The fire shall ever be burning! - Leviticus 6:12-13 - Episode #004

Leviticus 6:12-13 - The fire shall ever be burning! - Outline

1. Feed the flame.

2. Fan the flame.

3. Fight for the flame.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, and welcome back to the Keep on the Fire and Flying Preaching Podcast. This is your host, Max Tidwell, and today we're gonna jump away from our study through the book of Jude that will be back next week, and we are gonna jump into the book of Leviticus. I believe that is where we're supposed to be this morning. So the book of Leviticus, chapter number six, verse number twelve, is where our text will be from this morning. The Bible says that the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it. It shall not be put out, and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning. Lay the burnt offering in order upon it, and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. And here's our text this morning The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we're thankful for this day. We're thankful for the opportunity to wake up this morning to be alive. God, we're thankful for the opportunity to open your word. God, I swear I'm thankful and I'm unworthy to open this book, but God, I'm thankful that you've chosen me today to preach the message that you've laid upon my heart. God, today I pray that you'd preach me in a way that would be understood by the hearers and the listeners. God, I pray you'd bless the hearers and the listeners this morning, God, as they listen. I pray they'd be convicted, Lord, to live for you. God, and if there's somebody listening that's not saved, I pray you'd convict their heart and save them before it's everlasting too late. God, I surely love you this morning, and I'll be sure to give you all the praise, the honor, and the glory for anything that takes place. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. By way of introduction, the book of Leviticus, it opens with God speaking to Moses out of the tabernacle. But then we see that God kindles the flame, but then he instructs the priests to keep the fire burning. They're never to let the fire go out. As seen in verse number 13, the Bible says, The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, it shall never go out. The priests were, they were required to add wood, remove the ashes, and arrange the burnt offerings. We see that in verse number 10 and verse number 11. We see God started the fire, but then he told them not to let it go out. When God gives a command, I can promise you he always gives instructions that follow. If the fire ever did go out in this day, it was not God's fault. It was the priests' fault because they let the fire go out. You see, in our life, I was reading my old Bible, my very first King James Bible, a few weeks ago when the Lord laid this message upon my heart. And I was reading this Bible and I was going through it and looking at all my underlines and all my highlights, and the spine is falling out, and how on fire for the Lord I was the day I got saved, how on fire I was the days after I got saved, how on fire I was the day he called me to preach, how excited I was to read my Bible. And yes, that fire is still there, but I can say today that sometimes it's not the same as it was when I first started. Today I'm here to say and encourage you that we need to get back in our Bibles. We need to get back on fire just like we were when we got saved. And today, when we put the when the God puts the fire in us, he gives us the instruction on how to keep the flame going, but we must keep the flame going. The fire is never gonna go completely out, and that because that'd mean we lost our salvation and we cannot do that. But when the fire goes down and it dwindles down to coals, there is a way to revive that. And this morning I want to preach on this thought of the fire shall ever be burning. Maybe this morning you're burning on coals. Maybe this morning you're a blazing fire. I don't know where you're at in your walk with the Lord, but today I can promise you that there's gonna come a day where your fire is going to dwindle and you're gonna have to do some things in order to keep that flame going, in order to keep that fire for the Lord burning forever. This morning I want to give you three things in these two verses on how to keep the fire going. In order to keep the flame going, we must do a few things. Number one, this morning, we must feed the flame. We find that in verse number 12. It says, And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out, and the priest, here's the instruction, shall burn wood on it every morning. Lay the burnt offerings in order upon it, and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offering. And so, firstly, this morning, we see that we must feed the flame. It says to burn wood on it every morning. What does that look like? The fire does not continue to burn without being fed. Those of you that are Boy Scouts, or as we have at our church, trail life, those of you that are outdoorsmen or woodsmen or whatever you want to call yourself, you go camping a lot, you build fires, whatever the case may be, you know that a fire is only gonna burn if it has fuel to it. It's only gonna have you're only gonna have fire if you continue to put wood upon it. If you go to bed that night and you wake up the next day, that fire is gonna dwindle down and there's gonna be coals. And so every morning they had to wake up, they had to go put fresh wood on the fire. Friend, I'm here to tell you this morning that we cannot just let our fire go. We cannot just expect it to burn without feeding it. We must feed our flame every single day in order to keep our fire burning. You're gonna have to feed the flame, feed it with the right things is what will keep you burning. Feed your flame, number one, with the word. We must stay nose deep in the word of God at all times in order to keep our flame burning. I've never seen a Christian that's on fire for God that says, Well, I hate the word of God, I don't want to read the word of God, but I'm on fire for God. I I'm on fire for God, but I don't ever read my Bible, I don't want to read my Bible. No, friend, the ones that you see are the most on fire for God are the ones that are nose deep in their Bibles as much as they possibly can be. Now, friend, today I'm not one that's here to tell you quit your job, quit everything you're doing, and just go read the Bible. No, that's not what I said. But when we have extra time on the times when we wake up and we're scrolling our phones, on the time when we're sitting on the couch in the evenings and we're scrolling social media on all these different times and occasions in our life. Maybe you're playing video games, maybe you're hanging out with a friend, or maybe whatever the case may be, where you could be reading your Bible instead of doing those things. We ought to watch ourselves and make sure we're feeding our flame in that way. They had to wake up every morning and put new wood on the altar. It's just we need to wake up every morning and get a new word inside of our heart where we can burn the flame, and the flame can ever be burning in our hearts. We also must keep the flame and feed the flame with prayer. Help us to stay on our knees in prayer, help us to continue to pray even when times get tough. Listen, I find oftentimes when times get tough is that's when I go and pray the most. But help us to even when the times get better and even when God is doing things and blessing our lives, help us to go to God in prayer. Help us to thank him, help us to praise him for all he's done, help us to give him glory, that will feed our flame. If we feed our flame with the word, we feed our flame with prayer, that is what will feed our flame, and continue that flame. This morning, firstly, we must feed the flame, but secondly, we must fan the flame. Verse number 13, at the very beginning, it says, The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall ever be burning upon the altar. You know, fan the flame. I use this illustration where when whenever a fire is going out, you know, oxygen, it makes fire go bigger. Wildfires, they happen because a fire gets ignited and the oxygen, the wind begins to blow and it begins to make that fire rage, and that fire turns into a wildfire. Fire begins to go out, and you boy scouts or outdoorsmen will understand what I'm talking about. Sometimes it makes no sense, but you gotta blow on the fire to get the fire to come back. Sometimes when you go and the fire gets down to coals or the fire starts going out, you gotta get down on your hands and knees and you gotta get your face down there underneath the fire, and you gotta blow some fresh wind into that fire. This morning we must feed the flame, but we also must fan the flame. Help us not to get lazy. Help us to stay feeding the flame. That will help us feed the flame and fan the flame if we first feed the flame. Let me tell you this morning, worship, it fans the flame. Worship fans the flame. When you get into the church house or you get into your prayer closet or you get into your car or you get with your spouse or you get with your friends and you begin instead of to complain about what the Lord's doing in your life, you begin to worship him and praise him for all he's doing in secret, in public. Maybe you're in the car, whatever the case may be. When you get in those spaces and you worship the Lord and you praise him and brag on him for how good he is, today that fans the flame. When you worship the Lord, it fans the flame. I know when I begin to brag on the Lord, when I begin to talk about how good God's been to me, when I begin to talk about my salvation and the changes he's made in my life and the call he's put upon my life, when I begin to talk about him and brag on him, my faith, my flame gets fanned. The right fellowship also fans the flame. When we get around people who fan our flame, our flame gets bigger. But then sometimes we get around people who are like wet blankets. They want to throw a wet blanket on our flame because believe it or not, there's some saved people who don't want to see you on fire. There's this compromising contemporary crowd who they don't want to see us on fire because when we get on fire, we begin to preach the Bible and begin to contradict what they're doing in their lives and we step on some people's toes. This morning we, the right fellowship, when we're hanging around the right people, I have some really good friends who, when I get around them, they fan my flame. They make me want to live for God more. They make me want to preach more. They make me want to study more. They make me want to pray more. When I get around certain fellowship and get around the right people, we all fan each other's flames. But when I already get around the wrong fellowship and the wrong people, it begins to throw a wet blanket on my flame and try to put my flame out. What about witnessing? Witnessing this morning, witnessing fans my flame. I don't know about you, friend, but when I see somebody get saved, it absolutely fans my flame. It gets me so jazzed up when I see somebody get saved. I mean, I just want to give praise and honor and glory to God, give glory where it's due, because first off, I'm not doing anything, and I know what God just did, I couldn't do on my own power, and so I want to fan the fan, the flame is fanned just for that. But this morning when we talk about witnessing and we talk about going out and sharing what Christ has done for us, and we talk about going out and telling people how good God is and how blessed we are, and how even through trials and even through troubles and even through tribulations, God's been there, God's been good, He's never left me, He's never failed me, He's never forsaken me, He has always been there, and He has always been good. What about when we go witness and we tell somebody the gospel, and like I said, they get saved? That gets us excited. That's something that fans our flame. But when we shut our mouths and go the other way, that's something that begins to put our flame out. Have you ever noticed how when you're on fire for God and when you're in your Bible and when you're praying, that's when you want to witness the most. It's because that fan, that flame is being fanned. We also want to witness and we ought to want to pray and we ought to want to worship, and we ought to want to read our Bibles every single day and keep our flames fanned. Firstly, we see that we should feed the flame. Feed it every single morning. We gotta put wood on the altar every single morning and put wood on our fire every single morning in order to feed our flame. But secondly, we see that we must fan the flame. We got to do some things in order to keep our flame going. It's not just gonna keep growing on its own. Then thirdly, I see that we must fight for the flame. Verse number 13, at the very end, it says, It shall never go out. It shall never go out. I'm gonna say it again because it's important. It shall never go out. This morning, you must fight for that flame. This morning, if you think you can have an ever-burning flame without fighting, you have lost your ever-loving mind. This morning, if you think that the devil is gonna let you go off scot-free, this morning, if you think that the devil's gonna let you just skid by and be on fire for God, no, because when you're on fire for God, what do you do? You witness, you worship, and you read the word. And so he does not want us to do that. He does not want our fire to ever be burning upon the altar. He wants to subdue our flame. He wants to put our flame out, he wants to try to dwindle our flame as much as possible, because when he dwindles our flame, nobody else hears about the flame. This morning, we must make sure that every single day we're waking up earnestly contending for the faith that was once delivered unto us. We must wake up every day and say, I am fighting the devil for my flame. I am fighting the world for my flame. If you think that the world likes to see you on fire for God, you have lost your mind. If you think that the compromiser wants to see you on fire for God, you have lost your mind. What they want to do is they want to damper us, they want to put our fire out, they want to make us go and try to question the word of God, they want to make us go and try to see errors in the word of God. Friend, I'm here to tell you today, we must protect our flame. The devil sees our flame and he doesn't like it. We must protect our flame. We must protect it from sin. You know, the devil he wants to come by and tempt us. He wants to throw what I call rat bait out in front of us. He wants to throw things out in front of us where we'll fall into sin and we'll fall into temptation because when we fall into sin and fall into temptation, our flame gets dwindled because there's something between us and God. We must protect us and protect our flame from sin. You must protect it from distractions. You know, this morning, not everything good in your life is from God. Let me re- let me tell you what I mean by that. Just because you got a promotion at work doesn't mean it's from the Lord. That promotion, yes, it's gonna bring you more money, yes, it's gonna do better things for you, yes, you might have a nicer car, you might have a nicer house, you might have to live paycheck to paycheck, but that that that promotion might make you have to work on a Saturday when you have a ministry you've got to serve it. Or that promotion might make it to where you have to work on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night here and there, or maybe it completely pulls you out of Sundays altogether and now you can only go Wednesday nights, friend. I tell you that's not from God. If it goes against and pulls you out of church, that's not from the Lord. I truly believe that people there are some people who choose to work on Sundays. I'll tell you why. They choose to work on Sundays so they can have their Fridays and Saturdays off. They have the option to work Saturday or Sunday, and they choose Sundays so they can have a weekend, in quotes. We must protect our flame from distractions. I'll tell you this, we must protect our flame from this dead Christianity. I've been to some churches where you walk in and somebody's singing a song about the blood, and I'm up there shouting and screaming and praising the Lord just because of how good he's been to me and what I know his blood's done in my life and many others around me. And everybody else is sitting there looking at me like I'm some crazy wild Indian. Friend, it ought not be so. Friend, it ought not be so that we have this dead Christianity who they want to live like they want. I've seen this, seen this stuff going around where we've got freedom in Christ. Absolutely, we've got freedom in Christ, but that does not mean we can abuse God's grace. When we get into that, we start abusing God's grace, it dwindles our flame and it makes us have this Christianity that's more shallow than a kiddie pool. It makes us not understand the scriptures. We're not able to pray. We don't have right fellowship with God. When we're living in sin, we do not have right fellowship with God. We can't. It's impossible. Sin completely separates us from God. Worldliness in any fashion, sin in any fashion, it brings dead Christianity. I want to see true revival in our churches. I believe if you're listening to this this morning, that you'd want to see true revival in our churches. I truly believe that anybody listening to this in their right mind would say that they want to see revival and they want to see souls saved and they want to see people come to Christ and they want to see more people reading their Bibles and more people praying. But we're not gonna get there by living like the world. We're gonna get there by being holy, we're gonna get there by being set apart. We're gonna see true revival when we start preaching the book, the King James Bible. We're gonna start seeing true revival when we set ourselves apart for prayer. We say, hey, I'm not gonna go to the ball game tonight. Instead, I'm gonna go pray for the church services tomorrow. We're gonna see true revival in our hearts whenever we put more effort and more time into the church than we do into the world. Maybe this morning, somebody doesn't even have a flame that's listening to this. Maybe this morning, today is the day of your salvation. The Lord's not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Friend, today, if you're not saved and you don't even have a flame, today's the day. Today is the day where you bow your head and heart and you call upon him for salvation. Romans 10 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 3 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 5 8, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 6 23, for the wages, the payment of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Friend, today, if you're not saved, today is the day of salvation. Don't put it off any longer, don't wait another day. Today is the day to get that flame. But today, if you say you are saved, today if you'd say, I know I'm saved, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm saved. Today you need to feed the flame. You need to fan the flame. And today you're gonna have to fight for the flame. Today I encourage you, friend, as we come up on our time limit. Today I encourage you to keep on the firing line. Earnestly contend for the faith. Don't ever let the fire go out. Keep preaching, keep singing, keep witnessing, keep praising, keep giving God glory for all he's done in your life, and keep on the firing line. I'll see you next time.