Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As holidays go, New Year’s is barely a blip on the radar for most of us.

Perhaps we have spent some time reflecting over how the year has gone.

Many have proclaimed their frustration with the way things have been going over the past few years.

How was your year?

Did you get stronger in the Lord?

Did you accomplish your goals?

Did you lead anybody to Christ?

We could ask a hundred questions in light of the season we are in at the moment.

But as I was preparing for today I came across this verse.

It’s reported that a preacher in Redrock, Mississippi prayed this sermon: “Oh Lord, give Thy servant this mornin’ the eyes of the eagle and the wisdom of the owl; connect his soul with the gospel telephone in the central skies; ‘luminate his brow with the Sun of heaven; possess his mind with love for the people; turpentine his imagination, grease his lips with ‘possum oil, loosen his tongue with the sledge hammer of Thy power; ‘lectrify his brain with the lightnin’ of the word; put ‘petual motion on his arms; fill him plum full of the dynamite of Thy glory; ‘noint him all over with the kerosene oil of Thy salvation and SET HIM ON FIRE.

Amen!”

Fire is amazing!

Not many here tonight could honestly say that fire is of no interest to you.

While you may not be a pyromaniac you are still fascinated by fire.

Fire has been around since the Angel drove Adam & Eve out of the garden with a flaming sword.

Fire warms us through a heater

it feeds us by cooking food

it cleans us by heating our water

it purges our forest

but most of all it purifies our soul in the form of the Holy Ghost!

Our text tells us about the order given by God for the Tabernacle.

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Fire needs some things to be able to ignite.

It needs oxygen, heat, and fuel.

When fires are fought they are fought from the back of the fire because the heat is too great in the front or the head of the fire and the wind can change its course in a matter of seconds.

Fire blockers are started around the fire in order to stop the fire.

When two great fires are burning toward each other they begin to draw each other and feed off of each other.

KINDLED BY MEDITATION

Jeremiah had become discouraged in verse 7 he said, Lord everyone mocketh me.

I told them what you said, and they hate me.

Jeremiah had decided to just cool down, and keep his mouth shut.

He had sort of become like some have today, luke-warm.

Luke-warm.

No one likes to hear that word, do they?

But there is a lot of this going around.

Some of us have been there and we can tell you that it is no place to be.

Oh, you may still be going to church, you may even be reading a scripture once in a while, but there is no victory in it.

No power.

No excitement.

No fun.

You say, well, you can’t be fired up all the time!

Don’t Let The Enemy Lie To You

Jeremiah had something in his bones that would not let him cool down.

Paul wrote in Romans 12:11 that we should be fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.

Fervent means to boil or to be hot.

One way to be fervent is to hang around with the Lord.

The Bible says He is a consuming fire.

I have always found that if you get close enough to the fire, you will get hot.

Some people are luke-warm because they are too far back from the fire.

People that spend a lot of time with the Lord are not up and down like a yo-yo.

I am not saying they don’t have trouble, but they meet them head on by the power of God and keep on going.

They have become convinced that, Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.

Now if you have been luke-warm, I have good news.

You don’t have to stay that way and be unhappy.

There is a fanning going on right now.

The Spirit of the Lord is fanning the fire of the Holy Ghost.

If you will just yield to the Spirit, you can feel like Jeremiah.

The fire began to burn.

We used to stay the night at a friend’s house when we were kids and they would heat there house with an old wood heat stove and You know, I have gotten up on a cold winter morning, and it felt like the fire was out.

I mean we came out of the bedroom shivering, but there was still fire in the stove.

I just had to stir it up a little, put some more fuel on it and fan it.

Suddenly the heat began to fill the room.

Jeremiah had reached a place where he was ready to quit preaching, but the fire wasn’t out.

When God began to fan, he just couldn’t help himself.

He caught fire again.

Much of the church has been asleep and when someone is asleep, they are insensitive to what is going on around them.

Friend, the most exciting thing that ever happened could be going on right in your own back yard, but if you are asleep, you will not be excited by it.

This is also true of spiritual things.

If you are spiritually asleep, then you won’t be excited by what is happening in the spiritual realm.

The Lord has called us to awake from our slumber, and fan the fire.

Add the fuel of the Word.

Check up on the company you keep.

Spend time with people that are excited about God’s Word.

Get up close to the source of the heat, and be fervent.

We must spend enough time in the Word, and enough time in prayer to stir up that resurrection power that is inside us.

If you have been Born Again then remember that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in you and able to quicken your mortal body.(Romans

8-11)

If you have been luke-warm, don’t spend another minute that way.

It’s not fun.

It’s not exciting and most of all it is not what God wants for you.

Get refired!

Know the excitement and energy of the Holy Ghost.

Paul said, That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection.

Remember 1 John chapter 4 verse 4. Ye are of God little children and have overcome them: Because Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

Faith is in you, Romans 12 and 3. Love is in you, Romans 5 and 5. Stir up the gift that is in you.

Why not spend some special time with the Lord today and rekindle that fellowship.

Many people are eager to embrace the salvation aspect of the cross, but balk at the discipleship end of it.

To embrace the cross means that we will sometimes have to inconvenience ourselves to answer the call, but if we didn’t then it wouldn’t be a cross.

Sometimes we balk at Christian service because we don’t feel that we are gifted enough to serve Him.

But God doesn’t care about our abilities!

He only cares about our availability!

He only cares if the fire is burning inside us!

You see you can’t get fired up by only dressing for the game, you gotta get off the bench and play!

If you feel like the spiritual fire in your life has gone down then ask yourself if there is any sin in your life.

Then ask yourself if you have done anything for the Lord lately!

It speaks of the word of God being like a sword.

In the middle ages knights battled it out with long swords.

You see you needed a long sword to do effective battle in the middle ages.

Consider this: How much time you spend in the word determines how long your sword is.

For some believers their sword is only a nail file.