How to put out a fire
1 Thessalonians 5:19
Jack London's famous short story, To Build a Fire tells the chilling (quite literally)
tale of a man traveling in the Yukon who freezes to death because his fire goes out
and his struggle to relight it fails.
The story makes me shiver no matter what the temperature. I mention it to fix in
our minds the image of life-giving fire, and to emphasize the urgency of a small
command of scripture that I read a minute ago: 1 Thess. 5: 19 -- Do not put out the Spirit's Fire
. Older translations say: Do not quench the spirit. I want to ask the simple
question: what does it mean to put out the Spirit's fire?
And the reason that it is important is because the Spirit is our source of spiritual
vitality. For the man in Jack London the fire being quenched was the difference
between life and death. He couldn't live without its energy. And we cannot live
spiritually without the energy of God's Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we are dead
and unresponsive to God and to spiritual things. It is God's spirit in us that
arouses a hunger for him, that makes us long to be in his presence, that gives us
delight in fellowship with him and with his people. Without the Holy Spirit worship is impossible
-- and worship is the soul's food. I can go through the motions of worship -- but
real worship is my heart's willing acknowledgement of God's glory and goodness and sovereignty. I can do all of the outward actions -- sitting, standing, praying,
kneeling -- without ever worshiping because my heart is unresponsive.
Without the spirit's fire we are (at best) frost-bitten Christians -- God's frozen
chosen. We may have experienced the Grace of God, and belong to him, but be without
joy, without growth, and unresponsive to God's word. It is not that we don't have
the Holy Spirit -- Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to all who belong to him -- but we
may very well be quenching the fire -- not allowing the Holy Spirit to do his work.
There are several specific areas of the Holy Spirit's ministry where we may be in
danger of putting out the fire. Turn with me to 1 Cor. 2:10-16:
1. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to illuminate
our minds
One of the ways that we put out the spirit's fire is simply by ignoring what the Spirit
is trying to show us. Look back at 1 Thessalonians 5. Right after Paul gives
the command, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire," he gives a specific clue to what
he means in verse 20: "Do not treat prophecies with contempt." A prophecy is a communication
from God that has direct relevance to us. It doesn't necessarily have anything
to do with the future -- in fact it's just as likely to have to do with something
God wants us to do right now. But it is a message that God wants his people to hear.
What does it mean to treat prophecies with contempt?
The simplest way is simply to refuse to believe that God speaks to us. We covered
that ground a couple of weeks ago -- God is constantly speaking to us. Our problem
is to tune in and to listen.
There are other ways of showing contempt. I am sometimes involved in a conversation
and my mind is somewhere else entirely. I will nod, and smile and may even ask
what seem to be reasonable questions -- but I have hardly heard anything. (Please
don't test me on this). I am showing contempt for the person I am talking to by treating
what they are saying to me as unimportant.
I do this to God all the time. For example, we've just read: 1 Thess 5:18 -- "Give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Now you can hardly find a more direct word from God. But many of us are likely
to go away from here discontent -- complaining in our hearts or minds. If we do then we
have put out the Spirit's fire. I have treated God's direct communication to me
with contempt.
2. Another ministry of the Spirit is to ignite
our hearts with Godly emotions.
Fire sheds light. It also gives off heat. One of the ways we "put out the Spirit's
fire" is by refusing to allow the Spirit's heat to pierce our hearts and move us.
When I was in high school in Pakistan I vividly remember receiving telegram. A telegram
was a big event. When a telegram came you knew that the message was important.
So I did not treat the message with contempt. I ran to the school office. The
message was from my brother. Sharon, my sister-in-law, had died. I did not analyze
the message -- I did not have to think about what exactly it meant. I immediately
responded with grief. All I wanted was to be alone.
It would have been strange and inappropriate to respond to such a message without
deep emotion. To read the message, even to recognize its importance was not enough.
It demanded a heart response.
The same is true of what God has to say to us. If we respond to God with no feelings,
then our worship is dead. In one of Jesus most devastating rebukes to outwardly
religious people, he quotes Isaiah 29:13: "This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me." Worship in which the
heart is not engaged is vain worship. Outward show without inward response is hypocrisy.
The emotions we feel in response to the Spirit will be different at different times.
Just browse through the Psalms and you'll see how wide a range of emotions can
be expressed in worship: awe and reverence at the majesty of God; fear and dread
at the holiness of God; brokenness and grief when God's spirit reveals our sin; joy and
relief at the mercy and grace of God; Delight at the presence of God. All of these
are appropriate responses to the activity of the Spirit.
[We need to recognize that people display emotion in very different ways. Warning:
Do not judge someone else's heart response]
If God's reality is displayed in his Word or in his world and we do not feel any grief,
or longing, or hope or fear or awe or joy or gratitude then we have quenched the
Spirit and whatever we are doing, it is not worship.
3. One final way of putting out the Spirit's fire: Squandering the Spirit's gifts.
One of the Spirit's most precious ministries to the church is the distributing of
Spiritual gifts. Look at 1 Corinthians 12: 7-10
Two simple facts about Spiritual Gifts that we need to remember:
- Every believer has one. Everyone here who knows Christ has been given a special
means of displaying and communicating Christ. That's what the gifts are. They
are ways of displaying Christ.
- All the gifts are essential. Some are more visible than others, but no gift is
more important than the others.
If we ignore or deny either of these facts about Spiritual gifts, we quench the Spirit's
fire. When I don't acknowledge or use my own gift -- I cheat my fellow believers
AND I rob myself of the joy that comes from seeing God work through me.
And if I belittle any of the gifts -- by treating them as unimportant or even by denying
them, then I am throwing a wet blanket on the work of the Spirit.
I can say with assurance that many in our congregation are not fully using their gifts
-- and I say that not to arouse guilt, but to encourage you that may be missing out
on part of the joy that God wants you to experience.
The tragic thing about all of the ways that we put out the Spirit's fire is that we
are the losers. God desires us to have joyful, passionate, exuberant, abundant
lives. Don't quench the fire of the Spirit -- let it flame up bright and hot.