Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Well, it's so good to see you this morning. God is good, isn't he?
[00:00:09] And I believe that these are very interesting days that we're in. There's a lot happening on the world scene. There's a lot happening around the nation. But I believe that the Lord is at work, and I believe he is preparing his church to be a place that doesn't just offer a nice idea to our communities, but a place that offers a fire from heaven that changes lives. And this morning, I want to talk about fire, because fire runs throughout the scriptures as an imagery that we'll look at in a moment. But I see that there are attempts in the church to create fake fire.
[00:01:00] And I want to challenge fake fire in the body of Christ this morning as I share over these next few moments. A few months ago, Nita and I moved just to a new home in the area. And we in our previous home before we moved to Exeter, we had a real fire. And we've always missed a real fire. And we thought we'd buy a new house with a real fire, and we didn't. So when we bought the new house, we thought, we're going to have a new fire installed. But when we began to look at the implications of getting a fire installed, somebody mentioned, have you seen these fake fires, these electric fires? They didn't call them fake, they called them electric.
[00:01:45] And so we went to a showroom to look at these electric fires, hopeful that it would be a simple solution to creating a sense of the animation of the flames in our living room and the heat.
[00:02:01] But they didn't look very real.
[00:02:06] They weren't real. We knew they weren't real.
[00:02:11] And I believe over the years that as God has brought a fire from heaven upon his body on the church, that we can so easily, for convenience, replace his fire with fake flames.
[00:02:29] This church was started around 97 years ago by fire.
[00:02:37] There was a mission that took place in this city, hired a theater in this city, and people didn't come to that theater because they heard that there were some interesting things being said.
[00:02:52] They came to that theater in droves because there was a fire that impacted lives, that healed bodies, that changed families.
[00:03:05] That fire of the Lord burned brightly.
[00:03:10] We are part of the Elim churches across the nation and across the world. And Elim wasn't birthed with good ideas about how to do church differently. Elim was birthed by fire, by the fires of revival. John Wesley once said, if you get on fire for God, people will come to see you burn.
[00:03:36] Fire is meant to be a normal part of the body of Christ. Fire is meant to be a central part of church.
[00:03:45] Each of us today in this place, I'm sure at various times have encountered fire.
[00:03:54] But listen to this phrase.
[00:03:58] Not all fire is holy.
[00:04:03] There are some flames in life that illuminate our path with divine purpose.
[00:04:10] But some flames, though they are bright and captivating, they can lead us astray.
[00:04:19] The Bible speaks of both fire as a blessing and a warning.
[00:04:26] God appeared to Moses in a burning bush that wasn't consumed by the flames.
[00:04:34] That's a picture of God. He puts his fire within us and his fire burns brightly. But we do not get consumed by its power.
[00:04:46] Then we read in the Old Testament that there was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night that led the Israelites through the darkness of the wilderness.
[00:05:00] And those two are good fire experiences. But also we read that there was a fire that consumed a godless place called Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:05:12] Both fires of blessing and warning originate from God.
[00:05:19] But fire can be ignited from other sources.
[00:05:25] Fire's flames can look holy, but they can be a counterfeit to the divine.
[00:05:33] Not all fire is holy.
[00:05:38] There is holy and there is unholy fire.
[00:05:43] Holy fire purifies and it refines.
[00:05:48] It burns away the impurities while preserving what is precious.
[00:05:55] Unholy fire provides warmth but ultimately consumes everything in its path and leaves only ashes.
[00:06:07] Holy fire provides the purity of the finest golds. Unholy fire leaves the crumbs of the ashes. Holy fire draws people towards God. Unholy fire draws people to us, to ourselves.
[00:06:29] Holy fire endures through hardship.
[00:06:34] Unholy fire requires constant affirmation of success.
[00:06:43] Holy fire transforms communities through love. But unholy fire divides communities through pride.
[00:06:54] Holy fire burns brightest in humility.
[00:06:59] Unholy fire seeks platforms and recognition.
[00:07:05] I dare say that each of us in this place this morning and those watching online have experienced both the flames of holy fire and the flames of unholy fire in our lives.
[00:07:18] Let me ask you this question. What are you being warmed by today?
[00:07:23] Are you being warmed by the holy flames of God? Or are you being warmed by the fake, unholy counterfeit flames that this world offers? Let me take you to a few verses in the book of Leviticus. Leviticus, chapter 10, verses 1 to 3. It's an unusual period of time that this is a time when we see the Israelites establishing the tabernacle and they've established the Levites as the priests and they've established the Aaron and his Sons to be those priests that are given specific instructions as to how they are to carry out the worship of God. And then we read this in chapter 10, verses 1 to 3, Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abu, put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them.
[00:08:20] In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different to that which he had commanded.
[00:08:33] So fire blazed from the Lord's presence and burned them up, and they died before the Lord.
[00:08:44] Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord meant when he said, I will display my holiness through those who come near me. I will display my glory before all the people.
[00:09:01] And Aaron was silent.
[00:09:07] These priests, the sons of Aaron, were responsible to minister before the Lord.
[00:09:17] Fire was an important part of their calling.
[00:09:23] But they used the wrong kind of fire.
[00:09:28] Other translations refer to this as strange fire or unauthorized fire.
[00:09:37] Whether or not it was a fire that was sourced from another place other than the altar of God, or whether the timing was wrong or whether their hearts were simply too casual or presumptuous, we don't know.
[00:09:54] But we do know this. It was the wrong fire.
[00:09:59] Not all fire is holy.
[00:10:04] God's holiness demands reverence.
[00:10:13] In a world where people insist on their rights, in a world where my truth is argued to be synonymous with the truth, in a world of negotiation and compromise, there is only one response to the holy fire of God, and that is utter, utter reverence and surrender.
[00:10:45] We can't adapt it.
[00:10:48] We can't lay claim to improve it.
[00:10:53] We can't innovate the fire of God towards our preferences.
[00:10:59] We simply yield in reverence.
[00:11:04] We go low, we surrender, and if we don't, we're in danger of producing the wrong kind of fire.
[00:11:20] I'm concerned that as I travel around churches and I'm now getting a handle on the number of miles I'm doing probably around 35,000 miles a year, driving around from church to church, seeing the wonderful things that the Lord is doing, sensing the hand of God, brooding over this nation.
[00:11:42] I'm concerned that we have developed some unholy fire.
[00:11:52] I'm concerned that we warm ourselves around things that are not the pure fire of God.
[00:12:03] I'm concerned that we think that if we have contemporary buildings, cool worship, great kids programs, wonderful welcomes, nice positive environments, that that is enough.
[00:12:22] And it's not.
[00:12:25] We need the fire of God, the holy burning, cleansing flame of the Lord.
[00:12:36] We need to go low, to surrender and to yield.
[00:12:41] There's a privilege of proximity.
[00:12:47] We Read here that there was a special responsibility that was commanded to Aaron and his sons because they had a privilege.
[00:12:56] The privilege was that they could approach the presence of God.
[00:13:02] You have that privilege, whether you've been a follower of Jesus for a few days or a few decades. You have that privilege to come boldly into his presence.
[00:13:19] It's an enormous privilege.
[00:13:24] And yet we are so casual, we are so laid back about the privilege of coming into the presence of God.
[00:13:38] And we read that with that privilege came some responsibilities.
[00:13:43] Those who are called to serve, to come near to the altar, a call to do so with servant hearts and leadership. We are held to a higher standard.
[00:13:57] With greater access comes greater responsibility.
[00:14:02] Do you know there are realities of the fire of God in our lives that all of us have access to?
[00:14:12] And we sometimes get so used to seeing it in the distance that we don't really. We're gathered around the fire, but we don't really get the warmth of its flames because maybe there's an inadequacy that stops us stepping forward. Or we think that others are more deserving, others are more A grade Christians than we are. And so we stand back.
[00:14:39] And I believe with all my heart that the church in the UK will move into the fullness of its destiny in the Lord when we all gather closely around the flames of the Spirit.
[00:14:57] That is what happens during a revival is that people step forward towards God.
[00:15:04] They don't hold back, they don't stand back, they don't hide, they don't get distracted. They give him everything.
[00:15:12] And there's an abundance of opportunity for you and I to step close to the flames of God. But with that privilege comes great responsibility.
[00:15:25] Sincerity without obedience is not sufficient.
[00:15:30] These two sons, Nadab and Abu, they had sincere intentions. We assume they were performing a sacred duty, offering incense in the temple to the Lord. But their sincerity didn't excuse their disobedience.
[00:15:51] Good intentions don't legitimize departures from God's revealed will.
[00:15:58] We need to be vigilant regarding the nature of the fire that we are handling, because not all fire is holy.
[00:16:10] There are a number of things I want to encourage us to be aware of.
[00:16:14] Number one, ministry innovations that don't have biblical foundations.
[00:16:22] There are practices that can so easily come into our churches and into our Christian lives that are rooted more in popularity than they are in purity.
[00:16:34] And I believe that the Lord would remind us this morning that we need to be vigilant about the fire that we're handling.
[00:16:44] We need to be careful about adapting Christian orthodoxy For cultural acceptability.
[00:16:55] You watch churches as they begin to compromise Bible truth.
[00:17:00] You watch the temperature go down.
[00:17:03] You watch the flames become dull.
[00:17:10] The fire of God requires our hearts to be yielded pure.
[00:17:18] In fact, as we expose ourselves to its flames, often our preferences and our likes and our aspirations and our hopes, they get taken off in the heat to leave the pure gold of a heart for the Lord.
[00:17:35] We read the builders of the Tower of Babel. They used fire to bake their bricks.
[00:17:41] But each brick was made to build their own reputation rather than God's.
[00:17:49] God will not share his glory with another.
[00:17:54] If we're trying to build rediscover's brand, we will find ourselves handling unholy fire.
[00:18:02] If we are trying to build Elim's brand, we will find ourselves handling unholy fire.
[00:18:10] Holy fire builds the reputation of one and one alone. And his name is Jesus.
[00:18:17] And the church of Jesus Christ, we're called to be exposed to the flames of God in order that he will be famous.
[00:18:27] In fact, when Jesus came, he made himself of no reputation.
[00:18:34] He did not consider the aspiration of equality to God to be something to be grasped, but he became a servant.
[00:18:43] You and I are servants of the fire of God, servants of his living flame in our lives, servants of his power and his might among us.
[00:19:01] God help us from building our own reputation.
[00:19:07] It happens quite a lot.
[00:19:11] I often challenge leaders around what is it they're trying to build?
[00:19:18] Because there's an insecurity in all our lives.
[00:19:22] And that insecurity can cause us to feel like success fixes us.
[00:19:31] That if you feel like you're not a very successful person, if you do something successful, it feels like a fix. But it's not a fix, it's a plaster.
[00:19:42] And if you spend your life trying to be successful to attend to the insecurity in your heart, you will find the flames that you're handling are not holy flames that refine and purify and cleanse. There are unholy flames that build a sense of inadequacy and ego within you.
[00:20:04] And we're here to build the reputation of one alone. And his name is Jesus.
[00:20:10] You know, pursuing church growth in a way that fills seats with consumers rather than mobilizes an army that fills the world with his glory is an unholy fire.
[00:20:24] If we wanted to get a crowd, we could bring in some big bands and some big name preachers and we could fill this room multiple times over.
[00:20:38] But are we building the kingdom?
[00:20:41] I would say to you that if you're just merely attending and leaving.
[00:20:47] We're not building the kingdom because the kingdom of God requires the people of God to put on the full armor of God, to stand strong in the truth of God, to advance the gospel of God, to take the glory of God into the nation and the nations of the world. This is a room filled with the people of God who are the army of God. You're not here to hear just a nice word this morning. You're here to be in, encouraged and mobilized to be the saints of God in this world.
[00:21:23] I've been to a number of churches where at the end I've invited people to pray for each other. And I've seen believers in the churches look at each other and like, how do we do that?
[00:21:36] Now surely it's the pastor's job to pray for us. It's the elder's job to pray for us. And they look around and think, no, that's not our job. It's the job of those at the front.
[00:21:48] And I have to say we've built, I would say, an unholy fire in that relationship because the scripture says that the work of ministry is something for all the people of God, that we are here to mobilize, to equip the saints for works of service.
[00:22:06] That doesn't mean to say everyone in this room needs to go and be a missionary in another nation, although there probably are more people in this room than need to be mysteries in other nations than think they are. That doesn't mean to say everybody's going to leave their jobs and become full time pastors. Although there probably are people in this room that have got a greater pastoral call on their life than they give themselves credit for. That doesn't mean to say that everyone's going to go out on the streets and preach on street corners. But it does mean that in this room there are more people that can rise up with the gift of evangelism on their life and share the faith.
[00:22:37] Because we're an army and church. I believe with all my heart that when we get the fire of God in our life that we become focused.
[00:22:50] We're not trying to build a crowd, we're not trying to fill seats. We're not trying to become the biggest. We're not trying to be the best. We're trying to mobilize the saints of God to rise up in the purposes of God.
[00:23:02] Who's ready to rise up?
[00:23:05] What about the rest of you?
[00:23:11] You see, there was something that was happening here in the early stages of this story that I don't know how many times they've done this. But there's a familiarity that can come in our walk with Jesus. And as that old saying, familiarity breeds contempt.
[00:23:27] You know, I remember, I remember just about a year ago, the first time we met in this building. You remember that sense of joy that morning? Remember walking in and after we'd all laid these 16,000 carpet tiles and painted walls and converted this empty derelict building to something that's usable. Do you remember that first Sunday? Remember the joy there was as we gathered because it was new? Do you remember that?
[00:23:52] And I wonder this morning how many of us just strolled in and never thought anything about the miracle of this place and the joy of that first Sunday. I wonder if you take it back to something far more important than that. You remember the day you give your life to Jesus. Do you remember that day? Like, if you don't remember that day, go and speak to someone who's recently given their lives to Jesus and hear them talk about the weight lifting off their life. Hear them talking about the freedom in their soul. Hear them talking about the joy, joy there is in their heart. Hear them talking about the healing of the heaviness that was on their life. We become familiar. We get used to freedom.
[00:24:28] We get used to what it feels like.
[00:24:32] And here there was a familiarity, and they just thought that maybe in their familiarity they could just adapt what they did. There was a casualness that came in when our prayers just become stale routines, when the Scriptures primarily serve as source material for us to write a devotion for our life group or produce a sermon for our Sundays. When our activity is birthed in pragmatism rather than in prayer, we begin to operate in familiarity rather than in awe.
[00:25:11] And then there's exceptionalism and entitlement when we behave in a way that our position and our experience validate our opinion rather than humbly submitting our thoughts to the power of the Holy Spirit. We've lost something. When our past successes justify our current actions. We've lost something when we assume ownership and forget that we're stewards. We've lost something.
[00:25:37] And as I close here, I want us to just look for a moment in Aaron's holy response. Aaron has just seen his two sons die.
[00:25:47] Aaron the priest, Aaron the father.
[00:25:52] What was his response?
[00:25:56] It was a response I don't think I would have been able to have given.
[00:26:01] It was a response of silence, quiet humility, of reverence and submission.
[00:26:11] I'm sure within him there was an internal desire to fight, to resist, to argue, to justify his son's actions.
[00:26:27] But when we do that, when we fight and resist and justify, we can make an unholy fire in our lives.
[00:26:40] James and John knew about this unholy fire. They wanted a call down. You just love these two. They wanted a call down. Fire on a Samaritan village because it rejected Jesus.
[00:26:52] That's not a good evangelism strategy in our communities.
[00:26:56] Don't stand up in your university class, share Jesus. And when they say we're not interested, say, will that fire of God consume you? It's not a good strategy.
[00:27:08] But there was that internal fire and fight in them, but it wasn't holy.
[00:27:14] When we're confronted with our errors, with our weaknesses and our failure, we would do well to note Aaron's response.
[00:27:25] I see in this world today that everyone says they want to be accountable and teachable until someone wants to teach them something they don't like.
[00:27:35] And that's a real problem in our society and it's a real problem in our discipleship.
[00:27:40] Because often I think there are armies in the UK that wouldn't be as fit or as prepared if they were only involved in being trained in the things they wanted to do.
[00:27:57] Tomorrow we're going to do a 20 mile cross country run with a rucksack on our back. If you don't fancy it, just stay in bed, it's fine.
[00:28:06] I think there will be people who stay in bed, but that doesn't happen. Instead, if they're still in bed, they get turfed out and they do 25 miles with a heavier rucksack.
[00:28:20] And there's something in all our lives that's called the flesh.
[00:28:24] We don't like being challenged, we don't like being provoked. But the Bible says that all scripture is God breathed and all of it is useful for teaching. Yep, we'll take that for rebuking. Oh, we don't like that. Correcting. We don't like that. And train in righteousness.
[00:28:42] Do you keep going to the same bits of the Bible that are always nice and fluffy and say the things that you like?
[00:28:50] Are they always warming and building you up?
[00:28:54] Because there are bits in this Bible that actually don't warm me up. They scare me and they challenge me and they provoke me.
[00:29:03] Because he loves us.
[00:29:05] Oh, how he loves us.
[00:29:08] And his fire changes us.
[00:29:13] And we do well to be more like Aaron in our response to the Lord.
[00:29:20] To sit quietly, to not fight and to let his will and purposes be done.
[00:29:29] Holy fire burns, but it doesn't destroy.
[00:29:33] May you and I be like the burning bush full of holy Fire, but neither being consumed or consuming others.
[00:29:41] Holy fire leads through the darkness. The pillar of fire led the Israelites through both the wilderness years and the darkness of the night.
[00:29:52] I wish I could say to you, following Jesus means there'll be no darkness and there'll be no wilderness. But I will be doing you a disservice because there are times when the Holy Spirit leads us to those places.
[00:30:03] There are times when the Holy Spirit leads us to the places of great challenge in our life.
[00:30:09] And if you want to be warmed around an unholy flame, you'll avoid the wilderness all of your life. But you'll miss out on the lessons that God is teaching you. But when we follow his lead, his fire leads us, guides us, strengthens us.
[00:30:29] Holy fire burns up that which opposes.
[00:30:34] Elijah stood against the false prophets on Mount Carmel and he called down fire.
[00:30:41] But in the altar that he had made, he had dug a ditch and he filled it with water.
[00:30:47] Water does not light and ignite very well.
[00:30:52] In fact, it puts fire out.
[00:30:55] And yet here was this drenched altar filled with water and the fire of God consumed.
[00:31:05] Because the fire of God burns up even that which opposes his purposes. It doesn't matter how much water opposes God's plans. He will not be extinguished if we will surrender reverently.
[00:31:22] I absolutely believe in the will and the providence of God.
[00:31:28] Some of you keep asking, how long we going to be in this building?
[00:31:32] We're going to announce the answer this morning to that question.
[00:31:36] Not a day more or a day less than God wants us here.
[00:31:40] That's it.
[00:31:46] Because he leads, he guides.
[00:31:51] But only when we hang around the holy flame.
[00:31:59] If we don't hang around the holy flame, if we don't let the fire of God consume us, then we divert our gaze and our attention.
[00:32:12] And that's when we begin to step away and outside of the realms of the purpose and the plans and the providence of God.
[00:32:21] Do you remember some of the times we've had in the church, those who've been around a few years where God has really broke in among us?
[00:32:30] Remember that time a few years ago when not because we had like a three line whip out to say, come on, come to the prayer meeting, but because people were excited by the fire.
[00:32:44] I remember our prayer meetings on a Monday.
[00:32:49] They more than tripled in size and in length in the space of like a month.
[00:32:58] What was that?
[00:33:01] People began to walk towards the fire.
[00:33:05] And they allow the fire of God to burn within them.
[00:33:11] The fire of God is a transformational fire.
[00:33:18] And I finally want to bring this to you.
[00:33:22] Holy fire empowers us.
[00:33:27] The Holy Spirit descended as tongues of fire on the church and empowered ordinary people to do extraordinary ministry.
[00:33:37] Do we have any ordinary people in the house this morning?
[00:33:44] Not everyone's got their hand up. So let me ask the question. Do we have any extraordinary people in the house?
[00:33:51] Well, we're extraordinary because of the value that God places on us.
[00:33:57] Not because of what we've accomplished or what we've done or the skills we have, but because God has put his value. He signed our lives with his signature, and we're his workmanship.
[00:34:09] And when his fire falls upon us, something holy happens.
[00:34:16] Can I invite us to stand a moment?
[00:34:22] Can I ask you, do you need to extinguish any unholy flames in your life?
[00:34:34] Is there fake fire?
[00:34:38] Is there, as we see in Aaron's sons, an act of worship, but not a heart of worship?
[00:34:49] Are we so familiar that we've lost the awe and the wonder?
[00:34:58] Who wants the fire of God in their life?
[00:35:02] Come on. Keep those hands raised. Then close your eyes and look to God.
[00:35:09] Lord, let your fire fall, I pray, God, of burning, cleansing flame.
[00:35:18] Send the fire.
[00:35:22] Come and stir up that within us.
[00:35:28] May the fire of God consume us.
[00:35:37] Holy flame, Holy God.
[00:35:47] Hallelujah.
