The Altar

Intro.

I love the day and time that we live.

I thoroughly enjoy AC, WIFI and drive throughs.

I enjoy being able to click a button and electronically send a message to someone anywhere in the world in an instant.

I like being able to follow a map on my phone and ask this device in my pocket anything at all.

But all of the amenities that we now live with also come with pitfalls.

In a wold that’s hyperconnected and information saturated, and extreme comfort…it’s easy to overlook extra ordinary thing.

Everything kind of become ordinary.

i can see the most beautiful scenery… WOW! get a picture… ok let’s go.

it is so easy to lose sight of the Sacred.

I know I do!

And in our world it can feel like nothing is set apart, respected, off limits, anymore.

Sacred is something that is Holy different. It is dedicated to God. It is by definition, not common.

It is something to the reverenced and honored. Not something just just pass by.

We have to Find the Sacred again.

It’s still there.

There was a moment when God spoke to moses in a crazy encounter through a bush that wouldn’t burn up, he said to moses.. take off your shoes, this is holy ground.

It may look similar, but this is sacred.

The first sacred item I think we need to find again is the Altar.

This isn’t a word we often use in our everyday vocabulary.

Maybe you’ve heard it in church, but even that is such a limited view.

But all throughout scripture this is a sacred space and we need find again.

Noah, after the flood made an altar.

Abraham and Isaac made altars.

Jacob had a dream where you encountered God, he woke up, grabbed the rock he slept on and made an altar.

David built an altar...

Elijah.

The Altar was a crucial and sacred part of the greatest champions of our faith.

The Altar is a place of encounter

Worship. Remembrance.

A place set apart where heaven and earth intersected.

A meeting place with God.

This has to be sacred.

That altar is a place of worship.

A place to honor, remember, lift up and worship God. To thank him.

Think on all he’s done and praise him for it.

The altar is a place of sacrifice.

Altar in hebrew is mizbeah- slaughter

Greek it translates to A place of Sacrifice.

something was offered on the altar. Something was given up.

Something of value was laid down and sacrificed.

Grain, animal...

The altar is a place of exchange.

The sacrifice was in the place of and for the purpose of an exchange.

animal death in their place for their life.

Sacrifice for forgiveness.

Something in the place for something else.

Leviticus 17:11

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

In Exodus and Leviticus God makes a covenant with his people. And in this covenant (contract or promise) he set up what it looks like for them to worship him, to approach him, to be his people and to be forgiven.

A worship system of sacrifice to redeem them when they couldn’t live up to God’s standard.

It required and Altar, a Priest and a Sacrifice.

Leviticus 17:3-6

“Any Israelite who sacrifices an ox, a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside of it instead of bringing it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord—that person shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; they have shed blood and must be cut off from their people. This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the Lord, at the entrance to the tent of meeting and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings. The priest is to splash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.”

(STAY WITH ME!)

Elaborate, but holy process.

Sound like a normal thing to you yet?!?

Like a Monday morning.

Shower, eggs, work, animal blood sacrifice......

God instituted this process knowing it was only temporary.

The the sacrifice of goats and lambs wasn’t the complete answer to forgiveness of sin and bringing people back to himself. It wasn’t the complete answer for mankind's brokenness, but It set up and pointed toward an eventual, a greater and permanent solution.

Hebrews 7:27

“Unlike the other high priests, he (Jesus) does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”

Hebrews 9:11-15

“But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Hebrews 10:16

This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.

Hebrews 10:10

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 13:10

We have an altar (the cross) from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

The Cross became an Altar, the greatest altar with the most precious pure sacrifice. Himself.

Jesus was the priest. the mediator between us and God that was required.

Not longer do we need to approach God with a goat because Jesus has already paved the way and paid the way with his life. Took care of our sin condition once and for all, on the cross.

Did what nothing and now one else could do.

In our place as an exchange.

Jesus gave us a new covenant. A new promise. a new contract with God through himself.

Not built on the blood of an animal, but his blood once and for all.

We still need the Altar.

The process is much different but the place is still sacred/holy.

A place to meet with and encounter God

at the alter I can be altered.

It alters my heart, my perspective, my mind.

It changes me.

We have to get in the habit of making altars.

Here was God’s instruction to Moses on making an altar.

Exodus 20:23

Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.

We will either make altars or idols.

We will either create sacred moments to worship him or something else will get our worship.

It happens so easily. if I don’t find the sacred, unsacred finds me.

We have to make altars.

Exodus 20:24-25

Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.

Uncut stone.

Common rock. Not something I have to manufactured.

Somewhere convenient, simple, easy, just find a place.

Because we belong to Jesus, he now calls us priests and living stones, we can fully approach God on our own.

1 Peter 2:4-5

“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Any Place I am can be a meeting place with Him.

sacrifice isn’t an animal on a altar of stone but now its my life on the altar of our hearts.

But what a Sacred moment to be able to meet with God.

but How tragic that we can often see it as ordinary.

It’s still a place of Worship. (thanksgiving. Rememberemce, encounter)

A place of sacrifice.

discomfort. Costs.

I present myself a living sacrifice. My will

A place of exchange.

He can’t alter me (transformation) if he never has an Altar with me.

Before you make that decision.

MAKE AN ALTAR

Before you make that call or comment

MAKE AN ALTAR

When I see God making a way in my life.

MAKE AN ALTAR.

When I don’t see how there can be a way.

MAKE AN ALTAR.

Your Car is the perfect Altar.

Your office is the perfect altar.

Your bathroom, your bedroom, anywhere you are!!

God wants to encounter you, he needs an altar.

beginning 21 days of prayer.

Find the Sacred.

Meet with God, its nothing ordinary. It’s holy.

But it is easy.

We get to do it right here right now.

Ask ourselves, Have i been making idols or making altars?

Everything is average, even boring, when nothing is sacred.

Find sacred.

Make an Altar.