The Fire Of Almighty God

THE FIRE OF ALMIGHTY GOD

29For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29

ILLUSTRATION: Let me begin by telling you a story about a man who was going skydiving for the first time. He had taken all his lessons and it was time for his first solo jump. So he jumped out of the plane, but he panicked and couldn’t remember how to open his parachute. As he was falling rapidly to the earth he suddenly met another guy who was going up. So he seized the opportunity and shouted, "Hey, buddy do you know how to open a parachute?" The guy shouted back, "No! Do you know how to light a propane stove?"

It’s not wise to play with fire!

God chose fire to be the symbol of His presence. It’s all throughout the Bible:

• Moses met the presence of God as a flame of fire in the midst of a bush (Ex. 3:2).

• The people of Israel confronted the presence of God at Sinai where fire came down from heaven upon the Mountain (Ex. 19:18).

• Solomon dedicated the Temple and fire fell from heaven and the glory of the Lord filled the temple (2 Chron 7:1).

• Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days had God’s throne as a fiery flame and a river of fire came out from it (Dan. 7:9-10).

For Moses this was an ordinary day, He’d been in Midian 40 years faithfully tending the flock of Jethro. I’m sure he was expecting the day to be the same as any other day, but this day was different…

The years of the life of Moses are remarkably divided into three forties:

1. The first forty he spent as a prince in Pharaoh’s court,

2. The second a shepherd in Midian

3. The third as leader of the Israelites. He had now finished his second forty, when he received

his commission to bring Israel out of Egypt.

4. Moses was born to be Israel’s deliverer, and yet not a word is said of it to him till he is eighty

years of age.

Background:

Keeping the Flock (v. 1)

Ø God requires faithfulness – When God appeared to him, he found him tending sheep near Mt. Horeb (Sinai). This was a poor employment for a man of his education and yet he finds contentment with it

5. Spiritual Retirement – Moses is a good example to those who feel you’ve been on the back side of the desert and it has been a long time since you’ve felt anything or heard anything from the Lord.

6. In God’s time, as long as you stay faithful to your responsibilities, He will fit you into His plan and purpose in His own time and in His own way. If you feel like you’ve been put in spiritual retirement, I have a word for you. Moses saw more in a desert than he ever saw in Pharaoh’s court. So, stay faithful where you are.

The Burning Bush (v. 2)

While Moses tending sheep, he looks over and sees a bush that is burning.

Last place Moses expected to meet God, this was the middle of the desert

God Spoke (v. 4)

“When the Lord saw that he had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the bush, Moses, Moses” (NLT

Holy Ground (v. 5)

“Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground” (NLT). The putting off the shoe was then what the putting off the hat is now, a token of respect and submission.

The ground is holy ground, made so by this special manifestation of the divine presence of God.

And for Moses everything changes at this point in time because his encounter with God is a revelation of God himself,

The God that he sees and encounters for the first time can only be described as a God of fire.

He wants to set his church on fire;

He wants to burn within us a fresh passion for Jesus

Our God is a God of fire and he wants his people to be set ablaze with his glory..

Moses when speaking of Jehovah after the burning bush later in his life,

Deut 4:24 says “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

John in his vision on the isle of Patmos gives a beautiful description of the beauty of the Christ when he sees him in all his glory and he says beginning in Revelation 1:14, “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength, His voice as the sound of many waters, his hair was as white as wool and His eyes like a flame of fire.”

John the Baptist when spoke about Jesus and his sending of the Holy Spirit said, “One is