God is on a mission this morning. He has done it every day. He will do it today and tomorrow. The Bible says,

“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” 2 Chronicles 16:9 NASB

He is on a mission. Right now God is looking at you. He is not looking at the exterior, He is looking at the interior. He is not looking for degrees, education, status, race or gender.

He is looking for people to give grace and power and the ability to overcome obstacles so that He might strongly support those who will carry out His agenda at this time in history. God has always worked through everyday ordinary people just like you and me.

There is one condition: “those whose hearts are fully His.”

What would it look like if God began to strongly support you? What would it look like if you had more of His power and resources? What would it do to your schedule? What and who would you be moved to reach out to? The God of the universe is going to strongly support you.

The history of the church and the Bible is full of people that lived out this verse.

“The idea of a God that’s preoccupied with our well-being is totally foreign to me. I’m more inclined to think that a very miraculous indifference is responsible for most things. I have faith, but I think there’s a difference between faith and absolute belief.” Dave Matthews, Rolling Stone magazine interview

God is looking for people to support. Do you know how inspiring that is? It is also one of the most sobering thoughts, one that will and should haunt your thinking.

It is inspiring to think that God with all His power wants to support and empower me to do things for Him that are beyond what I could imagine or think up to do. It is haunting and sobering to think that you or I might be in some season of our lives where we are not sold out to God. There is something else that has become more important. There is someone else that we have placed before our relationship with God and when that is the case we cannot live out this verse. It means you are going to miss out on the grandest opportunity on this planet.

The Context: Read 2 Chronicles 14, 15, and 16 on your own sometime before we get to the rest of this series. Asa was a good king at a bad time. After twenty years of trusting God he decides to take matters into his own hand.

2 Chronicles 16:7

Sometimes we can hear a message like this one from the word of God and instead of hearing and walking in it we will become hardened toward God. I have never understood it but it is a fact. You ought to be praying in your heart of the next few weeks that God will soften you and open your eyes and move on your life.

He is looking for someone who will step up in this unlikely and perverted culture and will radically trust Him and will say Here am I. Many people start well, few people finish well.

Do you remember when you first came to faith and you had a passion and an ambition for God? You were zealous and on fire for Him. I want to ask you point blank this morning to consider where you are and what you are doing with what God has given you.

Will we answer God’s call to make a significant impact at this pivotal moment in history? We as a church will we answer God’s call? We are living in historic times.

• 1. Our nation has been shaken: terrorism, (Sept. 11) we are at war, future attacks are a probability, tsunami and now the hurricane. Significant problems that are not going to go away.
• 2. The church is seriously spiritually sick. Jesus said He would rather us be hot or cold instead of lukewarm. Facts about the church:
  • a. 53% of the leaders in the church in America don’t believe in absolutes. There is not right or wrong.
  • b. 33 % deny that Jesus rose from the dead physically.
  • c. 19% of the lay leaders believed Jesus sinned.
  • d. Divorce, pre-marital sex, drug use and stealing is about the same among church people and unchurched people in America.
  • e. Half of all the churches in America had zero new believers come to Christ last year.
  • f. 80% of all the churches in America have reached a plateau or are declining.
  • g. The hottest debate among the so-called major or mainline denominations is the ordination of homosexuals and the marriage of homosexual couples. Think about that in relation to what the Bible says on this subject. We are desperately in need as the church in America.
• 3. The family is in trouble in America. The idea of being in a loving committed relationship, having children, investing time and effort in raising those children with values is almost non-existent in our country. Children are being left to raise themselves. Teaching has been left up to others and not the family unit. God created the family unit. The family and family values is not a political issue. It is a biblical issue. We should be modeling and teaching what a family should be according to scripture.
• 4. People are afraid. They are wondering is there a heaven or hell? Chuck Colson stated that Post Modernism died with the fall of the towers on nine eleven. I don’t know if that is true or not but I do know there is a generation of young people who question if there are any absolutes. In fact, many of them have concluded there are no absolutes. They are questioning if there is anything that is for real. Someone or something is going to fill that gap. I believe that God’s plan is for the church to step up and be authentic. He is looking for a new generation of godly, winsome, authentic Christ followers who are not self righteous and judgmental but who speak the truth in love and have the courage to say, sorry this is not politically correct but it is absolutely true and then radically provide solutions and step out of our comfort zones. I have not interest in attacking others beliefs but I am very concerned that the church come out of it’s selfish, self-centered world and begin to engage this culture with truth.

God has given us the incredible opportunity to engage Newark, this community, and even the world at large. His eyes are going to and fro looking for people to support. He is looking for legitimate ministry to empower.

God is looking for people who are passionate about what He is passionate about. He is looking for people who will be willing to go where He is going. Who will let God use them in ways that you could not now imagine.

This series is for people who want God to use them greatly at work and in their families. It is for people who want God to use them greatly in their neighborhood and in their key relationships. Not a little but greatly. Deeply and profoundly.

We are going to walk through the prerequisites that God requires for us to be supported greatly by Him. These things will allow us to focus our lives around God’s agenda. Who knows what God will do with you and with our church? We are going to pursue together holy passion in a world filled with meritocracy.

We are going to use Nehemiah for this series as well as the verse from 2 Chronicles.

God had a plan for Israel. They rejected God’s ways and worshipped idols and He punished them for it. For seventy years the nation was taken over by another country. They were prisoners. Many of them were taken out of their country to serve in captivity.

Three groups of people have gone back to Jerusalem to start to rebuild the temple and it is not going well.

“ 1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

I want you to know something about Nehemiah. He has it made in his life. He is serving the King as one tests his wine and food to make sure it is not poisoned. He is living in the palace. He is doing very well. But something is stirring in his heart.

3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." 4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

Nehemiah 1:1-4 You should circle the words, sat down, wept, mourned and fasted and prayed.

Listen to me. Nehemiah is a busy guy, He is scheduling for the King, He goes where the King goes, he is in many ways as an administrative assistant to the King. In today’s world he would have his blackberry or palm pilot and laptop. He would be working the cell and wearing Brooks Brothers Suits. He had places to go and people to see.

When he hears God’s agenda is failing he stops. He had an emotional response. He wept. When’s the last time you or I saw God’s agenda failing somewhere and sat down and wept about it. When is the last time you saw someone desperately hurting and instead of being in American denial and just pushing the remote you let it sink in? You actually let it effect you. How about all these teenagers having kids, kids with keys around their necks and no parents, many of them being bounced around with no stability? All these people putting white powder up their nose or injecting drug, whose going to help them or do something?

When is the last time you looked at the chaos and perversion of our country and wept? You just got before God and wept and mourned. Nehemiah mourned. He grieved. When you get a vision of what the church could and should be doing in America there will be a sense of loss. When you see how children could be loved there will be a sense of loss. When you see how families could be you will grieve.

Do you know what will happen when you get your eyes open? When you really get it you will get really serious with God. For some of you this series could be a very dangerous threat to your comfortable and somewhat meaningless lives. Nehemiah even went without food to give himself spiritual focus. He was one guy but he got serious with God He prayed about this for several months. God does something in him that is the key to something happening through him. The first thing that will help you develop holy passion is a dislocated heart.

1. Pilgrims have dislocated hearts

You’ve heard of dislocated shoulders or hips but I am talking about a dislocated heart. What is a dislocated heart: A God-given concern for others that moves or propels us out of our comfort zones. It is a passionate concern for God’s agenda that supercedes our own desires for personal peace and prosperity.

The Bible is clear that we, Christ followers, are pilgrims passing through this life on a journey to another destination. God has an agenda for us to fulfill on this segment of the journey.

Nehemiah was living in the lap of luxury. The finest food, the finest place to live but he is going back to his apartment each day mourning, fasting, praying and grieving because God’s agenda hundreds of miles away is going down the tube.

Could it be that the church has unconsciously has said that basically what we are concerned about is us and our family and our stuff and if it doesn’t really effect me so what? That is a non dislocated heart. Isn’t it true that most of us have settled for peace and prosperity in our families as a sign of God’s blessing in our life?

We all have this. We just want thing to always work out. When things go wrong as they will do in life, we often cry out to God as though because we have read our bibles, prayed a neat little prayer once a day our life should just fit in this comfortable little package. Everything should go our way, our kids will be upwardly mobile, we will be happy and have fun, fun, fun, fun fun, and our marriages will never have a struggle. Where does this thinking come from? It comes from a culture that says that the highest values is my personal peace and my personal prosperity. It has become a drug in the church.

We were made for eternity and God’s goal for our lives is not personal peace and prosperity. The fact that most of us have so much of it is by His grace and mercy and blessing. When you get a dislocated heart it moves us out of that.

You want to know what it looks like?

2. Profile of a dislocated heart

Jesus had a dislocated heart. He was living in heaven in the finest circumstances you or I could ever imagine. He was worshipped all day long by the angels and elders.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8

God exalted Him. He is in heaven being worshipped and crowns being laid at His feet and now He comes to earth and people take a crown and stick it into His head. Here He is being adored, He comes to earth and He is being rejected. Because of a dislocated heart when He looked at all of humanity He came to earth so that He could die for you and me you my neighbor and your neighbor. He came for the whole earth. His dislocated heart propelled Him out of His comfort zone.

The phrase in Philippians says that our attitude should be the same as Jesus Chris.

“1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel.” Romans 9:1-3

Dislocated hearts look like the people who make a difference every day in their places of work. It is people who get involved in the ministry of the church or don’t wait on the church but go out and follow God into the arena of life and touch people beyond their own abilities. It is about caring for people like Jesus cares for people.

3. Pursing a dislocated heart

• A. Personal and honest self-evaluation: On a scale of one to ten how dislocated is my heart? A ten is the apostle Paul being willing to give up his own salvation and a one is you or me saying, “hey I’m happy, my life is working pretty well every one else can go to . . .” That’s pretty blunt and some of you would never say the hell word but we can live that out with our lives and not even be aware of it.
• B. Genuine Repentance: Repentance is a change of mind. You realize that your life is not heading in the right direction so you get off the off ramp of life and go back over the highway and head in the right direction. You determine to have a dislocated heart. You repent of your consumer mindset. You repent of your personal peace and prosperity mentality. You repent that when your real honest all you think about is you.
• C. Thoughtful Consideration: God is not looking for knee jerk emotional responses. As you pray during this series and dedicate time to think about it God will show you where to plug in to His agenda.
• D. Pray for a dislocated heart: Every movement that God has ever used has begun with someone praying God use me. Can you imagine a prayer that God would want to answer more than you and me praying, “Lord would you give me a dislocated heart, would you give me a concern, a passion, a love that would propel me incrementally out of my comfort zone into loving and caring for others the way Jesus cares for others. Would you do that? Could you do that?

You know what? I think God will say I’ve been waiting for you to ask. I’ve got an agenda for your life that is going to move you beyond what you could even begin to imagine.

Closing prayer from Ephesians 3:

14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Questions for further consideration during the week:

• Have I honestly evaluated my own heart and life?
• Have I genuinely repented of my consumer mindset?
• Have I carefully considered the implications and dealt with my fears?
• Have I asked God for a dislocated heart?

This sermon and the series are based on a series by Chip Ingram. The original is entitled: Developing Holy Passion.