Fanning the flame

    I have started a series for church on Passion.  It seems so many Christians I meet seem to lack an excitement about the things of God.  Church seems to be more of something people do because its their tradition, or they like the Christian culture, or they are hoping their kids will learn good moral values there.  In my opinion Christianity without passion is like a marriage without love.  So here is a message about passion.

Jer 5:14 “Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them.”

Jer 20:9 “Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”

Jer 23:29 ““Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
 
Luke 12:49 ““I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”
 
Heb 1:7 “And of the angels He says: “Who makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire.””

So we clearly see in scripture this call for Passion. There is no denying that we are called to have this fire in us. Two theologians from different sects of Christianity were sitting down and discussing the deep thoughts of theology, and after a long discussion the one theologian looked at the other and said there seems to be no difference in our theology, to which the other replied the difference is that you have your theology on ice, and we have ours on fire. So what do we do when it seems that our theology is on ice? What do we do when we feel like we are just going through the motions?  2 Tim 1:6 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands."  We see Paul calling Timothy to stir up the gift, we see that Timothy was given a gift, and we see how Timothy was given the gift. Let's look at these three things in reverse order.

So first look at how Timothy got the gift. Paul says here in our verse “the gift which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” In 1 Timothy 4:14 he says it this way “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.” Now the idea behind this word prophecy is not that they were making some predictions, but that they were speaking a truth into Timothy's life. They were not foretelling the gift of Timothy, but forthtelling. In other words the elders were telling Timothy that God has made it clear what his gift was, and then told him what that gift was. The laying on of hands in most cases is a reference to them praying over him. Now this is not to say that the only way to be gifted by God is by someone praying over you and speaking truth into your life. In fact this is not really how Timothy was gifted, it is just a way in which his gift was confirmed. This would be like me praying over our organist and saying she has a gift for music. My praying over her is not what gave her the gift, but in a way it confirms that gift. This is what happened when the church at Antioch laid hands on Paul and Barnabas back in Acts 13. It was the laying on of hands that enabled Paul and Barnabas to go out as missionaries, this was just a recognition of what God had already called them to do.

I tell you this because there are people out there that will argue that unless someone has laid hands on you and prayed over you that you can not receive the gifts given by the Holy Spirit. Timothy was gifted by God, not the elders. It was not the laying on of hands that gifted him. Just like Timothy you all have gifts as well. This brings us to the second point. Every believer is gifted by the Holy Spirit just like Timothy was. Some gifts jump off the page at us, they are so obvious and others you have to explore to find them, but each of us has a gift. Each of us has a function to preform. You know How I know this? The Bible says that we are each a part of the Body each with our own function. The Bible has three different lists of Spiritual gifts: Rom 12:6-8, 1 Cor 12:4-11+28-30, and Eph 4:11-12. Some argue that these lists are it others argue that there are more gifts that are not mentioned in these lists. The one thing that everyone agrees on is that God puts a mix of these gifts into the church so that it can be a functioning body. Everyone also agrees that the task of equipping the believers for ministry is accomplished only when everyone are using their gifts together. It is not on the shoulders of one individual to do the ministry of the church. It is not on one individual to equip the church, but it is all of us working together. Just like Timothy was gifted, God has gifted all of you.

So as Paul was writing to Timothy to stir up the gift, we can easily take those words and apply them to ourselves. The Greek word that is translated in the NKJV and the KJV as stir up litterally means make the fire alive again. Find the passion for the gift God has given you. Rekindle your passion. So the question I have been asking all week is how? I mean Paul says to do this, but he does not say how. I believe there are several avenues we can take to find our passion, to set our hearts on fire again.

The first way is to ask God for Passion. You know it's that simple, yet it seems that the simple solutions are generally the ones we ignore. When I was in eight grade my englis teacher always gave us multiple choice tests. Sure enough he would in every test half way through would start going through the questions one by one C A C B D A C A D C B C. Every test he would give us the answers, and there was one kid in that class who failed every test because it couldn't be that simple. Truth is that many people do not have passion because they do not pray for passion. James says in James 4:2 “you do not have because you do not have” Jesus says in Matt 7:7-8 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Reality is that it is that simple. There is a famous quote by an unknown source “I pray that God would set me on Fire and people will come out to watch me burn.” Imagine the impact we would have on this community if this was each of our prayers. God set our church on fire for you, set our church on fire for eachother, set our church on fire for the lost.

Another way to gain passion is to feed it. I love camping, and when you have slept all night on a cold hard ground there is nothing better in the morning than sitting around a nice roaring fire. If you are good, you will have the coals from last night and all you have to do is feed the fire. Children like to throw logs on it hoping they will catch and burn brightly, but in reality the logs tend to smother the coals that are there. What you want to do is start small and slowly build your way up, once you have built the fire enough it can handle any log and burns so brightly. Feeding our passion is much like that. You don't want to start out with the big logs, they will only smother you. Many people want the fire to big quickly though. They want the passion and they want it now. So they try to force it to be big all at once, like throwing gasoline on a fire. The problem with gasoline is it burns hot, but it burns quickly and is not sustainable. When feeding your passion you don't want to burn out, but you want to create a healthy sustainable passion that will eventually be a blaze warming all those around.
Another thing to think about when feeding your passion. There are things that light us up, and there are things that smother us. It is important that we make sure we are feeding our passion with the things that light us up. Sometimes we have to deal with things that smother us, but we need to make sure we are getting more of the other stuff. What motivates you? What excites you? What will get you excited about God, and using the gifts he has given you for his Bride? Some ways to feed your passion is by doing that which you are passionate for. Using your passion. You can also feed it by finding other people who share in the same passion and talking about it. You can feed your passion by researching it. I like to watch food shows because I am passionate about food, and they tend to make me more passionate about food.

Turn to the book of Luke. 24:13-32. This passage takes us a short time after Jesus has died. He was already seen by the woman at the tomb, the disciples have seen the empty tomb, and Christ is going to appear to two men on the road.
 
There are three things in here I think that stirred up passion. The first thing was the remembering of the times that had past. As they recounted to this stranger who Jesus was. I don't know about you but I always find some excitement in remembering the glory days of old. There is just something exciting about what God has brought you through. There is a reason why he command us to remember Him through the communion table. There is a reason why he had the Israelites remember him through the passover feast. God quite often to stir up his people would recall to them what he has brought them through. In marriage it is important to reflect on all the good times you have had together. This will often remind you of that first love.

In this story of the road to Emmaus we also see them listening to Christ. We can stir up passion for God by listening to him. You can picture these disciples listening as Jesus spoke just having their hearts set on fire, as he puts the pieces of the puzzle together with them, showing them revealing to them what Scriptures had to say. They were hearing from the man himself. How exciting it is to hear from God. One of my cousins over Christmas was telling me how exciting it was for him to feel as though God had spoken to him by putting a verse of scripture on his heart. I smiled and kind had the Jonah feeling at the moment that most of the time I hear God really speaking to me He is generally asking me to do something scary. Sometimes I think though that we can take for granted how awesome it really is that God, The God of all creation wants to talk with us. He want's to pour himself into us. We can set our hearts on fire by taking the time to listen, and I don't just mean by reading our bibles, I mean taking the time to be still and know that He is God. Taking the time to find a quiet place free from distractions so that you can hear that still small voice gently whispering in your ear. These two disciples noted ““Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?””

The last thing we see in the story of the road to Emmaus is that they spent time with him. When is the last time you have just spent time with God. I think we struggle with passion because we do not spend enough time just being with God. Very often we find ourselves reading our bibles because we have to, We say our prayers because it's what we are suppose to do. We come to church because . . . You know if I the only reason I listened to Sara was because I had to, and I only talked with her because I was suppose to, and I only hung out with her because . . . Our relationship would really kind of, I am not sure I could call that a relationship. I know she wouldn't. Yet so many times that is how we relate to God. When is the last time you have spent time with God because you wanted to fall more in love with Him. Just like in a marriage it is good to have alone time with your spouse, it's important to continue to go on dates, it is the same in your relationship with God. Find time to be alone with him, not because you have to, but because you want to. Go for a walk, take a drive, get up earlier than the rest of the house, or let them all go to sleep while you take time to be with God. Again I think this I is something we take for granted that should really set our hearts on fire, God wants to spend personal time with you.

As we come to a close I want to point out one major point that is easy to overlook. All of this is under the assumption that you have a relationship with God. Paul says in verse 5 of 2 Timothy1 “when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.” If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord, that is the first thing to do to start your fire, is acknowledging your need for him to save you from the penalty of your sins, and making him the Lord or Master of your life. When you follow His leading in your life walking with Him as a true disciple he will give you a Spiritual gift like he did Timothy. He calls each and everyone of us to use those gifts for the furtherance of His kingdom. He also calls for us to stir up the passion with in us. Oh God we look to you to start a fire in our soul, make us burn bright and hot and true for you. We do not desire to be known as a people with our theology on ice, but to be a people burning with passion for you. Lord God set us on fire, so that the world can come and watch us burn for you. Give us a fire for you, for your bride the church, and for the lost.”