May the fire on the altar never go out. I want you to open the Bible with me together and we're going to look at the story of Paul again. Book of Acts 28:2 and 3.
And then we're going to go to Leviticus 6:12. But first book of Acts 28:2 And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. And verse 3, But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, and I will not continue this verse because I'll continue this verse when I preach my next message but for now I'm going to pause it on there.
If you can go with me to Leviticus chapter 6 verse 12 and 13, And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it. And verse 13, A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.
Now when you hear people talk about fire and most of you, maybe if you're visiting the church for the first time or you're not familiar with Christianity, you do understand if you go to a football game, you go to somewhere and somebody talks about you know this person is on fire, what we mean by that is this person is enthusiastic. This person is passionate and similar approach is applied when we talk about being on fire for God. But in the Bible, the fire speaks more of that.
Fire is symbol of God many times. We see God as a consuming fire. We see the scripture says, His word is like fire shut up in my bones.
Jesus is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and they were like flames of fire on their head and this is not speaking only of enthusiasm, passion and loudness and clapping and shouting. Though these things can be expressions but it's speaking of the commitment, of the purging, of the loyalty and of the passion we have toward Jesus Christ.
A few weeks ago, I shared about the storm, how the story of Paul in here the Bible says that Paul was a prisoner on the way to Rome to see Caesar. It's like a supreme court of that day and Paul, he was going to you know appeal to Caesar and then there was a shipwreck and there was a storm and Paul survived the storm and now, he ends up on the island and the scripture says that the natives meaning, the people in that island, they showed them unusual kindness and this is how they show that kindness. They kindled a fire and made us all welcome and then it says this thing, because of the rain.
See they started fire even though it was raining. I want to share with you a few thoughts today. I want you to write this down.
Number one: You will burn on fire for God to your extent that you overcome excuses. You will really burn on fire for the Lord to the extent you learn to stop making excuses. So think of this natural story Paul was in.
It was raining. It's not a best time to build fire when it's raining, correct? Now it is cold so there's a reason to build fire but because it's raining, rain kills fire.
Rain is counterproductive to fire. Maybe a good idea would have been let's wait for the rain to finish and then we will build fire. But the Bible says the natives built fire because of the rain.
I want to encourage you today, if you want to live on fire for God, it's not a personality trait. This is not something well, I'm just kind of one of those people that's on fire for God. One common trait every person who lives on fire for God has is they overcome excuses better than those who are not on fire for God.
They're not special. They're not unique. They don't wake up with angels singing in their bedroom.
They do not have wings when they walk and they don't have a halo over their head but there's one thing they have is where people make excuses, they make fire. Touch your neighbor and say, make fire. Touch your other neighbor that was not your first preference and say, stop making excuses.
That's why I didn't talk to you first. Don't make excuses. Write this down.
Excuses extinguish. Excuses extinguish your fire for God and we all have them. We all have reasons.
Now I'm going to give you today the biggest excuse that we all have and that is our human, humanity, us falling in sin. Us struggling with sin is the reason why many people feel like I can't be on fire for God. I make mistakes.
I take two steps forward toward God and three steps backwards from God. I make promises and I break them. I'm such an emotional person.
I make these emotional promises to God and then I lack the devotion to back up. We are our own critics and I want to let you know when God saved you, He did know you're capable of stupid on steroids. He did calculate the fact you're not as good as you claim to be.
You're not as consistent as you pretend to be. You're not as passionate for God as you want to be. He was aware of that and He still loved you.
He still chose you. None of your hiccups in your walk with God are a surprise to God. The Holy Spirit doesn't drop you like a hot potato because you made a mess.
Because your chance of ever living holy life is really in the Holy Spirit. If He drops you, you don't have a chance of ever changing. Why would God expect a holiness out of a person and remove the strength to be holy by punishing us when we fall and saying, I'm not going to help you anymore.
God is not a Pharaoh who expects you to make bricks and does not provide straw for it. I want to encourage you with a scripture that personally changed me. When I started my walk with God as a teenager, when I started to press into the Lord, love Jesus, pursue Jesus, I quickly discovered how flawed I am.
I quickly discovered how disappointed I am. Not with the world. Not with the church.
A lot of people are like man, I've been growing in Jesus. I'm disappointed in everybody. I said, you haven't been really growing yet because real growth is when you become deeply disappointed with yourself.
You just realize how flawed you are. You realize how much of growth you still need and one of the most disappointing things for me was myself. I didn't live up to my own standards.
I couldn't measure up to the things that I felt like God was calling me and also in the beginning stages of my walk in Christ, I battled with some tendencies that were sinful. I knew they were wrong. I made promises I won't do them again but as a 16-year-old, as a 15-year-old, I kept falling into them and I felt so guilty.
I felt worse about myself and there was this thought I was entertaining. You know what, I'm going to pause this pursuing Jesus stuff and I'm going to get my life right first. Because man, what kind of a Christian I am.
Here I am pursuing Jesus but I'm just a hypocrite. I kept falling in this particular case that I'm referring to. I was falling into pornography.
I was bound by that. I knew it was wrong. I knew that the Lord didn't want me to do that.
I was feeling guilty for it and I couldn't stop it on my own strength and I felt like I need to just get rid of this thing first and then once I get rid of this, I'm going to pursue Jesus unhindered. But see, what I didn't know, I could never overcome this addiction apart from Jesus. What I didn't know at the time is when Adam committed sin, he ate of the fruit that was forbidden the Bible says in Genesis 3:9 And the Lord came to Adam and said, Where are you, Adam?
And this is what changed my life at that time, where I felt the Lord say, when Adam sinned, I didn't come to Adam and said, What have you done? Because God knew what he did. God didn't come to Adam and said, How could you Adam?
What else could I have done to make your life better? Why did you do this to Me? But the Lord came to Adam and said, Adam where are you?
Meaning, I showed up to meet with you. Why didn't you show up? Well, God I committed sin.
Well, God I disobeyed. I feel shamed. I feel guilty but God still expected Adam to come while a sinner, while broken, while disappointed, while fell into disobedience and repent like Isaiah 1 says, Come let us reason together if your sins are like scarlet, I will wash you.
I will clean you but come. Don't hide from Me because nobody cleans a dirty window with a dirty rag. You can't clean yourself up.
Your only hope and chance is in the presence of God and so the enemy will lie to you and say, don't build fire. Why? Because it's raining in your life.
You are battling with this. You are struggling with that. You've fallen into this.
You did this and you did that but your only hope is in Jesus. Your hope is not in self. Your hope is in the Savior.
Somebody say, build fire. Don't let the enemy lie to you and say that. What you did and where you've fallen and what you've done and who you did it with ,that somehow that is an excuse now.
I need to stay back. I'm not worthy to come to Jesus. I'm a hypocrite.
I'm not going to build fire. But the Bible says in Galatians 5:16 I say then walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The Bible does not say, Do not fulfill the lust of the flesh so then you can be worthy to walk in the Spirit.
You don't have an opportunity to overcome the lust of the flesh without Holy Spirit strength. Is this an excuse to continue sinning? Absolutely not.
But this is power to overcome sin in your life. The Holy Spirit. Pursue the Holy Spirit.
Pursue prayer. If you've fallen into something, I want you to get up and run to Jesus, run to Calvary, run to the blood, run to the power of Jesus because your only hope to get you out of guilt and shame and condemnation is not pumping drugs, it's not weed, it's not smoking, it is not distancing yourself from God and punishing yourself. Jesus's punishment on the cross was sufficient.
You don't need to add to that to deserve forgiveness. Forgiveness is not deserved. It is received.
A sinful woman touched the holy feet of Jesus and the sinful woman was pure. The sinful woman was righteous. You don't become righteous by saying, I'm not going to build fire for God.
I'm just going to take a step back because I feel like a hypocrite. God doesn't like people like me. You know that God doesn't have any other people but like you.
He doesn't have a lot of options because you are just like the person sitting next to you. Broken, struggling. Sometimes making two steps forward, three steps backwards.
On our good day, we walk around like apostle Paul. On our bad day, we're like Bartimaeus. Son of David, have mercy on me and like that sinner beating himself in the chest and said, Depart from me God, for I a sinful man.
But God loves us and He invites us into a relationship with Him and He gives us power to change but that power comes from Him. It doesn't come from you. You are an expert in destroying your life.
You're not good at building it but there is somebody who is and that is Jesus. So when you make a mess, run to God. Build fire.
Open your Bible. The same way you don't disqualify yourself from a shower because you stink. You don't say, I don't deserve showers today.
Why? I stink like a skunk. I know it's why you need shower.
I don't know if you deserve it or not but you need the shower. You don't say, I don't deserve to eat today. Why?
Because I'm very hungry. You don't say, I don't deserve to go to the gym today. Why?
Because I've eaten way too many donuts last 3 weeks. No, it's not about deserving, it's about our need and Christ is gracious to provide for those needs. Forgiveness, strength and commitment.
Can somebody say Amen. Stop making excuses. I like to say this.
Jesus is better Savior than you are a sinner. Don't let the devil use your struggle as an excuse for why you don't run after Jesus. Don't let the enemy lie to you.
We're not talking about greasy grace. We're not talking about live like the devil, do whatever you want to do and Jesus is pleased. No, Jesus loves us the way we are.
He just never leaves us the way we are. He changes us. He grows us.
He transforms us but He does it through His grace. He doesn't do it by threatening, putting a gun to your face and says, if you don't do it, I'm not going to love you. You know I heard a story yesterday.
One pastor said that in the traditional Slavic churches when you would have communion and before communion, you have to confess all your sins and so some people do that and this particular young man would come to his pastor all the time and tell him about his lust problem, every time before communion. Pastor you know I've committed lust and looked at things. May God forgive me.
So he would confess and then after about few months, the pastor who heard these confessions. He said listen, you can't be doing this every single month. He's like well but I struggle with it.
He says well if you do it again, we'll excommunicate you from church. So he stopped confessing his sin but not because he stopped struggling. It's just he didn't want to be kicked out of the church and that's how sometimes we view God where we say, you know what, it's just simply that God is just going to threaten me.
God doesn't threaten. He transforms. He changes.
He changes us from the inside out. God changes us by the power of the Holy Spirit. When you confess your sin, you choose to run from your sin, you get help.
If it's a demonic oppression, you come and get deliverance. You go into a community. You get some people to hold you accountable.
Start memorizing the scriptures. You burnon fire for God and even if it's raining in your life, don't stop burning for God because it's raining in your life. This issue I talked to you about when I struggled with that addiction to pornography, it's because I didn't quit pursuing Jesus, that the Lord set me free from that and today I walk in Jesus.
I pursue Him but that fire is growing every single month, every single year and that fire must grow in you as well. I'm not on fire for God because I'm better. I'm not on fire for God because I'm a preacher.
I'm on fire for God because I have learned that I don't take those excuses. I overcome those excuses for the glory of God and so can you. Let's give the Lord a clap offering.
The second thing the second thing that I want to highlight is this. Write this down. Someone might start the fire but it will burn from your bundle of sticks.
I want you to notice what we've read today the scripture says, the natives kindled. Somebody say kindled. Somebody say sparked.
So somebody sparked the fire but the scripture says, Paul went and gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire. The Lord will use a conference. The Lord will use a retreat.
The Lord will use a camp. Sometimes it will be a book, you read it or sometimes it could be a video that you watch and it sparks a fire. You feel this warm strange feeling toward God.
Dissatisfaction with status quo. I need to do something. Man, I need to pray.
I need to present to God. Where is the church? You start googling a church because sparks come from God.
God creates sparks but He can use people. Sometimes I know people get a spark for God when they hit rock bottom, when life is falling apart and you get that spark, that desperation. You were literally a week ago was planning which club you will go and party but now when the world is falling apart, you're looking which church you're going to go to and worship.
Why? Because something happened that sparked that fire. God creates sparks but what you know about sparks is sparks don't keep the fire, sparks only start the fire.
The Bible says the natives kindled the fire but Paul got busy gathering dry wood and he started to put that on the fire so that the fire will burn. You know in my life I could tell you many sparks that happened. One of those is when we were praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a teenager and there was that dissatisfaction and hunger to know more and it launched me into six months of praying every day after high school, as I was going to Hanford High and then Pasco High and pursuing God because there was that spark.
I didn't create it. God created it. It's kind of like a wave on the ocean you know the surfers who surf the wave didn't make the wave but they recognize those waves and they ride those waves.
You got to recognize when the Lord is creating a spark in your life and respond to that spark. When God is creating dissatisfaction, when God is creating circumstances in your life, where you feel that tug, you feel that pull, you feel that drawing toward God, respond to that because that is God sparking something. What would happen for me is I remember getting cassette tapes of the revival that happened in Argentina and as a teenager, I would play those seven cassette tapes in my bathtub.
Don't imagine that but I would play those cassette tapes and I still remember till this day. Tears rolling down from my eyes and I would listen to them and then get all dressed and run to church and repent of my sin and one time, I held all the microphones I ever used and I wept. I said God, I've used these microphones to try to be somebody, forgive me.
There such a depth of holiness started to penetrate me, which happened through cassette tapes. I can tell you a time when I read a book called 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan and it just sparked something in me to be extra generous and I felt so guilty for having too much money saved in my account and I started to give the money away because there was a spark that happened. God will create situations.
He will use people. He will use events. He will use sermons, books.
He will use a song on the radio to create a spark. You will just literally mind your business, go about your life and then God will create these interruptions. He will spark things in your life.
People that walk on fire for God, they simply recognize when God is sparking something, when God is stirring something, when God is drawing you, when God is making a dissatisfaction or for some weird reason, you get a thought in your head because you have three cars to bless somebody with the car. That's a spark. When for some reason, you come to church and you hear somebody in need or you hear a building project and you personally been thinking about, where should I invest and you get a spark.
That's how it happened with me and my wife. We would just flip few properties and we sold the house and we were sitting on a very large sum of money and then there was a spark that came. Give that to the kingdom of God and I was like, absolutely not.
The devil get behind me you know, why would I do that? You know that's my money but see, when the spark comes, logic can't compete with it. When it's from God, you know it's not from you because that's not your first thought.
It came from somewhere else and you know it's not the devil because the devil isn't that generous with the kingdom of God and we had an option. Do we argue with it or do we allow that spark in our life. Do we respond to it and when we responded to that, we started to see a breakthrough and not only in our church because literally that week, people started to respond the same way.
My spark became somebody else's spark. People started to respond in a similar way. Our finances started to change but it's not about the finances, it's about responding to God when God quickens you.
That's why in Song of Solomon it says that, Drw me and I will run after you, meaning, God draw me in. God spark something inside of me. That's why when you come to church, be open because you don't know what God is going to do.
As you walk through your day, be open. As you are living your life, be open to God's sparks. It could come in the dream.
It could come through reading the scriptures. It could come listening to a sermon, reading a book or a desperate situation that causes you to re-evaluate your life. I know for people who faced death.
On the deathbed, their whole life flashed and a spark came and after that hospital visit, though God healed them sometimes through medical procedures and sometimes supernatural but they came different. But this is what I know and this is what you know. Sparks only last for days or maybe weeks and then they die.
The feelings that came within, dissipate. What do you do? Every spark needs a stick.
Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire. Let me give you kind of a very simple process of how this happens from a spark to a stick. It starts with a desire.
Write this down. It starts with a desire. Sometimes the desire is a drawing, you get this desire to seek God.
It's almost like you didn't cultivate it. You're sitting at that warm feeling and it's not about feelings but the Lord does put desires in our hearts. Sometimes it doesn't start with desire, it starts with dissatisfaction.
You're just sick and tired of the way you've been living. You're asking this question, there has to be more. Man, is this what I'm supposed to be doing as a Christian.
This dissatisfaction is God calling you. It's God dialing your number. Sometimes it's a desire or a dissatisfaction.
That's number one. Number two, the way you respond to it is you have to make a decision right there and then. Your decision is your response to the spark of God and sometimes you will know exactly what you need to do.
The decision will have to be, I'm going back to church. Decision might have to be you know what, I need to break up with this relationship. I know it's not from God.
We're fighting all the time. We're sleeping together. We're living together.
We're not married and I know better and they know better. This is just not right you make an instant decision response, not rash, not reckless but you are making a reasonable decision. I need to say yes to God in this particular situation.
There were times in our life where the response was we need to bless somebody with the car. Both of us felt that feeling and I knew one thing, if we sleep on it, we're going to wake up without that because I know myself. I'll talk myself out of anything.
So I had to make a decision. I remember when we were doing a fast and on the sixth day of fasting, I felt that quickening from the Holy Spirit to go for 40-day fast. I knew right there and then, it was in California on Saturday night, sixth day of fasting and I've never done anything more than 18 days.
I'm like I'm going to die but see when God quickens you, I've learned to discern God's quickening. If you respond, there's grace. If you talk yourself out and you just begin to reason all the time.
You let your mind start creating all kinds of discussions then you will really pull yourself out and you will have a spark but you have no sticks that you added to it and the fire will die and you say, man, it was such a wonderful thing and you keep going from a conference to a conference, from a book to a book, from revival to revival and revival is an event not a lifestyle for you because every spark needs a stick, every desire needs a decision. So just make a decision. You respond to it and I remember right there in California, right there and then, I just made the response.
I said, Lord I feel you're calling me. I say yes. I got up from there.
I grabbed my wife's hand. I said, babe I'm going to do it. She said, do what?
I said, die for Jesus. She says, what do you mean? And I said, I'm going to go into a long fast because the Lord is calling me and she looked at me and she knew.
My eyes, they had a spark in them so you have to make a decision, that decision for some of you the Lord is going to call you today back to Himself. There's going to be this strange warm feeling of pulling of God, conviction of God. You're going to have to make a decision to respond to the call and say yes to Jesus.
Walk away from your old life but after decision comes a third thing and that is a discipline. Why discipline? Because the moment you make a decision, you feel all bubbly, all lovely.
You're like yes I'm going to be on fire for God and then by about Wednesday, you're like, what did I do? What is happening to me? This was an emotional manipulation and because why?
The feelings wear out. They always do. Where you need discipline is when the feelings fade to continue with what you said you will do.
People on fire for God make a decision. They feel the desire from God. Make a decision to read the word and when the feelings are not there, they still open their Bible and they read the word.
They make a decision. I'm going to start coming to prayer once a week and when the feelings fade away and the alarm goes on Wednesday morning and the battle with the blankets kick in and those soft cotton blankets become like irons of chain and you're like I am wrestling with principalities called blanket, powers of this age off and you go from being a strong saint to being a sleeping saint. So when you make a decision, it will be tested by discipline.
There will be moments, it's not going to be all the time where you will not feel like doing it and this is where the opportunity is to add a stick to the fire by doing it anyway. How many of you been married? You made a decision to your spouse, you said, I love you for the rest of my life, bubbly feelings.
You were like I can't believe I'm married. Listen honey, everybody's been through that and then 2 years later, you're looking at that person and you're like, what did I got myself into and maybe the feelings left but see what happens is that if you stick around, statistics says even in challenging marriages after 5 years, they're way better than they were before that and many of us we are super moody, we're so emotional that when feelings fade away, we quit on every commitment we made. God is building within you to be a believer not a feeler.
You belong to the household of faith not to the household of feelings. You have the word of faith. You have the spirit of faith.
You have the gift of faith. You have the measure of faith so you can live a life of faith and that cannot happen if you make decisions and then you always just quit when things get slightly hard and there is no feelings attached to them anymore, persevere through it. Push through it.
How many of you made decisions to lose weight in the beginning of the year but your gym hasn't seen you for five months. I'm guilty of that as well but I went back last week just so I can say this in the sermon without feeling guilty and you get it. You know like in the beginning in January you're like that's it.
I'm going to get that body you know that temple of the Holy Ghost is going to be all shiny and stuff and then by February, you're like Lord you know what you don't even look at the appearance anymore. You just look at the heart. My heart is pure, that's all that matters and by now you're like man, I just don't feel like doing that anymore.
I'm waiting till next January. Don't wait till next January. Go back to the gym tomorrow.
Don't wait for the feelings, just do it anyway. So it starts with dissatisfaction, it goes to a decision and then we have to persevere through a discipline. Sometimes we got to deny ourselves, our feelings.
This doesn't last very long. It does feel like man, is this going to be all my life? I'm going to read the word and I don't want to read.
No, you want to read the word. The flesh doesn't want to read the word. Your spirit wants to pray.
Your flesh doesn't want to pray. So don't associate yourself with well, I just don't really want to go to church. No, it's the bad part of you that doesn't want to do it.
The part of you that Jesus saved and Jesus lives in, wants to love Jesus Amen. And then comes the fourth thing when you experience delight, when you actually love doing that. Delight.
It's when you enjoy doing it. You've done it and you actually love it. So the dissatisfaction part is I want to love God more.
I want to pray more. I want to pursue Jesus more. That's I want to.
The decision is I will pursue Jesus. I will pray. I will seek God.
I will be generous. I'll join. I will and then comes the discipline.
I must meaning, you know what, I got to do it. Why? I might not feel like it but I got to do it.
I must do. It's a right thing to do. I know I'm not feeling it right now but I must do it and then you get to the point and this is the sweet place where you love it, where you don't pray anymore because you have to, you actually enjoy it.
You read the word not because you're afraid of losing the streaks in the Bible Youversion app but because you actually enjoy reading the Bible. You enjoy being in your marriage. You enjoy coming to church.
You enjoy that but sometimes before you get to the place of enjoyment you might have to go through the place of desire or dissatisfaction, decision and then discipline and then get to the point of delight. Delight yourself in the Lord your God Amen. And I'm going to read one more verse that I've read in the beginning.
Let the fire on the altar be kept burning on it. It shall not be put out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt off offering on it.
I want you to notice three things. One: every morning. What does this mean?
Consistency. Do you want to build fire for God? Instead of doing big things inconsistently, do small things consistently.
So when people get inspired, when they get convicted, usually they make a big mistake and they say, I am going to pray 3 hours every day. It's like a person who is trying to lose weight and they say, I will run a marathon tomorrow like I admire your enthusiasm but you're not reasonable and so the Bible here says if you want to have a fire on the altar, every morning. What do you do every morning?
What does your routine look like? You most likely have a routine. What if that routine starts to include reading of God's word and prayer.
What if that routine every morning is God first, seek first the kingdom of God. There is no law or a commandment in the bible to read the Bible every day but it is a healthy thing to fuel passion for your love for Jesus by making a priority every morning to do something for God even if it's something little, every morning will make a difference. Many of our generation, they seek to prioritize their schedule.
It's kind of everywhere now like prioritize your schedule, prioritize your schedule, wrong. Schedule your priorities. Some of our schedules are whacked up.
They don't need to be prioritized, they need to be trashed but if you take your priorities and you schedule them, that's when you will see the grace of God in your life. Put first the kingdom of God. Every morning the Lord said put something on that altar.
The second thing I want you to see not only every morning but it says put wood on the altar. So what does this mean? You have to put on some fire friendly habits.
Now think about this I have things on this stage and I do not want to disconnect them that do not burn really well. For example: This podium does not burn really well. It's not friendly fire.
It's not friendly material toward fire. Now my garments will burn really well. My hair will burn really well.
Now of course I'm not going to stick my hair into the fire because that is not going to be wise. So what God is saying here. He's saying number one, you need to develop some consistency.
Number two, He says if you want fire, you have to put things into the fire that are friendly to the fire. For example: wood, paper, gasoline. There are things that fire consumes and becomes bigger.
Now if you bring a water hose that's not friendly with the fire, it extinguishes the fire. Please understand when you wake up every morning or throughout the day, you have habits that fuel fire and you have habits that fight fire and the Bible says, if you want to be on fire for God, make sure you prioritize habits that fuel it. Prioritize actions that fuel it.
Let me give you a few of them. Church attendance fuels fire. Coming to a life group fuels fire.
Opening the scriptures fuel fire. Getting on your knees before God every day and praying with your family fuels fire. Now let me tell you what's going to fight that fire.
Sin. What's going to fight that fire is gluing yourself like a super glue in front of a television and watch guys running in yoga pants and carrying this piece of thing that that's full of pig skin to the other side. If that's all you do, you're not going to have fire.
I described football by the way, for those of you. If all you do is you're sitting like a chained person, that's why this is called a cell phone. It's a cell.
It's a prison and all you do like a prisoner and you're just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, it's not going to fuel fire, it's going to fight fire. Then you walk around like man, why am I so discouraged? Why am I so depressed?
The world is really bad. Well stop looking at the news, disconnect from that. Half of the stuff is politicized anyway.
You need to put something to the altar that is friendly to the fire of God. Choose your fuel. Choose that fuel.
Can somebody say Amen. But I want you to see the third thing, the last thing is he said lay burnt offering. So do it consistently.
Secondly He said make sure you put things on the altar that are friendly to the fire so choose the habits that are friendly to the Holy Spirit, to the scriptures and to the holy God but thirdly, He said put some fat burnt offering and this speaks of sacrifice. Anything that you do that lacks sacrifice in your walk with God and it's always only convenience, you will reach a plateau in your walk with God that you will not push through. This does not mean you have to intentionally walk around and do some harm to yourself.
We're not talking about that. We're not saying go and do something that you absolutely don't like like. I just want to go and do everything I don't like.
That's not what it means but if your Christian life runs from sacrifice like from a plague, you will reach a ceiling you will not get through with God. Every level with God requires a level of self-denial. A level of where we lay our pride.
Sometimes it's laying your rights. Sometimes it's laying your greed. Laying your pride.
Laying your I'm right and you are wrong. It's laying that on the altar. You got bring some burnt offering meaning, you got to put an offering on the altar.
Some people say man I know people who pray and pray every day but man they're jerks for Jesus meaning, they're mean. They're really mean with their spouses. They're harsh with their spouses because it would be easier for them to pray 3 hours than to say I'm sorry.
So on the altar, you don't have to just put wood, you have to put a burnt offering. That means you got to put something that cost you something and sometimes it's not something radical like you empty your bank account and giving it to charity. Sometimes it's something is honestly emptying your pride and laying it on the altar and coming to that person and you say, I am so sorry that I treated you that way.
I am so sorry for how I behaved. For other people, it's different because they're easy with people. They can be sacrificial with people but man, they're not sacrificial with their local church but man, they're not sacrificial with their spouse.
They're not sacrificial with their friends. They're not sacrificial in those areas, in the area of finances, in the area of their time. You need to lay things on the altar you know when I went even this weekend to be at my friend's church.
I didn't go there to speak. I went there to reconnect with a friend and it was a sacrifice you know drove at, arrived at 2 in the morning. I'm running and just few hours of sleep and only one cup of coffee but there that relationship requires not only consistent checking in, it requires a sacrifice and sometimes, we in this culture that focuses on discovering yourself, we have lost a sight of what it means to deny ourselves.
Jesus says if any man desires to follow Me. He didn't say he needs to go discover little sparkle of divine inside of him like the new ages teaches. Jesus says that man needs to deny himself.
You want to burn on fire for God, do some small things consistently. Choose to prioritize friendly to fire things in your life and lastly, don't be afraid of sacrifice, big or small. Don't be allergic to sacrifice.
Be attracted to sacrifice. Learn to be sacrificial in your words, in your behavior, in your life for the kingdom of God and you will see a fire will never die on your altar. Amen.
