Passion For Jesus Ministries

 

I want to start by reading Psalm 63, verses 1-3. It says, "Oh God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You. My soul thirsts for You. My flesh faints for You as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So, I've looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding Your power and glory because Your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise You." 

He talks about being in this desert and he's saying, I want God more than I want water right now. I so desire Him, I so love Him. I guess the question I want to start off with this morning is: Can you honestly say you are in love with Jesus Christ this morning? Madly in love with Him, the person? Where He says, "Your love is better than life"?

I've preached in a lot of places and met thousands of people and thousands of churchgoers, thousands of people who have done wonderful things in the name of Jesus Christ, yet I can honestly say I've only met a few people that I can say are genuinely in love with Jesus, in love with the person of God. There are many people who love the thought of there being an almighty being up there. There are a lot of people who are in love with the thought of that God loving us. But I've met very few people I can say, wow, he or she is truly in love with this Person.

One of the people that I've met who is just madly in love with Jesus Christ is my wife's grandmother. My wife would tell me that, growing up, grandma lived in the home and she could hear her in the bedroom next to her weeping and crying as she was talking to Jesus every single morning. She told me about how, as a little girl, grandma would say, "Gosh, I always pray right there at that corner of the bed. And even during the day, when I would pass that corner of the bed, I would get weepy and tell Jesus I can't wait till tomorrow morning when You and I can just have that time alone together." She just loved, loved, loved Jesus. 

I remember one time being at a play with my wife and several of her relatives and I was sitting next to Grandma Clara. During the intermission, I looked over at Grandma Clara -She was around 90 or so - and I said, "How do you like the play so far?" 

She looks at me and says, "I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here!" 

I asked, "Why? There's nothing wrong with the play. Everything seems good." 

She replies, "I just don't know if this is where I want to be when Jesus returns. I think I'd rather be in my room on my knees praying for you and for the church, or I'd rather be helping someone, but I don't want Him to find me just sitting here watching a play. I want Him to see that I'm praying to Him and serving Him the moment He returns." 

That blew my mind because all my life I've heard about this book. I'd heard people teach from this book about Christ returning at any time. "You better be ready," they'd say. But that was the first time in my life I actually sat next to someone who lived that out, who thought every moment of her life that this could be the moment when the love of her life could return. This could be the moment when Jesus came back. She just constantly talked about Him. Every time we called, she'd be talking about her relationship with Jesus and how much she loved Him. It wasn't just this concept of a being up there; she was madly in love with Him. 

She modeled for me so much of what the scriptures teach when Paul says, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." It seemed like every time I saw her she would tell me about how she so wanted to die, not because she hated life on earth, but because she so longed to see the face of God. Can you say that about yourself this morning, that you're so in love with Jesus and the greatest thing that could happen today is for Him to return and for you to see His face?

I meet far too many believers who secretly wish that Jesus wouldn't return just yet. Is it the desire of your heart, as John says, "Come, Lord Jesus"?

I want to focus on a verse today. In Philippians 3:10, Paul says, "I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Paul talks about this obsession he has with Jesus Christ. He says, "Everything else I count as rubbish compared to knowing Jesus." He says, "I just want to know Him." And, again, there's the idea: "I want to know Him." 

A lot of times, people attend church, not because they really want to know Him, they come because they want something from Him. They like Him for what He offers, but how many really love Him? 

I read a quote a few years back that just absolutely floored me. It was in a book by a man named John Piper called "God is the Gospel." In this book, he asks a question. He says that the critical question for our generation and for every generation is this: If you could have heaven with no sickness and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict, or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there? It was a great question. He goes come on to ask, if you can have everything; you can have heaven right now - no more pain, no more tears, all the friends you ever had, all the physical pleasures you've ever experienced, no pain, no conflict, all the beauty, but Jesus wasn't there, could you be content? Could you honestly answer, "No, I couldn't stand that because I love Him; I'd have to have Him there; if He's not there, then its not heaven"? 

See, that's what it means to be in love with Jesus and not just the things that He offers. Otherwise, it would be no different than marrying someone for his or her money. That's about saying, "I love Jesus Christ. I love Him." 

I've been in some beautiful places around this earth, traveling around, and it's interesting because so many of those places, as beautiful as they are, haven't been enjoyable because, maybe, my wife couldn't come with me. I don't know if you've ever been in a place where everything's beautiful except the person you love isn't there. Suddenly it's like, oh, it doesn't matter how beautiful the scenery is; it's different because I wanted to experience it with her. Is that true of your relationship with Jesus Christ, that it's He that you're madly in love with? And heaven wouldn't be heaven without Him because the other stuff is just stuff? I just meet far too many people who don't really want to know Him. But they come to church for what He offers. They're in love with what He might offer them rather than for He, Himself. 

But Paul says in verse 8, "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 rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." The Bible doesn't say that I will meet many people who will say, well, I'll follow Jesus if I can have this or as long as I don't have to give this up; then I'll follow Jesus. The Bible does not teach about following Jesus "if." The bible is about following Jesus "even if." The Bible is Jesus saying, look, you may lose everything, but am I worth it to you? 

The apostles were the people who said, look I'll give up everything for You. I'll follow You even if I lose my family, if I lose my money, I lose my home. Jesus says, look, foxes have holes, birds have nests, but I have nowhere to lay my head. Will you still follow Me? And His disciples were saying, you know what? I'll follow You even if I don't have anything. 

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who found a treasure in a field and this treasure was so wonderful that, with great joy, he went and sold everything else he had to get that field. Do you see Jesus as that treasure where you say, "You know what, I would follow Him even if I lost everything else"? It's the beauty of Jesus. It's Jesus that you long for. And it's Jesus that brings you contentment "even if." It's when you say, I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection. 

Paul said that he didn't just want to know Jesus, he wanted to know Him and His power. I remember when I was younger and I would read those passages about God and His power. It used to bring tremendous fear into me. I used to look at those passages, and there's still a sense of fear and reverence, but I would read a passage like Isaiah 6, which would talk about this God sitting on this throne and the train of His robe filling the entire temple. And the angels, covering themselves up from head to toe, would scream, "Holy, holy, holy!" I would picture myself standing before this being one day, sitting on this throne that filled the whole temple, with these angels screaming out to His holiness, and I would look at those passages where the Bible would say that there's a being up there in heaven who dwells in unapproachable light. And His holiness and I would picture myself coming into His presence and I would physically shake because of the thought of the power of God. 

While there's still a sense of reverence for this God and absolutely a sense of fear like the Bible teaches, I've learned to love the power of God. It's become my greatest sense of security because the Bible says, "If He is for us, who can be against us?" There's a sense of wow, that being sitting on His throne, that's the love of my life. He calls me son. He calls me His friend. He calls those of us who follow Him His bride. And St. Paul says, "I want to know Him; I want to know the power of His resurrection." I would have loved if the verse ended there. 

For many years, I would have loved if Philippians 10 just ended there: "I want to know Christ; I want to know the power of His resurrection." But it doesn't end there. The next phrase says,"…and may share in His sufferings." See, I didn't like that. I'm good with the first part. I want to know Christ. I'm good with the second part. I want to know His power. But, do I want to share in His sufferings? The truth is, I didn't want to be like Jesus; I wanted what He offered, but I didn't want to be like Him. 

It wasn't like where first John says, "Anyone who claims to know Him must walk as Jesus walked." See, I didn't really want to walk like Jesus walked. When I first became a believer, I thought, no, I want His power, I want to go to heaven, I want a relationship with Him, but I don't want to be like Jesus. I don't want to sacrifice like Jesus sacrificed. I don't want to suffer like Jesus suffered. I want to be a little more popular than Jesus is. I want to be a more popular version of Jesus where people didn't hate me and curse me. And certainly, I don't want to crucified like Christ was. But Paul says, no, I want everything of Jesus. Then I struggled with this and you know what changed me, helped me understand? It was my first trip to Africa. 

On my first trip to Uganda, I remember just seeing these kids. I always saw it on television, you know, the starving kids, the pleas to sponsor a child. But when I got there, and I began to meet these children, I began to love these children. All those verses came to my head  about "love your neighbor as yourself" All those verses like Matthew 25 came to my mind, like "whatever you do for the least of these, you've done for Me." And I'm thinking, well, I need to treat that little orphan as Jesus would. And I began to love on these children.

Then I came home and I looked at my church and I thought, gosh, I was just in this village where the kids didn't have anything to eat, they don't have anything to wear, they're not being educated, they don't have anything. We've got to do something. I remember my church responded and we started giving hundreds of thousands of dollars. We started building schools and orphanages and everything else. A couple of years ago, I got to go back to this place where there was nothing and now I'm seeing a schoolhouse, I'm seeing kids getting vitamins, clothes, and shoes. They're in this room - picture hundreds of Ugandan orphans singing praises to God during school. As I snuck into the back of this schoolroom, the teacher stops the class and says, "Everyone, I want you to stop and look to the back of the room. In the back is Pastor Francis Chan. I want you to know that every single one of you is sponsored by someone in his church. They're the ones who built the school; they're the ones who take care of you." 

To have several hundred orphan kids stand up and start screaming at the top of their lungs, clapping loudly, all with big smiles on their faces. That moment may have been the happiest moment of my life. I started welling up with tears. I started thinking, wow, I could die right now. This is just the greatest. I'm telling you, it finally went full circle where I understood. You know what Jesus says, "It's better to give than to receive." I tell you, that moment, you felt it. That moment I thought, okay, you tell me, is driving a nice car is better than this feeling I have right now? You tell me, is it better to be in a big house or have a big bank account than the feeling I feel right now, seeing these orphans, seeing their joy, being able to give and be a small part of that? See, it's not about sacrifice in the sense of us being these martyrs. It's about being like Jesus.

I want to close with this passage. It's Matthew 19, verse 28, where Peter is talking to Jesus and says, "Jesus, we gave everything up for You." And Jesus says this: "Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the son of man will sit on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sister or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last will be first." He tells Peter, "I know you sacrificed a lot." He says, "But just remember, at the end, those of you who are last, you're going to be first." Don't think, oh, look at me, I gave up so much. Jesus says you're going to receive a hundred times that in the life to come. It's this focus on eternity and living for that moment when we see God because our life on earth is just a vapor. And we have to be getting ready for that day. 

Maybe this message is so crystal clear in my mind because my mother actually died giving birth to me and then my dad remarried. But when I was 8, my stepmother died in a car accident. My dad got married again and then, when I was 12, my dad died of cancer. So, by the time I was in junior high, I knew that I'm not guaranteed tomorrow. I'm not going to spend my life building a kingdom here on earth. I'm going to believe in the one that He's promised to me. And to sacrifice and give for the joy that's set before me. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings because I really believe whatever we suffer for His sake here on earth, we'll receive a hundredfold in a time to come where we spend eternity with the love of our lives.

Can I pray for us? Father, keep us focused on our eternity with You. May we not fall in love with the things of this world. But may we be people who are just madly in love with You and can honestly say that Your love is better than life. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.  

© Copyright Hour of Power 2009. This message was delivered by Francis Chan from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power, February 15, 2009.