Uncommon (2)
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As we continue into our Holiness series we need to focus on change. I’ve said it many times-
You cannot get somewhere new unless you’re willing to change
This morning we are going to discuss
29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Many of us want a God that is a scented candle, not a consuming fire
We want God to warm the room without changing the atmosphere. We want God to add a flickering ambiance without lasting change, but what happens when we have God and no fire is that we will quickly sell off what is valuable for what is temporary.
Hebrews 12:29 is quoting
24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
The Hebrew word for fire literally carrys the idea that this fire eats and devours.
God is calling out to a people who are willing to give it all, but the blessings will outmeasure the sacrifice.
A consuming fire doesn’t burn around parts we want to connect. It doesn’t ask our idols for permission.
God cannot co-exist with his rival
The fire of God does not come merely to make you feel something. It comes to make sure nothing else occupies His throne.
Bring out the stool: Bring someone up to the stole and have them sit. Explain that the stool is the driver seat of our life. The walk out the skit where we desire to constantly take the drivers seat.
We see the consequces of taking over the driver seat:
16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
You have Esau who historically is the first born—they resceive everything when the father dies.
The birthright was not a meaningless family title. It represented inheritance, leadership within the family, and a privileged place in the family’s future.
In this family, it was connected to the covenant promises God had given to Abraham and Isaac.
Esau, way to overly dramtic, walks over to Jacob who is cooking red stew in the kitchen and says give ma bowl I am hungry.
Jacob says sell me your birth right for a bowl of stew and then Esau says: I am about to diue, what use is a birthright too me dead.
No doubt he was exhausted and hungry, but the text doesn’t state he is a man on his death bed.
Then
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
He treated it as though it had no value because it could not satisfy what he wanted immediately.
He gets hungry, it’s ok to get hungry. If hungry were a sin God wouldn’t wait for me to die to send me to hell, but he took his temporary hunger and sold long term rewards to meet an immediate need.
and this is Jesus without fire. All of you in this room have amazing purpose. You have a call. I believe that call is to prosper greatly because that is what scripture tells us.
You may be dramtically sitting here right now, but Pastor you don’t know my life how am I to prosper greatly?
Every devine blessing passes through fire
You have to choose between your appetite and your birthright
Apetite says:
“I need relief right now.”
“I need pleasure right now.”
“I need approval right now.”
“I need this relationship right now.”
“I need to respond to this anger right now.”
“I need to feel better right now.”
And suddenly, something temporary begins looking more valuable than something holy.
Birthright says:
You carry something bigger than your immediate need
Your obedience today is protecting your tomorrow
The moment is painful, but my purpose is powerful
What I am carrying is worth more than what I am craving.
His failure, and those who follow his path is that they avoid the fire for immediate pleasure.
I’m not saying that fire is easy.
The fire of God does not come merely to make you feel something. It comes to make sure nothing else occupies His throne.
Yes this fire is set to remove things in your life that don’t align with God’s biblical principles, but it’s for your good
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant…
Yes this process is painful, but the rest of the verse
11but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
God is not moving things randomly.
God is moving things favorably
He is removing what was never strong enough to hold the weight of your prosperous life.
We can build our identity, our security, our peace, our worth on approval, on money, on control, on success, but when teh shaking comes, when tragedy hits it crumbles.
God would rather shake your foundation before you build so that when you receive all that he has for you- You’ll get to keep it.
God wants to bless you, but the path of blessing passes through the fire of refining.
And when the fire finishes its work, the false will be gone—but what God placed inside you will still be standing.
Embrace the fire. Don’t lose your calling because your immediate comfort stands against your long term blessing.
