September 16, 2007

One of the realities of living our fast-paced lives is losing a sense of passion for the primary values of life. So one of the realities for living is the necessity to restore your passion for the primary things…the things of value.

What is the passion we speak of? There's several things wrapped up in this one word -- your energy, your interest, your dedication, your consecration, your enthusiasm, your momentum, your motivation and perseverance in life.

I. Jesus encouraged people of their need of passion for the things of highest value:

1) The Great Commandment

2) The Great Commission

You put the Great commandment and the Great Commission together and you get the vision of SHA: " Loving God and making His love known."

There's one area of life where the present values and eternal stakes are too high to lose our passion, momentum and perseverance –and that's our passion, out dedication, our full consecration to do the will of God .

II. What are some passion-killers? To find out we'll take up an Old Testament account where God called and equipped Nehemiah to lead in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem . He cast the vision for this work to the Jewish community in order to re-establish the nation of Judah . The tactics of passion-killers:

A. Ridicule - 4:1.

B. Organized resistance – 4:8.

C. The third tactic was threats .- 4:11.

D. The fourth tactic was negative exaggeration as discouraging words were repeated over and over again. Even fellow Jews believed the opposition. 4:12

III. What are the effects of ridicule, resistance, threats and negative exaggeration, these passion-killers, in your life? 10-11] In 4:10

A. They lost strength — The strength of the burden bearers is giving out…

Result: Unusual Fatigue

B. We lost our vision ---… there is so much rubble … Result: frustration.

C. They lost confidence — We cannot build the wall … Result: Failure

D. They lost security — will kill them, and put an end to the work… Result: fear.

When they lost their passion, they lost their desire to do the will of God. How many Christians have lost their passion for God?

If you are to resist passion-killers, it will be because you also chose to gain strength, renew vision, gain confidence and reverse fear in your life. We are not moved by ridicule, resistance, threats and exaggerated rumors. Instead, we are moved by the passion for the will of God.

IV. What is the right response to passion-killers? What did God and Nehemiah do?

A. Pray . Verses 4-5

Proverbs 26:4 - Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.

B. Respond with wisdom . Verse 9

C. REINFORCE your weak points. Verse - 13 and 16

Keep your cool and the lines of communication open during times of opposition.

If you start doing anything of significance in this world, somebody is going to oppose you. What do you do? You've got to learn to build and battle at the same time.

D. Assure the people. Verse 14 Let the fear of God replace the fear of man .

E. Don't Quit ! - Verse 15

The cause of the lord Jesus is the greatest cause in all the world! But when you lose passion, you lose your direction, energy and hope!

Passion: dedication to the will and vision of God.

Passion: consecration, momentum, perseverance, motivation

for the higher values of life.

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