Passion for God: Remember Who Is Who

I heard radio commercial that asked: “would you like the earth to center around you?” The company’s pitch was everything they do is for your convenience & satisfaction.  Their motto: “Conoco: centered around you.”

That’s a good method for getting people to buy their products.  Cause humans want, you know, everything centered around us.

But human-centered thinking is a dead-end. It misses God’s wisdom and power.  If we’re going to know God, be his people, we have to come to a God-centered point of view.

A primary way to get God-centered thinking is to remember who you are and who God is.

Here’s something the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29:

 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.   But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

Paul wasn’t too concerned about building self-esteem, was he? You weren’t wise, you weren’t influential, you weren’t noble. You were foolish, weak, lowly, despised. In other words, you were stupid, irrelevant, and inferior. Later, 6:9-11, he reminded them of some of their other flaws: “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were.” So, you’re stupid, irrelevant, inferior, and very bad!

When we get honest about ourselves, we have to say that we don’t have much to work with. We don’t have a lot going for us. We don’t have much to contribute. The upshot of it, Paul said, is “no one may boast before him” (v. 29). When we sit before God, none of us can get very excited about what we are, what we have, or what we can do. Maybe Conoco shouldn’t be centered around you.

But God has done something with you, with us. “But God chose…” (v. 27) God chose the foolish; God chose the weak; God chose the lowly and despised. God chose you. The emphasis is not “you.”  The emphasis is “God.”  God chose.  God did the choosing. God did the calling.  God did the things that made stupid, irrelevant, inferior, bad individuals into worthy, significant people.

Now verse 30:

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

It is because of God, because of what he has done, that you have come to faith in Jesus. It is God’s wisdom and power and love and grace that has made it possible for you to become a person who belongs to Christ. And don’t think that now that you are in Christ you have much to offer. Christ himself is “our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.” It’s not that Jesus has just forgiven and gotten rid of our flaws so our goodness can come out.  He is our goodness.  The only goodness we have in us is Jesus.  He is our righteousness – our rightness before God.  He is our holiness – our dedication to God.  He is our redemption – our freedom in God.

God chose us. God put us in Christ.  It is all God’s doing, not ours.

That brings us to verse 31:

Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Since we are stupid, irrelevant, inferior, and bad, and since our life in Christ is God’s doing, then “boast in the Lord.”  Glory in God.  Exult in the Almighty.  Revel in the Father.  Get excited in the Spirit.  Get your thrills in Jesus.

This is more than cheer-leading for God.  It’s more than “give me a J…J, you got your J!”  It’s more than having an occasional spiritual pep rally.  It is foundational to the kind of people we will be.  It encompasses our entire lives.

Boasting in the Lord means that we make sure God gets the credit for all that’s good.  It means that we rely on his wisdom and power.  It means that we magnify his sufficiency in our weakness.  It means that we submit every need and desire to his holy purposes.  It means that we bring every unholy thing in us to his killing machine, the cross.  It means that we take him at his word.  It means that we channel all of our passions into fervent, white-hot love for God.

Look at this.  PSALM 43:3-4:

Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.    Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.  I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

 “God, my joy and delight.”  God is my joy and delight. Not just gives or provides joy and delight.  He IS my joy and delight.

The Hebrew root word of “joy” is “revolution, spinning.” The root word of “delight” is “brighten up, cheer up, make merry, give pleasure.” They’re talking about being thrilled, being excited, in the presence of God.  A Hebrew and Greek dictionary I use always puts the word “calm” in its definitions of the “joy” words, but there’s no reason to do that.  It’s the idea that our joy in the Lord needs to be settled down, calmed.  Going to the altar of God and “spinning with pleasure” doesn’t sound calm.

Now ROMANS 12:11:

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Serving the Lord should be done with zeal and fervor.  The Greek word translated “zeal” means “speed.” The word “fervor” means “seething or boiling” and can be translated “hot.” The English word “zest” comes from it.  So we’ve got: serve the Lord fast and hot.  Go all out.  Serve God with excitement and passion.

Taking these two passages together, we get two conclusions about our relationship with God:

1. Our relationship with God is intended to meet our need for joy and delight, the need for excitement and pleasure.
2. Living out of that relationship is intended to be done with zest and speed, hot and fast, passionate and all out.

Boasting in the Lord is a life of burning love for God that will bring exciting joy and passion to our souls.

We’ve been made for this. We’ve been redeemed for this. It’s programmed in the DNA of our spirits.  When we come into Christ by faith, the Holy Spirit wires us for knowing God as our joy and delight and for serving him with zeal and fervor.  But we don’t know it’s there.  So we go to other things to spin with pleasure – food, sex, sports, gardening, friendship…  We go hot and fast in other activities – hobbies, careers, video games, movies, school.  I think we don’t realize that our drive to be happy and have fun and be thrilled is a yearning for God to be at the center of our lives.

Remember who you are and remember who God is.  This is all about him.  What God is doing in us is all about him.  It’s all about who he is and what kind of people we’re going to be because of who he is.  “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”