Word here tonight. I'm going to be in the book of Proverbs chapter 6 Proverbs chapter 6 and I'm going to focus on verse 27 and 28 here tonight And when you find your place you can stand with me We'll read the Word of God together here tonight Proverbs chapter 6 and we'll take a look at verses 27 and 28 I've entitled this message watch out. It's a fire Proverbs chapter 6 verse 27 and 28 The Bible says, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? Let's read it again. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight We thank you, Lord, for the singing this evening. We thank you, Lord, for the good fellowship and the praying tonight. But Lord, I'm asking God you'd help us once again as we come to the preaching portion of the evening. Lord, I pray that you'd help me tonight, Lord, just to give you word, help me to be filled with your spirit this evening. And Lord, I pray that you'd help us to shut out the world for just a little while and let you speak to our hearts and help us to see, God, what we need to see out of your word tonight, and Lord, that it would have its perfect way and will in our hearts and lives. God, you said your word would not return void, and so we pray, Lord, tonight that as it goes out, that it would do that which you need it to do in us this evening. We love you and thank you for it all, and this we pray in Jesus' name, amen, amen. You may be seated. Entitled this message tonight, Watch Out. It's a fire. I remember when I was young, me and my cousin, we was at the house together, and it was just us two, and we got into some fireworks. And as we was getting, anybody know what the Roman candles are? Know what those are? Well, we got into the Roman candles. And we went outside and started lighting them up, and we were chasing each other around, shooting them at each other. Pew, pew, pew, pew, you know? And of course we saw all the hunting dogs down there in the fence, so we started shooting them too. You know, we didn't hurt them. But it was just funny watching them run around. And yeah, we was just having a ball, just having a good time. Well, we go inside and we walk for a little while, we walk back out and the woods is on fire. And so we go out there, and of course we know we're the culprits. And so we go out there, and we're doing everything we can to put this fire out. And boy, this thing is going and going and going. And we're doing everything we can to pour buckets of water on it. But to no avail, we were losing the battle. So we ended up having to call 911. The fire department came out, and they put the fire out. And of course, everybody's like, well, how'd this get started? Well, you know, we had to fess up. But we had a good time. We had a good time. But watch out, there's a fire. In life, there's going to be situations that we're confronted with. And here in our text, what I want us to see tonight is, as we're looking through it, the context of the scripture is talking about how an adulterous woman is really seeking a man to fall into temptation with her. But as we look through this portion of Scripture, I think we can also see that that's not just the story we can see, but that we can see a good picture of how sin comes along our path and tempts us to follow it and what it does ultimately to our life. And here in this book of wisdom tonight, we see that the Word of God is trying to show us that when things come our way that are really, in essence, a fire to us, How let us be careful that which we take into ourselves least we get burnt and so let's take a look at our text here tonight and Let's see what the Word of God shows us notice we get down to verse 27 and in the context of this scripture as I said It's a great picture of sin and how it is able to tempt us to indulge in its temporary pleasures and of course you can read this verse all the way through Proverbs chapter 7 all the way down to the last part of that and into verse 27 of that chapter and it can show us just a good picture of what just what sin does and how it tries to allure us into its temporary pleasures. The Bible does say that sin is a pleasure that lasts for a season, however. And so here tonight, as we think about that idea, that very fact, then in verse 27, notice the Bible says, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? And so we think about what a fire is. Now a fire, we understand is something, of course, that in the safe, natural realm of things, is something that can keep us warm, you know, it can be needful in our lives. But here in the context of this scripture, we're looking at, and in these verses, we're looking at fire as being something that we, this type of fire is something that we need to be avoiding, something that we need to, not to be around. But I think it's easy and safe to say that, listen, fire, whether you're looking at it in the context of keeping you warm or whether you're looking at it as a type of sin of what it can do to you, a sin in general of what it can do to your life, that you can't bring it but so close to you anyway. Fire is something that must be kept at a distance. Because if you bring it into yourself and you get too close to it, then what happens is, well, we get burnt. And so the Bible shows us here in the text, it says, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burnt? Can he take fire in his bosom and his clothes not in essence be, that word burn there has the idea of being scorched, has the idea of being burnt or even to be marked or to be scarred. Now listen, there's some things in life that if we're not careful and we reach out and we take that in ourselves, you notice the Bible says, can a man take fire into his bosom? Something that we reach out and we grab a hold of. Something that we reach out and we grab a hold of and we bring it into ourselves and there's so many things. out here in this world that we can reach out and grab a hold of and bring it into ourselves. But as we do that, understand the Bible tells us that, especially with the idea of sin, that we bring that into ourselves and what's gonna happen is, as we're gonna end up, the end result of that is gonna be that we get burned or that we get scorched or that we get marked or that we get scarred. And listen, sometimes in life, I believe that if we're not careful, what happens is we grab a hold of things that we don't need, things that's not gonna be beneficial, things that are definitely sinful, and we bring that stuff into our life, then we will be burned, or we will get scorched, because listen, sin destroys everything it touches, just like a fire. Sin destroys everything it touches, just like a fire. And so we can see that we bring this stuff into ourselves, whatever it could be, and it has the ability to mark, to scorch, and to scar us. And listen, we go through life, and many of us here tonight, perhaps, have taken something within ourselves that was like a fire, whatever it could be, and we've taken it into ourselves, and it scarred us, or it marked us. How many of you here this evening got a scar, maybe perhaps on your body somewhere? You look at it, you know, I got several on my hand and most of them I can look down and I can see, yes, I know how that happened. I know how I got that one. I know where that one took place. I know I was fixing a bed whenever that took place. I got stuck by a hook right there. I got cut right there. I got several on my knees. How many of you got some scars on your knees from whenever you was running around as a kid, riding bikes, sliding into bases and doing things like that? You look down at yourself and you can see scars that are there. And when you look at them and when you see them, it's a reminder of what took place. It's a reminder of maybe some pain. It's a reminder of something that happened that you had to doctor and you had to deal with. Listen, we go through life and we grab a hold of some things or we do some things or make some bad decisions in our life and we bring that stuff into us. And it can be like a fire that really scorches us and burns us. And the Bible says in the text, it says, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? And listen, the resounding answer to that is no, a man cannot. There is no way possible that a man can take fire within to himself. and he not get burnt or he not get scorched or he not get marked or he not get scarred by something that is so deadly, something that is so hot, something that is so fierce that you can't bring that into yourself and it not cause some sort of pain in your life. And that's what sin is. It is sin. When we think about what sin is, it's the idea of missing the mark. Missing the mark. And so we see this in our text. We see that sin is one of those things that we bring it into ourselves and it can scar us in life. As I was studying through this scripture, notice he says, can a man take fire in his bosom? We see that a man is reaching out to grab it. He's reaching out to bring it into himself. Maybe perhaps it looks good, maybe perhaps it sounds good, but whatever the case, he reaches out, he grabs a hold of it, he brings it into himself. And the Bible shows us here, he says, can a man do this and his clothes not be burning? Of course, the answer is no, he cannot. Listen, there is no man. There is no man that can play with sin. There is no person, there is not one individual that can handle fire, that can grab it and take it within himself and not be scorched or burnt or scarred or cause you any amount of pain. There is nobody that can grab hold of it and bring it to himself and not suffer the consequences of it. And that's the idea of sin. That's the idea of succumbing to the temptations that come into our life and going astray in that direction. The Bible says in verse 27, can a man take fire in his bosom, into his bosom, into his lap, into himself? In essence, we're talking about the vital organs, the vital part of us. Can a man take it into his bosom where it's hard and the most vital organs of himself, that which keeps him alive, can a man take that and bring it to that place such as that and not be felt by it? And the answer is no. Anything that we bring into our life that is like a fire, and we see throughout the context of this scripture, we can see that it's a good picture, as I said, of sin. And how the sin comes our way and tries to adorn itself, to make itself look really well, and to make itself look really pleasing, but the end result is, the end result is, is after the temporary pleasure is endured before its season, it leaves a mark in your life. Yes, we can go to God and we can say, Lord, please forgive me. And listen, we have a God that is willing. We have a God that is willing. We have a God that is able. We have a God that is ready to forgive if we ask for forgiveness. We have a God, the Bible says in 1 John 1 now, that he is faithful. And we have a God that says there in verse 9 that if we confess our sin, that he is willing, that he is faithful, and that he is just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And we praise God for that. But I would like to go through life with as less scars as possible. Amen now, I don't want to what we want to do here tonight I just want to make sure that we don't that because we know God forgives it We don't just go off into sin just because well, I'll just ask God to forgive me Let us not take advantage of grace As the Apostle Paul said, God forbid that we would do such a thing. But let us here tonight understand that, listen, we do have a God in heaven, that yes, there may be some times and maybe moments when we do handle fire and we bring some things into ourself that we do not. And God is faithful and God is just and God is willing to forgive. But listen, as I said, I would like to go through life as much as possible with having as less scars as possible. And the Bible shows us Here in our text, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? And the answer is no. We think about David and Bathsheba, and there he was up there walking on the rooftop, and he looks down and he sees Bathsheba, the Bible says, bathing herself, and the Bible says that as he looks down there and he sees Bathsheba, that he calls for a man and he says, bring this woman up here to me. And so they bring Bathsheba up there, they have relations together, she ends up getting pregnant, and then what happens is, is David does everything he can to try to hide it. And so he goes and brings her husband, who is out on the battlefield, serving the kingdom. He goes and has her husband brought back to the house and then persuades him to get drunk and to spend some time with his wife so that nobody will ever know that it was David was the one that was the father of this child. Well, things don't end up going David's way. So he writes a letter and gives it to another guy, sends him out there and says, have Uriah go out to the hottest part of the battle. And then leave him out there and withdraw yourself and let him die. I imagine we think about this portion of Scripture, this dark place. in David's life that I imagine when David looked back on it was probably wishing when it was all done and over with that that was something that would have never taken place. It was a dark period. It was a dark history there. And so we see that not only did he have an affair with his friend's wife, but we also see that he left him out there on the battlefield all by himself for the purpose of having him killed. The Bible says this was a man that was after God's own heart. David had some problems sometimes in his life, but what led him to get to all those places? Listen, whenever David was up there on the top, there in his room, and he was walking around out there on the top, it never entered into his mind at that moment that he was gonna have Bathsheba brought up here, that she was gonna end up getting pregnant by him, and that he was gonna have her husband taken out to the battlefield in Kiel, None of that had ever come into his mind. But what set this thing ablaze is the fact that he took the fire within himself and he got burnt. He got marked. He got scarred. But it wasn't just him. He wasn't the only one that suffered the effects of bringing the fire within himself. Lots of other people suffered the consequences of him bringing that fire to himself. And David got burnt, but it wasn't just David. Listen, Bathsheba got burnt, and Uriah got burnt, and everybody else that was involved got burnt. The kingdom got burnt itself. The Bible says one sinner destroys much good. And so everybody felt the effects. It was a ripple effect throughout the kingdom because one man took the fire within himself. But he never thought in a million years as he was up there walking around, his plan that night was not to be with Bathsheba. His plan later on down the road was not to have his friend Uriah killed in battle. But that's how things progressively went. What we see and understand in life is that whenever we bring the fire of sin within ourselves, we have no idea the mark that it may leave behind. how burnt we may get. We have no clue at that given moment, when we take it into ourselves, the effect that it's gonna have on us and everybody around us. The decisions that we may make along the way, that we would think in a million years, I would never in a million years ever do this, or in a million years would ever do that. But David did. and to burn a lot of other people too. The Bible shows us here, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes and not be burnt? I think about Cain and Abel. And there they are there and being raised up by Adam and Eve. And we see that Cain goes out and he offers his offerings from the fruit of the ground and God's not pleased with that. But Abel, he goes out and he offers the first things of his flock like he's supposed to. He got angry because God was favorable towards Abel and his sacrifice. and he was angry that God did not accept what he was bringing to the table, but yet God had told him, listen, for a blood sacrifice, the remission of sins is through the blood, and Cain knew that, but he wanted to do things his own way, and he was a farmer, and so he brought the best of the fruit of the ground to God, but God says, listen, the remission of sins isn't through the fruit of the ground. It's through the blood. It always has been. And Cain knew that, but he was angry that he couldn't do things his own way. So he got mad not only at God, but he got mad at his brother and ended up slaying his brother Abel. Why did this happen? Because there was a moment when he took the fire within himself, that fire of envy, that fire of jealousy, that fire of pride, That fire of uncontentment. And he brought all of that within himself. And he got so angry and so mad. And he hated his brother so much so that he took him out into the field and the Bible says that he slew him. That word slew there has the idea of a slaughter. He was angry. He took the fire within himself. and it just didn't affect him. Did not God call down out of heaven and say, where's your brother? God knew that he grabbed a hold of these things and brought these things within himself that was a fire to his life. And the pride and the envy and all these things, the anger or the hate that was there, He brought all these things within to Himself and it burned Him. It scorched Him. It marred His life. But not just Him, it hurt His mother and Father. Just as bitterness and unforgiveness and all these things. We can grab ahold of these things and bring it into ourself. And what does the Bible teach us in Matthew 18? That listen, when we have a heart that's failing to forgive folks, then in essence, we really, we put ourselves in this spiritual prison. Listen, understand, people that's done us wrong, they're going about living their life and probably not thinking another thing about you suffering. They're just going about living their life. They're gonna lay their head down tonight and not think one moment, probably. about maybe about you. But in our resentment and in our unforgiveness and we allow things to get to a bitter place in our hearts and lives, it'll rob us every day. For some people, it's robbed them not just for the day, but it's robbed them for weeks and months and years. We take that fire within themselves and it burns. Listen, there are some things you bring it into yourself and it can burn you up real fast. And they sum things, it's like a slow burn. Kind of like bitterness. And unforgiveness. What happens is, it's a fire that you bring within yourself, but it's a slow burn. You, in essence, bake yourself to death. You, in essence, broil yourself. You turn up the heat on your own self. Because we bring the fire into us. The Bible shows us here in our text, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Not only do I think about David and Bathsheba, I think about Cain and Abel, but I think about Solomon. Solomon was a man that had a lot of wisdom, but he sure did have some grave errors in his life too. And just let us not point our fingers at Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel and David and all these people because we got our own things we've grabbed a hold of too. But I tell you what Solomon, he reached out there, had 700 wives and 300 concubines. How in the world he managed to do that, I have no idea. But it was one of those things that helped shift his heart away from God and got him into idolatry. As he began to marry all these people from all these different places, it moved his heart away from where it needed to be. And what he did was he grabbed ahold of a fire and he brought it into himself and it burned him. But it didn't burn just him. It burned everybody around him. and it burned his kingdom. And we think that we can sit here tonight and we can mention many folks throughout the scriptures. The Bible says here in the text in verse 27, can a man take fire into his bosom and his clothes not be burned? The answer is no, he cannot. The Bible says, notice in verse 28, can one go upon hot coals? In verse 27, we see a man's taking fire into his bosom. In verse 28, we see a man is going He's walking in the direction he's going upon hot coals and his feet. The Bible says, can his feet not be burned? Can you live a life? Can you go in this direction? Can you continue to walk down a path that is not going to burn you to some degree? Now I know you like me, we've seen on TV over the years of our life. And we've seen people, you know, they're, whether they're tribes in different areas or just people in general doing different things and they have a fire, you know, they light, they got all this, these coals and they line up all these rocks and they walk a certain distance, you know, through and we got people, man, they heart, and listen, they can, listen, there's some people, man, that they train for this, they heart, they got some tough feet. And they can walk across some things that don't hurt them temporarily. But there's no way a man can stand in a fire and walk continuously in a fire and not burn him up. A man may be able to go a short distance, temporarily, but it's going to get him. But we see that these people, they line up these stones, they put all these hot coals in there, and everybody stands around. And they watch this person walk on hot coals. And it seems like they walk through there and they're just... You know me, when I go outside, if my foot touches the gravel... Has anybody else out there got sissy feet? I got some sissy feet. I tell you what. The grass don't bother me a bit. As soon as there's a rock in place, I don't care how small that gravel is, man, I tell you what, it just really grabs a hold of my feet, and I just can't stand it. I got some sissy feet. But listen, we can develop some hard feet, and we can maybe be able to go down this path for a short time, and it may seem like we're not being affected. You start walking down those hot coals, and you just keep walking down that path, and it's going to get you eventually. But these people, they're living their life, walking down this road of hot coals, and they think, well, I'm gonna be okay, and listen, I'm going down this path, and I'm walking on top of the fire, and listen, there ain't none of it bothering me, and listen, they're telling me that you take fire within yourself, and it's gonna burn you, and it's gonna scorch you, and it's gonna mar you, and it's gonna scar you, and they're telling me not to go down this path, but listen, I'm walking down it, and everything's fine, and everything's okay. But no man can walk down that path but for so long until he gets burnt. The fire of sin will scorch us. Not only that, but the more you're burnt by it, the more you're also seared. When we think about seared, we think about a seared conscience. Sometimes we can be burnt by some things and we reach out and we grab a hold of it and we bring it into ourself. And listen, sometimes when something scars us, we can then touch that place and it no longer has the feeling that it used to have. You see where I'm coming from? So that the next time we reach out and we grab a hold of that fire and we bring it into ourself, it burns that same place again It scars over again and that skin gets thicker and thicker and thicker to where eventually you almost don't have no feeling in that place no more. Let us not get ourselves to such a place to where we become scarred to such a degree that we no longer feel any longer. The Bible says here in our text, Verse 27, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? And the answer is a resounding no, he cannot. Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? And the answer is a resounding no. And you may there in verse 28 for a short period of time, but eventually you're gonna wanna come out the other side. So a man cannot go down this path for long before he is eventually Taken by the fire. And so we ask ourselves here tonight, what am I taking into myself? What is it that is out there? Because listen, we walk out these doors tonight, we go home. We're living our lives. And the devil's gonna do everything he can to come amongst us, everything he can to tempt us into sin, whatever it could be. He's gonna do everything he can throughout the remainder of this whole week. to do everything he can to bring some sort of fire into our midst. But we have to make a decision, am I going to take it and bring it into myself? Am I going to walk across these hot coals? Or am I going to step back and walk away from it? God's Word says, shows us I think in the text, that no man, no man, Listen, it don't matter how spiritual you think you are. Oh, well, I've spent five hours in prayer today and I've been fasting for all week. Well, did not the Lord Jesus fast there in the wilderness for 40 days? And though Jesus was sinless, the devil still came to Him when He prayed and fasted for 40 days. Let us not think that just because we have such a great fellowship with God today or that we're just on the mountaintop today or that we've done... Let us not think that the devil seeketh not, that he's not walking about seeking whom he may devour. Because he is. You can't bring the fire unto yourself and it not scar you or mar you or mark you in some way. Let's pray tonight. Father, we thank You for this day. Lord, we are a blessed people. Lord, help us here tonight just to heed the warnings that we see in Your Word. God, none of us here perfect tonight by no means. God, we all need help from the pulpit to the pew, every single one of us. Lord, we all need help. Lord, there's nobody in here tonight looking their nose down on anybody. Lord, we're all sinful people. Lord, we're just here tonight. Lord, this church is a hospital for folks to come in and for the hearts to be healed and Lord, for you to work on us and to help us just to be the men and women of God that you need us to be. Lord, I pray here tonight that if there's anybody in here this evening, Lord, that has been marked or scarred and is struggling with that, that God, that you'd give them relief tonight. God, you'd help them, Lord, to have some healing. Lord, I pray that as we go throughout this week that we be sound in mind and spirit, that we put on the armor of God there in Ephesians, and that we be ready to be able to withstand the wiles of the devil. Lord, I pray here tonight that You would go before us. Help us, God, to be a people that would follow You. Lord, help us to trust in Your Word. You said there's a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, We ask God for your light in our life. Lord, we close out tonight. As the piano plays here this evening, I'm gonna open up the altar here tonight just for anybody that would like to come and pray. And if God's just spoken to your heart about something, maybe you're just praying tonight and just asking that the Lord would just keep you safe. Maybe you're praying for family members. God, keep my family safe. Maybe it is tonight that you are battling some things. Maybe you're just struggling. Maybe you're hurting on the inside. Maybe there's some things you've taken into yourself. Listen, it don't necessarily have to be things such as drug and alcohol and all these types of things. Listen, it can just be all different types of things that are in this world. God, I've got something in my heart. I've got something in my life that's really just kind of burning me on the inside. I've got something that's hurting me on the inside. no greater time and opportunity than tonight to bring it to God. Let us make good use of this opportunity that we have here this evening. Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned? No, he can't. Let us be careful of what we allow to lodge in our lives. Amen, amen. Appreciate y'all. It's been a wonderful day. Thank y'all so much for being here tonight. Pray the message was a blessing to you and the Lord spoke to you. And I pray for a good week and I look forward to being back here on Wednesday night. And so let's be dismissed in prayer. If I could, Brother Lewis, would you dismiss us tonight?