Lesson 1 - Awakening Passion for God

LESSON One: Awakening Passion for God

1. WORD

Looking back at the previous semesters, there is a sense that something vital is missing. We have become so caught up in juggling the ministry and our school life, keeping up with our exams and AIG meetings, grabbing every opportunity to rest and de-stress, that we have neglected the one thing that we should have prioritized all along – our personal relationship with Christ. So we will start our prayer meeting series on the most crucial ingredient of every ministry – a personal spiritual revival.

        Here are 3 sermons/articles that can help us evaluate ourselves and hopefully stir our roving hearts to God:

1. “Some Slavery Feels like Freedom” by Marshall Segal

Text: Luke 18:18-30

1. A “Good-Enough” Christian (vv. 18-21)

Like the rich ruler, we often find ourselves obeying the last five commandments and neglecting the most important one – to love God with all our hearts, all our minds and all our strength.

1. “One Thing You Still Lack” (vv. 22-26)

We love Jesus, but we love something else a little more. And loving anything more than Jesus, even a little more, means we don’t really love Him after all. He never settles into second place in our hearts.

1. Give Up Your Secret Idols (vv. 29-30)

If we will trust Jesus enough to leave behind our old ways of trying to manufacture and preserve our own happiness, he’ll give us something far greater — infinitely more than we might have settled for otherwise. But we have to trust him first, that he knows the difference between slavery and freedom better than we do. We have to cut the cord.

1. “Jonathan Edwards: The Use of Your Time” by Steve Lawson

1. Jonathan Edwards – even at age 19, he was God-centered, God-focused, God-intoxicated, God-entranced; three things he kept foremost in his mind: The shortness of life. The suddenness of death. The length of eternity.
2. Make the Most of Every Opportunity (Eph. 5:16)

There are opportune times to do certain things at this period of your life, today, this moment, that you will not have at other times in your Christian life. Capture the moment when those doors of opportunities are open for they will soon be shut. You only have so little time, you do not have a second to waste. Pour out your whole life in the pursuit of God and His will.

1. Resolutions 

Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

1. “Pursue Intimacy with God through Discipline” by Peter Tan-Chi

1. Forget what lies behind and press on to the upward call (Phil. 3:13-14)

Don’t be paralyzed by your past. Jesus is greater than your past so be willing to let go. Press on to the upward call of knowing Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:7-10), to be conformed to His image and to be intimate with God.

1. Pursue discipline for the purpose of pursuing godliness (1 Timothy 4:7)

Godliness is being Christ-like. You cannot be godly if you do not practice spiritual disciplines. “Self-discipline is the ability to forego instant/immediate gratification and pleasure in favor of some greater gain, even if it requires effort and time.” (Remez Sasson)

1. God Himself is the Blessing (Exodus 33: 2-3, 14-15)

Moses’ sole desire was to be with God and behold God’s glory. He realized that the blessings are useless without the Giver. He wouldn’t trade the surpassing greatness of God for anything the world could offer.

Conclusion: “How to have Intimacy with God” by Jon Bloom

Trust is at the heart of intimacy. How much do we really trust God? Intimacy is more than just knowledge and feelings.

The secret to drawing near to God and having him draw near to us is revealed clearly in the Bible: we draw near to God through faith in Christ who alone gives us access to him (Hebrews 4:14–16, 7:25, Philippians 3:9), and we put our trust in all of his “precious and very great promises” which find their yes to us in Christ (2 Peter 1:4, 2 Corinthians 1:20).