How to Keep the Fire

Intro

Who likes the hunger games?

So there is this scene in “Catching Fire” where Katniss is walking around the training room looking for tributes to become allies with. She comes across 2 people training to start a fire. In an attempt to become friends, she sits down and shows them how to make fire

Then there was that time when I was away from home and my children started a fire in the front yard....

Or that time that Mason started a fire in the church with a dorrito...

Other than those last 2 examples, starting a fire is excellent. It keeps you warm and is 1 of the highest priorities for surviving in the wilderness.

Starting a fire is 1 thing, keeping it going is a whole other

It is the same with our Spirit

I’m afraid that we can learn how to start a spiritual fire in a place like camp, or another special event

where the veterans (youth pastors, adults) are walking around the training floor (altar - the place where you pray) looking to help us

But maybe we never learn how to maintain/keep that fire when camp or that big event is behind and school is ahead.

So tonight, we are going to learn the proper way to keep a fire burning! All the pyromaniacs need to simmer down.

The 1st Pyromaniacs were the Priests

Literally, their job was to keep the fire burning 24/7, at all times.

The priest of the temple had the duty of tending to the fire and the offerings placed on it.

Leviticus shows us all the rules the priests had to follow with giving guilt offerings and the most important rule was to keep the fire going.

Leviticus 6:8-13 says “Don’t let the fire go out” 3 different times, showing how important it was to never let the fire go out.

Leviticus 6:8–13 NIV

8 The Lord said to Moses: 9 “Give Aaron and his sons this command: ‘These are the regulations for the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar. 10 The priest shall then put on his linen clothes, with linen undergarments next to his body, and shall remove the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed on the altar and place them beside the altar. 11 Then he is to take off these clothes and put on others, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean. 12 The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. 13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

We also see in this passage that God commands a 3-step process for this fire and the guilt offerings made on them. These 3 steps are a reflection of the way we should keep the fire God has set in us.

Step 1 - LET IT BURN

God is looking for the things that caused us to separate ourselves from Him to be totally burned up - sin - the wrong things we do

Sometimes we surrender ourselves to God, only to let our offering singe on the altar only a little bit before WE consider it destroyed. - ex: lying, habit of cheating, or smoking, or pornography - I’ll never do it again and prayer stops there and then temptation comes in and we fail again.

As a child I used to feel guilty for fighting with my siblings. I would say a quick prayer to make me feel better but then found myself back in the same fight as soon as my siblings wronged or agitated me again. Not enough time at the altar/praying to let God work to get to the root of the cause and burn it away.

Letting our offering be completely destroyed has always been God’s way of giving us our life back - Romans 6:6-8

Romans 6:6–8 NIV

6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Consecration(declaring something sacred/holy) is costly, but it is our calling (be in the world but not of it). - like the most treasure thing - putting it in a special case/ not letting just anyone handle it, not letting it get dirty)

Even after we’ve let our offering burn all night, the fire must never go out

Step 2 - ASHES TO ASHES

Take out the ashes in the Morning

When you tend a healthy fire, the pieces that have burned into ash must go

Once God has burned up the dead parts of you, you must take it away

We don’t throw out the ashes as to never remember where we have come from, but as a sign that sin no longer has control over us.

Maybe there is a relationship you need to walk away from tonight. You need to throw away that vape or delete that app.

Don’t let the dead things you wore get on the holiness you now wear

The fire must never go out.

Step 3 - REFUEL & RECHARGE

Exchange the old fuel for new fuel

You won’t make it today on yesterday’s bread

Get ready fro the next offering

2 Peter 1:3–8 NIV

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t forget that you have been cleansed from your past sins.

As long as we live, there will arise new situations, new temptations, new hardship, new options

We will move, our likes will change, we will have new experiences

Don’t think that the fire you experience while a 15 year old is suffice enough to deal with trial of having your 1st child who won’t stop crying and needs diapers that cost a ridiculous amount of money

We need new fire every single day to keep us going as we grow and change.

The fire must never go out.

Conclusion

We keep the fire by tending to the altar

The altar is the place where we both die and come back to life

Where we unload our sins and also where we experience new closeness to God

The altar is the place where our sins are paid for and we enjoy fellowship with the Father

We keep the fire by keeping the altar

We keep the altar by:

Letting our offerings burn so Christ can make us whole

Taking out the old parts of us so that sin can’t control us

Building upon our faith DAILY

Discipleship is DAILY

Consecration is costly

Remember, the fire must never go out.