Abrahams 4 Alters
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Abrahams 4 Alters
Alter: A Place Of Slaughter and sacrifice
A Alter Symbolizes the acknowledgement and approach to God, In Other Words The Alter of Sacrifice is a measure of ones Worship and sensaraty in God
Today As We Look At Abrahams Life I want you to think of the sacrifices you have made in your own walk, I want you to ponder the markers of your faith, the high lights and the low times are there clear indicators of your faith in these times or are you lacking
Let us pray
Oh Holy Father We come before you today with a heavy heart Lord you have been so so good to me Lord thank you for this wonderful week Thank you that you lead me to worship you when I cant even stand and when I cant stand I throw myself before you. Lord Hear my cry today here me oh God Lord sanctify me cleanse me of all unrighteousness that I would be a better father a better Husband a better Pastor and Preacher of the Word lord use me oh God use me as a instrument of your goodness, Help me to show your love your kindness your mercy and help me to warn those that not be in you. Lord I pray that today as we look at you humble servant Abraham that we would each look deep inside pur own walk with you and examine our Alters we have placed before you . That today is a new day a good day to build a new Alter one that will last one that will stand the test of time one that will forever Glorify you oh Father hear my humbly cry Lead these people to you in a deeper in a more fulfilled purpose driven Life one that magnifies your name and glorifies your Kingdom Amen
This Week My Back
The 4 Alters of Abraham mark the Highs and Lows Of Abrahams Spiritual Life
1 Abrahams First Alter is Found in Genesis 12:1-7
Here WE See His First Alter Is a Alter Of Blessings
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
V7 God had Unconditionally blessed Abraham this is Grace Getting more gaining something better than you deserve
God Promises though abraham is in a foren land filled with enemies that God will be there to protect Him , He is promised through him there would be a great nation ,
God gave him the promise the blessing that all the families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham, This would be the Through Abraham the Seed whom is christ would be born a be the blessing to the whole of the World
Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.
in response to the Grace of God Abraham builds a Alter before Him in praise before Him
Let us like Abraham offer to the Alter who is Christ Jesus the sacrifice of Praise and Worship before Him who pours out his grace on us daily
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
2. Alter of Prayer
Now look at vs 8 -13
And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
This Guy The Father of our Faith Who left the comfort of his fathers house old in age in his 70’s to go to a land filled with enemies all in faith that was given this incredible promise by God and He ran
He ran straight back to the world to something like his fathers land of UR to Egypt instead of waiting on the promise of God in the famine he ran to the promise of te world in egypt.
Now look what he does once you slip its so much easier to keep slipping
He tells his wife to lie and say she is his sister one sin leads to antother
Then his wife is taken before the pharoh to his bed chambers and I got to say here i love that God is a Soveighn God
Abraham let his wife go to the bed chambers of the king out of fear of his own life he had already forgotten that Got Promised to bless who blessed him and curse who cursed him he was neck deep
Sometimes we get neck deep and forget that God promised to never leave nor forsake you
Like Abraham we run back to the world to solve our problems and like Abraham they never seem to turn out the way we hope
So God being completely in control completely soverighn interviens before the king took abrahams wife and Pharoah calls upon abraham and says what have you done.
Abraham then returns back to bethel ( the house of God) He pitches his tent and builds a alter
Where there is a tent ( a Home) there better be a alter
Abraham then prays to God and is immediately Forgiven and the mercy and grace of God and the sweet fellowship with God was restored to Him
Let us return to the Lord with a humble prayer and watch his sweet mercy abound in our lives his love flow through you like living waters
3. ALTER OF pEACE
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord.
Lot and Abrahams men had been fighting over the grazing land strife had built up within abrahams family causing issue
Abraham pleads
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
likewise Paul pleads with the Church
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Strife is sometimes necessary I believe it was for Lot and Abraham God did not instruct abraham to bring lot but abraham loved lot as his own son so he brought him anyway. To make way for the true Son Issac the Lord used adversity to move Lot and abraham
Have you ever taken time to thank God for the relationships that He has moved for your own Good?
Though Strife is necessary sometimes its always traumatic for the brethren
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
Look at abrahams Grace towards Lot
And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.
So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward;
He gave mercy and grace to lot and God rewarded Him
He moved there and Build a alter
a alter of Peace, Not more running back to egypt no mire strife with his family but peace and God
May we all separate ourselves from the World from the division and rest in the Peace of God
4> Alter of Provision
Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
So he said, “Here I am.”
And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
This is the most important sacrifice Abraham made His greatest Alter Yet this would be the peak of His Faith
As Abraham being completly obidiant to God begain to walk up the mountain just him and his soo im sure his heart was heavy
as he begain to build the alter and ready the sacrifice im sure he wrestled within himself
Abraham being faithful after a long joruney of walking with God was put to the ultimite test whom did he love more his God that has lead him to this point or his beloved Son
He was not just to sacrifice his son by slaying him but to offer him up in a burnt offering
This truley marked the peak of Abrahamns Faith
No more did he wrestle in doubt and thoughts of egypt fill his head only love and devotion and obedeance to the one who had brought him this far
From the wicked lands of his father in Ur to the Worship in Spirit and truth abraham had been there as he readied to make his son a sacrifice the Lord Provided
Abrahams faith was so strong hebrews writes that he belived that God would have raised him from the dead from the ashed God would raise him
thats sacrifice thats faith
Are you at the alter of God
as Paul wrote
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
We will never prove the delights of his love until we lay all upon the Alter of the Lord
It is time