Stuart Briscoe
February 5, 1999
9:30 pm
Message Summary
In the last of his three-part message series entitled "Developing a Passion for Souls," Stuart Briscoe proposed that Christian passion dissolves without appropriate vision, faith and commitment.
Our passion dies when our vision is not broad enough. The vision of Jesus' disciples often lacked scope, as can be seen in the beginning verses of John 6, where the disciples are dumbfounded at the problem of having to feed the multitudes. Both Phillip and Andrew calculations show that their visions did not allow for Jesus' omnipotence. When our resources are inadequate and the need overwhelms us, our passion dies. But it is during these times that our vision should be broad enough to embrace the following principle: Human resources, however limited, willingly offered and divinely empowered, are more than adequate to achieve divine ends.
Another implement necessary to keep the passion for souls alive is a firm faith. When we become wrapped up in our overwhelming circumstances and needs, we often loose our faith, like Peter did when he started drowning as he took his eyes off Jesus when he was walking on water—an incident that followed the feeding of the multitudes. Jesus' response to Peter's doubt should generate our faith: "Take courage, don't fear, I am." Briscoe asks, "Is your faith firm enough that you can stride over what others sink under?"
Finally, one needs an unwavering commitment to Christ in order to keep a passion for souls alive. As John shows, in the events following the above incidents, many divorce themselves from their commitment to Christ when his demands seem too high. When Christ made the enigmatic statement that he is the bread from heaven, some of his followers abandoned him.
"Thus," Briscoe concluded his message series, "if your vision is broad enough, faith firm, and the commitment deep, they will inextricably be bound up in your passion for souls."
Student Response
Stuart Briscoe not only offers sound biblical advice - he excellently fills his messages with imaginative speculations, dry humor, colorful stories, eloquent and appropriate language, critical thinking and logic, and emotive applications. His message series is a feast for a serious Christian and an intelligent thinker.
—Agnieszka Zielinska, Senior, Communications major