As the world grows darker, there is a mandate on the church to Arise and Shine. We must wake up to the fact that we are in a battle for the altar. This series will focus on the importance of contending for the altars of our hearts, homes, church, and community as we pray for revival and awakening in our time.
The Heart
Speakers
Josh Blount
Lead Pastor
Worship
Notes
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Memorializing Theophany
Theophany - a visible or perceptible manifestation of a deity to a human being.
Memorializing theophany is the practice of creating a memorial or commemoration to mark a significant encounter with the divine or a manifestation of God's presence.
An altar is a sacred place to sacrifice to God and also to receive from God what only he can provide
Altars were places where people would offer sacrifices to God
Ezekiel 14:3
Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?"
Isaiah 43:7
Bring to me all the people who are mine, whom I made for my glory
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.
David Foster Wallace
Human beings, all of us, are worshippers. It is not a question of whether we worship, but what we worship. All of us, all the time, are reaching out with our hearts.”
John Piper
The primary obstacle in your life that can steal your worship away from God is you.
"Sin caused Adam and Eve to be cast out of Eden, losing their direct communion with God. Nevertheless, Jesus' sacrifice became the bridge that reestablished our access to the Father's presence.”
Charles Spurgeon
1 Peter 2:4-5
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 13:15-16
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Life must be organized by the heart if it is to be organized at all. It can be pulled together only from the inside. That is the function of the heart, spirit, or will: to organize our life as a whole, and, indeed, to organize it around God. A great part of the disaster of contemporary life lies in the fact that it is organized around our human feelings, not around God.
Dallas Willard
Your heart is God’s goal
Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts
Psalm 35:1
Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (NLT)
For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:2 (NLT)
You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Your life follows your heart.
It’s from your heart, that revival is birthed.
The revival we need is not a revival that begins outside of us; it's a revival that begins inside of us."
A.W. Tozer
Revival begins in the individual's heart. Let it begin with you on your face alone before God. Turn from every sin that might hinder. Renew yourself to a new devotion to the Savior. Before revival can spread to the world, it must first burn brightly within the hearts of believers."
Charles Spurgeon
A true revival is marked by a deep hunger for God that starts in the individual heart and spreads to the community."
John Wesley
Revival Has To Start In Our Heart
“When a relationship with a friend or loved one is causing your spiritual life to wane, we may suspect that that one has become an idol. When we are seeking first our business interests and vainly supposing that God will add to us the things of His kingdom, when in fact we are more concerned and anxious about material prosperity than spiritual prosperity, we should examine ourselves as to whether we are not joined to idols. When our homes and families become the be-all and end-all, and we are prepared to make a spiritual compromise to please them; when some pastime or recreational interest is our absorbing passion; when we are more concerned about our outward appearance than the state of our hearts; when our minds are perpetually full of some material possession or some human ambition—are we not as guilty of idolatry as any Israelite who bowed the knee to Baal?"
Arthur Wallis
Being a man after God’s own heart is not about our morality, it's about our loyalty
Psalm 51:10-12
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Proverbs 28:13
Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy
You’re only as sick as your secrets.
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.