Revival- Rebuild The Altar

Over the next 60 years Israel would quickly turn away from worshiping God until eventually on every hill, in every square, and every home there were Ashera poles, Molech was worshipped, the golden calf, Baal, and the true God was silent from their prayers. But, there was a reformist sent by God to to turn the heart of a nation back to Him. And this revivalist named Elijah called Israel to Mt. Carmel and gave them a charge. You sacrifice to your god, and I will sacrifice to my God, let’s see who wins! Verse 29 of 1 Kings 18 says that the prophets of Baal cried to their god all day, until the evening sacrifice. There was not a single sign of a divine encounter.

1 Kings 18:30 NASB95

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down.

And as Elijah rebuilt the altar of the Lord

1 Kings 18:38–39 NASB95

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”

A Warning To Gods Church

I want to caution the church today. It is too easy for us to be drawn away by the impression of revival. Where activity does not induce repentance, where there is an altar without a fire to consume our sinful nature, and sacrifice without cost and an approach to God without humility. A genuine move of God, true revival means, there is a sacrifice accompanied by the manifested smoke of Gods presence and the all consuming fire of God. We will dive more into what that means as we go through this series. But listen, it’s is far too easy for the church get stuck fighting the false idols of today, when what we need to do is simply rebuild an altar.