breathes on a dying flame, when God breathes
on a dying flame.
Isaiah chapter 42 beginning verse 1.
Now this is a prophecy of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
This is written, you know, some 700 years
probably before He was ever born in Bethlehem,
but it's pointing to Him and this is
what God the Father says about His Son.
Isaiah 42 beginning of verse 1.
Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect
in whom my soul delighteth.
I have put my spirit upon Him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry nor lift up nor
cause His voice to be heard in the
street.
And here's the verse I want to underscore
this morning.
This is our text.
A bruised reed shall He not break, and
the smoking flax shall He not quench.
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
A bruised reed shall He not break, and
the smoking flax shall He not quench.
The ESV says, and a faintly burning wick
He will not quench.
That candle that's just almost gone, He will
not snuff it out.
Here's one more translation.
He will not crush the weakest reed or
put out a flickering candle.
He will bring justice to all have been
wronged.
That's good news, my brothers and sisters.
You know what that says about our Lord
Jesus?
There was a compassion, a gentleness about the
Lord.
The devil loves to kick you while you're
down, push you down.
The Lord's always lifting you up, picking you
up.
And this gives such hope, this smoking flax,
this flickering candle, this smoldering wick.
There's still some life there, but not much.
I mean, just a dying ember, it's a
dying flame, just giving off smoke.
But what the Scripture is telling us here,
what God is saying, that even then, when
you feel like you're almost dead inside, you're
dying.
There's not much left.
You can't give to others because you can't
give away what you don't have.
And you're just giving off smoke.
But there's a tiny bit of life there.
God says there's hope.
I'm not going to snuff out even that.
There's hope.
Which says to me, personal revival is possible.
Personal restoration is possible.
If God breathes on the dying flame, there
will be life.
This message the Lord's put on my heart
is especially for the broken.
Especially for the brokenhearted, for the weak and
the wounded, for the one who has failed.
Maybe there's someone here you've absolutely, utterly failed.
And you wonder, have I gone too far?
Have I fallen one too many times?
Is there really any hope for me?
A smoking wick, he will not quench.
He will not suffer it to be put.
A bruised reed that he can't, that cannot
even lift up itself.
He will not break, but he will do
something even greater with it.
We'll see it here in scripture.
I want to pray one more time.
Father, I need your strength.
I need your grace.
I need your heart to deliver this, Lord,
exactly as you've given it to me.
And as you're wanting to speak to these
people, Lord, your precious people.
And even if there's someone here today who
does not know you, that this very day
you would awaken, awaken the heart, awaken our
eyes to behold your glory.
And Lord, you came to preach the good
news to the poor.
You came to heal the brokenhearted, and you
came to set the captives free.
And I'm asking you to do that in
Jesus' name this morning.
Amen.
In Revelation chapter 1, you don't have to
turn there, but in Revelation chapter 1, the
apostle John has this incredible encounter with the
Lord Jesus Christ.
He sees the Lord Jesus in all of
his glory.
He says, I was in the Spirit on
the Lord's day, and I heard behind me
a voice that sounded like a trumpet.
He said, when I turned around, I saw
one dressed, one like the Son of Man.
It was the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was dressed in a robe that reached
down to his feet.
John said, his eyes were like flames of
fire.
His head and his hairs were white like
wool as white as snow.
Speaking of the holiness and the glory of
God.
His face shined brighter than a noonday sun.
John said, when I saw him, I fell
at his feet as a dead man.
It took his breath away.
He saw the Lord in his glory.
What an encounter.
But there's something else he saw in that
vision that's very intriguing and mysterious.
He said, when I saw him, he was
standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks.
What are those seven golden candlesticks?
At the end of Revelation chapter 1, Jesus
tells us, he says, this is the mystery
of the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven golden candlesticks or lampstands are the
seven churches.
Jesus, in all of his glory, standing in
the midst of his people, his church.
And what was it about that golden lampstand?
What was the purpose of a lampstand?
The purpose of a lampstand is to shine,
amen?
It's to give light.
It's to push back the darkness, dispel the
darkness.
That candle, that golden lampstand was shining.
It was giving forth light.
What is the purpose and calling of the
church of Jesus Christ, you and I?
It is to shine.
It is to give light.
It is to push back the darkness.
Your calling as a Christian is to shine,
is to light up this world.
It's to bring the light of truth to
those who are lost in darkness.
It's to bring the love of God to
those who are in despair.
That's our calling, church.
We are called to shine.
Listen to Isaiah chapter 60, verses 1 and
2.
He says, Arise, shine, for your light has
come, and the glory of the Lord has
risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
and gross darkness the people.
And boy, is that happening today.
Gross darkness is covering the earth and the
people.
But the Lord shall arise upon you, and
his glory shall be seen upon you.
That's your purpose.
That's your calling for this lost world who
has no hope to be able to look
at the church of Jesus Christ and say,
Their God must be God.
There is light.
There is hope.
There is truth.
There is true love.
That's what they're to see.
Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter
5.
He says, You are the salt of the
earth.
You are the light of the world.
A city that is set upon a hill
cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put
it under a bushel.
No, but on a candlestick, and it gives
light unto all them that are in the
house.
And then he says this, Let your light
so shine that they may see your good
deeds and glorify your Father which is in
heaven.
But here is the penetrating truth I want
you to see today, this morning.
You cannot shine if you're not on fire.
The only way that lampstand shines is because
it was burning.
It was on fire.
There was a flame.
And think about it this way.
Each one of us, when you first put
your faith in Jesus Christ and you were
born again, you were saved, the Holy Spirit
of God comes to live on the inside
of you.
There is a fire in your heart.
There's a burning in your heart.
You are a candlestick.
And he takes that candlestick, you, and he
puts you on a lampstand with a lot
of other candlesticks.
And he creates this lampstand, this light, this
glory of God.
That's his plan to reach the world.
He's not preaching the gospel by sending angels
from heaven.
He wants the world to know him through
his people.
But here's the tragedy.
When we as the church of Jesus Christ,
who are called to shine and called to
burn with the love and glory of God
are no longer doing so because that fire
starts to die out.
Maybe it wasn't fed.
Maybe it wasn't given fuel.
Maybe the oxygen was cut off from it.
It's not being breathed upon.
But for one reason or another, the flame
begins to flicker and the fire begins to
die and you end up like this smoking,
smoldering wick, this dying flame.
I want to ask you this morning, are
you truly on fire for God?
Or is the fire in your heart begin
to flicker and die out?
Do you truly have a burning heart for
the Lord?
Or has your love grown cold?
Are you set ablaze for his glory?
Or are you just putting off smoke?
And there's nothing more irritating than someone that's
just putting off smoke all the time.
Matter of fact, God talks about in Isaiah
about the self-righteous who say, don't come
near me, I'm holier than thou.
He said, those people are like smoke in
my nose.
Irritating, self-righteous, arrogant, proud Pharisees.
Nothing worse than just putting off smoke.
Has the fire died down?
Is the flame flickering?
Is there a smoldering wick?
Or are you on fire?
And if you had to be honest this
morning and say, actually, there's not the fire
that there once was.
The flame is beginning to die.
Maybe for some of us, Brian, I don't
even know if there's much smoke left.
I want you to hear the good news
of the gospel this morning.
There is hope.
There is no such thing as hopelessness with
Jesus.
No such thing as hopelessness with him.
There is hope.
He came to bring hope to the hopeless.
As long as there's an ember, you know
what he wants to do with you?
Pick you up and breathe on you the
breath of life, the spirit of the living
God igniting that fire again.
And he's able and he's willing to do
it this morning.
Revival is possible.
Restoration is possible with God.
In fact, when God even breathes on a
valley of dry bones, they come alive.
They come bone to bone.
Flesh comes on them.
They raise up a great and mighty army.
When everything looks hopeless and all looks like
it's too late.
Was it too late for Lazarus?
Four days he was dead in the grave,
already stinking.
It's not too late for God.
Our God is a God of the impossible.
Nothing is impossible with him.
But it begins with you and me.
If this flame has begun to flicker and
to die, first I want to identify who
is that?
Who is that smoking flax, that bruised reed?
First of all, it's the weak and the
weary.
It's that one here in the message right
now who feels so tired, so weak, so
weary, like a bruised reed.
What is so weak as a bruised reed?
If even a little bird landed on it,
it could just break in half.
What's so weak as a smoking wick?
You could just easily pinch it and it's
dead.
So weak, so vulnerable, so weary.
And it's because you're in the same trial
over and over and over again.
Same old disappointment.
Same old deep dark discouragement.
Same old painful regret.
And you say, I'm tired of it all.
I'm sick and tired of it all.
Some of us become weak and weary because
we have been trying to do in our
own strength what can only be done in
the power of the Holy Spirit.
You can be in ministry, and you're serving
and you're going and you're doing all this,
but you're not being filled up.
You're not trusting and depending upon Him.
And if you try to do in your
own strength what can only be done by
the power of God, you will burn out.
You will grow weak and you will grow
weary.
But hear the word of our Lord Jesus
Christ to the weak and the weary.
Matthew 11, verse 28.
Come unto me, He says.
Come unto me first.
Not to the counselor.
Not even to the pastor first.
Not to anybody else.
Not to Google to see what it's all
about.
Come to me first, Jesus said.
Come unto me, all you who are weary
and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your
souls.
And if you will come to Him in
faith today, this is what He does.
Picks you up.
Breathe the breath of life.
I'm going to keep saying it.
Breathe the breath of life.
Breathe the Holy Spirit upon the flame, so
that it will ignite again and burn and
shine as you're called to.
So it's the weak and the weary.
Also, He will do it not only for
the weak and the weary, but also the
wounded.
That smoking flax.
That bruised reed is the wounded one.
It's the one who has been battered by
the strong stormy winds of adversity.
And not just one gust of wind, but
another and then another and then another.
It's like a fighter who's been knocked down.
Punch, blow after blow.
Punch, he keeps getting knocked down over and
over again.
The stormy wind blowing out that candle and
ignites just a little bit back.
Blows on it again.
Trial after trial after tribulation.
Heartache.
It can come through betrayal.
The one who has been betrayed by the
one you love the most.
Betrayal in marriage.
Betrayal by a good friend.
Betrayal by another person in the church.
How that hurts.
David said, it would have been one thing
if it was my enemy, but it was
my own brother.
We went to the house of God together.
And he betrayed you.
Parents who have had to bury a child.
What can be more painful and cause a
deeper wound than that?
A spouse who has to bury, you know,
their husband or their wife.
What can cause a deeper pain than that?
For others, it's a wayward child.
And your heart is breaking because right now
we're here together, but your son or your
prodigal son or daughter is out there in
the world in sin.
In captivity, in the grip of the devil,
in the grip of sin.
And your heart is breaking.
That's the wounded.
What does God do with the wounded and
the broken hearted?
Listen to the word of God.
Psalm 34 verse 18.
The Lord is near to the broken hearted
and He saves those who are crushed in
spirit.
Isaiah 38 verse 5.
He says, speaking to Hezekiah, but it applies
to us.
God says, I've heard your prayer.
I have seen your tears.
He takes note not only of when a
hair falls from our head, but every tear
that falls from our eyes.
That's the compassion of our God.
Psalm 147 verse 3.
He heals the broken hearted and binds up
their wounds.
And Jesus said in Luke 4 18.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because He has anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken
hearted and to set the captives free.
That's what our God does.
What a Savior.
What a mighty Savior.
God will gently take up the broken hearted
smoking flax and cover you with His mighty
hand and breathe the breath of His Spirit
into your life again.
But what about another person where the wounds
and the weariness is self-inflicted?
It's not because of what someone else did
to you, but because of your own sin
failure, your own willful sin, and no one
else is to blame but you.
You say, I'm reaping what I've sown.
I've sinned willfully against God.
You're the wayward.
You're the one that has drifted away from
God, the wonderer.
You've sinned willfully against God.
You've wasted precious time and so much of
the precious life that God has given you.
Is there any hope for you?
Because there's nothing that will kill the fire
in your heart like sin.
Nothing will kill that flame like sin.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians, quench not
the Spirit.
That means don't put out the Spirit's fire.
And if there's one thing that's sure to
do that, it's willful, continual sin.
The Scripture says grieve not the Holy Spirit.
If there's one thing that does that, it
is sin.
Sin grieves the Spirit of God.
It puts out the fire of God in
your heart.
You cannot flirt with it.
You cannot play around with it.
And God hates it.
You know how much God hates sin?
First of all, He hates it because it's
against His nature.
He is a holy God.
But I think another reason He hates sin
so much is because of what it does
to His children.
Think if your child, God forbid, but think
if your child had some deadly disease like
cancer.
How do you look at that cancer?
You hate it.
You hate the thing that's killing your children.
God hates sin.
And that's why the Holy Spirit can be
living in you as a believer.
But if you continue to choose to sin
against Him and to grieve Him, you're putting
out the fire.
He can't tolerate it.
He will not tolerate it.
And the fire of God will die in
your heart.
You become a smoking ember.
But suppose you're one that has said, that's
me, that's where I am.
That's what's happened.
Is there any hope?
Praise God, there's hope.
It's what the gospel is all about.
The Lord Jesus Christ died on that cross
and shed His precious blood.
It cost Him everything.
But look at what He did.
He shed His precious blood so that you
could be forgiven.
You say, how many times?
The Bible says where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound.
You know how I know God is not
finished with you?
Because you're here this morning.
You wouldn't be hearing this message this morning
if God was finished with you.
If there was no hope for you.
No matter how far gone that you are,
how far you've gone.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses
us from all sin.
And where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound.
And I'm not minimizing your sin.
Sin is horrendous.
That's why I said God hated it.
He hates it.
But there's something greater than your sin.
And it's the amazing grace of God.
The amazing grace of God.
Hallelujah.
Turn to Jeremiah chapter 18.
Because I want you to see this morning
that failure does not have to be final.
Your failure does not have to be final.
There is hope.
Jeremiah chapter 18, beginning in verse 1.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the
Lord saying, Arise and go down to the
potter's house.
And there I will cause you to hear
my words.
Then I went down to the potter's house.
And behold, he was wrought of work on
the wheels.
And the vessel that he made of clay
was marred in the hand of the potter.
That means it was ruined.
Now look up here before we go any
further.
Go down to the potter's house, Jeremiah.
There I'm going to give you my message.
This is God speaking.
He sees the potter molding the clay.
And all of a sudden something happens.
The clay falls apart in his hands.
It's marred.
It's ruined.
Now what would many say today?
It's useless.
That it's ruined.
God had a plan for me, but I've
messed it all up.
God did have a future for me.
He did have a call on me.
It's all messed up.
How do you fix it now?
You're marred in the hand of the potter.
What does God do with the marred clay?
Does he throw the clay away?
Does he say, I'm sick and tired of
this smoking flax.
I'll look for somebody else.
Enough with waiting on this bruised reed to
ever come.
Smash it.
I'll look for another one.
No.
The clay was marred in the hand of
the potter.
So he made it again.
He made it again.
Another vessel as seemed good to the potter
to make it.
The marred can be made again.
Your failure does not have to be final.
Why?
Because our God is master at that.
He's master at taking people who is totally
messed up, broken in despair.
Those of us that have ruined.
Yes, there's consequences to our sin.
But God is always on your side against
the devil.
The devil wants to tell you it's over.
The Bible says a righteous man, though he
falls seven times, he gets up.
Rejoice not against me, O my enemy.
For will I have fallen, I will arise,
the scripture says.
And God says, get up.
No matter how many times you fall and
get up, the clay can be remade.
The marred can be made again.
But it does require something on your part.
It does require something on your part.
Verse 5, Then the word of the Lord
came to me saying, O house of Israel,
can I not do with you as this
potter, saith the Lord?
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's
hand, so are you in my hand, O
house of Israel.
At what instant I shall speak concerning a
nation, hear this, America, and concerning a kingdom
to pluck up and to pull down and
to destroy it, if that nation against whom
I have pronounced, and he's pronouncing judgment, turn
from their evil, I will repent of the
evil that I thought to do unto them.
I will remake the clay.
When?
When they turn back to me.
When they repent.
When they make a decision to get up
and come back.
So here's the first thing.
You can be made again.
The flame can burn in your heart again,
but it requires something of you called repentance.
You hear it preached here.
You don't hear it preached a lot of
places.
Repentance.
What is it?
You have to get up and turn back
to Jesus.
Come back home to God.
And I think one of the most glorious
pictures of repentance that the Lord gave us
in all the scriptures is found in Luke
chapter 15.
Luke chapter 15 is a parable.
There's three parables, but the one I want
to tell you about is the parable of
the prodigal son.
A certain man had two sons.
The younger said to his father, Father, give
me my share of the inheritance.
The father gave the younger son his inheritance.
And the Bible says he went to a
faraway land and he wasted it on wild
living.
And when he got to the bottom, when
he ran out of money, he ran out
of friends, he's at the very bottom.
Verse 14 of Luke 15 says, When he
had spent all, there arose a mighty famine
in that land.
And he began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a
citizen of that country and he sent him
into his fields to feed swine.
That was the lowest job that a Jew
could ever have.
Feeding pigs.
It's the only one he could find.
And verse 16 says, He would fain have
filled his belly with the husk that the
swine did eat.
He was so empty and hungry, now he's
even craving the hog slop just for something
to eat.
And he began to be in want.
And verse 17, it says, No man gave
him anything.
Verse 17, this is where repentance starts.
It says, And when he came to himself,
and that's where you have to come.
He came to his senses.
He finally woke up.
It's when the Holy Spirit suddenly awakens you
and you say, What am I doing here?
Again?
A bottle in my hand?
Again?
Pornography in the screen?
Again?
Falling again?
What am I doing here?
And the Spirit of God would say that.
What are you doing here, Elijah?
You don't belong here.
This doesn't fit who you are.
This is not who you are.
You must come to your senses.
Come to yourself.
And then what has to happen?
He said, How many hired servants of my
father's have bread and enough to spare?
And I will perish with hunger.
I will arise.
I will get up and go to my
father and will say to him, Father, I
have sinned against heaven and before thee.
I'm no more worthy to be called thy
son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose and came to his father.
He made a decision and he turned around.
That's repentance.
He made a decision and he turned around.
You get up and you go back to
the father that you have grieved.
The father that you have offended.
The God who loves you, but that you've
sinned against.
You get up and you go back to
him.
You turn around and return.
And what will you find?
Verse 20.
But when he was a great way off,
his father saw him, had compassion on him,
ran, fell on his neck.
That is, he hugged him and he kept
kissing him.
You know what you will find, folks?
When you finally make that decision to repent,
to get up and turn away from your
sin and to come back home, you'll find
that God the father has been waiting and
he's been watching all along.
And when he sees you coming home, he
doesn't wait with a horse whip, with a
baseball bat.
He comes running, running to his son, embracing
him, rejoicing.
That is amazing grace.
Now, you will find something in the Scriptures
if somebody despises that grace and somebody rejects
that.
The father's waiting.
He'll only wait, so he'll wait, but he'll
wait so long.
And if you reject that grace, you reject
that call, then the only thing left for
you is judgment.
There is something in the Scriptures that you
find makes God very angry and it's despising
his grace.
When he has poured out grace and mercy
over and over again and you despise it,
the Bible says in Romans, you're storing up
for yourself wrath unto the day of wrath.
Don't make light of the day of grace,
amazing grace.
When the Lord opens your eyes to see
that he's waiting for you to come home
and he's going to run to you, you
better take advantage of it.
You better get up and you better come
running home.
That's repentance.
And when you do, you will find again
that he will blow the breath of his
spirit upon you and you will live again.
That flame will ignite.
But now back to Jeremiah.
There's something else that's required.
Repentance.
And then notice what else the Lord says
here.
Verse six.
Can I not do with you as this
potter saith the Lord?
Behold, as clay is in the potter's hand,
so are you in my hand, O house
of Israel.
God's asking that question.
Can I not do with you as the
potter does?
And your response will reveal whether you believe
him or doubt him.
And there's something absolutely vital in the kingdom
of God.
Essential to you ever being made restored.
And it's called faith.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
Without faith, you will never be restored.
Can I not do with you as this
potter does?
The clay.
Now here's what's absolutely incredible to me.
God just told them what he could do.
God just told them what he would do
if they would repent.
And notice their response.
After he says return, verse 11, he says,
Now therefore, go to, speak to the men
of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
saying, Thus saith the Lord.
Behold, I frame evil against you and devise
a device against you.
Return now, everyone from his evil way, and
make your ways and doings good.
God's saying, Come back.
Come home.
Notice their response.
Verse 12.
They said, There is no hope.
But we will walk after our own doings,
and we will, every one, do the imagination
of his evil heart.
And therefore, thus saith the Lord.
Ask ye now among the heathen who has
heard such things.
The virgin of Israel has done a very
horrible thing.
God says, Come home.
I will breathe on that flame, that dying
ember, and you will come alive again.
And they say, There's no hope.
It's no use.
We'll continue down our own path and do
our own thing.
Folks, if you do not have faith, and
you doubt God, and you don't respond to
his day of grace, his invitation to you,
it is a serious, fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God.
And even God says here, Who has even
ever heard such a thing?
So the question is, Do you believe?
Do you believe?
Do you know the Scripture says in Matthew
chapter 13, verse 58, that Jesus did not
many mighty works there because of unbelief?
There were places that Jesus didn't do many
mighty miracles and works for this reason only.
They didn't believe him.
It wasn't that it wasn't his will.
It wasn't that they didn't have a promise
that he would do something.
But they didn't believe him.
He could not do many mighty works there
because of their unbelief.
How tragic it would be to have that
written across your life.
I wanted to do great things with you.
I had a glorious purpose and plan for
you.
But I could not do many mighty things
with you because of your unbelief.
You wouldn't trust me.
You wouldn't believe me.
Two blind men came to Jesus.
Jesus said, What do you want me to
do for you?
They said, Lord, we want to see.
Jesus says, Do you believe that I'm able
to do this for you?
Yes, Lord, we believe.
And Jesus said, According to your faith, be
it unto you.
And their eyes were opened.
God requires faith.
He requires that we believe him.
We take him at his word and we
believe him.
So those who say, Yes, I'm willing to
return.
I'm willing to repent.
I'm willing to believe.
There's only one thing left.
You must ask.
Ask him.
Ask him to heal the broken heart.
Ask him to give you strength.
Ask him to revive this dying flame.
And you know what you're asking essentially?
God, please cleanse me and fill me with
your Holy Spirit.
Fill me with the Holy Spirit of God.
Ask.
You've got to turn here with me.
Luke chapter 11.
We'll come to a close here in a
minute.
Luke chapter 11.
But you've got to see this.
Luke chapter 11.
It's essential that we pray, that we ask.
In verse one of Luke chapter 11, the
disciples asked the Lord.
They say, Lord, teach us to pray as
John also taught his disciples to pray.
So the Lord gives them this model prayer.
And then he gives a little parable here.
He says in verse five, Which of you
shall have a friend and shall go unto
him at midnight and say unto him, Friend,
lend me three loaves.
For a friend of mine is in his
journey, has come to me, and I have
nothing to set before him.
Now think about this.
How many of us as Christians have had
someone brought across our path who were in
desperate need?
It was a midnight hour.
And you think, oh, let me call Pastor
Shane.
Let me call Morgan.
God brought them to you first.
And why do you get anxious?
You have nothing to set before them.
It's a midnight hour.
You cannot give away what you don't have.
What a tragic thing it is for a
Christian to have somebody brought to them in
need and have nothing to set before them.
David Wilkerson said after the towers went down
at 9-11, the Twin Towers, the terrorist
attack, people flooded churches all over New York,
all over the country.
They said churches were full.
We experienced a little bit of it even
in Oklahoma.
But people ran to the church and they
found that after a few weeks, there were
fewer people in the church than even before
9-11.
Those same people all departed.
When asked why, they said there was nothing
there.
They had no nothing there, no power coming
from the pulpit, no life, no good news.
You know, when times get really bad, as
we saw this morning, you'll see the difference
really, you'll easily see the difference between what's
form and what's fire.
What's life and what's death.
How tragic.
They come at a midnight hour, hungry for
bread, answers.
And we have nothing to set before them.
There's one reason we have nothing to set
before them.
We're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, rivers
of life, rivers of living water come forth
and the thirsty drink and the hungry eat.
We need to be filled with the Holy
Ghost.
And you'll see this, I have nothing to
set before Him.
Verse 7, And He from within shall answer
and say, Trouble me not, the door is
now shut, and my children are with me
in bed.
I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though He will not
rise and give Him because He is His
friend, yet because of His importunity, His recklessness,
His persistence, His perseverance, He will rise and
give Him as many as He needed.
Now, Jesus is teaching us something here.
He's teaching us to persevere, to press in,
to pray.
Verse 9, And I say unto you, Ask,
and it shall be given you.
Ask for what?
Seek, and you shall find.
Seek for what?
Knock, and it shall be open to you.
What will be open to me?
For everyone that asks receives.
He that seeks finds.
To him that knocks, it shall be given.
What will I receive?
What will I find?
What will be open if I'm asking, seeking,
finding?
Let's skip down to verse 13.
If you being evil know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask Him?
I thought I already had the Holy Spirit.
I do if I'm a believer.
But there's a difference between having the Holy
Spirit and the Holy Spirit having you.
There's a difference between Him being resident and
Him being president.
There's a difference between just having the Spirit
of God living in you as a believer
and being filled and walking in the fullness.
There's a difference, brothers and sisters.
So this asking, it's not that God has
departed from me, but it's that the flame
has died, is dying.
And there's but an ember.
So I'm asking you, Lord, to fill me
afresh.
Breathe on me.
Let the wind blow again.
Let the river flow.
Let the fire burn.
And how does it come?
By asking, asking in faith.
That's how it comes.
And in essence, He's still answering their request.
Lord, teach us to pray.
You know what Jesus is saying?
You cannot pray like I pray without the
Holy Spirit.
I'll teach you to pray.
Ask for the Holy Spirit.
Ask for the Spirit of God to fill
you and empower you.
And He will transform your prayer life.
Ask, seek, knock.
What were the 120 doing in the upper
room on the day of Pentecost before the
fire fell and the wind blew and they
were filled with the Holy Spirit?
They were all in one accord, praying, asking,
seeking, waiting upon God.
When you and I will give ourselves to
prayer, no matter how you feel, however weak,
however wounded, that's when you need to be
in prayer the most.
And give ourselves to prayer.
No matter how many times I've failed, go
to the cross of Jesus.
Look at the blood.
Trust in the blood of Christ.
Ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you.
And you give yourself to prayer.
When we pray, the wind blows and the
fire burns.
I have had very few visions in my
life, but last year I was on a
plane headed to Britain and I was praying
for revival for England.
And God gave me a vision that I
will never forget.
It was as vivid as if I'm looking
at you.
I suddenly saw this fire ignite in a
field and it was spreading, burning brightly, rapidly.
I knew it was the fires of revival.
I was so excited and ecstatic.
I was rejoicing in my spirit on that
plane, praying and rejoicing.
And then I saw next to it a
room, a small room with believers on their
knees crying out to God in prayer.
And then I looked back at the flame,
watching the fire, and suddenly the fire began
to get weak as if a lantern or
a candle, you put a glass jar over
it.
It was running out of oxygen and the
flame was just like getting weak and started
dying.
And I cried out in my spirit in
prayer, Lord, don't let it die.
Don't let it die.
And I saw the room and nobody was
praying.
Everybody quit praying.
It was empty.
The prayer meeting was empty.
And the Lord gave me a profound message,
though it may be simple to you, but
a profound message.
When my people don't pray, the wind doesn't
blow.
The fire doesn't burn.
When my people pray, I will breathe on
that flame and ignite it and the fire
will spread.
The revival fire will spread.
We need the ruach, the breath of God.
And he breathes upon us and the wind
blows when we pray.
When God's people pray, God moves.
Whether it's asking him to fill you with
his spirit, whether it's asking him to move
in the power of his spirit in a
church, whether it's asking him to move by
the power of his spirit in a town.
I'll tell you an incredible testimony of what
God did one time.
I was in a prayer meeting of a
little church I was pastoring.
We were in this little prayer meeting, wasn't
very big, probably 15, 20 people.
And I had just shared with them that
we need to pray, you know, focus on
the glory of God and the souls of
men.
And we just prayed.
And then we just prayed, God, send someone
across our path this week who needs you.
I'll never forget exactly what we prayed.
Send someone across our path this week who
needs you.
Now I said this week, as soon as
I said amen, the Lord as my witness,
this is amazing.
As soon as I said amen, people started
getting up to leave the prayer meeting and
there was a knock on the door.
Come in.
He opened the door and it was a
man, but he was dressed like a woman.
And this was years ago in the Oklahoma
Panhandle and I'd never seen anybody that was
transgender before.
And if I'm honest with you, brothers and
sisters, my first reaction was, I was repulsed
by what I saw.
But I immediately thought, we just ask God
to move and there's a knock on the
door.
He said, I just wondered if I could
talk to the pastor.
I said, sure.
He said, my name is Pamela and I
knew it wasn't Pamela.
But I said, come in.
Everybody left and I said, how can I
help you?
He said, obviously it's dark outside.
He said, when I turned the corner, he
said, I'm from Hollywood, California.
Showed me his ID.
He says, when I turned the corner, I'm
headed back to California.
When I turned the corner, we were right
on a major crossroads.
He said, my headlights, both of them went
completely out.
And I just pulled into your parking lot.
And he said, I just wanted to ask
you if I could sleep in my van
until morning and I'll be on my way
again.
And I said, absolutely you can.
But I said, if you'll let me talk
to you, I'll fix your headlights in the
morning.
I'll pay to have it fixed.
He said, okay.
So we began to talk and he talked
90 miles an hour.
Just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
And I said, I kept trying to press
in, you know, to open the door.
And finally I said, okay, do you have
any spiritual beliefs?
He said, yeah, but they would offend you.
I said, you won't offend me.
He said, well, I'm pagan, you know, worship.
Went into all this pagan worship talk.
And all of a sudden as he's talking,
I'm praying in my spirit.
And as he's talking, God begins to break
my heart.
In the natural, I was repulsed.
God began to break my heart and I
began to see a bruised reed.
I began to see a little boy.
I saw a little boy.
And when he finally, I could get a
word in edgewise.
I said, listen, what happened to you when
you were a child?
I said, you haven't always been like this.
And he backed up and he said, I'll
tell you.
He said, when I was eight years old,
he said, my mom was a Pentecostal pastor.
Didn't, his dad wasn't in the picture.
He said, my mom became convinced that I
had demons of homosexuality and she physically beat
me.
He said, I must've been beaten nearly every
day.
I wasn't like the other boys on the
schoolyard.
I got made fun of at school, came
home.
My mom beats me, come out demons, beating
me physically.
And he said, this went on for a
long time.
And when I was eight years old, she
took me to a psychiatric hospital and dropped
me off.
And I've never seen her since.
My heart is breaking, breaking.
I wanted to weep.
A little boy, a wounded little boy.
And I said, what happened then?
He said, I was in there for several
days.
And one of the nurses was into Wiccan.
She was a practicing witch.
She adopted me.
And that's been my mom.
That's how I got into this religion.
I tried to share the gospel.
He was totally closed.
Didn't want to hear anything about it.
And when we finally ended our conversation, I
said, listen to me.
I said, don't you leave till I get
here in the morning because we're going to
fix your headlights.
But I said, I want you to know
something.
We had just prayed and asked God to
send someone across our path who needed him.
Do you understand how much God loves you
to make your headlights go out right in
front of the church and to pull into
our parking lot?
God is pursuing you.
And I was pleading with him.
He sort of just shook his head.
Went into the, and before he got in
the van, I said, look here, we're going
to pray tonight that God reveal himself to
you and you're going to know it's God.
And he got in his van and I
went back to the house and got on
the phone.
I called every prayer warrior that I knew
and I told him the story and I
said, you pray tonight like you've never prayed
before that God reveal himself to this man
and we see him saved.
Well, I got up that morning, rushed to
the parking lot and he's standing outside of
his van, eyes wide open.
I said, did you sleep well?
I'd been praying he wouldn't sleep all night
under the conviction.
I said, did you sleep well?
He said, no.
I said, what happened?
He said, did you see that storm?
And I didn't know any storm last night.
I said, no, I didn't even know we
had a storm last night.
He said, I just had almost dozed off
or just had dozed off.
And he said, lightning either struck my van
or struck right next to it.
He said, I heard this boom and this
ball of fire.
I said, praise God.
I said, that's gotta be God.
His eyes were just wide open.
I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing.
God literally, you hear God's gonna send a
lightning bolt.
God literally sent a lightning bolt.
Wake up.
And I pleaded with him to come to
Jesus.
He never would.
I said, okay, let's go down to the,
but remember, people are praying.
The wind is blowing.
When we pray, God moves.
When we believe him and trust him.
So we went down to the local car
parts store and I got really humbled.
We show up and because it was just
opening, all the farmers and ranchers are showing
up to get parts.
And I'm out there in front of the
store with a man who's dressed like a
woman with me.
And you have to understand the culture, brothers
and sisters.
You don't see that at all at that
time, okay?
And my pride, oh, what do I do?
And Lord said, love him.
And we went and got the light bulbs
and stuff.
We came out and we fixed the lights.
And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and
said, I want you to put your arm
around him.
And I want you to pray.
And I said, oh, I can't do it.
Everybody's coming in, looking at me.
What will they think, Lord?
What will they think of me?
Staring anyway.
And I said, and I never called him
Pamela because I told him, I said, that's
not your name.
But I said, God loves you so much.
And I'm wondering if you mind if I
put my arm on you and pray.
He said, no.
And I put my arm around him and
began to pray.
And it was as if the Holy Spirit
just flooded my soul with the baptism of
love for this man.
And I'm praying to God that he would
reveal his love to him.
This man starts crying right in front of
all the farmers and ranchers and everybody going
in.
And I'm pleading with him, just come to
Jesus.
Don't you see how God is pursuing you?
Just come to Jesus.
He'll give you a new life, a brand
new beginning.
Pleading with him.
He sort of nodded his head.
I can't tell you that I know he
was born again.
I never saw him after that day.
But here's what I can tell you.
Only our God can do something like that.
And only our God, he does something like
that when his people humble themselves and pray
in faith.
Expecting him to move.
Expecting the wind to blow.
Expecting the fire to burn.
So my plea with you brothers and sisters
this morning is first personal.
If you are that bruised reed in that
dying flame, the weak, the weary, the wounded,
the wanderer who made a mess of your
life, will you just have the faith to
step up and step out and say, Jesus,
I'm coming to you.
Just as I am, I'm coming to you.
You know what you will find?
He will embrace you with open arms.
And he will clean you up.
He will never leave you the same.
You come to him just as you are,
but he will never leave you just as
you are.
God doesn't save anybody that he doesn't change.
So expect to be changed.
But for those who are saved, and you
say, I'm a believer.
There's the embers there.
The life is there.
But Brian, I'm just smoking.
I'm weak.
I'm not helping anybody.
I'm not shining anywhere.
I'm bound by fear.
I'm overcome by lust.
I'm defeated by anger.
I'm in the grip of bitterness.
Confess your sin to God and Jesus.
Ask him, forgive me, cleanse me.
It's simple.
Trust him.
You can be clean today.
You can be free.
He's not going to fill an unclean vessel.
But you come by way of the cross.
Allow Jesus to cleanse your soul.
And then ask him now, Lord, fill me.
Breathe on me, O breath of God.
Fill me, Holy Spirit.
Fill me up to overflowing.
And he will change you into a whole
new man.
A whole new woman.
I know that because God is who he
says he is.
And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He has not changed.
What he did then, he will do now.
Amen.
Let's stand to our feet.