It's a very non-familiar book of scripture. Look at Leviticus, amen. Somebody said, who? Leviticus, amen. Let's go to Leviticus chapter number six, and we'll see if the Lord has, we're at brunch right now. The Lord has a brunch today, and once you've gotten there, we'll all stand if you're able to, and we'll read one verse, and we'll pray, and ask God for his help this morning. I thank you, as I said before, I'm like my pastor, I love it when the Lord shows up, but I really like it when he stays, amen? And so we pray that he continues to stay with us through the message. So let's look at Leviticus chapter number six and drop down to verse 13. The Bible says this, the fire shall never be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out. The Bible says again, the fire. shall never be burning upon the altar, it shall never go out. I want to talk this for in the simple of thought, keeping the fire burning. Keeping the fire burning. Let's pray. Father, I pray God for your health this morning. I pray God to guide my weak mind, my thoughts, my heart, my speech, and my actions. I pray God to help me to preach the life-changing word of God. I pray God to challenge us in certain areas, change us when change is needed. And God, whatever else needs to take place in our life, in our family, in our home, I pray God to do just that. I pray God to give us extra courage, extra strength for the journey. I pray God to build our faith muscles. I pray God to help us to shake off the things that are trying to shackle us and hold us and hinder us from being the people of God that you called us to be. I pray God that one who may be discouraged, distraught, dismantled, are disturbed in their mind. But I pray God you come by with your dynamic power and give them great victory and that God will thank you. And thank God for that soul that might be among us or that might be watching via the internet. I pray God that if they're lost, they'll receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, yes sir, and King. And that God will thank you. Well, we'll stop right here, Father. If I've left anything out, I pray, yeah, I pray God you meet that need as well. Of course, if you're a son, then we pray, not only Jesus, but mighty Jesus, Amen. Amen. May be seated. Keeping the fire burning. All of us have the ability to keep the fire burning. Sometimes I go to a camp, it's called the Wilderness Camp in West Virginia, and a lot of times what they'll do, they'll show the boys and girls there how to start a fire. It's amazing how complicated, because some of them get so frustrated, even though he's given instructions, he showed them exactly what to do, how to build it, and all this stuff, but they gotta work together. And you know how that is, trying to work together, I mean, especially some young people, and this is amazing. But once that fire gets started, then they gotta keep that fire burning. Yeah. Especially when we would do the overnights and we would stay in tents and we'd have that fire burning in the middle and that fire had to keep burning. But if not, if that fire went out, it was going to be a cold night that night. Amen. Well, you know what? This past jubilee, many of us have had the fires stirred in our hearts. We had that fire and it be rekindled on the inside. But then the question comes here, how do I keep the fire burning? How do I keep things going forward and not regressing and going backward? Well, I believe that we can see an example here in the scriptures on how we can also keep the fire burning. Burning and we all have the ability to keep the fire burning I like what one person said they make this statement. They said are we fire igniters watch this down or fire extinguishers Say it again preach Are we fire igniters? Or are we fire? extinguishers There's some folks, you'll have fire burning, but then somebody may come by and instead of helping you to keep that fire ignited, they'll come by with a fire extinguisher. And what they'll do, brothers and sisters, they'll come by and then they'll do this. They'll be, and put that fire out. If you're still trying to keep it going, they'll be, well, you know, so-and-so, But nonetheless, though, amen. I'm with no good. But nonetheless, amen. But nonetheless, I mean, you don't want to be a person that's hindering somebody's fire from going. A lot of times, a person will get saved. And a lot of times, the old saints of God will come by and say, you'll be all right. You know, you're going to be like the full old Bible. But that fire, it'll burn down a little bit. Wait a minute. That ain't gonna help the fire keep going. No, encourage them. There's nothing like seeing a person that gets born again and gets excited for Jesus, because a lot of times, it might ignite the fire inside of somebody else. I know, forget Brother Ed Morrison, back in 1997, the last sermon he preached at Sunrise, he made this statement, not the last sermon he preached, but as the pastor, he preached and made this statement. He says, you know what? He says, babies beget Life. Babies beget life. And when he said that, I didn't really understand what he meant. But then later I understood. And any person here that had a baby come in your home, oh yeah, oh yeah, life. Life begins, amen. All of a sudden, there's somebody crying in the middle of the night. All of a sudden, there's somebody that needs your attention. All of a sudden, you can't sleep soundly at night, but you got to be having that ear ready to answer the call in the middle of the night. Well, by the same token, brothers and sisters, when a person When a person is saved, born again, and redeemed, they need somebody to help feed them of the Word of God. They'll have all kinds of questions and things of this nature. And all of a sudden, there's life again in the midst of the body of Christ. Well, let me ask this. Are we fire igniters or are we fire extinguishers? The first thing I want to show us, number one, is how to extinguish. We'll do the bad first. the fire. How do you extinguish the fire? Hold your place here because we're coming back. But remember the Bible says over in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 30. Ephesians chapter 4 and look at verse number 30. We'll let the word do the work. The Bible says in Ephesians 4 and verse number 30, the Bible says and grieve not. What? Oh, y'all ain't got it there yet? All right, we're good there, all right. It says, grieve not, what? The holy, what is that? The Holy Spirit of God, whereby he is sealed unto the day of redemption. That word, grieve, means to sadden or to cause grief. The Bible says, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Well, how do you greet the Holy Spirit? Let's back up. The Bible says, in verse number 26, the Bible says, be ye angry and what? Sin not. Some people get mixed up. They think it says this, be ye angry and sin. But there's a not on the end of that thing, okay? So it says right here, be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Watch this. Neither give place, don't give room, don't give a spot, don't give an opportunity to the devil. Let him that stole, keep on stealing. Nope. Oh, I'm sorry. It says, let him that stole, steal no more, the Bible says. But rather, let him labor, working with his hands, the things which is good, that he may have to give. What? That's the right verse, y'all? that he may have to give to him that need. Preacher, I don't like that verse. I'm getting to give to myself. But the Bible says right here, when we give, we also should be helping those, key word, who need it. How many folks have we helped that was in need? How many folks have we tried to encourage that was in need of encouragement? The Bible goes on to say this, let no corrupt communication proceed out of somebody else's mouth. No. Oh, sorry. I'm just misreading this thing this morning. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, the Bible says. And then it goes on to say, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that means building up, that it may minister grace unto the hearers and grieve not. The Holy Spirit of God. All these things, if we do them, they grieve the Holy Spirit. But he don't stop there. Let all pressure, bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all what? Malice. Malice. Now that word clamor is an interesting word. That word clamor here means tumult, or tumult, however you pronounce it, which means violent commotion. If one thing happened, a commotion, that's bad enough. But a violent commotion. These things grieve this Holy Spirit of God. The bitterness, that word bitterness, it means especially like poison. Poison doesn't build you, poison saps from you. And brothers and sisters, you and I, if we want to keep the fire burning, let's not do this, because it will extinguish that fire that God started inside of us. And we've got bitterness, and we've got clamor, evil speaking, evil communications, being able to speak with my mouth and out of my heart, it helps nobody. But it does hinder. It'll really hinder us. How about you? But I want my father to keep birthday, man. We ain't done yet. He said a birthday too. And be mean to one. Oh, me and my eyes. And be kind one to another. Tenderhearted. Uh oh, uh oh. Forgiving one another. Even as God For Christ's sake have forgiven you. Just like Christ forgave us, the Bible says that we are to forgive one another. And if you and I don't do this, it grieves the Holy Spirit. You know what that will do folks? That will extinguish the fire. It's been started. If you get another verse, go over to 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5 and verse 19. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and look at verse number 19. The Bible says this, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 19. The Bible says, quench not the spirit. And that word there means quench, means to extinguish a fire or things on fire. And brothers and sisters, that means this, you and I have the ability to quench, to extinguish the fire. that the Holy Spirit of God has started in us. By the way, that's the present imperative of that word quench. That means the present imperative is to command, watch this now, to do something on a continuous or repeated basis. The Bible commands us to continuously not quench the Spirit. But a lot of times, that fire started welling up, but we try to suppress it. I was embarrassed, she'd already shouted. But Melissa was shouting over here a few moments ago, there was probably something over there. You know what? That was that fire. That fire gets to burn on the inside. And you're trying to contain it. You're trying to hold it in. But something keeps trying to get it out. And you're trying to suppress it. And all of a sudden it's, whoa, chlorine! And people are like, whoa! Come on. You know what? When's the last time the fire of God began to burn? on the inside. When that fire of God begins to burn, it burns some things off of you too. It gets that dross, and that ugliness, and that meanness. All of a sudden, you have a tenderness and a warmth toward other people that you did not have before. Let me ask you some questions. Do we want to quench the fire? Do we want to extinguish the fire? Because a lot of these things, there's some more stuff I'm going to hit in a little bit. A lot of these things, they'll just put that fire out. And some people walk around. You're like, he on fire. I got to put that thing out. I got to stop that thing right away. No, get rid of that thing, man. And instead, be somebody that has a match. And you see somebody on fire, say, oh man, let me throw some fire. Let me put some more wood in there. Let me keep that fire going. Keep it going. I told you guys when I was in North Carolina one time, I was staying at my in-laws, and my father-in-law was in the hospital, and so I had a job, and a task. My job was to keep the fire going. That house was heated by what we call the wood stove. Wood burners, yeah. I'm from the city, I'm from Chicago West Side. But nonetheless, she said, keep that fire going. I said, okay. My room was down there in the basement. The fire thing was right over there. And so I go over there, all through the night, I was putting wood. I put wood in that fire. That thing started going down, Melissa. I go over there, and I put some more wood. I put some more wood in the fire. Because I had a job. It was to keep the fire going. Man, we got up the next morning, and everybody that was upstairs, they were like, man, we about died last night. I'm like, we would roll out, you have the fire going. I didn't know that you had to keep it blazing the whole time. I didn't know. I just do what I'm told to do. Hey man, so don't let me keep your fire going, okay, if you work down at night. But nonetheless though, I would rather be somebody that got to go in and have it go out. Then all of a sudden there's a coldness. Watch it now. There's a numbness. And somebody can be praising God, but we don't feel a thing because we've grown cold enough. But I'm going to tell you what, when that fire is still burning inside of us, when we see somebody else start to get on fire, all that does is it starts welling up on the inside of us. It feeds the fire inside of us. Now let me show you this. Watch this now. So we see how some things can extinguish the fire, but now number two, who ignites the fire? Go back with me to Leviticus. But now let's go to Leviticus chapter nine and verse number 22. Leviticus 9 and look at verse number 22. The Bible tells us who ignited this fire that they were told to keep going. The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 9 and verse number 22 And Aaron lifted up his head toward the people and blessed them and came down from the sin offering and the birth offering and peace offering. Watch it now, watch it now. And Molan and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the people. And the glory, watch it, and the glory. of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And the Bible says, here it is, here it is. And the Bible says, and there came a fire from where? A fire out from before the Lord and consumed, the Bible says, upon the altar, the burnt offering and the fat. And the Bible says, which when all the people saw, they shouted. They shouted, and then the Bible says they fell on their faces. That word shouted here means to be overcome, to shout for joy, it means to call to see. What happened? When they gave that offering, that sacrifice, and when God was pleased with what they gave, the Bible says that fire came from heaven and consumed it. Where's the fire come from, preacher? It comes from God. God sends the fire. When there's a revival that begins to take place in our hearts, it's God that sends that fire, that real fire, that genuine fire. But now watch it, there is a strange fire. Look at the next verse in chapter 10, verse 1. And the Bible says this, and Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them, his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and opened, there it is, y'all, strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And the Bible says, and they went out, here comes some more fire, and they went out, fire from the Lord, uh-oh, uh-oh, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. That's strange fire. That was their own fire. You see my picture? We gotta be careful that we don't cause our own selves to be on fire. In other words, it's man-made fire. Because see, the fire came from God. He sends the fire. But if you're not careful, there'll be strange fire, manufactured fire. Listen, there are certain things that grab ahold of our attention. There are certain things that move. Our emotions now god gave us emotions and god uses our emotions, but let's make sure there's god that stirs the emotion And not just the story or the situation Because he wants us all over with we walk out brothers and sisters. We're the same as we were we first went in That's right. But when there's god's fire you leave there my brothers and sisters and you're like, whoa What that's something come on, man. I was there and something happened homie is I can't explain I can't explain it. It's like when I was in Galileo Baptist Church, 1989. We walked into Galileo Baptist Church. Dr. Talbot Moore was preaching the word of God. When I left there, I got in that Suzuki sidekick. It was brand new. And I grabbed ahold of the steering wheel. I was just trembling. I was shaking. I didn't understand Holy Ghost conviction, but I knew something was going on. I said, man, what in the world's wrong with me? I came back that night, the assistant pastor was preaching the same word and the same Holy Ghost, grabbed ahold of me and before I knew it, I ran down the aisle, I hit the altar, I cried to God, and God began to change my destination. What do you say, preacher? That was real. How do you know it was real? I went back to work on money. I wasn't cussing. I didn't tell them dirty jokes. Come on up on Friday. If there was a battle to be fought, where's the battle? Well, we're fighting today here on the job. But all of a sudden, I went back to work on Monday, and you won't believe what happened. Ms. Jane and I sat down at my workstation. And Ms. Bobbie, I began to work. I was doing what they paid me to do, wine. Before that, I made my, the lead person over me, she had to come talk to me about anything. She had to come say to me, now Clement, we need to have this done. But now, I'm like, okay. She was like. Folks started looking at me, and I was, it was just, I didn't realize what was happening. But something was taking place on the inside. Listen, when God does it, other folks see it, you don't really even see it. You don't even realize it. And they're saying, man, something's different. And I can lose weight. When you lose weight, somebody that hasn't seen you, they're like, you done lost weight. You're like, not really. Oh, yes you have. Well, I lost, I lost, what was it, 25 pounds? When I lost that, here recently, I tell you what, Jolene, your head could get small. I mean, what are you trying to say, baby? I mean, what's going on? But nonetheless, though, I mean, she knew something had happened. And you know what? When God grabs ahold of us, other folks will know something's happening. And when God sends a fire, it's real fire. So who ignites the fire? It's God. But this one's going to blow our minds. Maybe. The third question is this. Who keeps the fire burning? God ignites it, Brother Billy. But who keeps it burning? Now go back with me to Leviticus chapter 6 where we started. And let's look what the Bible says in verse number 8. The Bible says that this is the same fire that God started. Luke the Bible says in verse number 8 of chapter 6 of Leviticus. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. It is the burnt offering because of a burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. He goes on to say, in verse number 12, and the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out, and the priest, watch it, and the priest, watch it, 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 offering. Won't you tell your preacher? The ones who kept the fire going was the priest. God started the fire, but it was their job to keep the fire going. Brothers and sisters, when God starts a fire, my soul, when God starts a fire on the inside of us, then we have a responsibility to keep the fire going. to keep the fire burning. They'll put that wood on that fire and make sure that fire burned all night and burned all morning. Because when people brought their sacrifices and their offerings, the fire was ready to go to consume the offering and they will bring in to offer unto God. I don't got any old priest. Run with me to Fark Peter! Go with me to Fark Peter! And go to First Peter Taffinson! First Peter Taffinson! See, in the Old Testament, they had priests. But the Bible says something in the New Testament that should encourage each of us. Look at 1 Peter, chapter number 2, and verse number 5. 1 Peter, chapter 2, and verse number 5. The Bible says this. Peter, on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says, ye also, he talked to the believers, ye also, he says here, as lively stones are built of a spiritual house. Here we go. And holy what? Priesthood. Priesthood to do what? To offer up spiritual sacrifices, the Bible says, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The Bible says that we are a priesthood and we are to offer spiritual, but not physical, spiritual sacrifices unto God. But he ain't done. Nope. Drop down to verse number nine. The Bible says this, but ye are a chosen. Chosen generation a royal what? priesthood and holy nation a Peculiar people they used to show for the praise of him who walked my soul who have called you out of darkness and into his marvelous life the Bible says here he is called us out of darkness into his marvelous life and we are royal priesthood peculiar people Praising him We keep the fire open. Right. Because we have a priesthood now, a priesthood of believers. So we don't have to go through a man to get to God anymore. Christ took care of that. So we can go straight to the Father. You know what it says over in Hebrews, how we can come boldly unto the throne of grace. We don't have to go through any other person. You don't have to go through nobody. You can pray to God on your own. Yep. Now, I'll pray for you. Others will pray for you. But you also have access to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. My soul. Let me ask you, are you giving those spiritual sacrifices? Are you giving those spiritual offerings unto the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? Are you keeping that fire burning? Now go back with me to Philippians. We already hit third base. We're almost at home plate. Watch this now. I'll call you in a minute. Watch this. The Bible shows us something else. The Bible shows us about the cleanliness. The Bible says, verse 10, Leviticus 6, and the priest shall put on his linen garment and his linen breeches, shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with a burnt offering on the altar and he shall put them aside the altar. And he shall put off his garments and put on other garments and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place. Ceremonially a pure place. He was going to take these ashes and place them. Where are these ashes? Where do they even come from? Oh man, we all ask this question. Go to Leviticus, Leviticus chapter one. What happens brothers and sisters, As that when they sinned, they brought an offering, a burnt offering unto God. Look what the Bible says in Leviticus chapter 1 and verse number 2. The Bible says this, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, he shall bring an offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish, he shall offer it of his own voluntary will. God don't make you. Nope, but then the Bible says at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and they should be accepted to him for what? Atonement to make atonement for him that word atonement that means a pardon a purging to make reconciliation In other words, when they would bring that burnt offering, that sacrifice, and they put their hands upon it, and it was almost as if they were transferring the sin to that particular animal, and they would take that animal, and they would offer it as a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord. We're talking about clemency. We're talking about confession. We're talking about getting right with the Lord. You know what? If we're going to keep the fire going, then you and I need to continue to confess our sins. to God. The Bible says in 1 John 1 verse number 9, it says if, let's go look at it. I can quote it, I can quote it. I don't want us to look at it. Look at 1 John 1. Can we talk about voluntary? Did I talk about voluntary there? It's still voluntary. Look what the Bible says over here in 1 John 1 and look at verse number 9. The Bible says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to do what? Cleanse us of all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins. If we acknowledge our sins. I don't know about you, but I want to keep the fire burning. So every morning, when the fire burns all night, every morning, bring my confession before God. Because see, if you don't get your sins confessed, That means they stay over there. And then about sickness. You don't smell good. We were talking about it this morning, how we go to camps, and how we took a group to camp, and we were talking about what happened with the camp, and the girls, they had to schedule. They had one shower, and how many girls? 20? Can y'all imagine? 20 to 25 girls. One shower. And how many minutes did y'all have to get ready? Breakfast was at what time? Early. That says it all. And Miss Stephanie was on that group. Man, she had a schedule. She had so many minutes to get in there, all that kind of stuff, to get that shower. Some of them did it at night, some in the morning, all that kind of stuff. And then me and Brett told Stephanie, we didn't have that problem. Not us personally, but our boys had no problem. Some of them didn't take a shower all week. But man, you can smell that Axe. Man, that stuff, it was running all down on the roof, the hallways, all kinds of stuff. They said, we don't need no shower. They said, we going to the river, the pool, or whatever, hey, boys will be boys, you know what I'm saying? But nonetheless, amen, they wasn't worried about it. But that's why they, you know, some girls didn't like them that way. Cause a girl can smell if you stinkin', you stinkin', amen. You be like, I'm fine. I feel good. But you know what? That's how we are sometimes, too. We say, well, you know what, I didn't came to God 155th time. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, Ask God to forgive you for this sin, because you know what? I might go back out and do it again. Say, I ain't gonna walk. So now it stays on me. And it piles up. That's equivalent to saying this. This is how boys think, by the way. Why take a shower? I'm going to get dirty in the day anyway. Why should I take a bath? You know, when I start to play, I'm going to take a bath then go out and play. That don't make any sense, mama. No, it does make sense, because it's going to start piling up. Piling up. And then you have a lot of other issues. Okay, I'm just saying. But my relationship, it's the same thing with us. If we don't come before God and get clean, it's piled up. Now this is John talking to believers. John says, if we, we're talking about salvation. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Yeah Listen, let's keep the fire burning. Watch this watch this the Bible shows something else the Bible shows something else look at Romans chapter Go back to Leviticus. Go back to Leviticus. I'm just about to touch home plate. My foot just about to throw my tip out. Look what it says over here back in Leviticus chapter 1 and go to verse number nine. Oh, I like this verse. The Bible says in Leviticus chapter one, verse nine, but his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water and the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice and offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord, a sweet scent unto the Lord. But Moses says here, burn all on the altar. The whole thing was to be consumed on the altar. Our whole self needs to be laden. on the altar. That's right. All of you! Preacher, can you give me a verse? Yes, yes, yes. Go to Romans, chapter number 12. Romans, you know where I'm going. Romans chapter 12, and look at verse number 1. Romans 12, and look at verse number 1. This is what the Bible says. Romans 12, and look at verse number 1. The Bible says this. Paul says to the church, I beseech you, come on Paul, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your what? Bodies the whole thing your bodies a living sacrifice not dead a living sacrifice Holy and sacrilegious God which is a reasonable service Give him your ear Give him your eyes Give him your mouth That's the gift Lord See when we give him our ears this will help us y'all that means I'm gonna listen to things I should listen to, and not listen to things I should not listen to. That means my ears, when I hear gospel coming, listen to this heaven, then my ears automatically, my ears are really low, but my ears automatically. They just close up. But some people, when they hear gospel, they close up. They just have to tune in. Whoa, I picked something up. I pick something up, oh, hi, yeah, whoa, whoa, we over here. No, close your ears. My eyes, that means I'm looking at things that are victorious. I'm not looking at things that's gonna hinder me and pull me into a direction I need not go into. My mouth is gonna say things it should say and not say things that it should not say. Oh, we know, no, I mean, he's just words. Oh, words will tear you up. Some of us heard something said to us when we were little that still affects us today. That's right. And because of what was said, it's hard to erase it from the mind. Yep. Listen, let's not be guilty of that either. Let's not say things that tear us up. Instead, Bob says, say things that edify, that build up. But defeat, defeat, defeat. When you're giving your feet, that means you're not going to walk into places you shouldn't walk into. You say, oh, no, let me go back this way. That's the wrong way to go. But now some people say, I can't help my feet. Oh, yes, you can. You can help your feet. You can't bend. OK? But listen, when you give them all to yourself, just think about your hands, what you touch. All these things. And the next time the inmates try to tell you it's okay, oh man, grab that little joint, it ain't gonna hurt nothing, it's legal, it's legal. It might be legal in some parts of the United States, but ain't legal for me. Always look for it. Take your drink, let me hit something here. Don't say out too loud. Take your drink so it can calm the nerves. The Bible says this Cast all your care upon him because he's He takes with the anxiety and the worry the Bible says over there over there on Matthew 11 verse 28 says come unto me all your labor and a heavy burden and I will give you a That word rest means refreshing. Oh, what you're saying, preacher? What I'm saying is this. God has a remedy for all these things that Amy tells us is OK. But when you give your body as a living sacrifice, not something that's dead, but something that's alive, that's what God wants. Now watch this. Watch this. Oh, he ain't done yet? Oh, fine. So we see who keeps the fire burning. But now let's quickly hit how. I already touched on this already. How do we keep the fire burning? We talked about how to extinguish the fire, we talked about who ignites the fire, we talked about who keeps the fire burning, and this is how we keep the fire burning. Number one, I already mentioned already, continually confessing our sins to God. Continually confessing our sins to God. First John 1 verse 9. But the second is this. Pray daily. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without ceasing. Pray. That word without ceasing means don't omit it. Don't omit it. Number three is this, meditate on God's word. Look at what the Bible says. Hold your place here. Go over to the Psalms. Go to Psalms 1. Go to Psalm 1. You know the verse. Go to Psalm 1. I'm going to show you this. Look at what the Bible says. Psalm 1 and look at verse number 2. Psalm 1 and verse number 2. The Bible says this. But His delight. Who are we talking about? Verse 1 says a blessed man. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. That word meditate means to ponder. That word law means his direction, his instructions. We need to be in God's word daily. Meditate on it. Listen, I'm getting used to the route to get here to the church. Okay, I moved 10 minutes from the church before, now I think it's about 18 minutes or so. But this is what I do. Now I know how to get here. But I use my GPS. Why do you use GPS? Because there's something out there called 80-94. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And sometimes it's red. And when I put in my GPS, it'll tell me sometimes if I go this way, it's a lot quicker, or if I go that way, it's a lot quicker. So I know how to get here, but I want to make sure that I get here quickly and not on the, I don't want to take a long journey. I wouldn't go to safari, okay? So I look at my GPS, and I look at the instructions, and then I begin to calculate. I say, well, this one says I give four minutes quicker. This one right here says four minutes slower. This one right here says don't go that way. Amen. So what I do is I meditate on it. And then I decide which route I'm going to take. Well, you know what? We have to grab ahold of God's word. And when you grab ahold of God's word, meditate on God's word. Read God's word on a daily basis. Don't just read it for Sunday morning worship. No, you read it on Monday? You thought you read it on Monday? Listen, if you get it on Monday, what's gonna happen? You'll get to work and you'll hurt somebody. You walk in the door and they'll be like, hey, you didn't do this on Friday. You'll be like, argh, why? But if you've been meditating on this, you'll walk in there and they'll be jumping on you and they'll be coming at you. You're a fool inside the jar, baby. They're like, what's wrong? Listen, listen. When you take that word inside of you, that helps keep the fire going. But now than that, now than that, watch this. Go with me over to our Romans 12, 11. This might hurt a little bit, but it's going to be good. Serve the Lord. Watch what the Bible says in Romans, chapter number 12 and verse number 11. Romans 12. in verse number 11. I'm sorry, I passed home play, I gotta come back and touch it. But it says in Romans, chapter number 12, in verse number 11, the Bible says this. Romans 12, verse number 11. The Bible says, watch this. Not slothful in business. That's preaching, why you hitting on that? That means to be tardy, but anyway. Fervent in spirit. That means to be hot. Doing what? Serving the Lord. They may ask us the question, how was our service for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? There's something about serving the Lord. When Miss Bonnie and Bonnie Ann, when I see them out here at the church and they're cleaning up, you know what they're doing? They're not doing this. And I know who's sitting over here. Man, let's just be clean here. Y'all look like, y'all pretend y'all doing a great job, but Lord, they have been doing it. You know? I mean, because you know how we can get there. I mean, listen, I've been a pastor for 25 years, OK? I've been in church many times. And I'd be like, OK, Lord, you're going to have to help me on this one. Here I go. I'm going in. Oh, come on. Now, who's eating over here? Come on. Come on. We the house of the Lord. Oh, I know who's sitting over here. No, no, no. But they do it. When you go to your job, preaching them folks are heathens. I mean, them folks usually don't understand. I know, but they need a light. They need somebody to be a light. You can be that light on your job. Well, I want another job. I'll be right over there. Listen, listen. The same folks going to be over there with a different name. Same post, different name, okay? And when you first walk in the job, you be, y'all know what we do, we come and say, whoa, I got a new job, it's awesome, whoa, glory to God, hallelujah, you know? And then three weeks later, I got a prayer request. Get me out of that job. Get me out of, that ain't the Lord's will, that ain't the Lord's will. But you know what? When we're working and serving the Lord, it makes a big difference. Here's the last thing, here's the last thing. Fellowship. with other believers. Fellowship with other believers. This keeps the fire going. Because you know what? You ain't talking about, you know, what the Johnson's did, what the Sam's did, and who all this. Because you don't even encourage one another. Let me show you. Look what the Bible says on the Acts, chapter number 2. Acts 2, and look at verse 46. Acts 2, and look at verse 46. Look what the Bible says. Acts 2, verse 46. You can read the whole chapter. It's all got good stuff in it. But look what it says in Acts 2, and verse 46. The Bible says, and they continuing daily. Some of y'all remember this verse, we revisited this several weeks ago. They continuing daily with one accord. That means one mind, with one passion. In where? The temple. And the Bible says, breaking bread from house to house, they did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be said. They fellowship, they broke bread. This past Sunday, for homecoming, we broke bread, we fellowship. This coming Tuesday, after the service, we're gonna break bread, we're gonna fellowship. We pray that our words and our conversation will be encouraging, it'll be uplifting. Because if it's that, it'll keep the fire burning. But if it's something else, it'll snuff out the fire. Listen, I preach a lot of revivals and all that kind of stuff. But I'm going to tell you, sometimes I'll be in a revival meeting. Then after a revival, I'm praising God. We sit down, we get talking, all of a sudden, the conversation goes into a different direction. I'm like, man, wait a minute, we just got to be shouting and running and flipping it and all that. I don't want to be in that kind of conversation. I want to be in that area. Where I want to be at is not the best, no, no. You can't change the conversation. Next time somebody comes, you say, let me tell you about so-and-so. So the people say, what? Come here for a minute. That's great. Oh, God. Oh, help so-and-so. Help us. Help us not to be the type of people that will become, I'll tell you what, one or two things are going to happen. They're going to stop. Yeah. What do you say to the preacher? We have a God that wants us to fellowship, but the fellowship should be encouraging. It should be uplifting. It should be keeping the fire burning on the inside. Listen, I know I'm not that old, but I'm 55. So I'm older than I was last year. Okay. I'm 55 years old. I've been on this earth since 1965. I was born in Salem, Alabama, August 23, 1965. I've seen a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. And you know what? The next 25 years, God give me that, the next 25 years I'll be 80 years old. And you know what? I want the next 25 to be serving the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to be walking around with the mother grubs. I don't want to be walking around with a downcast spirit. You say, preacher, do you ever get discouraged? Sure. But you know what? I ain't got to stand that way. I ain't got to stand that way. He said, I want to stay down here. I'm like, what happened right there, brother? Nonetheless, what do you say? Let's keep the fire going. Let's keep the fire burning. And let's not walk around being a person that extinguishes everybody else's fire. Oh, girl, you're too hot. You know what I mean? Y'all too on fire. Oh, there's a fire over here going. No, don't do that. Don't do that. No, instead, go around. igniting fires Give it a word of God Encourage your point. I got one question. We're done one question. We're done Let's go back first. We'll read that one verse in the biggest chapter 6 verse 18 The Bible says the fire should never be burned upon the altar. It shall never go out. Here's my question is the fire steel burn Is the fire steel burn? If the fire's not still burning, let's ask God to send the fire so we can burn. If the fire is still burning, but it's getting a little bit low, and it's just flickering, say, oh God, I don't want my fire to go out. Lord, ignite it, ignite it. God will ignite it for you. We don't have to walk around defeated, because we're the king's kids. when we cried to Him this morning. Father, thank you for your many wonderful blessings. I will try my best to keep out the word of God you gave it to me. I have a half God that's not here today, but you know, I found my fire starting to go out just a little bit. Not much, but a little bit. I pray God they come and talk to you about that this morning. Perhaps, God, there's somebody that's saying, you know, my fire has not been ignited yet. I'm in the woods there and things of that nature, but the fire hasn't come yet. I pray God they come and say, Lord, send the fire. Perhaps, God, there's others that need to come for other reasons, have nothing to do with the message. Maybe they want to pray for someone that's in a tough spot. a tight place, and they just need some help from the Lord. And they want to be that person that intercedes for them. I pray God they come and talk to you. Father, there may be other reasons that I've not mentioned, but God, whatever you're saying to do, I pray God we simply respond. Because you are God that responds to our response. And for that, God, we'll thank you. Help somebody so this one among us who that's your best salvation I pray that they come let me know and we will show them so they can know how to trust Jesus as their Savior God, we beg you right now, and the loop. I left anything out. Please sir meet that deed as well. We love you We thank you listen your Sunday. We do pray not a weak Jesus, but mine Jesus I