Come Back To The Alter

Intro:

I live in Wichita, Kansas and this past week the weather has been extreme but the reason I say this is because for the past two years I have lived in the most southern tip of Louisiana where the cold winter months it only gets down at night into the 40’s and rarely in the upper 30s. But I am in Wichita, Kansas now and in praying about this message a memory came to me of when I pastored a little church in Cedar Vale, Kansas, not far from here and a story that was told me by a dairy farmer that was in my church. He told me once on a cold winter day that during blizzards the snow would get so high and the visibility would get so low that they would have to tie a line from the top of the doorpost of the door of the barn to the top doorpost of their back door of the house so that during the night when they had to get up to milk the cows and it was storming or they were in a blizzard they could grab hold of the line and walk out to the bard without getting lost. Now for a city guy I never thought of that when it came to walking outdoors in a winter storm, but that’s what Bro. Helpingstine told me. It seems different to me that I would have to hold onto to a line to lead me where I need to go, but without it I could lose my way and wonder off and freeze.

• The world is full of troubles today, but thank God I have a life line who is Jesus Christ

• The life people live today is so much different than those who lived long ago but the truths are the same, we need a lifeline and that is Jesus Christ.

• When we see God’s people in the Old Testament we see a mirror of ourselves for they were only humans much like us.

In the Old testament there is a story found in 1 Kings 12:26–30 It’s a story that took place during Amos’s day, Amos was a prophet of God. It says the Israelites had lost their way or backslid and had erected altars to false gods. Now what is so interesting is that the alters that they erected to the pagan God’s were like the alters they erected for the one and true God.

It shows a time in the history of Israel that they were lost and forgot their way back to what was right and sound in their life. They lost their since of compass spiritually and lifeline that would led them in the right way.

These two types of alters that they had built was very similar in design and shape. They were alters that were used for worship and were similar in appearance but they were built for very different reasons, one for the worship of God and the other for the appeasement and worship of pagan deities.

And God spoke through the prophets and said to the people of Israel

Illus: When I was pastoring down in Texas I was involved in the Royal Rangers group and one year we decided to enter into a contest of making our own boat and racing it in the lake. Sounds good fun and cool right? So we entered but there was only one catch. The boat had to be built with cardboard. And it had to be able to hold a person or people who could paddle it to through the victory crossing lane. A cardboard boat! We make one and it really looked like a real boat. We painted it and designed it well and it was strong, or as we thought it was strong. It looked like the real deal. As with all the other boats we put ours in the water. So far so good!

Illus: the guy that jumped of the 20th floor from a burning building and those looking outside their windows could hear him say as he passed their floor – “So far, so good.”

As the race began our old boat was doing well – So far so good! We were in the middle of the pack moving along pretty well – So far so good!

Half way through the race – So far so good!

We were racing toward the finish line – So far – not so good!

One end of our ship started taking on water – Not so good!

And then it happened, the cardboard gave way on one end – O my, O me – Not good at all!

And it sunk and thank the Lord the lake was not deep or we all would of drowned.