23rd Oct 2005
Romans 1 v 8-9 ‘God whom I serve with my whole heart’, Paul is consumed with passion for the Gospel.
Our heads and our hearts are often not in sync, our heart wants to do something (perhaps fun but dangerous) but the head says no (because of the danger). We live with that tension. Our passion is tempered.
Romans 1 verses 16-17. The power of the gospel.
We have taken the gospel message and analysed it with our heads, losing the passion and power along the way. We've lost the heart.
Trevor displayed pics of people of passion: Mandela, Dyson, Wilberforce, Jackie Pullinger, Ellen McArthur, John Wesley, Amy Carmichael, Einstein, Billy Graham.
What inspired them and gave them their passion. Something stirred inside them. Something inside keeps them going, saying do it again, do it again, even if the last one failed eg Dyson with his propotypes.
We have passion inside us but we don't make a framework within which the passion can be outworked. Like Trevor with his running training for the triathlon: we need an end in view, need other people to do it with us, we said we'd do it and we don't want to let people down.
We can make a difference, we can make a contribution.
All the people whose pics we saw, they had the passion but they put it into practise, they made their contribution. Created a container through which their passion could be outworked.
Story of Trevor wanting to learn to play the piano, the passion is there but he needed to book lessons to create a container for the passion to be outworked.
What's your passion, what's God stirring in you. Don't leave it there, have conversations with your cell group about how you can support each other in stepping out in your passion, about how to create a container.
Might be a passion you've had since childhood, or something more recent. Tell someone else and ask them to check up on you in a few weeks about how you're doing with progressing it. Don't let your passion remain dormant.
We can make a difference, we can fulfil the desires God has put in our heart.
Hebrews 12 v 1-3 Throw off everything that hinders ... that we would not lose heart.
