Keep The Fire Burning

Keep The Fire Burning

Dale Carter Sr.

Harvest Fellowship Community Church

August 17, 2019

Leviticus 6:9, 12, 13.

The title for today’s sermon is “Keep the Fire Burning.” Many times you hear someone say, “That church is really on fire.” Or, maybe they say, “That person is really on fire for the Lord.”

We want to consider words from the Bible that should encourage us to keep the fires burning in our life for always. We can keep that fire burning with God’s help. And not just in our individual lives but in the life of this church, also.

Intro: Let’s look at our primary text now.

9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. KJV

12 And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in 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 thereon the fat of the peace offerings.

13 The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. KJV

It should be our prayer that this church, other churches in our area, and all churches around this world that stand for Jesus Christ be on fire for God. May it be that we are on fire more than we have ever been. May it be that when a lost person comes by, they might say, “I don’t know why I’m here. I just felt that something was persuading me to come in here and see what’s going on.” May it be that this church is so on fire that people in this community say, “There are wonderful things happening at that Harvest Fellowship Church. Things that can’t be explained. Things that only God can do.” (A called prayer meeting on January 1st)

A pastor received a phone call late one night and he was informed that there was a fire at his church. He quickly got dressed and drove to the church. When he arrived he discovered that the church was engulfed in flames and was a total lost. He stood with other members of the church as they cried, hugged, and prayed. He glanced around and noticed a certain gentleman standing on the corner observing all that was taking place. This was a man that the pastor had visited many times and had invited to church. However, the man had never stepped one foot in the church building. The pastor was a bit taken aback. He walked over to the gentleman and said, “Well, I never saw you in the church.” The gentleman replied, “Well, the church had never been on fire before.”

Now, this is not the kind of fire we would ever wish for our church. But we should be praying for the fire of the Holy Ghost to consume this place. That fire that sat upon each of them and filled all of them with the Holy Ghost and they all spoke with tongues. And that it happen in such a way that thousands of people came to see what was happening and three thousands of them were saved. There was something going on that they didn’t understand. No one had ever witnessed anything such as this. Thousands of people had congregated in Jerusalem to celebrate the Fest of Pentecost. It was the law. It would be bad news for them that did not attend the celebration.

It was the law that brought them there but it was the Fire of the Holy Ghost that caused them to desire to have what they had witnessed. Acts 2:37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Not one person ask what can I do but someone ask what can we do. Someone speaking for the crowd, we what that fire. We will repent, WE will summit. WE will serve the Lord. Joshua said, “As for me and MY house We will serve the Lord.”

Now, there are some questions we need to ask and try to answer as we consider this fire that is spoken of in Leviticus.

First of all, what is this fire?

Secondly, whose responsibility that this fire should not go out?

And, thirdly, how can we see that the fire does not go out?

And lastly, why should we keep the fire burning?

What is this fire?

The Scripture tells us what this fire is. Over and over in the Old Testament we’re reminded of the symbol of fire. The fire of the burning bush first appears as Moses and is drawn to it. It’s a bush burning in the desert but it’s not being consumed. Moses had often seen bushes burning in the desert but he had never seen one that wasn’t being consumed. So, Moses went over to see that bush and he heard a voice. That voice said, “Take off your shoes, Moses, for the ground on which you’re standing is holy ground.” Moses removed his shoes and began a meeting with the Lord God. Moses saw the fire, responded to it, had a meeting with God that would set millions of Jews free and eventually change the entire world.