Keep The Fire Alive

Pastor Michael emphasizes the need to keep the fire of the Holy Spirit alive through prayer and devotion. Using biblical examples, he explains how fire represents God's presence and guidance. He encourages the congregation to persevere through trials, as they refine faith, and to stay connected to God, continually fueling their spiritual passion.

Transcript

All right, we have a mighty man of God who is coming to share the word this morning. Pastor Michael, our youth pastor, let's show him some love as he brings the word this morning. Great job, Pastor Alex. Come on, can we give it up for Pastor Alex this morning? Phenomenal. And of course, Pastor Fua as well. I know he loves the recognition. How good, all right, church, are you excited to be in the house of God this morning? Amen, amen. Turn to the person next to you, say, I am excited. Come on, how good.

Well, let me tell you, church, I'm pretty excited to bring the word today. You know, I've had one of those weeks where everything that you thought that you were gonna do and everything that you had planned gets chucked out the window as the Spirit just does something different in you, amen? Because let me tell you, I've been preparing a word for like a month now, and I was like getting really excited about it. And I was like, yeah, oh man, I just feel like God's breathing into this word. And then on Tuesday night, man, the Spirit just got ahold of me and was just like, hey, throw that word out. That's for a later time. We got a new word coming this week. And so, you know, I'm excited just because the word that I feel like God's put on my spirit, I'm just excited to preach. And I feel like it's timely. I feel like it's needed for right now. And so I'm excited to get into it. Are you excited? Wow, I like this. Everyone's very alive this morning. Everyone had a double shot this morning in their coffee, it seems like, which is really nice. So before we get into it, come on, let's just pray.

Let's just lift this service up to God and then we'll, yeah, we'll jump into it. God, we just thank you for what you're doing in this house, God. Lord, we just thank you that every single week that we are just seeing you do so many things in the lives of the people of this church. And God, we just really just thank you that you are a loving God, that you are a good God, that whenever we need you, whenever we cry out to you, God, you are right there. And so Lord, I just pray that right now that we would have soft hearts, that we would have open ears, that we would be attentive to the things of your spirit, God, because Lord, we're just hungry. We are thirsty for you, Father. God, we just want more and more of you every single week. God, we're not here by routine. We're not here by mandate or tradition. Father God, we're here because we want a personal revelation of you, Father. And so God, we just pray that you would speak this morning, that your Holy Spirit would convict us this morning, and that after this, that we would leave just that little bit closer to you, God, because that's all that we want every single day is to just be closer to you, God. And so Lord, I pray for my words. I just pray that they wouldn't be my own, that I wouldn't be operating out of my own strength, but I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would inhabit my words and that they would all be just powered and fueled by your Holy Spirit. God, let it be your words this morning, Father. God, speak to us as we listen to your word. And everyone said, amen, amen.

All right, well, I wanna ask you this morning, is anybody here a little bit of a pyromaniac? Is there anybody that likes fire a little bit too much? Because let me tell you, I'm definitely one of these people. I'm definitely someone that maybe likes fire a little bit too much. And let me tell you the way that I figured this out. Straight out of university, I studied business in university, and then I got just a job in sales, doing business development at a little IT company. And this little IT company, there was only three of us. It was me in sales, the boss doing all the admin, and then we had one IT guy, and that was it. So a pretty small office. We're all pretty chummy with each other. We all had a good relationship. But one of us, it wasn't me. I won't say who it was of the other two, but one of us sometimes really smelled in the day. Bit, little bit stinky. Would come into the office, little bit stinky. And so the boss, he was very sensitive to smells. And again, this wasn't me. This wasn't me, I promise you. The boss was very sensitive to smells. And so what he would do is that when it got a little bit stinky around the office, he would come and he would bring some candles, and he would start lighting these candles. And then whenever he wasn't around, or he was gonna be late into the office, he would sometimes text me and he'd just say, hey Michael, can you just light some candles before I get in the office? And I'd be, yeah, no worries, man, I can do that. So I'd go put out a few candles. I would grab the box of matches that we had, and I would go and light these candles. And after doing this a few times, I noticed what I tend to do is that I would light the match, I would light the candle, and then I would just be there with a little lit match in my hand. And I would just look at the fire. And you see, the matches that we had were those big, long ones. I'm not talking about the little ones, the big barbecue, the long ones, right? And so it would take a little bit of time for the fire to get all the way to the bottom, and so I would just stand there, and I would just stare at the fire, and I'd be like, oh, that's actually, I like that. That's really nice, look at that fire. And then, this is so embarrassing, church, so you can't tell anyone that I did this. So embarrassing. What I would do is that when the boss wasn't in the office, and again, don't do this, this is terrible. Even if we didn't need to light a candle, I just found myself occasionally just lighting a match, and just looking at the fire. Didn't need to do anything with it, I'd just look at the fire. I'd be like, oh, wow, that's, and the smell of the burning wood, and the heat of the flame. I don't know, it just got me a little bit excited, and I kind of realized, and I was like, oh, okay, maybe I'm a little bit, there's a little bit of a pyromaniac in there.

Is anyone else like that, or a few people? No, well, come on, let me ask you this. I mean, we all love that feeling of being around a campfire at night, yeah? And who knows that you can be sitting around a campfire, and you just find yourself just staring into the flames, and you're seeing all the flames dance, and you go, oh, that's really nice, isn't it? Or who knows that that nice moment, maybe some of you are very blessed this morning, and you've got an open fireplace at your home, and you light the fire in the open fireplace, you sit back under your blankets in the lounge room, and you get all snugged up, it's a nice moment, isn't it? I think there's something about fire that is naturally attractive to us, you know? I mean, does anybody know the TV show Survivor? I'm a big fan of Survivor. But what's the one thing that they always win right on the first episode? The teams are battling against each other, and whoever wins, what do they get? They get fire, fire, because we know that in survival moments, the thing that you need is fire, right? And so there's all these different applications of fire, and I think what's really interesting to me, being that fire is so attractional in so many different moments, is that often in the Bible, God depicts his movements and his presence through fire.

You know, we look at Moses in the burning bush. God's trying to represent that his presence is in this place, so what does he bring? A fire that doesn't burn up the bush. When God's leading Israel through the wilderness, by night, he brings a pillar of fire to lead them, to guide them. When on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples have just been filled with the Holy Spirit in the upper room, what happens? Tongues of fire appear above their head. And so we see so many times throughout the Bible that God wants to depict himself, his movements, his presence, his guidance, through the physical manifestation of fire.

Why is that? Well, I think that God in his infinite wisdom often uses things that we can understand in order to symbolize his very complex nature. And so we look at fire and we go, all right, why is God using fire to depict his movements? Well, one, it brings light, right? He is the light of the world, amen? Fire brings warmth. You can sense fire before you even see it. You know, you could close your eyes and you could sense where a fire is. You can sense heat. And isn't that the same with his Holy Spirit? A lot of the time we can walk into a room and we can't see what he's doing, but we can sense in our spirit what he's doing, amen?

God is depicted by fire. But you know, I think there's one thing in the Bible that is repeated over and over and over again, where God is trying to symbolize the nature of our relationship with God through the manifestation of fire, and it's this. Because one of the key elements, one of the key natures of fire is that if you don't tend to it, if you're not stoking the flames, if you are not actively putting more logs on the fire, sooner or later, the fire is gonna go out. And I think that's so true with our relationship with God, amen? If we are not actively stoking the fire, if we are not putting more logs onto the fire, sooner or later, the fire is gonna go out, amen?

And we all know that moment where we've been filled with the Spirit for the first time. Maybe it was in a service like this. Maybe it was in your bedroom. Maybe it was at a Bible study. I don't know, but I think we've all had that moment where we're just praising God, and we're just saying, God, would you fill me up? God, would you come and would you fill me up? And we feel that fire of God for the first time, when the Holy Spirit enters into us, and we get this fire, we get this zeal. Come on, do you remember the first days of your salvation where you were passionate, where you were seeking after God like never before? But then sooner or later, if you're not constantly activating it, not constantly stoking the flames, sooner or later, the fire goes out, amen? And we've all been there, yeah? We've all been there.

Keep The Fire Alive

And so this morning, I've entitled my message, Keep the Fire Alive. Everybody say it to the person next to you. Say, keep the fire alive. Keep the fire alive. Come on, let's open up our Bibles, and let's get into this.

If you've got a Bible with you, why don't you turn to the book of Leviticus, chapter six. We're gonna be reading from verses, we're gonna be reading from verses eight to 13. Leviticus chapter six, eight to 13.

' Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give Aaron and his sons the following instructions regarding the burnt offering. The burnt offering must be left on top of the altar until the next morning, and the fire on the altar must be kept burning all night. In the morning, after the priest on duty has put on his official linen clothing and linen undergarments, he must clean out the ashes of the burnt offering and put them beside the altar. Then he must take off these garments, change back into his regular clothes, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean. Meanwhile, the fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must never go out. Each morning the priest will add fresh wood to the fire and arrange the burnt offering on it. He will then burn the fat of the peace offerings on it. Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out. ' Leviticus 6:8-13 (NLT)

If you've got a Bible on your phone, pull it out. Some of you might not know where the Bible appears. Some of you might not know where the Bible appears on the phone. That's all right. We'll take it home with you. It's a challenge. Otherwise, we're gonna have it up on the screen. So let's all read this together. It says this, starting in verse eight. The Lord said to Moses, know what? Hold a sec, pause. Know what? Hold a sec, pause. Let me give you a little bit of context for this. Let me give you a little bit of context for this first.

See, what's happening in this moment, that we're just about to read, is that in the Old Testament, the way that they would sanctify themselves, they would cleanse themselves of sin, but have God cleansed them of their sins. The way that they would do that was through animal sacrifice. Thankfully, we don't have to do that. Thankfully, we don't have to do that today because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, and he was the one that guided the outpourings. And so we don't need to do animal sacrifices anymore, but back in the Old Testament, in the times of the living, this whole system of animal sacrifice was just getting in the way of God. And so what God does is that, he says to the building center, hey, I want you guys to put a fire on that old wood. You've got to put a fire on that old wood to burn on the gold today. But people need to make a sacrifice in their sins. They're going to come and bring this animal sacrifice to this fire, and then their sins will be forgiven. And then your sins will be forgiven. And what's so interesting is that the way that this fire was lit was not through any natural source. It was lit because a fire from heaven held down upon this old, started to burn the wood that they had on the Old Testament. A supernatural flame of heaven that came down. Once that happens, God gives the Israelites instructions on what to do with this fire. That's a supernatural fire, this supernatural flame, and that's where we come down from heaven, and that's where we pick it up.

Chapter six, verse eight, chapter six. The Lord said to Aaron and his sons this command. These are the regulations for the burnt offering. The burnt offering is to remain on the altar throughout the night until more fire must be kept burning on the altar. Verse 12, we'll skip forward to verse 12. It says, the fire on the altar, must be kept burning.

It must not go out. It must not go out. So where they would do sacrifices in order to bring redemption between them and God. But who knows that that fire no longer lives on an altar. That fire lives in the hearts of you and I now. That fire is in us now. And in the same principles still apply. I don't think I can find another passage in the whole Bible where God repeats Himself so many times in such little paragraph. God is really trying to get this through our minds. He's saying, hey, this fire, it must not go out. It must not go out. It must not go out. But who knows that sometimes, oh man, life just gets in the way. And we can get pretty dangerously close to that fire going out. Amen, or is it just me? Are you with me this morning? Who knows that sometimes life just gets in the way, you know, and sometimes that fire can go out. But I wanna encourage you this morning, church, that the fire must not go out. The fire must keep burning.

So this morning, I wanna give you three reasons as to why the fire might go out. Because I'm a really big believer that if you can identify what's going wrong, you can implement the right solution. So I wanna share with you three ways that I've personally found in my life that three things that causes the fire to stumble, to start flickering out a little bit so that we can identify and move past it, amen? All right, turn to the person next to you, say, reason one.

1. Attention and intention

Reason one is attention and intention. Attention and intention. I love what it says in this verse in Leviticus. It starts off by saying, the Lord said to Moses, give Aaron and his sons, and Aaron and his family were anointed as the priests, or I guess the pastors of Israel. And he goes on to say that 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. He goes on to describe that these priests, they must every single morning come and bring more firewood to the fire.

And so there's two things that are happening here. This group of priests are working together to keep this fire going. And there's two applications that we can learn from this. One is that they are monitoring it day and night. They are constantly looking at this thing. They are giving it attention, and they're saying, every single morning, every single night, we are not going without looking at where this fire is to analyze it and go, is it at risk of going out? We're giving it attention. Then there's the other side of it where there's intention, where they're actively, every single morning, they're going and they're going and finding firewood, they're chopping it down, they're preparing it, they're bringing it to the altar so that it's right there. So if they need that wood at any moment, it is ready to go, amen.

And who knows that sometimes we as Christians, we can struggle with this a little bit because our lives can get pretty busy. I don't know for a lot of us, our schedules can get pretty full sometimes. And sometimes it can feel hard to have that attention and intention to actively look at our own fire, the spirit that's going on inside of us and go, okay, am I at risk of burning out? And if I am, do I have the fuel that I need ready to go in order to stoke those flames again? You know, I know for me personally, this is something I can struggle with a lot. My nature is that I can get distracted pretty easily. I mean, you just ask Gabs and I love little side projects. I love getting distracted with side projects. If I can be like embarrassing honest, these lights were a big, awesome side project for me and I loved it. And I got so distracted by it. And then, but then my youth leaders were going, hey, where's the run sheet for this week at youth? I'll be like, oh yeah, I forgot. I just got so distracted with the lights and I can get distracted very easily. But you know, one thing I've really found in my life is that the more that I've just purposely set aside time to go, I'm not gonna get distracted. I'm not gonna get bogged down by the things of my schedule, but I'm gonna sacrifice this time in order to just press into God, to just bring devotion to God. That those are the times that God has absolutely filled me like never before.

You know, and I fear sometimes that as Christians, sometimes as life gets busy, as we get distracted with work, as we get distracted with things of this world, it can be harder and harder to actually set aside time to really press into God for no other reason than just enjoying His presence, enjoying His presence. You know, some of you might be here and you might be really running on feelings. I don't feel like getting up this morning. I don't feel like getting up out of bed and getting into my Bible and reading the Word and pressing into God. You know, it can be a struggle sometimes, but let me tell you, God is instructing us that every single morning, we're to have wood ready to stoke the fire. All through the night, all through the day, we're to be analyzing where we are at in our own spiritual journey and go, do I need to add fuel to the fire? Because amen, who knows that the fire must not go out, amen?

And let me tell you, can I just say as a youth pastor, I've been doing youth for too many years now, more than I'd like to admit, but how many? 13, I've been doing youth for 13 years now. And can I just say, there is a day and night difference in the kids of the parents that set aside time to pray for their kids and the parents that don't set aside time to pray for their kids. Because let me tell you, every single kid, no matter how big of a Christian you are, no matter how long you've been a Christian for, every single kid will go through troubles. Every single kid will doubt God. Every single child that I've ever encountered are gonna go through that rebellious stage, are gonna go through those things where they just do the opposite of what you say, just because they want to get back at you. But let me tell you, the kids that get through those stages and come out the other side on fire for God, stepping into the calling that God has got for them, are the ones where their parents are fervently behind the scenes, setting aside that time to pray into them and go, you know what? I'm gonna stoke this fire. I'm gonna press into God and see what God is gonna do. Amen? Let me tell you, it makes such a big difference.

You know, I've seen in my own life, there's been those moments where in workplaces, before I worked at the church here, I had a job in sales and it was a pretty high position, if I'm honest. Like my sales target for the year was about $250 million that I would have to do. So it was big business and I would get about 200 emails a day and it would stress me out. It was a lot of work. And you know, you ask Gabs, Gabs will tell you that there'd be some nights where I would just be working until like nine, 10 o'clock at night, just trying to get things done, trying to get everything sorted. I wanted to work my way up the corporate ladder. But you do know what made the biggest difference in my life is when I stopped giving my time to the workplace and I started giving my time to God. Because it's counterintuitive. We think that, okay, if I wanna see fruit in my workplace, I'm gonna give more and more time to that. But that's not the way that heavenly principles work. See, I stopped giving time to my workplace and I started giving time to God. And I said, even though this is busy and stressful, I'm gonna give time to God. I'm gonna continue to press in. And you know what happened? I started getting changed, church. Let me tell you, when we've got a fire inside of us, when there is something burning in the supernatural inside of us, things just happen. It's easier to go through the trials, amen? So let me encourage you, set time aside. Be like the priests here. Morning and night, they don't let the fire go out, amen?

Turn to the person next to you, say, reason two. Reason two that our fire can go out. Reason one, we don't give it the attention. We don't give it the intention.

2. Flame Brings Pain

Reason two, flame brings pain. Flame brings pain. Let me read this verse.

'So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. ' 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT)

Then we'll dive into it. It says this in 1 Peter 1, verse six to seven. So be truly glad there is a wonderful joy ahead. Come on, who wants wonderful joy in their life, amen? There is a wonderful joy ahead. Even though you must endure many trials for a little while, these trials will show you that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold through your faith. Sorry, though your faith is far more precious than gold.

Let me explain what's happening here. In that verse in Leviticus that we were going through before, we saw that there was a fire on the altar. And we all know now that that fire that used to be on the altar where we would bring animal sacrifices is now in you and I. We've got the Holy Spirit. Instead of going through sacrifices, that fire lives in us. And you know, the whole purpose of that fire, whether it be on the altar or whether it be in us, is to bring redemption between us and God. That is the purpose of the fire. What this verse in Peter is telling us is that the way that this whole fire situation works, instead of bringing an animal sacrifice, God wants to bring redemption between you and Him. So what He does is that He brings you to trials. Important distinction, He doesn't cause trials. He doesn't bring pain. He doesn't cause pain in your life. But when the pain comes, because we live in a sinful world, when the pain comes, God uses that trial in order to activate the Holy Spirit within you. And it says in that verse in 1 Peter that it acts like the way that fire tests gold and silver. Now that's a terminology used in blacksmithing. What that means is that when they would test gold, when they would test silver, what it meant is that they would get a fire that was burning as hot as they could. They would bring raw gold, raw silver. They would bring it to that fire. And as they put it in the fire, that gold would start to bubble. It would start to melt. It would start to become a liquid. And if there was any imperfections within that gold or silver, it would just start to burn away. It would start to separate from the gold. And then after that process, all that you would be left with is pure gold or pure silver. And this is the way that God is describing the way that the fire of the Holy Spirit works in us.

Because then who knows that we've all been there where you're going through a trial and you start to feel the Holy Spirit activate. And sometimes we like to believe that most of the time that the way the Holy Spirit activates is by giving us raw power and evangelistic spirit and a great and just fervent, awesome, just, oh yeah, I'm so on fire for God. Which He does, sometimes He does, and we'll get to that. But a lot of the time, the way that the Holy Spirit activates in us is that it starts burning away the imperfections. You go through a trial, and then all of a sudden this imperfection that you didn't realize was there just starts to bubble up to the surface. Some of you be like, oh, I don't really get angry, but then you go through a trial and you just start to feel that anger start and just, oh, I can't believe my partner said that to me. I can't believe the church said this to me. I can't believe that person at work said that to me. We can go through all these trials and all those little imperfections, start to just bubble up to the surface.

But the problem is, is that I really see that too many Christians, the way that they lose their fire for God is because they're so afraid of getting burnt through that process, those imperfections bubbling up and burning away. They're so afraid of getting burnt that you know what they do? They just start stepping away from the fire because they go, oh, I can't handle that. It's too hot. I don't wanna get burnt. And so because they're afraid to get burnt, they just stop burning altogether. They let the fire of the Holy Spirit die out inside of them because they're not willing to go through that process of purification. They're not willing to allow the Holy Spirit to really convict them and guide them through that process, amen?

You know, I know for me, I've gone through this many times in my life where I found it really hard. You know, just after me and Gabs got married, I went through a very, very, very humbling moment. We were two months into getting married and I just lost my job. I got fired from my job. And that was a very stressful position for me because I thought, oh, okay, I'm meant to be the provider. I wanna be the man of the house. I wanna be bringing in money for my family, this new family that I've got. But two months after I get married, I lose my job. And I'm going, God, why would you do this? God, we just went on this big, expensive honeymoon and now I don't have any money. Oh God, why would you allow this to happen? And in that moment, it would be very easy for me to blame God and start going, God, you're giving me all these good things. God, I'm in a season where I need blessing. We're just starting off as a married couple. We just started paying for rent. We're paying for our bills and all the electricity and water and all that sort of stuff. God, don't you know that if there's any situation that I need your blessing, it's now. Why on earth, God, would then you take that away from me? But who knows that God wants to use those moments to build something even better in you, amen? God wants to use those moments. And so I went on a bit of a journey of faith. You know, I left my job and thankfully, my boss gave me two months of notice to say, oh, I know you just got married and so I'm gonna give you two months notice before we actually ask you to stop coming in. And I was like, oh, well, thank you, that's awesome. But what it meant is that I went on this two-month journey where I was looking for work, I was looking for jobs, and I just found that every single door that I tried to walk through would just close. Door after door after door would just close in front of my face. And I would get to that two-month mark and I was really starting to cry out to God and I was saying, God, what are you doing here? Like, I really need you to come through. Like, what are you doing, God? And I remember there was a moment where it was the last day of my employment at this place and I was feeling pretty down. And I just remember that there was a spiritual attack that came upon me where it was just like baiting me to be bitter for God, baiting me to be angry at what God was doing. And I remember thinking, these thoughts started coming into my head of, you're gonna walk out that door today and you are gonna be unemployed. So where is your God now? And just started to feel that. But you know what happened, church? The spirit took over. I felt the burning of the Holy Spirit in me because that is an imperfection. That is not something that is of God. That's something that God wants to burn out of me. And so I started to overcome that and I started saying, nope, I know my God is for me. I know my God is Jehovah Jireh. I know that he's gonna provide. And I just started speaking that to myself. And instead of walking out of the door and giving into my temptation and being angry at God, blaming God for what was happening, saying to God, God, you're not providing for me, I stepped out of there in a position of faith. And I said, God, no, I know that even though today I'm going to leave this office fully unemployed two months into my marriage, it doesn't matter because I know, God, that you are with me. Then you know what happened, church? I walked out of that door. I said that to myself. And literally, as I got to my car, after walking out of that office, I got a call. Hey, we'd love you to come interview for this job. Within a couple of days, I had that job.

But God allowed me to go through the moment where I could have left that place bitter or I could have left that place fully in faith that God is going to provide. And I think because I left that place saying that I know that God is going to provide, that is the reason why God was going, okay, here's the blessing. You passed the test, now here's the blessing.

But I think a lot of us, we get scared of the burning of the Holy Spirit. We get scared of it trying to burn away these perfections outside of us. And we actually don't make it to the other side and see the blessing that God has got for us, amen? But who knows that if we're just willing to endure the trial, if we're willing to endure the trial just for a little bit, like it says in 1 Peter, that we're gonna get to the other side and we're gonna see that, nah, in fact, God has so much blessing for us on the other end, amen? Come on.

Everyone turn to the person you say, reason three. Reason three. Reason three that we allow the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn out is that sometimes we can get a little bit weary and a little bit teary.

3. Weary and Teary

'This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. ' 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (NLT)

I love what it says in 2 Timothy 1, verse six to seven. In verse six, it says this, one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, it says this. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but a power of love and self-discipline.

You know, the interesting thing about this verse in particular, it's written by a guy, it's written by a guy named Paul and he's writing to a guy named Timothy. Now, Paul is a amazing man of God. I mean, he pretty much wrote half of the New Testament. I mean, the guy was just on fire. He would go around from city to city, bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ and just starting churches wherever he went. Amazing ministry. And one of his right hand men was this guy, Timothy. So wherever Paul would go for the most of the journey, Timothy would be right there with him. But now Timothy finds himself in this situation where Paul is in jail, Paul's out doing other stuff and he finds himself in jail and Timothy is continuing the work by himself. And Timothy, it is described in other parts of the Bible, is this guy that is on fire for God, that is zealous for God, that wants to chase after the things and build the kingdom of heaven. But it also says that a lot of the time he can get weary, he can get down, he can start being fearful. And in this moment, Paul is writing to Timothy and he's saying to Timothy, hey, I know you're feeling down. I know that life's taking a little beating for you at the moment. You're feeling like the world's against you at the moment, but I need to remind you, Timothy, to fan into flames the spiritual gift that God gave you.

That translation, fan into flames, it comes from a Hebrew word that means to, sorry, Greek word, Greek word to chuck more kindling onto the fire. What he's describing here is that when we can feel like life's got us down a little bit, maybe we've been doing the work of God and we've been fervently serving or you've been chasing after God, but as life just has been eroding at your joy and eroding at your spirit, you find yourself in this place where you're just feeling a little bit down and out. And God wants to remind you this morning that all you are required to do is just put some more logs on the fire, to rekindle it, to fan into flames the spiritual gifting that God has got for you.

You know, I believe that every single person in this building right now has been given an incredible gifting by God. As soon as you receive the Holy Spirit, you are now acting in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And there is a calling on every single person here. And maybe you're in a place this morning where you've been feeling like just down and out because you've been struggling to get to that point. You've been struggling to step into the things that you believe that God has got for you. And I'm here to remind you this morning that you just need to fan into flames the gifting of God that he has put upon your life.

You know, who knows that we are not slave to our emotions this morning, amen? We might not feel it like it sometimes, but we are not slave to our emotions. We can actually speak to our own spirit and just say, you know what, rise up my spirit, because I know that there is a lion inside of me. I know that there is a power inside of me that has overcome this world, that has overcome death, that has overcome every single temptation in this world. There is a power inside of me that can overcome my situation no matter what it is, amen? Come on, there is a power inside of you. And I feel like some of you here this morning might just be feeling a little bit weary, a little bit teary about the things that is happening in your life.

You know, I was speaking to a woman in our service last night who has just been, her mom just passed away a couple of weeks ago, and she actually leads the youth ministry at another church. And she was here last night because she just didn't wanna be a part of this group where she was serving in, and she just wanted to come where no one knew her and just receive from God. And, you know, I just was able to pray with her, and I didn't say anything important, doesn't matter what my words are, but I could just see that as she was just open to being afreshed, the Holy Spirit just fell upon her in a moment of weakness, when she's grieving, when she's just weary from the battles of life, teary from just everything that's going on around her. In that moment, she allowed herself to open up and just receive an afreshment from God.

You know, I don't really feel like there's some of us here this morning. Well, you just need a refreshment from God. Maybe you operated really strongly in the Spirit before, but for whatever reason, things have happened, things haven't gone the way that you hoped that they would, and just feel weary about where life's at, just feeling a little bit tired. I really come here this morning to say to you that God feels your hurt, God feels your pain, and whatever tears you've cried, I guarantee that God has mourned those things 10 times over what you have, because His heart breaks for the sin that we have to deal with, the problems that we're dealing with, because He is a loving God, He is a good God. But we can either have two options, right? We can stay where we are, or we can pick ourselves up like Timothy did, and fan into flames the fire of God that is within us.

And come on, sometimes it can be hard to do. Sometimes it can be very hard to do, but that's what's so great about this church community is that you've got a community of people that love and care for you, that are willing to put an arm around you and help you up out of your situation, and say, hey, we're in this together. And you know what? You've got a God that wants to affresh you this morning, that wants to pour into you this morning. And it doesn't matter whether you are 100% on fire or you are just feeling so distant from God, whoever you are this morning, God wants to fill you afresh with the fire of His Holy Spirit, amen?

So this is what I wanna do this morning. If we could just all close our eyes. I just wanna encourage you, if you're here this morning, and for whatever reason, you just feel the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire of the passion and the zeal that you've got for Christ, just dwindling a little bit in your spirit. Or maybe you're here this morning and it's entirely gone out and you know it. I want you to do something really brave this morning. I just want you to stand where you are and just lift your hands to heaven this morning, and just saying, yeah, God, I want you to rekindle what's going on in my heart. I want you to fan into flames, the fire of your Holy Spirit.

Maybe you're here this morning and your family's just going through some stuff, and you're just going, yeah, God, I know I need to rekindle the fire of my family. God, I'm gonna stand in the place of my family this morning and just know that as I start putting time into your presence as I start seeking you, God, that you are gonna do the things that I cannot do. Maybe you're here this morning and your business is going through troubles at the moment, and you're just saying, yeah, God, I've just been getting tired. Because who knows that it actually can be quite a weight to carry hope. Sometimes it can be really tough. It can feel heavy to carry the feeling of hope. But can I say to you this morning that those that carry it, that those that put their faith in God, that those are anchored to the Holy Spirit, man, God has got such a blessing for you on the other side. God has got such a blessing for you on the other side.

Don't be afraid. He has not given us a spirit of fear of timidity, but of power and of love and of self-discipline. So fan into flames the things that God has got for you. Come on, I know there's more people than that this morning. Come on, if you need that fire to be rekindled in your spirit this morning, don't be afraid, stand where you are. Stand where you are and just say, God, I wanna see that. God, I wanna rekindle. Maybe you're here and you've never experienced the fire before. Maybe you've never experienced that passion, that zeal for God that you want to this morning. Come on, just stand where you are. Just stand where you are. Come on, let's just lift our hands to heaven in this place. Be open to God right now. Be open to God right now. Don't worry about what people are doing around you. It's just you and Him this morning. Just focus in on heaven right now.

You know, I'm just gonna pray for everybody here. Let me encourage you. The fire of the Holy Spirit is not found in some big emotional atmosphere. You know, I've often found that being in a big hype moment in church is kinda like someone pouring petrol over your fire. It burns bright for a couple of seconds, but it just as quickly goes out. Let me tell you, the fires that sustain, the fires that keep burning are the ones that are built in these intimate moments. So we're not gonna hype this up. We're not gonna build this into a crazy moment, but we're just gonna ask the Holy Spirit to just refill us again in this moment.

So God, I just pray for every single person that's standing right now, God. Lord, I thank You that You see their situation. Lord, I thank You that in everything, that You are guiding them, that You are leading them, that even when we can't see the movements of Your Holy Spirit, when we can't see what's happening in the background, God, we thank You that You are continually working. You are continually moving, God. So Lord, I just pray for a fresh sense of Your Spirit over every single person here. Father God, would Your Holy Spirit just come and just rekindle those flames right now? Would You just fan into flames the things of Your Spirit, Father God? Lord, I just pray that this morning that we would carry with us a desperation to never let the fire go out, to have intention and attention, to be looking at our own spirits and saying and knowing that whenever we need firewood, that it would be there, that we would be in the prayer closet, that we'd be constantly getting into our word, bringing those logs to the fire, ready so that when life comes our way, when troubles come our way, that we've always got firewood ready there to keep the fire burning, Father God. I just pray for those that feel like this morning that they're going through a moment of purification where the Holy Spirit's fire is just burning away those imperfections in them. Father God, would You give them strength? Father God, would You give them hope? Father God, would You let them know that even though they must suffer trials for a little while, that there is a wonderful joy that comes in the next season? There is a wonderful joy that comes. Lord, I just pray for those that have just been feeling weary and teary about the things that are going on in their world. Father God, I just pray that You would give them a joy, that You would give them a hope, that You'd give them a source of strength that surpasses all understanding, peace that surpasses all understanding.

Come on, let's just take a moment right now, wherever we are, to just rest in the Spirit right now. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, would You just come right now? Would You just come and just rest on every single person here? Thank You, Jesus.

You know, I just really feel like God's saying that there's some parents here that He wants to get you into the prayer closet. You know, we used to call it, back in the days, we used to call it the war room, that place where you're going into prayer and you're going into battle for your family. God's saying that there's parents here. He's calling you into the war room this morning. Come on, some of you haven't been putting aside the time in order to pray over the things of your family. And God's saying, hey, I wanna do some things, but I need you to get into the war room. I need you to start praying over those things. Yeah, I believe there's business people here and you're just saying, God, times are tough at the moment. I don't know how to run my business. I don't know how to get everything done. And you feel like you're putting the weight of your entire financial situation onto your back. God's saying to you this morning, you were never meant to carry that. Hey, that's me, I'm Jehovah Jireh, not you. I'm the provider, not you. So those hours, those extra hours that you're putting into trying to make ends meet, I need you to take a step of faith this morning. And instead of putting those extra hours into the work, put them into me and see what I can do in your situation. Come on, your vision is stunted. You're only looking as to what you could do, not what I can do. If you knew what I could do, you would be running to me every single day in prayer, just saying, God, I need you to come through. God, I need you right now in my situation. God, I need you to break through this thing for me. God's saying he needs you to put those logs on the fire, to spend that time in prayer and devotion, seeking him this morning.

God, we just thank you for what you're doing in this house, Father. I thank you that every single person here is receiving your spirit, is receiving a touch of you, is receiving an afreshment. And Lord, I just pray that every single person in this house, that as they leave this morning, God, that they would go with a new hunger, a new zeal, a new passion for your word, God, a passion for your prayer, a passion to not let the fire ever go out inside of them. So God, I pray you give us strength. God, give us vigor in order to leave this place, set time aside for you, seek your presence in order to see testimony after testimony after testimony, God. So Lord, we give you all the thanks. We give you all the glory in this place. Come on, and everyone said in this place, amen. Come on, let's give it up for God real quick. Awesome.

Come on, who's gonna keep what we just talked about here this morning? No, no one. Who's gonna leave this place and put this into action this morning, amen? Come on, that's what I like to see. Well, church, I pray for you. Pray that you leave this place blessed, invigorated. It's all we've got time for this morning. We love you, church. Go out this morning, have a cup of coffee, have some morning tea, and we'll see you next week, amen. Love you, church.

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