You know, I've always loved, and I think more so as I get older, I've always loved fires. How many people like to sit by a fire? It used to be something you could only do at camp, but back in the late 90s, the Chafonis and some other leaders of Kathy and my small group gave us one of those Coleman, put it out on your porch, kind of have your own little fireplace thing there. Kathy and I, we just love to sit out by a fire.

And I can't describe it exactly.

There's something just really amazing about that.

A fire is comforting and calming, isn't it?

It brings reflectiveness.

But a fire is also hot and strong and penetrating.

No surprise that a fire in scripture is a frequent, a picture of spiritual vitality.

When God wanted to call Moses, he appeared to him in the burning bush.

And when he wanted to lead the children of Israel from Egypt to the promised land,

he appeared at night in a pillar of fire.

And when God wanted to make an impact on the people during the process of their seeking forgiveness, he would come down in fire and consume the sacrifice off the altar.

Fire is a great picture of spiritual vitality.

Yet, a fire needs tending, doesn't it? We've sat by the fire long enough to know that you gotta kind of kick it and poke it, and how many people know what to do if the fire dies down? Put up your hand if you know what to do. All right? And to put up your hand if you have to do it or you can let someone else in your family do it. Kathy and I, we fight about this a little bit. Who's the best with the fire? It's this bit of a family game.

But you get some more logs on it. That's the first thing. Get some fuel on it. And then you kind of get down low, you know, and you blow on the fire. And before long, the soot that was covering the coals is off, and there's a fresh flame there again. Now, we need that spiritually.

Okay?

There's something about

following Christ that regularly needs to be fired up again. And you know what I'm talking about?

Don't leave me up here. Am I the only person who's experiencing this? Whoa, whoa, that's not us. We have no idea what you mean. Know what I mean? Right. So this is a message like that. All right? In fact, taking notes is good, but get hold of that card there in your bulletin. And that card, you're going to want to be filling that out during the message. All right right every time i walk by i'm going to look to see if you're running anything down we're going to get to this lukewarmness in you part that should be real full okay and fired up in me this is what i this is the this is the dead coals this is the stuff the compromise this is the stuff that's got to go in my life. And then this is the stuff

that I want to replace it. All right. Ready to work on it? All right. Get after it. And so I'll have

this filled out by the end of the service. If you get some notes, that's good. But the main thing,

you want to know what's got to get blown off of the spiritual passion in your life so that a

fresh flame can burst forth again.

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