Friends....America needs some fired up Christians. Think for a moment......fire will only keep burning as long as it has fuel and oxygen, but when it runs out of either, it will go out. Now, God is eternal, but the power He provides us is not something we can just take for granted as always being there. We must tend the fire in order to keep it burning. There’s a great lesson we can learn from the fire on the altar of the temple. God gave these instructions in Leviticus 6:12: “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.” If you don’t tend a fire, it will simply burn itself out. The sad thing is, this can also happen spiritually. Let me ask you a very important question: Was there ever a time when you were more excited and fired up about the Lord than you are now? Has your zeal and passion for Christ cooled down? During the 1960s and 1970s being “cool” was a good thing. In the old television show, “Happy Days”, there was a character named Fonzie, who was the epitome of “cool.” Everybody wanted to be cool. To be cool, you had to look disinterested. You never got excited. You never really became passionate about anything. You never got in a hurry. You always kept one hand in your jeans and looked bored most of the time. You were just ... cool, man. The problem is we have too many “cool Christians.” Paul said that he was a fool for Christ–and we’re trying to be cool instead of a fool for Christ. We have replaced the fiery, dynamic Christian life for some kind of dispassionate, mediocre substitute. The Apostle Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:19. “Don’t put out the Spirit’s fire.” Have you done that? Spiritual fervor and fire can be extinguished by simple apathy. That’s why God told the priests it was a daily discipline to keep adding wood to the fire to keep it burning. If you neglect prayer, Bible Study, your quiet time, or regular fellowship with other Christians, the fire will go out. You don’t lose your salvation; you lose the joy of your salvation. You lose your zeal, your edge and your fervor. Has your fire gone out? I heard about a preacher who served a little church. On winter Sunday, he arrived early and turned off the gas pilot light and the gas supply for the church furnace. But he turned on the furnace fan. When the people arrived they could hear the swish of the fan, but the building was cold. The title of his sermon that day was, “The Blower’s still Blowing, but the Fire’s Gone out!” That’s an accurate description of thousands of Christians. You are still going to church, serving singing and giving–but the fire has gone out. I heard of another pastor who had been at a small church for three years. He met a man on the street one day and introduced himself. The man said, “Oh, I’m a member of your church.” The pastor was polite and said, “Well, I’ve been there three years, and I don’t think I’ve ever see you attend a worship service.” The man replied, “I said I was a member, not a fanatic!” Many people are more concerned with not being called fanatic than in getting on fire for Jesus. Now I admit, we’ve all seen some Christians who get so excited they began to do all kinds of weird and strange things–and we don’t want anything to do with that–so we set the spiritual thermostat so low in our hearts that instead of being God’s Chosen we have become God’s Frozen! We are so afraid of wildfire, we have chosen no fire. Leonard Ravenhill was an English preacher who moved to America and ended up living and dying in Lindale nearby. He wrote: “You may belittle experiences and speak of the dangers of emotion, but we are suffering from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads–but from a lack of consumed hearts.” Friends......this is so very true today. Vance Havner wrote: “Just because some have gone into a wildfire with rolling in the hay and foaming at the mouth, that doesn’t mean that the rest of us have to live in a deep freeze! God never intended His church to be a refrigerator to preserve perishable piety–it must be a place where God’s fire falls and His people are ignited for service.” Place your hand over your heart right now. Has the fire gone out? If it has, this is God’s way of telling you it is time to re-ignite your zeal and fervor for Him. Jesus came to bring fire on the earth; has that fire been kindled in your heart? Are you keeping it blazing? Let me ask you again: HAS THE FIRE GONE OUT IN YOUR HEART? Are you known as a glowing witness for Christ? Are you more concerned with being cool than red-hot for Jesus? The fire can go out. That’s why Paul wrote to young Timothy: “I remind you to fan into flame [stir up] the gift of God, which is in you.” (II Timothy 1:6) I can remember a wood-burning stove. In the mornings I would get up and all you could see would be gray ashes, but I could take a poker and stir into those ashes and soon there would be a blaze. That’s what some of you need to do. You need to stir up those ashes of apathy. You’ve become cold and carnal and God wants to re-ignite your fire within! Don’t you want to have His fire? You need it for Power, you need it stay pure; you need His fire to be the kind of Christian that attracts others. When Solomon dedicated the beautiful Temple in Jerusalem, God came down in fire. We read in II Chronicles 7:1-3: When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the glory of the Lord filled the temple ... when all the people saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped. In the Old Testament, God had a Temple for His people. Today, God has a People for His Temple. The New Testament tells us our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Wouldn’t you love to have the fire of God fall in your heart and for His glory to fill this temple? You may be asking, “How can I do that?” First, admit the fire is gone out. Next, refuse to be a cool, apathetic believer. Finally, simply ask God to relight your fire. Let us do that today...........
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 11:51:41 +0000
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