Altars and Wells
by Kevin Allen
June 9, 2020 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 12:5-7, Isaiah 12:1-3, Genesis 33:18-20, Joshua 24:32, John 4:1-6, John 4:13-14, 1 Kings 18:30, Hebrews 11, Genesis 22

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--altars-and-wells
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
So glad you're here. Centrepointe welcomed you into this service. Welcome all those who are watching online, wherever you are. We're also excited to have you with us today. We're going to be going to Genesis chapter 12 and Isaiah chapter 12, the read just a few verses of scripture from a sermon today. I want to talk about altars and Wells. Altars in Wales. If you've ever studied the scriptures at all, spent some time reading the Bible, you know you come across, especially in the Old Testament but also in the new, well, there were altars that were built and there were wells that were dug. A lot of connection to those things, connections and life, connections in spirit. I feel as though I have a word from the Lord today on the altars and Wells.

Genesis chapter 12, very very familiar passive scripture, talking about a man who's no stranger in the word. Gonna talk about Abraham here. His name has not been changed. He's simply referred to as Abram. It says this, verse number five: and Abram took Sarah's wife, and lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Mourne. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared in Abram, and he said, unto thy seed I will give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto Him. So Abraham was moved. He felt he needed to do this, so he built an altar.

Isaiah chapter 12, the Prophet, he says this in verse number one: and then that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee, though that was angry with me, then angers turned away, and thou comforted me. Behold, god is my salvation. I will trust and be not afraid, for the lord jehovah is my strength and my song. He's also become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. So for just a few minutes, this preach about altars and whales.

Jesus, I love you, and I thank you for what you're doing this place. But what I pray, that you would help us to receive the word that you have for us today. Your words already anointed, but we ask that you would anoint us to receive it. In Jesus name we pray, and amen.

Interesting, sometimes when you read these stories in the scripture, I have, I can't help myself, but when I read the stories, I put myself in the story. I try to imagine what I would do if God spoke to me like he spoke to to Abram in this moment. If he told me, hey, I want you to pack up everything that you got, and I want you to take your family, and I want you to go to a land that you've never been before, because I have something I want to do for you. I want to give you something. Now it's important to understand several things. I always tried to my best to clarify the story so that you have a better understanding of the magnitude of a moment. Abram wasn't really warning for anything. Abram was well off. Abram had a good comfortable life. Now he's he's leaving in Iran, which is a land full of pagan worship, and there's a lot of stuff going there. But Abram doesn't really know any better. There hasn't been any law, look, any instructions given. He's just living a good life. But there was something about the life that Abram was living that God felt good enough and comfortable enough to speak to him. And we don't we don't see here any indication that Abram was uncomfortable that God was speaking to him. Now you need to let that settle in for just a minute. How important is that, you're familiar with God? So God speaking to Abram, and then he he he makes this bold declaration: a ver, I want you to leave. I want you to leave the comfort that you have here. I want you to leave your family. I want you to live your nice, leave your nice house. And I want you to take your your wife, and and, and I want you to head out, because I got something I want to do. I want to give you something, abran. He didn't really define it much more than that other, it was just a land that he was calling him out too. Aren't you glad that God calls you out of things? I'm so glad this call, God has called me out. He calls us out to be with him. He calls us into a newness and a new lease on life, a new start and a new beginning. I'm glad God calls us out of things. Calls us out of the bottle. God calls us out of the myth. He calls us out of perversion and broken and dysfunctional relationships. He calls us to be his child. He calls us into his greatness. He calls us into living and overcoming life. I'm glad God calls us out of things, because I wasn't a mess, and I know I'm in a room of people who are also in circumstances and situations that you didn't like. You didn't like what was going on, but God found you where you were at, no matter the circumstances, no matter the qualifications, and he said, I got something for you. Anybody happy about that? Got a cloud. Yes, it was a little bit more like church. Now I can have a little more Liberty to preach.

As Abram began to enter into the land that the Lord was going to give him, he came to Shechem. As often happens in Scripture, sometimes things give her, you get called a couple of different names. Shechem was also referred to in the Bible as Sekar. And it was in Shechem that God confirmed his promise to Abraham. And it was, and that moment of confirmation, that Abram decided it was important to build an altar. It's important, ladies and gentlemen, that you find a moment in your relationship with God and you build an altar. Now when refer to altars in modern-day, we we don't often see them like they were in the scriptures. But in modern day, especially in Apostolic Church, is usually an altar area inside the church building, is is somewhere around the front. And in this building particularly, in this room, this is the altar area up here, these these steps, this area up here. Now you notice there's no really distinctive difference between this piece of carpet and the piece of carpet that's eight feet behind it. There's nothing special about these steps. We didn't put any kind of special wood in here. We didn't build it out of a KC of wood or anything. It's just, I don't know, I'd have to ask Trent, whatever it was he built that out of. But it's some kind of decking material that they built the step set up. So there's nothing extra special about the the material that went in here. But there is something about the recognition about the area. It is there in my own personal life, I have a place where I go and pray on a daily basis. It's my front living room. There's a there's a chair in that room. There's nothing special about the chair. Matter of fact, we bought
 the chair on the marketplace. It was somebody else's chair before is mine. I don't know what they did in that chair. Hopefully they knew anything really bad. It still looks good and it smells good, so I'm assuming it's okay. We got the chair there. We've owned it for quite a while. But I have made that chair my altar. I've made the chair the place where I go and I meet God on a daily basis. The only exception to that daily basis is on Sunday mornings, because on Sunday mornings I, instead of praying at my home, I come in here to the office. And in the office I have a chair in my office. There's nothing special about that chair. It's the same chair that's in the prayer rooms. There's nothing, I didn't pick it out. I didn't check the frames. I didn't look for the serial numbers. I just grabbed one and I drug it in there, and that became my prayer chair.

Why am I talking about, I feel like people overcomplicate the altar process. It's not something that has to be specifically or specially built. In fact, altars and biblical times were made out of just rough stone that they found. In fact, God was very specific and said, I don't want you even cutting. Just how you find a rock, that's how I want the altar to be built. So they would take these old rough rocks and they would begin to stack them up until they got to a certain height. That was for the Builder to determine. And then that became their altar. What was important, not so much as what it was made of, but what you were doing when you were there. That's what was important. When you go to an altered, I won't, don't worry about the material. Just find a place and claim that place is your altar, where you are going to inter interact with God.

See, we see in this moment that that Abram, and it was nothing special mate, all we have is the indication is that he made an altar. Why? Because there's something special about an altar. We need altars in their life. Altars are a place of death. Altars are place of sacrifice. And somehow modern religion has turned altars and the things that are a little bit different. They're ornate and special, and almost like they're too holy for you to even be a part of. Nowhere in Scripture do we see an altar that way. No, they were always ugly, and they were blood-covered. And it was a place of death, a place of sacrifice. Until something was first killed and sacrificed unto God, that the altar had no significance. But when when something was poured out there, then God would interact in those moments. That's why it's important to you, do you get your mind around that: when I go to my time of prayer, my place, my altar, that there I'm to pour myself out on that altar. And it's the process of me sacrificing, it's the process of me pouring myself out, that draws God's presence to the altar. The altar takes life. But I also said we're going to talk about wells. Wells or something that give life. Some things take life and some things give life.

After Abram built this altar, his place of death, he went on to obtain a promise. Why? Because there's something about the altar that draws God in. There's something about the altar, when God sees the commitment in our life, and he sees the the willingness of our heart and our spirit, that he comes in, oftentimes will begin to speak to us. And and he will make promises to you. And I am, I the only one in the room has been to an altar when God has spoke? I don't feel like that's the case. I feel like there's probably many in the room who'd be willing to even raise their hand right now and say that at an altar God has spoke to me. It may have been yesterday. It may have been 10 or 15 years ago. But you remember the altar experience. It was something special. It was, there was something to happen. I have to tell you that that the major life events and in this guy's life have happened at an altar. At an altar is where I found God. And it alters where I pulled out my heart and ask for forgiveness. At an altar is where I got married. Had an altar is where we dedicated our children. Special things take place at an altar. But it only works when sacrifice is involved.

Abran builders altar, he he's there, he gets a promise through God. But the promise came through the altar. Shechem was the place. And it isn't mentioned, and this is important, in his son's life. Abram ended up having his son. It was a promise son. He had a couple of sons, but the promise son was Isaac. Gets a long story on that part. I'm not going to get in to do it today. But Shechem isn't mentioned in the life of Isaac, and I'll show you why a little bit later in this message. But Shechem was mentioned in the life of Isaac's son Jacob. We see this in Genesis chapter 33 verse number 18: and Jacob came to to Salem, the city and Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from from paddan-aram, and pitched his tent before the city. And he brought a parcel of land where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children Haman, Shechem father, for a hundred pieces of money. And he erected there an altar, and he called it Eli hello--hi Israel. You see, the practice of building altars was passed down from generation to generation. And I feel it important in the room to talk to every one of us here about the significance of knowing how to build an altar. Goes beyond just your life. There's something about building an altar and understanding that when I'm committed to the altar, the place where I meet God, then when I do it on a regular basis, my children hear and see what I'm doing at the altar. Our kids are always watching what we're doing. They're seeing. That's why some people get a little bit upset oftentimes when they'll see kids kind of playing around in the air. Even today we were worshipping God, and things need to be done decent in an order. But I'm slow to respond when our kids are in the altar area, because I want them to be comfortable coming to the altar. I don't want it to be some kind of far-off place, some some thing that seems too distant, into - too far away. Or you got to be a certain level of degree in your relationship with God before you can come to altar. I want them to know that when you need God, you meet him in an altar. When you, when life doesn't turn out the way you want it to be, go to an altar. Because if you get to the altar, that's where God shows up and meets you in your life. So I've become a little bit more patient sometimes. Again, we want to keep everything in order. But I want them to know the altars a place where you can't interact with God. We need to know that practice of building altars is a responsibility, dare I say an obligation, that we have, that our kids see and hear. No then, mom and dad
 go to an altar. And I don't know the dynamics and family situations in the day and age in which we live in, or unique, it's special. There's a lot of stuff, stuff that goes on, because we live in a broken world. We live in a world full of sin. And in a lot of of the situations that some would say are outside the norm have become the norm. There's a lot of blended families there. There's a lot of circumstances where kids are not necessarily in a mom and dad home. Sometimes they're divided between the two. Sometimes it's grandparents raising children's. And there's adoptions, and and all these things are taking place. I understand all that, but it doesn't change the importance of the altar. If you are caring for someone, if you are the responsible party, I want you to know it's important that, as the responsible party for those that you are responsible for, they should see and hear you at the altar. Prayer should not be something that's foreign in your house. Prayer is not something that should be, when you do it, your kids or your grandkids look at you kinda like you're crazy, like, what's going on? It should be something that's normal in your house.

I know in my life, I grew up, and I have not always lived for God. I have not always done what I should have done. But in my life, I was, I was raised in in an environment where prayer was the norm. In fact, not only in the house that I lived in, but in my grandparents house on both sides, I was blessed that they were, they were god-fearing individuals who who were living the best life they could for God. So prayer was something, at the earliest stage, I heard. I heard my grandparents pray. I heard my my mom and dad pray. In fact, you don't talk about conviction, as being a heathen teenager having to come home and living in a ranch house on the other side of the bedroom wall, where you were trying to sleep, with your momma praying for, like the seats are on fire some night. But I heard prayer. I heard prayer. It was a familiar sound. I'm fully convinced than one of the reasons I stand here today was because I had a mama and a daddy and a grandmama and a granddaddy that prayed. Now let me say this, I appreciate your handclaps, but let me say this: it doesn't make me any better than anybody else. There was still a moment where I had to determine that I was going to live for God. I couldn't rely on the prayers of my grandparents. I can't rely on the prayers of my parents. But I had to myself learn the importance of building an altar. I had myself to have a relationship with God. I could rely on something else. They they had shown me some things in my life, but it was up to me to decide whether or not I was going to follow that path.

When I look at the life of Abram, and I see now through Jacob his grandson, there was something important, it was being passed down from generation to generation. And that was this: that when you find a place where you're going to live, you need to build an altar. When you determine, wherever it is that you're going to have your house, whatever family you're going to build, be sure there's an altar there. Feel like I'm reaching for somebody in this place. You got a lot of going on in your life. A lot of circumstances are beyond your control. One the best things you can do is build an altar where you are. If things aren't going the way you want them to go, go to the altar. You'll meet God there. Something about the altar and its importance in your life.

But Jacob isn't the last one to build an altar. He goes on, Joseph his son asked that even though he was second-in-command of all of Egypt, and it's a great story in the Bible, he still wanted to be the buried in it in his father's land. He wanted to go back. He didn't want to stay in Egypt. We see Joshua 24 verse 32, it says: in the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, and a parcel of ground was Jacob, but all the sons of ham the father's checking, for a hundred pieces of silver. And it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. There's something about passing things on to the next generation. So we got to learn to live beyond the moment that we're in right now. Live beyond just our self. Now the world doesn't tell us this. The world tells us to be happy, live for yourself, whatever you want to do, do it, as long as it's not breaking any laws. Don't, but just make yourself happy. It's it's your world, your way. Do it however you want. And I feel like there's enough of us in the room who tried those things their life, that we can testify and say, that's a lie. There are moments of happiness, yes. There are things that go on in the world that can bring you happiness, but it does not sustain. It does not last. Often times it's only happy for a moment, and leaves us only to desire something to try to make it even better the next time. There's a constant craving for more. And eventually it gets us to the point that no matter what we're doing, it doesn't matter how much, how much drugs, how much alcohol, how much inappropriate relationships, eventually reach this point, it doesn't fulfill anymore. Because there's a place in your life where you must have an alter, where God desires to commune. We do, because there's some things in life that are just never going to be satisfied until God has occupied that space.

Why would anyone want to inherit a dirty bloody altar, infested with the stench of death? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph knew that God is divinely attracted the altars. If you're going to pass something on to your kids, pass an altar on to them. It's more important than any amount of money you could give them. It's more important than any house you can give them, any any any physical thing that they can possess. They they may not understand it in a moment. They may say, no, I hear what you say up there, pastor Kevin, but if I get the option, I would rather have the house. I would rather have the land. I would rather have the money. But I'm telling you, those things fade. They pass. They don't stand the test of time. If you're going to give them something in their life that kids really make a difference, an impact for multiple generations, it's not money. It's not stuff. It's an altar. Build them an altar. Pass them an altar. Tell them that it, an altar is where you can come in contact with God, and God can sustain you in this life. Something about an altar that God will not stay away from. He's not impressed with our stuff. He's not impressed with our education, our degrees. Those things are great. Get them, I don't have any problem with those things. But you can't put your faith in your trust and that stuff. An altar, he's looking for someone to begin to heap one dirty stone upon another dirty stone, one
 broken part of their life upon another dirty part of their life, until they have erected an altar that is there. And then God will break forth and do things in their life that they never ever dreamed could possibly come through. Why? Because he's drawn to an altar. The only way an altar works is that something's being sacrificed on the altar. Otherwise it's just a pile of rocks. But when that pile of rocks becomes a place that you dedicate your life to, he is drawn to it. He can't help himself. He will pass over all the other things to find the one who's built an altar.

After Joseph's life, Shechem, Sekar, isn't mentioned much more in the Old Testament. But I want to share with you a scripture that mentions a car. It takes place thousands years later. After all, it's probably been forgotten about Abraham's altar at this point. We pick up in the Gospels, and the book of John chapter 4 verse number one does: when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples, he left you there and departed again in the Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. Because your neighbors say he had to go, they had an appointment. There was something important that Jesus needed to do. First file, then cometh he to the city of Samaria, but just called it's a car, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's Well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, said thus on the well. And it was about the sixth hour. Now the disciples didn't understand what was going on. They couldn't quite get their head around why anybody went gonna go to Samaria. People there, they don't live like they do. People there, they were kind of half-breeds. They were, they were them, were notorious for not being pure blood. So they are scratching their heads, trying to get their head around the fact, why is it that you hit must needs go there? Not understanding that there was something that was put in place thousand years ago at an altar. There was something that was set in motion long ago, because somebody was willing to sacrifice their life on an altar. God was doing something that nobody knew about. Because God makes a habit of transforming altars into elves. But you have to have an altar to start with first.

John chapter 4 verse 13: and jesus answered and said unto her — o, he's met somebody. He's met a woman who has a sordid past. He's met somebody that things have not worked out the way we figure out life should work out. She's got quite a list of things that have not been done in the manner in which things ought to have been done. But Jesus decides to talk to her. He begins to talk to her and ask her to get him some water. It begins that have a open dialogue with her about her life. He begins to shed a little light on who it is that she, he is. And she begins to understand she's not talking to just an ordinary person. Perhaps it's a profit. This this man of God begins to to interact with her. She's taken back, because she can't believe a Jew is even having a conversation with her. But there's something about his personality that she's captivated with in the moment, when he begins to explain this to her: who's whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

See, I want you to know that if you want a well, and a, and your desire should be to one a well of life inside of you, if you want what Jesus is talking about, this this everlasting water to come out of you, it only happens if there's an altar first. You can't have the well without the altar. If you want to be saved, you got to build an altar. If you want the Holy Ghost, you got to build an altar. If you desire a relationship with God, you're gonna have to start it at an altar.

And the tabernacle, so much is written in the scriptures about the tabernacle. There was furniture that was giving specific instructions. Moses laid it all out, and how it was to be built. One of those pieces of furniture was the altar. There was another piece of furniture that was called the Ark of the Covenant. The altar represented sacrifice and death. The altar is what you came in contact with when you entered inside the gate. You couldn't miss the altar. It was huge. It was big. It was right there in front of you. It took took mainstage when you entered into where the tabernacle was. There was no way to bypass the altar. You had to acknowledge that it was there. In your relationship with God, you cannot bypass the altar in your life. You can't move around, and you can't come in some other way or some other method. You have to go to the altar first. It's not man's design, because I promise you, if man would have designed it, the ark would have been much bigger than the altar. But God didn't design it that way. God knew that we needed to have an altar in our life, and we needed to come in contact with it on a daily basis before we could ever get in the Ark of the Covenant. What was in the holiest of holies, where the presence of God was over shadowed there in that moment, you can't get to the ark if you don't go through the altar. There was items that were in the ark: pot of manna and tablets of law, Aaron's rod that budded. God provided those things, but the only way to come in contact with those things was you had to go to the altar first. In fact, the dimensions of the altar were simply this: the altar was big enough that you could take every other piece of furniture in the tabernacle and put it in the altar. That's how important it is that you have an altar in your life. You can't bypass it. You can't get around it. If man was in charge, we'd bid, we would build bigger arks and smaller altars. That's why God went out and went ahead and laid the pattern out, to let you know you got to have a big altar in your life. If you don't have a big altar, your relationship with God is not gonna be where it needs to be.

Well, I feel the Holy Ghost moving strong right now. It's impossible to bypass the altar and have a relationship with God. All right, you can listen to all the Christian music you want, and I'm for Christian music. I like it. I'm so thankful that the day and age that we live in, and raising my girls, that they have three Christian radio stations to choose from. We had one, and it barely came in, and it was mostly southern gospel. There, nothing wrong with southern gospel and small doses. Now the older I get, the more I like it. I'll omit it. They have three. And if you have satellite radio, now you got four. Well, guess there are other ones around, so six. I
 don't care what kind of Christian apparel you wear. I don't care what Bible you walk around with. I don't care how many the theological degrees that you have, Christian colleges that you attend. I don't care how many ministerial license you hold. If you don't have an altar built, it's all for nothing. It's all show. It's all fair see achill in your approach. If you're gonna mount to anything in this life for God, listen to me, and I'm, this probably the most important thing I'm saying this whole sermon: if you're gonna mount to anything in this life for God, you have an altar and you'll visit it every day. You can't bypass the altar in your life. So how big is your altar? Do you have one? Do you have an altar? Do you need to rebuild an altar you once built before?

The Prophet could call down fire from our comp Mount Carmel, he first had to rebuild the altar. First Kings 18 and 30: then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. The man of God knew, we can't do anything. I know profits of a Leben over there, whooping and hollering, doing cartwheels, and nothing's happened. Look, God's fixing the move. But if for, an order for God to move, we got to fix the altar. We can't put anything on it. It's broke down right now. We got to build it back up where it needs to be. And when the altar was built, it was a very simple prayer, and the fire fell. You don't have to over complicate this stuff with God. Listen to me, too many people, they put so much pressure on themselves that they got to be so eloquent and all that they do. No, that doesn't work. Hold up water in scriptures, you just grab what you have around there. You build an altar up in front of you, and you play a very simple humble honest prayer. And God always shows up. You hear me say this often, if you've been around here and I preached: why would you pretend to be something you're not with God? Look at the prayer Elijah prayed. Simple. Boom, the fire fell.

Some of you were desiring the fire of God to fall in your life, but your altars broken. I'm calling you to rebuild it. Rebuild that place in your life. Because we're here, we're in the last days. Know if you've been raised around churches, they might have heard preachers say that my whole life. Well, here's the truth: you're one day closer than you were. Yeah, so it is true what I'm saying. We're closer than we've ever been. That's some good preaching right there. We're closer than we've ever been to the return of God. But I can tell you this, as a man who's been 25 years in ministry: never has my soul felt the way my soul feels now. Never has there been an urgency like there's an urgency and my spirit now. And if you're not feeling that urgency, I'm asking you: are you going to the altar? Because I can tell you, as someone who's going daily to that altar and laying myself out of it, God is doing and stirring and putting stuff inside of me. Because I feel like he is so ready to come back. And never ever have I prayed like I've prayed now: God, please come now. Please come back and take us with you. Afraid some, we're gonna have paid a whole lot of lip service to living for God. But the truth right now is, your altars broke. It's in shambles. It's been so long since you've been there, you've placed other things in and around, and other priorities: career, family, kids, whatever the case. You've put stuff all over the altar. It's like what happens at home, right? When you leave the ironing board in the room, or the or the treadmill, or the elliptical machine in the bonus room, what happens? You're not using it. What happens, stuff's on it. Some of you paid $900 for a coat hanger and get used to it. I know it may look funny, but I feel God so strong, that some of you have stacked so many other things on top of your altar. You walk by it every day. You know it's there. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You know the pastor's speaking to you. You walk by on a daily basis. You put other things. It's become a showpiece for your worldly accomplishments. I'm asking you to move that stuff. Because to ever get to a well, you have to spend time at the altar.

Abram all those years ago knew the importance of building an altar. He talked to his son, who taught it to his son, who taught it to his son. So much so that Joseph said: don't bury me here in Egypt. Don't bury me in this palace. Don't you bear me with all this money around me and all the great things that the world says important. Know when I fall over it, it take me back to Shechem. Take me back to where the altar is, because that's what's important in life.

Some of you are trying to keep things together. You're trying to, you're trying to hold your family together, hold marriages together, hold all this stuff. But you won't go to an altar in your life. I'm going to tell you, you can try all you want. You can try your best to to give your kids the best education, provide for them, shelter them, give them all stuff. But the best thing you could ever do is teach them how to use an altar in their life. You can play pattycake with them. You can support them. You can be there and be emotionally stable for all them. You can feel guilty for stuff that's went wrong in their life and bad decisions you made. I'm going to tell you, none of that matters. It's all inconsequential. The best thing you can do is show them how to use an altar. I don't care if they're grown. I don't care they're 65. If you still got breath in your lungs, show them how to use an altar. I don't know why all this negative stigma is around on an altar in Apostolic churches, but it's only for the sinners. I'll tell you right now: if my family was broken, if things were not working out the way they want them to, if my life was anywhere out of control, you couldn't drag me away from the altar. I don't care what somebody else says. It doesn't matter. Fine, your life is good. Mine's a mess. Then the only way I know to fix it is go to the altar. Because I know in the altar I meet God. You've got good intentions, but you can't fix my life. My God can fix my life, and he's at the altar. So make fun of me if you want to, say I'm a sinner, I don't care. I'm going to the altar.

Some of you, letting all this other outside influence and everything else you've learned in this life, and all the education, so prevent you from the very thing that you can do to make a difference in your family. Run to an altar. I told you how to get to Isaac, and I'm getting ready to close. Isak seem to be left out. It's a car. Isaac was chosen
 son of Abraham. It wasn't Ishmael. Ishmael was Abraham and his wife way of trying to avoid staying committed to God. So funny to me. Abram, the father of the faithful. Abraham, who Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, he gets such a big portion of stuff that goes on there. This is this is the guy who allows his wife to talk him into this: hey honey, we don't seem to have a kid, take my head and Maidan, go into her, and maybe y'all can get us a son together. No, I don't really you, but I'm looking at that going, no no no no no no no. You know, he's been married a while. I've been married 20 years. That ain't gonna, know even if it was her idea back, now baby, huh, I appreciate what, no no no, not gonna happen. But what, see ya honey, all we have is these responses, all right? And we're looking at him and going, feel crazy, man. But they do, child's born. And what we know happens, happens. Jealousy comes in. And then once God's promise does come in, God's timing, then what's happening? Jealousy, bitterness. I don't want, and you know, yeah, it's always great. This is married language, right in me language. Do you know what your daughter did? Anytime that happens, it's nobody, it's never good. Never our daughter, it's your daughter. Sarah approaches him, assists, I don't want your son around my son. I don't wish me right. So he's already got a part ways there. But that wasn't a promise, to promise was, it was with Isaac.

Isaac knows about altars, because Genesis 22 tells us that when he was 12, the gods desiring to test Abraham. We know this, because that's exactly how the chapter opens. It says specifically, God wanted to test Abraham. So what he does, he goes to Abraham, it says: hey, I want you to take your son, your only begotten son, whom thou lovest. Did you know that's the first time the word loves mentioned in the Bible? Whom thou lovest. And I want you to sacrifice him to me. It's a great chapter, chapter 22. It's worth studied. There's there's there's there's 200 sermons in that one chapter. It's also the first time the word worships ever mentioned - powerful chapter, that you run into love and worship in the same chapter for the very first time in scriptures. He tells him, thank you promise, go sacrifice it. I told you, he came out of her on. He came out of an area where it was, it was, it was a lot of pagan worship. There's a lot of altars. They sacrificed a lot of stuff. They sacrificed their kids on a regular basis. This was not something, it's unusual for us, but it wasn't uneasy for them. So he goes up.

Now for just a minute, imagine you're Isaac. Not that you're Abram, alright? Abraham had a hard job. I can't imagine that. I can't even get my head around the, like even thinking that way. But when's the last time you thought about Isaac? Hey Dad, I see that we got wood for the fire, and I see that we got a fire, and I see that we got a knife to kill this thing. I'm just kind of curious, is where's the sacrifice? Powerful words. Bye dad. Dad didn't say, what's, because it's you, son. Come on, he didn't do that. Instead he says what: God will provide himself a lamb. So Isaac's going up now. Let's be honest. How many of us were been 12 before? Hanim eNOS had a really smart mouth of 12. It's okay, it's in church. Confess, it's good. Yeah. There's a part of me that says, there's no way Isaac just went up there and said, what do you mean, God will provide himself a lamb? Now I'm preaching, so when you preach, you tell your way. I can't see him back there going, himself a lamb, like, do you know, did he tell you there's one tied up up there somewhere? Like, what's going on, dad? Like, I don't get this. Maybe your kids don't ask questions. My kids ask a lot of questions. I can't see him go Holt. I'm going up. At some point, i'ma see this, this follow me, just follow me, son. Quit asking so many questions, and just trust dad for a minute. You see, there was a powerful visual representation going on that he wanted his son to see too.

They get up on top of that mountain. They start gathering stones. Helmi, Isaac knew the process. He's going around looking for rocks. They begin to stack them up. They begin to make their altar. They begin to pile the stones up there. And then something unusual happens, because once it's all out, this the way it needs to be, he tells Isaac: son, I want you to, what, you lay down on a soldier. What we're doing, dad? This distrust me, son. Just just lay down. Lay down on my altar. Begins a time up. Dad, what are you doing? Ted, where's this going, dad? I'm a little worried, a little nervous, daddy. I'm Emily playing a game here. Because she's unjust, just wait. Just trust dad for a minute. He takes that knife up, as the scripture says. He gets it up, and he's fixing the sacrifice. I can only imagine what's going on to me. I can just, you could probably see Isaac heart beating in his little chest right there. But then something happens. Isaac hears God's voice. Honest daddy's. That's why I, ladies and gentlemen, it's so important that your kids here you pray. They need to be familiar to me.

When you look at the life of Isaac, as much more I could tell you, but Isaac wasn't known for building altars. Isaac was known for digging oils. Why? Because he had an experience on his daddy's altar, to let him know that God is Jehovah Jireh. He's a provider. He learned a lesson firsthand. He heard the voice of God himself. Sure, he sacrificed her, those things were there. But if you look at the life of Isaac, he was always digging a well. There was always provision. Why? Because he learned a lesson on his daddy's altar. If he built an altar, he get away, all those years later.

Abraham though had no idea. I want you to know what I mean. And you stand with me, if you don't mind stealing, Abram had no idea, all those years later, he built that altar and Sekar and Shechem. The thousand year later, the Messiah was set on the edge of a whale. And look at a woman, says: no, that's not your husband you're living with. You've been divorced. You've been broken. What goes on here with me, it's everlasting life. That got set in motion way back long ago. Listen to me: for those have been been been been praying, you've got ultras for years ago, you still have no idea the impact that altar has. That's why, if it's been a while since he's been there, I'm gonna invite you to dust it off, to build it back. Because that altar still has power in it. For those of you who have god fear and praying parents, don't you recall those prayers? Do you mind, it'll help you find a well in your life. If you didn't have that, it's okay. Doesn't doesn't mean you're disqualified. But I'm telling you, there's something about learning to build an altar yourself that has an impact for generations to come. Well you buy heads with
 me. Jesus, thank you for your presence has been in this place today, for the truth that is in your scripture, for an understanding of God. We need altars in our life. And God, I pray, as we have reached this most special moment in service, that's your heart, that you would begin to work on the hearts of individuals here, that they would feel you move, tug and pull them to build an altar for the first time, or a rebuilding altar in their life that they had once, where they used to meet you in a regular basis. Do a word, god, only you can do.