Sermon Title: Nurturing Your Passion For Christ
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Every Christian is bound to the Love and Commission of Christ to passionately evangelize His Peace to the world.
To evangelize Christ’s peace is never a question of sacrifice, but a question of obedience.
Our Lord Jesus is crystal clear, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
Christ has bestowed upon us His Peace; and to truly live in His Peace, we must never keep it to ourselves.
To be truly Christian, obedience is key.
“To obey is better than sacrifice” 1 Samuel 15:22
Be very careful never to keep this divine Peace to yourself; lest you forfeit His Peace in your own life.
We have been sent by Christ; just as the Heavenly Father sent Him – to participate in the ongoing work of evangelizing the world.
Be very clear.
You have sacrificed nothing, until you are obedient to the Lord.
Every Christian must be utterly obedient to Christ’s command to be sent to the world as evangelists of His Peace through prayer, word and deed.
When we – with our human ideologies and abilities - construct peace into our lives, we realise how fleeting or precarious that ‘peace’ really is; for this ‘peace’ does not come from Jesus, and is inescapably affected by external circumstances.
Peace that comes from Christ is not of this world; and transcends any worldly externality.
As such, if we believe and live in the Peace of Christ, it can never be taken from us, and transcends the most furious of raging storms - fueling us with the divine power to rest in Him, and remain walking on the waters alongside Him.
When we think about peace in the world, we tend to think about order, justice and love between human beings.
But nothing can be further from the truth.
The rioting and invasion of Capitol Hill by American insurgents reveals the precarious and insubstantial nature of ‘peace’ that Mankind has - time and again - attempt to establish and regulate.
The domestic assault on Capitol Hill is the reality of this dark and restless world; that such atrocities could happen even to the presumably ‘best’ amongst us - the champion and defender of democracy, the guardians of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, the very advocates of the “American Dream” who firmly believe that other nations should strive to replicate the American way of life.
With the Capitol Hill riot in Washington, D.C. fresh in our minds, we must understand that peace is not a human concept; and most certainly not a human-construct; and that it is unreservedly unachievable by human governance or human ideals.
What was clear on that fateful day is that no one was really in control – for there is no control over any kind of mob – be it organized, spontaneous, or even one that may have been elected to fulfill the various roles of societal leadership.
When humans congregate, the mob mentality constantly threatens to take over; and in time, it does.
We know that the sum of the whole is always greater than its parts; which is why, mob mentality will always threaten to control the process and outcome of any form of human assembly and achievement – to which we know well, who is the chief instigator of mobs.
For this reason - we war “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)
And for this reason - we only gather in the Name and Presence of Jesus Christ – for He alone is our God and King, and we are His body – of whom, He alone, is the Head. (Ref: Ephesians 4:1-16)
We do not trust our better nature, because even our very best nature is wicked, and falls “short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
And that is why the Christian life is a life of constant repentance; where we choose intentionally to follow Him, to follow in His example; in His steps – to daily strive to turn from our wicked ways, to obey Him and grow in His likeness.
In light of the events at Capitol Hill on the 6th of January 2021, we must now be so convinced that - we cannot take peace for granted; because true and lasting peace does not belong to the world.
We need to pray to God for peace – for He alone can bestow such peace; we need to live for peace, by living in the sole purpose of revealing God's peace to the world.
There is simply no other way for us to live – for we have been sent by Christ to evangelize His peace to the world.
And for that, we need to do so with unreserved passion.
Nurturing Passion for Jesus
Here’s a fact: no one becomes accidently or unintentionally passionate for Jesus.
Our relationship with Christ, and passion for Him, must be a daily and deliberate choice on our part. We must desire to be passionate for Jesus; and we must choose to be passionate for Him; passionate for His Peace.
Our passion for Jesus can, and must, be nurtured; and this is where we must engage in the spiritual discipline of obedience with regards to three distinct areas of our lives.
Obedience is synonymous to love.
If you profess to love God, you must obey Him.
Today, as we think about how we may nurture our passion for Christ – we must conscientiously look at three areas of obedience we must undertake - for us to be truly passionate for Jesus.
Gold, frankincense, myrrh – the three key areas of obedience
Our theme over Christmas, the New Year and into the month of January – Passion for Christ – was inspired of us through the example of the Magi, who unquestionably responded to the coming of Christ with the most immense of passions.
Thus, it is only fitting for us to look to the Magi – and the gifts they presented to Christ -in carefully examining aspects of our lives that we must rethink and re-align; engaging in these specific key areas of obedience that daily nurtures our passion for Jesus.
Through their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the Magi reveals three aspects of our lives that we must bring as our gifts to Christ.
Gold, frankincense and myrrh represents more than precious gifts presented by the wise men from the east to honor, worship, and revere Christ the Lord; these gifts represents three key areas of obedience to God that would serve to nurture our hearts to be passionate for Jesus, and passionate about the things that He is passionate about.
In obeying the Lord by bringing before Him Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh – we are actually immersing our very lives into God’s reality and the reality of His Kingdom.
“To obey is better than sacrifice” informs us that our passion for Christ can only be renewed by our enduring obedience to Him – to His Commands, to His Will; rather than out of our sense of sacrifice – which is, undoubtedly flawed and misplaced - in order to be passionate for Him.
Here’s the reality.
We cannot sacrifice something that does not belong to us.
Can we sacrifice our lives? Do our lives truly belong to us?
Can we sacrifice time? Does time truly belong to us?
Can we sacrifice our ability, or our money? Does our ability to make a living originate from within ourselves? Are we the creators and energizers of our abilities, or for that matter, our lives?
NO.
Only God is the source and sustainer of all life; without whom, there would simply be none.
For example, instead of coming to Sunday Worship with a mindset that you are sacrificing your time to worship God as opposed to using your time for something else; your mindset should be that of obedience to His Command to draw close to Him and remain in close fellowship with fellow believers. (Ref: Hebrews 10:22-25)
Instead of bringing your tithe to God out of a mindset of sacrifice - thinking that you are giving God, and thus, sacrificing, 10% of your income - return your tithe to God out of the mindset of obedience - knowing that every cent belongs to God.
Remember that nurturing a passion for Christ is nurturing your life to the recognition and reality of God, and His Eternal Kingdom.
Nothing we do is truly out of sacrifice; for we have nothing to begin with.
All life belongs to Him; all Creation belongs to Him.
The Magi’s gifts to Christ were very revealing about how they understood who Jesus is, and how their passion was manifested;
Gold revealed their reverence for Christ as King;
Frankincense revealed their reverence of Christ as Priest; and
Myrrh revealed their reverence of Christ as the Perfect Lamb of God who has “come to take away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)
To nurture passion for Christ, these are the three areas of obedience that must be our daily spiritual discipline and work-out.
Gold – daily bring your physical, material and worldly condition before Him
Have you acknowledged His absolute Kingship over your life?
Do you utterly trust God to provide for your every need?
Have you realigned your view on what constitutes true wealth?
Have you fully acknowledged that everything about you belongs to God?
Our Lord Jesus made it clear in Matthew 6:19-20, 31-33:
“19Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you
The insidiousness of anxiety for our basic needs is that it would inescapably lead to wicked cravings for the greater evils of the world, namely - fame, fortune, power and prestige.
Christ warns against such anxiety that robs the Christian’s necessary and utter trust in God; and commands us to counter this proclivity by seeking “first his kingdom and his righteousness”; in the assured faith that “all these things will be added to you.”
In light of your physical, material needs - which includes the needs of your family - do you recognize the Sovereignty and Providence of Jesus over your life?
Have you embraced the reality that God is “God over everyone and everything”?
God knows our hearts.
He knows that as long we are enslaved by money, there is no place in our hearts to accommodate Him.
Our Lord Jesus grants us an insight into our hearts in Matthew 6:24:“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
To bring your gold before God is to be obedient to God with money – by obediently bringing your tithe to the house of God.
Tithing in obedience corrects and transforms your mindset from dwelling on this broken and sinful world, to divine focus on the permanent and eternal Kingdom of God, rather than on this temporal and broken world.
Tithing in obedience exposes you to the blessings of God which is not unlike the Edenic Blessing bestowed upon Adam and the woman; whereupon consuming of the forbidden fruit is akin to the wicked consuming of God’s tithe which resulted in spiritual death and banishment from God’s Sacred Garden – His place of divine Providence.
Returning His Tithe acknowledges His Sovereignty and more significantly, His Salvation through which we may be restored into right relationship with Him.
Malachi 3:8-12 details the essence of the tithe:
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings.
9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty.
12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
When you obediently bring your tithe into the house of God, your passion for God grows because you begin to allow God to open your eyes to His reality rather than remain blind to the things of God.
We sing, “I once was blind, but now I see” in embracing His Amazing Grace in that we have begun to acknowledge the presence of God and His Kingdom.
To desire to be part of His Kingdom; is to participate in the inbreaking of His Kingdom in the present – by being obedient in bringing your whole tithe into the house of God.
Listen; if you are obedient to God in this command, you will find yourself capable of being obedient to God in everything.
Consuming the tithe which rightfully belongs to God is the very act of consuming of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Ref: Genesis 2:9)
Surrender your all to God! Recognize that all belongs to Him; tend and eat from every tree in the Garden, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – do not eat of it, for “when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Ref: Genesis 2:16-17)
Blessed are you who honor God by bringing your tithe to the Lord in full acknowledgement of His Sovereignty and Kingship over your life!
Be very clear.
God doesn’t need our money; He wants us to return to Him, and be restored to the fullness of life as He has intended.
Yet, He knows that our greatest stumbling block - the wall that separates us from Him – are the riches of this world. To which, He has given instructions to remove this stumbling block – so that we may be free from the bondages of this world.
If you are struggling with any issues today – issues of sin, issues of the heart; the first step is to faithfully bring your tithe to the Lord. When you start with that, you are already acknowledging the Sovereignty of God over your life, and His Sovereignty over all your problems and struggles. At this moment, your obedience in bringing Him your gold sets on your way to a breakthrough – where His Blessings (Ref: Malachi 3:10) and Covering (Ref: Malachi 3:11) abound!
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10)
“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first-fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. (Proverbs 3:9-10 )
It is never about how much you earn, but who you truly honor, and how obedient you are in bringing your tithe to the Lord; for when the floodgates of heaven are thrown open and God’s immense blessings pour forth, the joys of life simply become limitless, unquantifiable and infinite – and such is a truly blessed life that is supplied with all “needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus!” (Philippians 4:19)
No longer slave to anxieties; no longer slaves to uncertainties; no longer slaves to fear.
We do not need to ask how that happens (i.e. how returning our tithes to God sets us for breakthroughs and blessings); the key is obedience – for with obedience comes divine favour.
We certainly should not think that we are sacrificing anything; for we cannot sacrifice that which is not ours to begin with.
Just be obedient to tithe to the Lord and see the miracles take place in your life.
You may not see the connection between your obedience in bringing your tithe to the Lord and the problems that you are facing; but remember, everything belongs to the Lord.
The Apostle Paul instructs us in Romans 6:16:
“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
Switch your allegiance from being slaves to sin to being slaves of God – “the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:22), and He will surely honor your obedience and look upon you with favor.
You have an insurmountable problem today?
Test the invincible, infinite and loving God!
Be obedient in bringing your gold - your whole tithe - to the house of God and see if He would not release heaven’s blessings upon your life!
Frankincense – Daily bring your mental, emotional, spiritual condition before the Lord
Have you acknowledged Him as Priest over your life; that Christ is your only sufficiency – mentally, emotionally and spiritually?
Do you truly believe that in Christ, “it is well with your soul”?
Back in the day before there were professionals in the mental health fields, how did people find help with emotional or mental issues?
They went to their priests.
The universal role of priesthood is to serve as ‘bridge’ in embodying the voice and substance of the divine.
And such is frankincense, which symbolises holiness and righteousness through prayer and intercession, the proper accoutrements of priesthood; and for us who believe, the fulfilled conditions that we may come before Christ – who is the very embodiment of God who loves and cares for us.
In Christ, we are free from the bondages of anxiety and sin; and free to come before him daily.
In our age of information, there is an unprecedented glut of ‘self-help’ advocates and doctrines that perfectly coincides with a meteoric rise in the number of people suffering from mental and emotional illnesses.
The world is perfect host to systemic anxiety; where anxiety is both perpetually seeded and rampantly fruited at every stage, station and status of life.
Our daily news is fraught with anxiety; compounded by questions of authenticity and its reprehensible power to control the narrative of history. If you choose not to read the news, you are uninformed. But if you choose to read the news, you are misinformed.
The ‘truths’ as reported in the news is both subjective and elusive.
And this is, but one small cog in the machine engineered and fueled by anxiety.
Unchecked anxiety is most nefarious, and is often the cause of all mental and emotional illnesses in otherwise functioning human beings.
‘Self-help’ in resolving anxiety is useless and insidious; and serves only to compound the helplessness and hopelessness.
There is no effective treatment to the anxious heart that could possibly come from within this world.
All anxiety is rooted in the sin of pride (self-idolatry) and prejudice (the absence of love for others); and only through Christ can sin, and anxiety, be absolutely removed from the human being.
We must bear this truth in our hearts and minds:
“If you confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
If sin be the root of anxiety; God’s forgiveness and His work of purifying us means that anxiety must no longer exist in us.
Only through Christ – as our Great Priest – can our mental, emotional and spiritual conditions be completely healed and freed from the bondages of anxiety and sin.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14 -16)
Anxiety has absolutely no place in the Christian’s heart and mind.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)
God cares for you.
Therefore, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:25, 32-33);
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
Surrender all your anxiety to the Lord; and lay your mental, emotional and spiritual condition before Him.
Bring your frankincense before the Lord in the fullest recognition that He alone is your High Priest who empathizes and heals your weakness (Ref: Hebrews 4:15).
Myrrh – Daily bring your broken and sinful condition before God.
Where the first area of daily obedience in our life is to bring our worldly, material and physical condition before God, and the second area of daily obedience to bring our emotional, mental and spiritual condition before Him; the third area of daily obedience must be to bring our broken and sinful condition before God.
Myrrh is the symbol of Christ’s suffering and death as atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Have you utterly acknowledge His finished Atoning work in redeeming you from death – the wages of sin?
Always remember.
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
To bring myrrh before the Lord is to daily acknowledge your utter need of His Salvation that frees you from the wages of sin, which is death. (Ref: Romans 6:23)
Hebrews 7:24-27 reveals this precise truth:
“24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people.
He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
Our Lord and Saviour has taken our places on the Cross, and offered Himself as atoning sacrifice for your sins, along with the sins of the world.
To daily bring myrrh before the Lord Jesus is to:
(1) Recognize that you are a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness through Christ;
(2) Recognize and believe that Christ is your Saviour, sent to die for your sake;
(3) Repent from your wickedness;
(4) Return to God.
To nurture passion for Christ must be the daily endeavor of every Christian.
Daily work out these three key areas of Obedience – bring before Him gold, frankincense and myrrh daily.
Daily respond to the love of God with the passion that befits who Christ is.
By the Power of the Holy Spirit, daily reignite your passion for Jesus Christ!
Bring Him Gold ; bring your tithe to the Lord in daily acknowledgment of His Kingship and Sovereignty over you, utterly trusting Him for your daily bread.
Bring Him Frankincense – pray to God and worship Him in daily acknowledgment of His Priesthood over You, utterly trusting Him to grant peace through the tumult of life that threatens the wellness of your emotional, mental and spiritual health.
Bring Him Myrrh – revere Christ in the daily acknowledgement that He is the Perfect Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world (Ref: John 1:29); utterly believing that He is your Saviour who has redeemed and restored you to His eternal Kingdom.
Church, let us be obedient to God in daily bringing Him our gold, frankincense and myrrh; growing together in passion for Jesus!
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Holy Spirit, thank You for allowing the truth that “obedience is better than sacrifice” to take root in our hearts.
Thank you for revealing to us the three key areas of obedience before God that must be our daily spiritual discipline and work-out.
Grant me unfaltering obedience to bring my tithe to You; in acknowledging Your Kingship, Sovereignty and Kingdom reality. Teach me to trust You more deeply for my daily bread.
Grant me steadfast obedience to daily pray to You, and worship You; in acknowledging that You are my Priest, and my Peace through every rhythm of life. Teach me to depend wholly on You for my emotional, mental and spiritual wellness. That I may daily proclaim, in You, O Lord, “it is well with my soul.”
Grant me resolute obedience to come before You daily with a broken and contrite heart; fully recognising that I am a sinner, in need of Your Salvation. Lord Jesus, thank You for Your finished work on the Cross. I believe that You are the Perfect Lamb of God , sent to atone for my sins and the sins of the world.
I receive You, Lord Jesus, and believe in my heart - that through You, I have been redeemed and restored to Your eternal, Kingdom purposes.
Holy Spirit, may I daily respond to the love of God with the divine passion that befits who Christ is.
Set me on fire, O Holy Spirit, fill me with Your Presence, Purpose and Power to passionately love and serve my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Grant me the supernatural passion and obedience to evangelize the world with Your Gospel of Peace.
Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
May Your Grace be upon Your people.
I thank You and pray all these in the Name of our King, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Every Christian is bound to the Love and Commission of Christ to passionately evangelize His Peace to the world.
To evangelize Christ’s peace is never a question of sacrifice, but a question of obedience.
Our Lord Jesus is crystal clear, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
Christ has bestowed upon us His Peace; and to truly live in His Peace, we must never keep it to ourselves.
To be truly Christian, obedience is key.
“To obey is better than sacrifice” 1 Samuel 15:22
Be very careful never to keep this divine Peace to yourself; lest you forfeit His Peace in your own life.
We have been sent by Christ; just as the Heavenly Father sent Him – to participate in the ongoing work of evangelizing the world.
Be very clear.
You have sacrificed nothing, until you are obedient to the Lord.
Every Christian must be utterly obedient to Christ’s command to be sent to the world as evangelists of His Peace through prayer, word and deed.
When we – with our human ideologies and abilities - construct peace into our lives, we realise how fleeting or precarious that ‘peace’ really is; for this ‘peace’ does not come from Jesus, and is inescapably affected by external circumstances.
Peace that comes from Christ is not of this world; and transcends any worldly externality.
As such, if we believe and live in the Peace of Christ, it can never be taken from us, and transcends the most furious of raging storms - fueling us with the divine power to rest in Him, and remain walking on the waters alongside Him.
When we think about peace in the world, we tend to think about order, justice and love between human beings.
But nothing can be further from the truth.
The rioting and invasion of Capitol Hill by American insurgents reveals the precarious and insubstantial nature of ‘peace’ that Mankind has - time and again - attempt to establish and regulate.
The domestic assault on Capitol Hill is the reality of this dark and restless world; that such atrocities could happen even to the presumably ‘best’ amongst us - the champion and defender of democracy, the guardians of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, the very advocates of the “American Dream” who firmly believe that other nations should strive to replicate the American way of life.
With the Capitol Hill riot in Washington, D.C. fresh in our minds, we must understand that peace is not a human concept; and most certainly not a human-construct; and that it is unreservedly unachievable by human governance or human ideals.
What was clear on that fateful day is that no one was really in control – for there is no control over any kind of mob – be it organized, spontaneous, or even one that may have been elected to fulfill the various roles of societal leadership.
When humans congregate, the mob mentality constantly threatens to take over; and in time, it does.
We know that the sum of the whole is always greater than its parts; which is why, mob mentality will always threaten to control the process and outcome of any form of human assembly and achievement – to which we know well, who is the chief instigator of mobs.
For this reason - we war “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)
And for this reason - we only gather in the Name and Presence of Jesus Christ – for He alone is our God and King, and we are His body – of whom, He alone, is the Head. (Ref: Ephesians 4:1-16)
We do not trust our better nature, because even our very best nature is wicked, and falls “short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
And that is why the Christian life is a life of constant repentance; where we choose intentionally to follow Him, to follow in His example; in His steps – to daily strive to turn from our wicked ways, to obey Him and grow in His likeness.
In light of the events at Capitol Hill on the 6th of January 2021, we must now be so convinced that - we cannot take peace for granted; because true and lasting peace does not belong to the world.
We need to pray to God for peace – for He alone can bestow such peace; we need to live for peace, by living in the sole purpose of revealing God's peace to the world.
There is simply no other way for us to live – for we have been sent by Christ to evangelize His peace to the world.
And for that, we need to do so with unreserved passion.
Nurturing Passion for Jesus
Here’s a fact: no one becomes accidently or unintentionally passionate for Jesus.
Our relationship with Christ, and passion for Him, must be a daily and deliberate choice on our part. We must desire to be passionate for Jesus; and we must choose to be passionate for Him; passionate for His Peace.
Our passion for Jesus can, and must, be nurtured; and this is where we must engage in the spiritual discipline of obedience with regards to three distinct areas of our lives.
Obedience is synonymous to love.
If you profess to love God, you must obey Him.
Today, as we think about how we may nurture our passion for Christ – we must conscientiously look at three areas of obedience we must undertake - for us to be truly passionate for Jesus.
Gold, frankincense, myrrh – the three key areas of obedience
Our theme over Christmas, the New Year and into the month of January – Passion for Christ – was inspired of us through the example of the Magi, who unquestionably responded to the coming of Christ with the most immense of passions.
Thus, it is only fitting for us to look to the Magi – and the gifts they presented to Christ -in carefully examining aspects of our lives that we must rethink and re-align; engaging in these specific key areas of obedience that daily nurtures our passion for Jesus.
Through their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the Magi reveals three aspects of our lives that we must bring as our gifts to Christ.
Gold, frankincense and myrrh represents more than precious gifts presented by the wise men from the east to honor, worship, and revere Christ the Lord; these gifts represents three key areas of obedience to God that would serve to nurture our hearts to be passionate for Jesus, and passionate about the things that He is passionate about.
In obeying the Lord by bringing before Him Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh – we are actually immersing our very lives into God’s reality and the reality of His Kingdom.
“To obey is better than sacrifice” informs us that our passion for Christ can only be renewed by our enduring obedience to Him – to His Commands, to His Will; rather than out of our sense of sacrifice – which is, undoubtedly flawed and misplaced - in order to be passionate for Him.
Here’s the reality.
We cannot sacrifice something that does not belong to us.
Can we sacrifice our lives? Do our lives truly belong to us?
Can we sacrifice time? Does time truly belong to us?
Can we sacrifice our ability, or our money? Does our ability to make a living originate from within ourselves? Are we the creators and energizers of our abilities, or for that matter, our lives?
NO.
Only God is the source and sustainer of all life; without whom, there would simply be none.
For example, instead of coming to Sunday Worship with a mindset that you are sacrificing your time to worship God as opposed to using your time for something else; your mindset should be that of obedience to His Command to draw close to Him and remain in close fellowship with fellow believers. (Ref: Hebrews 10:22-25)
Instead of bringing your tithe to God out of a mindset of sacrifice - thinking that you are giving God, and thus, sacrificing, 10% of your income - return your tithe to God out of the mindset of obedience - knowing that every cent belongs to God.
Remember that nurturing a passion for Christ is nurturing your life to the recognition and reality of God, and His Eternal Kingdom.
Nothing we do is truly out of sacrifice; for we have nothing to begin with.
All life belongs to Him; all Creation belongs to Him.
The Magi’s gifts to Christ were very revealing about how they understood who Jesus is, and how their passion was manifested;
Gold revealed their reverence for Christ as King;
Frankincense revealed their reverence of Christ as Priest; and
Myrrh revealed their reverence of Christ as the Perfect Lamb of God who has “come to take away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)
To nurture passion for Christ, these are the three areas of obedience that must be our daily spiritual discipline and work-out.
Gold – daily bring your physical, material and worldly condition before Him
Have you acknowledged His absolute Kingship over your life?
Do you utterly trust God to provide for your every need?
Have you realigned your view on what constitutes true wealth?
Have you fully acknowledged that everything about you belongs to God?
Our Lord Jesus made it clear in Matthew 6:19-20, 31-33:
“19Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you
The insidiousness of anxiety for our basic needs is that it would inescapably lead to wicked cravings for the greater evils of the world, namely - fame, fortune, power and prestige.
Christ warns against such anxiety that robs the Christian’s necessary and utter trust in God; and commands us to counter this proclivity by seeking “first his kingdom and his righteousness”; in the assured faith that “all these things will be added to you.”
In light of your physical, material needs - which includes the needs of your family - do you recognize the Sovereignty and Providence of Jesus over your life?
Have you embraced the reality that God is “God over everyone and everything”?
God knows our hearts.
He knows that as long we are enslaved by money, there is no place in our hearts to accommodate Him.
Our Lord Jesus grants us an insight into our hearts in Matthew 6:24:“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
To bring your gold before God is to be obedient to God with money – by obediently bringing your tithe to the house of God.
Tithing in obedience corrects and transforms your mindset from dwelling on this broken and sinful world, to divine focus on the permanent and eternal Kingdom of God, rather than on this temporal and broken world.
Tithing in obedience exposes you to the blessings of God which is not unlike the Edenic Blessing bestowed upon Adam and the woman; whereupon consuming of the forbidden fruit is akin to the wicked consuming of God’s tithe which resulted in spiritual death and banishment from God’s Sacred Garden – His place of divine Providence.
Returning His Tithe acknowledges His Sovereignty and more significantly, His Salvation through which we may be restored into right relationship with Him.
Malachi 3:8-12 details the essence of the tithe:
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings.
9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty.
12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
When you obediently bring your tithe into the house of God, your passion for God grows because you begin to allow God to open your eyes to His reality rather than remain blind to the things of God.
We sing, “I once was blind, but now I see” in embracing His Amazing Grace in that we have begun to acknowledge the presence of God and His Kingdom.
To desire to be part of His Kingdom; is to participate in the inbreaking of His Kingdom in the present – by being obedient in bringing your whole tithe into the house of God.
Listen; if you are obedient to God in this command, you will find yourself capable of being obedient to God in everything.
Consuming the tithe which rightfully belongs to God is the very act of consuming of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Ref: Genesis 2:9)
Surrender your all to God! Recognize that all belongs to Him; tend and eat from every tree in the Garden, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – do not eat of it, for “when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Ref: Genesis 2:16-17)
Blessed are you who honor God by bringing your tithe to the Lord in full acknowledgement of His Sovereignty and Kingship over your life!
Be very clear.
God doesn’t need our money; He wants us to return to Him, and be restored to the fullness of life as He has intended.
Yet, He knows that our greatest stumbling block - the wall that separates us from Him – are the riches of this world. To which, He has given instructions to remove this stumbling block – so that we may be free from the bondages of this world.
If you are struggling with any issues today – issues of sin, issues of the heart; the first step is to faithfully bring your tithe to the Lord. When you start with that, you are already acknowledging the Sovereignty of God over your life, and His Sovereignty over all your problems and struggles. At this moment, your obedience in bringing Him your gold sets on your way to a breakthrough – where His Blessings (Ref: Malachi 3:10) and Covering (Ref: Malachi 3:11) abound!
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10)
“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first-fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. (Proverbs 3:9-10 )
It is never about how much you earn, but who you truly honor, and how obedient you are in bringing your tithe to the Lord; for when the floodgates of heaven are thrown open and God’s immense blessings pour forth, the joys of life simply become limitless, unquantifiable and infinite – and such is a truly blessed life that is supplied with all “needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus!” (Philippians 4:19)
No longer slave to anxieties; no longer slaves to uncertainties; no longer slaves to fear.
We do not need to ask how that happens (i.e. how returning our tithes to God sets us for breakthroughs and blessings); the key is obedience – for with obedience comes divine favour.
We certainly should not think that we are sacrificing anything; for we cannot sacrifice that which is not ours to begin with.
Just be obedient to tithe to the Lord and see the miracles take place in your life.
You may not see the connection between your obedience in bringing your tithe to the Lord and the problems that you are facing; but remember, everything belongs to the Lord.
The Apostle Paul instructs us in Romans 6:16:
“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
Switch your allegiance from being slaves to sin to being slaves of God – “the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:22), and He will surely honor your obedience and look upon you with favor.
You have an insurmountable problem today?
Test the invincible, infinite and loving God!
Be obedient in bringing your gold - your whole tithe - to the house of God and see if He would not release heaven’s blessings upon your life!
Frankincense – Daily bring your mental, emotional, spiritual condition before the Lord
Have you acknowledged Him as Priest over your life; that Christ is your only sufficiency – mentally, emotionally and spiritually?
Do you truly believe that in Christ, “it is well with your soul”?
Back in the day before there were professionals in the mental health fields, how did people find help with emotional or mental issues?
They went to their priests.
The universal role of priesthood is to serve as ‘bridge’ in embodying the voice and substance of the divine.
And such is frankincense, which symbolises holiness and righteousness through prayer and intercession, the proper accoutrements of priesthood; and for us who believe, the fulfilled conditions that we may come before Christ – who is the very embodiment of God who loves and cares for us.
In Christ, we are free from the bondages of anxiety and sin; and free to come before him daily.
In our age of information, there is an unprecedented glut of ‘self-help’ advocates and doctrines that perfectly coincides with a meteoric rise in the number of people suffering from mental and emotional illnesses.
The world is perfect host to systemic anxiety; where anxiety is both perpetually seeded and rampantly fruited at every stage, station and status of life.
Our daily news is fraught with anxiety; compounded by questions of authenticity and its reprehensible power to control the narrative of history. If you choose not to read the news, you are uninformed. But if you choose to read the news, you are misinformed.
The ‘truths’ as reported in the news is both subjective and elusive.
And this is, but one small cog in the machine engineered and fueled by anxiety.
Unchecked anxiety is most nefarious, and is often the cause of all mental and emotional illnesses in otherwise functioning human beings.
‘Self-help’ in resolving anxiety is useless and insidious; and serves only to compound the helplessness and hopelessness.
There is no effective treatment to the anxious heart that could possibly come from within this world.
All anxiety is rooted in the sin of pride (self-idolatry) and prejudice (the absence of love for others); and only through Christ can sin, and anxiety, be absolutely removed from the human being.
We must bear this truth in our hearts and minds:
“If you confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
If sin be the root of anxiety; God’s forgiveness and His work of purifying us means that anxiety must no longer exist in us.
Only through Christ – as our Great Priest – can our mental, emotional and spiritual conditions be completely healed and freed from the bondages of anxiety and sin.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14 -16)
Anxiety has absolutely no place in the Christian’s heart and mind.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)
God cares for you.
Therefore, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:25, 32-33);
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
Surrender all your anxiety to the Lord; and lay your mental, emotional and spiritual condition before Him.
Bring your frankincense before the Lord in the fullest recognition that He alone is your High Priest who empathizes and heals your weakness (Ref: Hebrews 4:15).
Myrrh – Daily bring your broken and sinful condition before God.
Where the first area of daily obedience in our life is to bring our worldly, material and physical condition before God, and the second area of daily obedience to bring our emotional, mental and spiritual condition before Him; the third area of daily obedience must be to bring our broken and sinful condition before God.
Myrrh is the symbol of Christ’s suffering and death as atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Have you utterly acknowledge His finished Atoning work in redeeming you from death – the wages of sin?
Always remember.
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
To bring myrrh before the Lord is to daily acknowledge your utter need of His Salvation that frees you from the wages of sin, which is death. (Ref: Romans 6:23)
Hebrews 7:24-27 reveals this precise truth:
“24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people.
He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
Our Lord and Saviour has taken our places on the Cross, and offered Himself as atoning sacrifice for your sins, along with the sins of the world.
To daily bring myrrh before the Lord Jesus is to:
(1) Recognize that you are a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness through Christ;
(2) Recognize and believe that Christ is your Saviour, sent to die for your sake;
(3) Repent from your wickedness;
(4) Return to God.
To nurture passion for Christ must be the daily endeavor of every Christian.
Daily work out these three key areas of Obedience – bring before Him gold, frankincense and myrrh daily.
Daily respond to the love of God with the passion that befits who Christ is.
By the Power of the Holy Spirit, daily reignite your passion for Jesus Christ!
Bring Him Gold ; bring your tithe to the Lord in daily acknowledgment of His Kingship and Sovereignty over you, utterly trusting Him for your daily bread.
Bring Him Frankincense – pray to God and worship Him in daily acknowledgment of His Priesthood over You, utterly trusting Him to grant peace through the tumult of life that threatens the wellness of your emotional, mental and spiritual health.
Bring Him Myrrh – revere Christ in the daily acknowledgement that He is the Perfect Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world (Ref: John 1:29); utterly believing that He is your Saviour who has redeemed and restored you to His eternal Kingdom.
Church, let us be obedient to God in daily bringing Him our gold, frankincense and myrrh; growing together in passion for Jesus!
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Holy Spirit, thank You for allowing the truth that “obedience is better than sacrifice” to take root in our hearts.
Thank you for revealing to us the three key areas of obedience before God that must be our daily spiritual discipline and work-out.
Grant me unfaltering obedience to bring my tithe to You; in acknowledging Your Kingship, Sovereignty and Kingdom reality. Teach me to trust You more deeply for my daily bread.
Grant me steadfast obedience to daily pray to You, and worship You; in acknowledging that You are my Priest, and my Peace through every rhythm of life. Teach me to depend wholly on You for my emotional, mental and spiritual wellness. That I may daily proclaim, in You, O Lord, “it is well with my soul.”
Grant me resolute obedience to come before You daily with a broken and contrite heart; fully recognising that I am a sinner, in need of Your Salvation. Lord Jesus, thank You for Your finished work on the Cross. I believe that You are the Perfect Lamb of God , sent to atone for my sins and the sins of the world.
I receive You, Lord Jesus, and believe in my heart - that through You, I have been redeemed and restored to Your eternal, Kingdom purposes.
Holy Spirit, may I daily respond to the love of God with the divine passion that befits who Christ is.
Set me on fire, O Holy Spirit, fill me with Your Presence, Purpose and Power to passionately love and serve my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Grant me the supernatural passion and obedience to evangelize the world with Your Gospel of Peace.
Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
May Your Grace be upon Your people.
I thank You and pray all these in the Name of our King, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.