Hard to Ignite

The Apostle Paul exhorted his disciple Titus with the following words, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. That means, friends, to stay on fire for God, while the 4th of July is around the corner, and I have a story I'd like to share with you this evening about firecrackers. Do you like blowing off firecrackers? I sure did.

When I was just a kid of a boy, I used to love shooting off firecrackers. Why, I couldn't wait for the 4th of July to come around, so I could get a pack of black cats or some cherry bombs or M-80s. I had an uncle who was a colonel in the army, and one time he drove me into Canada when I was 11 years old, and he warned me, he said, look, you can get some taffy candy, but don't buy any firecrackers, because the border patrol won't let you bring them across.

Well, that's all I needed to hear, and behind his back, I bought me a big brown paper bag of a brick of firecrackers, and then hid them under the car seat of my uncle's car. And when we got to the border patrol, near the guardhouse, I reached under the seat and showed my uncle colonel my bag of illegal merchandise. Why, all the blood drained out of his face, and he yelled, hide them! I quickly put them back under the seat, and then I heard my army colonel uncle tell a lie and say we had nothing to claim, as we smuggled that contraband across the border.

And I had a time with those firecrackers, but the problem was that some of them got damp somehow, and they wouldn't ignite. They were duds. No matter how hard I tried to light them, they would not ignite.

They wouldn't do what they were made to do, because they got damp. And I fear, friends, that's how some of us Christians are. No matter how many good sermons we hear, and how often God's spirit prides us, we just won't ignite and go all out for God, because somewhere back yonder we got damp.

Our Bible became a closed book, and our eyes became dry when we pray. We have somehow gotten damp to where the coals on the altar of our heart have grown cold. We're no longer ignitable in the condition we're in.

We have become duds in the hands of God, and not our being what we are meant to be. Heaven help us, when even God's spirit can't move us an inch, because we've gotten so far away from God in our hearts that we've become damp Christians who won't ignite. It reminds me of a comment by the late great Vance Havner, who said, If we serve such a dynamite God, then how come so many of us are living firecracker lives? Listen, friends, before we go to our time of corporate prayer this evening, let's go to God now, and pray that almighty God will have mercy upon us, and send us his ignitable spirit, and set us aflame for the spread of the gospel, that each of us may be bright and shine in lights.

I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus Christ. Amen.