Burrrr, It's Cold Outside

Burrrrr, it’s cold outside: so don’t let your Holy Ghost Fire Go Out!

 

Burrrrr, it’s cold outside. This world is a cold, dark place, but God has brought us out of the world into a dry, warm, place and has given us the internal warmth of the Holy Ghost as a comforter.

Remember how we talked last week about how the Devil is trying to keep us too occupied (busy) to gain a deep personal relationship with God? He has put things in our way, and in our lives, to keep us from staying close to the Lord. Which means it really is going to take some time and a lot of effort to gain the good, solid relationship that we need with Jesus. The devil is not just going to let us get there. He is going to fight us every step of the way. He just keeps throwing snowballs at us everyday in an attempt to get our relationship with God to grow cold.

Our memory verse last week said "Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). That is an "action" verse meaning in order for us to accomplish this, it’s going to take some action on our part. Being in school you are familiar with action words known as verbs. What are the verbs in this scripture? Submit and Resist, right. The acts of submitting and resisting take a lot of effort. It’s work, hard work!

That’s kind of what we are going to talk about today. Working at getting and keeping a good, solid relationship with God. We are going to talk about ways to keep our relationship with God new, fresh and lasting. Not letting our Holy Ghost fire go out, so to speak. Stoking the fire of the Holy Ghost to keep the embers burning in our lives which is going to keep us close or get us closer to God.

Submitting ourselves to God means committing ourselves to doing the things God wants us to do daily in order stay or get near to him. Resistance to the devil is only possible when we are submitted to God. We must stay full of the Holy Ghost. We must fill up on the things of God, on communication with God through prayer and bible study; through the hearing of the word, through fasting and Godly fellowship with Godly people.

Scripture text: Matt. 25:1-13 (10 virgins)

At first it seems that this passage of scripture is unrelated to reaching and maintaining a close relationship with our savior, but it really fits. You see there were 10 virgins altogether. All had lamps burning while waiting for the bridegroom (Christ) to call to them. However, 5 took extra oil (fuel) with them just in case his return was prolonged seeing as how they didn’t know when he would come, but the other 5 did not take any extra. They only had what was already in their lamp. They made no provision for the future. They ran out of oil just as their groom called and missed their own wedding. How awful!

Let’s compare their oil to the Holy Ghost. When we get the Holy Ghost we are all on fire for God because as the Bible says we were baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. However, over time if we don’t tend to the fire it tends to go out or get weak, just like the foolish virgins’ lamps did. Why do you think that is? Well, one reason is that we allow the things of this world to dampen and water down our spirit and our enthusiasm for God. Occupying ourselves too much in worldly affairs can put our fire out just like water puts out a natural fire, but the #1 reason our fire dies down or goes out is because a fire needs fuel to stay burning.

Note to Teacher: (Light a fire in a pan with a match and watch it go out, then light another fire but keep adding paper to keep it going)

Just like a log is fuel for a campfire, oil was the fuel to keep the fire going in the virgins’ lamps. We also need fuel to keep our Holy Ghost fire going. What do you suppose might be fuel to keep the Holy Ghost fire burning in our lives?

Let’s see—Jere. 20:9 says—...but his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones...

Jude 1:3, 21—talks about earnestly contending for the faith and building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost (meaning speaking in tongues).

So we need to read and apply God’s Word to our lives and we need to pray. That’s the fuel that keeps our Holy Ghost fire from going out and keeps our relationship with God healthy. Well that makes since. First off the Word is ammunition against the devil. Also, in any relationship, for the relationship to be strong and healthy, there needs to be communication. Prayer is us communicating (talking) to God and reading his Word is him communicating (talking) to us. 

In relationships there needs to be time spent together. The more time you spend together the more you know about each other and a stronger bond begins to form between you. The less time you spend together the less you know about that person and the bond between you becomes weak.

For example, my best friend LaDonna and I were BFF’s. We did everything together. We knew everything there was to know about each other. We were as close as two people could be. We even had the same likes and dislikes. We were like twins. Then one day, I graduated high school and went off to college and back then there was no such thing as email, IM or cell phones, so we didn’t get to communicate much. By the time I came home from college, she was at college. We had no communication. Then I got married and moved away to Missouri. Then she got married and moved away too. I know she lives in Ohio now with her husband and two kids, but because we went so long without communication and spending time together hanging out, our relationship is just not very close. I still love her and she still loves me, but we just aren’t that much alike anymore. We are two completely different people now. Not very much alike at all in fact.

That’s what happens in our relationship with God too. The more time we spend together the closer and more like him we become, but the more time we spend apart the farther apart and less like him we become. When we spend more time with worldly people and doing worldly things we become more like the world and less like God forfeiting our relationship with him. He is always there for us, but we have to make the effort to spend time with him. Relationships of any sort take work and time. Relationships need "fuel" to stay alive. That fuel is communication. LaDonna and I could probably have stayed BFF’s but we both let ourselves become too busy to stay in touch with one another. Our relationship with God works the same way. We can have a relationship with him if we put in the effort and not let ourselves become too busy with other things. He is always there just waiting for us to spend time with him, but He is not pushy. He’s not going to make us spend time with him. He wants us to want him. He wants us to love him like he loves us.

Memory verse: James 4:8—draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you.

Isn’t it funny that our memory verse this week is the next verse after the one from last week. Maybe God is trying to tell us something here. That to submit ourselves to God and to resist the devil, we need to draw nigh unto him and he then will draw nigh unto us. Funny!

I have a challenge for us. I want us to read the bible and pray some everyday for one month (hopefully longer). Of course, I’m sure you guys already do that and I try too also, but let’s seriously try to build a deeper relationship with God this year. If you already have a prayer and reading schedule than just do a little extra. Read an extra chapter. Pray a few more minutes or add an extra prayer time in your day. If not, then let’s start now.

Suggestion:

Print off the following beginners 30 day bible reading plan and prayer wheel.  Give a copy to each child to help them to build their prayer and bible reading skills.

Beginning Bible Reading Plan