What Happens At The Altar?

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III. GOD WANTS YOU TO REMOVE THE ALTAR OF “SELF”… 25 That same night the LORD said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. ” 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. 28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar! Do you see here that it was not Gideon who set up an altar to a false god? It was the people in general. Little by little they had allowed things to creep into their lives that were not godly. I think this is a warning to the church. Sometimes we set up altars that are not to God and we don’t even realize it. What I’m talking about are things in the church that have become so sacred that they take the place of the altar. What are some of those things? “Time”. I remember after we first came here and there was a particularly prolonged move o the spirit in the service someone came to me later and said, “You know, the reason they changed the time of the services from 11:00 AM to 10:30 was so we could get out of here by noon”. “Music Styles”. Have you ever heard another believer say about worship, “I didn’t get anything out of that.”? Next time you hear this, say, “It’s not about you.” God alone deserves to be glorified in worship. The only time we shouldn’t get anything out of worship is when God isn’t glorified. If the word of God was sung, prayed, and preached faithfully, and you didn’t get anything out of worship, then repent and worship because God is worthy of worship. Worship is not about us. God is the center of worship, not us. “Furnishings”. Pews or chairs? Communion table or not? Hymn books or screens? Incandescent lights or cfl’s? Really? What difference does it make? “Your past experiences”. Why can’t we have church the way it used to be? Good question! Maybe it is because we want to rely on our past experiences when God wants you to experience Him in a new way today. There are just so many things that we can set up as personal altars that will interfere with your being able to make contact with God. He is saying, “Tear down your old altars, and build a new one where I can meet with you. There is a real danger, though, in tearing down old altars. Those who built them will not be happy. When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.”30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Look at the words of Joash in verse 31, If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.