Fan into Flame
Fan into Flame • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Let’s pray
Have you ever heard the expression “being on fire for Jesus”?
What does being on fire for Jesus mean? Are you on fire for Jesus?
If you think you’re not, do you think you should you be?
If you think you are, would other people know you were? Are you looking for ways to intensify your fire?
I think these are important questions to ask ourselves, and I hope today to convey, biblically, what I think might be some guidance on these topics.
What does being on fire for Jesus mean?
What does being on fire for Jesus mean?
North Idaho is no stranger to a good fire. It can be pleasing to all 5 senses, the crackling and popping of boiling sap, the heat warming you to your core, the colorful flames dancing from the wood lighting a room, the smell of cut wood and a little smoke that can also infuse your food with delicious flavor. If you’re particularly industrious, fire can smelt and refine metals for crafting.
We, unfortunately, are also familiar with bad fires that can kill and destroy.
Biblical fire spans that same spectrum, natives welcome shipwrecked Paul with a warming fire, Jesus cooks fish over a fire after his resurrection, God appears as fire to Abraham and Moses, it talks about refining fire and maybe most importantly for today’s topic, the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles as fire at Pentecost.
On the destructive side, we have the eternal unquenchable fire of hell.
Where does being on fire for Jesus fall into this range? It clearly isn’t the fire of eternal destruction, but it’s also not the mundane warming fire that we cozy up and fall asleep next to.
Psalm 104:4 as quoted in
Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
God makes His ministers a flame of fire. God does the work, isn’t that great! Now, I don’t think this only means angels, or pastors or ministry leaders, when Paul talks about how believers care for each other, he uses the same Greek word, leitourgeo, meaning servant or minister, to describe it. It’s very similar to the way diakonos, another form of ministry or service, is used and both leitourgeo and diakonos are used in:
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.
We are all to be ministers or servants to believers, and following the Great Commission, ministering and serving non-believers by spreading the seeds of the gospel. This kind of life results in overflowing in thanksgiving to God and an increase in the harvest of our righteousness.
So I think we can conclude that being on fire for Jesus means that God empowers you to be a flame of fire to be a faithful minister and servant for Jesus and makes you feel overwhelmingly thankful for the opportunity that He provided. I hope we all agree that we should want to be on fire in this way.
Test Yourself
Test Yourself
What if you’re worried you’re not, or maybe it doesn’t feel like you are? Does it feel like your fire is out? Or that you’re out of wood or that it’s wet and your fire is small or smoky and dying? Are you struggling to fan your smoldering wick into flame? Don’t worry if you feel this way, as Isaiah 42:1-4 is quoted in
“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
God will not quench your smoldering wick and as
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
So I think we can conclude that this is a common trial that believers encounter, sometimes repeatedly, and it can be described in a number of ways, like imposter syndrome, a crisis of faith, not walking with Jesus, a prodigal or distance from God.
Whether you’re feeling that way or not, we’re also supposed to test ourselves to ensure that we’re not fooling ourselves
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
So what is the test to know that Jesus Christ is in you?
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
What does saying Jesus is Lord mean? Someone could say those words and not mean them, and that wouldn’t mean that Christ is dwelling with them, so it must mean that you actually believe that He is your lord. What does being a lord mean? I think it has two slightly different meanings, one is like being your king or a president, that they’re in charge of the laws or as a leader of the place where you live The problem with that perspective alone is that it can be impersonal, regardless of your political preference, Joe Biden was your president and Donald Trump is currently your president and someone else will be president in about 3 years, while this might impact the direction of the country, it can often have less impact in your daily life. So, I think more importantly, it’s like a slave master. A person who owns you and interacts with you personally and directs your actions every day. Do you submit to Jesus as your owner and listen to Him daily for your direction? This is the fundamental entry point to being a question, and Paul seems to agree with this.When he discovered that early churches were having these struggles, he started over with spiritual milk, the fundamentals, the firm foundation of the gospel, to nurse them back into maturity.
I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
and Peter seems to agree this is where we need to go when we’re struggling and feeling like newborn Christians
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
So let’s take a quick journey through testing that you’re in the faith, that you have Jesus as your Lord. Biblically, it starts with recognizing that we’re all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, that our flesh is at enmity with God and we deserve to be convicted and suffer His punishment when we inevitably face His judgement of our life. We know it, and we’re rightfully fearful and want desperately to get right with God and be in communion with Him. This desire to turn our course toward God is called repentance, but repentance alone is fruitless, as there is no work that we can do to rebalance the scales of our deserved guilt. We can’t earn our way back to innocence. That’s pretty terrible news by itself.
Enter the good news, the gospel, which is actually the best news anyone could ever hear. God created a way to forgive us through His one and only begotten Son.
John 3:16–20 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
If you hate the sin that you commit, and believe that Jesus came in the flesh, died as a perfect, sinless sacrifice and overcame death through His resurrection for the sole purpose of taking the punishment we deserve and submit to him as your owner, then you are in the faith! God wants to restore you to communion with Him, you just have to repent, believe and submit and He will. If you’ve never done that, I beg you, don’t wait, God will set you free! If you have done it previously and lost confidence or are just testing yourself, mediate on this promise from God and know that you can never be plucked from His hand. Jesus Christ is in you!
Just like when your fire struggles at home, you start back with the fundamentals, get your tinder and kindling in that fire, remember the gospel, ensure that your fire has a solid base to continue to grow from.
However, we also know that a sustainable fire isn’t sustained by tinder and kindling alone. It might burn hot for a short while, but you can’t leave it very long. Just like the parable of the seeds on the rocky soil,
And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
Now, we know that salvation is through Jesus, and that Jesus is the narrow gate, and through faith alone you enter to the narrow difficult path of salvation. Jesus joins you and lights your fire, but faith in Jesus is not a central heating system where warmth comes from some nebulous place without you doing anything. You can’t walk through that gate and sit down in a recliner and think that Jesus will do the rest. He has a sanctification journey for you that you need to walk and a fire of faith that you need to tend and grow, and a patch of soil that you have to remove rocks from to grow deep roots and survive the test.
While these tests might not be comfortable, they are essential to a healthy faith. Interestingly enough the word test in this parable is the same Greek word used for trial and temptation. The ability to stay in faith during difficult and tempting times is to tend the fire, making sure it’s large enough that it can survive satan’s attempts to put it out when he splashes water on it.
Now, how many of you have fireplaces that you can put wood into on Sunday morning and ignore until the next Sunday? Even the most efficient need tending multiple times a day. Our spiritual fire is the same and needs to be renewed day by day.
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
There’s that overwhelming thanksgiving again, even in the afflictions that we face. While it might seem like a lot of work, the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison makes it all worth it. Do you believe that’s true? If not, you have to go back to the foundation again and again until the surpassing value of Christ as your Lord and Master and Savior becomes real for you.
Now, some of you might be thinking, I have a fireplace that another person manages. I go to church and my pastor can maintain my fire. Or I’m married to someone on fire for Christ, and they can maintain my fire. Unfortunately in the spiritual fire department, you have to tend and test your own.
But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
So, hopefully you agree that we should be on fire for Jesus, and that the start of that fire is believing the gospel and submitting to Jesus as Lord and that we should want to grow our fires to survive the trials and tribulations we’ll inevitably face, and that we are solely responsible for our own fire.
Would others know you were on fire?
Would others know you were on fire?
Is your fire burning hot and clean, in a way that people would recognize clearly as a fire for Jesus? This can be a convicting question for those who might say they’re Christians, but who live in a way that doesn’t align with God’s will. In these situations, your fire is a smoky mess that is upsetting to others. Who likes to sit next to a smoky fire?
It also should be convicting for those who might act like Christians on the outside, but don’t actually submit to Jesus as lord. They are the electric heaters with cellophane flames, it might fool some people most of the time, but upon real inspection it will be exposed and becomes obvious that it’s not a genuine fire.
To those convicted by this, the cure is to go back to the tinder and kindling, meditate on what Jesus has done for you and how grateful you should be and submit to him as Lord, again and again and again if necessary.
How do we maintain and grow our fire?
How do we maintain and grow our fire?
Once you’re back a flame, how do you maintain and grow your fire? First, I’ll say, be in fellowship! You might be thinking, now Luke, you just said I had to maintain my own fire, and in the the last message you gave, you said we had to be in daily fellowship, in unity remembering Christ. Doesn’t tending my own fire go against that. I’ll say what Paul sometimes said, “may it never be so!”
Fellowship with believers is an essential component of maintaining a good fire. They can give you dry wood of scriptural reminders, they can share testimonies that help you see that you can move the logs around to burn more cleanly, or might provide a fresh gust of air of encouragement through them from the Holy Spirit when your flame is choking and your fire smoking. So yes, be in fellowship daily as well, it’s great for tending your own fire!
Now, on the other hand, non-believers can really put a damper on your fire.
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Avoid these kind of fire dampening people! It may be hard, they may be people you love, and calling back to my last message, we have to manage the tension of loving our neighbor, spreading the gospel, AND protecting the fire of our faith. If we don’t, it can be like the parable of the seed scattered in the thorns.
And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
Remove the weeds from your soil, remove the sin and fleshly desires from your fire that don’t let you burn the way God wants you to. It can be hard, but we can do it together!
Next, the bible tells us to show our fire to others.
“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Let your light of good works shine before others and more will be given to you, that sounds like a growing fire!
If you think you can rely on your electric heater cellphone flames, what you think you have will be taken away. Take that seriously as a dire warning.
Now you might be saying, that’s not so bad, I can do that, but it gets harder.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
This tells us that we should learn to rejoice in suffering by the power of the Holy Spirit that has been given to you. We all encounter suffering, it might be a chronic disease, a lack of money, a prodigal child, a child who died, the inability to get pregnant, a strained marriage, a stressful unfulfilling job. We have to take those experiences and learn endurance, build character that leads to hope in Jesus, and hope in Jesus never, ever fails and will never put us to shame. What a wonderful fire building promise!
Part of our suffering might be the loss or lack of things we enjoy, but the bible tells us
But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Learn to be content with little. Do you fully realize the nearly ridiculous abundance we enjoy? As pastor John has put it, we live like kings. Your comfortable climate controlled house that protects you from the elements, you warm bed that lets you have restful sleep, the peace we enjoy without bombs going off nearby, the warm water that flows from your tap, flush toilets, a refrigerator and freezer full of food provided from a fully stocked grocery store, the list goes on and on of the things beyond food and clothing. If you lost everything but essential food and clothing, would you still be content?
I recently had an issue with my hot water heater and we went without for about a week. It was an eye opening experience how something that sits in our house mostly unnoticed, when broken, suddenly became an incredibly important thing when you can’t shower, use your dishwasher or clothes washer. It was an eye opening experience that reaffirmed how grateful I am for that luxury. When you have those experiences, you have to fight against your fleshly frustration in going without and instead see Jesus through the situation and become more thankful than you were before and learn to be content with food and clothing. This makes our fire burn cleaner and hotter when it doesn’t rely on earthly pleasures.
Next we turn to our households
for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?
Strive to manage your household well, encouraging and teaching your family by example how to live a Godly life, by, as Timothy says in
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
Fleeing youthful passions and sins will cleanse you and make you ready for every good work that make your fire grow and shine to others. This is a fight that we must undertake:
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
Be willing to fight, which requires the sword of the spirit, the word of God
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Understanding the word will make you understand that you have a gift that God has given you and wants you to use
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
identify your gift, guard the deposit and use it to fan it into flame
If you’re unwilling, I give you this warning
Warning
Warning
And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Don’t let your fire dwindle, don’t drift away from Jesus, maintain and grow your faith in Him every day and thereby grow your fire. If you’re a smoldering lukewarm fire, God will spit you out. If the promises and commandments of God don’t motivate you, I hope that not wanting to be spit out will.
As we come to the end of this message you might say, “I can’t do all that” and you’re absolutely right! Have a great day, I’ll see you next week.
I hope you know, I’m joking, we are given another amazing promise
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Learn to wait on the LORD Jesus Christ, that you can do nothing without him, and all things through Him.
You can do ALL things through Christ, you can run and not be weary, you can walk and not faint, you mount up with wings like eagles, He, and he alone, can work all of this and more into your life and make you a powerful flame of fire, a light to others and enable you to train, guard, manage, fight, run, work, toil, farm, strive, and fan into a flame of fire!
I pray that
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Go, be bold, and be on fire for Christ!
