Starting A Fire

Scripture Reading

1 Kings 18:30–39 KJV 1900

30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: 32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. 34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. 35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water. 36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. 37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.

Intro

This morning I want to talk to you about starting a fire.

Right now, not far from us, South Georgia is watching what fire can do when the conditions are right.

Two major wildfires have been burning across our state.

The Pineland Road Fire in Clinch and Echols Counties has burned more than 32,000 acres and, as of the latest Georgia Forestry Commission update, was about 44% contained.

Officials say it began with a stray spark from a welding operation that fell to the forest floor and ignited the vegetation.  

Then there is the Highway 82 Fire in Brantley County.

It has burned over 22,000 acres, and as of Saturday was about 45% contained. Reports say it started on April 20, likely when a foil balloon struck power lines.

Think about that. One spark from welding.

One balloon touching a power line.

Something small.

Something insignificant

Something that, by itself, may not have looked like much.

But when it met the right conditions — dry ground, drought, wind, and fuel — it became a fire that thousands of people could not ignore.

And that is the nature of fire.

Fire does not need much to begin. It only needs a spark.

Fire spreads when the conditions are right.

Fire consumes what is dry.

Fire gives light.

Fire gives heat.

Fire purifies.

And the thing about fire, once it begins to spread, is hard to contain.

South Georgia is in drought conditions, and officials have said those dry, hot conditions have made these fires dangerous and difficult to control.

Even rain has helped but has not been enough to extinguish deep-burning organic soil fires.  

And as I thought about those fires, I could not get away from this thought: if natural fire can begin with one little spark and consume thousands of acres, what could happen if spiritual fire started in one child of God?

What could happen if one person in this church caught fire for Jesus?

What could happen if one prayer meeting caught fire?

What could happen if one family caught fire?

What could happen if one young person, one elder, one preacher, one worshiper, one altar worker, one saint of God said, “Lord, set me on fire”?

Because in Acts chapter 2, the church did not begin with a program.

It did not begin with a committee.

It did not begin with a crowd trying to impress the city.

It began in an upper room with people praying, waiting, hungering, and obeying.

And the Bible says:

“And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” — Acts 2:3

Notice this: the fire did not just sit on Peter.

It did not just sit on the apostles.

It sat upon each of them.

That means every believer had the potential to carry the flame.

And I came to preach to somebody today: you may feel small, but so is a spark.

You may feel insignificant, but so is a match.\

You may think, “I’m just one person,” but one person full of the Holy Ghost can start a fire that reaches a family, a school, a workplace, a neighborhood, and a community.\

We are not talking about strange fire.

We are not talking about emotionalism without truth.

We are talking about the fire of the Holy Ghost.

We are talking about the same apostolic fire that fell in Acts 2, the same fire that caused Peter to stand up and preach Jesus, the same fire that brought conviction, repentance, baptism in Jesus’ name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost.

So my question today is not, “Can God send fire?”

Because I believe He already has.

My question is: is our world dry enough,

And are we hungry enough, surrendered enough, and available enough for the fire to spread through us?

Because once again it only takes one spark.

And today, I believe God is looking for somebody who will say, “Lord, let it start with me.”

Starting a Fire.

Body

In 1st kings Chapter 18 we begin to read the story of a period in the history of Israel where the nation is led by an evil King

King Ahab had turned away from worshipping the one true God and instead worshipped a God by the name of Baal

If you think that your vote doesn’t matter then let this story be a reminder to you that we as a nation are only one president or governer of senator away from a system of Idolatry

And while we as adults are able to resist it

What we are seeing play out in our nation is a generation of young people and olders alike coming along who have been inundated with this philosophy of living any way you want and still being saved

King Ahad was married to this woman by the name of Jezebel, who was also an Idolatrous woman

He built a temple and altar for Baal in Samaria, and led Israel deeper into false worship.

1 Kings 16:30-33 says Ahab did evil above all before him, served Baal, worshiped him, and “did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.”

That matters because Baal was worshiped as a storm and fertility god.

The people believed Baal controlled rain, crops, and harvest.

So when God shut the heavens, He was proving that Baal had no power at all.

The LORD alone controlled the rain.

And by the time you get to 1 Kings 18, the land is dry because the people’s hearts had become dry.

Israel had turned from covenant truth to false worship, and God used the drought to bring the nation to a moment of decision.\

That is why Elijah says in 1 Kings 18:21:

1 Kings 18:21 KJV 1900

21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

The drought was not just about dry ground; it was about a dry nation.

Before God sent the rain, He first sent the fire.

But we have to understand today that sacrifice back then wasn’t the same as sacrifice today

We think sacrifice today is just showing up on Sunday

But back then In the Old Testament, if you wanted God’s attention, if you wanted God to answer you, if you wanted God to forgive you, if you wanted God to help you, you didn’t just come on Sunday morning and hear some incredible singing and then raise your hands and you got your answer and felt good and felt peace.

But you had to build an altar.

It was not some instantaneous thing that took place.

You had to go find heavy rocks.

You had to get assistance to carry these rocks, sometimes several yards, several hundred yards, and build something that would be strong enough to hold an animal.

And after you had carried several rocks, which oftentimes was an all-day or even an all-week adventure, you had to then go cut down trees if you were near them and find wood, cut the wood, and stack the wood in order.

Then you would have an altar prepared for God to move.

This would not go over well in America because we like our miracle to be microwaved, and as soon as I pray, God better come through before I leave the altar, or else I may not come back next week.

I really need the Lord to hear me and answer me immediately.

But in the Old Testament, it was really an effort to get a hold of God.

It was sweaty and sometimes bloody to get a hold of God.

Aren’t you thankful you live in a different generation now?

You can just come to church Sunday morning and people are already setting the atmosphere for the glory of God to fall in your life.

But it wasn’t always that way.

Then after you built your altar and after you had put the wood in order, because some things only happen when you get order in your life, you had to go find an animal, and not just any animal.

It had to be a clean animal.

It had to have all these requirements, and you had to kill the animal and then lay the animal on the altar as a sacrifice to get God’s attention because an altar without dead flesh does nothing for God.

Empty altars create unanswered prayers.

And oftentimes we’re offering God nothing and saying, “I hope you come through in a massive way for me in return while I give you as little as possible.” We want God to be all-in while our flesh survives the encounter.

The flesh offering was always the precursor to fire falling, to fire moving.

God would be pleased if you built the altar,

You know preparing that place in your life that sacrifice in your life

Then cut down the wood,

You have to identify those things in your life that are of the world and cut them down

That can be the music you are listening to

The movies you are watching

That can even be the shorts you are watching

But you have to get the world out of you

laid the wood

And once you cut it down you have to lay it out on the altar

That’s just the preparation

That is the worship service

We dont have praise and worship at the beginning of our services to put all of our talent on display

We do it because we have to get the world out of us before God can come into us

Thats why we put the words on the screen and doesn’t our media team do such a magnificent job

But we put the words up there so that you can sing with us

Did you know that it has been scientifically proven that it is impossible to truly multitask

That your brain is designed to focus on one thing at a time

ANd preparing the wood is almost like preparing the yourself for what God is getting ready to do

And then after you built your altar and after you had put the wood in order, because some things only happen when you get order in your life, you had to go find an animal, and not just any animal

It had to be a clean animal

It’s not that God wants it it’s so that he can consume it, and then killed the animal, sacrificed the animal.

Then God would answer you.

Wow.

They revered God in a way that we often do not.

And Elijah feels like he’s the only one living for God in a nation that used to worship God.

And everybody now worships a golden statue named Baal, just a statue made of gold full of demons behind it.

And everybody’s now convinced by the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel that this is the God of the land.

And so Elijah is frustrated because he knows who the real God is.

But everybody around him is trying to convince themselves and him that Baal is God.

And so he gets into a heated argument and tells the prophets of Baal, “Let’s just find out once and for all and settle the matter: who is the Lord?

You worship your God, Baal, and let’s build an altar, and I’ll worship my God.”

And the God that answers by fire, he will be God.

And they agreed to this because they had so much confidence in gold.

And so they had the altar built, and they got up, and they started first.

And I mean they went all out for their God.

They had the animal.

They sacrificed.

They started praying and screaming and crying, and nothing was happening.

And that’s the world that we live in today.

That is not different from America.

People will go crazy over anything that’s not God, acting like it is a god.

They will paint their entire bodies for a sports team just to watch the team lose in three hours right in front of them, go home and wash the paint off and feel like a fool, drink themselves drunk, acting crazy for something, and have no idea that what they’re screaming for and who they’re screaming for will never know them, come through for them, answer their prayers, love their family.

But yet they do it because they’ve got other gods.

And you’d be shocked at the people that have multiple gods.

That’s why you should never go crazy out there and then come to church and be a statue and just sit and watch the service.

Because if you’re in the presence of the real God, the one who heals cancer and the one who heals diseases and the one that took care of your past and the one that cast out devils and the one that cured you from depression

that’s why I praise him, because he’s someone that’s always made a way and always come through and always provided.

Elijah started mocking them,

They were really going crazy.

Nothing was happening.

So they took it to another level.

They started cutting themselves.

That’s demonic.

If you’re struggling with that, that’s demonic.

“Well, you know, you know what I’m dealing with.”

I know what you’re dealing with. It’s a spirit near you.

And when they’re cutting themselves, trying to get this demon’s attention, and they’re trying to praise something that will never come through for them, they’re jumping up on the altar.

.They’re screaming.

They’re bleeding now.

They’re sweating.

They’re saying, “Please, Baal, prove to this preacher that you’re real, that you’re God.”

And Elijah starts mocking them.

Elijah was very courageous.

It’s not one against one or one against three.

It’s one against 450.

And he starts just telling them, “Maybe your God’s asleep.”

And they have knives.

They’re obviously not afraid to use them.

They use them on themselves.

This is a signal that you’re not dealing with sane people.

There’s something wrong here.

“And maybe he’s on vacation.”

He starts making fun of them. Very bold.

“Maybe there’s something wrong. Maybe he just can’t hear you. Maybe he has a hearing problem. I don’t know.”

And they did it all day long because they truly believed the gold god would come through for them, only to find at the end of the screaming and the jumping and the cutting and the praying and the believing that the gold had nothing to do for them in return.

It could not offer an answer.

And then Elijah said, “Okay, it’s my turn.”

And the altar had been ripped apart and destroyed ferociously.

And Elijah now doesn’t just get to start his prayer meeting; he has to rebuild.

Have you ever had to rebuild an altar because of somebody else in your world?

Oh, there are people that will — it’s almost like they’re anointed to tear down your altars.

You make up your mind, “I’m going to pray in the morning,” and they go crazy the night before. You make up your mind, “I’m going to do this for God,” and they lose it.

And so you get distracted by them.

And now, instead of just doing what you want to do, you have to go rebuild an altar because someone was anointed to mess up your altar call.

And so Elijah doesn’t just get to start praising God.

He has to go pick up the rocks again.

Never let someone take your prayer life.

Never let someone take your walk with God. I don’t care what they’re doing to get your attention. Nothing matters more in your life than your daily relationship with God. Never let someone convince you to stop going to church.

Never let — I wish.

Never let — I don’t care what they’re doing on Saturday night. Sunday morning, you belong in the house of God. Sunday night, you belong in the house of God. Wednesday night, you can’t — that’s my altar.

Building it, rebuilding it, and I’ve got to get God’s attention. So he’s doing everything he can do. And so he gets the wood, and he gets the wood back in order. And because, like I said, nothing happens without order.

It’s the animal. And the Bible said when he’s building the altar that he made a trench. Now, this is not necessary. Just get the rocks, get the wood, kill the animal. God answers. That’s the protocol.

But yet Elijah seems to be saying, “I’m going beyond what is necessary to get God’s attention.”

Some people only do what’s necessary.

“I serve when it’s my turn. I’m there early when I’m supposed to be doing this, or else I’m not there.”

It’s an amazing thing how when it’s our assignment, we’re there. But when it’s not, it’s, “I just do what’s necessary, what’s required of me.”

But Elijah builds the altar, gets everything ready, then he starts digging a trench around the altar deep enough to plant seed in.

He’s making room for a bigger fire.

An altar without a trench is a request for a small fire.

Only doing what’s necessary is a prayer saying, “God, just barely come through.”

Wow.

When you only do what you have to do, what you’re telling God is, “Just at the last minute, make a way. Provide exactly what I’m asking for, but don’t do exceeding abundantly above all because I want you to know that I’m not doing it either. Let’s have a working relationship, God. I barely do what’s required. You barely do what I’m asking.”

We don’t see it like that. We see it as, “I’m doing so much for you, God. You need to make miracles out of messes and do whatever you can do for me.”

But Elijah said, “I want so much fire to fall that it doesn’t just get the altar; it gets all around the altar. I want God to be so moved by my sacrifice that he doesn’t just barely answer. I want an undeniable, unexplainable God encounter so that when I leave this service, I know only God did what just happened.”

I want to know who’s ready for a big God moment. I want to know who’s ready for a big answered prayer. I don’t want a temporary breakthrough. I want something that shatters the things in my world and lets me know this was God all by himself.

Turn to your neighbor. Tell him, “Dig the trench.”

And then he said, “Fill four barrels with water.”

This is a problem because it’s been three and a half years since it’s rained one drop.

This is what separates the favored from the fragmented because it’s okay to get the rocks, the wood, the animal. We got more of those. But water is what we’re running out of.

Sacrifice is not what you have left over. Sacrifice is when you have something that you’re running out of.

Sacrifice is not something that’s replaceable. It’s not out of your abundance. Sacrifice is the thing that you’re losing.

And God says, “That’s what belongs on the altar.”

This is going beyond offering now into sacrifice.

Most people water the altar with tears, not money. But this time, the animal won’t do. The wood’s not enough. He has to do something beyond it. The real sacrifice is not the dead bull. It’s the water that has been running out for three and a half years.

He watched his own brook dry up that he was drinking out of after he prophesied this, and now this drought, and he has no water himself, and water is a scarce supply. And yet he’s saying, “Take the thing that we’re running out of and dump it out before the Lord.”

There’s other prayers you can pray, and there’s other fasting days you can fast, but there’s a term called sacrificial giving for a reason. Sacrificial. It’s not called sacrificial fasting. Not called sacrificial praying. It’s called sacrificial giving.

Walls of Jericho

Widow with cruz of oil

Widow with a little meal and a little oil

That was twelve of you because you’re getting nervous now because I’m getting near your god.

Sacrificial giving is where you take what you don’t have a lot of and you say, “I want God to move so badly that I’d rather lose the water and gain the fire than hold on to the water and keep waiting in my season of drought for God to move.”

And Elijah is sitting here, and he said, “Take four barrels of water and pour it out on the burnt sacrifice.”

He’s calling it burnt. He’s calling it past tense.

The fire has not fallen yet, but he’s acting like the fire — oh boy, here we go. Notice the verbiage. It’s the burnt sacrifice, not the sacrifice. It’s the burnt sacrifice. Because sometimes if you really want God to move, you have to call things that are not as though they already were.

Faith says, “When I start sacrificing, there’s no way he can resist it. I’m going to go ahead right now and start declaring that my miracle is already on the way. Because when I pour out the water, God will answer by fire.”

It’s not, “Well, I hope he comes through. Well, I hope he makes a way. Well, God, please see what I’m doing.”

It’s, “This is going to work. God has already declared it. My sacrifice is burnt.”

Water 3 x 4 barrels = 12 barrels one for each of the tribes

God wanted to make sure that every tribe was covered

Tribe

Meaning

Scripture Tie-In

Preaching Thought

Reuben

“See, a son”

1 John 3:1 — “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”

God does not just see your struggle; He sees you as His child.

Simeon

“Hearing” / “God has heard”

Psalm 34:17 — “The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.”

The same God who hears the cry can answer by fire.

Levi

“Joined” / “Attached”

1 Corinthians 6:17 — “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”

Revival starts when we stop being attached to the world and become joined to Him.

Judah

“Praise”

Psalm 22:3 — “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

Praise creates an atmosphere where the presence of God is welcomed.

Dan

“Judge”

Psalm 75:7 — “But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.”

When God judges a matter, Baal loses and truth stands.

Naphtali

“My wrestling” / “My struggle”

Genesis 32:24, 28 — Jacob wrestled and was changed. “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.”

Some people are one wrestling match away from a new identity.

Gad

“A troop” / “A company”

Joel 2:11 — “And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army.”

One spark can become an army when the people of God catch fire together.

Asher

“Happy” / “Blessed”

Psalm 1:1 — “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.”

Real blessing is not in Baal’s system; real blessing comes from walking with God.

Issachar

“Reward” / “Wages”

Hebrews 11:6 — “He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

God does not ignore sacrifice. He rewards those who seek Him diligently.

Zebulun

“Dwelling” / “Habitation”

Psalm 91:1 — “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

God is not looking for a Sunday visit; He is looking for a dwelling place.

Joseph

“He will add”

Matthew 6:33 — “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

When God comes first, addition is in His hands.

Benjamin

“Son of the right hand”

Ephesians 2:6 — “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Through Jesus, we are not defeated beggars; we are seated in a place of spiritual authority.

New Generation:

Manasseh

“Causing to forget”

Philippians 3:13 — “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”

God can heal you so deeply that your past does not control your future.

Ephraim

“Fruitful”

John 15:5 — “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.”

The fire of God does not just make noise; it produces fruit.

I came to tell HHF today that God has been preaching to us through everything around us.

We have watched fires burn across South Georgia. Thousands of acres have been touched by fire. And those fires did not begin as thousands of acres. They began with something small. One spark. One ignition point. One moment where fire met dry conditions, and suddenly what started small became impossible to ignore.

And I believe there is a spiritual parallel for this house.

Because before there was fire on Mount Carmel, there was drought in Israel. The land was dry because the hearts of the people were dry. They had drifted from the true God. They had bowed to Baal. They had given their attention, affection, and worship to something that could not answer them.

But then one prophet stood on a mountain and said, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him.”

And Elijah did not start with fire.

He started with an altar.

He repaired what had been broken. He put the wood in order. He laid the sacrifice on the altar. He dug the trench. He poured out the water. And then he prayed.

And when the altar was ready, when the sacrifice was ready, when obedience was complete, God answered by fire.

That is what I feel for HHF today.

We do not need strange fire. We do not need emotional fire that burns for one service and disappears by Monday. We do not need wildfire in the flesh. We need Holy Ghost fire.

We need Acts 2 fire.

The kind of fire that does not just touch the preacher. The kind of fire that does not just touch the platform. The kind of fire that does not just touch the singers, the musicians, or the elders.

Acts 2 said the fire sat upon each of them.

That means every person in this room has the potential to carry the flame.

You may say, “But I’m just one person.”

So is a spark.

You may say, “My prayer life is small.”

So is a spark.

You may say, “My witness is not much.”

So is a spark.

You may say, “I don’t have a title. I don’t have a microphone. I don’t have a position.”

You do not need a title to burn. You just need an altar.

And when one person gets on fire, a family can feel it. When one family gets on fire, a church can feel it. When one church gets on fire, a community can feel it. And when HHF gets on fire, this city will not be able to ignore what God is doing.

Because fire spreads.

It spreads from prayer room to sanctuary. It spreads from altar to home. It spreads from home to school. It spreads from school to workplace. It spreads from workplace to neighborhood. It spreads from one hungry soul to another hungry soul.

And I believe God is looking for somebody today who will say, “Lord, let it start with me.”

Let the fire start in my prayer life. Let the fire start in my worship. Let the fire start in my consecration. Let the fire start in my giving. Let the fire start in my witness. Let the fire start in my home. Let the fire start in my family.

Because when Reuben says, “God sees me,” I can come to the altar.

When Simeon says, “God hears me,” I can cry out.

When Levi says, “I am joined to Him,” I can separate from everything trying to pull me away.

When Judah says, “I will praise,” I can worship before I see the answer.

When Dan says, “God is judge,” I can trust Him to settle the matter.

When Naphtali says, “I have wrestled,” I can still hold on until I am changed.

When Gad says, “A troop is coming,” I can believe I am not the only one.

When Asher says, “I am blessed,” I can stop living beneath what God called me to be.

When Issachar says, “There is a reward,” I can believe God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

When Zebulun says, “He wants to dwell,” I can make my life a habitation for His presence.

When Joseph says, “He will add,” I can seek first the kingdom and trust God with everything else.

When Benjamin says, “Son of the right hand,” I can walk in the authority of the name of Jesus.

And when Manasseh and Ephraim step forward, I can declare, “God can make me forget what tried to destroy me, and He can make me fruitful in the place of my affliction.”

So, HHF, here is the question:

Who will be the spark?

Who will rebuild the altar? Who will put the wood in order? Who will lay down the flesh? Who will pour out the water? Who will say, “God, I do not want a small fire. I want a consuming fire”?

Hebrews 12:29 says:

“For our God is a consuming fire.”

And if He is a consuming fire, then I do not want Him to touch only part of me. I want Him to consume all of me.

Consume my pride. Consume my fear. Consume my compromise. Consume my bitterness. Consume my excuses. Consume my hesitation. Consume everything in me that has kept me from being fully surrendered.

Because the same God who answered Elijah by fire can answer this church by fire.

The same God who sent fire in Acts 2 can send fire in HHF.

The same God who turned one upper room into a citywide revival can turn one altar call into a community-wide awakening.

All it takes is one spark.

One student on fire. One mother on fire. One father on fire. One prayer warrior on fire. One worshiper on fire. One backslider coming home and catching fire again. One saint saying, “I refuse to be cold. I refuse to be casual. I refuse to let this generation burn for everything but Jesus.”

So today, I am not just asking God to send fire.

I am asking God to start a fire.

Start it in me. Start it in us. Start it in HHF.

And let it spread until our homes feel it, our families feel it, our community feels it, and every dry place around us becomes fuel for revival.

Church, if you are ready to be the spark, this altar is open.

Come build. Come surrender. Come pour it out. Come receive the fire.

Because it only takes one little spark.

And that spark could be you.