The town atheist was not a bad man, he just didn’t believe. He was not interested in church. There was only 1 church in the area and it was a cold and dead social club, where no decisions were being made.
**One day the church building caught on fire, and the whole town ran toward it to help extinguish the flames…including the town atheist!
Someone hollered out: “Hey, this is the first time I’ve ever seen you running to church!” He shouted back, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen the church on fire!”
I am asking God for something to happen here at Elim Bible and that something is that our area will not be able to say that they haven’t seen a church on fire. I want EBC be that church!
Most of us have had the sad experience of being in a cold, dead church, with no fire.
Someone stands to sing…and it’s obvious that their heart is not in it. They’re just going thru the motions and just in it for the show. A place where the ushers/greeters/s.s. teacher/nursery workers/even the time to shake hands all just going through the motions.
Then the invitation is given...and no one really expects anything to happen! Have you ever visited a church like that?
Ever been a member of a church like that?
Jesus threatened to remove the candlestick of the church at Ephesus in Rev. 2 if they didn’t repent.
The church that focuses on what they “used to be,” usually “aren’t,” and “never will be!”
I don’t want to hear about what this church used to be…
I want to hear from those who believe in what it CAN be and WILL be again!
You know good or bad, too focusing on the past can ruin the present and destroy the future!
Some would say, what we need is some new converts, that’ll set the church on fire! No, what you need is some fire, and people will be converted!
(“Why don’t we have people saved?” Let me ask you this… Can God entrust us w/ new converts?)
Spurgeon once said: “To put new converts into most churches is like putting live chicks under a dead hen.”
Gen. 22: God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac to the mountains to become a human sacrifice. They arrived at the location, and Isaac still did not realize that HE was going to be the sacrifice.
BUT Isaac knew there had to be 3 things to have a sacrifice: wood, fire, and a lamb
. Isaac makes this observation in v. 7“But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering?”
4,000 years later, as we look at most churches around us, we can ask the question like this…
“We have the wood, we have the Lamb, but where’s the fire?”
Wood= cross of Calvary…[elaborate]
Lamb= Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God…[elaborate]
But, where is the fire? Are we running out of fuel? It is our responsibility to keep the fire alive
I can’t talk about every denomination so let’s look at Baptists, in general:
According to statistics, it takes 40 Baptists, on average, 1 year, to win 1 person to Christ!
Why does it take so many people to get ONE person to Jesus?
It’s because of a lack of fire both in the pulpit and in the pew!
If we could control the world’s population, so that no one was born, and no one died, and if the Bible based churches kept winning souls at the current rate, it would take 4,000 years to bring the world to Christ!
So, what are the characteristics of a church on fire for God?
We have an example of an on-fire church in Acts 4, so let’s take our points from there:
A church on fire is:
I. Filled with Holy Ghost power
v. 8a The pastor is filled with Power from on High… “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them…”
v. 31 The people are filled with Power from on High… “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”
You want to know why most are afraid to witness?
They don’t pray…their foundation ahs yet to be shaken, resulting in a life lacking Power.
We need power to fulfill God’s purpose…BUT we need God’s power, alone… We can accept no substitute.
We cannot depend upon man-made excitement to get the job done / programs, promotions, publicity.
**Repetitive, empty, full of fluff worship choruses will only stir the people into some kind of emotional high.
Only when the Spirit is allowed to move among us will worship be filled with power.
Some churches have the organist playing during preaching…[I demonstrate this] This usually incites the “worshipers” into a “jump fest.”
None of the fluff…the jumping nor the shouting will ever take the place of the power of the Holy Spirit upon a church.
I don’t care how high you jump…How loud you shout…Or how many fancy notes are played during the sermon…NOTHING will take the place of REAL Holy Spirit Power.
I Cor. 2:4-5 “And my speech and my preaching [were] not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
Paul says, I’m not depending upon my own wisdom… flamboyant sermons… tear-jerking illustrations… funny stories…
Now these don’t hurt, unless they’re mistaken for God!
Charles Finney, great revivalist of the 1700s, told about a church in a certain town…a church where the fire had totally gone out…no one saved, and even worse, no one cared!
Well, it was a dead church, and no one cared…except for 1 man, and it was not the pastor. It was a blacksmith. He was not much of a talker…he stuttered so badly it was painful to hear him speak.
But he had a heart for God, and wanted to experience the revival fires once again.
He was so burdened for the fire, that one day, he closed the doors of his shop, and went home and prayed the rest of the day. The next day he approached the pastor. “I’ve been praying for revival, for God to rekindle the flames around here. Can we schedule some kind of a meeting, some kind of a revival.”
The pastor grudgingly agreed, w/ a warning that no one will come.
They had the meeting and to the pastor’s surprise, the building was full! He stood up to preach as always, but he felt very different. The power of God was so strong in that place that everyone could feel it. Dozens of people were saved that week…the fire was reignited. Why?
It wasn’t methods or programs, activities or organizations. It wasn’t because they had a youth pastor, or a PowerPoint screen!
It was because somebody prayed.
v. 31 “When they prayed!” It was only after they prayed that the Power of God was released in their midst.
When God is working and decisions are being made, you can mark it down and take it to the bank: somebody paid the price… somebody spent time in prayer!
When a pastor and a people are filled w/ power?
1. Souls will be saved (at least 8,000 in Jerusalem when this happened in Acts)
2. Worship services will be inspiring and the music will be uplifting
Eph. 5: 18a-19 … “but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,”
Would you like to add some life to our music? Be filled w/ the spirit!
You can hire a music leader, fix the sound system…add instruments, speakers/build a huge choir…but until you’re filled w/ power, you’ll never know what a song service can be!
When I’m filled with Power I just can’t wait to sing that next song…I can’t wait to sing [sing]
“Oh how I love Jesus…Oh how I love Jesus…Oh how I love Jesus… Because He first loved me.”
It won’t matter whether I can carry a tune or not…When I’m filled with Power I just want to sing praise to the One who died for me.
3. Divine wisdom will accompany all our church decisions
When the Pastor and the people are filled with Power…There will be no sitting around, waiting for someone else to make the decisions and to do the work. I can’t wait to get here and get involved. I will be looking for MY place.
Now what happens when the pastor and people are not filled w/ power? burnout!
Your fire that once burned bright and high, will begin to burn down to a flickering flame…a small spark, and eventually it gets snuffed out, unless somebody fans the coals, and, on their knees, searches for some kindling!
Not only does burnout happen…
Serving God will be a chore, a burden.
Just coming to church will become a burden if you do it in the energy of your own power…
We must serve God: in the energy of the Spirit, rather than the energy of the flesh…Then it’s not us trying to make something happen, but us allowing something to happen TO us and THRU us, even in spite of us!
The church on fire is filled w/ God’s power.
