Let's Get Fired Up!
Let’s Get Fired Up!
11 τῃ̂ σπουδῃ̂ μὴ ὀκνηροί, τῳ̂ πνεύματι ζέοντες, τῳ̂ κυρίῳ δουλεύοντες, (Ro 12:11 NA27)
11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. (Ro 12:11 NIV)
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; (Ro 12:11 KJV)
11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. (Ro 12:11 NRSV)
11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; (Ro 12:11 NASB95)
Introduction:
*** God dwells in a state of perpetual enthusiasm. He is delighted with all that is good and lovingly concerned about all that is wrong. He pursues His labors always in a fullness of holy zeal. No wonder the Spirit came at Pentecost as a sound of a rushing mighty wind and sat in tongues of fire on every forehead. ... Whatever else happened at Pentecost, one thing that cannot be missed by the most casual observer was the sudden upsurging of moral enthusiasm. Those first disciples burned with a steady, inward fire. They were enthusiastic to the point of complete abandon.
-- A. W. Tozer in Of God and Men. Christianity Today, Vol. 37, no. 14.
Think excitement, talk excitement, act out excitement, and you are bound to become an excited person. Life will take on a new zest, deeper interest and greater meaning. You can think, talk, and act yourself into dullness or into monotony or into unhappiness. By the same process you can build up inspiration, excitement, and a surging depth of joy.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898- )
I. Get Fired Up With Sustained Energy
A. Motivated To Work Intensely
*** Gene Stallings tells of an incident when he was defensive backfield coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Two All-Pro players, Charlie Walters and Cliff Harris, were sitting in front of their lockers after playing a tough game against the Washington Redskins. They were still in their uniforms, and their heads were bowed in exhaustion. Walters said to Harris, "By the way Cliff, what was the final score?" In our competitive society, we sometimes fail to remember that excellence isn't determined by comparing our score to someone else's. Excellence comes from giving one's best, no matter the score.
-- Penny F. Nichols, Van Nuys, California. Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 4.
See: Pr 6:6; 12:11; 13:4; 22:29; Ro 12:11.
***You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.
*** I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.
-- Harry S Truman
B. Motivated To Work Effectively
***The most serious idleness of all is being busy with things that do not matter.
***Measure a thousand times and cut once.
Turkish Proverb
***No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.
Charles Kendall Adams (1835-1902)
C. Motivated To Work Relentlessly
- Never Quit
*** Calvin did not like to waste a minute of his time. Even on his death-bed, his friends pleaded with him to refrain from his labors. He replied: "What! Would you have the Lord find me idle when he comes?"
-- "John Calvin," Christian History, no. 12.
See: Pr 6:6; 10:4; 13:4; Ro 12:11.
***Earnestness commands the respect of mankind. A wavering, vacillating, dead-and-alive Christian does not get the respect of the church or of the world.
John Hall (1829- )
II. Get Fired Up With Spiritual Enthusiasm
A. Enthusiasm That Is Excited
ζέοντες means boiling, as a raging sea. Bubbling with excitement.
*** There seems to be a chilling fear of holy enthusiasm among the people of God. We try to tell how happy we are-but we remain so well-controlled that there are very few waves of glory experienced in our midst.
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)
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.
(2 Ti 1:6 NIV)
B. Enthusiasm That Is Evident
A watched pot never boils, but you better be boiling, though you may be sure someone is watching to see if you are.
C. Enthusiasm That Is Enduring
- An enthusiasm that characterizes a life.
***The person with enthusiasm lives abundantly in spite of and not because of his situation.
*** The worst bankrupt in the world is the man who has lost his enthusiasm.
H. W. Arnold
III. Get Fired Up With Submissive Effort
A. To Live A Servant
- We are not here to be served, but to serve others. We are not to be self serving, but self sacrificing. We are not our own masters, but we all have a master in heaven.
*** The Possessor of heaven and earth placed you here, not as a proprietor, but as a steward.
-- John Wesley, in The Use of Money.
B. To Love A Lord
*** I am disturbed when I hear believers say "Lord" thoughtlessly. Many Christians are guilty of making Christ only a figurehead while continuing to run their lives just as they did before. It may be possible to fake the lordship of Christ now, but in the days when Paul wrote the letter to Romans, "Lord" was not a word used flippantly by the church.
-- Calvin Miller in The Taste of Joy. Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 15.
*** Archbishop Secker used to say, "God has three sorts of servants in the world: some are slaves, and serve Him from fear; others are hirelings, and serve for wages; and the last are sons, who serve because they love."
C. To Labor For God
*** Work is not primarily a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
(Col 3:23 NIV)
*** The fire of God in your heart will melt the lead in your feet.
Conclusion:
The upper galleries at Versailles are filled with portraits, many of them extremely valuable and ancient. These are the likenesses of the greatest people of all lands and ages, drawn by the ablest artists. Yet more visitors wander through the rooms with little or no interest. In fact, after noticing one or two of the more prominent pictures, they hasten through the suite of chambers and descend to the other floors. Notice the change when the sightseers come to fine paintings like those of Horace Vernet, where the men and women are not inactive portraits but are actively engaged. There the warrior who was passed by without notice upstairs is seen hewing his way to glory over heaps of slain, or the statesman is observed delivering weighty words before an assembly of princes and peers. Not the people but their actions engross attention. Portraits have no charm when scenes of stirring interest are set in rivalry with them. After all, then, let us be who or what we may, we must push ourselves or be mere nobodies, chips in the porridge, forgotten shells on the beach. If we would impress we must act. The dignity of standing still will never win the prize; we must run for it. Our influence over our times will arise mainly from our doing and suffering the will of God, not from our office or person. Life, life in earnest, life for God--this will tell on the age. But mere orderliness and propriety, inactive and passionless, will be utterly inoperative.
-- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Quotable Spurgeon, (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, Inc, 1990)