came from 'My passion for Him'

Or could label it energy – the energy to do what you would not normally do

e.g. may not feel overly confident but are energized to do what you would otherwise not do)

Passion gives you the confidence to speak out or act, eg:

  • Gideon (Old testament hero) - defeated an army of Midianites with only 300 hundred men
  • David (a young boy) defeated Goliath (an 11ft giant) and a large, fierce Philistine army

Eg...

  • Mick-rophone – switch on when handed a mic confidence comes from taking hold of the opportunity to encourage others to be passionate about Christ... can't shy away from that
  • Resigning recently...usually hate confrontation, but recognised that needed to do it in order to allow God to open doors elsewhere...so I did it confidently because I am passionate about what God has in store for my future

Passion also helps you to have confidence in your decisions - you won't second-guess yourself

  • Acts 3 Oeter heals a blind beggar by the temple gate
  • He backs himself
  • What I have I give you, in the name of Jesus walk

Passion gives you the confidence to share your faith

  • I love that challenge – when was the last time you shared your faith with someone

I.e. Passion helps you to be confident in who you are – you are a son/daughter of the living God

  • You were brought with a high price – it cost someone's life in order that you might be free and live a fruitful life

Self-check: Are you confident in who God made you to be?

3. Compassion (Acts 2:37-40, Jn 21:15-19)

Peter's passion developed great compassion for people – vs 40 he pleaded with them

When we are passionate about Christ we view people through the eyes of Christ and it causes us to act

Peter's heart reflected compassion for people

  • Through his words the people's needs were being met

Every relationship we have is precious, and is an opportunity to invest something of God into that relationship, into the person to see them move forward with God eg school class (tears – so committed to building their character)

My compassion for others has been increased recently...

Challenged in the last verses of John

  • Jesus asks x3 if peter loves Him, he says yes, feed my lambs
  • Jesus mission, to love people, becomes Peter's personal mission
  • Jesus was saying if you love me, what's important to me becomes important to you
    • Original call to follow becomes more real – fishers of men

Where you see an opportunity that normally takes you out of the comfort zone, because of compassion you reach out and meet the need

Examples

  • Like Donna and Fi with the passed out person
  • Share an example of how Katie and I have stopped, been unsuccessful!

Compassion for young people

  • has moved me to make some decisions about this year, reduce teaching to get into some more schools
  • Tired of the devil ripping the younger generation off
    • Eg porno usb story
  • Rage
    • Want to see it grow
    • Great place to be
    • Environment right for developing healthy morals, values, convictions for life to stand against peer pressure

True love (compassion) for others is seen in what we do, not just heard in what we say

Self-check: Do my actions back what I say? Am I compassionate for others?

4. Connection (Acts 2:41)

Peter's passion enabled him to connect with people

  • Peter's passion in which he spoke connected with people
  • When speaking from his heart, people where drawn to him, and were left with no choice but to respond, 3000 were saved
  • Responded regardless vs 40 says those who accepted, suggests people chose to ignore it

Passion is infectious – it connects with people

  • Self-check: are people drawn to our life?
  • Whether people acknowledge it or not, do people say to themselves, I want what he has got, I want what she has?
  • Read Xmas card
  • Not an arrogant attitude, not said with an arrogant heart, but I want people to be inspired by my life, because I want people to come to Christ, I want people to experience a more deeper and satisfying relationships with Christ

Example:

Inspired by Pete's life

  • Cycling – 90km down, hill on north east road, steam trains ahead

Inspired by Tony's life

  • Creative thinking, not allow the things of self to stand in the way

Could say that of other people

Again, need to ask the question, are people drawn to my life?

Conclusion

Start of the year, good time to evaluate life

  • What am I passionate about? Am I passionate for Christ?

Recapping

  • What are my convictions and what are the things I need to settle?
  • Am I confident in who God has made me to be?
  • Am I compassionate for others?
  • Are people drawn to / connected to Christ in me?

It is in our best interest and for the sake of others that we answer these questions

God desires to use our life to make a difference

It's not about personality, and position, it is about where else can we go Lord, because Peter realized that there was nothing else worth giving his life too...giving his life to Christ and then to help others...