Altared - Pt. 3 - Pinky Swear
I. Introduction
For some it was padded. For others it folded down. For some a simple rail. For others it was built in and for others it was a separate piece of furniture that often became a display location for offering plates, plastic flowers, and croquette covered tissue boxes. Many, if not all of us, have had life changing moments around an altar. The altar isn't our idea! In fact, as I mentioned last week, the concept of the altar is rooted in the heart of God, mentioned 370 different times in Scripture! The message is abundantly clear . . . God meets man at the altar.
And so we began by talking about Paul's call for us to live an altared lifestyle in Romans 12:1-2. We avoid the pain, death, blood, and time required to stop at the altar. However, Paul was very clear that if we don't lived altared we will become cultured and look more like our culture than our king.
Then last week we dealt with the 2nd altar occurrence in Scripture and from Noah's experience we talked about how after one of the most horrific experiences he built an altar. He teaches us to build altars even when we have gone through tough times. He teaches us that we must establish a daily altar of remembrance or we will become bitter, selfish, and complainers. So I challenged you to become like David and make a covenant that "I will remember"!
II. Text
Genesis 12:1-7
God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you;those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound. Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land. God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.
Genesis 13:14-18
After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, “Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I’ll make your descendants like dust—counting your descendants will be as impossible as counting the dust of the Earth. So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I’m giving it all to you.” Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God.
Genesis 15:5-12
Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!” And he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.” God continued, “I’m the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.” Abram said, “Master God, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?” God said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.” He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn’t split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off.
There are two similarities that are common to all three accounts that I want to reflect on this morning.
God has a pinky and He isn't afraid to use it!
The three altars that we read about were constructed because Abraham had received a promise.
His altar encounters were not a place of request but a place of revelation. It was at these altars that Abraham heard, "Thus sayeth the Lord!" It was at these altars that Abraham gets a word for his life and a word for his wife!
I think this is important to understand because I think so many of us only visit altars with requests. We expect no revelation. We visit pulpits for revelation. We want a word from a man. Why settle for a word from man when we can get to an altar and get directly to the source?
Here is a key aspect of this. Abraham let God talk. Too many of us never listen at the altar! We start talking and keep talking until we exit the altar! Some of us literally outtalk God! God, the God of promises, can't make any promises because He can't get a word in edge wise. Silence makes us nervous but it also makes us sensitive to the still small voice of God.
Abraham discovered that the altar is a place of promise. My question for you this morning is what has God promised you? What has He said about you? What has He said about your kids? What has He said about your future? What has He said about your destination? What has He said about your current and your future circumstances? Abraham lived on promises when he saw no products! Some of us struggle severely because when we see no provision we have no promise to hold on to! When you can't find His presence you can count on His promise! God is not a man that He should lie! If He said it then He is faithful to perform it!
So if He is trustworthy then the question is not His ability it is whether or not we are willing to get to an altar and hear what He says! You have talked to God but have you given God a chance to talk to you?
I am concerned that a lot of times we go to an altar and we do all the talking. We tell God what we think and because we won't allow Him to speak we leave the altar thinking and even believing that we have heard from God and all we have really done is convince ourselves that our thoughts are His thoughts. Make no mistake . . . God's thoughts are still higher than our thoughts and if you spend time at an altar His promises will be larger than what you thought was best!
Listen God has a promise for you! God has a revelation for you! Let Him speak! We want to run to altars for a touch! I declare to you this morning that long after a touch wears off a promise can sustain you! If I had to choose I will take a promise over a touch every time because a promise will bring touches (plural).
He will pinky swear with you! He is a covenant making God! (Turn to your neighbor and pinky swear to them as a symbolic reminder that God will not forget His promise!)
The second common denominator in these altar accounts is that much time passed from the time of the promise to the fulfillment of the promise.
Abraham needed to be reminded that he had received a promise. Life, time, crisis will cause us to forget what God has said. We need time to pause and remember what God has said. We do need to remember what He has already done and based upon that record of faithfulness we also need to stop and recall what He has said He will do! We get nervous when time starts ticking. We put God on our stop watch! However, it as we get back to an altar that time stops and that we hear the promises of God rumble back through our spirit. We hear the calling again. We hear the revelation again. It is at this altar that we hear that in spite of the twists and turns of life. In spite of the divorce. In spite of the death. In spite of the consequences of my choices. In spite of the sickness. In spite of the pain. In spite of the destruction I have witnessed. In spite of all of those things there is still a promise that is for me. There is a promise that God can still bring to fulfillment.
Some of you have forgotten what God said because time has passed. You need to revisit the altar of promise and hear fresh and new what God said will happen. Some of you are struggling in relationship right now because you have forgotten what He promised your marriage would be. Some of you are struggling with your kids right now because you have forgotten what He said they would become. You are struggling with your job right now because you have forgotten what He said He would do through you!
In the third account, Abraham had to defend his altar of promise. I want you to know that you are going to have to defend your promise. You are going to have to fight off the vultures of doubt, fear, and discouragement. You are going to have to fight to hold on to what God has said! Fight to hold on to that promise. Fight at the altar for His promise! The enemy will try to steal your promise. Revisit the altar of promise and fight for what is yours. If you don't have a promise worth fighting/warring for then you haven't heard from God! I can tell when a person has spent some time at the altar of promise because they will fight you. They will contend for their promise. They will cut you before they let you steal their promise or cast doubt on their promise. I can tell some of you haven't been to this altar in awhile cause you give up to easily! You have a quit in you because you have failed to fight for the promise!
Some of you fight for your right . . . you fight for your way . . . you fight for your plans . . . I am telling you it is time to fight for what God says! What He says and what He promises will so far surpass everything you are fighting for now. Quit wasting energy on fighting for those things and start fighting for your promise!
Come on somebody speak to the vultures that are circling because they think the promise is dead and declare I will fight for my promise! Speak to the haters (they aren't really haters - they are confused admirers) and tell them you can't get my promise. Speak to the trials and the tribulations and let them know they can't steal your promise!
