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Grace Notes Sermon Ministry:
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Internal
Combustion
Jeremiah 20:9
I’ve had more than 20 motorcycles…ok, I’ll admit, only 8 were mine, the rest
were dad’s! But I rode them all like they were mine. Dad raised me right in
the NM desert on dirt bikes, then enduro, graduating to street bikes. Those
were the best days of…well, some of the best days of my life!
The best day was marrying the only girl I’ve every TRULY loved, Kimberly…I
asked her to marry me and she asked me to sell my Honda Interceptor.
[uggghhhhh!]
Just let the fact that I gave up motorcycles [until the
kids are grown] tell you how very much that I MUST love her!
Lots of
bikes…and they all had 1 thing in common: fire! Internal Combustion! [slide]
That’s our title for tonite…internal combustion. It’s how a bike engine
operates…and, w/ special pipes, some choose to have external combustion!!
Turn to Jer. 20:9 [read]
A nice bike would be only a trophy, if not
for the “fire”…you’re not goin’ anywhere! Dad blew his knee out
kick-starting a bike one time, why? He wanted it to fire!
It’s time
for us get on fire for God again. [internally] It only takes a spark…a
group like this could ignite and then pass it on!
Like Moses, at the
burning bush, he met the God of fire! We need the same promise, for Him to
make of us a great nation…but we’ll have to catch fire…the fire of God! Like
the fire Elijah called down from heaven, that later engulfed his
heaven-bound chariot! Like the pillar of fire which led
Isaiah 6:6-7
Then flew one of
the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar: [7] And he laid it upon my mouth… [and
Isaiah said, Here am I, send me!]
Psalm 104:4
Who maketh his angels
spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
Matthew 3:11
I indeed baptize
you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire:
And, as promised, in Acts, a flickering flame
settled above each of 120 disciple’s heads, making them look like human
candles! Talk about being on fire for God!!
It was the Holy
Spirit--symbolized by fire! Are you on fire for God? It’s high time we come
to that place…the “fire place”! We’ve always wanted a fireplace…we’ve lived
in 7 houses in our 18 years of marriage, and never had one…but better than
having a fireplace is have been to the “fire place!”
• Fire
purifies
Num. 31: 23
Every thing that may abide the fire, ye
shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean:
He’s talking
about burning out the impurities, much like a silversmith putting the
precious metal on the fire.
• Fire energizes
Would people say
you are on fire for God? If not, you need to ask God for that zeal, fanned
by the flames of the wind-driven Holy Spirit of God!
• Fire spreads!
It happens out west especially…if the conditions are right!
It should all
start w/ the Pastor.
John Wesley said, let the preacher get on fire and
people will come to watch him burn!
My desire is that central
Most of us have had the sad experience
of being in a cold, dead church, with no fire…
…obviously just going thru
the motions, heart is not in it...no one really expects anything to happen!
(ever visited a church like that? Ever been a member?)
Some say, what
we need is some new converts, that’ll set the church on fire! No,
what you need is some fire, and there will be people converted!
(why
aren’t most churches seeing people saved? The answer is found in another
question: Can God entrust them w/ new converts?)
Spurgeon: “To put new
converts into most churches is like putting live chicks under a dead hen.”
They need the warmth of “the fire!”
Gen. 22... God told Abraham to
take his son, Isaac to the mountains to become a human sacrifice. They
arrived at the location, and Isaac still did not realize that HE was going
to be the sacrifice.
Isaac knew there had to be 3 things to have a
sacrifice: wood, fire, a lamb.
v. 7
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he
said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb?
4,000 years
later, as we look at most churches around us, we can invert the question and
ask, “we have the wood, we have the lamb, but where’s the fire?”
wood—cross of calvary
Lamb—Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God
But, where is
the fire?
Let’s talk about Baptists, in general:
According to
statistics, it takes 40 Baptists, on average, 1 year, to win 1 person to
Christ! Why?
A lack of fire: in the pulpit…in the pew!
If we
could freeze the world’s population, so that no one was born, and no one
died, and if the Bible based churches kept winning souls at the current
rate, it would take 4,000 years to win the world to Christ!
1. A
church that’s on fire for God is Endued with power.
The pastor
& the people
We need power to fulfill God’s purpose…we need God’s
power, alone. We can accept no substitute.
We cannot depend upon man-made
excitement to get the job done/programs, promotions, publicity/repetitive,
empty, full of fluff worship choruses to stir the people into some kind of
emotional high.
None of these things can substitute for the power of
the Holy Spirit upon a church.
I Cor. 2:4-5
4 And my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God.
Paul says, I’m not depending upon my
wisdom, flamboyant sermons, tear-jerking illustrations, incredibly funny
jokes!...
(these don’t hurt, unless they’re mistaken for God!)
Acts 4:31 “when they prayed” [place was shaken!]
Nothing is
born w/out travail – not a baby, not anything worthwhile!
(true for
natural and supernatural)
When God is working and decisions are
being made, you can mark it down and take it to the bank: somebody paid the
price / travailed in prayer!
I’d rather have a handful of folks “on
fire”, gathered in the first couple of rows, than a full house you could
hang meat in!
What is the result when the pastor and people are not
endued w/ power?
The result is always the same: burnout! …when the fire
is your own instead of God’s! It is not being on fire for God…if it’s not of
God!
Try to “go it alone” and your fire will dwindle to a flickering
flame…a small spark, and eventually be snuffed out, unless somebody
fans the coals, and, on their knees--searches for some kindling!
Serving God will be a chore, a burden, if you do it in the energy of your
flesh, rather than being endued w/ power!
My first little dirt bike was a
YZ 60 and had fuel jets that would get clogged…I had to take them out and
clean them from time to time. And some of us may need to realize that prayer
and the Word are our fuel, and yet we’re choking them out!
Here’s the
progression that takes place: (in a Christian worker)
If they
don’t spend time in prayer, seeking God’s power on their ministry…and don’t
prepare until the night before, here’s what happens:
They develop a sense
of boredom, then drudgery (here we go again, samo-samo, then a critical
spirit, and finally, a cynical spirit.)
Like our neighbor’s artesian
well in NM…looked like a man was standing there, but was actually cut out of
plywood and wired to it…the man wasn’t pumping the well, the well was
pumping the man! God will be our well that keeps us pumped up if we keep the
fuel lines of prayer and Bible reading, church attendance, service, and
fellowship unclogged, and clear!
That’s how we must serve God: in the
energy of the spirit, rather than the energy of the flesh…it’s not us trying
to make something happen, but us allowing something to happen
TO us and THRU us, or even DESPITE us!
We can run around trying to
pump everything up ourselves, but we’ll burn out. We need to get
pumped. Are you pumped? (psyched?) Are you on fire?
It only happens as
we’re endued w/ God’s power.
2. A church that’s on fire for
God has Equality of position.
In Acts: they were all in one
accord. All pulling in same
direction/locked arms together toward a common goal/no preferential
treatment (for social status, or church position they hold)/no cliques
(ground is level at Calvary)/no looking at each other (because we’re busy
looking at Christ)!
Listen: I believe this church is on
fire for God! We have a common goal we’re looking for, and we all must join
hands in equality and unity…where nobody is anybody but everybody is
somebody!
3 dangers members can fall into:
1. Magnifying
our importance (feel so indispensible that we deserve special
treatment/privilege/consideration/recognition…and “by the way, my opinion
matters most!”)
Another danger:
2. Minimizing our importance
Attitude of unfaithfulness which says, it doesn’t matter if I’m there or
not/in choir or not/in nursery or not/tithe or not/attend business mtg. or
not/if I join the church or not…but truth is: we need you, and you need us!
Hey, the greatest ability is dependability…anyone can be faithful, but some
will go to the grave saying, nobody’s gonna tell me what I should do!
[sadly, not even God, Who requests and requires faithfulness!]
“A
s.s. teacher, I don’t know his name
a wonderful preacher, who never found
fame
so faithful, so earnest, when I was a boy
he stuck to his
task…though I tried to annoy
He never was missing in cold or in heat
A
smile his face lighted the moment we’d meet
He taught by example as well
as by word
This splendid old teacher who honored his Lord
He helped my
young life more than ever he knew
Later years I remembered, and tried to
be true
I suppose he is gone now to join heaven’s ranks
May it be my
good fortune some day to say thanks”
Don’t minimize your importance
to this body of Christ. There is something for all to do, and little is much
when God is in it! Just be faithful!
Another danger…
3.
Misplacing our importance
This is trying to be something God
never intended you to be. This person wants to sing a special even if God
hasn’t gifted them in that way. (how do I know if I have that gift? Simple:
other people will have the gift of listening to you!)
(spiritual
gifts—everyone has at least 1 to use for God)
A church that’s on
fire for God is not only endued w/ power, and equal in position…
3. A Church that’s on fire for God is evangelistic in priority.
Many of you are on board on this one. It’s very evident, as you bring people
to church, as you witness on the job, etc. That’s the very best outreach a
church can have, is one that is lived by it’s people as they go on their
way.
It’s what an “on-fire” church is all about: evangelism!
Vance
Havner: “Evangelism is to Christianity what veins are to our bodies. You can
cut a true Christian anywhere and they will bleed evangelism”
R.G. Lee,
“God never intended for the church to be a refrigerator in which to preserve
perishable piety…He intended it to be an incubator in which to hatch our
converts.”
GBC is to be a hospital for sinners, not a rest home for
saints.
We are to be fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium!
That’s why He left us here! And when we forget that, we lose our fire!
Are you “on fire”? Come to the fire place…the altar where God sends down
fire!
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