Fire! — Michael L. Brown

Hallelujah. Amen. I just want to add one footnote. I'm always adding footnotes. Just one footnote to the question about revival breaking here in Brownsville. Obviously, God moves where he wants, how he wants, when he wants, but he works with us.

There's human cooperation. And one thing that struck me coming into the revival one year after it began, so I've been here now basically the last two years working in the revival, one thing that struck me was how many people in this church had a heart to serve.

And when I've been asked that question, sometimes I'm able to get on an internet chat. We used to do it weekly. I do it maybe once in a month. And we'll often get asked the question, why Brownsville? And again, a lot of it is God's business, and some of it we understand on this side.

But that's been the challenge for me to explain to people how you can get a church with that level of service. Most of the people, you have to understand, most of the people you see working in the revival are volunteers.

Many of them are full-time volunteers. Some have left other responsibilities to volunteer their time. What amazes me is all the silver-haired volunteers. These are people that are retired people. Amen.

You might think that when revival broke, being so new and so radical and so different and so intense, that those would be the people that would leave because they liked it the old way. No, those were the ones who were hungry for God and who supported their pastor.

And we found out last year, I looked into this, we checked to see people who had been in Brownsville 25 years or more before the revival broke, how many of them left because there are a good number that had been in the church 25 years or more.

The astonishing thing was none of them left when revival came. They've been here steadily. They are the backbone. And you say, how do you manufacture that? That is a good question. I do know, though, that as the leadership serves the church and that feeling of giving themselves to the work of God and giving themselves to the flock, that will be reproduced in the people.

Because when God comes in power, there's got to be a container or there's got to be a vessel ready so that when God comes, it's not just a one or two day or one or two week happening if he wants to move for years.

So build that attitude of service into the hearts of your people. It's so important. I just want to take one moment. The brothers were jealous over time. Whenever I speak at these leaders' conferences, somehow I get especially pent up with a message from the Lord.

So I was on their case earlier to make sure we had maximum time. I'm used to speaking two or three hours. We've got to condense it to an hour. And I have notes, which is even more frightening. We could make it into 12.

You had 10. You had 11. We could make it into 12. But I want to just take one minute and let you know that we do have a school of ministry. This is not a rehab place for troubled young people. This is a place of equipping for the work of ministry.

We have students ranging from teenagers fresh out of high school to people with master's degrees from seminaries. We've got someone talking about an application of a surgeon that's on his way here from another church, leaving his practice for a couple of years.

We've got the whole range, probably from about 17 years old to 70. At the end of this year, God willing, we have our first graduating class. And we're not yet putting out forms where pastors and leaders and workers are needing workers, youth pastors or worship leaders or associates or people that intern or people for the mission field.

But we will be letting you know, as we feel that we have workers that are ready. We've got a strong mission's heart and mission's burden. We want to serve the church throughout America as well. And I tell the students, they hear this from us constantly.

When you graduate from the school of ministry, I don't want you to be known so much for faith or anointing or revival fire. Those things are on you and in you, just being in this atmosphere. I want you to be known for humility and service and sacrifice.

And if you have those qualities and your heart's ablaze with God, you can shake this generation. So pray for us. We are in such an expansion mode. It's like someone comes to you, your newly married couple, and the doctor says, I have good news for you.

You're pregnant. The wife is all excited. And they say to you, I'll be having 100 children. How do you prepare for that? What kind of maternity clothes do you buy for that? People say, how do you prepare for the growth?

Well, you go from 0 to 120 to 500 to 700. We could be well over 1 ,200 in the fall. How do you prepare for that? You stay on your face a lot. But pray for us. Pray with us. We also have special courses over the summer that are just one week mini courses that go from Tuesday to Friday, from mid-June to the end of July.

Some of us on the platform that you see will be teaching in those. So you can come just for an intensive week, get in the word, get equipped by key leaders from around the world and our faculty, and then go back out, be in revival at night.

So go over to our School of Ministry table. And if you really feel, man, God just landed on my heart, somewhere we're going to connect with one of these students. They're going to be an integral part of our church or our mission's work in the future, grab a brochure and write to us.

We'll put it on file, and then at the right time we'll contact you. And the other thing I want to mention, an outreach tool. None of us have been talking about books and materials this week, so I'm not going to break that precedent.

But Steve was involved in an outreach tool that our ministry has put out in collaboration with Steve's ministry and Don Wilkerson's ministry. And I just want to mention it to every pastor here and encourage you not to leave without this.

How many of you know the name Son of Sam, David Berkowitz? Raise your hand if you've heard the name. If you're from out of the US, you may not have. Anyone from the Northeast United States knew him well.

He was the most notorious serial killer in New York history. In 1977, literally brought New York City to its knees, almost paralyzed some of the operation of the city. He was a Satanist with a band of Satanists.

He and his friends set 2 ,000 fires that year, involved in killing six people in cold blood and injuring for life others. When he was caught, it was a reign of terror when he was caught in the summer of 77.

He was sentenced, he pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 300 years consecutive in prison. He'll never get out of prison. 10 years ago, he got radically, gloriously converted. Genuinely born again. We have friends that have spent many hours with him.

He is on fire for God. He's a pastor to the other prisoners that have come to know Jesus, devoted to the Lord. And for years, a close friend of mine has said, Mike, we've got to get the testimony out on video.

It's gonna speak especially to the young people. And after much prayer and God providing the finances, Steve Hill is on this, but this is the story of David Berkowitz. It's called Son of Sam, Son of Hope.

Trust me, pick up a copy before you leave or get a few copies, watch it in your home first and then show it in your church for outreach, especially for young people. Trust me on it. It will have an incredible impact.

It will stir hearts. You can hardly help but weep as you watch it. By the time this video comes to the end with Charity singing Mercy Seat in the background as they're calling for people to get right with God, I'm telling you, it'll shake you.

Get it, watch it, you'll be edified and then schedule a special meeting with young people, with adults, have it in your church. And I make one request. David, of course, could never receive a dime for any of this.

It's both illegal for him to and it's unethical and he wouldn't dream of that. All proceeds that come from this just go back into ministry work. But if God does something special as you watch the video, would you just write to us because we're gonna pass the testimonies on to him.

Here he is, he'll be behind bars the rest of his life but he is a free man, a free man. So get hold of the video and all of the tables have resources that will bless you and stir you and help spread revival fire.

So avail yourself of what you can. Would you stand with me? We're gonna pray. It's my great joy to be here with my brothers. That was it for my message, that's all the time I get. All right, here you go.

I wanted to interrupt just a moment and encourage you to be in Chaplain Robertson's meeting this afternoon. His perspective as an associate here at the church I think is invaluable. This man is a tremendous right hand to me here at the church and he does so much of the hands-on work here at Brownsville.

I'd really like to encourage you to be in his session. What time is it chaplain? At 12 o 'clock. So Mike, you got an hour. Amen, that's the plan.

Revival Requires Servanthood and Prepared Vessels

Hallelujah. I will now be in the preaching mode and not the teaching mode for the next hour. Let's pray. Father, we love you and we praise you and we exalt you. Lord, I thank you so much for the outpouring of your spirit.

I thank you so much, Lord, for this team of leaders and workers, Lord. With a heart for you, I thank you so much for this assembled congregation of your servants, Father, hungry for you. I pray, God, that you would visit us with fire.

I pray that you would speak to us with clarity. I pray that your word would come forth in such a way that we would never forget as long as we live the truth of your scripture, the truth of your word. Visit us, change us today.

Let your fire fall. In the name of Jesus, amen. You can be seated. And I want you to turn with me to three passages. Daniel 7, Malachi 3, and Matthew 3. Daniel 7, then Malachi 3, and then Matthew 3. If you want a title for this morning's message, it is one word.

It's a word you often hear around here. It's a word you often hear as we pray for people. The word is fire. One night after the service was over, I was out in the parking lot. Some young people came around my car, and they said, would you pray for us?

I said, sure, I'd be happy to pray. And we're out there in the parking lot. It's probably past midnight. And I went to pray for them, just like I always do in here. And I started to yell, fire, fire! Then it hit me, probably not the smartest thing to do at 1230 at night, outside, I was waiting for the fire.

And fire! Daniel chapter seven, a vision of the throne of God. Verses nine and 10. As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the ancient of days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow. The hair of his head was white like wool.

His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him. 10 ,000 times, 10 ,000 stood before him.

The court was seated, and the books were open. Malachi chapter three, verse one. See, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly, the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.

The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Isn't it interesting? They're praying for visitation. They're praying for God to come.

They're praying for the outpouring of the spirit. They're praying for God to come down and touch his people, and the prophet says he's coming. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?

For he will be like a refiner's fire, or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings and righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord as in days gone by, as in former years.

And then a further word of judgment in verse five. And now we go to Matthew chapter three. The words of John the Baptist. As you're turning that last book over, from Malachi to Matthew, let me tell you that if you want revival, you must have fire.

If you want revival, you must have divine fire. Many books that are written on the subject of revival have the title fire in them. A recent book dealing with the history of revival around the world is called Revival Fire.

Recent book coming out about revival in South America is called Latin America in Flames. A book I wrote, From Holy Laughter to Holy Fire. That's how people often speak of it. You'll understand why. You'll understand what it means in a little while.

Matthew three, John the Baptist is warning religious hypocrites. Verse 10, the ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Three verses, fire, fire, fire. Verse 10, verse 11, verse 12. It is possible that we become so used to biblical terminology and biblical pictures that we don't really stop and think about the picture itself.

We hear about fire, we hear about God being a consuming fire, we hear about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, we hear about God coming as a refiner's fire, and we forget that that is frightening imagery.

You're driving down the road, and suddenly you see a crowd of people running and cars pulling over. What is it? There's a big fire. Everybody's coming to look at the fire. If you hear of people being burned in a fire, there's hardly anything more terrifying than that.

Sometimes if I hear of someone, there's a terrible fire, and someone's been severely burned over 80 of their body, I just think to myself, Lord, if they're saved, take them home, because the agony of what's ahead of them, the destructive power of fire, the disfigurement, fire.

You tell little kids, don't play with fire, there's that fascination, but it's frightening to get near it. Fires can blaze out of control. I remember a few years ago, seeing a USA Today headline, there it is in color on the front of the newspaper.

There's a picture of fire coming up behind the beautiful community in Southern California, and this fire's just eating everything in its path. It's a devouring fire. It can't be stopped. And there it says, nothing to stop the fire.

All the money in the world can't stop that fire from spreading. And before you know it, those homes that could have taken months and months and months and months to build and be worth a couple million dollars, boo, they're gone.

Just ashes. Fire. I make reference to this many times, but we trivialize this. We cheapen the image. We don't understand what it really means. We sing that wonderful song. It's a beautiful song that I love.

Take me past the outer court, through the holy place. It's that call to come into the holiest of all, to see the Lord face to face. And we sing that song, and whenever I sing it, even though it says, take me in by the blood of the Lamb, and I mention this all the time, but whenever I sing that song, I say, oh God, have mercy on us as we sing it, because we don't know what we're singing.

We get to that one part, in our blissful, charismatic worship, Steve always refers to, you know, the holy posture, you know, with the head cocked just right. And there we sing those words with that lovely smile on our faces.

Take the coal, touch my lips. Here I stand. Take the coal, touch my lips. Summer's coming. Sing that at a few barbecues, friend. Come up with some reality. Go over while they're cooking up those steaks, and those burgers, and that chicken, and go stand there.

Hey, take that coal, touch my lips. Here I stand. I'm talking about a coal from the altars of God. Not just some barbecue. Isaiah's standing there overwhelmed, overcome by the presence of God, and Isaiah six, whoa, it's me, I'm undone.

I'm a man of unclean lips. He's completely defiled, no problem. One of the seraphs is gonna come with a coal from the altars of God and touch it to his lips. Oh Lord, call me into prophetic ministry. Read Isaiah six.

Lord, I feel called to pastor instead. Let me tell you, you're gonna do work for God. He's gonna take the coal and touch it to your lips. I first want you to recognize, though, when we talk about God being a consuming fire, coming as a refiner's fire, it's more than just words.

In fact, it's more intense than literal fire. The temperature gets hotter. The purification, deeper. The judgment, more intense. Fire draws people. Fire draws crowds. Leonard Ravenhill always used to say, fire's the most attractive thing in the universe.

You never have to advertise a fire. You never have to advertise a revival. When John Wesley was asked how he drew the crowds, he said, I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn. I want you to consider that God in the Old and the New Testament reveals himself as a devouring fire, a consuming fire.

I love him as my father. I don't know the meaning of condemnation in my own life. I live carefree, anxiety-free. Plenty of pressures, plenty of burdens, plenty of things to carry, plenty of weights, but I know the love of my father for me.

I know what it is to fall short. I know what it is to repent on my face and say, oh God, I never want to disappoint you in the slightest, with an attitude, with conduct, with word, in any way. We've all been through that.

I know what it is to strive with all my might to please and to live absolutely stretched out, day and night, to do the will of God until I drop, but I know what it is to rest in him. He's my loving, gracious, heavenly father.

He only wants to do good for me. Whatever he puts me through is for his glory and for my good in him. I know his gentleness. I know his kindness. I know him as my shepherd. I know what it is to lie down in green pastures besides still waters.

I also know that that loving father is an all-consuming fire. When he revealed himself to Abram in Genesis 15, you can look up the references later, Genesis 15, 17, God comes and passes between the covenantal pieces of sacrifice, and how does he come?

As a smoking fire pot and a blazing torch. He comes down on Mount Sinai. Exodus, the 19th chapter, how does he come down? Verse 18, as a consuming fire. Exodus 24, 17, the Israelites, it says to the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire.

How does he get Moses' attention? In Exodus 3, there it is, a fire burning in a bush. Gets his attention. Throughout the scriptures, you get to Hebrews, the 12th chapter and the 29th verse. The New Testament, what does it say?

For our God is a consuming fire. Quoting the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 4, 24, he's a jealous God, a devouring fire. And the thing that is so interesting about this, when you talk about God as a devouring fire, when you talk about God visiting a church in revival fire, remember, you cannot contain a devouring, consuming fire.

And if you wanna have revival, you're gonna have to have it on God's terms and God's way. You can't put it in a little package. You can't turn it on and turn it off. You can't put it in your denomination only or in your church setting only.

You've gotta have the fire sweep through. And you never know what's gonna get burned up when the fire falls. Oh, it's one thing to pray for blessing. It's one thing to pray for anointing. It's one thing to pray for souls.

It's one thing to pray for joy. It's one thing to pray for deliverance. It's one thing to pray for healing. And these are all things that God brings and God does in the midst of his people. But just remember, when you're praying for God to pour out his spirit, for God to bring blessing, for God to bring refreshing, you're also praying God send fire.

You say, well, we didn't put that part in when we prayed, but God puts it in when he comes. That is the God who visits his church. Your agenda might just get burned up. Your pride may just get burned up.

Fire burns up flesh. And one sign that revival has not happened is when you see a lot of people strutting around. When you see a lot of superstars, that's an evidence to me that revival fire is not there because when the fire falls, it burns that junk and trash up.

Every one of us should be able to say, God, send your fire in my ministry. Whatever is born of you will endure the flames. And whatever is born of flesh, let it go up now. I'd rather that it goes up now than it goes up when I stand before God in judgment.

I'd rather suffer loss now when I can do something about it than suffer loss then. I'd rather be embarrassed here than be embarrassed there. If you're in television ministry, radio ministry, media ministry, if you're an author, if you have a school, if you have a church, if you're traveling, if you're on the mission field, say, oh God, send your fire.

You say, but that sounds destructive. It is only destructive to that which is built by man. If it's a human kingdom building, let it go up in smoke. If it's done to the exaltation of flesh and blood, let it burn.

The Word of God as Fire in the Prophet's Heart

God himself is a devouring fire. God's word is like fire. Think of it. Some of you may primarily be called to teach. When I'm in a school setting, I'm primarily in a teaching mode. When I do our day sessions for leaders, it's half teaching, half preaching.

When I go out and travel, it's always in a preaching mode. I understand the different modes. I understand sometimes you're teaching. You say, let's just open up the word and there are various interpretations of this word and here's how I think the Lord wants me to bring this out to apply it and you're teaching.

But let me tell you something. There's gotta be a word burning in your heart no matter who you are, no matter what your calling is. It can't just be some mamby-pamby. I'd like to share some thoughts today.

Are you called? Does the word burn in your heart? Are there things that you would die rather than change? Because it's the word. Jeremiah hears from heaven in Jeremiah 23, a word to the false prophets.

They're borrowing their messages one from another. Everybody's stealing words one from another, but they're not hearing from God. They're not getting a fresh word from heaven. This written word is not coming alive by the spirit of God and they're not in tune to continue to have that life flow from God to their own lives.

And God says, look, you got your message, you got your message. He said, but my word, Jeremiah 23, 29. He says, ha-lo-cho-de-var-ee-ka-esh, is it my word like fire? Says the Lord. Fa-teesh-ya-fa-tseh-tsah, and like a hammer that smashes the rock in pieces.

Jeremiah said, look, it's too much. All these judgment prophecies, I gotta hold back. I'm going against the other prophets. I'm going against the priests. I'm going against the princes. I'm going against my own people.

It's too much, too much resistance. Always negative, negative, negative messages. They won't hear, they won't repent so they can hear something positive. And he said, I decided I was gonna quit, no more.

I decided I'm not gonna speak in his name anymore. And let me tell you, if you've ever had to bring a broken hearted message, you've been through that. If you've ever had a warning of judgment, you've been through that.

If you've ever had to get up and preach repentance over and over and over and over, you've been through that. You just want to shut up. He says, but I couldn't. Why? Because his word was like fire shut up in my bones.

I tried to hold it back, but I couldn't. I can do no other. Listen, not everyone is called into quote prophetic ministry. And most of what we call prophetic ministry to me is just peripheral frill stuff.

The person called into prophetic ministry is on fire on the inside. They're consumed. They can do no other but confront a sinning society and a sleeping church. But let me say this, the church as a whole, all the people of God, ministers as a whole, we are called to be a prophetic people.

And I ask you, is God in your heart like a consuming, devouring fire? Is his word in your heart like a consuming, devouring fire? Jeremiah 5 .14, because the people mock God says, then your words are gonna be like fire and the people the chaff it consumes.

There should be a wilting, withering effect of the word of God coming out. We see it here night in, night out. We see people come in with resistance, with pride, with opposition. This just happened last week.

I don't know if I got to tell you yet, Steve. There's a kid out there during the service. I happened to notice him because he's sitting next to one of our students. And I see the student just kind of smiling at him as he's standing there, stiff, reserved, wanted nothing to do with God.

He was a pastor's kid, backslidden, on drugs, flirting with Satanism. What was he doing in the revival? That's what makes it revival. God brings them from around the country like that. Unsaved, hostile, stand on line 12 hours to come in and hear a repentance message.

And then they'll say, I don't know what I'm doing here. Then those famous words, I don't know, my parents are in the ministry. My parents are believers. Now we know what you're doing here. They've been praying.

Before the message, Steve says, say this prayer with me. Speak to my heart. And I watched, I never ever opened my eyes to look around because I'm praying that God will speak to me. But this one time, I decided to look at this kid as I said the prayer to see if he would pray.

In the beginning, he doesn't pray. And then I just see him kind of gritting his teeth and just mumbling the words, just like that. And then I lose sight of him at the altar. I can't see him. I don't know, did he come forward?

What happened? Two days later, I talked to the folks that knew him. And they said, you wouldn't believe what happened. This kid was hostile. It was just last minute, he ended up coming because his brother's coming to the school of ministry in the fall.

And he came, they said, listen, he was up at that altar. He repented. He has been turned around. He desperately wants to get baptized before he goes back. He came in the other night at two in the morning, crying, saying, I'm just so hungry.

He said, everything from my life, the drugs, it's all gone. He said, how do I get filled with God now? That's what I want. The word on fire. Not just human opinions, not just human ideas, but that word comes and it melts resistance.

That word comes and it convicts and it burns and people go out of here. And their whole perspective has changed. They've been self-centered. Many of you have figured out a comfortable way to be in ministry through the years.

Comfortable way to kind of have your cake and eat it too. Serve the church, but also have a nice, comfortable lifestyle. And I don't mean that you all have to live on the street or live in poverty. Somehow you get in a meeting where God's moving and the fire comes back and you're not looking anymore at how you can save your life.

You're looking at how you can see God come down at any cost, at any consequence. You're not calculating, well, if I do this, this will happen, if I do this, that will happen. And you're saying, God, I don't care what happens.

I just have to have you. Fire. One thing that's interesting though about fire and the word of God, everyone is going to be touched. By the fire. Friends, if you escape the fire of hell, you will find the fire of heaven.

Holy Spirit Fire, Judgment, and Purification

Listen to what the word says. We read from Matthew the third chapter. Verse 10, the trees that don't bear fruit are thrown into the fire. Cut down and thrown into the fire. Verse 12, Jesus is gonna burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

You say, that's just judgment, that's just hell fire. That was verse 10, that was verse 12. What about verse 11? He's gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. As best as I understand that passage and what's being said, it's not two separate baptisms, the Holy Spirit and fire.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a baptism in fire. It's a baptism in purity. It's a baptism in refining. It's a baptism in holy heat for the work of God. And on Pentecost, what happens? Tongues of fire come down.

You want the glory, friend? You're gonna have to have the fire. There was a friend of mine, a pastor in New Jersey who made a comment that stuck with me. He was talking about John chapter 15. And in John 15, Jesus says every branch in him, he's the vine and every branch in him that doesn't bear fruit, he cuts it off, throws into the fire.

Cuts it off, but every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, cuts it back. My friend said to me, Mike, in the kingdom everything gets the knife. Everything gets the knife, either cut off or cut back.

Either destructive fire or pruning fire. In the kingdom, everybody gets the fire. You know what it says in Isaiah 33? It's an amazing passage. Verse 14 of Isaiah 33, the godless, the sinners in Zion are terrified.

The hypocrites are terrified. This is in God's household in Zion. What do they say? Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who can live with everlasting burnings? They're not talking about hell.

They're talking about who can live with God. You want God? There's gonna be purification, friend. One of the first things revival's gonna bring to you, either before it comes or as it comes, is the refiner's fire.

As you begin to seek God for revival, God will show you that you're not in the least bit hungry. God will show you that 1 ,000 other things are more important to you than revival. God will say to you, do you really want revival?

Then what about this and what about this and what about the fear of man and what about leisure and what about this and what about that and what about this pet scent and what about this and what about reputation or what about finances?

And he'll strip you bare. You say, well, why does he do that? Because when revival comes, you're gonna lose all that anyway. Jesus said this after warning about hellfire in Mark chapter nine. He says, everyone, everyone will be salted with fire.

Every sacrifice will be salted with fire. God's fire comes down and he's holy. You can't just talk about send the power without having the power of a holy God. A fresh touch of the spirit means a fresh touch of the holy spirit.

Not the happy spirit, but the holy spirit. Said this before, but you can go to some of our churches and hear some of our messages and think he's the hollow spirit. Or flip on television, watch some of our big preachers and thank God for the good preachers on television and radio that are glorifying Jesus in a way that's pleasing to him.

And it's not our job to just sit and figure out who's who and what's what and judge by outward appearances. Our job is to pray. And if there's something sinned, to speak up and act. You can watch some of our folks and think it's not the holy spirit, but the Hollywood spirit.

Friends, when he comes, he comes as the holy spirit. Can I just say something? Pastor, this is gonna be very deep, very profound, very tough to follow. If they have a problem, maybe you can follow me, Steve, and explain it.

Okay, everybody get this. Everybody, it's important. He's very holy. He's very holy. Was that clear? Clear, yeah. He's frighteningly holy. Just think of holy fire. Think of all the junk that the fire burns out.

Think of all the stuff that it purges out. Talk to Aaron about the holiness of the fire of God. Leviticus 9, after eight days of separation for the priesthood, Aaron and his four sons are going to be ordained priests of God most high.

Out of all the people on the earth, only Aaron and his family have been separated. Oh, I'm in the ministry. Oh, I'm called. Oh, God has entrusted me with his work. Friends, there's a responsibility. Aaron and his sons, they're all prepared.