“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
Romans 12:11 ESV
Nobody wants heartburn. Drug companies make millions on heartburn prevention medications. You have got Alka-Seltzer, Bromo-Seltzer, Tums, Maalox, Mylanta, Tagament, Pepto bismal, Pepcid AC, Prilosec and probably a dozen more I am not familiar with. They all claim to help with heartburn because nobody wants it. But as we enter the year 2008 I am praying that every one of you would desire to get heartburn! No, not the kind that nobody wants, but the kind of heartburn that could be described as “burning hearts”. I long for each one of us to have the “hearts burning within us” experience of Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-32.
These two were dejectedly trudging toward Emmaus talking with each other about all the things that had happened to Jesus. The risen Jesus joins them, but they do not recognize him. He opens the scriptures to them and explains how it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer and then enter into his glory. They invite him in for supper and when he blesses and breaks the bread their eyes were opened and they recognized him. He vanished from their sight and they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
I don’t want your hearts to be lukewarm in our relationship with God. I want your hearts to burn with passion for the Lord. I hate heartburn, but I long for a burning heart. Passion is another word for “burning hearts”. A passion is a strong feeling, an emotion that is packed with intensity. At times it carries a sense of urgency. Passion is the driving force within us that motivates us to action and focuses our life's attentions in such a way that we have an impact on those around us. “One person with passion is greater than ninety-nine who have only an interest.”
I love reading the journals of David Brainerd who was an obscure missionary to the Indians in New England. He lived a short life: twenty-nine years, five months and nineteen days. Only eight of those years as a believer, and only four of those as a missionary. He was not well known. He was extremely vulnerable to depression and was perpetually ill. But his life has inspired the modern missionary movement perhaps m more than any other life since the apostles. Why? One reason that stands out is that he was utterly aflame for God. He says, "Oh, that I might be a flaming fire in the service of the Lord. Here I am I Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth ... send me from all that is called earthly comfort; send me even to death itself if it be but in Your service and to promote Your Kingdom…When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of him the more insatiable, and my thirsting after holiness the more unquenchable; ... Oh, for holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God ... Oh, that I might not loiter on my heavenly journey”.
David Brainerd's life is a vivid, powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use weak, sick, discouraged, beat-down, lonely, struggling saints, who cry to him day and night, to accomplish amazing things for his glory. It is amazing what God can do though a life; albeit short, ablaze for His glory. The key to making a difference for God is a flaming zeal, a burning heart for God.
The apostle Paul was burnt-up with the passion of God. He burned up the pages of the Bible with his burning heart for Christ. He said in Acts 20:24: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Or in Philippians 3:7-8: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ."
His zeal and sense of purpose eminent qualified him to write this exhortation in Romans 12;11. He gives us three commands: “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
I. THE FIRST COMMAND- “Do not be slothful in zeal” The NIV says, "Never be lacking in zeal." The word for zeal in Greek is spoude (from which we get the word "speed") and denotes "diligence, haste, intensity" The idea is that we should be passionately diligent in all that we do. Diligent zeal is very important to God. We are called to give diligence to our growth in Christ (2 Pet. 1:5-8); we are to abound in diligence (2 Cor. 8:7); and to be diligent and not become sluggish (Heb. 6:9-12). Paul gives an admonition to Timothy “Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress” (1 Tim.4:15). And it is nowhere plainer than in our passage: In diligence, not idleness! You must show due diligence over your own spiritual state, over your own soul. You must monitor your zeal, checking the fire regularly.
Has the fire burned down? Are the coals in danger of being extinguished? Is it time to add more fuel, to stoke the fire? Again, Paul speaks in these very terms to Timothy, laying the responsibility directly on Timothy’s shoulders: 2 Timothy 1:6 “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”
So he speaks this word directly to us as we enter into this New Year as followers of Jesus Christ: don't cruise, don’t lag, don't float, don't drift, don't sit mindless in front of TV, don’t have only little dreams of playing on the weekend. As John Piper says, DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE!
Jesus speaks terrible words of warning to those who settle in with lukewarm affections for him. Revelation 3:15-16, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, will I spit you out of my mouth.” So, God's will for us is that we not be bored or apathetic, but zealous and fervent and strong in the service of Christ and his kingdom. The culture of apathy is contrary to the Christian mind and heart. Stir up zeal for God and for the cause of God. There are great things worth living for; and giving in to apathy is a sacrilege against the greatness of God and his glorious purposes in the world. “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last!”
II. THE SECOND COMMAND- “be fervent in spirit” The Greek word behind "fervent" (zeontes) means "boiling." That's where we get the English word "fervent," because it comes from the Latin word "to boil." Metaphorically, it means “to boil with emotion, to burn white hot with zeal, to be fervent or to be zealous.” In short, get on fire for God! John Wesley said, “Get on fire for God and people will come and watch you burn!”
The great commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). And God promises to be found by us when we see him with earnestness rather than half-heartedness. Jeremiah 29:13-14, “You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you declares the Lord”
Over and over the Bible says: intensity matters. Zeal matters. So combining the two commandments we see that passion causes us to do lots and to feel lots. That is what Romans 12:11 means: “Do not be slothful in zeal.” So when you put the first two parts of verse 11 together they say something like: Do lot’s of work for Christ passionately. Work for Christ with feeling. Feel lots in doing. Wholeheartedness matters. Don’t settle for anything less.
Oh reader, we exist to spread a passion for the glory of God. You can’t spread what you don’t have. If you do not burn with zeal are you willing to do whatever it takes to stoke the fire? The tendency of fire is to go out.” Fire automatically goes out. Have you heard of the hot poker principle? You get the poker near the fire. If it stays close to the fire you get it hot. If you get it away from the fire it cools down. The poker doesn’t produce the fire it has to stay near the fire. Are you willing to reorder your life and do some things differently to get near the fire? Are you willing to make some effort to have some high dosage, extended time, prayer driven Bible study? There is a direct correspondence between the time and amount of prayer and bible reading, and the depth and strength and warmth of my zeal for God. Without large doses of God and his word, I am very vulnerable to worldly mindsets.
What about your relationships? Do you associate with passionate people? Passion is definitely more caught than taught. Are you willing, as often as you can to be with people who have energy in their souls that is consuming and compelling. The question is: If you want the flame of Emmaus road, the flame of Brainerd and the flame of Paul, are you willing to make serious changes? Oh I pray that you would ask God for it in constant prayer and ransack the Word of God for wonders that make you boil for Christ.
III. THE THIRD COMMAND- “serving the Lord” All this passion has a focus. Focus is everything. People can be busy and people can have passion and yet have the wrong focus. All our working and all our boiling is in order to serve Christ. This is what a boiling burning heart is for. This is the motivation behind enthusiastic labor. Serving Him. Period. Serving His agenda.
As Christians we have work to do. We were created in Christ for good works (Eph. 2:10) and to be zealous for them (Titus 2:14). We are to “redeem the time for the days are evil." (Ephesians 5:16) We are to "not grow weary in well doing, for in due time we shall reap if we do not faint." (Gal. 6:9) We are to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58)."
Serving Christ is the highest privilege in the universe for human beings. We are to serve the Lord with zeal and intensity and passion in the service of Christ, but remember that we do not serve the Lord in our own power any more than we came to Him in our own power. Our supreme purpose is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and our power to fulfill that service is from Him. “For this purpose also I labor,” Paul testified, “striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col. 1:29). “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed” (Romans 15:18). “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10)
When you understand this extraordinary God and the extraordinary work that He desires to do through your working you can begin praying a prayer like this: Lord, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am". The impact can be all out of proportion to who a person is. David Brainerd made a difference for God utterly disproportionate to who he was. This is a prayer that any one of you can pray without fear of presumption. The wording of the prayer contains a disclaimer: "I am not great. But you, Lord, are very great. And in your astonishing sovereignty you can let my little life make a difference far beyond all my little powers." This is the prayer of one who expects great things from God, therefore is willing to attempt great things for God disproportionately to who he is. This is the greatest life. Therefore do not be slothful in zeal, but boil in the spirit as you serve the Lord.
So my simple pastoral plea to you is that you let the Lord of glory speak life and energy and hope and zeal and passion and earnestness into your spirit. That is his will for you this year. If Remember David Brainerd, remember Paul! It is amazing what God can do through a life ablaze for his glory. God will give more significance to your life than you could get from anything this world can offer you. God fights fire with fire. In the midst of a world ablaze in sin and suffering, God sends forth people on fire. Those who have been touched from on high by the fires of the Almighty ought to be fired-up. Are you? Will you open your heart this morning to join the fellowship of burning hearts?
Open your eyes and let him inspire in you afresh a passion for His glory in every aspect of life. May your passion be a building block to the Lighthouse being a new, strong, God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated, missions-mobilizing, soul-winning church. Pray with me. "Incline my heart, O God, to your glory. Waken my slumbering affections and give me life. Open my eyes to your perfections. Set my heart on fire for you. Unite my divided soul with one holy passion.
“Give me one pure and holy passion Give me one magnificent obsession. Give me one glorious ambition for my life to know and follow hard after you. To know and follow hard after you to grow as your disciple in the truth. This world is empty, pale and poor Compared to knowing You my Lord Lead me on, and I will run after You, Lead me on, and I will run after You.” Chris Tomlin
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