Strange Fire...Sermon Notes

Two priests died at the same time and met Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter said, "I'd like to get you guys in now, but our computer is down. You'll have to go back to Earth for about a week, but you can't go back as priests. So what else would you like to be?" The first priest says, "I've always wanted to be an eagle, soaring above the Rocky Mountains." "So be it," says St. Peter, and off flies the first priest. The second priest mulls this over for a moment and asks, "Will any of this week 'count', St. Peter?" "No, I told you the computer's down. There's no way we can keep track of what you're doing." "In that case," says the second priest, "I've always wanted to be a stud." "So be it," says St. Peter, and the second priest disappears. A week goes by, the computer is fixed, and the Lord tells St. Peter to recall the two priests. "Will you have any trouble locating them?" He asks. "The first one should be easy," says St. Peter. "He's somewhere over the Rockies, flying with the eagles. But the second one could prove to be more difficult." "Why?" asketh the Lord. "He's on a snow tire, somewhere in North Dakota."

That ofcourse has nothing to do with today’s message
Continuing my rebellion against my sermon series ways
Today’s message is entitled: STRANGE FIRE

Leviticus 9:22-10:3 (Amplified Bible)
22Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them, and came down [from the altar] after offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings.
23Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord [the Shekinah cloud] appeared to all the people [as promised].
24Then there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
Leviticus 10
1AND NADAB and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and offered strange and unholy fire before the Lord, as He had not commanded them.
2And there came forth fire from before the Lord and killed them, and they died before the Lord.
3Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord meant when He said, I [and My will, not their own] will be acknowledged as hallowed by those who come near Me, and before all the people I will be honored. And Aaron said nothing.

Footnotes:
Perhaps few people have ever identified themselves with Nadab and Abihu, and yet few, if any, of us have not done exactly what they did in principle. Their sin, which God took so seriously and which proved fatal to them, was not a mere matter of failing to obey the letter of God’s law for priests. Their inexcusable folly was in trying to please the Lord their way instead of His way. Who of us cannot recognize himself as the offerer of this prayer, with only the details lacking: “O Lord, make me rich! Then I will make large donations to Your interests!” Yet our very poverty may be the means to the end which He has in love and wisdom planned for us, the ultimate purpose of our creation, perhaps, which substitution of our will for His will would utterly defeat. No wonder God removed Nadab and Abihu from the earth! They, like ourselves, had acted like the child of a great painter who attempted to work on his father’s priceless canvas instead of on the tablet assigned to him. They, like the child, were banished from the father’s presence. And every believer does well to recognize the importance of being entirely surrendered to “God’s will; nothing more; nothing less; nothing else; at any cost.” And that does not mean first making an unholy alliance in marriage, or in business, or in thought, and then adjusting it to God’s will. Remember Nadab and Abihu, who “offered strange and unholy fire before the Lord.” It does not pay.

We have all offered God strange fire:

1. Strange Fire is anything outside His perfect Will and Kingdom…

How many times have we Prayed for His blessing instead of His Will
We make up our minds we want to do something and instead of asking for God’s direction we ask Him to bless what we want to do
The most fundamental or highest priority of following Christ being a Christian is practicing the LORD’s prayer
If we do not pray Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will Be Done than we are not praying, we’re just closing our eyes, getting on our knees and demanding our own way

Psalm 145
10 All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you. 11 They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, 12 so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.

William Penn, back in 1677
Made some sense of what we’re talking about today
When you come to your meetings...what do you do? Do you
then gather together bodily only, and kindle a fire, compassing yourselves about with the sparks of your own kindling, and so please yourselves, and walk in the
light of your own fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled...? Or rather, do you sit down in True Silence, resting from your own Will and Workings, and waiting upon the Lord, with your minds fixed in that Light wherewith Christ has
enlightened you, until the Lord breathes life in you, refresheth you, and prepares you, and your spirits and souls, to make you fit for his service, that you may offer
unto him a pure and spiritual sacrifice?

2. Strange Fire is serving a church tradition or program with higher commitment than our relationship to Christ…

How many sacred cows have caused a church split
It’s amazing how petty religious people can be

Think about Nadab and Abihu
Actually the story is rather frightening
Recognize they were sacrificing, practicing a religious tradition
When God turned them into toast
I Wonder how many times God’s grace has saved our religious leaders from becoming a burnt sacrifice
Think of all the crazy things religious leaders have done in the name of God

I pray that the Lord would give us true discernment to the strange fire of the past and present infecting the church

I think the apostle Paul says it all in 1 Corinthians 2
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

This is what I ranted about on my annual report
The Church must stop looking for a charismatic leader
This is how we get antichrists
The Church must stop buying into American consumerism
No more walking in the flesh
Oh that we may live in the Spirit

3. Strange Fire is mindlessly coming before God in worship without reverence or fear…

I’m not talking about practicing OT rituals
But we are way too casual these days

I’m desperate to get across what I’m trying to say here
Today’s Christian is much too casual with the things of God
If there isn’t a small trembling while partaking of communion
OR a desire to kneel at the altar
Or commitment in attendance of services instead of flippancy
IF the heart isn’t moved while singing the words of our praise songs
A careful handling of the word of God

The same God who killed Nadab and Abihu for failing to practice worship the way He commanded
Is the same God we worship today at RRAG
It’s overwhelming
This is what makes Grace so AMAZING

2 Corinthians 3
The Glory of the New Covenant
7Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Remember the three R’s from today’s msg:
Repent (His Will)
Relationship (Heart over Tradition)
Reverence (Healthy Fear)