Today, the subject “Rekindle” suggests that the fire has died down, has grown cold, has become in-different or in some cases it may be gone out altogether.

Rekindle, meaning to bring back alive; to stir the embers; in this case it means to revive and bring back to spiritual life. To “rekindle the fire” is a time when we come back home to God, rededicate our lives to him, heeding the word of James in the book of James when he said in 4:8, “If we draw near to God; God will draw near to us.”

It is a time when we renew our commitment to him, come back home to him.

Community, we need the Lord; now more than we ever have; living in the last days (1Tim. 3:1), and the way things are now, this is not the time to live estranged from God; it is not the time to grow cold in our fellowship with him, in our prayer life, our bible reading; in fact, now we need to live closer to God than we ever have; seeing the signs of the times our spiritual fire need to be blazing hotter than it ever have before; so it’s time to come home, time to “rekindle the fire!” now what does the word “rekindle” mean?

The word “rekindle” means “to EXCITE, Stir up, or rouse anew”…to cause to burn again.” We all know about that; like for example “to rekindle a romance”…where marriage has become stagnant and dry; the romance that was once there; the thing that caused a man and a woman to fall in love the start with has diminished, the flame of romance has died and sometimes so does the marriage; couples seek marriage counseling, go off on cruises, take time off together in an effort to “rekindle” the flame of love that they once had and bring vitality back into their marriage.

Friends, we need revival. I mean we really, really need revival; and when I say that I mean the Christian believer all across the world, especially our country need revival; the church at large need revival; my friends, this pandemic has taken the fire out of the church to a certain degree; do to no fault of our own we found ourselves thrust into a pandemic that we did not see coming; it threw us off of our rhythm; took us for a while out of church; didn’t have “Community Day”…couldn’t have “Family and Friends day”…didn’t have revival last year; estranged from church on Sunday morning and the fellowship of our church family, plus the loss of lives of members to Covid and other diseases can cause the spiritual fire to diminish and throw us off our rhythm; it can take the clap out of our hands, the stomp out of our feet and the joy out of our hearts; it can happe.

I tell you, we need revival; pastors all across the world have been preaching via FB Live, YouTube, ZOOM and other means of communication trying to keep the fire alive in the church. Now the reason why the nation need revival is because the church needs revival; that’s where it starts, with the church; and when the church catches on fire, then the flames of that fire will spread across the nation; and people will turn back to God! Jesus is coming soon, especially for those that look for him (Heb. 9:28); and we need to be in place when he comes.

The king of Israel, influenced by his wicked wife Jezebel, turned the people’s heart away from God; out of all that God had done in bringing them out of Egypt among other miracles, they are brought under the worship of another god under Ahab’s leadership (1 Kings 16:29-31); the fire for the God that brought them out of Egypt had all but died; they were divided in their allegiance; their “fire needed to be rekindled” … after confronting Ahab, Elijah the prophet confronts the people with an all-important question; he said, “How long do you halt between two opinions? if the Lord is God then follow him; but if Baal be God then follow him; and the people (under conviction) did not answer him a word (1 Kings 18:21).”

And that’s the question that I want to pose to all of us today. If we are going to serve the Lord, serve him; and if we’re are going to serve Satan then serve him; don’t halt between two opinions; don’t be divided in your thoughts between God and Satan; if God is what he say he is, and who we say he is and has done what we say he has, then serve him; God wants all of us or none of u.

Elijah made a challenge to the 450 false prophets of Baal at the OK Corral at Mt. Carmel (verse 22)…he said and “the God that answers by fire let him be God (vs 24).” The false prophets called on their god but there was no answer; Then Elijah called on the name of the Lord in prayer; fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt sacrifice (vs 38). Then the people said, “the Lord, he is God (vs 39).”

Community, there is only one true God…and that’s the God that we serve…the God that said “Let there be light; and there was light…he’s the one that sprinkled the stars across the sky; breathe into man and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). God has been so good. Let’s confess our sin, and “rekindle the fire.”

The Rev. George Ellis is the pastor for Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church.