We make miracle work promise keep lighting the darkness my god that is who you are Well this morning. I want to speak on the topic of fire fire There's a preacher just preach the message and after it's done. He said to his wife man Do you think I should have brought more fire to that sermon and his wife said to him? I think you should have taken more of your sermon and put it on the fire and my wife's not she hasn't heard this one So I think we're okay still I don't know if we got those we have those images that I sent through you got them Can you put number one up if it's possible?
The other one that's it Church has two types of Christians. There's two types of churches The first one will look like this Where there's logs of wood neatly stacked in place But they kind of look like they're more for show than for heating up the place they more for presentation than they're off for what they supposed to be done The second type of church is the next image that looks like that whether the way the logs are actually on fire and burning The first one is a form of godliness, but it lacks power But the second one is exactly what the world needs today. It needs a church that is on fire for God We're not meant to be just a group of religious people that are like minded thinking about the same things doing the same things But a church that knows how to stand in the heat a church that knows what it feels like to burn in the presence of the Lord People who are filled with a passion of Christ with zeal for God And are consumed with the excitement of being in his presence and his desire for us to obey his every word You know God does not look at our appearance God doesn't look at you know how well I'm dressed this morning how well you dressed how good looking you are God looks at the heart and only the heart Church is your heart on fire for God this morning was your heart just pumping blood. I want you to turn this morning with me to Leviticus 6 8 to 13 if you can grab your bubbles Let's turn to some scriptures and see what God has got for us this morning Leviticus 6 8 to 13 while you're turning they'll just give you some context this is the part of God's plan for the people and the priests and the temple and he lays out the temple and how it's supposed to work and how it's supposed to operate because everything in the Old Testament points to the New Testament So it's a foreshadow of what's gonna happen in the New Testament and this part of the scriptures talks about You know the holy place it talks about the altar the bra the brazen altar where the offerings were made You know where they used to put the animals the innocent animals on behalf of the people So that something must die for the sins of the people and this is where it all happened and on this on this altar The fire must burn constantly The altar is the place where God's holy fire would come down and consume whatever is on the altar When we speak about fire in the Old Testament and the New Testament God is always talking about certain things It represents something fire represents something in the Old Testament.
It will represent God's power It will represent God's swiftness in action. It will represent God's punishment at times But mostly the fire represents the presence of the Lord the presence of the Lord is the fire of God Let's read together The Lord said to Moses give Aaron and his sons this command These are the regulations of for the burnt offering the burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night Till morning and the fire must be kept burning on the altar The priest shall then put on his linen clothes and with with linen Undergarments next to his body and shall remove the ashes of the burnt offering and the fire has consumed on the altar Take off these clothes and put on others and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean The fire on the altar must be kept burning. It must not go out Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat or the fellowship offerings on it The fire must be kept burning on the altar constantly continuously. It must not go out I don't know if you notice but three times in that passage God says the fire must be kept burning continuously It must not go out if you're taking notes this morning You can write this heading down never let your fire go out Never let your fire go out Church turn to your neighbor and set your neighbor you have the fire within you It's time to let it burn Well, it's money.
I want to give you three keys and how to keep the fire burning how to keep the fire burning in our lives if you go to any Sort of ground fire like you know if you got a campsite you will find many fires and campsites and all of them will have ashes if You get a stick and poke around in those ashes you will find That there is often logs inside there. They're not completely burnt This is what the first key is Remove the ashes the word of God says this The priest shall import on his linen clothes with linen under garments next to his body and shall remove the ashes of the burnt offerings that the fire Is consumed on the altar and place them besides the altar The reason why that there are logs in the ashes that do not burn is because the ashes cover and smother the logs so that they cannot burn You have to remove the ashes We like to talk about the good old days days when I was on fire for God whoo-hoo I was so on fire for God those things I used to do man I was doing this and I was doing that I was so on fire for God guess what your fire was never supposed to go out You know the fire that was burning 10 20 years ago five years ago was a good fire then but it's only ashes today It's not alive It's ashes and you know the only thing that ashes were good for maybe not in a native sense in it in the Old Testament Was that they used to throw it on their heads when they were mourning? That's what they use the ashes for It's not good to use the ashes. That's why God says our turn your eyes is your ashes into beauty The scripture says that you should remove the ashes of the burnt offerings and place them outside place them besides the altar Too many of us are living in the past When you live in the past about what the old fires that you used to do the old things that you used to do All you were doing is smothering up your your opportunities to fight for the Lord today Because when you speak about the old days, there's pride in it Have you ever heard somebody speak about the old days?
Oh I used to do this and I used to do that I used to do this I was doing that actually you weren't doing it if you were on fire for God was God doing it This pride when we bring back the old things and try and raise ourselves up in presentation for others This is what I was doing. It's pride the ashes will do nothing for you except stop you from burning again Clean your altar and get ready for a new fire. The second point is this you need to renew the firewood I want to go is praying and I said I was just praying so father God I longed for the days that I was on fire for you again and immediately I don't know if this was for the Lord Maybe it was a self-examination thing I don't know but I immediately I heard this word but are you really longing are you really longing and I realized then that there's a big difference between wanting something and yearning for something because when you yearn for something You typically are gonna go after it You're gonna be searching for the thing that you yearn for if you just want something It doesn't mean that you're gonna go after it. I'll be nice I'm not scared if we're on fire for the Lord again, and then you do nothing and you sit in your chair week after week If I said to you church would you like to be on fire for God?
I'm sure all of you would raise your hands all of you would raise your hands But I think this is one of the things that you can where we can take the Apostle James scripture way says faith without deeds is dead There's a mark difference between wanting and yearning the mountain which you are doing something determines the amount that you really wanted I realized then that For too long too long or too long or too young for something. I need to go after it I need to shake off this lethargic spirit that's on me I need to shake off the apathy that's on me, and I need to start putting myself into the fire John Wesley From the Methodist Church he wrote these words He said my fear is not that our great movement known as the Methodist will eventually cease to exist or one day died from the earth He wasn't fearful that the methodist would stop running He said my fear is that our people will become content to live without the fire To live without the power to live without the excitement and the supernatural element that makes us great James lunch said this could it be that when we are bold enough to Step away from our safety nets and into the fire of God That that is when we are most likely to encounter him You will not meet God outside of the fire Because God is an all-consuming fire If you want to be on fire with God you have to get into the fire in Romans 12 the apostle Paul says Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice Holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship if you ever looking for a practical way of bringing Adding more firewood to the fire or to getting yourself in fire. This is it What is a living sacrifice a living sacrifice is somebody that puts himself on the burning altar?
Not so that you will be consumed by God completely because Jesus has already done that for us But you put yourself onto the fire because God is gonna is gonna consume the sin in your life and turn it into ashes That's why we go there. That's why we make ourselves living sacrifices The will God says that if you make yourself a living sacrifice your mind will be renewed and you will know the will of God Who ye knows the will of God? Honestly many of us don't know what the will of God is why because you're not on the altar Why because you're not in the fire? We have to have our minds renewed and the only place you get your mind renewed is when you're on fire for God I love the way this message the message says the same scripture that I read before he says so here's what I want you to do God helping you take your everyday life your ordinary life You're sleeping you're eating you're going to work and walking around life and place it before God as an offering Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him Don't become so well adjusted to this culture that you fit in without even knowing it Instead fix your attention on God you will be changed from the inside out Readily recognize that what he wants from you and quickly respond to it Unlike the culture around you always dragging you down to its level of immaturity God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you Bring the wood to the altar Don't bring the twigs Don't bring the brush You know when you start a fire you started with the small sticks and the and the leaves the dry leaves and you light it because it makes a nice big Flame quickly, but then it dies out very quickly God wants a slow burn.
It doesn't want your Christian walk to be like this up burning high then really down up burning high he wants it to be Flatland he wants you to slow burn continuously Because you get much much more done for the Lord when you're constantly on fire for God Can I be really wrong with you and real with you? I'm sick and tired of my Christian walk I'm sick and tired of being the person that does everything inside the church and very little outside the church I don't want to be that person anymore. I really don't I just I just like I think myself I'll never give you up Jesus, but but what's the point of this? You know what is the point of this if that's all I'm is this is this all it is is this all that we are we come and we Listen to somebody speak and we do a couple of songs and is that all it is There has to be so much more and I know that the missing piece of us is that we're not in the fire Church, can you can you imagine if we were all on fire for God?
Could you imagine what what this would look like this church would be way too small for us? You know the ceiling is a high ceiling, but it'd be way too low for us We put these ceilings on us and that's and that is is how we go as high as we go Do you know if there was just like if there was if there was even just a group of us that got on fire from God? And I'm not gonna say which group because otherwise you this is what the way it is All they're gonna do it the pastor's gonna make us all on fire the pastor and his team are gonna Make the leaders are gonna get on fire then we'll just we'll follow I am saying that fire catches right You know we know that Australia we know that if somebody likes something it catches and it goes So we wanted to catch and even if a group of us in this church 10 people caught on fire this church would grow but which 10 is it? Isn't it you I'm not talking to any one of you that should be on fire?
Especially the least of the ones we're expecting get on fire We have everything that we need everything we're in a better place than we ever could be we have a beautiful building We have great pastors who speak the truth of the word of God at this place. We have great worship teams We have everything that is great. What's missing your commitment? Get into it and I'm not I'm not putting judgment on you at all.
I'm telling you I'm the worst of them Okay, just we need to change We need to get on fire Let me just finish now with this story in a little town I'm known to many there was a small church one night smoke and flames consumed the little church People all over town stood in the streets and watched the church as it burned the local preacher You know he just found out that his church was on fire. So he dries up and there it is. It's all in flames He's trying to have faith. He's trying to be courageous But what he notices is that there's a whole bunch of people looking at the fire looking at the church burn And he notices that there's lots of the people that used to come to his church and haven't been there for a long time So he goes up to one and says my brother where have you been?
I haven't seen you around for a long time and the man looks at the preacher up and down sarcastically Responsences that's because I haven't seen this church on fire for a while the fire must be kept at burning It must not go out Make sure your fire is burning and does not go out. Amen