Fire Falls on a Wet Altar | Rev Gregory Stepp

praise the lord everybody ah let's give him a hand clap again let's give him a praise hallelujah from the bottom of our heart for out of the abundance of the heart let our mouths speak hallelujah of his praise and his glory lord we thank you tonight to be in your house hallelujah before i have you be seated um i i not out of a habit not out of uh an obligation but uh as brother sullivan said we pastored in florida for many many years and we have a little inkling of what it's like to be a pastor um i've been coming here about five years now off and on and created by the grace of god a great bond with pastor carpenter and when we told him about a year ago that the lord had put on our heart to make our way up here he said he'd pray about it a few months later he said let's follow the will of the lord and i can tell you tonight not by me but i told him the other night i said brother carpenter you are my pastor and to understand that he took back admit it and he said i i thank you for that and i said brother carpenter i'm going to be the best saint i can i want to be the best not that you all don't don't get me wrong but understand my heart for a moment when i i have a point for this and i told him i said i want to be the best saint i can for you and he said i understand and i appreciate that i said if there's anything i can do i know all of us have that desire if there's anything we can do let us know let me know pastor let me know what i can do to help let me know when i can stand in and do something for you well sure enough he said i put you on speed dial for times like this but you know what it's an honor for me to be in this pulpit tonight i understand what this man i understand a part of what this man goes through i understand a part of being a pastor i understand the burdens i understand the heartaches i understand the joys and then put on top of that a general superintendent of an organization is wonderful and as large as this one is wow i know you've heard it but i'm going to say it again we don't know what we have here so for that cause for that cause right now i want to go to the lord for our shepherd and his wife and the family not because i feel that there's any great pressure upon them that isn't already there but i think we need to take a minute out as we have done for the lord we need to do for his servant and i'd like to take a few minutes if we may or a minute or whatever it is and just thank god and ask god to bless our pastor tonight bless his family bless his mind his heart his soul his strength because let me tell you we're fed through him let's go to the lord right now father we thank you tonight lord for your kingdom and your plan your government dear god that you've described since the foundation lord in establishing that foundation lord and that government you've given us a shepherd a man after your heart and i thank you tonight lord for that shepherd that you have set to guide the sheep to guide the flock lord to to be hallelujah our leader i thank you lord that we can lay down ourselves to a man of god that you have called who has nothing but the desires of your will to be done in our lives i thank you for his family tonight lord i thank you lord for the dedication they have not not just to you but to this kingdom of of fac maryville i thank you lord hallelujah for their for their dedication to my life and i give you praise and glory for it lord and i thank you tonight lord and i pray rest and restoration be upon them i pray lord's traveling safety mercies to bring them home at the appointed time and god we do it because you have given us the best you've given us your love and you've given us your word through your man through your servant god we pray for him tonight in jesus name in the church said you may be seated for one moment but not quiet tonight i want to bring you a message um that i hope and pray touches all of us because that's what we're here for some it's going to touch greater than others some may have a need tonight that this may be the answer for it but i can tell you everybody has a need for this message tonight everybody has a message oh brother steph you don't know what my life is right now the answer is in this message not me but in this word we're about to read in first kings chapter 18 we have the story of elijah going to meet ahab the king of israel during a time of great famine and great drought many many months have gone by no water no food and they have called to obadiah to go into the land and find some running water find something for some food some green grass for the for the cattle for the beast that we have so we can at least maintain them obadiah journeys out as we read through the scriptures and comes upon the prophet elijah elijah tells him to go back to obadiah and tell him that elijah is here oh but i says well wait a minute elijah you don't know what we what you're asking of me he says remember i took you and 99 others out when he called for the prophets to be killed i took you and 99 others out and hid you i hid you and and fed you and gave you water because obadiah was a godly man he says but but i can't go elijah i can't go back to him now and say you're here that's going to show that i didn't follow your commandment that's going to show the king that i didn't do what i was supposed to do he said surely surely ahab will have my head surely ahab will have my head and elijah said either way i will see ahab today either way i will see you have today so obadiah goes off to find ahab and he tells him that elijah's here verse 17 says and it came to pass when ahab saw elijah and ahab said unto him art thou he who troubled israel are you the one who troubled israel i started looking it up and i said trouble trouble is defined as to stir up to disturb to agitate to afflict pain or discomfort to cause mental distress ahab said are you here to trouble israel elijah says no i'm not the one who's troubling israel you are because you've forsaken the commandments of the lord and you followed balaam you followed another god you made an idol that was not the lord you know the devil feels fears troublemakers amen the devil fears troublemakers divine troublemakers i want to be a divine troublemaker i want the devil to know that i mean business i want the devil to know that when he thinks he's in charge the lord says i got this lord says it's under my control so what happens then if we read down through the scriptures and we will find well let's read verse 18. and he answered i have not troubled israel but thou in thy father's house and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the lord and that has followed balaam verse 19 says now therefore send and gather to me all israel under the mount carmel and the prophets of baal 450 and the prophets of the groves groves 400 which eat at jezebel's table so elijah says you know what you bring your prophets together you bring your prophets together and let's see how well your prophets do with your little god and i will bring my offering to my god and let's see what happens so the prophets of baal as we continue through dress their bullock their offering and they begin to call on the name of their god bail and they're calling and calling and calling and calling now it comes about noon time and they're still calling now they've been at this calling worship screaming for several hours now several hours they're calling bail bail for some reason he hasn't answered perhaps we know why for some reason he stopped he doesn't answer then at noon then at noon elijah decides to turn up the heat a little bit he says perhaps your god is talking with somebody else perhaps he's a little busy to hear you right now he's he's in consultation with somebody else he's got something else he's got to take care of maybe he'll get to you and then he says maybe he's busy traveling the scripture says he's pursuing maybe maybe he's traveling maybe he's asleep that's what it is he's asleep he's taking a nap and elijah says maybe you should wake him up maybe he should wake him up maybe try and just nudge and scream a little louder maybe you can wake him up didn't work so they cried the louder the scripture says they started screaming and yelling the scripture says they started cutting themselves if you read and interpret it he starts cutting they start cutting themselves now that's a lot to do to try and get your god to answer isn't it is anybody glad today that we don't have to yell and scream and cut ourselves and have blood gush to call upon our god it's a matter of jesus and he's there and he's there and he's there so they prayed and called out and the bible says now and what it's called evening the evening and nothing is heard from baal nothing has heard from their god nothing is heard they're just screaming and yelling now they're cutting now they're bleeding their blood's all over the place people are getting tired so then the scripture says elijah calls on the people of israel verse 30 and elijah said unto all the people come near unto me and all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the lord that was broken down he repaired the altar of the lord that was broken down you see most people are satisfied to live around an altar but we have to live on the altar you see because if we are supposed to be a sacrifice the sacrifice wasn't cut and set to the side then they went to the altar they took that sacrifice and put it on the altar amen we can't live next to the altar i'm in church i'm next to the altar we have to live on the altar romans 12 1 says i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that ye present your bodies what a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service that's just reasonable a living sacrifice the sacrifice is not back in the corner the sacrifice is not sitting out in the parking lot the sacrifice is on the altar a living sacrifice and there's a message in there all by itself that sacrifice that was killed is now living present yourself a living sacrifice i feel that if i can say it this way one of our greatest needs this hour is for men and women to rebuild our altars now i don't god bless every one of you here i don't know all of you i'm beginning to learn what a blessed group of people are here i don't know your situations i don't know your lives i don't know how you live i don't i don't know your history i know your background but i do know that if we don't have an altar built in our lives we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing we're not living we're not being that living sacrifice because if we don't have an altar how are we going to sacrifice if i don't have an altar how can i sacrifice so this day in this hour it's about building our altars building our altars so the altar is i said the meeting place with god it's where you clown climb mount moriah give up your isaacs give up your isaacs it's a place of death sacrifice what does the what does the word of god tell us to do die daily and in that death it's a sacrifice it's a sacrifice verse 31 says elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the son of jacob sons of jacob unto whom the word of the lord came saying israel shall be thy name he took 12 stones here's the part that i love about this it starts tying it together and i pray it starts coming to your mind and heart because i'm i'm getting somewhere i'm getting somewhere my message tonight is fire falls on a wet altar fire falls on a wet altar elijah took 12 stones representing the 12 tribes now those stones if we understand it if we go back to exodus when he told him to build that altar he told them to build an altar take the stones and do not put anything to them take the stone as it is and build that altar take that stone in its raw form the way it is the condition that it's in the shape that it's in and make an altar tonight you are a stone take you as you are take the shape that you're in take the condition that you're in you see he doesn't want that stone to be touched and cut up because he doesn't want fragments of you he wants the whole thing he wants that whole stone the way you are to build that altar our altar as a sacrifice to him you see because what he said was is as if the if man puts tools to that stone and makes it and squares it puts it upright builds that altar and the dimensions are exact and it looks perfect and the builder of that altar sits back and goes i done good look at that look at that man it's nice and straight and square brother perry would be proud man nice and square but the lord said nobody's gonna glory no man's gonna glory i want that stone to be as raw and as open and as as it is that's what he wants us to do when he wants us to build that altar he's talking about those stones to be us how many people have we known to to to say you know i'll come when i'm doing better i'll come when my finances are better i'll come when you know i got some things going in my life and i got to get them fixed you're trying to take the tool to the stone and make it fit and then oh i come that's not what he wants he doesn't want the fragments he wants you as you are he wants you as you are to build that altar your altar your altar so he rebuilt the altar he rebuilt the altar knowing that if he could bring israel back to the altar he could reach them and i believe tonight not again i've seen this church at the altar i'm not singling out anyone but if we don't keep in remembrance how critical this altar is to our lives we will falter we will slip and if we don't understand the significance of this altar the way it's to be built the way it's to be presented the way we are to present ourselves at the altar we're going to drift brother sullivan we're going to drift we're going to move we're going to get away from the truth of what he wants it's so simple it's so simple second chronicles 7 14 if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray seek my face turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land that's talking about some work at the altar that's talking about some work at the altar that's talking about working that living sacrifice on the altar verse 32 says and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the lord and he made a trench about the altar he made a trench about it and he said as it would hold contain two measures of seed two measures of seed anybody know what the seed represents in this scripture the word you see if we don't have the word mixed in to the altar and around it we're not going to be fulfilled and we're not going to do his will he's showing us the example he says i'm going to build the altar with those untouched stones now elijah says now i want you to dig a trench around it now i speak for myself here i need to have myself dug up every now and then i need to take that ground that's gotten real hard not very porous so nothing sinks in brother perry and i need to dig it up dig it up anybody here needs some digging up i do i do and elijah said you know what take that altar we're building it we're going take a trench around it make it so big that can hold two measures which was approximately 60 gallons of seed he said make that trench big enough to hold the word take that trench make it dig it up dig yourself up and fill it with the word you see where we're going now see where we're going he had him dig a trench look prayer is hard work it's not a walk in the park it goes against our flesh it does it does prayer is hard work but tell me anybody in this house who has worked hard looked at the outcome and said man that was worth it man that was worth it well you know what i can tell you sure as i'm standing here tonight you dig that up around your altar and you work at that prayer and that word sets in i can stand back and say god you're worth it god you blessed god you've kept god you've moved god you've made a way and you know the great part about it is those stones that were rough guess what he does start doing he starts working on him he starts working on him he starts working on him so he fills it with two measures two measures verse 33 says and he put the wooden order now let me just stop right there he just said a magic word didn't he there's an order there's an order to our altar he put the wood in order he didn't just throw it on top he put it in order there's a way we know the lord's prayer there's a way we need to come to him humbly contrite spirit right there's a way to come to him and it's ordered and he says he put the wood in order he cut the bullock in pieces again according to the word according to the order of the lord what he wanted and he laid him on the wood and said fill four barrels of water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood now remember when i started this where were they at what were they in they were in the midst of a famine they had no water they were in the midst of a drought they had no water and he says take four barrels now i can't find an exact description of a barrel or definition of quantity but i'm going to tell you it was more than a little one gallon bucket because if i understand the shape of an altar according to the word and understand that he said build a trench around it two measures full i gotta feel that those barrels were probably like 55 gallon drums in order to fill that now wait a minute elijah hold on now the people came and they listened they heard they said wait a minute elijah you you know we're in the midst of a drought right you know water is like the commodity right now right elijah and you want four barrels full okay elijah that's what we'll do and they did it and what elijah say anybody know do it again what where am i now elijah really you mean you really want us to do that much work for the altar come on somebody's got to hear me now you really want to sacrifice that much for the altered elijah you you really think that sacrifice that's a lot to give up for the altar you see i'm hitting a nerve i can tell and then elijah said to him what do it again twelve barrels elisha he said soak everything soak everything that it was running over into the trench filling the trench you see our altar is going to cost us a little something but i don't have you know lord i i can't i don't have the time i don't have amen anyhow i'm preaching myself tonight this halter is going to cost something we're supposed to be a living sacrifice and it's going to cost us something for our altar to be right it's going to cost us something it's going to cost us something four barrels of eight bears twelve barrels of water you know what elijah was telling them this altar this work is going to be an investment of the people the people have to invest in this altar because if the people don't invest why have it really and truly why have an altar if you're not going to invest in it fathers mothers why come to the altar if you don't care about your kids why put an investment in it it's investment of the people it's going to cost us something but you know i found this you don't ever make an investment in something you don't care about i got a few of you let me try another one if you really want something you'll spend time in pursuing it all right got a little bit more let me try another one you know the importance of the thing by the time you're willing to give it i'm talking about the altar you declare the value of the thing in how you treat it you declare the value of something how you treat it how many young people here have a new car i bet you're treating it real good how many of us holders have in your car we treat it real good why because we know the value of it we worked hard for that money to pay for it the lord blessed us we know the value of it new homes we just remodeled brother sullivan we know the value of that i'm going to i'm going to put a lot of i'm going to put a lot of time into that i want to make sure it lasts i want to make sure it has value i want to make sure it works for my family whoo hey brother steph this is good thank you you see if we don't take the time to invest in our altars if we don't treat it with the care and do respect it is it is it it requires then why have it why have it verse 34 and ahab said do it a second time and the third time verse 35 says the water ran around the altar and he filled the trench also with water verse 36 and it came time and it came to pass the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice the prophet came near let me interject this scripture right here real quick ephesians 5 and 26 says that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word so what elijah is about to do to bring israel back to their altar he is about to cleanse it by the washing with the word the seed covered in that water covered in that water that word covered in that water and i think to myself that was a wet altar how many is how many of us cry at the altar really and truly and i'm not a show of hands it's this is your altar this is your altar that you have to work to this is your living sacrifice that you have to maintain daily but if that altar isn't wet what's going to happen when the sacrifice is burnt up and the seeds just sitting around it's not doing anything that word's not doing anything anybody have a garden plant a seed what do you do water it we have a seed we have his word if we don't water it you see the fire will fall on a wet altar the fire will fall on a wet altar because if we don't invest in that altar ourselves the stones that we are the order that it's established in if we don't invest in digging that trench and keeping ourselves dug up so we don't become hard and hardened can't absorb can't do anything the seeds won't grow if we don't get ourselves into that position if we don't plant that those seeds in that trench around the altar now look i i've been in a lot of churches none like this one and i'm not trying to lift anybody up individually or anybody as a group i know this church knows how to pray i've seen it i've seen this church pray i know that and believe me tonight i'm not this message is not because we're not praying this message is not because we're not working at the altar but this message is we have to understand the order and the importance of it because if we get out of line with what his word tells us to do we're not going to be in his will are we if we're not using this altar for its intended purpose then we may as well get rid of it may as well just carpet it over if you're not using the altar at your home may as well just convert it into a play room you see because this altar is so important i know this church knows that believe me i'm not demeaning this church but i'm keeping in remembrance these things that god has given to us about his altar because what happens is when god sees our development as individuals with our altar the blessings start to come the blessings start to come the work starts to become easier at the altar anybody had a dry spell in their altar life i have i know i have and i went hello couldn't figure out why the lord wasn't listening couldn't figure out why the lord wasn't here and couldn't figure out why the lord wasn't moving he kind of looked down and said there's an altar first and you know what brother and i started putting myself that stone went back and got put in order i started digging around and going come on greg think about it you're too hard you're not absorbing you're not letting this word come in and you start reading the word you start bringing that word up here and saying lord you said you said by your stripes you're sit by your stripes couldn't understand why the lord wasn't hearing my prayers i had cancer couldn't understand there's an order of the altar i can't just walk up and say oh lord heal me now it's not that he can't but that's not the order and when we start putting those things in the right order when we build those walls and those stones and take ourselves to the altar just the way we are we've all heard it the lord takes us in the way we are but he doesn't leave us there does he he doesn't leave us there he works on us ah let me take a little off here take a little off here and that's what that altar does for us it works on us it works on us that seed that is flowing overflowing with water starts growing in us and then all of a sudden that word becomes alive in us and we start coming to the altar saying lord your word said lord i have faith in you because your word said lord this is the order you wanted me to pray and i'm going to pray it in thy name lord this is your desire i know you want it and that's what i'm going to pray for and all of a sudden we will find the move of god start happening i've seen it here i've seen it when when we bring ourselves properly in the order oh the lord just pours it out what do you mean the lord pours it out he allows for x amount of people that are here tonight there are x amount of altars that make sense if there's 200 here there's 200 altars spread amongst this church everyone has a sacrifice on it amen every one of them has a sacrifice on it and that is you because you are the living sacrifice and of those 200 altars that are in here tonight there are 200 specific individual offerings that should be set up unto god and in that turn if we've planted seed right dug up the ground around us ordered ourselves according to his word there will be 200 individual responses to that altar because when we find a wet altar that fire's gonna fall that wet altar that's mixed with our tears and our in our sacrifice when he finds that wet altar he's gonna move on it when he finds that wet altar he's going to know it's ordered right you've done it right i love you keep going keep mixing word keep mixing water keep getting that spirit in you keep getting the spirit of god moving in you let that seed keep growing and that altar is still here that altar keeps producing the altar produces it produces for me it produces for each and every one of you because when fire falls on the wet altar when fire falls on that wet altar you know it you know it i've seen it hit many of you that fire falls it may take you to your knees it may let you run the aisles it may have you jumping and shouting it may keep you in hysterics it may make you laugh it may make you cry 200 altars 200 different responses but all along is as it's ordered of the lord all if we keep our altars wet because what i found was a very interesting statement what do you need to do to let a weed grow nothing it'll grow on its own you need to do nothing to get a weed to grow if you want your altar to be overcome with weeds do nothing if you want your altar to be grown up and looking like that house down the street that really needs some love do nothing don't come up here it's okay don't come up to the altar don't cry you don't have to do anything you can just leave it alone you know grow weeds and those weeds won't produce anything but more weeds the seeds will get choked out but if we keep our altar wet those seeds will grow the seed will in us will grow look i i'm not i did not intend this message to be a shouting message it's a one day night wednesday night and i've always felt it to be bible study but whatever you want lord and tonight i wanted to study this and i did and i kept and i was like lord these are good people i don't want to belittle them but this is your word this is what you ordered this is what you described so if i've offended anybody by what you might think is speaking down to you please i'm not i'm just keeping and remember it's his word that what tells us to do because if this if our altars aren't cultivated fed with the seed and watered weeds are going to grow weeds are going to grow and you know what's interesting part about weeds they are contagious they have the ability to multiply they have the ability to multiply they'll go anywhere you find that little crack in your wok what can live in there here comes a weed i mean it's the smallest how how how how does it infiltrate the church smallest little crack smallest little crack all of a sudden our altars are whoa what's wrong see that's my prayer tonight this church is strong and i'm grateful to be a part of it and i'm grateful to like i said sit under a man of god who knows the value of prayer in an altar and an altar call and what it means to have a wet altar and i don't want any cracks in fac i don't want to find any cracks because if a crack happens that's an invitation for a a weed and the wheat can grow we can grow i have seen churches that altar calls went from this to this to this to i finished my sermon we're done dismissed no altar call now look i there's times when you don't need when i get it but i'm talking about on a consistent basis i don't want that here i don't want that in me i don't want it in my family anybody say men to that we don't need this in our life that's not our lifestyle musicians if you would come tonight and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that elijah the prophet came near and said lord god of abraham isaac and of israel let it be known this day that thou art god in israel and that i am thy servant and that i have done all these things at thy word hear me o god hear me that this people may know that thou art the lord god and that thou has turned their heart back again verse 38 then the fire of the lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench you see fire will fall on a wet altar god ordains that wet altar if it follows his is his his outline he ordains it as holy and he takes that sacrifice he takes those stones he takes that wood he takes it all anybody want to give him his all i want to give him my all and he licked it up i found it interesting that he used the word licked and in my mind this is me in order to lick something up your lips have to be right down on it in that altar and in your altar with the sacrifice of your life he is so close with his lips to whisper to you i love you the scripture said he licked it up what a loving father who would come down come right next to you at your altar and your sacrifice that means he's close he's right there he could have said and consumed it and that was it we wouldn't have known how but he said no no no come here i'm gonna be right there with you you see when we when we live in this altar in our hearts and our minds what a loving god he is to come unto us and to lick up my offering he licked up the stones and the dust he took all of me and the things that were dust he took the sacrifice he took the wood ordered as it was he took his word and said yes and that water is his spirit and he said i love you israel you're back i love you so this evening i i want to call for an author call i think it's fitting i think it's fitting that we set up ourselves right and for those of you that may be visiting tonight for those of you that may be new to fac marigold thank you for being here but you know what he called for those stones not to be touched he said bring him as they are visitors come as you are first timers this altar is a come as you are altar and open yourself to him and i want us tonight to know that the expectations god your fire will fall your fire will fall you will come down with your lips so close and touch us the altars are open tonight father we thank you hallelujah for your word we thank you lord for each and every soul here tonight lord we thank you for your word dear god the order of it ah but lord as you expose it to us lord what a what a mighty mighty truth it is father i pray tonight hallelujah for each and every soul here i pray this word dear god though it's not a shouting message lord actually it's rather a soothing calming message to tell us that if we present ourselves a living sacrifice do it lord the way you have asked us to come the humble spirit and if we seek your face lord turn from our wicked ways your order says then you'll hear the cries from this altar you'll hear the tears fall in the water to flow upon your sea lord upon this offering here tonight lord upon these living sacrifices father touch them tonight touch them tonight dear god heather the father who reached down hallelujah with his lips so close licked up that sacrifice took it all hallelujah us all tonight lord i pray as we give ourselves to you lord in thy name