Passionately Committed to Christ (Part 2)
Series: Where Do You Go From Here? – City Church of Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN
This is the third message on spiritual maturity and our second look at the first characteristic of spiritual maturity—a passionate commitment to Christ. In the previous message, we looked at two enemies of spiritual passion:
#1. A Distracted Devotion: Our love of “the world” has isolated us from God.
#2. A Drained Condition: Our “outflow” is exceeding our “intake” and we are running on empty.
Before we look at other enemies of spiritual passion, let’s briefly look at several scriptures on this topic:
God is passionate about his relationship with us.
Exodus 34:14, You must worship no other Gods but only the Lord, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you. (NLT) Spiritual passion is like a fire within us:
Psalm 69:9, Passion for your house burns within me. Those who insult you are insulting me. (NLT) Idolatry is misdirected spiritual passion.
Isaiah 57:5, You worship your idols with great passion. (NLT) Our passion is visible to others.
2 Kings 10:16, Jehu said to Jehonadab, ‘Come ride with me and see my passion for the Lord.’ (NLT)
ENEMY #3: A DEFEATED CONDITON
Everyone has known the agony of spiritual failure. It is a terrible moment of embarrassment and humiliation. Peter is a Biblical example of this condition. He had said, “I’m ready to go to prison with you and to die with you.”
(Luke 22:33) He was sincere, but within hours, he had failed.
Luke 22:61, The Lord turned and looked at Peter…and he went outside and wept bitterly.”
Spiritual passion does not dwell in the heart of the defeated. Guilt…humiliation…self-doubt…self-loathing have replaced passion.
ENEMY #4: A DEMORALIZED SPIRIT
This occurs when intimidation and fear produces an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. We begin to see people, events, and problems as far more powerful than the God of our faith. Moses is a Biblical example of this.
In Exodus 2:12, Moses, in his misdirected passion, kills an Egyptian who was fighting with an Israelite. He flees when things did not work out has he had hoped.
Exodus 2:14-15, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid…and fled and went to live in Midian…” It would take 40 years for Moses to regain his confidence and his courage.
