Repairing Broken Altars

Repairing Broken Altars

Background: I Kings 18

Text: I Kings 18:30-39

Key phrase: “And He prepared the altar of the Lord that was broken down.” (vs. 30)

I. National Altars

Our nation has replaced its altars of worship to God with worship of every other imaginable thing. Turtle eggs, dolphins, and the environment have become of higher value than human life. Rather than teaching children “Thou shalt not kill” our schools are teaching them that they need to express themselves and that human life is of no value. Some 43 million doctors, lawyers, bankers, preachers, senators, representatives, skilled laborers, educators, managers, farmers, factory workers, truck drivers, airline pilots, missionaries, and other people have been killed by the knife of abortion doctors in the name of freedom of choice. Moral decay is at an all time high. Gender distinction has been fuzzed so much that little girls grow up having no idea how to be a good mother. Boys have no idea that being manly means treating women with respect and practicing self-control.

The nation is heading down a path toward a Godless society. I say it is time to rebuild some national altars. It is high time for us as Americans to take a stand and do what is right. It is time for America to turn back to God. It is time for us citizens to use our voting power to bring about a change of face in our government. This is not a political speech. These are moral issues, principles that God has established before there were politics.

Someone said the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing. It is definitely high time for our national altars to be rebuilt and God to be places once again as Supreme in our government.

II. Family Altars

Nations are built upon families. As the family falls, so falls the nation. Children are growing up knowing nothing about God. Parents are leaving spiritual training of their children to someone else. It is time for family altars to be rebuilt across our land. It is time for parents to take responsibility for the spiritual training of their children.

Because there are many children growing up with no moral compass, it is our time as a church to reach out and provide direction for these children. We as a church have a golden opportunity to reach out into our community and bring in children and young people whose parents are not training them. God has place this church here for a reason. We are not here just to keep the grass from growing in the yard. Thank God that we have been able to reach out and bring others in. Let’s keep encouraged in the fact that God is bringing in people. But lets not be satisfied. There are many families that need us to help them. As we reach out and families in the community begin rebuilding their altars for the Lord, we will see a difference made in our city. God desires for us to be in the business of bringing families to Him.

III. Personal Altars.

If we are going to be all that God wants us to be, each of us need to maintain a personal altar—a place where we regularly meet God in prayer. Jesus demonstrated that even He needed time alone with the Father. We as His followers need to take time each day to feed upon His Word and pray. It is the only way to grow spiritually. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” How can we keep his commandments if we do not know what they are? And how can we know them if we do not read His Word? Some have tried to set an amount of time that we should spend in prayer or Bible study. I will not try to set a time because none is given in the Bible, but we need to make it a priority to spend time with God.