S2 Episode 20 | Strange Fire?

S2 Episode 20 | Strange Fire? In this episode Leon discusses the praise offerings we bring, and how it reflects against the levites who brought strange fire in their sensors.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hello and welcome to the Unqualified Podcast with Leon Wilson. That's me. I just want to say thank you for stopping by. If this is your first time coming and uh joining us for this uh unqualified podcast, then I ask that you would drop a like and and subscribe and uh share this with people, other believers especially. That way we can try to share a little bit more hope with somebody, with other people, because we all need it. We all need hope and we all need encouragement, we all need challenge. We all need to come under conviction of the Holy Ghost. And and we all need to uh sharpen each other because iron sharpeneth iron. And uh, anyways, I I want to say thank you to all the people that have joined and and subscribed here recently. Um we are we are growing, the channel is growing, and the uh online presence is growing on TikTok and uh and then especially on the um on the audio version only um on all the different um platforms that we that we're on, streaming worldwide and in hundreds of comp uh countries now. And it's exciting to just know that that the Lord can take somebody, a little voice from um near Gaffney, South Carolina, and and use it in places like Indonesia and um and all over um Russia and China and and Japan and India and and just so many different places, but also here in our hometown, the uh there are a lot of people that stream the podcast um from the South Carolina, North Carolina area. And uh I'm certainly grateful that y'all do. Um shout out to um my family who live in Indiana and and the surrounding area and um all those who who listen from that area. But anyways, please share because uh it if you don't, then how are people gonna find us? Um it and with the way that YouTube and all these other platforms um are, if you're not looking for Christian content specifically, they're they're not gonna push it to you. They'll push the mega churches and stuff like that, you know. But I'm not that. I'm not a megachurch pastor. I'm I'm just a little country church pastor, and I'm just trying to encourage people and and love on people and um and show the love of Christ and and challenge you to want to be better and to hit, you know, try to hit closer to the mark. And am I perfect? No, I'm not. Absolutely not. I'm a flawed man. Said that from the platform this morning. I am a flawed man. I am um I'm full of errors. If you watch me, you don't have to watch long. You'll see an imperfect person. And um, and that's that. That's just how the truth is. And I haven't met a perfect person, never will until that day the trumpet sounds, and I get to rise up in the air and and be with Christ. So until that day, I will not have met a perfect man um or anyone that is perfect. Um, and so, anyways, thank you for uh for being such good supporters to the channel and uh and to this podcast ministry. The uh the church today, we we had a great time. Uh we had yesterday um folks over to our house, and we had a church cookout here, and it was wonderful. And the studio is in in our house, so um we converted a room into a studio, and so this is my multimedia room, and um, you know, so we had folks over yesterday and we had a great time. It was a wonderful cookout, had some uh hot dogs and a bunch of sides and uh desserts, and I probably gained 11 pounds. I know I gained three at least, but um we had a time and and it was so good to fellowship with people and and to spend time with people. We um set the carport up. Um, for those of you who who have not heard, um I I interim pastored at a uh church north of us, about 45 minutes from here, actually, and I interimed there for a year, and then um we we went and visited a few churches and then ended up over here under the carport and um preaching at our at our house under the carport. And it was just the Lord moved, people showed up and we had a good time, and then ended up um getting the church where we're at now. And so, anyways, we set the carport up like we did before we started Mercy Church, and uh, we just called it church without walls, and it was it was good to be under the carport yesterday, preaching a little a little devotion, and um and and folks were reacting, but you know, we started with just maybe 15 people under that carport. The first time that I preached under the carport, maybe 15 people there, I think it was a little over 15, but it was right at somewhere about 15. And anyways, we had church under that carport. And then yesterday, having I think it was 29 of us under the carport, it's spread out. We got pictures on Facebook, it's wonderful. But, you know, that it just shows at a at just a cookout, just a little church cookout, so many people, you know, didn't come, but you know, 29 people came and and we had church under that carport again, you know, just just a devotion. And I read on uh it was chapter 10 of the book of Leviticus, and um, and it was about uh Nadab and Abihu who put strange fire in their incense and went to the tabernacle um and and was using their incense, and it was a strange fire, and it was the opposite of what God had told them to do. And fire went out from the tabernacle and and consumed them, devoured them the way the Bible says it, but devoured them. And and I got to thinking about that, and and that's what the devotion was on. And I was thinking, what kind of, you know, like nine chapters into the book of Leviticus, your is it is nothing but sacrifice, and God gives specific instructions. This is how you worship me, this is how your relationship with me must be, and it is you doing it this way that is going to make it to where I will um supp with you, I will, I will fellowship with you, and you will have me in your life. And nadab and Bahu go um another direction. And these are Levites, these are these are sons of Aaron who knew better, who had heard you know, via Moses and Aaron, this is how God wants us to worship him, and we have to be pure. And somehow, somehow, they decided this is we just want to do it our way. And I'm thinking, man, you know, like some might call him an idiot. Some might say, what idiots would do something like that. But then it doesn't go um it doesn't go too far from us because look at how we do. We might our strange fire in our sensors may be the, you know, we we come to church with um anger in our hearts, or we come to church and our our mind is somewhere else, or or we come to church and we've got um we've we don't like so-and-so on you know on this side of the church. So we got to go sit over here. Or if so-and-so is the one doing special music, then I'm not gonna pay attention um because I don't agree with them, or they said something, or they didn't sit by me, or or whatever. I d I don't know, man. We're we're all like just, you know, we're people and we do things different ways and and our minds are different places. But that isn't that kind of like having strange fire in our sensor, because our sacrifice is a sacrifice of praise and and obedience unto the Lord and and to revere the Lord and and to love on people at church and to be involved at church and to take the ministry, take the gospel into a lost and dying world. But you know, when it when it comes to are we um having strange fire in our sensor, you know, I I think that looks a lot like having that hate, resentments, uh resentment, spite, um, shame, uh, all the other different things, lust, um, you know, all these other different um negative qualities, if you will, and and and we don't we don't have fire coming out of the altar at us. But if we did, maybe it would help us to realize that we gotta act right. That we need to watch our words, guard our words, guard our actions, and and not be like Nadab and Nabahu. Because what do we what kind of what kind of example are we setting for our kids if we're sitting around tables talking about people? Or if we're going to church and we're just bump on a logging it and acting like we could be doing something better. Here's the problem. You at church, me at church, us at church, and acting any kind of way, having this strange fire in our sensor is this is actually the same as Nadab and Abahu, but we should do something different if that's what we're gonna do. Just don't even go to church if we're not gonna go and uh and be honest with ourselves and be truthful before the Lord and and give him the sacrifice of praise that he deserves because you didn't miss the point. If we're gonna do anything other than meet with a holy righteous God and and worship him at church and sit under his word and and and try to receive what he's giving us, what he's trying to tell us, if we're not gonna receive that and use it to affect positive change in our life, then we've just come to church with strange fire in our sensors, anyways. And we're no different than Nay Dab and a Bahu. What idiots we become when we don't do that, when we don't do the right thing. When we decide I'm just gonna come to church, have a have my mind on whatever, and and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna worship. I'm just gonna kind of look around and see how everybody else is worshiping or whatever. And I've been there, that's why I'm saying this. I I'm no different than you. You're you know, you you and I, we're the same in in that I'm human, you're human, and and I've been down that road. So I'm telling you right now, like you should be convicted to want to worship better. I and here's the other thing of it you go to church and you're judging people and you're looking at people and you're critical about how their worship and how their walk is, and then you go and Monday morning you're you know you're talking about these people or you're you know meeting up with people and and you're running people down, or you're cussing and screaming and fighting and um griping and and not upholding the the the witness that you're supposed to be upholding unto the Lord and it's no different than adab and a bahu. And we've all been that person. So I guess the question is how do we break the cycle? We hear sound. Jesus gave us the words that we should consider before we go into the into the the sanctuary, before we get into church. That God is a spirit and you m and and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. And if you're gonna worship God, then you gotta worship him in spirit and in truth, which means you're gonna have to worship him coming from the inside, raw, unfiltered, and with full of praise. Because that's worship. So get the you out of it and give him what you got. You might come to church with 20% in the tank, or 40, 50, 80%, I don't know, you might not have a hundred percent. Give him what you got. Approach him with everything you got and watch how your your walk with Christ and your incense. Watch how pure that is because it's different when you're going into the house of the Lord with a grateful heart and praise in your heart, worship in your heart, even if you have a broken heart and you're bringing in what you got. That's how you break the cycle. And if you're a parent, then you you gotta talk to your children about this. Cultivate their praise. That's the thing, is like we look at our children as if they don't know what you know that they're secondhand citizens in the church, and they're not. Sometimes their praise is more unfiltered, more raw, more real than ours. That's why I love to see the youth and the children glorify God. They're doing it with everything they got. I uh sometimes refer to David when it comes to praise, and um especially when it comes to people who um who don't like modern music, and they're like, oh, you know, you chur uh the church should sing out of the old redback hymnal or whatever, and and and then you you break out like the blue book, the blue hymnal at camp meeting and everything, and and all that, and you know, everything else is just kind of you know, that ain't really praise music or whatever. And and I'm thinking, David, King David, if he were to walk the streets today, whom God said was a man after his own heart, who whom God listened to his praise, preserved his words, and put that, you know, all of it in the book of Psalms, um, you know, not all of it, but a good chunk of the psalms that David wrote, he, you know, was preserved over all these millennia. And and you think that God um is saying you only can worship me from a redback hymnal or your camp meeting book, and and David would be kicked out of a lot of churches these days because there ain't no doubt in my mind that David gave everything he got. I mean, people looked at him crazy because he danced before the Lord with all of his might. And and people, you know, like if he's saying, uh, Lord, the way he's talking to God, he's so raw, he's saying, even though you smite me, I I will, you know, I will praise you, I will serve you. If you know I there's no place I can go to get away from you, I can go to hell, I can go to the ocean, the deepest parts of the ocean, I can go to the other end of the earth, and you're still gonna be there, and I'm still gonna I'm still gonna have you in my life. Where can I go? But to the Lord. But you hear that, and you hear like um, you know, these uh the reckless love song, you know, oh the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God. And uh you hear something like that, and you got people just like, oh, that ain't praise music. That how's that? You know, there's I wouldn't allow them to play that in my church or something like that. And I'm thinking, why? Let me put it this way. If you go into a rough neighborhood, let's just say, like, um, I don't I don't know about your neighborhood, but let's there's a place called Hawville in Indiana, in Indianapolis, and it's like the hood. You go to Hawville and you find somebody and they give their heart to Christ, the chances are they're they've been listening to rap their whole life. And, you know, there's actually pretty high chances that they rap, that they they flow, they, you know, or whatever, and and they they might even be a a struggling, you know, um amateur rapper and and whatever. And you expect them when they get saved to you know to just change their entire um genre of music to and and what they resonate with and change that to the redback hymnal, that old Baptist hymnal and uh or whatever, and and they're supposed to just you know stop and and just sing songs out of that and and whatever. And I I think that that is the most unrealistic look that that we have as as today's church. And you know, they might they might write the best or the most raw, the most glory uh filled um Christian rap ever, and and it, you know, it resonate with a million or three million or 14 million or whatever, you know, people because that's what they listen to, that's what resonates with them. Same thing. Like you take somebody who listens to heavy metal and and you know, they get saved. And you expect them to just write redback hymnal sounding songs or or to just play out of the redback hymnal or whatever? Like you're crazy if you think that's the case. They're gonna write songs that resonate with them, and they're gonna they're gonna send that out to whoever or play it for whoever. And then when someone hears that, they're gonna be like, man, that sounds amazing. Those words, though, don't sound like anything I've ever heard. What's this about? And then they get to say, this is about Jesus. And it it'll change somebody's life fundamentally because they're hearing the gospel in a language, let's call it, a language that they understand. When Jesus walked this earth, he spoke in language that the people at the time could understand. It was common language. And a lot of times he spoke using terms about marriage that only the Hebrews would have used. Um, for instance, like uh Pedro Lumbano, which means receive you unto myself, that was only spoken from a Jewish boy to a Jewish girl when he was going to receive her as his wife unto himself. And Jesus spoke that to them. And and let's just say this, you know, Christian, you know, just got saved, um, listened to heavy metal his whole life or her whole life, and decided, man, I'm gonna write, you know, and it's effectively the the amazing grace of heavy metal, and it goes viral, and people are, you know, just resonating with it and and going crazy about it because it it just speaks to them in a way that no other Christian song could have ever spoke to them. And you and you think that they're wrong? The same people would have kicked David out of their church because he worshipped radically in his time. His wife at the time was like you dancing before the Lord and you're naked and all this other and and and you know, how can you how dare you do that or whatever? And he's like, I'm just glorifying God and this is this is the way I glori I'm glorifying God. I mean they're carrying the Ark of the Covenant finally taking it up to the mountain. Of God and getting ready as best they can to build the temple. Honey, you might be in s one of the roughest parts of your life. And you feel like the walls are caving in all around you. And your your feelings are hurt, you're emotionally beat you're worn down. And all you can do is pray. And I think this is the time that it's most important to praise. It's most important to fill your sensor with the fire of the Lord and just glorify him. And don't think about the people around you. Don't think about how it's going to make you look and what the fallout's going to be of it. Just glorify God. Give him praise. Because he's worthy. And when the time comes when all of the stuff you're going through is behind you, you can look back and you can say, even when I was going through the craziest, most challenging, tough moment of my life, Lord, you are and were and always will be worthy of praise. And it'll change your life. It will change your life. Commit today to worship him in spirit and in truth. And don't back down. Listen, I love you. God loves you. This has been the Unqualified Podcast with Leon Wilson.