Introduction
Let me introduce myself. My name is Greg, and I’m a pyromaniac.
A pyro is someone who loves fire, who loves to start fires, and watch them burn. When it’s safe, that is.
My friends and I love the outdoors, and we try to go camping at least a couple times each year.
This past year, we went on our annual trip to Sequoia.
For those of you who have gone camping, what’s the BEST part about camp? The camp FIRE.
And every time we go camping, guess who gets to start up the campfire? Yeah baby, that’s me.
And my fires are never these cute little, warm little, Kumbaya fires. My fires are massive “you better move our sitting logs back” kinda fires.
So tonight, let me show you how to build the sweetest campfire EVER.
(Kids, do not try this at home…. Try this when you’re camping and there’s lots of fire wood)
1. Gather as many sticks and pieces of wood as you can
2. Form them like a teepee in the fire pit. Fill the inside with little pieces of wood and pine.
3. Light the pieces of wood on the inside on fire.
4. Wait.
5. Watch that Fire ignite into Flames!
6. Optional- Move the sitting logs back 25 feet!
I kid you not, when I lit our campfire up, people from surrounding campgrounds were oohing and ahing at fire. Some people even came over to watch our fire burn and to share in it’s warmth.
I Love starting fires!
But you know what I love more than seeing campfires go up in flames? Seeing youth like you set on fire, ….totally on fire for Christ.
What I mean is that you have a heart that’s totally and madly in love with God and a life passionately devoted to him.
And in this way we want to see you burn so bright that everyone around will be able to see the light of Christ from within you and feel it’s warmth and power.
Jesus says in Matt 5: 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp(fire) and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
See according to Master, we are to be like a flame that gives off light that other’s experience, so that the result is that people notice, and give their own praise and worship and glory to God.
Our fire should not be to draw people to ourselves so that they admire us and we get the glory.
But our fire for God should cause them to ultimately see how Great God is and cause them to One day turn their own praise to God.
Tonight I want to take you through a progression of 3 steps in which we can prepare ourselves to get a massive fire going, one that has the potential to sweep through our lives, our churches, and hopefully across our schools.
WE can’t start this fire, but we can take steps to be available for the Great Fire Starter to come and light a fire within us.
Step one: t - Carry the Cross
EX: When we go camping, the campfire comes at night. But before that, during the day, we usually do some intense hike where we climb for miles and hours to explore the wilderness.
And so by the time we get back to the campground, everyone wants to just sit and chill and chew on some munchies since you’re starving from the day’s activities.
But since I want to start a fire, guess what I gotta do? I can’t just sit there and chill and feed my stomach, because I have to go out and gather all the firewood. It’s not all just lying there for me in a bundle, I actually have to go and find it all.
It requires some sacrifice, while everyone’s relaxing and eating, I’ll be going out and looking for wood. And my hands get all dirty, covered with soil and bugs from the ground. The wood will be all thorny and heavy. But I would have to carry all the wood back to the campground.
It takes sacrifice, cuz sometimes you can’t be doing what everyone else is doing all the time.
But it’s SO worth it. Because I know that the fire that I’m about to create will be so awesome and everyone in that place will be able to enjoy it’s warmth all night long. And while everyone enjoys it and loves it, guess who enjoys it the most? The one who prepared it.
In the same way, if we want to be a light, to be a fire with hearts ablaze in our schools so that it would spread to all those around us, well it’s gonna have to start with sacrifice.
Here’s what I’m talking about: Just like I had to sacrifice and go and carry the wood, well you’re gonna have to go and carry some sort of wood as well.
What do I mean?
Well think about the New Testament. Do you guys remember anyone who had to carry some form of wood from one place to another?
Christ, right? Christ had to carry his own wooden cross on which he was crucified on
The wooden cross is the greatest symbol of sacrifice that we know, because it was the wooden cross that Christ gave up his life for us.
Do you realize that Jesus made us his #1 Priority? He had everything he could want, in the heavenly places, but he stepped down from Majesty because he saw YOU as a priority. It was all about YOU and a relationship with YOU.
EX: What if I told you I’m in a relationship with a Manequin? You say “Of course not, it’s a dummy!” Don’t call it a dummy! When I talk, she listens. We never fight. She never talks back.
With all relationships, this is a two-way thing. Jesus sacrificed for us, look what he expects in return:
I struggled a bit. I hesitate in reading this verse to you. This is not an easy teaching of Jesus to hear. Do you think you can handle this?
Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Jesus is going to the extreme in saying that the highest priority and the greatest love in your life has to be Jesus. Carrying the Cross means that you are willing to sacrifice for Jesus because He sacrificed for you.
It means that Jesus is your king, your #1. He is the one you live for.
Who is the most important person in you life? Your mom, dad, sister, your friend bf, gf, dog… yourself?
Will you Love Jesus more?
And Jesus isn’t saying to go home and flip your parents off, and disobey them and disrespect them. In fact, if you truly follow after Jesus, you’ll learn that he teaches us to honor them and obey them.
If it comes down to it, Will you carry your cross and love Jesus more than the things in life:
More than popularity?
More than computer games?
More than internet and facebook?
More than shopping or basketball?
So I challenge you this year, I dare you, that as you start off the school year to make Jesus your #1 priority.
Will you Carry your cross, and sacrifice whatever it takes to make Jesus your #1?
Carrying the cross isn’t easy, because it means sacrifice. It means denying yourself. It means dying to yourself. And dying is never easy, is it?
But listen, Jesus isn’t even asking here that you physically die for him… But he did:
He died for you, would you be willing to talk to him a little bit each day?
He died for you, would you be willing to give up going to that party if it means being at Church?
He died for you, would you be willing to read some of the love letters He’s left for you?
EX: Baseball. Growing up, I loved to play baseball. It was my passion. I played in the summer league, which everyone plays in. The real good players, like the all-stars also play in a spring league. One time I was on television. They videotaped our game. I couldn’t watch it because it was on cable and I didn’t have cable. But one day I get a phone call. And I was like Whoa! I don’t get phone calls when I was 10. But I pick it up and it was a man who said he was the coach of the Spring League Dodgers. And he says he saw me playing on TV. He asked if I wanted to play for his team. Well, the games were on Sunday. And I was so sad. Because I knew that I could not play. I had church, and it was my time to worship Jesus. And so I had to turn it down.
We all love different things in our lives. What are you willing to lay down in order to pick up the cross?
Will you carry the cross? Will you be willing to sacrifice in order to make Jesus #1?
When we are committed this first step in carrying the cross, it will lead into step 2.
Step 2: Become People of Passion
When we truly carry our cross, we will naturally be people of passion.
You can’t force yourself to be passionate. Passion is something that you just are. It’s natural.
I know many of you probably don’t think of yourself as a passionate person, especially since we’re Asian.
What do you think of when you hear the word Passion?
I think Enthusiasm.
EX: Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is when we display joy in our lives. Back in the day, when people were converting to Christianity, people saw in them a radical change in their lives. They saw them begin to live different with a newfound joy for Jesus. People didn’t know how to describe what they saw. All they can say was that those new Christians are in God. In God, in Greek is en theos. That description is where we get the word enthusiasm.
When we commit to carrying the cross, and live like Jesus is our #1, then the bible says that God comes to live in us. Not only is God in us, but we are now In God. En theos.
People should see by the way we walk and talk that there is something different about you… en theos.
Here’s the thing. When we think of Passion, We also often think of people who cry and scream and jump and dance for Jesus.
But a passionate person can be when people can look at you and your actions and know you are serious about something.
EX: Telephone
People saw that what she believed was the truth? Why? Not because she was crying and screaming, but because her actions and her words showed that she was serious about what she believed was true.
When we are willing to stand for that thing, even to be humiliated, or to suffer for it.
EX: Have you see the Passion Of Christ. It’s not because he was crying and screaming and dancing for Joy that he got to be the only one to carry a heavy wooden cross and then be nailed to it. NO, it’s called the Passion of Christ because it was something He truly believed in, so much that he was willing to suffer for it.
So if you have taken that first step to carry your cross, you will be seen by the world as a person who is passionate for Jesus in that you are very serious about living for Christ.
We will then be regarded as people of passion.
If step one, leads to step two. What happens when you put step one and two together? You get step 3.
What happens when you take the cross that you carry, and you combine it with Passion that’s in you? You Passiton.
3. Passiton
Growing up, there’s a song our youth group used to always sing called “Pass it On”. The song starts like this:
It Only takes a spark, to get a fire going.
And soon all those around, can warm up in it’s glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
You spread His Love, to everyone, You want to Pass it On.
Ex: Last week at Sequoia when it was time to go to sleep, I went to put out the fire. I made sure that everything was completely put out. Mike was even like “Dude, that’s enough.”
We tucked into our sleeping bags. But 20 minutes into my sleep, Mike wakes me up! The fire ignited! Not just the fire in the pit, but it lit up a 10 foot tree trunk that was next to it!
What happened? What happened was it only takes a spark to get a fire going. There were apparently embers that were still warm, and when a little spark lights up, those embers heat up, and when a few embers heat up together, they pass it on to other embers around them, or to other pieces of wood. Once they’re hot enough, they heat up the wood around them, until everyone around catches on fire!
Just the song says, it only takes a spark, to get a fire going. It only takes a spark to get a fire going.
Imagine what it will be like if each of us is a light for Christ, on fire for Christ, and we go out to our different schools?
And not just by ourselves, but Christians around us catch on to the vision and they too are committed to Christ.
Imagine how powerful the light of Christ shines. Imagine the attention Jesus will get.
Remember what Jesus said?
Matt 5: 14"You are the light of the world… let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
You are a fire for Christ. When your fire for Christ is seen, you will see it get passed on to others. Jesus says so. He says that our light will draw others and many will turn to the Father in Heaven just like you!
EX: When I went to college, people told me that you can go 1 of 2 ways. You either get involved in parties and drinking and the ways of the world, or you can go the way of Christ and grow in faith.
That scared me, so I prayed that God would help me go the way of Christ.
When I moved into the dorms at UCI, He put me in a room next to a Caucasian Atheist on my left named Jesus, an Agnostic Chinese guy on my right, and a Roman Catholic Philipino across the way.
That year, I was committed to being a light for Christ, and not being afraid to show it.
I would worship in my room, I would read the Bible openly in the living area, I would go to fellowship every Wednesday.
Everyone knew of my commitment to Christ. Not just because they saw it, but I also talked about Him. I looked for opportunities to share with these three guys my faith, and who Jesus is to me. That year, none of them received Christ. Through my efforts, no one caught on.
But that doesn’t mean the fire wasn’t burning.
I moved out with Rhian, but I didn’t see the other guys for the next three years!
My final quarter at UCI, I’m on campus…
I graduated college, and I never got to see Rhian saved. I wanted to see him saved the most.
Two years later, I get an email from Rhian saying that he’s given his life to Christ. And He tells me that it was me showing Him Christ’s love all those years that brought him to Christ, along with his aunt who prayed for him, his cousin who challenged him, and Dr. Vaca who mentored him.
When we let our lights shine bright, together as Christians, we will pass it on.
This is something that God is in charge of. He will start the fire, He will make us people of passion, and He will cause that fire to be passed on.
But it starts when we start committing ourselves to Jesus Christ, and carrying our cross, sacrificing whatever it takes to make him our greatest priority, our first love.
And we pray that God will cause a fire in our churches and in our schools through us, a fire that can’t be contained.
Earlier I challenged you guys, that as this school year starts, that you would make Jesus your number one priority and first love as you carry the cross.
I want to pray for you right now, and so I’m going to ask everyone to join me right now. I’m gonna give you some time to just sit before the Lord and talk to Him. Is this a challenge that you want to take up? Will you make that commitment? I’m giving you time so that you can actually think it through, no forced decisions, no pressure. Just a commitment to make between you and God.
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