They have read their reward in full. But when you pray, you go to your room, you close the door, you get in that secret place. And the Father who sees in secret, he will reward you in public. Power's in your closet. It's not a peer. It's not in the razor. It's in your closet. God doesn't care about your public betrayal if you keep on having private betrayal. Really, he doesn't care about PDA. God is not big on PDA if you don't have closet life. Your public display of affection and crying. What do you like Sunday night? What do you like Monday? What do you like Tuesday? Oh, it's small group. So now you're holy. What do you like Thursday? I want you to seek my face in the closet, in those secret places, where we could dwell with one another. The kingdom is looking for people who have faith who is resilient. I'm talking about hard-headed faith. Faith that knows how to talk back. Faith that has a clap back to it. This isn't going to discourage me. It's going to make me pray harder. This isn't going to push me away. It's going to make me pray harder. This isn't going to make me doubt. It's going to make me seek his face more. I'm talking about hard-headed, stubborn faith that does not quit, that will believe when everything around you is telling you doubt. I'm not letting the wind of a sideways comet cause me to step out of character. I abide by a proper chapter 19, verse 11. It's my glory to overlook an offense. Some of us ain't there yet. I know. Keep coming. When the text says it's one's glory to overlook, somebody say overlook. One definition of overlook means to see from above. I'm overlooking the valley from the hill. When you're able to overlook an offense, I'm above that. That's level four. I'm up here level 20. I'm above that. I need my people to be on fire because difficulty and satanic assaults will always expose those who have a flame and those who have a spark. That's the first reason. The second reason why the Holy Spirit hasn't stood in this series is because it's going to be hard for you to burn for God while you're dating a fire extinguisher. Now y'all should see y'all face. Why your habits are a fire extinguisher. Could it be your problem is your type of firefighters? You like the things, because remember what is a firefighter, it's any and everything that encourages, influences, or causes broken intimacy with Jesus. So you don't cry until you did it. Like I'm like, when does conviction kick in? Why you driving over there or after you're sitting on the edge of the bed? When does it kick in? I'm not sorry. My generation requires real. So you heard his voice after. Because I think about me the whole way while you try and turn around what you're doing. Boy, where we get this soft whisper from? My is not soft and quiet. Don't say nothing. Don't do that. You need to say sorry. When do you hear after? Somebody said the whole way. I heard you. We all been there, no judgment. So listen, what I'm trying to simply say is those that don't love and serve the Lord won't assist you in loving and serving the Lord. They won't. If they don't love and serve Him, what makes you think? They're going to assist you in loving and serving the Lord. Firefighters. Firefighters. The third reason the Holy Spirit has us doing this series is because God wants to ignite our hearts to burn for Him again. I'm talking about that romance phase. I don't know. Maybe everybody's Christian journey was different. But when I got saved for real, for real, I was excited about it. It was like the honeymoon phase. I'm wearing Christian apparel and t-shirts, seriously. I'm in college with shirts on. Then what I really got saved, like Tim Tebow was playing football and he was thanking God. We have Steph Curry with all things Christ who shrinks me on a shoe. I'm like, yes, code to be a Christian. Yeah, you going to the club? No, I'm going to Bible study. I was like saved and boasting in it. And then somewhere down the line, you recognize sometimes following Jesus can cause for you to be alone. None of my friends trying to do this? All of y'all going over there? Everybody going to the party. Everybody going to Monty Graw. Like all of y'all. We got a man's conference around then. Y'all want to come? No, we're going to Monty Graw. So I found myself discovering rather quickly Christianity is cool until you suffer. Until I lost friends until my phone got so dry I'm playing with the sentence. Ain't no need to look at your notifications. Nobody hit you up. Nobody calling you. I got two happy new years this year. I'm telling the truth. What ringtone they got this time? Oh, they got a new text. Like, so dried you play with sentence. Am I telling the truth? I didn't recognize that I was actually God preserving me. You see, because the same way I was showing us that match face, if I could put you away from the wind, you burn a little longer. Not as long as I want you to, but that sure is a whole lot faster than maybe God is saying you're too impressionable right now because you dim your light for your parents. You dim your light for your coworkers. So I need to remove anything that will be a firefighter right now. Until you become uncontrollably burning with fire, I need to protect you. Now, I recognize when God calls a man, a calls a woman to burn, he wants to give you an unquenchable fire. Paul has just gone through this shipwreck. They land on this island. And I'm thinking like he really went as a prisoner. You were prisoners on the ship, y'all should read it. Acts chapter 28. There were prisoners on the ship. We land on this island. I probably would have ran. You just know I'm trying to get away. Y'all brought me here as a captive. I want to get away. He's helping. Goes to get these sticks and has no idea he's carrying a snake. Almost half of the New Testament doesn't recognize there's a snake in this until it's on fire. And this is the amazing part about this. Once he put it down, the snake usually snakes are like this. Boom. The Bible says it fastened itself to his hand. And he throws it in the fire. And that's how I was in the study. I said, oh, man, that's so powerful. You fight the enemy back by making him burn up by your fire. Don't get petty back. Put it in the fire. When people do evil to you, you do right to them. Why? That's like putting hot coals on their head. So I'm trying to get you to understand you don't fight fire with petty. You fight fire with fire. But the fire of the Holy Spirit, I'm like, OK, I'll get it. This is why the enemy doesn't want our homes on fire because fire exposes snakes. This is why he doesn't want your prayer life on fire because fire exposes snakes. This is why he doesn't want your household and your job to be on fire. You have any influence on because fire exposes snakes. And then I begin to think, just like I told us last Sunday, any competitor sport, you study your adversary so that you can learn how to beat them. So I begin to think, man, if I was the devil, if I was the devil, I would make there be so much division in church. Not a fact. Let's give them denominations. I would cause for there to be division in church so that they would never complete each other. They would compete with each other. That's what I would do if I was the devil because if the church is on fire, fire exposes snakes. I get it. I get it. I get it. If I was the devil to whoever's practicing being celibate and you're waiting to marriage, I was in a fine man your way. I was in a fine woman your way who's talking right, responding right. DM seem to be lining up. IG seems to be lining up. I would try to confuse God's voice with my voice so that you'll end up calling a red flag God's blessing. That's what I would do if I were the devil because I recognize that fire exposes snakes. If I was the devil, I would try to make the wrong voice the most popular so that the church could be the sugar of the earth. And not the salt of the earth. That's what I would do if I was the devil. I wouldn't want them to be on fire because I know that fire exposes snakes. If I was the devil, I would make every worship or be caught up with their stage, with their views, with their Spotify streams versus their closet. Because I know that true power and true fire comes from your prayer closet. That's what I would do if I was the devil because I know that fire exposes snakes. If I was the devil to that couple that just had a huge argument, bro, I'm going to make that secretary so flirty tomorrow. I'm going to make her tell you all the stuff you want your wife to tell you. I'm going to want her to compliment your fragrance and your workout and all your stuff. I'm going to want her to compliment all of that because Delilah knows how to speak to Samson but she's out to his strength. That's what I would do. I hate covering it. I hate godly marriages. I'm the one who offered hotaffairs.com. I want to sever everything that's supposed to represent kingdom in the earth. That's what I would do. I don't want their marriage on fire because I know that fire exposes snakes. If I was the devil, I would make people think God doesn't exist. So they'll spend their whole life looking for peace and comfort but will never find it because they don't believe in the one that gives peace and comfort. That's what I would do because I know fire exposes snakes. If I was the devil, I was sexually confused society and I would have perversion, be in every household I could get it in so that dysfunction could be the norm. Oh yeah, same sex sin. That would be my pilot. From obscurity, that would be my flight crew and I would fly a generation down at Delilah Tuts. That's what I would do if I was the devil because I recognized that fire exposes snakes and I'm a preach with everything I got to try to get a fire to burn in somebody's heart, to try to get a fire, to burn in somebody's soul. Well, you don't want the club anymore. You don't want alcohol anymore. You don't want weed anymore. You don't want to have sex with them anymore. You don't want to get high anymore. I use soup but I want a fire now. I want the power of the Holy Spirit. I want the power of the Holy Ghost. I need you to feel me. Somebody say fire. That's what the church needs is the fire of God. Not jokes, not entertainment, not games, not giveaway. We need fire. That last, not just when I say a man and go home, but you're still burning and taking the fire with you because fire exposes snakes. I wonder, what's your log? What's that thing in your life that you're carrying that the enemy's in and you don't know it because it's not burning? What's that log? You carry every day and you have no idea the enemy's hiding in here somewhere and he can do it and it don't matter how much you read and how much Paul is anointed and doesn't know it. This is natural but I believe it has a spiritual point. It's possible that you're carrying things that the enemy is hiding behind and the only way you can recognize that Satan has some stronghold is if you get on fire. That's what God is looking for. A people who are burned again. So I want to give you some points on how we get on fire and then we're free to go home and stay warm for this Arctic invasion that's coming. As I was reading this text, here's just a little Bible study wisdom. Before you ever preach a scripture or share a scripture, read three chapters in front of it and three chapters behind it so that you can get the accurate context and depending on what particular book you're reading, you might need to read the whole chapter and the whole book before you just try to preach that one verse because looking at this verse, I was wondering why didn't Paul trip? This is a viper. Those are venomous. Why wouldn't he like, oh man, y'all got some anti-venom? Just do it off. But if you read the chapter before, Acts 27 verse 23, Paul was speaking to them and he said, listen, last night an angel of the angel of the Lord to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar and God has graciously given you the life of all who sail with you. So the reason Paul was able to know this serpent ain't going to kill me is because God already told him you got to get the season. See when you spend time with God, what happens in June of this year ain't going to bother you because you already got your word in confirmation in January of this year. So you're able to say this thing on phase, I've got to stand before Caesar. And the text says that everybody on board was saved because Paul was on it. This is why every time I get on the aircraft with torches, we might say everybody's saved because we on it. God must respect my purpose. I got to get to wherever God is telling me to go to. Whenever God brings a man far, it's because of a people he's trying to bring near. I play not going to crash. We going to get there. Stop being afraid to fly. If you have an assignment that God is telling you to go do, death must respect your purpose. So how do you stay hot? Number one, it's ignited by intimacy. So then the question becomes because I don't want to assume all of us know what I mean by spiritual intimacy. Some people you think intimacy, you immediately think sex. I want us to understand, it's quality time you and the Lord, not your leftover strength. This is why you fall asleep when you read the Bible because you try to read it after work. Just see all things. Seriously, you keep giving God your left hand. Seriously, you keep giving God your left over strength, but you want first fruit blessings. See him first, not your phone, not Instagram, before you read the notification, before you gather the kids, wake up a little earlier where you can give him the intimacy. Into me, see? Intimacy. It's ignited by your prayer. Remember, it's disciplined just like for those of us who are fasting, I hope I'm not the only one up here. For those of us who are fasting, it's disciplined until it becomes desire. Can I share some with your personal? This is not in my notes, it's just personal. Can I share some with your personal? After last Sunday, seeing how many people came and how many people we couldn't fit in and every overflow and uppercut. I thank God for what he's doing, but when I was praying to God, I felt a little burden. I don't ever want anybody to leave because it's so crowded. This is my heart. The Holy Spirit clearly said to me, either you don't believe me or you're not reading the Bible enough. What does that mean? You don't know how to identify a glory set up? It's always impossible before it ever becomes miracle. I have to allow you to go in a lion's den because then the impossible gets a miracle. I have to allow Pharaoh to come behind you and rent see in front of you. Can I get you identified glory set ups? I'm about to do something that nobody can get the credit but me. It has to be so tough. It has to look so daunting. It has to look so bad where you'll be able to say, ain't no way this happened outside of God. God did this. It's a glory set up. But what if I didn't pray? I'd just walk around bothered. But through prayer, I said, I need you to identify glory set ups. It has to seem impossible before it ever becomes miracle because then that's how I can step in and get glory. If it's possible, you don't need a miracle. So I'm like, okay, well do the impossible then. Ignited by intimacy. Number two, how do you stay hot? Fan the flame with intentionality. Fan the flame with intentionality. That's simple. It's cold today. They're saying it's probably going to be freezing rain and ice. You still came but you're probably going to get home quick. But you still came. That's intentional. May not like it but I'm intentional. The same way your butt was intentional to go to the club when it was cold and you still had the whole split open, not worrying about the conditions. I'm telling the truth. You didn't care if it was cold. All you knew was I'm going to the club tonight. Same with brothers. You didn't care that you had to go to work. If a shorty was talking about it, it don't matter. You were talking to her. It's getting quiet. I'm trying to be real. You didn't care. Keep that same energy when it comes to your intentionality with God. Second Timothy chapter 1 verse 6, for this reason I remind you to fan into the flame, the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands. You fan the flame. How do you do that? Number 3, surround yourself with community. I got to be surrounded by it. We don't even have the heat on in here. If we have the heat on in here, it will be super hot. I know somebody watching past the way you sweating and it looked like the heat. If we had the heat on, we would all be hot. You know why? Because of all of the body heat. Ooh, that's probably a whole sermon. I need to probably do that. A sermon called body heat. You're warm because you're just a part of the body. Body heat. You would be cold solo for everybody who's like, I'm good by myself. Okay, stay over there by yourself. But when you're surrounded by body heat, you're kept warm by other people in the body. Number 4, rest frequently. How do you stay on fire? You got to rest.