Series: Where Do You Go From Here? – City Church of Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN
Once again, we will look at passionate spirituality. It is the first of seven characteristics of spiritual maturity. These seven are:
Passionately Committed Family Centered
Biblically Measured Socially Responsible
Morally Pure Evangelistically Bold
Financially Generous
We have defined passion as a “deep emotion that focuses our attention and energizes our actions.” We have addressed four of the enemies of our spiritual passion as:
A Distracted Devotion A Defeated Condition
A Drained Condition A Demoralized Spirit
Today, we will look at the final enemy:
A Distorted Faith. There is a very subtle enemy that is attacking the spiritual life of the church. It is a self-centered message masquerading as the Gospel. It seems that its primary message is how to coax God into giving us what we want. Such a distorted view of our faith robs us of spiritual passion and turns us into spiritual gluttons.
PASSION IS SEEN IN WHAT I AM WILLING TO SACRIFICE
Question: Am I willing to act like a Christian as long as it doesn’t cost me anything?
2 Samuel 24:24, I cannot present an offering to the Lord that has cost me nothing. Abraham defined sacrifice as worship.
Genesis 22:5, We will worship and then come back…
A DISTORTED FAITH WILL CAUSE US TO RUN FROM THE INNER CONFLICT
Matthew 16:24, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. When we accept the idea of taking up the cross, prayer becomes a battleground. We engage in the struggle to die to our will so that God’s will might reign supreme and go uncontested. It is a life-long battle waged on newer and deeper levels. Remember: We do not get to choose our crosses.
In order for us to mature, God will have to break us and humble us to teach us the joy of obedience and surrender.
TWO PICTURES OF PASSIONATE COMMITMENT
Paul
Philippians 3:7-11, All the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ as my Master, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him…I gave up all that inferior stuff so that I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering and go all the way with him to death itself…
Mary
Mark 14:3-9, During supper, a woman came in with a beautiful jar of expensive perfume. She broke it and poured the perfume over Jesus’ head. Some of those at the table were indignant. ‘Why was this expensive perfume wasted? She could have sold it for a small fortune and given the money to the poor!’ And they scolder her harshly. Jesus replied, ‘Leave her alone. Why berate her for doing such a good thing to me?’ When we develop a heart of sacrifice, everything else in our life falls into place.