And there was something about him that really moved my life. And I was so excited to hear him because I’d never heard him before. And I was not disappointed at all. I thought, “Dear God, what a wonderful work that you’ve done in this man’s life.” And then a number of years went by and he came to this very church and preached the revival. I remember exactly where I sat.
I sat right there on that side on the NC seat and I was so excited. He preached all week long, one solid week. Not one soul moved. Absolutely [clears throat] nothing happened. It was one of the deadest weeks I’ve ever spent in my life. I remember sitting there with terribly mixed emotions. One of them was amazement that a man whose heart was so afflumed for God a number of years ago could somehow have died out.
And secondly, fear in thinking, God, could this ever happened to me? Sometimes we think for the flame to die in a man’s heart, he has to turn liberal and start not believing the word of God any longer or some gross sin in his life. But the truth is, neither of those have to be true. the flame, that real deep abiding motivation, that stirring in a man’s heart that is there when he first begins to preach the gospel.
It doesn’t mean necessarily he has to stop believing the word of God or fall into some gross sin, but something or some things or attitudes begin to change in a person’s life and that tremendous flame, that energy, that thrust, that power, that anointing of God is gone. And we ask ourselves the question why. It should be something that not only amazes us but should frighten every single man and woman of God who’s serving him because there’s no exception.
There’s no plateau and there is no place in life you can run. We either walk obediently before God or something happens to the flame that is firing our heart. Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to second Timothy because the title of this message is rekindling the flame of our ministry. Rekindling the flame of our ministry.
