"Fire in My Bones" with Pastor Chad Stuart - April 25, 2026

This weekend marks thirty years since Pastor Chad became a follower of Jesus. Following Jesus has always come with a price—and that price is rising. In our culture, following Jesus means living by a value system the world finds irreconcilable with its own. That friction is not hit-or-miss. It will hit all true followers of Jesus. How can we stand in the face of growing opposition? Listen as Pastor Chad shares a message titled "Fire in My Bones."

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Taking a stand for Jesus was by far the best decision that I ever made in my life. It still is 30 years later. Nothing has even come close. But when I made that decision, I thought the hardest part was going to be giving up some of my old life, my old habits, my old ways. And indeed, that that was difficult. That is difficult. 30 years later, I still haven't uh figured out this whole sin problem completely. I don't know if any of the rest of you have. You had talked to me afterwards. But the challenge that I was completely unprepared for was the reaction that I got from other people. I was not prepared for how people would respond to my decision for Jesus. There were supportive people, of course, and people that were excited, and people that that I had that had never spoken to me before that came and gave me hugs, and were, hey, we're so happy for you. But the pushback, the the mocking, the teasing, the anger, the the frustration, the the undermining of my excitement for Jesus. I remember one adult said to me, Don't get too idealistic. This feeling will fade. That was by one of uh a Sabbath school teacher at a local church I was at. The doubt cast on my decision by friends, by teachers, when I graduated my senior year, the vice principal of the school came up to me and said, Hey, I want to say thank you for your witness, not only to your fellow students, but to your teachers. He said, When you uh made your decision for Jesus in staff meeting in front of the whole staff, one of the teachers said it's just a phase, Chad can't change. So the doubt, the experience in all these things, the moment I took a public stand for Jesus, something shifted in how people saw me and how people treated me. I don't know why I didn't see it coming. I don't know why I was so caught off guard. Because just days, in fact, probably just even hours before that kind of Damascus Road moment for me, I was the one teasing and mocking and and ridiculing the the Christians. I was the kid in the hallway who would who would speak loudly about how stupid I thought this Jesus movement was that was happening at our school. I was the one who would roll my eyes when people would say something about Jesus in one of our classes. I was the one who who made sure that everyone knew where I stood against the Christians. But but for some reason, when I accepted Jesus, I I don't know if it's because I was thought I was so cool that no one would tease me, but for some reason, when I accepted Jesus, I was not prepared for others doing that to me. I share all this with you because on the eve of 30 years, I want to call all of us to be willing to do that exact thing. I am calling all of us to renew our decision to take a declarative public stand for Jesus. Not just in our thoughts, but but to really say, Jesus, I will publicly live for you, that there is no doubt that I am a follower of Jesus. But knowing that when we do that, some of our family, some of our friends, some of our neighbors, some of our co-workers, our classmates, students will see us differently and will treat us differently. And we will be different. Not because we figured it all out, not because we've achieved perfection, but because we figured out something fundamental that is only Jesus, only Jesus who can make us new and who can give us true joy in this life. And I want us to go into this with our eyes open. If we're talking about speaking boldly for Jesus, we need to go into it with our eyes open because the opposition is real, the pushback is real. But the word of God has something to say all about this. And if you want to turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 20, not 29, which many of us know, but Jeremiah chapter 20 and verse 9. When I was getting this pushback, just even a few months into my following Jesus, I honestly thought about not giving up the conviction that I had in my heart, but I but I honestly considered just going silent, being silent. I didn't want to be the lightning rod for Jesus. And in that struggle, God led me to a prophet who had a similar feeling in his life, of course, over much greater persecution than I was going through. But God led me to this prophet and to this verse. I was sitting in chemistry class, uh, not paying attention to chemistry. Apologize to any chemistry teachers or teachers in general in here, not paying attention to chemistry, but under the lab table, I would read my Bible. Um uh that was the only thing that did not get better when I began to follow Jesus was my chemistry grade, because I would use chemistry classes to study my Bible. And I would I was reading my Bible and I was flipping in the Bible, and I came to this verse, Jeremiah chapter 20. And even here this morning, as I opened my Bible, this isn't the Bible I had at the time, but I realized that I write it in every new Bible, but I have here written in the margin my life-changing verse exclamation. That's what I have written there and there in my Bible next to it. I didn't realize that until I was sitting there next to Michael, pulling out my preaching Bible. But Jeremiah uh was this prophet that had it rough. He had been preaching for years, not just a few months like I had been, but he's been preaching for years, and it seemed like nobody was listening. He warned the nation and they mocked him. He he he was faithful to God, and for his troubles, he was beaten and imprisoned and thrown into a cistern. All kinds of crazy things. He's referred to as the weeping prophet because he was just so heartbroken at the indifference the people that he loved had towards God. And so he thought to himself, I need to stop talking. I I don't want to, I don't want to say anything else. I don't want to keep doing this, God. Send someone else. He was done. He didn't want to speak anymore in God's name. Jeremiah chapter 20, verses 7 and 8. Oh Lord, you have deceived me and I was deceived. You are stronger than I and you have prevailed. I have become a laughing stock all the day. Everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout violence and destruction. For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all of the day long. What we get from this verse is that because of this, because of this derision, he wanted to stop being that public voice for God. We see that at the beginning of verse 9. If I say I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name, this is what he's sharing with us, the feelings that he was going through in that time. He he was going through his feelings of I'm done, I want out, I've said enough. Let someone else have their turn, let someone else be the voice for God. It doesn't need to be me anymore. And I honestly believe that anyone who truly takes a stand for our Lord in this world will have moments that they feel like Jeremiah. If you truly stand for the right, for Jesus' right, for the Bible right in this world, you will have moments like Jeremiah felt where I'm tired of being the one to say it. I don't want to stand up and say it anymore. I'm not gonna mention him anymore, I'm not gonna speak about him anymore. Because when we talk about Jesus truly, when we when we live for Jesus truly, it makes people uncomfortable, it makes uh our our friendships sometimes challenging. It can make life more difficult. But Jeremiah tells us what happened when he when he had this feeling, this thought, like, I'm not gonna speak anymore for Jesus at all. I'm not gonna say anything more about him. Here's how he describes it. He says, if I will not mention him or speak anymore in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire, like a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in. Indeed, I cannot. Indeed I cannot. Fire shut up in the bones. Not not fire in his mouth, not not a fire in his words because he's a great orator, or because he's got this public speaker's gift and he and he just wants to go out and and speak, or he just has a way of framing words, but a fire in his bones, deeper than speech, deeper than strategy, deeper than his own willingness or unwillingness to speak, just this fire in his bones raging up inside of him. God has placed something so far inside of him that he could not walk away from it, even when he desperately wanted to. Something inside of him that's strong. Where does that fire come from? Jeremiah chapter 20 gives us Jeremiah's experience, the struggle of wanting to just be silent, a silent observer of the things of God, no longer wanting to be the one who speaks for him on a regular basis. Jeremiah chapter 20 gives us the resolution to that struggle. God's conviction in him so deep that not speaking is worse than speaking. It's a fire shut up in his bones, and he can't he can't let it out or he can't keep it in. But where does this conviction come from? It is not knowledge, folks. It is not because you went to some seminar or class. Almost, I think most pastors could probably testify that when they've had conversations at times with people, they'll be talking to them, and someone says, Well, I'll I'll I'll I'll do more, I'll share more when I just know more. Or if I could just go to this and do this thing, then I would, then I will be more bold. No, you won't. No, you won't. There are people that know the Bible backwards and forwards, inside and out, and they're still silent. This type of fire does not come from something you learn. It's not something that you can get from outside of yourself. I can't learn it. This fire is put in your hearts by the work and the power outside of us. James talked about that power, of course, last week, with the power of the Holy Spirit. But it is this power that comes into us from someone else. It's not something I can learn on my own, but something that is given to me. It is a promise that creates an urgency in your life, even in the toughest of times, even in the greatest of opposition. The beginning of that promise I see God making in that same book of Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 12. It says, their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more. This is a promise that Jeremiah gets to see about this blessing that comes from God, where life is like this garden, and and there will be no more languishing. I believe that Jeremiah saw this promise from a distance and he believed it, he claimed it for himself, and that that gave him some of that fire in his bones. Ellen White in the book Patriarch or Prophets and Kings wrote this: Amid the general ruin into which the nation was rapidly passing, Jeremiah was often permitted to look beyond the distressing scenes of the present to the glorious prospects of the future, when God's people should be ransomed from the land of the enemy and planted again in Zion. He foresaw the time when the Lord would renew his covenant relationship with them. And then she quotes what I just read: their shoul souls shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow anymore at all. He had these glimpses into this experience that was life-transforming. And in the Bible, there in Jeremiah chapter 31, there is a word for this thing that gets put into us, this experience that we have that creates a fire in our bones. And it's the new covenant. The words are the new covenant. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. The Lord declares, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. I believe Jeremiah had a fire in his bones, not because he knew the Bible or the writings of Moses, although he did, and although we should know the scriptures, but but I believe that Jeremiah had a fire in his bones because God himself had put the power or the faith in that new covenant on his heart. And it was a foreshadowing of what Jesus offers to all of us. The law of God, brothers and sisters, was written on stone tablets, outside of the people, external. It's brilliant in its clarity. The law, the word of God is perfect in its content. But if it's outside of us, it's it's just something that we can appreciate, maybe we can we can understand in some ways, but we can also walk away the moment it begins to cost us something. But God says the new covenant is not going to work like that. He says, I'm not writing it on stone anymore. I'm writing it on your very heart. Inside, underneath your decisions, underneath your willpower. God says, I will write it in a way that it is that you uh write in such a way that you are able to withstand ridicule and scorn. I write it so that it is a fire in your bones. But remember, the Bible says in Jeremiah 31 there, that God writes it, not us. God writes it, not us. Jeremiah 20 describes what it feels like for the word of God to be in your bones. It's this fire that you're unable to contain. Man, you just gotta share it. You can be hanging off a cliff, you can be wherever, you can be a kid in a high school, you can be Jeremiah being persecuted, you can be anywhere. But man, when it's in your bones, you just cannot stand it. You have to talk about God no matter what. But God writes it there, not on tablets, but on hearts, not outside, but inside. This is the new covenant. So, how does God write this? How did God write this on our hearts? Centuries after Jeremiah, centuries later, there are a group of Christians, a group of people that are contemplating, they're considering what it would look like to shrink back from their public confession as followers of Jesus to just go along to get along. Hey, we can still be followers of Jesus, but we don't have to let anyone know we can kind of just be functioning in the world so that no one sees it. What does it look like if we go along to get along? And there was a letter written to these people, there was a book written to these people, and they were referred to, we refer to them in the Bible as the Hebrews, and we believe they're written to individuals in likely Rome, Christians, Jewish Christians in Rome who were being tempted to shrink back from their Christian confession because of the increasing opposition that they were receiving. And like Jeremiah, these folks were tempted to be subtle followers of God, subtle Christians. Dr. Andreas Kostenberger states that the Hebrews were tempted to avoid persecution by not coming out as Christian. In other words, let me just be a silent Christian, not a verbal Christian, and I'll be okay. But the author of Hebrews comes to them and says, no, no, no, this is not the way it can be. The author of Hebrews tells them what will keep them from living this life of subtlety as a Christian, but being bold for God. The writers of Hebrews say you cannot go back because what you have in Jesus is not a revision of what came before, it is the fulfillment of Jeremiah's promise. He said, You can't go back because Jeremiah wrote about the new covenant, but now you have the new covenant. It has arrived. Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 15. Therefore, he, Jesus, is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Hey, all this was once outside of you, but now there is a new covenant inside of you. How does God write the new covenant on our hearts? How does God put a fire in our bones? Jesus is what the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews. Jesus is the mediator of that new covenant. But not only is Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, he is not only the delivery system, he is not only the messenger of that new covenant, he is the covenant. He is the content. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 24. And Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word. In other words, the blood of Jesus sprinkled on our lives, in our hearts, making us clean, is that new covenant. It's only by Jesus and only through Jesus, and only Jesus in us, Christ in us, the hope of glory that is that new covenant. John 1.1 says it like this In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was what? God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And I love the scripture that says, Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. In other words, there's that opposition outside, there's that opposition against us, but when Jesus is in us, there is a fire in our bones, and that is much greater than anything that is in the world. Jesus does not just deliver the word. Jesus is the word in us. And when he takes up residence in us through his spirit, through the covenant sealed in his blood, the word does not just come to us. The word comes inside of us and it and it is underneath all of our decisions. It's underneath all of our willpower. It's underneath all of that opposition to bolster us, to strengthen us. And the word written on the inside becomes a fire in our bones. This is what the new covenant does. It's a fire in your bones. When you truly know Jesus and what he has done for you, the Son of God crucified for you, it is a fire in your bones. And I believe that anyone who has experienced that will eventually say, I am weary of holding it in. Indeed, I cannot. It's written by a living God, and it makes your heart alive for Jesus. Here's the thing about fire. You cannot hide it. I unfortunately know this very well. I was a seven-year-old kid in PUC. I was with some friends, uh, two friends, one friend actually, and we were lighting fires in the woods around PUC. Praise God we didn't burn down PUC. Andrew, James, pray there's no kids like me in PUC anymore. Travis risk management there. But we were lighting this fire and it got a little out of control. And we tried to put it out. We tried to put it out, we're trying to get it all out. But fire has this other thing related to it, and it's called smoke. And the smoke got up, and someone smelt the smoke, and all of a sudden, there were the firemen. And one fireman came down and yelled up to the top and bring your smallest pair of handcuffs. And I wet my pants. I'm just being honest with you. That's what I did. Hey, you cannot hide fire, fire cannot be hidden. That's the thing about fire. Jeremiah tried to hold it in, but he had a fire. He couldn't hide it. And when the fire showed, yes, it cost him. Yes, it it caused some challenges in his life. But man, I know that Jeremiah would look back and say, this is the best decision of my life. And when I tried to hold in mine 30 years ago, I couldn't either. And when I decided to let that fire out, it cost me friendships. It cost me comfort. It cost me the way that people saw me. But it was worth it. And it's the experience, folks, of every true Christian. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12 says, all who seek to live a godly life in Jesus will be persecuted, will face opposition. You are not immune. It does not say you might. It does not say it could happen. It does not say if things get bad enough. It will happen. This is not pessimism. Light is not the friend of darkness. Light, the light of the world in us, the fire of Jesus in us is not the friend of darkness. I love how the amplified Bible says it in, renders it, the amplified paraphrase Bible renders it in John chapter 1, verse 5. The light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it and is unreceptive to it. The darkness is not a friend of the light. Have you been lying quietly in the dark, just enjoying the quiet dark? And suddenly someone comes in and flips on the light, turns on the light. Do you like that? Do you do you say? Dane just raised his hand because I do that to all the boys Sabbath morning. Flip on the lights, all of them. Get up, get up, get up. Do you like that? Do you do do you say? Does it shock you? Do you say, turn that off? Do you ask? Why didn't you warn me? Oh, come on. Do you snap? Get out of here and turn off the light. Listen, it's just an illustration, but light is not the friend of darkness. Nor is the light of Jesus Christ the friend of the darkness of this world. The two cannot be in relationship together. Darkness does not like light. And the only way to avoid that is, and it's not really then light at all, but is to avoid or keep the light to yourself. And Jesus says this does a person light a lamp and put it under a bowl. In other words, folks, you may think, oh, I've got the light, but I'm just keeping it to myself.

unknown 25:13

No.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

If someone's not seen it, there is no light. Because the light of Jesus, the fire of God in your bones, cannot be kept to yourself. You cannot keep it to yourself. Jesus said, What would happen though when this happens? In the greatest sermon ever preached in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and other all kinds of evil things against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Please hear that actually, though. Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness' sake. Not for being difficult. Oh, I'm so persecuted. You're the most difficult person that anyone knows. That's why you're persecuted. It's not necessarily because of Jesus. Not for picking a fight online, not for your personality, but for righteousness' sake. For the word written on your heart showing up in you, how to live, how to how to love like Jesus. When you share with conviction but with love and kindness, brothers and sisters, we should already be doing this. There should be a fire that emanates out of the Spencerville Church. I hope that people tomorrow when we're out on community service, they see this and see that fire in us by the way we serve, by the way we smile at them, by the way we treat them, by the way we care for them. It should be a fire in our bones. Starting in August of next year, we're going to be beginning to prepare for this in a mighty way. Although I don't want you to wait to do it till then, but we want to be beginning to prepare for this in a mighty way. The global church is inviting us to be a part of an initiative called One Voice 27. And some of you may have heard about this. It is to take advantage of the 2000th-year anniversary of the baptism of Jesus. Can you believe that? 2027, September of 2027 is the 2,000-year anniversary of the baptism of Jesus. And the global church is inviting this as a catalyst, as an invitation for every Seventh-day Adventist follower of Jesus to use all means and all methods to invite all people to come to meet the one who makes all things new. That is the theme of One Voice27, straight from Revelation chapter 21 and verse 5, where Jesus said, Behold, I am coming and I make all things new. Don't you think that is a message that people need to hear, that people deep in their souls want to hear? Broken hearts, behold, I'm coming, I make all things new. Broken finances, bank accounts, behold, I am coming, I make all things new. Broken bodies, behold, I am coming, I am making all things new. Broken homes, behold, I am coming, I make all things new. Broken promises, I am coming and I make all things new, Jesus says. All things new. And we are asking the entire church, the entire Spencerville church, to put ourselves out there delivering this message to people that Jesus makes all things new. But I don't want you to wait till September 27 to do this. I want you to start practicing now. In every public space with our words, with our literature, with our service, online. Young people, you are the greatest evangelists. We need you right now in this online world. Some of you might have known that I'm back on Instagram. If you're not on social media, I still encourage you, don't go there. But I'm trying to get out there in that world. You know, I thought about it. There are five billion people that are on social media in this world. They spend an average of two and a half hours a day on social media. A day. So 17, over 17 hours a week on social media. My boys get frustrated when I preach over 30 minutes. And I'm sure some of you do as well. That's okay. Am I getting close? Am I getting close, Levi? When I said that yesterday, you know what Levi did? He went, ha ha ha. And I said, Was it not funny? He said, Well, it's a dad joke. He's like, but probably some people will laugh because you're all old like me, so but we need you young people in those spaces that you're already at. Hey, listen, we use our devices for a lot of evil. Let's redeem them for the sake of Jesus Christ. And say, we're gonna use them to be one voice declaring this message that Jesus makes all things new. All things new. But when you do that, if you do that with sincerity and honesty and in the love and the power of Jesus Christ, you will receive opposition. This isn't speculation. Again, 2 Timothy 3.12. All those who desire to live a godly life, all those who just desire to speak on behalf of God, all those who desire to be witnesses for Jesus will be persecuted. They will receive opposition. When we tell the truth to the world that Jesus is the only one who makes all things new, that is light, and that is enemy of the darkness of this world, and it will cause opposition in every direction. And like Jeremiah, like the Hebrews, we may want to shrink back. When we carry the word out into the world, when we post, when we preach, when we take a public stand, when we live our lives differently for people to see, we will be misread by the right and misread by the left. Our friends and our family may think that we become a little fanatical. And honestly, a little Jesus fanaticism might not be the worst thing in the world right now. I learned 30 years ago that faithfulness and a bit of Jesus fanaticism comes with a cost, but it was the best decision of my life. Not easy, still not easy, but the best decision of my life. And when things, but I'm so grateful that when things got hard in chemistry class, God took me to that passage and I read about a man with a fire in his bones. Not because he was brave, not because he was perfect, but because God had put something in him that was stronger than all the excuses and all the desires to go along and get along. That's what the new covenant does. Christ in us is a power unlike anything else. And that is the fire that we want you to have in your bones. It won't make you fearless, it won't make you more brave somehow, it won't make you smarter, but it makes you unable to stop talking about Jesus. Remember that old song, I can't stop talking about him, that old Gaither song, I just can't stop talking about them every day. And we want that for us and for this church. So here's what I'm asking you to do today not to be louder, not to be bolder, not to post more. What I'm asking you to do is to say afresh yes to Jesus and trust that the same God who put the fire in the bones of Jeremiah will put fire in your bones as well. You don't manufacture this fire, Jesus puts it there. And when Jesus is that fire in your bones, you will not be able to hold it in. Indeed, you will not.