Have you or your children ever had passion for a sport or activity? You don’t have to push them, because they have passion for it. Just like the Super bowl players. They have such a passion for the game they have worked harder than any of the other players out there to be where they are.
On the other hand, do you have a child that was especially gifted in a certain area? Did you have to push them? Well this one hits home in our family. We’ve seen a rare gift of music in Lilli since she was 2. She had a cheap princess piano and she would learn Mary had a Little Lamb. She would also sing entire songs remembering every rest, every word and singing it acapella. In Kindergarten we put her in piano and she enjoyed it. Then when we had moved, we took a break but then switched teachers. She would at this point, begin to fight us. There were crying matches every week between Sarah (my wife) and Lilli. Do you push or don’t push? We knew the talent she had, but we were unsure. FINALLY, Sarah and Lilli were in a crying screaming frustrating match, and Lilli is crying out, “I want to quit!” So finally Sarah said, “Okay, then quit.” Lilli in her tears seemed to sit back with relief, however her stubborn cry turned into a truly sad state. She replies to Sarah (exact words), “Okay, this is really weird” (silence for a few seconds) “You’ve never let me quit before.” With love and relief in her eyes Sarah bends down to her level, hugging her, “Okay baby, I’ll never let you quit again.” We were able to find out later that the reason she wanted to quit was because the rhythm tests were overwhelming. The funny thing is, she was beating out ages from 9-60! Her “fear” overpowered her “passion” for piano. But there was an easy fix: Her teacher split the ages, not to make the younger ones so frustrated.
Sometimes God takes you to places you’ve never been because he knows the gifts He’s given you. But it gets too hard and uncomfortable. And you get scared, making it easy for you to back down. Your passion for Jesus is overpowered by fear. Sarah always says, “The devil is at the root of all fear, except for godly fear.” The enemy doesn’t want you to have the blessing that’s on the other side of that fear.
2 Timothy 1:17 - For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Pastor Rick Warren wrote,
The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "I’m going to do something with my life today." Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull.
The Bible tells us that we’re to seek God passionately. We’re to love God passionately. The Bible says that we’re to serve and obey God passionately. We’re to trust God passionately. Then as if you didn’t get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
Here’s the amazing thing. In America it’s ok to be passionate about anything except God. That is not politically correct -- to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about restaurants (and some of us really are). But I cannot be passionate about God. That’s a no-no.
If I could think of any person in the bible with passion, I quickly think of Peter.
We are going to look at his life and skim through a few stories by paraphrasing, that will land us to the denial that happened, not one, not two, but 3! Times. Peter goes from the most passionate, to the most fearful.
On the other hand, do you have a child that was especially gifted in a certain area? Did you have to push them? Well this one hits home in our family. We’ve seen a rare gift of music in Lilli since she was 2. She had a cheap princess piano and she would learn Mary had a Little Lamb. She would also sing entire songs remembering every rest, every word and singing it acapella. In Kindergarten we put her in piano and she enjoyed it. Then when we had moved, we took a break but then switched teachers. She would at this point, begin to fight us. There were crying matches every week between Sarah (my wife) and Lilli. Do you push or don’t push? We knew the talent she had, but we were unsure. FINALLY, Sarah and Lilli were in a crying screaming frustrating match, and Lilli is crying out, “I want to quit!” So finally Sarah said, “Okay, then quit.” Lilli in her tears seemed to sit back with relief, however her stubborn cry turned into a truly sad state. She replies to Sarah (exact words), “Okay, this is really weird” (silence for a few seconds) “You’ve never let me quit before.” With love and relief in her eyes Sarah bends down to her level, hugging her, “Okay baby, I’ll never let you quit again.” We were able to find out later that the reason she wanted to quit was because the rhythm tests were overwhelming. The funny thing is, she was beating out ages from 9-60! Her “fear” overpowered her “passion” for piano. But there was an easy fix: Her teacher split the ages, not to make the younger ones so frustrated.
Sometimes God takes you to places you’ve never been because he knows the gifts He’s given you. But it gets too hard and uncomfortable. And you get scared, making it easy for you to back down. Your passion for Jesus is overpowered by fear. Sarah always says, “The devil is at the root of all fear, except for godly fear.” The enemy doesn’t want you to have the blessing that’s on the other side of that fear.
2 Timothy 1:17 - For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Pastor Rick Warren wrote,
The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "I’m going to do something with my life today." Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull.
The Bible tells us that we’re to seek God passionately. We’re to love God passionately. The Bible says that we’re to serve and obey God passionately. We’re to trust God passionately. Then as if you didn’t get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
Here’s the amazing thing. In America it’s ok to be passionate about anything except God. That is not politically correct -- to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about restaurants (and some of us really are). But I cannot be passionate about God. That’s a no-no.
If I could think of any person in the bible with passion, I quickly think of Peter.
We are going to look at his life and skim through a few stories by paraphrasing, that will land us to the denial that happened, not one, not two, but 3! Times. Peter goes from the most passionate, to the most fearful.
Sometimes God takes you to places you’ve never been because he knows the gifts He’s given you. But it gets too hard and uncomfortable. And you get scared, making it easy for you to back down. Your passion for Jesus is overpowered by fear. Sarah always says, “The devil is at the root of all fear, except for godly fear.” The enemy doesn’t want you to have the blessing that’s on the other side of that fear.
2 Timothy 1:17 - For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Pastor Rick Warren wrote,
The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "I’m going to do something with my life today." Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull.
The Bible tells us that we’re to seek God passionately. We’re to love God passionately. The Bible says that we’re to serve and obey God passionately. We’re to trust God passionately. Then as if you didn’t get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
Here’s the amazing thing. In America it’s ok to be passionate about anything except God. That is not politically correct -- to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about restaurants (and some of us really are). But I cannot be passionate about God. That’s a no-no.
If I could think of any person in the bible with passion, I quickly think of Peter.
We are going to look at his life and skim through a few stories by paraphrasing, that will land us to the denial that happened, not one, not two, but 3! Times. Peter goes from the most passionate, to the most fearful.
2 Timothy 1:17 - For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Pastor Rick Warren wrote,
The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "I’m going to do something with my life today." Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull.
The Bible tells us that we’re to seek God passionately. We’re to love God passionately. The Bible says that we’re to serve and obey God passionately. We’re to trust God passionately. Then as if you didn’t get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
Here’s the amazing thing. In America it’s ok to be passionate about anything except God. That is not politically correct -- to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about restaurants (and some of us really are). But I cannot be passionate about God. That’s a no-no.
If I could think of any person in the bible with passion, I quickly think of Peter.
We are going to look at his life and skim through a few stories by paraphrasing, that will land us to the denial that happened, not one, not two, but 3! Times. Peter goes from the most passionate, to the most fearful.
Let’s start where Peter was first called by Jesus:
- (You can find these stories in Matthew 4:18-22 and Luke 5:1-11)
- Jesus walks up to His boat and gets in. Peter was washing his net outside of the boat. Jesus asked him to put out a little from the land, where Jesus would teach the people. Obviously Peter gets back in, as he begins his passion for Christ. When Jesus is done teaching, He tells Peter to go out and fish. Peter said, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
- First of all, Peter had a passion for fishing. Who stays out all night fishing, then gets back into his boat for Jesus. Then, if he wasn’t tired enough, at Jesus’ word, he returns to fishing despite the fact he already tried. His passion brings the reward of so many fish that he had to call another boat out just to hold them all!! Peter still being Simon, could have said “No Jesus I won’t take you out.” Or “No, I won’t drop my nets again. I told you I already tried all night.” Or he could have left in the middle of the night, causing Him to miss the Creator and God of this earth. Peter’s passion brings much reward!
The transfiguration of Jesus
- Matthew 17:1-8 | Mark 9:2-8 | Luke 9:28-36
- 3 disciples go up with Jesus when He transfigures into a heavenly bright light. Moses and Elijah appear talking to Jesus. Who do you think speaks up with “passion”? Peter. He says, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” They didn’t need tents, but Peter passionately wanted to help! The other two didn’t step up. Regardless of whether it was what God had intended, Peter tried to help. But before he knew it, the scene was over and Jesus was left there in front of him.
- Peter never built the tents, and he selflessly offered for them and not himself. Jesus never corrected Peter; He just told them not to tell anyone. So Peter’s passion wasn’t right or wrong, but he was the only one who stepped out.
Peter walking on water:
- Matthew 14:22-36 | Mark 6:45-56 | John 6:16-24
- Did anyone else ask to get out of the boat and walk on the water to Jesus? Peter called out to Jesus not the other way around. Often we think about faith in this story. But passion is what drives Peter to call out to Jesus. Passion is Peter taking his feet out of the boat. Passion causes him to begin to walk. But….. fear creeps in and fear causes him to take His eyes off of Jesus. Fear causes Peter to sink. But there’s good news my friends! Jesus is the one who carries us through. Jesus is the one to grab our hand and pull us back up where we belong. And we belong in a place of passion for Christ, glorifying Him, serving and obeying Him. This is the only place of true peace.
Peter cuts the ear of the soldier
- Luke 22:50-53 | John 18:10-11 | Matthew 26:50-54
- Judas brings his clan to arrest Jesus. Who was the only one who passionately tried to defend Jesus? Peter. He draws his sword and cuts the soldiers ear off. This time Jesus corrects Peter, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” And Jesus puts the ear back on and heals the man.
- If you are passionate about Jesus and you take a step out in faith, don’t worry Jesus will guide you. If you made a wrong turn, He will fix it. But you must listen to correction, as not to continue making the same mistakes. Prayer, forgiveness and correction come from God’s word. If someone else corrects you, then you must seek God by aligning it with God’s word.
Peter’s Denial
John 18:15-27 | Luke 52:54-62 | Mark 14:66-72
Application:
Have you ever felt like God was calling you into an area of service, giving or change, yet fear crept in? I know my wife has been fearful of teaching Sunday school. Carlee was fearful of speaking in front of others. I’m certain Kenneth was fearful after leaving his nice secure salary to step out in faith to build Commissioned. I was fearful of giving my first real tithe. If you are passionate about something for God, you better know that fear will creep in. When you see that, I hope you remember this sermon with expectation. That way you can identify and push through to get to the blessing that God has for you.
Nail your fear, anxiety, depression to the cross.
John 18:15-27 | Luke 52:54-62 | Mark 14:66-72
- At this point, Jesus has already told Peter that he would deny him 3 times before the rooster crows. Peter just can’t imagine this happening; his passion for Jesus was so strong. As they were carrying Jesus to the cross, what creeped in? FEAR. Who is behind fear? The devil. 3 times Peter denies Jesus. 3 times, during the worst part of Christ’s journey, Peter rejects Him. There is no other disciple besides Judas Iscariot that denies Jesus the way that Peter does. But God knew. God knew before it even happened. God forgave him before it even happened. How do we know this? Because in Matthew 16:18, Jesus says to Peter, “ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus stated this before the resurrection and the denial.
- You see, God knew Peter would fail, yet God set the entire church on Peter’s shoulders. Just to emphasize this even further. After the resurrection Jesus appears specifically to Peter and asks him if he loved Jesus. 3 Times he does this. 3 times he denied him. 3 times Jesus responds, “Then feed my sheep.” Feed my sheep reiterates Peters calling and 3 times Peter is forgiven. 3 times Peter is told to move forward, be Jesus’ Rock. Basically, I know fear brought you down, but keep pushing past the fear and do what I called you to do. I called you to build my church. Feed my sheep means to give God’s word to Jesus’ followers.
- Now Jesus goes to heaven in order to send down the Holy Spirit. So, in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes down with fire. Who do you think stood up and led the crowds, teaching and preaching, baptizing and defending? ….. PETER. That day 3,000 people got saved and became followers of Jesus. Peter’s passion was revived!
Application:
Have you ever felt like God was calling you into an area of service, giving or change, yet fear crept in? I know my wife has been fearful of teaching Sunday school. Carlee was fearful of speaking in front of others. I’m certain Kenneth was fearful after leaving his nice secure salary to step out in faith to build Commissioned. I was fearful of giving my first real tithe. If you are passionate about something for God, you better know that fear will creep in. When you see that, I hope you remember this sermon with expectation. That way you can identify and push through to get to the blessing that God has for you.
Nail your fear, anxiety, depression to the cross.
Just last week, we had an AMAZING response with the pledge. I’m sure you probably experienced a little fear this past week. How are we going to make this or that? But this is where you are saying to Jesus from the boat, “Jesus if it is you, ask me to come to you!” Then you give that first amount. Now it’s real. You step out of the boat. Then the second pledge comes out of your checking. At this point you are free falling, entirely trusting Jesus! Then the third pledge comes out, and boy things are getting tight. You begin to walk. You notice things are tight, so you start talking to your wife about cutting back the tithe. It’s at this point that you begin to sink. Your eyes are off of Christ and on the water that will cause you to drown. As you sink further and further and your head is below the surface. At the last minute (God likes to work that way, so you know it’s Him and not yourself), He pulls you up. Looks you square in the eye and says, “Ye of little faith”. Now fear is a factor. Do you continue to walk or let fear take over. My wife always says, “God tells you something. Obey. Stick to the plan.” Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan. No matter what stick to the plan. Blessings may not come as quickly as you hoped, but God is always on time. Peter waited 3 days while Jesus was winning the battle against satan. I’m sure he felt like a failure. But remember Jesus rises and comes to Peter with forgiveness AND a mission that took passion.
What is your passion?
Are you passionate about Jesus?
Do you need help figuring out where you fit into the church?
Please see one of us on the prayer team and we will help you figure out your gifts. Or you can take an online quiz. Look for spiritual gifts quiz.
God put Peter as the rock.. the one whom the church would rest on…
What is your passion?
Are you passionate about Jesus?
Do you need help figuring out where you fit into the church?
Please see one of us on the prayer team and we will help you figure out your gifts. Or you can take an online quiz. Look for spiritual gifts quiz.
God put Peter as the rock.. the one whom the church would rest on…