Repairing The Altar Of The Lord

REPAIRING THE ALTAR OF THE LORD

Study Text: 1Kings 18: 30 - 39

Introduction:

- The trouble in many churches is not the Pastor or the program. The trouble is "Broken Altars" in the lives of God's people.

- The purpose of an altar is: Worship; Sacrifice; Giving of Offerings; God's people gather together; Meeting God and Establishing Covenants.

- An altar is the meeting place between the physical and the spiritual. Everybody knows; Christians, non Christians, those who believe in God and those who does not believe in God, they know that the spiritual control the physical.

- That is why those who do not have Jesus Christ result to contacting forces of darkness for one thing or the other. So they bath themselves with special soap, rob themselves with special ointment in an attempt to attract the spiritual to come to their aid.

- The altar is where the physical contacts the spiritual that is the place where human beings goes to contact either God or demons. But the altar we are talking about is the altar of the Lord.

- Whether it is God or demons that you want to contact, you are expected to prepare a place, where the two of you can meet. The building of the altar is your own responsibility.

- Years before, unknown people had built an altar here, they had worshipped, offering up sacrifices to the True and Living God.

- That altar had stood as a visible sign of the reality of the True and Living God; and it had testified that people once worshipped Him as the Most High God.

- Quiker than anyone could have imagined , the people approved of new directions with progressive attitudes that demonstrated to the world that the nation was just like the nations about them.

- As increasing numbers of prophets compromised with wickedness, embracing the worship of the Baalim and the Asherim, altars that once dotted the land were torn down, replaced by Asherah Poles.

- The sacred places where the Living God had been worshipped were transformed into houses of prostitution. This altar, also, was torn down and the stones scattered.

- At last, one man consumed with a burning desire to glorify the True and Living appeared suddenly.

- As was true for Israel in the days of Elijah, the same truths hold for us. We must insist on inward transformation of the heart, not contenting ourselves with mere outward conformity to man-made rules.

- We must again see love for God revealed through love for His people. We must see a desire to know God and to discover what pleases Him. We must desire Him above all else. We must honour Him.

- As Elijah would need to build again the altar of the Lord, so Christians in this day are responsible to erect the altar of the Lord. Not that we must build physical structures to the glory of God; but that we must again do those things that reveal His presence among us.

- If there will ever be revival in our day, then we must prepare ourselves so that we can be used by God’s Good Spirit.

- We shall discuss the study under three sub-headings

1] Reasons for Repairing the Altar of the Lord

2] Requirements in Repairing the Altar of the Lord

3] Revival through Repairing the Altar of the Lord

1] Reasons for Repairing the Altar of the Lord

- An honest look at the condition of the church in many places today reveals weakness, lethargy, and decline.

- In many places the fires of revival and renewal have dimmed, or have been greatly hindered by the encroachments of sin, the flesh and the devil.

- As sin and lethargy abound in many places, God's call to His people is, "Repair My altar’’.

- The Holy Spirit is once again directing His people back to the altar, so that He can pour out his love, power, renewal, and healing.

- Asthe Holy Spirit brings us to a place of surrender, both in our own hearts and at the gathering places, glorious and powerful things will begin to happen in the Church of God.

- Some of the reasons to repair the altar of the Lord includes:

1) The altar is a place of consecration

- For those who are sincerely following Christ, there is power in fresh consecration.

- Re-dedicating our all to Christ will bring a fresh fire on the altar. In the Old Testament, the priests were reminded, "A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out." (Lev. 6:13).

- Let this remind us of the importance of the fire of total consecration to Christ; Come what may.

2) The altar is a place of confession and repentance!