Fire on the Alter
Tim Vedder
March 19, 2007
Fire on the Alter
(Leviticus 6:12-13)
- Intro -
If you’ll open your bible with me to the book of Leviticus 6:12-13 today my sermon title is Fire on the Alter, how many here need the fire to fall in their lives today? Leviticus 6:12-13 reads like this, “And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”
Pray, “Father God in the name of Jesus remove any doubt or unbelief in our hearts today so that we may be receptive to your word and it may produce a hundred fold harvest as you speak through your servant to these precious people, Amen.”
I want to paint four pictures for you in my sermon today that indicate the fire fall. The first is…
- Alter -
(Change)
There is a song that I recently heard that says “give me more of you” and the thought that came into my head was, instead of saying give me more of you to God we should be saying, take more of me, remove the junk, wash the stains away. Make me more Christ like in everything I do and say. How can we make that change in our lives? By confessing who God is, by worship at his throne, by saying he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
When there has been a fire lit on the inside of you there is a change an altering of your thinking … you don’t do the same things you used to do, you don’t go to the same places you used to go, you don’t hang around the same people you used to hang around with. Because you are carrying something, like Jeremiah the prophet that had that fire shut up in his bones. What is the fire? It says in Hebrews chapter 12 that our God is a consuming fire, It is manifest through the Holy Ghost referred to in Isaiah 4, “as a spirit of burning.”
In my study for this message God spoke to my heart concerning an important issue, that we are priests to the living God and everyday we need to put our pride on the Alter for burning, just as the priest put the wood on the Alter to burn the offering. Somehow someway God’s fire changed you, let me go over how that change took place, and many of you can probably relate: First there was a complete change of heart, that starts with the word of God. Second there was a spiritual about face in your life embodied by submission to the Holy Spirit. Third there was a change of your views, nourished by service for Christ. Finally there was a change of purpose fed by worship at His throne.
If we are going to change this generation it is going to have to start with us, we need a fire burning in our hearts for the things of God, we must sanctify and purify our lives, before anything will happen with our generation.
The second picture is…
- Advice -
(Guidance)
Which is guidance by none other than the Holy Spirit whom was sent for the direct reason to be our counselor.
So if you ever get to the point in your ministry that you say what am I going to do next? Stop everything and listen, listen to your spirit, because in: Exodus 13:21, it says And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
I really feel that the way the Lord leads us is by our spirit, the bible said that “the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” So when you can not hear God’s voice listen to your spirit man because the bible says that the Holy Spirit is constantly speaking.
The third picture is…
- Ardor -
(A Burning Passion)
We must have a burning passion for the things of God. A short time ago, Thurs. March 1 to be exact Mrs. Parsley preached a chapel sermon in which she said for us to ask “God show me Hell.” And let me stress to you that’s what it is going to take to save our generation we need to get a passion a fire burning in our hearts for this generation. A passion that says I will not see one person go to Hell, where Mark 9:24 says that “where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.”
An interesting thing that caught my attention in my study about the fire is this, they say that the Red Woods in Yosemite National Park were going extinct, these beautiful trees that grew for generation after generation and they couldn’t figure out why the Red Woods were dying, and the scientists did a study and they found out that the Red woods have a extremely heavy shell, so heavy that if the fire does not hit the seed it will not germinate the ground, it will just stay inside the shell. See they use to not have park rangers and before they had them when the lightning would strike in the forest they would just let it burn they didn’t try to manipulate or control the fire they just let it burn and as a result the seed of the Red wood could get out of its shell because when it normally falls to the ground it can’t get out of the shell that its in, but when the fire would come they found out that it would break that hard shell off the seed the encrustation would melt and that seed would sink down into the earth and a whole new generation of Red wood trees would come up.
This generation has a hard shell, they have been blinded by filth, drugs, alcohol and sex. You can’t just preach to this generation and change anything, they need something they can see, something that’s real, they need the Holy Ghost to come in power on their lives. We are that fire that is going to melt the hard shell off this generation. We need to go out from this place with a fire in our hearts a goal in our minds, more than just getting a church that we can preach in, but we need to go out and consume this generation for Christ.
- Somebody say fire fall -
The fourth and final picture is…
Something established by:
- Authority -
(Standard)
The Star-Spangled Banner , a patriotic song with lyrics by Francis Scott Key.
Penned by Key after he had witnessed the successful defense of the city of Baltimore by U.S. troops against a British attack in 1814, it soon became a popular patriotic song. It was adopted as the national anthem of the United States on March 3, 1931.
Our banner is the Lord Jesus Christ, and Leviticus is viewed as God’s instruction manual to live Holy for the church. With this in mind it leads me to the conclusion that our lives must be a Holy living sacrifice unto God before His fire will fall on us.
We are that standard in this generation it says in, Psalm 104:4 He makes his messengers winds, and his ministers a flaming fire.” We are that fire here at WHBC that will go out and change the world for Christ.
If you ever lose the fire you need to get to the Alter, there is fire on the Alter. According to Leviticus 6:13 - “Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.” So if the flame is dying get to the Alter. You say where is the Alter? In your prayer closet, when you set yourself, your time apart for God watch out because he will consume it.
- Conclusion -
Fire on the Alter signifies prayer of the saints. There needs to be a burden on hearts for this generation manifest through prayer. With everything coming against this generation it is going to take divine intervention to change their course. Because let me tell you this generation is Hell bound, and the last thing they need is another church with more programs, they need the fire of the Holy Ghost to come in glory and power and give them a passion for spiritual things, so that they become a people who habitually pray, who believe in God, remember Him and do his will. Amen, give a warm World Harvest welcome too ________ …