Altar’d: Sacrifice of Praise

Introduction/Scripture

Joshua 8:30–35 NIV

Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel. Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.

Pray.

I am a checklist guy. My prayer life even has a checklist. When I sit down to be quiet, I usually pray through certain topics. It is too one way and it is calculated. I like to be in control of the conversation…Any conversation really. But kind of scary to admit that I do that with God as well.

Praise

Repent

Ask

Yield

PRAY

I think that is pretty comprehensive. And I like to complete the process. A few weeks ago, I was at Daybreak. And I began to do this very thing. Now some context is I had been having a pretty frustrating couple of weeks. Just hard things and I was on edge and grumpy.

So I get to the P. Praise. And I just began my routine roledex of standard gratitude stuff. Family, health, FMC. And God stopped me in my tracks. I got the very real sense that He was near. It is strange and hard to articulate. But I was compelled to dig in deeper. Focusing on each person in my family and naming things I was grateful for. Specific things here at the church. And I knew I needed to shut up a little. Listen.

God never let me get past that P. You might thing I am crazy and that is ok. I knew God was near and something changed in me that day.

Joshua and the Israelites are going to do something even crazier here. They are going to worship and make sacrifices when everything is going GREAT! I know, how novel.

Context:

Joshua has been Moses’ apprentice for quite some time. He has been there to watch Moses receive divine instruction and revelation at Mt. Sinai, he has been there at the tent of meeting where the Spirit of God dwelled, he has led parts of the charge towards the promised land.

Moses falls short of completely trusting God and he is forced to pass the torch on to Joshua for this next step.

Sidenote: Who is your apprentice? Who have you sacrificed time and given access to? Isn’t this parenting or spiritual parenting?

So it is Joshua that crosses the Jordan into the promised land with God’s people, conquered enemies, and claimed the inheritance that God promised. Israelites are full of twists and turns. Victories and failures. Trust God, succeed, lose trust, fall short. Rinse and Repeat. However, we see Joshua do something that defines his leadership and this season for Israel.

Stop: turn to God

Joshua just rocked Ai. I mean go back and read earlier in chapter 8. Some braveheart stuff going on there. Dont tell me the bible is boring. All the momentum is on his side and he should finish the deal. and what does he do? He stops and turns to God and leads the people of Israel to worship.

Joshua 8:30–31 NIV

Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings.

Two things on Joshua’s mind here:

to acknowledge the past sin from their community

Recognize that their success came from the Lord rather than their own abilities

First thing to see here is that Joshua is leading all the people. Every man, woman, and child is involved. They are standing between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal with the altar being built on Mt. Ebal. These mountains are significant in the history of Israel, see in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 11:29 NIV

When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.

The altar is on Mt. Ebal because they are first acknowledging their past sin. Like the psalmist who says “restore in my the joy of salvation” meaning, remind me of where you have brought me from.

I am meeting with a young adult, that is not a part of this church, but this young adult was severely abused by parents. So much so that it has taken years of counseling to even breakthrough the disassociation that she had done to protect herself from the knowledge of how bad it was. Currently this young adult as spiriutal parents that have cared for her. With each turn she uncovers more and yet she has the ability to look back and say God you brought me out of that fire. You kept me from falling into another life that would have perpetuated this brokenness.

I look back at my own life and it is hard to not think the same thing. I have a brother that has been in prison for a decade. We grew up in the same home, same family, same friends, same teachers and schools. Our journey was nearly the same and I made some choices in my life that could have led a different direction.

God you brought me from there. This leads to the second move which is similar.

Joshua and Israel recognize their success is only because of God. Not their own merit or strength or gifts.

God does not require praise, but He desires it. This was the purpose of the peace offering which God gave the Israelites. In Leviticus 3:1 we read: “If your offering is a fellowship [or peace] offering . . .” The word for this offering is selemim and it means a voluntary sacrifice of praise. These are the only offering instructions which begin with “if” and it is the only offering which is optional.

Isn’t it fascinating that this is the only optional offering in Leviticus? God is not going to force you to worship him. God does not need it. However, this is a posture that God will use and does.

I used to get so annoyed with the athlete or movie star that immediately gives a shoutout to God when they win something. Oh sure, I think God chose you over your opponent in this super bowl. But what is probably offensive is that we do not know how to give credit to God in these moments. I would hope they live a life of gratitude in the valley. The truth is we do not know how to do this.

A life of gratitude is born in worship.

Not all worshippers are grateful people but I believe a life of gratitude rises out of worship. Optional.

On a personal level: Some of us walk around daily trying to find something to complain about. This is victim mentality. It is pervasive and toxic. Do not point fingers, eyes straight ahead, for all of us: what is your compliment to complaint ratio. Oh yeah, I meddling now. We do not have to see the world that way. It is a miserable experience. But too often our pride, our institutional pride, or our personal preferences stop us from seeing the good. The good news today is that you have the option to send that negative spirit straight to hell. By worshipping the holy God who created you, called you by name and rescued you, and is the giver of every good gift, the friend of your soul, and the one who wants the very best for you.

On a corporate level: We will remember the past. We will remember those times that God was so gracious with us even when we could not see. When God sustained us in the wilderness and put up with our failures. We will give praise, and honor, and glory to His name for where we are today. This church by nearly all measurements is experiencing “success.” Cary Neiuoff writes that the status quo church does not exist anymore. You are either growing or declining and most are declining. What God is doing here is God. It is not because a good leader or group of leaders. It is not because we have found the code to unlock growth. No, fewer and fewer people care for God and religion and yet we are reaching new people, planting a church, growing quickly. God has done this. This is the posture we will take now, so we are different in the next valley.

Finally, look at what Joshua does after the altar is built and sacrifices are made: he turns to the word of God:

Return to the word of God

Joshua begins to read the word of God, the covenant to the entire assembly of Israel and the foreigners that are with them.

When we worship together and when we read God’s Word together, we become witnesses to the story of God. We share the promises of God to forgive us for our sins and the promise of eternal life which happens through the sacrifice of Jesus. It is the Word of God that holds us together, united in faith and united as a family of faith. Corrie ten Boom famously said, “Be united with other Christians. A wall with loose bricks is not good. The bricks must be cemented together.” Our sacrifice of praise reconciles us with the Lord and with others. It is the desire of God that we live in God’s peace through our praise of all He has done and all He will do.

Response in gratitude today.