Build An Alter

Close to my desk at home, I have this wooden plaque

Read plaque from MAF team in Mozambique

This plaque means a lot to me. It was a gift from people whom I loved and admired

But it’s more than that. It’s a memorial

A memorial to a time when God was working in our lives in a very unique and real way.

He had led us overseas into a country that we had never even really heard of prior to being assigned there.

We went with some excitement

Some fear

And during our years there

And from this end, when we look back, We see the hand of God working in so many ways,

From leading us there, sustaining us while there, giving opportunity for ministry,

To leading us back to the States again.

And I keep this plaque in my office as a memorial.

A way to remember, not just personal memories, but to remind me/us that God’s hand was at work in our lives then

And that He will continue to be faithful

As we look at Scripture, we see many times where people are commanded, encouraged, to remember.

To remember what God has done.

Psalm 136 the Psalmist recalls what God did to lead His people out from Egypt and to lead them into the promised land,

And He praises the Lord for His great mercy. “For His mercy endures forever!”

And to even build memorials and alters as a way to remember and to declare to generations coming after that

God is sovereign, almighty, faithful

And will continue to be.

As I was thinking about memorials, one of the first ones that I thought about was in Joshua 4 .

we know that the Israelites had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

Now they were ready to enter the land that had been promised to them.

But there was a major obstacle in their ways. The Jordan River lay between them and their destination.

They were on the east bank, looking across.

It looked impossible. How would they get their multitide across along with children, livestock, and all their possessions?

But God told Joshua to tell the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant, step out in faith into the Jordan River and watch what God would do.

And we know the story about how as soon as they set foot in the river, the waters stopped flowing upstream and all the people crossed over on dry land.

And Joshua says, let’s build a memorial to remember this moment

And they picked up 12 stones from the middle of the river

And then in verse 19 it says

Joshua 4

English Standard Version Chapter 4

19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. 20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21 And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

But there are other memorials talked about in the Bible as well.

In Genesis chapter 28, we see Jacob, fleeing from his brother Esau, and traveling toward Haran to find a wife.

And God appears to him in a vision and very clearly confirms to him the covenant that He had made with Abraham, promising to give him land, offspring, and blessing

And God says to Jacob, “I will not leave you until all that I have done all that I have promised you.”

And Jacob awoke from his dream and in fear and reverence, he says, “How awesome this place is! Surely, God is here and I did not realize it! In fact, this is the very house of God and the gate of heaven!”

And in the morning, he took the stone that he had laid his head on during the night, set it up, and poured oil on it and said

And called the place Bethel, which means “The House of God”, or, “God is in this place.”

Later, in chapter 25, with two wives and 12 children, he returns to that very spot

Where again, God meets him, again confirms His promise to him and gives him a new name: Israel

And again, Jacob (now Israel), sets up a stone and pours out a drink offering on it along with oil

And confirms again that the name of this place is Bethel, The House of God.

Another memorial is found in 1 Samuel 7.

Here we read that the Philistines were threatening the land of Israel.

Samuel was leading the people in a time of prayer and repentance, of putting away their foreign gods

And he had gathered them together at a place called Mizpah

And when the Philistines heard that all the people were gathered together at Mizpah, they decided to attack.

And the people cried out in fear to Samuel. “keep praying for us”

And Samuel made a sacrifice to the Lord on behalf of the people, and it says that the Lord God thundered against the Philistines with a mighty sound

And the Philistines were thrown into a state of confusion, and the Israelites conquered them and drove them back to their own land

And then Samuel took a stone and set it up and called it “Ebenezer”, meaning “Till now the Lord has helped us”.

He set up a memorial which people could look at and say, “I remember how God helped us here.”

Memorials:

They are physical reminders to declare who God is and what He has done.

When we look at these examples of memorials that we have just talked about, I think that we see them used in two ways:

As a personal reminder to me/us of who God is and what He has done

I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s easy and all too common to grow distracted or discouraged by all that is going on around me and forget (maybe even just momentarily) about who God is and what He has done

I know that there is no way that we can know all that there is to know about God, but He has revealed Himself to us in His Word

And we can have the assurance that what He has revealed about Himself will never change.

He will always be who He says that He is and He will always do what He says He will do.

And the way that we have seen Him work in the past helps us to know who He is and how He will work in the future

Maybe not exactly what He will do, but we can know how He will work.

For example, growing up, I would have never guessed that God would take me to southeastern Africa one day.

And in Africa, I would have never guessed that I would be back here doing what I’m doing right now

But now as I look at my memorial, I am reminded that God

Works first and foremost for His glory. He does what is pleasing to Him

And He leads those who are committed to Him in ways that please Him.

And I’m reminded that God is good and just

And even though life doesn’t always look the way that I would have chosen

He will be with me where ever He leads me, whether it is to green pastures and cool waters, or through the fire

So, memorials are meant to be an encouragement to me, or to us

And to remind me that God is faithful and good

Memorials are meant to declare to others who God is and what He has done

Think again about the 12 stones that Joshua had the people set up beside the Jordan River

Why were they placed there?

So that in the years to come when their children asked “why are these stones here”

You can tell them, “I’m glad that you asked. Let me tell you what the Lord did this one time! Let me tell you about how he stopped the waters of this river and we all walked across on dry land!”

This is the kind of God that we serve! He cares for His people. And He is powerful and mighty to save!

In our house we have one of these picture frames that has room for multiple pictures

and I remember a number of years ago one of our children asking about these pictures

And we told them, these are pictures from significant times in our lives…times when we felt the hand of God leading in specific ways

I think, this is so important as we train our children. Even if you don’t have children of your own, maybe you have nieces and nephews, or grandchildren, or friends who come to your home

And to be able to tell them, I have this memorial because this is what God did at this time in my life. I

I think this is very important.

That we declare to our children and to our close friends and family who God is and what He has done

And secondly, this memorial by the Jordan was meant to declare to the whole earth who God is and what He has done!

24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

the reason that God led us through the river and the reason that we set up this memorial is so that all the people of the earth, not just us Israelites, but ALL the people of the earth will know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that they may fear the LORD

in other words, so that all the people of the earth will worship Him as He deserves to be worshipped.

And so we build a memorial and we look back

Not for the purpose of wishing for things to be the way that they were, or longing for the good ol’ days,

But to remember who our God is and what He has done!

What Has God done this past year?

VBS outreach to Hills

I loved to see you as a family of believers joining forces to point kids toward Jesus, from the young to the old

This outreach was covered in prayer and it showed in how you all came together to help

Getting our tax ID number, articles of incorporation, and bylaws passed and in operation

We learned on the fly, and prayed a lot and got through it as a church

We packed Shoe boxes, packed food for Feed the Hungry, knotted comforters

All of these activities were covered by prayer and committed to the Lord, and we give the Lord credit and glory for all that comes through

These are all ways in which we declare to the nations what God has done

Starting a senior-citizen luncheon

this is a dream that someone put out and as we prayed, we saw God open the door to make it happen

I want to give God the glory for it, and also thank Lucille and her team who have worked so hard to shop for food and prepare it

Seeing God work through our brother, Darren

We prayed a lot about his visit and I believe that the messages that he brought to us is what God wanted us to hear

About resetting

About bearing the image of Christ

About being His bride, the church

The reset is something that we will continue to talk about

God has been at work this year in our lives, and in your mailboxes you will find a card with some pictures on it that you can hang up somewhere

Put on your fridge, or whatever, just to remember.

To be encouraged, to declare to your loved ones and to anyone you meet that God is alive and well and that He is at work through His Holy Spirit here at Fairview.

As we close this service, and as we think about memorials and alters, I want to point you to the greatest memorial of all

The cross in front of this church

The cross is a memorial.

As we look at it, we are reminded of the greatest thing that God has done

The awesome sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Who paid our debt so that we might have forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to our Father, and abundant life.

All that we have just talked....the message of the cross is the aim. We do what we do so that others might hear about Him.