The importance of the altar
Category: Obedience to God’s Will
Key Passage: Genesis 8
Speaker: Anthony Aaron
Date: June 7, 2024
Sacrifice with the wood of the grove which now shall cut down. What is he saying here? What did God tell? What did he tell to Gideon? He says, “I want you to tear down your father’s altar and what? Build an altar unto the Lord.” That’s what God wants us to do. A biblical altar is something that we want to look at first. This is something that God is in. It is not something that man kind of makes up himself.
There’s a story about a king named Ahaz. He was over in Damascus, and he looked at this altar, and he liked the way that it was engraved. He liked the way that it looked, and he went back to his priest. He said, “Hey, make me one of those.” And God was not in that altar. That was an altar for a false idol. There is a true altar if God is in that working of the altar. The word altar is kind of interesting. It’s used over 430 times in the Bible.
So we’re going to start at the beginning, and we’ll work through every one of these if you say, “No, I’m just kidding.” But it’s used over 430 times in the Bible. Most of those are from Leviticus. Anybody read through Leviticus this year? All right. Maybe he’s still reading through. No, I’m just kidding. But you go through the altar. That was when the Lord went to Moses and said, “Hey, this is how I want my sacrifices to be done. This is how I want the altar to be built.” And you go through that there in Leviticus.
The first mention, we just read that passage there in Genesis chapter 8, but it was with Noah after he had gotten through the flood and he was on dry ground and he was thanking the Lord. That was the first time we see anybody building an altar to the Lord. It was Noah building an altar, thanking God for safety and protection and getting them through the flood.
Another time, Abraham and Isaac, they used an altar to confirm God’s blessing. Genesis 12 in verse number 7, it talks about Jesus, or the Lord is talking to Abraham, and he said, “I’m going to give you a multitude of children. Your children are going to be the—your seed is going to be the sand of the sea. Your seed is going to be the sand of the sea. Your seat is going to be like the stars in heaven. You just can’t number them. Are there going to be such great multitude?” And Abraham, when he got that promise from God, what did he do? He built an altar. He built an altar.
I want to just kind of go over some things that an altar represents. It was to confirm God’s blessings. It was to thank the Lord for thanksgiving, things that he’s done.
Jacob used an altar for forgiveness. Jacob had led a trickster life. He had deceived everybody. He was out on his own. He had been deceived himself from his father-in-law, Laban. And he was on his own. He had two wives and all of his children, and they were running. And he was being deceived, and he was backslidden from the Lord. And he built an altar for forgiveness. He built an altar to get back right with God. And praise the Lord that the altar that we have can offer forgiveness. And we’ll get to that just a second. But Jacob used an altar for forgiveness.
Moses used an altar for direction. Moses, he was with the children of Israel. They had the tribe of Israel. He had the leaders there. And Exodus chapter 24, verse number 4 through 12, what it is is God tells Moses, “Look, this is what I want you to do. I want you to come up to the mountain.” And God gave Moses direction where he was going to give him the tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments, and talked to Moses for those 40 days. But it was after Moses had built an altar. Moses had built an altar saying, “Lord, I’m serious. Lord, I want you to meet with me. I want you to talk with me.” And then God showed him a direction. So Moses used the altar for direction.
Both Moses—kind of interesting—both Moses and David both used an altar to save people from a plague. The plague was going through in Numbers chapter 16. And actually turn there, I like this one. Numbers chapter 16. I like them all. Sorry, I don’t want to sing anything out there. But Numbers chapter 16 in verse number 46. But Moses, both Moses and David, they use the altar to save people from death. Look at verse number 36 there. Yes, Numbers 16:46. Oh, I’m in the wrong passage. Sorry. It’s there. All right.
All right, there we go. Moses said unto Aaron, “Take a censor and put fire thereon from off the altar and put in incense and go quickly into the congregation and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath of God, for the wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague has begun.” And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran in the midst of the congregation. Behold, the plague was begun among the people. And he put incense and made an atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.
Now, you notice that this altar—there is something important that God wants us to get at this altar. The altar was not just some token thing that the Lord kind of wanted off to the side. No, this was something that the Lord wanted forefront. He wanted us to see the importance of the altar.
The altar was used in David. David, he had numbered the people, and the angel of the Lord said, “All right, we’re going to go ahead and, you know, we’re going to cast judgment.” And David said, “Well, I’m going to trust in the Lord. I’m going to see what he wants.” And Gad told David, he said, “Look, go ahead and get up and make you an altar.” And he went out, he went out to the altar. He bought a threshing floor from a man and built an altar, and the plague stayed from the people. The people didn’t die after that.
But the power of an altar! The altar also offered a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord. I think this is the most amazing thing, and I want to get into it, but I want to be careful for time. But a sweet savor. You know, when you smell something, there’s a history behind that. You know, if I were to smell—if I were to smell, let me share it. I used to work at a Christian bookstore. And, you know, they got the essential oils and the candles going and stuff like that. And you walk into that Christian bookstore, and there’s just a certain smell about that Christian bookstore. And I’ll be walking through something, and I’ll smell that, and my mind goes instantly back to that first day I walked into my job to work at that Christian bookstore. You know, then there’s other things like that. And, you know, when the Bible says there’s a sweet-smelling savor, you know what? That brings us to the remembrance of God. God doesn’t ever forget us, but we’re able to remind God.
What did Hannah say when she was trying to get the Lord to give her a baby, Samuel? And what did she say? She said, “Don’t forget me, Lord, and remember thine handmaid.” Why? Because the Lord’s not going to forget, but, hey, Lord, I’m just going to bring you to the front of your memory. I want you to remember me. And that’s exactly what the altar does. It’s that sweet savor that comes up, and the Lord remembers. We’re brought to that forefront of his mind. So the altar, it offers a sweet-smelling savor. Just amazing. And I’ll get into the details here. Stick with me. We’re getting into the message here. I’ll start screaming and spitting here in a little bit. So hang on. Here we go.
Some other things that the altar was used for was for forgiveness. Leviticus 4:26. It was used as a memorial. Reuben and Gad, when Joshua settled the tribes of Israel. Reuben and Gad went and they dwelt on the other side of Jordan. And what did they do? Before they crossed over Jordan, they built an altar. And this altar was not to burn sacrifices, but it was built as a memorial. So that the other tribes of Israel, they’re like, “Hey, what are you doing? Are you trying to build another altar from the one that we’ve got in the tabernacle?” And they said, “No, this altar is not for burnt sacrifice. This altar is for a memorial. So when we can tell our kids and our kids’ kids, ‘Hey, we still have a part in the Lord. We’re not distant from the Lord.’” And the altar can be a way of memory, watching the power of God.
First Kings—I love this story—but First Kings talk about Elijah. Elijah was on the mount and he called down fire from heaven. And what happened? They got to see the power of God. And they got to see God work in a miraculous way. What? Through the altar. The altar. There is an importance that God places on an altar.
And again, what are the two definitions for a biblical altar? It’s a place of what? Place to make a decision. All right. All right. We’ll write this down. It’s a place to make a decision. You ready? It’s a place to… Make a decision, a place for sacrifice. Yes. Sorry, we’ll get that together. I didn’t alliterate it, right? But yes, so a biblical altar is a place that you make a decision, and it’s a place where something is sacrificed. There is sacrifice that’s there. And we see that throughout the Bible. It’s just very interesting. Again, the definition of altar: a place to make a decision, a place to sacrifice something. So that’s kind of the biblical importance of an altar.
I want to kind of bring it down to the church level. This is us, all right? We’re here. We don’t have… You didn’t have to bring in the back of your pickup truck a goat or a sheep without any blemish to come to church. And, you know, Brother Frank didn’t stand at the door and say, “Hey, where’s your sacrifice at? Let’s go.” No, you didn’t have to do that. We don’t have any of that stuff. But we still have an altar today. The church still has an altar.
Turning your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 8. And I want to kind of use this as a picture for us so that we can see that God is—God still is important, God still places importance on an altar. 1 Kings chapter 8 and verse number 20. 1 Kings chapter 8, verse number 20. If you’re there, say Hallelujah. All right, raise your hands. No, I’m just kidding. All right, we don’t do jumping jacks just yet. Here we go. 1 Kings chapter 8, verse number 20. The Bible says this: “And the Lord hath performed his word that he spake, when I am risen up from the room of David my father and sent on the throne of Israel, as—yes, that’s right, okay—as the Lord promised, and have built a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel, and I have set there a place for the ark wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he had made our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
And Solomon stood before what? The altar of the Lord. In the presence of all the congregation of Israel, there were people there. There was a service going on. Solomon stood before the altar. He was about to make a sacrifice, and the whole congregation of Israel was there. There was importance there. Keep reading.
“…and spread forth his hand toward heaven and he said, ‘Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven above or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant, who keepest covenant in mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart, who has kept with thy servant, David, my father, that thou promised him. Thou spakest also with thy mouth and hast fulfilled it with thine hand as to this day. Wherefore now, O Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant, David, my father, that thou had promised him, saying, there shall not fail thee a man in thy sight to sit on the throne of Israel, so that thy children shall take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.’”
Notice this first: “And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant, thy servant, David, my father. But will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built. Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant.” So this is—have respect towards Solomon as he’s praying this, and to this, and to his supplication.
“O Lord, my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee today.” He’s before the altar. He’s praying. He said, “Lord, remember. Lord, would you hearken unto my prayer? That thine eyes may be open toward this house, night and day, even toward the place which thou—which thou hast said, ‘My name shall be here.’ That thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.” So, Lord, I want you to listen to the prayer of your servant in this place. That’s the altar.
Look again in verse number 30: “And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward what? This place.” Yes, that’s talking about the temple, Solomon’s temple, but what is at the beginning of the temple? It’s the altar. It’s the altar. Keep reading. “When they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, when thou hearest, forgive. And if any man trespass against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house, then hear thou in heaven, and do and judge thy servants, and condemn the wicked, and bring his way upon his head, and justify the righteous to give him according to his righteousness.”
What is Solomon saying? He said, “Lord, I want you to hear me. I want this place, this temple, to be a place of prayer. I want there to be a man or a woman that whatever they’re going through, a servant, that they could be able to come to this place and be able to speak to you.” That’s what the altar represents. That’s what God is showing us as a picture. That’s why the church has an altar. This is not just a place for pictures during a wedding. This is not a place where groomsmen fall down because they didn’t keep their legs bent. This is an important place. This is the altar. This is the altar that God had given us. The altar is a picture of a biblical altar. It is a place of what? What do we do down here at the altar? It is a place of decision, and it is a place of sacrifice. What did God tell us? What is the biblical definition of an altar? It was always going to be sacrifice, and there was a decision that was to be made. Man, that is what the altar is for. That’s what the song there. That’s what the altar is for. It’s a decision to be made in a place of sacrifice.
Why do we have a church altar? Think through these things. And I’m getting to the message, I promise. But think through these things. Why do we have a church altar? It’s so you can make an immediate decision. It’s not so you can hear the message preached, and the preacher gets up here and he bellows and he preaches, and we go, “Okay, well, that was great.” Then you go home. “All right, I’ll remember that. I’ll remember that later. I’ll write it down somewhere on a three-by-five card, and I’ll remember that later.” No, it’s a place where you can come immediately after the service and come down to the front and make a decision—an immediate decision.
What else is the altar for? It’s to unify with other believers in prayer. Man, some of the sweetest prayer times are around this altar. I can remember as a kid, you know, growing up, praying as a family around the altar. I can remember, you know, even Timothy just a couple weeks ago, we were around the altar. We were praying for Timothy. Many different prayer requests that we’ve mentioned. Many a Saturday prayer meeting is around this altar. This is an altar of prayer. We are making a decision, and we are sacrificing. That’s what the altar represents.
What else about a church altar? It is a central place for people to come for salvation. If I were to say, “All right, we’re going to—anybody that wants to get saved, go ahead and stand up and we’ll get you taken care of.” All right. “Well, how about you? Hey, you over here. Let’s go over there and you come into that room back there and we’ll get you.” Man, it’d just be madness. It’d be madness. It’s a central place. The invitation is called the altar call, and they bring them where? To the altar. To the altar. It’s a central place for people to come for salvation.
It’s to get our hearts right with God. Matthew 5, this is Jesus, and he’s talking about a man that comes to the altar, and he has a gift. And he’s going to lay his gift down at the altar. And the Bible says, if you have an anger toward a brother, leave your gift there and go make it right. What happens at the altar? When the preacher’s preaching, and maybe I get something out of there, and something’s laid on my heart, and I go down to the altar, and the Lord brings something else for my memory. Man, the Lord said, “Hey, you need to get that right, buddy. You need to get that right.” It’s a place of remembrance. Man, I need to get that right. It’s a place where I can get close to God. That’s what an altar is for.
Many a life has been changed by the church altar. Many a prodigal son has been prayed home. Many a lost person coming into the church lost, leaving as a saved person because of the altar. Many rededicated Christians because of the church altar. Many families have been strengthened because of this church altar right here. Many families, many decisions have been made at a church altar. It’s important, yes, biblically, but it’s important for us as a church to have an altar. I don’t want to get to a place where we move and it’s all production and there’s no place for an altar. I want there always to be an altar. Don’t take away my altar. Man, I was dedicated as a young person at an altar. I was saved at an altar. I was married at an altar. I was called to preach at an altar. Don’t take away my altar. Don’t take away the altar.
Man, you look at churches nowadays. What is it? There’s no altar call. There’s nothing there. What? It’s a little—it’s all this worship and praise, and then you get down to the end and the preacher gets up and, “Well, let’s—oh, you know what? Time, time.” That’s what it is. Everybody got time. That’s it. Y’all have a good day. We’ll see y’all later. That’s it. And there’s no altar call. Man, I want to be brought to a decision. I want there to be a place where I can come when the Lord has worked in my heart and I can go to to make that decision. That’s what the altar’s for. That’s what the altar’s for. Don’t take it away. Liberal churches, wicked Christians are trying their hardest to take away altars. But don’t take it away. Don’t take away my altar. We need Christians to realize the importance of this altar. This is an important place. This is a sacred place.
When the preacher calls for the invitation time, that is not a time to check your phone. That is not a time to look at the score. That is not a time to go to the bathroom. That is not a time to look around and yawn or sleep or catch up on whatever you missed on your social media. That is a time. It’s a sacred time. The preacher is calling us. He’s inviting us to come. Where? To the altar. To make a decision so that we can walk out of here not the same way we came in. You hear those churches: “Oh, come as you are and leave as you went.” No, that’s not how we want. We want you to come as you are, but we want you to leave changed. We want God to do something through you. That’s what this altar is for. That’s what this altar is for.
Families need to realize the importance of this altar. I cannot tell you how many times my dad would drag us out of that pew. “Come on, boys, we’re going to the altar.” And he’d take my wife—or not my wife, sorry, my mom. My wife, she was there praying somewhere. All right. But he would take my mom and us three boys, and he’d take us down to that altar, and we’d make a football huddle, and we’d get down there, we’d pray. You know what? Families need to realize the importance of this altar. This is not just a time where, “All right, hurry up, let’s get through this, Pastor. I’ve got to go ahead and get my church’s chicken.” No, no, this is an important time. This is an important, sacred place, this altar that we have here.
Families need to realize the importance. Marriage needs to realize the importance of this altar. Man, if we as parents would realize the importance of taking our family down to the altar. I can remember many times just going down to the altar. And some people are against always going down to the altar. You know, I can tell you honestly, I can tell you the truth. Let me turn my collar around backwards. I’m actually going to confess here. You ready? There would be many times where I would go down to the altar. I would sit down there and I’d listen. And once somebody started rustling, I would get up. And I never prayed. And you know what? I wasted those times. But you know what, though? I’m not against that. Because I made it a habit as a young person to go down to this altar. And when the Lord finally did get a hold of my heart, I didn’t have to hold on to the pew. Why? Because it was my habit to go down to the altar. When the Lord said, “Hey, I want you to preach,” I didn’t say, “Well, Lord, I don’t know, I don’t know.” No, it was altar time. That’s where I was going to go. And I was able to make a decision. Don’t take that away.
This is not just a place. If you see a bus kid come up here and they’re just kind of playing around, we’re not playing around during this time, but don’t get on to them for coming to the altar. This is a sacred time. This is where we want to push them towards, because we want them to make a decision. We want them to grow. When is the last time that you went down to a church altar? When is the last time you took your family down to a church altar? Man, when is the last time you’ve got your husbands, you’ve got your arm around your wife, and you took her down to this altar? When is the last time you’ve taken your family? Are you personally gone to the altar?
And I understand not everybody can make it to the altar. I see Brother Dylan sometime. You know, he struggles, he gets out of his chair, and he can’t make it down to the altar all the time. But he’ll sit there on that front row, and he’s getting as close as he can to the altar. Make it a habit. Make it a habit. I’m going to go. Okay, I’m going to make an altar here at my seat. That’s fine and all, occasionally. But, man, there is nothing like humbling yourself, getting out of your pew, going down to the front of this altar, and making a decision for God. That’s what we should do.
Can you imagine that? God, that’s what this altar is for. This altar is for you. You are not a perfect Christian. I don’t know if you didn’t know that or not. I know I’m not there. Man, I have to sing up here during the invitation time, but while we’re here, while I’m in my seat, I’m praying. I’m praying. On a Wednesday night, man, I want to take my wife. That is the pinnacle of my week, being able to sit with my wife in church, and when that invitation time comes, “Come on, honey, let’s go. Let’s go down to the altar.” Why? Because when my kids eventually get into this church and we can keep them at least still for a service, you know what I’m going to do? I want to bring them down to the altar because it’s important. We have to realize in our minds the importance of this altar. This is an important place. It’s an important place. I’m in every kind of service Christian. I want to be at this altar. Man, if I have to sing, that’s fine, but I’m going to pray while I’m up here. I’m going to pray in my seat. I’m going to do something. Man, make them big of the church altar.
So number one, we talked about the importance of a biblical altar. We talked about the importance of a church altar. I want to kind of change gears here just a little bit. Look at Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 in verse number one. Just about this altar, the importance of the altar. Romans 12:1. This is a very familiar verse, but I want to kind of pull out one phrase here. The Bible says this in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye what?” Present your bodies a living sacrifice. You know what God wants us to do? What did we talk about an altar? An altar is a place of decision and a place of sacrifice. And you know what God tells us here? I want you to present your bodies a living sacrifice. There should be a personal altar that you have. You should have a personal altar. God says, “Hey, I want you to present yourself a living sacrifice.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m only up here at the church about five to six days a week. That’s not every day of the week. Man, I can’t rely on just this church altar. I have to have a personal altar at my home. I have to have a place where I get alone with God and I communicate with God and lay down my life and be a living sacrifice for God.
The Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 15:31, this is Paul talking, and he says, “I die daily.” What did Paul do? Paul had a mental altar that he would take himself to every day and said, “Lord, I’m dying to my will. I’m dying to what I want from my life. And Lord, I’m dying so that you could work through me. I’m dying so that you can have your will through my life.” That was a personal altar that Paul had.
Where is your personal altar tonight? God has given us a personal altar so that we can daily present ourselves as a living sacrifice, so that we can daily seek and receive forgiveness. Man, there is not an hour that goes by that I don’t need the Lord’s forgiveness. But when I wake up in the morning, and I’m there at my spot on the table—all right, it used to be running, but I got old and fat, so it was more breathing for me—so I’m like, “All right, I’ve got to switch things up.” But man, that spot on the table, or even in my truck. I’m not going to tell you that I wake up early every morning. So, man, that truck is my revival time. I’m able to shout. I’m able to yell. I’m able to get alone with God and seek God’s forgiveness. But where is your personal altar? Where is your personal altar?
The altar was before the holy place and before the holy of holies. Zacharias, when he was told by the angel, he said, “Look, you’re going to have a son.” But what happened? If Zacharias—what did he have to do in order to get the—I’m sorry, the altar of incense was inside the holy place, not the Most Holy or the Holy of Holies, but it was in the holy place. And Zacharias was there. He was offering incense. It was part of his thank offering to offer the incense there. But you know what? In order to get to that point, he had to pass through the altar. And you know what? The Lord brings us—the Lord has given us a personal altar so that we can come to church prepared.
You know what? Zacharias, if he would have skipped the altar and said, “All right, look, I’ve got to go. I got to go. Let me just go ahead and get this done real fast,” you know what? I don’t know if the Lord would have really showed him what he wanted to show him. I don’t know if he would have been cognitive enough to know what the Lord really wanted to give to him. You know what? God has prepared that way so that we have the altar before we get to the church, before we get to the Holy of Holies and the holy place. God prepared it that way, so the altar was the first thing that people saw. It was in the commonplace. Everybody had access to the altar. And why? Because God gave us a personal altar so that we can get close to him.
Just imagine, we go to a football game, and what do we got? We got to get our sports gear on. We go to a football game or a baseball game, and we got to see, what’s his batting average? Man, how many strike counts does he have? You know, hey, you go to a soccer game. All right, nobody goes there. No, I’m just kidding. But you go to a sports game, and then you’re ready. You bought your tickets three years in advance. You’re sitting there in your truck two days before the game starts, and you’re tailgating, and you’re ready for this to start, and you are prepared for that football game. But how often do we get prepared for church? How often do we come in here rolling in five minutes before the preacher gets up to preach? And we come in a nappy head and we got, you know, we’re just rolling in, dropping the kids off as we go, diaper bags all over the place. We’re just squealing tires to get in here, and we’re not prepared. And we sit through the service and we’re like, “All right, what time is it? All right. Oh, who’s playing today? Let me see. Oh, okay, okay. All right. Oh, he’s looking at me. All right. All right.” And then we go through the whole entire message. We get up and we just leave the same way we came in because we were not prepared in our heart. That’s what the altar was for. The altar was so that you could be prepared before you went into the holy place. It was a preparation time. Zacharias was prepared. I wonder how hard churches would be if we all came prepared to receive something from the Lord. It would be much different. It would be much different.
I got to get going here. All right. So what I want you to pull—the importance of the biblical altar, the importance of a church altar, the importance of a personal altar. But what do I want to stick from this message? I just got two things. Stick with me. Here we go. Hebrews chapter 13. In verse number 10, if you can turn there real fast, we’ll just read one verse for sake of time there. But Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 10. Hebrews 13:10. I want you to read those first four words with me. You ready? Begin. “We have an altar.” Say it again. You ready? “We have an altar.”
The altar that’s talking about here is in the altar with the High Priest Jesus Christ. And it’s talking about the altar of our hearts. We have an altar. God wants us to know that, ladies and gentlemen, we have an altar. We don’t have to worry or question or maybe, “Oh, I don’t know if I have an altar.” No, we do have an altar. We have an altar where we can go to—to our life, to give ourselves to Jesus Christ. We have an altar, but where is yours? Do you know where it is? Do you have a place set aside? Do you have a place where you go to to sacrifice yourself, a place where you get alone with God? Where is your altar? Do your kids—if I were to ask your kids, would they know where your altar is? Where is your altar? Do you have a place where you sacrifice and you make decisions?
I love looking at Cotora’s Bible. Anyway, sorry. So we’ll be sitting in church, and we’ve got her Bible—that’s where we’re using, okay, because I left mine in my Sunday school class. But we’re using her Bible, and you know what she has off to the side of it? She has decisions that she’s made. Man, the preacher preached on this, I’m going to write that down. That’s a decision I want to make. I want to marry a muscular man. Man, she got him for his answer. No. But she made decisions in her Bible. As the preacher was preaching, she was there to make decisions. That was her altar. That was her altar time. She was making decisions. She was giving up things. That’s what the altar was for.
What condition is your altar in? We don’t have time to get to this. But Elijah, when he went on the mount to offer the sacrifice, a burnt sacrifice, the first thing he had to do was repair the altar. Many of you have seen God work in a miraculous way. Many of you have had prayers answered. You have seen God move in your life, but you’ve gotten away from it. And what is God telling us here? Your altar can be repaired. You don’t have to live your life in regret or live your life in the past of what used to be. Man, I used to be on fire for God. I used to see people saved. I used to have a strong walk with God. No, you can repair your altar today. You can get your altar right with God, and you can have that place of closeness to the Lord. You can have that place of decision and that place of sacrifice.
Then the Bible talks about renewing your altar. Second Chronicles 15:8. King Asa, he renewed his altar. He wasn’t fixing it, but it had been worn. He had been kind of neglected a little bit. And so he renewed the altar. Man, we, you know, sometimes we need to get into our prayer life, and we just get into that rut. And we—“Lord, thank you so much for this. Thank you, Lord, for that. Thank you for that. Okay, anything else?” All right, we’re good. Now, we get into a rut, and we need to renew that altar. We need to renew that closeness. When’s the last time that you’ve cried seeking out to the Lord because the Lord’s working in your heart? Whether that’s in a message, whether that’s in your personal walk with God, but when’s the last time that you’ve shed tears? God is wanting to do something through your life. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
Adonijah. We read about it last week with Pastor Paul. Adonijah was Solomon’s older brother. And what did Adonijah do? He wanted to become the king. Solomon said, “No, brother, you’re out of here, all right?” And what did Adonijah do? He ran to the altar and grabbed a hold of the horns of the altar. But you know what? It was too late. It was too late. Joab, just a couple—just a chapter later—did the exact same thing. He ran and he grabbed a hold of the altar, but it was too late.
So the first thing is you have an altar, but don’t wait too late. Don’t wait until it’s too late to get a hold of God. Don’t wait until your marriage is destroyed before you get a hold of God. Don’t wait until your kids are out living like the world before you get a hold of God. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Don’t wait to make a decision. Don’t wait to get forgiveness. Don’t wait to get what you need to help others. Don’t wait to use your altar. God has an altar for you. You have an altar. We have an altar. I’m not preaching this message so that people just flee the altars. But I want you to make a personal decision that you’re going to see the importance of the altar. The altar is a place of decision, and it’s a place of sacrifice. Don’t wait. Go to your altar. Go to your altar.
Have we strayed from the altar? Is your altar of sacrifice laid? And just such great invitation songs. What is it? It’s to bring us to a point. The preacher is up here preaching his heart out. He’s got a message that the Lord gave to him, and we sit in our chairs and we missed the whole thing. Man, would you make a decision that when something’s being preached, I want my heart to be prepared?
Somebody told me this once. He said, “You go down to the altar, you go to the altar for two things: It’s because the Lord spoke to your heart, or it’s because the Lord didn’t speak to your heart.” You go because the Lord spoke to your heart and you want to make a decision. But if he didn’t speak to your heart, “Lord, what’s going on? What’s wrong? What if I missed? Is there something in my life I need to get right? I want you to talk to me, Lord. I don’t want a message to go by. I don’t want to slip by. I want you to work through my life.” Go to the altar. Make the importance that you go to the altar. We have an altar. You have an altar that God wants you to use.
Let’s go ahead and stand and bow our heads. God has given us a church with the truth. God wants to work in our hearts. He’s there daily seeking to work in our lives to do something great. Are we letting it pass by? Are we letting the decision, the invitation time, are we just letting it pass by? We’re not making a decision for Christ. How is your altar tonight? Is it in need of repair or of renewal? Make this decision that I’m going to decide tonight that I’m going to go back to my altar. I’m going to get back into my altar. I’m going to repair. I’m going to do the things that are necessary, but I’m going to get back to my altar. What if you say, “I haven’t ever been to my altar”? We’ll make the decision tonight that you’re going to decide to make big of the altar. You’re going to go to the altar with your family and your personal life. You are going to go to the altar.
And then the last thing here, but I’m not going to let a service pass by without making a decision or to sacrifice something to the Holy Spirit. I’m not going to let it pass by. I’m not going to let it pass by. I’m going to use the altar. We’re going to pray, and the piano is going to play.
Dear Lord, I thank you so much for what you’ve done. Lord, in this message in my heart, Lord, you’ve worked in my life so much through this. And, Lord, you’ve used the altar greatly in my life, and I thank you for it, Lord. I thank you for men of God that didn’t let it pass by. They saw the importance of having an altar. And, Lord, I just ask you to be with us tonight. Help us to make these decisions. I ask these things in Jesus’ name.
My wife just mentioned it. How many tears? How many prayers have been left in an altar? And the Lord hears that. The Lord hears those prayers. The Lord wants to do something. And I thank you for you being here tonight. Just the importance of the altar. And I hope you can take that home with you.
Original File: The Importance of the Altar- Part 2 - Brother Anthony Aaron PM 62321