Back To The Altar

The purpose

Abram regularly built altars to God for two reasons: (1) for prayer and worship, and (2) as reminders of God’s promise to bless him. Abram couldn’t survive spiritually without regularly renewing his love and loyalty to God. Building altars helped Abram remember that God was at the center of his life. Regular worship helps us remember what God desires and motivates us to obey him.

Let me say that the purpose of the altar is to have a meeting place, a designated, dedicated place where though there are a thousand onlookers, I can have a God encounter. That place where I can come and cast all of my cares on Him, where I can come to rejoice or weep. It’s purpose is what ever you may need. It’s what every one of us need. You may say, “Pastor, I regularly go to the psychiatrist when I need to unload some burdens.” No my friend, at the psychiatrist’ office you share your burdens with someone who can only listen, when you come to the altar and tell it to Jesus, you find a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is the mountain mover, load lifter, and life changer. He is the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God and he is calling His church back to the altar. At the altar you will discover your destiny. At the altar you will hear the voice of the Shepherd telling you that you are His and your burden is His. It is a place of worship, where with hands raised and tears falling you can shout for all that He has done in your life. As my home pastor used to say, “where heaven comes down and the earth goes up and you are right in the middle of the smack!” At the altar sinners become saints and saints become sanctified, and sanctified people accept the call to carry the Gospel of Jesus to a world that’s lost and dying.

The Power

Altars were used in many religions, but for God’s people, altars were more than places of sacrifice. For them, altars symbolized communion with God and commemorated notable encounters with him. The power of the altar is unspeakable. To many it’s just a piece of wood but to those of us who have walked down that “green mile” where the sin man dies, we can testify that it’s where the power of sin meets the power of God. When I went to the altar I died, and suddenly God showed up and breathed life into me. There is power when I kneel in that holy place and cry out to God. I don’t know what your need is today but let me tell you that what every one of us needs is a place to pray. We need a place to die and live again. There is power not so much in the altar as there is in the one who is waiting for you there! He stands with arms outstretched, crying, “Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” How many of us could say, “it was at an altar that I met Jesus.”

The Problem

In far too many of our churches we have removed the altar and relegated the Spirit of God to the back room or totally out of the building. We preach great messages and sing great songs but we fail to give place where they can meet with the Great God. For that reason people leave with good ideas and warm fuzzy feelings but lives are not transformed. On Monday when they are confronted with the powers of darkness they lack the strength to push back, they are weaponless and defenseless.