Series:  The Heart and Soul of South Hills Church
Message: How To Keep The Fire Burning
Pastor Bret Johnson     Sunday, April 4, 2004

Listen to the Message 

How to Keep the Fire Burning

“ Do not put out the Spirit’s fire” 1Thess. 5:19

There are a lot of things in life that if they burn it’s a terrible thing:  your house for example, your business, your car.

But as far as your relationship with Christ, that’s something you want to burn and KEEP burning.

This last week in Atlanta…
            Needing refreshment-

Something interesting…Jude 24, 25 and 2 Peter 1

God promises to keep us but we are also challenged to grow. What is it?  God or us? 
Both.

 5  For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is short-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

1)    Never, EVER forget what God has done for you.
a.     Paul told Timothy “Remember Jesus Christ!” (2 Timothy 2:8)
b.    Illustration—CPR on the old guy at Whittier College.
c.     Reference to communion in a minute.
d.    Remember: that the human race took the life of the Son of God and we still  continue to do the same things today.

2)    Keep short accounts with God  (Nehemiah 9)
a.     Sin happens when we do what we want and not what God wants—this is death.  We lose the flame of our faith faster than anything through sin.  Confess sin quickly and completely.

3)    When God tells you to do something—do it!!  
a.     Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 4:30)
b.    Don’t quench the Holy Spirit. (1 Thess. 5:19)  Do not put out the Spirit’s fire (NLT)

4)    You can’t stay on fire without the word of God coursing through your veins.

Above All by Lenny LeBlanc & Paul Baloche from "Worship"
Michael W. Smith lyrics

Above all powers
Above all things
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth

::Chorus::

Crucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all