The American Church has gotten a lot of things right, but what if we've gotten the most important thing wrong? Join us as Pastor Sarah continues our series on Altars. We'll be talking about the church, why it matters, and why the Western Church must prioritize God's presence above all.
The Church
Speakers
Sarah Blount
Lead Pastor
Worship
Notes
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Altars are memorials of the places where God meets us.
Hebrews 9:11-12
So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
Altars are places of:
- Encounter
- Sacrifice & Forgiveness
- Worship & Prayer
The Western Church has been distracted by the wrong things, and the result is we've lost our spiritual edge
The soul that is alone is like the burning coal that is alone; it will grow colder rather than hotter.
St John of the Cross
Soul slips away easily from a church or institution. You may go to any of these places and find that the Spirit has departed and the Shekinah is gone. When a local church loses its soul, it begins to slip into mediocrity and is unable to give life. The average person doesn't even know when a church begins to lose its soul. It takes unusual deeper wisdom to see it, and then when we see it, it is costly beyond words to retrieve it.
A church without altars is like a king without anointing.
What do you want when you come to church?
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
2 Samuel 6:12-15
So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
David's tent was a New Testament reality in an Old Testament world.
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
"The devil is not fighting religion. He's too smart for that. He is producing counterfeit Christianity, so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it."
Vance Havner
Bringing God's presence back to the center of our churches is what will bring back the power of God to the American church.
Lee Cummings
1 Chronicles 16:8-11
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!