Fire Falls Only on a Living Sacrifice
May 10, 2023 · 1:37:41 · Watch on YouTube ↗
These notes - summary, key points, and highlighted thoughts - were generated by AI from the recording and are not the preacher’s exact words.
Summary
The first message asks a searching question: why is the fire we long for so often missing from a believer's life? Returning to Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), the preacher contrasts the prophets of Baal, who shouted, danced, and cut themselves with no answer, with Elijah, who simply did everything according to God's word and saw the fire fall. The lesson is that fire never descends on an empty altar. It comes only where there is a sacrifice, and according to Romans 12:1 that sacrifice is our own lives offered to God daily.
He warns that a living sacrifice keeps trying to crawl off the altar, so the fire must be kept burning every morning anew (Leviticus 6). Our time, finances, and plans are part of what we lay down. He distinguishes three motives for serving God: mere pressure or fear, the pull of human ambition and applause, and true inspiration, where love for Christ makes service something we cannot help but do.
A second message, from 1 Corinthians 1-3, addresses the disputes that divided the Corinthians as they argued over which teacher they followed. Paul answers not with cleverer arguments but with the wisdom of God revealed by the Spirit, which the natural mind cannot grasp. The faithful response to God's revealed truth is not to argue but to receive it humbly.
Key Points
- Fire does not fall on an empty altar; God answers a true sacrifice
- Romans 12:1 calls us to present our own lives as a living sacrifice
- A living sacrifice slips off the altar, so it must be renewed every morning
- Serving from inspired love is deeper than serving from fear or ambition
- Our time, money, and plans belong on the altar, not just our words
- The wisdom of God is revealed by the Spirit and cannot be reasoned out by the natural mind
- A spiritual person receives God's truth humbly rather than fueling endless disputes
Devotional
Ask yourself honestly today whether your altar is full or empty. It is easy to make noise and motion in the name of God yet see no fire, because fire only falls where a real sacrifice has been laid. Lay your own life down again this morning, your time, your plans, your comforts, and refuse to crawl back off the altar by evening. When you serve not from pressure but from love that cannot do otherwise, the living God will be seen in you and others will long to draw near to that flame.
Fire never falls on an empty altar - there must first be a sacrifice.
A living sacrifice keeps crawling off the altar, so lay it down fresh every morning.
Our purpose is not what we have to do, but what we cannot help but do.
God's wisdom is revealed by the Spirit; the natural mind only argues over it.
