Sermon Tone Analysis

I believe today, for the church in America, that it is either fire or a funeral.

*Hebrews 12:29* says, "Our God is a consuming fire."

Throughout the Bible, fire is mentioned 500 times.

Fire is a symbol of God's presence.

When the fire of God shows up, God's people know that God's presence is in the place.

It's evident.

Do you know that fire does not need advertisement?

When there is fire in the church, you don't need advertisement.

People will come from far and near to see a church that is on fire for Jesus, and I'm not talking about emotions.

I'm not talking about wildfire.

I'm talking about pure and holy fire from God.

 

Fire is consuming.

He calls Himself a God that is a consuming fire.

He wants to consume His church with His holiness.

He wants to consume the pride, the bickering, and the offense out of His church.

We get so offended in the church.

We get offended over nothing.

It's a bait of Satan.

If you love God's law, nothing shall offend you.

AMEN?

In *Exodus 3:2*, Moses came upon the fire of God.

It was the flame of God in a bush.

Moses saw a bush that was not consumed, was not being burned up.

He knew there was fire in there, and out of the fire God spoke and told him to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground.

We come to church today dressed any way we want to dress.

I believe when you come to worship God, you ought to come dressed in the best you have.

If the best you have is bibbed overalls, then press them and wear them.

I believe we're living in an age where the church must realize that, when we get into God's presence, He expects holiness.

God told Moses, "Take off your shoes, for the place where you stand is holy ground."

He could have come back to that very spot the next day, and it would not have been holy ground.

It was holy ground, because the fire of God was being manifested in that place.

When God's children left Egypt, after the Death Angel had passed over, every firstborn, not only of the male children in the home but the firstborn animals in all those houses, died if the blood was not applied to the door post.

God's children obeyed what God said, and that was to kill a lamb, and the lamb represented Jesus.

You have to be covered by the blood of Jesus.

Church membership will not cover you.

Baptismal waters will not cover you.

You have to be covered by the blood of Jesus.

You have to realize you're lost, a sinner, hell bound, and cry out to God to cover you.

As the children of Israel were escaping, I do not know why God led them to a body of water.

Sometimes God leads us to places we don't understand, but He led them to a body of water; and all of a sudden, at that very hour, God stirs Pharaoh to start coming after 600,000 Jews.

They're trapped.

The Red Sea is in front of them, Pharaoh is at their, and out of Heaven God drops a pillar of fire.

It comes down and separates where God's people are and where Pharaoh is, and it protects God's people from the onslaught of Pharaoh's army.

They didn't cross in 5 minutes.

It may have taken days to cross that body of water.

I can just imagine getting this group out of here, marching over to the Kanawha River, you seeing it split, and me saying, "Come on."

There is no difference.

Six hundred thousand Jews who have been in Egypt for 400 years are used to the Egyptian ways.

They were used to looking like an Egyptian, talking like an Egyptian, smelling like an Egyptian, and that's not a nationality.

I'm talking about what it is in the Bible.

It's a symbol of sin.

That pillar of fire held Pharaoh's army back until God's children got across the Red Sea.

If I had been Pharaoh, I would have fled from that place, because when the pillar of fire goes away, they go in, and everybody is wiped out.

That pillar of fire goes with Israel throughout their journey in the wilderness for 40 years.

It gave light during the night hour.

It gave protection from wild beasts.

Nothing will come around the fire of God.

One of the reasons we're in the onslaught of the enemy is because we don't have the fire of God.

It says in *2 Chronicles 7:1* that Solomon built a temple to God and when he finished praying a dedication prayer, the fire of God fell; and when the fire of God fell, it was followed with the glory of God.

We don't have any idea what the glory of God is like.

We're just getting mercy drops here today.

The glory of God filled the temple, and the priests who went about the ministry in the temple couldn't stand.

They were on their faces.

When was the last time the glory of God was so powerful in a place that you couldn't stand, that you had to get on your face?

Some of you have never been on your face before God.

America is in danger, but we're not in danger from terrorists.

We're in danger of a dead church.

People were lined up and camping out in front of Wal-Mart and Books-a-Million.

Parents were with their small children with camping gear lined up in front of Wal-Mart and Books-a-Million waiting, dressed in witch outfits, to buy Harry Potter's last book about witches and warlocks.

Our country thinks that's OK because it is getting children to read.

Excuse me?

I've got a Book for you to read.

We're in danger, and let me tell you why.

I'll guarantee you that across America preachers, deacons, and teachers had their children in those lines.

We're in danger.

We need the fire.

In *1 Kings 18*, a man called Elijah challenged all the false prophets, 450 of them, to go up on Mount Carmel.

Mount Carmel overlooks the Valley of Armageddon.

You can see Nazareth.

It's a marvel to be on Mount Carmel.

Elijah got up there and said, "Build an altar, pray, and call on your gods.

Then I will build an altar and pray."

Then he said in *Verse 24*, "and the God who answers by fire, He is God."

I wonder what would happen today if witches and warlocks came into the churches of America and challenged us and said, "Let's have a prayer meeting here.

We'll get ours over here, you get yours over there, and the God that answers by fire."

You say, but God doesn't do that anymore.

You had better read your Bible.

We're advertising, but there is going to come a day that we're going to get sued for false advertising, because the fire of God is real.

It's not an emotion, but it does produce some feelings.

If you got hit by a Mack truck going 65 miles an hour, I predict that your family and friends wouldn't recognize you the next day.

I believe if you were able to walk and talk that you would be walking and talking differently.

I believe you would have a different walk and a different talk, and I believe you would even look different.

Can you tell me that if the power of God hit you that you could act the same?

Let me tell you something.

The power of God is more powerful than a Mack truck going 65 miles an hour!

When Jesus was preaching on this planet, He said in *Luke 12:49*, "I have come to send fire on the earth."

You say that's judgment.

Judgment is in that, but He said, "I would that it was already kindled," and you know He didn't want judgment to come until He had already gone to the cross.

He's talking about another fire.

He said you are either going to be *consumed* with the fire of God or you're going to be *filled* with the fire of God, and He said, "I've come to this planet to send fire."