Quench Not the Spirit
Key Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:19
Date: June 7, 2026
We appreciate them all coming tonight. That’s awesome. Yeah, let’s give them a hand. That’s awesome. Good to see them tonight. That’s great. Honored. Heather Rossi is back with us tonight. That’s a blessing. Just good to see. And some other guests with us tonight. I appreciate them coming to be with us, and glad you’re in the house of the Lord.
Vacation Bible School starting tomorrow night. And, you know, wouldn’t it be wonderful if some of these boys and girls years down the road will be in a church somewhere, and at testimony time, when did you get saved? And they say, “I got saved at VBS in 2026 at this church in Smyrna, Tennessee.” And let’s pray for that, and that’s the key: is prayer. Pray, Lord, for these workers. They’ll do a wonderful job, and Brother Adam’s got it organized, ready to go, but let’s pray.
How many of you say, “I’ll commit, I’ll be praying for VBS this week”? You’ll be praying for VBS this week? All right. We had cameras taking pictures. And when you come in, there’ll be a questionnaire: Did you really pray? And let’s do that. That’s the key. Let’s just be praying about this thing. I didn’t notice this. I thought that this is, you know, this is, you’re sleeping out there. Come on now, you know.
I did see that. I don’t know if it’s there for that or not. I don’t know, but we’ll use it for that. Is that there for that, Brother Marley, or not? Is that there for that, Brother Marley, or not? Just make sure you put it up there when nobody’s trying to hit the end of it, right? That’s all I got to say, you know. So amen, we’ll use it for that, you know.
But ushers, if it come for awful, we appreciate that. We will have Wednesday night service for those that are not involved in VBS over in Building A, the couple Sunday school class, 6:30, just like always. If you’re not involved in VBS, we’d love to have you over there for that.
Pray for Brother Joel Powers. He’s got a—it’s just starting—a tear in his retina, and he has surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30. So pray for that. Can you imagine your eyesight? In that one eye, it’s blurry and can’t see right now, but tomorrow morning. So pray tomorrow morning for Brother Joel, if you would. But I just can’t imagine your eyesight. You know, of all five senses, that would be tough to lose. So pray for Brother Joel, if you would, please.
Pray for Miss Katie Go Forth. She’s at Vanderbilt, and at Vanderbilt, they’re trying to get her medicine adjusted and whatnot. You pray for her. Pray that it’ll be a good adjustment, if you will, get her medicine right in the long haul. Be a blessing. Pray for the Go Forth during this time also. And we would greatly appreciate your prayers on those things.
And pray for the Rennicks. The Rennicks are a blessing. They really, really are, and just good folk. Been involved in our church for years and years, moved away, and came back to the promised land. Amen. I’m glad for it, and they’re a blessing always. Awesome to see them around here. Brother Jim and Jalise, a word of prayer for offering, please, brother.
Let’s all stand once more. We’ll turn to number 37, number 37. We’ll sing the first, second, and last, “O Worship the King,” number 37.
Amen. Turn your Bibles, if you will, to 1 Thessalonians, chapter number five. 1 Thessalonians, chapter number five. This morning, we’ll focus on one verse. We’ll do the same tonight. A very short verse in the Bible tonight. That does not equal a short message, though. I need to clarify that. But a short verse. And 1 Thessalonians, chapter number five, in God’s word.
And the Lord has been speaking to my heart about this verse, a different angle of it. We’ll make you a little bit later on here in just a minute. 1 Thessalonians 5. And once you find that, would you please stand tonight? 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. And one verse, verse number 19. Verse number 19, if you’re there, would you say amen? It’s a long verse. I hope you can stay standing the whole way through reading of this one verse. Here’s what it says: “Quench not the Spirit.” You got it memorized already? What about that?
Say it out loud with me. Would you please? Here we go: “Quench not the Spirit.” What’s amazing how much God can say in just four words: “Quench not the Spirit.” Would you pray with me that the Lord would make this verse come alive? I still need even more of that. All of us do about this verse. Would you pray that the Lord would just make it come alive to us tonight?
Father, thank You. You have impressed my heart about these words this week. Maybe a week or two ago, I don’t know, Lord. Thank You for that. Lord, You make it real to us all. Lord, would You apply it as it needs to be applied to every individual tonight? Lord, help us to just get more meaning out of it. And Lord, I pray that we would be on fire for You longer because of tonight, Lord. And Lord, I just made me a little phrase that said—would You help me to say that phrase that would help someone tonight and give them what they need, Lord, from You and through me? Well, thank You for what You do, Lord. And we ask for that in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
How many ever heard—I’m sure you have—you’ve ever heard this phrase, “On fire for the Lord”? You ever heard that phrase? Come on now, the rest of you raise your hand. Your hands are not tied down. Here we go. Yeah, yeah, you heard that: “On fire for the Lord.” I love that when you see someone that’s on fire for the Lord.
Recently, I can’t remember what we saw it from, but someone shared a video. Maybe her daughter had found it, but it was a video of a young lady. And you could tell she was giving her testimony. She just was on fire for it. She didn’t have everything right. She’s still young and growing in the Lord, but you can tell she was on fire for the Lord. She gave her testimony. She wasn’t raised in a Christian home and never went to church. Her parents were really against God, against Christians. And her parents would often tell her, “Well, Christians are really the biggest hypocrites around, and they’re just a fake facade and all the rest of that.” And so she believed it as a little girl. She grew up that way, and just life was falling apart. She got married, and her husband was in drugs and all the rest of that stuff. And they just were at that point just going from, you know, meal to meal. Sometimes they didn’t have money. They went without food a lot. And they were riding along the road, and they had seen a car.
I thought it was interesting. She said it was a significant change in my life. She saw a car in a nicer car, and it just had a cross, just a little bumper sticker type emblem, just a cross. And she told her husband, she said, “You know, it seems that Christians have a better life than non-Christians do.”
Let me back up a little bit. I missed part of it. I’m just going to my memory on this thing, and that’s not good. But she went to church, maybe a time or two, a Vacation Bible School or something someone invited her to. And she said there were people friendly. And she was wanting to get saved. She went home and told Mom. Mom said, “No, no, no. You’re not going to do that. They’re fakes and the facades and all the rest of that.” But then, later years later, life’s wrecked, and she sees that cross. And she said that to her husband. And she said that was a definite shift in her mind and her heart. And God was just slowly drawing her. And she said that was a very, just significant moment. And eventually God was just drawing her, and she ended up going to the start of a church meeting in a single-wide trailer.
And she said, honestly, the pastor of that church, he had just gotten saved, and he didn’t have it all together. He was still pretty—and she said we all knew he was messed up. I mean, he would preach, and then afterwards he would go smoking and whatnot, and he knew he needed to overcome it. He was working on it, but he was just a young Christian himself, but he was truly excited about Jesus. And whether she had been a pastor or not, just saying, God used that in her life. And she got saved. And boy, during that time in her life, she was just so much on fire for the Lord. She had some children at this point, and her husband got saved too. He never overcame his drug addiction, and they ended up getting divorced. But she said, during that time, I was so just hungry, on fire for the Lord.
She said, “I remember my husband would leave for days and whatnot, and me and my child would be left there, but I wanted to be in church so bad.” She said, “It’s just an old trailer.” This guy started the church that really, if I remember, it was his mother-in-law’s trailer that he was borrowing to start this church in there, but he would go. And she said, he did love Jesus, and he did grow, but he was still messed up. And she said, “I wanted to go to church so bad.” She said, “I would put my daughter on the seat of that bike, and I would pedal the whole way to church.” I mean, she said, “I wouldn’t sit down. I would just pedal because I had to be in church.”
And you could tell just by her—she said, “I was so on fire for the Lord, I just—I had a fire burning inside of me. I wanted to know God more. I wanted to learn more about it. He saved me. I wanted to be in church. I had to be in church.” And she said, “Now I get to church, and somebody would always give me a ride home.” But she said, many a time I just said, “I’m just going to get to church one way or the other. It doesn’t matter. I’m just—I’m just going to get there.” And she would put her daughter on that seat, and she’d stand up the whole way and just pedal. She’d get to church. And she’s grown, and she still has growing to do, and she’d say this, but she was just on fire.
To be honest with you, I love the video. I loved it. I sent it to my sister, and then our household we watched it. And I told my sister, I said, “You’ll love this video.” And she’d text back. She said, “You’re right, I love it. This girl is just on fire for the Lord.”
She reminded me, I think, of a man in our church. He’s in our church tonight. A couple years ago, he was really growing in the Lord. I think he’s still growing in the Lord, but we had prayer on the square. It was one of those prayer on the squares. There was a possibility of rain that year, and it did rain, you know, that year. And so we moved it from the square to the store of the Lord. And I remember that night he rode a bike to the store of the Lord. A little bit farther for him, but he rode through the rain. And he got to the store of the Lord, and he was wet from out in the rain on that bike, and he had clothes to change into. I thought, wow, that’s a good example. Somebody’s on fire for the Lord. I love it.
I was telling someone—my wife or sister, I don’t know who—that lady, when she’s just on fire for the Lord. I love to be around people that are on fire. That’s the best time to be around people. Amen. I want a little bit, maybe a little bit out and catch a little bit, you know. I want to be on fire for the Lord.
I thought about a couple that was coming to our church years ago, and I think they were saved before that, back sitting, getting back in church. Man, I went and visited them. They lived in those apartments behind the bowling alley there. Now, Weekly Lane is the address. Y’all know where we’re talking about there in Smyrna here. And I remember visiting them, and God was doing a work in their hearts. I remember him saying, he said, “Preacher, we’re on fire at our house. We’re having revival here. We’re having revival here. All we talk about is God and the Bible. That’s all we talk about.” I just love to be around people that are on fire for the Lord. It’s exciting, and you can kind of just feel that burning in their heart.
I thought about a man named Billy Bray. Have you ever heard of Billy Bray? Back in the day, old Cornish miner, just a dirty drunkard. He said, “I could not go past the bar without stopping in there and spending all my money on drink and not being the, you know, the many ought to be on and on and on.” But God saved him.
Man, when God saved Billy Bray, he was just so excited for the Lord. He said, “I can’t help it. When I raise one foot, it says ‘Glory.’ I raise the other one, it says ‘Amen.’ Everywhere I’d go, it’s just ‘Glory! Amen!’” He said, “That’s just what my life is now.” Man, I was excited about everything.
It was kind of reported that if someone was getting saved, he heard about it or he leads by the Lord. It wasn’t uncommon for him to pick them up and just spin him around. He was so excited somebody got saved, you know. And he was on fire for the Lord, just so known. He became a preacher, you know, years later after he got saved.
But they said when he was a young Christian there in the mines—he went down in the mines one day when he was just a young Christian—and one of his old friends saw him and went up and hit him. And he said, let me read it exactly. He said, “Take that. That’s for turning Methodists.” That’s back in the day when Methodists preach, you know, salvation right. Some of them do nowadays, but them old Methodists, man, they’re on fire for the Lord. Some of them old Methodists. That was the exact term he used. And this is what Billy Bray said: “May the Lord forgive thee as I do, and bring thee to a better mind. I’ll pray for you.” And within three or four days, that man got into conviction, got saved.
Billy Bray was just so on fire for the Lord. I mean, he was known for a shout. He said you can hear him shouting going down the road. He was just a shouting Christian and was on fire for the Lord. Let me ask you, can you remember a time in your life when you were on fire for the Lord? Think about it a little bit. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to lose not being going to fire for the Lord.
At the beginning of the year, somewhere along there, I had a preacher—a friend of mine—he was texting me. I rewrite my prayer list typically at the beginning of the year. And he texts me this. He said, “Paul,” he said, “I’m praying for you.” And he said, “I’m praying for rest, fresh fire, and real fruit.” Man, when he texted me, I thought, “That’s it right there.” I don’t know if he came up with that or stole it from somebody else, but I’m still looking for him right there. That’s on my prayer list. I’ve been praying for that every day since.
And that fresh fire sometimes—you know, some of us aren’t spring chickens anymore around here. I ain’t mentioned any names, you know, but some of you can testify there a little bit, you know. And that fresh fire, it sure gets my attention anymore, you know. It has been my prayer, “Lord, I need rest and fresh fire and real fruit.” Pretty much every day since the beginning of the year, I pray for that, Lord. And that fresh fire often is just a big prayer, and I need that. And that prayer was really just on my mind and my heart: “Lord, I need some fresh fire.” And the Holy Spirit reminded me of those four words the last week or so ago: “Quench not the Spirit.”
And, you know, he doesn’t speak to you audibly. Someone said if he spoke to you audibly, we’d still be running, amen, you know. But he speaks in your heart, and he spoke to me, and he said, “Hey, Paul,” he said, “this thing—you’re praying for a fresh fire. Often the major problem is, ‘Quench not your Spirit.’”
Now, that reminded me of something. It was a good truth that the Lord spoke to me about it. He said this: “Paul, that fire—that lady I talked about in that video, or this couple that was on fire in our church—that fire did not—that fire you’ve had in your heart, I’ve had in my heart—that fire does not originate from you.” That’s a good thing because the temptation is, “Boy, I’m running out of fire. I’m running out of steam.” Anybody ever feel like that? I mean, I’ve seen Tanner at camp. I think I was preaching that week at camp, and that was in 1935, so that’s been a long time ago. And, you know, if you’re not careful, that’ll be our mindset: “When I’m just getting old and I’m running out of fire.” But the fire, friend, the fire does not originate with you and I. He didn’t say, you know, “Quench not yourself.” He said, “Quench not the Spirit.”
In that upper room, there were 120, the upper room, and they’re praying, and all the one in court, and the Holy Spirit’s power came, and what was it? Cloven tongues of what? Of fire. Where does that fire come from? They get somebody just on fire, and they have a burning desire.
I thought about my dad when he got saved. He got saved Sunday, went to work Monday, and he went through the plant. It was a Continental Can, a metal company down in Tampa, Florida, that area. And he would walk that campus every day at work. And he said that day, that Monday when I got off work, I was so unusually tired. He said, “Well, I’m so tired.” And he realized all day long, as he passed through that factory—that was his job—he was witnessing to everybody. He did not even realize what he was doing, but there was a fire burning in his heart. But that fire wasn’t from my dad. That fire was from the Holy Spirit that moved inside of his heart.
And don’t get the mindset, “I’m losing my fire.” That fire does not come from you. It comes from God. “Quench not the Spirit.” Don’t think I don’t have anything left. You might not have anything left. That might be a perfect time for the Spirit of God to flow through you purely and genuinely. It’s His fire that flows to you.
You know, it’s a good thing. We don’t have to try to manufacture this thing, try to pull on airs. You know, there’s a lot of that in our day and time. You know, sometimes you can find this a lot of times on some of these TV preachers, whether they didn’t brush their teeth for a month or two, and they blow on those people, and they put their hand, they just fall out, you know. You know what I’m talking about, you know. And it’s just kind of manufactured. And boy, it’s amazing how many of them they found out their secrets, how they know that so-and-so’s got a, you know, and all these different things because they wrote a card out early on, and on it goes. But they’re manufacturing their fire. Or in our time, sometimes they’ll manufacture that fire by music.
Now, music’s a good thing. And the Spirit of God and music are closely associated with each other. When the evil spirit came on Saul, they played good, spirit-filled music, and the evil spirit left. When he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,” he says, “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your hearts to the Lord.” Music and the Spirit are very important. But if you’re just using music—you know, rock and roll bands can manufacture a fire in somebody’s heart and mind—but it’s not the Spirit of God. It’s not a holy fire. It’s a strange fire.
And this fire—some people just kind of put on a big-time charisma, big-time act. Friend, that’s not the fire. You don’t have to manufacture the fire that’s from the Spirit of God. It’s burning inside of you. And that’s encouraging because sometimes, you know, man, it’s got nothing left. That’s all right. It doesn’t have to have anything left from you because the fire is from the Spirit of God.
“Quench not the Spirit.” You know, in the Old Testament, there were two men, Nadab and Abihu, and they went into the temple, into the holy place, and the altar there, and they offered strange fire. God wasn’t happy about that. God said, “Done for you, boys.” God took them home. And the Lord said, “Moses, get Aaron and tell him his other sons who have to do the job now because those boys that took him.” And, “Don’t you offer that strange fire on the altar of God.” God doesn’t want some worldly, manufactured, and made-up, put-on fire. He wants a sacred fire from the Holy Spirit.
I always loved in the book of Daniel. He said, “Hey, the gods—this polytheistic religion, all these gods—but Daniel said, ‘The God whose holy ones are in him…’” There’s a difference. And the fire is from the Holy Spirit of God. And, friend, when you’re losing your fire, don’t look to yourself, don’t look to everybody else. Look to the Spirit of God.
“I need my fire back.” Often say when you’re losing your desire, and you all—I know I go—we always talk about this morning, you lose that. Say, “Lord, bring that desire back.” You’re asking the Holy Spirit to bring that fire back. Oh, it’s so vital. And the Spirit of God said, “Paul, you’re losing your fire when you’ve quenched the Spirit of God.”
Now, yes, the older we get, the less physical energy we have. That’s just part of it. You can say amen out there, especially with VBS coming on, you know. But I’m talking about that fire inside of you. You know, here’s the interesting thing about that. The…
You know, we can’t really—I wish we could. I’ve tried it many a time. We can’t put a fire in someone else’s heart. You can’t do that. I’ve tried. But the Spirit of God—don’t I think sometimes when God gets you on fire that He can work through you and let that fire spread to someone else? But the God, the Holy Spirit, you know, when someone gets saved, well, that fire is ignited inside of them.
And it shows. We’re talking about VBS, and we have any that will pray this week. We’re praying for God to put that fire in some of these boys and girls. Because if they get it from a manufacturer, it may last for a couple of years. But if God puts it in there, it’ll last for all eternity. Brother Glenn here this morning, he’s had a lot of health issues, but he got saved years ago out of VBS, and God lit a fire in his heart. And all these years later, it’s still burning.
And that’s why it’s so important. Sometimes we think, “Well, I can make this fire in them.” You can’t make the fire in them. I’m for discipleship all day long. We’ve tried, by the way. The best discipleship you’ve got is Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and we’ve been trying to do that for 26 years, and I’m for all the others. But, friend, you can’t make someone grow. It’s the Spirit of God that puts that fire in them.
That’s why prayer and having the Spirit of God flowing through you is key. You can’t bypass that. You can use all the methods and all the training and techniques this world has to offer in good Christians. And I’m not against some of those things. But when I’m saying you cannot bypass—He said, “Hey,” He said, “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” And he’s talking about building temples there. It’s the Spirit of God to put some fire in someone.
I was talking to someone today, and I don’t want to say names, what—not on, you know, with us being on the Internet—but it was with a friend today, and he was telling me about a staff member that he was trying to train to get some passion. And he took him to another man that had been trained by an older pastor, a good, godly older pastor that’s in heaven. And he said, “Now, you did this, you know, would you kind of give this young man, the staff, some fire?” And this other guy said, he said, “My old preacher, Clarence Sexton, told me time and again, you can’t train passion. You can’t put passion in someone. If they have passion, you can kind of train it, but you can’t put that in someone. God does that.”
And it’s the Spirit of God that puts a fire in somebody’s heart in life. And I can’t even manufacture it in my own heart. And when I’m losing, I need to go back to the Spirit of God and say, “Where have I quenched you?” And if we want someone else to get on fire, well, God has to spend time with God. “God, would You bring the fire in their heart?” Because the Spirit of God brings that. “Quench not the Spirit.”
He’s the one that brings the fire. Now, the wonderful thing is when God lights the fire in someone’s heart, we don’t have to be the one always making it. God does that. Look, if you will, over in Philippians. Sometimes we—I think we might not get this verse quite right what he’s saying. Look at where in Philippians, chapter 1. It’s a great verse, and I’m not a guy trying to rob you of any promises you use, but really, if you look at this context a little bit, we often don’t use it right. Philippians—God’s using Paul to write to this Philippian church. They had a special connection, and the Philippian church always reached out and loved and took care of Paul, and they had a wonderful bond. But Paul could not stay there. God was moving him on. And there’s a very endearing book of the Bible, Philippians. And look what he says here. Philippians 1. Look at verse number 6, if you would, please. Philippians 1:6. He says he’s writing to this church through the Spirit of God. He says, “Being confident of this very thing, that he”—that’s the Lord—“which has begun a good work in you”—that’s in the Philippian church—“will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Paul is saying, “I’m not going to be able to stay here with you and take care of everything in your life, but I’m confident because it wasn’t me that put the fire in you; it’s God that put the fire in you. And I’m confident that He that began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” That’s what he’s saying.
If I do the work, I’m going to be worried. I’ve got to keep it going on, but we don’t do the work in someone’s heart. We don’t put the fire in there. God puts the fire in there. And if God put the fire in there, God’s going to be the one that keeps it going. That’s what Paul said. You know, it’s a wonderful thing when God—God just does a work in someone’s heart. You know, Hebrews 12:29 says, “For our God is a consuming fire.” I don’t necessarily—for a born-again, on fire Christian, He’s not necessarily going to burn you up. You know, the Bible says it’s not my warlike as a fire. It burns the chaff, soft, and like a hammer to break the rocks in pieces. Jeremiah talks about that. And it’s like that. It consumes. You know, we have all kind of sins in our life, all of us do. And yet that fire, it just consumes away all that dross, and it purifies us.
But when someone gets on fire for the Lord—I hope I’m not saying too much. If I get the look, I’ll stop dead in the sentence, you know. Uh-oh, I better stop. I hadn’t even started yet, you know. My wife wasn’t raised in church. And later on, as she got out of high school, she started seeking the Lord. You know, the church she went to, they didn’t necessarily preach a lot of sins, per se. It was a good church. Not trying to say anything about it. It was a good church. But, you know, she was on fire for the Lord. And man, the Holy Spirit just began to consume her life and burn away a lot of those things. Now she got married to her husband. He dragged her back down, you know. Did I do that one good? Maybe. But the Lord is a consuming fire.
Now, here’s the thing: Trying to generate your own fire can be exhausting. Believe me, I know. I remember hearing a preacher not too far from here. It was at a conference. He wasn’t at his home church. He was older. God used him greatly. But I remember—I never forget him saying this. He said, “You know, I pretty much have ruined my health trying to do the ministry in my own flesh.” Oh, wow. He was talking about there’s a fight, there’s a battle, and there is. But, friend, if I’m trying to try to just generate that, that fire’s from the Lord. Trying to generate my own fire can be exhausting, but the Spirit’s fire is never ending.
Remember Moses on the Mount? Exodus 3. And there’s the burning bush, and it’s not—uh-oh, they went to ask the seaweed. Miss Stacy’s not here, I’m good, brother. Hopefully she’s not watching on YouTube. Where was that? The bush was burning. My wife’s laughing at me over there now. The bush was burning, but it didn’t consume as far as getting burned up. You know, Satan, when he uses people, man, he just—you know, they’re 30 years old and they look about 70. It’s what Satan does. He consumes in a different way. He just tears their life apart. You know, it doesn’t matter who you are. You know, we’re going to get old and our bodies are going to get—you know, we’re just all going to die in corruption. The Bible talks about it. That’s just part of it, your body. But I love to see older Christians that are still on fire. Their body might not be able to do what you used to do, but they’re still on fire. I’d like to be like that. And the Spirit of God can do that.
I don’t know how many Christians I’ve visited on their deathbed, and they know—we know, you know, sometimes they’ll talk about it, sometimes they won’t talk about it—but everybody kind of knows they’re nearing the end. And yet they still have that fire. I thought about Brother Fontaine one of the last times he was over here at Stonecrest Hospital, and one of the most encouraging things to him and me, too: He got to lead a nurse to the Lord. Man, that just fired him up. I’d like to be like that. The Spirit of God never runs out of fire. And even, you know, no matter how old we are, we can have that fire because it’s from the Lord.
Reminds you of Isaiah 40 over there: “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” And they just keep going because they have a fire inside of them. That’s the Spirit of God.
Hey, I don’t know about you, but sometimes I lose my fire. I have to go back to the Lord. You know, maybe the greatest sin that I do sometimes is I’m just self-reliant, not Spirit and God reliant. Just going back to the Spirit, “Hey, where have I quenched the Spirit?” The Spirit’s the fire. I have to go back and say, “Lord, I’m so sorry. I know that because I don’t have the fire anymore.” And it may take a little bit of time, and God may be testing, and it may be this season, but in God’s time, the Spirit of God can bring that fire burning again.
And yes, the older we get, maybe we can’t do the physical things we used to do anymore, but we still have that fire. Brother Dylan—how many of you remember Brother Dylan? Most of you know Brother Dylan. You know, he got up in age, and some of you know about his driving. A lot of you would come to pass, “We got to do something about his driving.” I remember—I can’t remember who it was—but one of our people, he had—he was stopped at a red light and he fell asleep, and the light had turned green. And some of our people had to actually go up and knock on his window and wake him up, say, “Hey.” His son Mike, I think in one day, his son Mike got at least maybe more—two calls one day from the cops saying, “Hey, your dad, you know, he don’t need to be driving.” And he’s like, “I know, I tell him that.”
Amazing thing is, and people kind of—it’s the past—we’ve got to do something about it. I’m like, “I can’t, he’s not, you know, family.” You know, family’s trying to do something about it. What we’re going to do, you know—I mean, family made a deal with him. Some of you know about this. Family made a deal with him: “Look, you know, if you go take your driver’s test again, and if you don’t pass, you stop driving.” He said, “Okay.” Everybody knew he was going to fail; no way he had passed. I mean, everybody’s complaining about it. At least two, honestly, one day, Mike—some of you can ask somebody if he’s here—but, but one day he had at least two, maybe three—I can’t remember—calls and the police saying, “Hey, your dad ought not be driving,” you know, on separate occasions one day. And um, so anyway, there’s no way he’s going to pass, so he said, “All right, I’ll do it.” So he went and took his driver’s test, and he passed. Now they wanted to find who gave the test; they’re going to kill that person, you know.
One day before—I don’t know if we had bought the property. We were trying to buy it. Maybe we bought it. I don’t know. Somewhere on there we were trying to buy it and all that. But the grass was high before Steve Page got a hold of it. Amen, you know. I appreciate him keeping that thing cut, you know. But before all that, Brother Dylan went over there walking and praying on the new property and got lost. Literally got lost over there. Yeah. And here’s what I’m saying about Brother Taylor [Dylan]: His health got bad, but he still had that fire. Even to the very end, he would do something for God. I love it.
His caretaker, for a while. She would—she would, because she couldn’t drive at the end, you know—and she would drive into church. That was—she got paid to do it. And she’d sit back over here and, praise the Lord, one of those Sunday mornings, she brought him. That was the only ride. She was here to bring him. Her countenance was so falling. And then God got a hold of her heart, and she got saved. Amen. Changed her countenance. And I thought, God’s using Brother Dylan even at the very end just by his caretaker coming in. But he didn’t lose that fire. That fire—the Spirit of God put a fire in him—it just won’t go out.
I thought about this verse. Let me see if I can get it off the wall here. We try to keep it over here to remind us when we pray right before we come out here. I mean, we tell jokes, me and Brother Adam do. But we have this verse up here for a reason. It says this. It’s Luke 11:13. It says, “If ye then, being evil”—by the way, that kind of fits us all—“if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
You know, when I’m losing my fire, and you get older, it’s a little bit easier to lose it in some ways. But the Spirit of God said, “Paul, I’m not losing it. I’m not running out. Where have I quenched you?” And you just start asking, “Father, You’re my Heavenly Father. Would You give me the Spirit?” You’ve got the indwelling, but I’m talking about the empowering. And he says, “Look, you give good things to your kids, and I’m a heavenly Father, and I give My Spirit to them that ask.” And that Spirit keeps that fire burning.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Heads bowed and eyes closed. Hey, tonight, will we just go to the Lord? Say, “Lord, have I quenched? What do I need to get right? What do I need to change?” Father, would You send Your Spirit again? Would You just tell Him that? Let’s all stand, if you would, please. Would you spend some time with it? Be obedient to Him. We’ll pray. You’ll be obedient. You’ll be obedient. You’ll be obedient as God guides you. Lord, thank You that I don’t have to try to manufacture a fire; it comes from You, Your Spirit, the Word. Bless us, Lord. I pray that we would be on fire for You. Take us home, Lord. Use these few minutes to that end, Father. And Lord, we thank You for what You do. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Would you come as the instruments play? We’ve got all the fire we need. Our God is a consuming fire. Amen.
It’s just a great thought that God would light a fire in some of these boys and girls’ hearts this week that would last their lifetime here and through eternity. And that’s just a great thought. Now it’s almost seven. We’ve got five minutes till seven, seven o’clock. We’ve been praying, and God’s been so good. We’re in the middle of this contract, but it’s not done until it’s done. So I want us to do something different. We’ve been coming forward just praying as a church family. I know we can’t all get on the altar, so maybe in the first row or two. But if you would, let’s do this again. Let’s just keep after this until this thing is closed. Let’s just pray. We’ll get too many to lead us as we typically do, but would you just come on down?
All visitors are welcome. Tanner, no must, but y’all are welcome too. Everyone’s welcome. Let’s just come down to the altar if you’d like to, and let’s just pray. Something about us, the family of God, getting on our knees before God, humbling ourselves—that’s a good thing, friend. I think pretty much all of our men have led in prayer at least once, but we’re on our second time. We don’t want more than two times. Brother Adam, have you prayed just one time? You’ve already done twice. Okay, okay. Brother Adam’s already done twice. Brother Adam’s already done twice. Brother Patterson, have you done twice? I think you just did one time. Brother John, you did that night. Brother Kevin, have you done twice? You have? Okay, okay. Brother Martin, any of our men that have not prayed twice over this—Brother Go Forth, if you haven’t prayed twice, come on up. Come on up, please, if you would, Brother Patterson. These men will lead us, but let’s don’t just listen to them pray. Let’s pray too. And let’s go to the Lord humbly and just ask the Lord, “Would You fulfill this thing?” We want this thing well; we can use the proceeds from this before we draw from the loan. That’s a prayer. And God just put His hand on this, and He is. He’s going to fulfill it, but let’s keep praying until He does. These men will lead us, and you pray as these men will lead us. Would you do that, please?
We’ve been praying now for literally weeks at 7 o’clock in the evening for a miracle. And Lord, we just ask that You would intervene in all this, that You’d get Your hands on it. Lord, we have a contract. We thank You for that. We’ve seen You work in just miraculous ways in the purchase of the land. And Lord, just all that You’ve done in getting us to where we are right now. But Lord, now we need—we need to firm up and put this contract in concrete. We need to—we need to finalize it. You know, You’ve heard from all these folks that are in front of me and Lord, even behind me, as they have lifted this petition up to You. And Lord, all we can ask is that You would work in it, work in the hearts of those folks who have already put the contract to paper and Lord have assured us that the money will be there and is there, and all the things from the very getting of the contract to the very close of the contract, and what we’d ask You to do is just get the contract closed. I know all the ramifications of all that, but Lord, I know You. I know You’re in control of everything, and I know what You can do because You’ve already shown Yourself. We just want to be able to, Lord—just won’t be able to brag on You what You’re going to do for the Rutherford County Baptist Church. We thank You already. We thank You for what You’ve done. But now, Lord, we need this finalized. We leave it in Your capable hands. We thank You, Lord, in Jesus’ name, I pray.
Father, I come before You tonight with a heart filled with gratitude for all that You’ve done for us. We know that Your hand has been on this project since day one, going back more than 20 years when somebody first looked at that property. And Father, You have answered so many prayers. You’ve given us that property. It’s now ours. We’ve purchased it. And now You brought us like to the banks of the River Jordan; we’re ready to cross over to build that new building. And Father, we’re thankful tonight for the verse You laid on the heart of the pastor, Philippians 1:6. And we know what You begin, You will finish. And You have begun a great work over there at 2000 Elmaville Road. But, Father, You want us to have a part in it. You love us. You want to hear from us. You want us to ask You. And, Father, I have no doubt that this long will go through and that there’ll be a building built there. But Lord, we just—I just want to tell You, I love You, and I want You to know that we are fully dependent upon You, trusting in You, to finish what You have begun, to be a blessing not only to everyone assembled here, this church, but to be able to reach out beyond that, to reach the community and see many souls saved in a Christian school grow. We ask all these things, laying them at Your feet and thanking You for the privilege to just to come into Your presence in prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Amen. Thank you so much for praying. I heard all those alarms going off, so we’re done praying already. Amen. Thank you for praying. Love you, folk. Have a great night. Glad you’re in the house of the Lord on a Sunday night. We’re praying for VBS. God, light fires.
Original File: 2026-06-08 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 06⧸07⧸2026