Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.
You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.
We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the
cross. Now let's join the service.
Swayze was doing school earlier. Anybody retired to teach 3 year
olds, Ashley 4 year olds. Every day she was.
She got tired. I was she got tired and was
drawing a letter number there three and she just kept on
getting tireder and tireder and she finally she tells my wife,
she says I can't draw that three and she said why can't you draw
that to the three? She said I'm super little.
So I begin to tell her after that I said you can't ride your
big horse, you're super little. You got to ride your settle and
I started teasing her about super little.
I said you're super little. And here in a minute she turned
around. She said I was just teasing
sassy. She's I was kidding her.
I said, why was you kidding her? So you didn't have to ride a
three. She said, yeah, so super little.
Well, I remember those days trying to get out of school and
I guess I said all that to say this.
You know, sometimes we're that way.
We got sometimes we're that way, but I found out it's a it's a
whole lot easier. Just go ahead and make yourself
do it when you don't feel like it.
Hey, man, kind of what I'm going to preach about tonight a little
bit. I'm going to probably finish
this Sunday. No way I'm going to finish it
tonight. If you have your Bibles going to
be in Judges chapter 6. Talk about some things here that
that'll change your life. Some things that I've seen over
the years that work and don't work right.
Anybody ever found out that every time you approach the
Lord, every time you pray, every time you go to the altar?
I went to church for years. I've seen some of the same
people at the altar for years crying the same prayers for
years. Nothing wrong with it, but if
it's not working, I'd I like to try different angle.
I like to get God's take on it because if we serve an all
powerful God and we're stuck in the same situation, something's
not happening right. So I want to talk to you tonight
about this a little bit. And in Judges chapter 6, this
was before kings were were appointed.
It was Judges that was over Israel and we all know the story
at you know that I went on up in Samuel when the when Saul became
king, Saul was not the one that that God wanted king wanted to
be king. He had already told, he had
already told that to go find a king and he would show him who
it was. But nevertheless, the people
wanted the king, so they appointed the king, right.
But this was a judge that God would appoint over Israel.
And many know the story about chapter 6 here about Gideon and
what all he did. And you know, the Gideons still
do a great work. I've been motel rooms all over
the United States and Canada and you can usually open the drawer
and find the Bible from the Gideons.
And we're going to talk about Gideon tonight.
There's a lot to talk about here in this chapter, but let's let's
read a little bit in chapter 6. Let's stand and go to the Lord
and prayer. Father, we come before you
tonight and we thank you for this time.
We pray that you would show us your word and that I could
preach this message and share it the way you showed it unto me.
Father, that there's a proper altar that we have to build
before you that false altars and false gods do not work in the
Kingdom of God. And we thank you for your love
and your mercy and your grace. It's in his your Son's name we
pray. Hey man, I'm gonna read chapter
6 and verse one. It says the children of Israel
did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord delivered them
into the hand of Midian 7 years. Despite what Israel had seen
here and the the miracles that they had seen, they kept turning
back. There's 7 great apostasies in
this book about and seven sins that they did, but they it says
the hand of Midian prevailed against them and because the
Midianites and the children of Israel made them dens which are
in the mountains and the caves and strongholds.
So you have the people of God, the children of Israel that had
seen miracles that had been delivered, that Joshua had just
LED into a promised land to a place that God had promised
them, but yet they kept falling back into their old ways.
See the people of God here. They, they were in the caves.
They were supposed to be the strongest upon the face of the
earth, but yet they were reduced to living in caves and and
hiding out because of their fear, because their enemy had
grown so much bigger than they are.
Ever feel like that when you look around today?
And so it was in verse 3, when Israel had sown, that the
Midianites came, and the Amalekites and the children of
the East, and they even came up against them, and they encamped
against them, and they destroyed the increase of the earth.
And it says, Till you come unto Gaza, and left no substance for
Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass.
So the Israel was reduced here to starvation.
They were reduced to the wages of iniquity here.
And in verse 5 it says for they talking about the enemy came up
with their cattle in their tents, and they came as
grasshoppers for a multitude, for both they and their camels
were without numbers. So there was a lot of them,
right? And they entered into the land
to destroy it. See, the, the Lord had allowed
this to happen because of Israel's idolatry and the things
they were doing. And it's really no different
today under grace, I don't think.
I mean, a lot of people say, well, you know, it's God just
loves everybody and he, he prospers everybody.
And yet there's no trials. And yet we just preach all the
love of God. But yet God gets our, he gets
our attention through trials. He gets our attention through
throwing things our way. And that's what he was doing
here because he had just LED these these blessed people into
the land flowing with milk and honey, but yet they were going
back to their old ways over and over again.
And Israel was greatly impoverished.
Verse 6 because of the Midianites and the children of
Israel cried unto the Lord, They cried unto the Lord because they
had fallen and because they, they knew that they weren't
doing what was right. And in verse 7, it came to pass
when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of
the Midianites. And I just have a question and
I've always kind of had this question because I I've seen it
over and over in my life with people from the work site to the
rodeo world to now even in the church world is I have a
question and maybe y'all can chime in here and give me some
answers. But why is it that so many
believers that's I said believers, people that know
Jesus, people that that know that he died on a cross.
But why is it so many times that that as I preached Sunday, the
great falling away that we're seeing from the church world and
the ages, you know, of the of the middle a even the not middle
age, but even younger. I don't remember all the
statistics I give Sunday, but it's astronomical.
Those that are just dropping out of church that was raised in an
evangelical church, a Bible believing church, and they're
not returning in young adult to it.
But why is it that so many believers have to come of to a
place of utter defeat and humiliation?
You know, if I look around tonight, I, I could probably get
some testimonies about how we came to a place.
Some people did that, that they, they would just, they knew
better, but yet they were in that place.
But why do we have to come to that place before we cry out?
Because so many do. I know when I did rodeo schools
and Bible camps, I would try to teach kids that you don't have
to get on drugs and alcohol and you don't have to have a
pregnant girlfriend in high school and struggle through.
You don't have to do all those things if you'll just cry out to
God. Hey, man, He can take you around
so much. And that's kind of my life
testimony. God has taken me around so much
because when I didn't feel like it, I kept praising.
When I didn't feel like it, I kept worshipping because I know
so if I don't, I can become impoverished, Amen.
With sin was may be stricken of the things of the world, but if
we would just cry out to the Lord and I like this at all
times, Amen. No matter what's going on, just
keep crying out, crying out. But yet what happens?
And I'm preaching to you tonight about building an altar in your
life. There's there's all kinds of
altars today, you know, you and we to Google things.
I told you all that last week, but you Google, you Google an
altar. And I'm one of them said that
it's a table in a church that the bread and the wine set up
on. That's what Google thinks an
altar is. And I, you know, we do call
that, I guess in some churches, that's an altar.
I've been to some churches. They, they have the, they have
the place for the, the communion, but yet there's no
altars over here. But I want to, I want to read to
you a little more here. What happens?
But why is it that that's one can approach an altar and be
changed forever in a moment and in an instant?
I've seen it. Addictions fall, things in their
life begin to change and turn around.
But yet another approach is an altar and nothing happens only
to find them there again and again.
Come on, somebody preach with me.
And again, so that tells me there is a proper altar that we
can approach and we have to build the altar.
And that's what Gideon, that's what a lot of this story is
about here and I'm going to read some more.
In verse 8 it says the Lord sent a prophet under the children of
Israel, which said unto them, thus says the Lord God.
I'm in verse 8, I brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you
forth out of the House of bondage, and I delivered you out
of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who
oppressed you. So they knew that God could do
it right. We know that God can do it.
And I drove them out from before you and gave you their land.
And I said unto you, I'm the Lord your God.
Fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land you
shallow to will, but you have not obeyed my voice.
And there came an Angel to the Lord, and he said under the oak,
which was an Oprah, and it pertained to Joe Ash.
Somebody want to pronounce that word?
I got one wrong last week. I'm going to give somebody a
chance right here. Anybody want to try?
They got on to me last week. What did?
How do you say that? Say it for me.
We're going to call him Asburat. How's that and his son Gideon
and he threshed wheat by the Ryan press to hide from the
Midianites. So he was pressing why Gideon is
at the wine press. We know the story and in verse
12 the Angel of the Lord, you know, in fact, people have done
some scholars say that this could be a pre Incarnate of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But he appeared unto him and and
he said the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.
Think about that. He wasn't a mighty man of valor.
He was at the wine press and his relatives were in the caves.
They'd made strongholds and they were hiding in the caves.
But yet God comes to him at the lowest point and he says, look,
you're a mighty man of valor, Gideon.
And Gideon said it to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us,
why then is all this befallen us?
Why is this happening? Anybody ever had that question?
And where be all the miracles which our fathers told of, told
us of saying, did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt?
But now the Lord has forsaken us, and delivered us in the head
of the into the hand of the Midianites.
See, the truth was, God had not forsaken Israel, but Israel had
forsaken God. And the Lord looked upon him and
he said, Go on your might. I'm sure Gideon thought, man, I
don't have any might. I don't have any strength at
this point. But yet God still came to him.
So quit telling yourself at the state and the weak place that
you're at spiritually in your life that God can't come to you
and pick you up and use you. Why didn't God go down to the
Tabernacle that day? If Jesus come back, would he,
would he go to Joel Osteen's church or would he go to Robert
Jeffers church and say, come on, I want you to lead my people?
Would he? It would be different than
anything he had done in the Bible if he went to a big
high-powered church that we look at today.
It would it would be totally out of God's character from what he
did all through Scripture, wouldn't it?
It'd be totally out of his character.
He looked for someone that was at at a weak state.
Why? Because when he was at a weak
state, he was willing to listen. You really you want me to go in
what street to have? I don't have any.
God says good, I can give you some.
That's what he does to us today if we listen.
But when we're in a weak state, we have to be listening.
And he said unto him, O my Lord, verse 15, where we shall I save
Israel? Behold, my family is poor, the
poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
This was at least see one of the reasons that the Lord chose
Gideon I believe because he could use him.
He could hear what was going on because meekness and lowliness
are necessity for Christ. We read this all through
scripture in Matthew 11 and 28. He says come to me, all who are
all, all who are laboring, all who are heavy laden, and I will
what give you rest. Take my yoke up on you because
my yoke is easy and my burdens are light.
So we read on. I'm going to read this and I'm
going to back up and, and teach on a little bit in verse 17.
And he said to him, he said unto him, if now I have found grace
in your side, then show me a sign that you talk with me.
Verse 18 Or yeah, verse 18 Depart not hence, I pray you,
until I come unto you, and I bring forth my present, and I
set it before you. And he said, I will tarry until
you come again. And Gideon went in, and he made
ready a kid, a young lamb here, and unlaven cakes, and an
Ephraim of flower. The flesh he put in a basket,
and he put the broth in the pot, and he brought it out unto him
under the oak, and presented it. And the Angel of God said unto
him, Take the flesh and unlaven cakes, and lay them up on this
rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.
So what happened here? Gideon knew that he knew how God
operated. He knew that he had to bring a
sacrifice. He knew that he had to have the
proper kind of altar to approach God.
And the Angel of the Lord put forth the end of his staff that
was in his hand, and he touched the flesh and the unlavened
cakes, and then and then rose up fire out of the rock and
consumed the flesh and the unlavened cakes.
Then the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.
See, this was a type here of a judgment of God which which
would fall upon the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross when he
died. It was the same type of
sacrifice here. And see, faith in the toning
work of Christ in the cross is what we miss many times today.
And regrettably, it's missing in the church many times.
But I want to look at this altar here.
You see there the altar is actually there to do some things
for us, but we have to be willing to lay some things on
the altar. Does that make sense?
Many have the altar all wrong. It's not just a place to lay
what's wrong in your life. You know when you go to an altar
and you go wherever it is, it may be by the old tree, wherever
the place is, you get a hold of God and you pray can become like
this rock was to Gideon, and you OfferUp a sacrifice of what
pray? See, many come to the altar with
not even a sacrifice in mind, but only a receiving right.
It's to lay what's wrong with us down and lay our problem down
and pray that God fixes it right.
That's what they alter people think is for.
We have been taught I'll come to the altar and God's going to fix
everything. I'm not always found that to
work in my life. It can.
But when I come to the altar, with the right attitude, when I
come to the altar, Gideon, he could have left all this stuff
out and said, OK, God come to me, told me I'm a mighty man of
valor. I don't have to do anything
else. But he knew under the law, he
knew that he had to sacrifice these things and he had to build
an altar so many times. See, when we come to the altar,
we've got it all wrong. It's not just a place to lay
what's wrong in your life? Write that down before the Lord
and expect him to fix it. He can.
But you see, when the altar is a place that we come to change our
the characteristics and the things that are distinguishing
us, it can become a place that we change, right?
Because we have to as an individual, we have to bring
things before the Lord. But the altar, it will or should
be like Gideon. It should be done in a proper
way that God can recognize it because it's a sacrificial
offer. God can change everything at the
altar, He can alter our problems, but more than just an
alter the problem, you know, I found if the problem is just
fixed and if that's my goal in life is just to fix that problem
that I walked down there for, I found that pretty soon it
returns. Hello, it's OK, we've all done
it. But more than just alter the
problem, as I said that we'll just return again if I don't
sacrifice that which is causing the problem.
Hello. And most of the time we think
it's somebody else, but we have to look at our self.
See, the altar should alter you. Gideon built the proper kind of
altar. I'm going to give you some
proper kind of altars tonight and some things that an altar in
your life should have. An altar is a place of laying
down what we have. We fail, don't we?
Many go altar never never really want to lay anything down, just
want to receive something. But when I go to the altar, it
should be a place of laying down something in my life and picking
up what God has for me. I like to call it the proper
kind of altar is accepting the call.
See, that's what Gideon had to do.
God came to him. He called him.
He said even though you hide out in caves, your relatives, even
though you're scared and hiding down in the threshing floor on
the wine press, I can still use you, Gideon.
But he accepted the call. See, the many times we go to the
altar, maybe we hear something from God, but we don't accept
the call. We have to build an altar of
acceptance in our life. I may be hiding in a cave.
I may be scared. I may have heard the call.
I begin to think of people that heard the call.
Lazarus was dead, but what did he hear?
Lazarus come forth. He heard the call right.
Many times in our life, our dreams, our hopes, things may be
dead in our life, but if we build the proper kind of all
altar and we accept the call. So the the first thing we have
to do is build an altar of acceptance in our life.
Accept the call that God has placed on you.
You know, many people, they don't want the call that God's
placed on them. I never wanted to be a preacher.
I never wanted to be a pastor. I like going around and giving a
testimony. But I heard the call, Amen.
And I had to accept it. And there was not going to be
any other call that God changed in my life until I accepted that
one. What are we not accepting?
We have to accept what God has put on us because if we don't,
we go around trying to change something and it could be God's
very plan and purpose for our life, right?
So we have to accept at the altar.
The second thing, to build the proper kind of altar, you will
have to sacrifice just as Gideon did.
It's no longer a lamb. It's no longer a goat or a bull.
I've, I've laid a lot of things on the altar over the years.
How about you? Some things that, you know,
people say, well, I don't have to get rid of that.
It ain't really sin if God said get rid of it.
You do. Hey, man, because it'll keep you
from your destiny. Laid a lot of things on the
altar. But you know, I, I begin to
think about this today, the hardest thing that that I've
ever had to put on the altar. Think about what's the hardest
thing. You know, I hear people all the
time they, they get to talking about their former live boy.
I had to lay alcohol on the altar.
I had to lay this on the I had to lay that.
You know, I wish God would have called me to lay one thing on
the altar. It would have been a lot easier.
Maybe two things. How many has God called you?
Come on y'all, help me tonight. How many things has God called
you to lay on? Now you know what He really
calls each and every one of us? The hardest thing that we ever
have to put on the altar. And still for me, the hardest
thing is to lay down my life. That's what he's called us to
do. And when you lay down your life,
you don't, you have to look at all that other stuff.
You just lay down your life, like the apostle Paul said, and
crucify the flesh daily. And you lay it all on the altar,
right? Because he knows anyway.
But we like to separate it. You know, I want to lay this
over here and I want to come up here for this day.
I want, I'm telling you how to approach an altar, right?
But many times we don't put ourself on the altar.
That's the hardest thing that you'll ever do is to lay
yourself down every day to lay down my life.
But if you want to build the kind of altar that works, if you
want to see the altar build you, you got to do it right.
You got to accept things at the altar.
You got to sacrifice things at the altar.
And the third thing we have to do many times and we we can read
the rest of this is there has to be a tearing down, man, We need
a tearing down today of the things that we've been thought
taught through religion and through church denominations.
We can't, we can't even approach an alter many people because
they they've been taught so much stuff that's that's not even in
the word of God, or maybe it's twisted in the word of God.
There has to be a tearing down. Some things got to go, and you
must rebuild the altars that the enemy is built in your life.
Because see, Satan is really good at building altars that
don't work in our life and making us blame it on God,
right? And it's not God's fault at all.
It's us. It's built the improper altar
because we haven't accepted the call of God.
We haven't sacrificed anything at the altar.
We just asked for blessings and things from God at the altar,
but we have to accept, we have to sacrifice and then we have to
tear down. Let's read a little more of
this. In verse 22 it says, then Gideon
perceived that it was an Angel of the Lord in verse 22.
And he said, Oh, oh Lord, God, for because I have seen an Angel
of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him,
Peace be unto you, fear not, you shall not die.
Then Gideon built an altar unto the Lord, and he called it
Jehovah. Shalom, which is Lord, is peace.
And to this day it is there. Now in verse 25 it says, it came
to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, He said,
take your father's young bullet, see his father worship the God
about. He had a whole different altar
than Gideon had just built. He was worshiped worshiping a
Pagan God, his family, even the second Bullock of seven years
old and throw down the altar of bow that your father has and cut
down the Grove bite in verse 26 and build an altar unto the Lord
your God upon the top of this rock.
So see immediately when when Gideon had accepted the call of
God, he had sacrificed what he knew God required at the altars
is making sense. Then he had to tear down the
other altars that wasn't working in his life.
They even his family was worshipping at the old altar
that he had been taught that to worship at the God about, he had
to go tear it down. Amen.
And I'm telling if you want to see God move at the place that
you're trying to alter your problems, you're going to have
to tear down some things. He tore down the altar.
You can go home and read the rest of this.
There's no way I can cover it all tonight.
And he built another one in the order and the and the place.
And he took the second bullet in verse 26 and offered a burnt
sacrifice with the wood in the Grove, which you shall cut down.
Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord
said unto him. So it was because he feared his
father's household in the middle of the city, that he could not
do it by day. So he did it at night.
And then the men of the city arose early in the morning.
Behold, the altar of Bow was cut down, and the Grove was cut
down. That was bite.
And the second bullet was offered up on the altar.
And they said one to another, Who has done this thing?
And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon, the
son of Joash has done this thing.
Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out your son,
that he may die, because he has cut down the altar of Bow,
because he is cut down the Grove by which it was set.
And Joash said unto all who stood against him, Will you
plead for Bow? Will you save him?
He will plead for him. Let him be put to death while he
is yet, while it is yet mourning.
If he be God, let him plead for himself, because one has cast
down his altar. Therefore, on that day he called
him, they called Gideon Jera Bible and it said it isn't idol
anything. It's what this meant.
Let Bao plead against him because he has thrown down his
altar. You know many times when you do
these things, when you accept the call of God, when you
sacrifice and then you begin to tear down, they begin to call
you things, right? Holy roller, preacher, man,
whatever it is they call you today.
But it didn't affect Giddy and he knew that God had called him
to do something. See, there's some things that's
got to go. There's some things that we got
to rebuild when we're doing a proper altar.
The fourth thing for a proper altar, it will have a fast and a
prayer. Matthew 1714 through 21, Jesus
spoke of his disciples when they when they couldn't accomplish
something, he said this kind of power.
When they couldn't cast out the demon, What Jesus say, he said
this kind of power only goes out except by prayer and fasting.
Joshua one and eight, it says, giving up for God, meditating on
His word day and night, due according to what is written
therein. For then thou shalt make thy way
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good, good success.
So see, a proper altar will also have after you accepted the call
of God, after you sacrifice that which God has asked of us,
right? Which is what?
Ourself, we got it messed up. We think it's the habit.
Just sacrifice yourself and habits take care of their self,
right? So when we sacrifice that, then
we tear down the old altars and the old way of thinking in our
life. We have to fast and pray #5 a
proper altar. We'll have a question.
I like that, don't you? It's impossible to come to an
altar and sacrifice yourself and sacrifice the things in your
life and accept the call of God. It's impossible to do that not
have a question. I heard these priests say, well,
don't question God. I do many times.
I didn't say that question is wisdom.
I question his direction of where I'm the going.
Why? How do you want me to the Gideon
question When we read all the great people of the Bible,
Gideon had a question, Lord, how can I do this?
I'm the least among all the people.
The disciples help me had a question.
Jesus had a question when he was going to the cross.
But you see, without a question, you get no answer, right?
So the proper kind of altar will have a question, you will have
some questions, and then God doesn't expect our questions to
go unanswered. Amen.
But when we sacrifice and we do the right things and build the
proper kind of altar, he answers right.
Ask Elijah. He called fire down from heaven
at the same cap a deal. I could have preached on that
tonight. He he was tearing down the
altars of who bow The sixth thing.
A proper altar will give you signs, wonders and miracles.
Let's back up and look at this because we don't see a lot of
this at the altar anymore today. It seems that many people come
to an altar only to be untouched in their life, only to have the
same things going on in their life over and over again.
But when we build the say it with me, so I know y'all are
here tonight, the proper kind of altar will have a sacrifice.
I'm accepting. I'm sorry.
It will have a sacrifice and it will have a tearing down.
It will have a fast and a prayer and it will have a question, and
it will give you signs, wonders and miracles, just as it did
Gideon, Elijah, Joseph, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, the list
goes on and on. It will heal the sick.
It will and can raise the dead. Amen.
Spiritually, it can't open blinded eyes, it can calm your
troubled sea when we have the proper kind of altar in our
life. But when an altar is not
properly built, many times there's no change in the
situation and nothing happens. I've seen this, have y'all?
Have you ever seen it? But yet people don't approach
the altar and build the proper kind of altar.
It's then that we must tear down Proverbs 15 and eight.
It says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.
That's powerful. The sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his
delight. See, that's that's what happens.
People come and they're still, they're still wickedness in them
because they never laid their self on the altar, right?
They have unrepented sin because they just want this problem
fixed without getting rid of this in their life that they
know God's calling to get rid of.
So therefore the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.
Or we can go around say, well, God hears everybody's prayer.
We'll hold that, go out in that crazy and do all those things
and tell me how many prayers get answered.
Samuel 15 and 22, it says obedience.
I like this. I'll never forget the day I read
this years ago. Samuel 15 and 22, it says that
obedience, You read through the whole testament of how all that
God had required under the law. There was a lot of sacrificing
that went on just like it getting in there.
Don't have time to talk about all of it and what all it
required was a big deal. But Samuel says here that
obedience, just obeying God is better than a sacrifice.
Wow. He places a lot on obedience
right there. But we place very little on it,
right, Christians today we just throw it on grace.
So I don't have to obey because of grace.
Well, you know, the children of Israel had just been LED from in
from slavery to a desert where generations died and then
stepped into a land that was flowing with milk and honey.
So they went from one place to a great place, back to a
impoverishment and hiding in a cave.
Why? Why did they do all that
obedience? Because they was thinking the
sacrifice was better. No, obedience is always better.
And you know, the thing about obedience is, you know, pay.
I heard someone say, well, I still know I need to obey.
God told me they obey. All right, we have to obey
because obedience is always right.
It's just like forgiveness. Obedience to God is always
right. Isaiah 111 through 13, God
declares he He is full of burnt offerings and does not delight
in them when accompanied by sin. Wow.
So a proper altar. The sixth thing, and I like
this, it will have an answer. It will have an answer.
Moses stretched out his arms and what happened?
The Red Sea parted. David prayed and did what?
Slayed a giant. Jesus prayed and it sent him to
a cross. But oh, how it brought victory.
Never thought about that. Jesus prayed.
Let this cup pass for me. But nevertheless, I'm going to
obey you. Nevertheless.
It's not about my will, Father, but it's about your will.
Jesus prayed and sent him to the cross.
So to recap a proper altar we'll have what an accepting accepting
the call of Christ. It will have a sacrifice of our
self require us to lay some things down.
But this makes you makes me look at altar different.
I wonder how people look at an altar.
I wonder how they look at it. You know, when you when the
heat's on at the end of the service and I've had people come
here and say I've never, I've never been to a church that I,
that I felt at the end of that church that that I could go up
there and something could happen to me.
I've never been in it, never been.
I'm not really. I grew up in that stuff, man.
I always know you. You might want to stay away from
up here if you don't want to change and some conviction to
fall upon you, you know, but but some people has has never
experienced that. Why?
Because they've never even approached an altar.
It's a sad thing, but a proper altar will have an accepting.
It will have a sacrifice as we stand our feet tonight.
It will have a tearing down or a laying down.
It will have a prayer and a fast.
Well, I've got questions. That's OK.
The proper altar, I believe has some questions, but most of all,
it will have an answer. Thank God.
Maybe this will change the way we pray.
Maybe this will change the way we approach the altars in our
life many times, but you know, it just, it gets old sometimes
seeing people approach the altar the wrong way and not A and and
and not letting God accomplish what He can accomplish in our
life. But as your heads are bowed, I
challenge you just lay yourself on the altar every day.
Thanks for listening to the Cross Power Church podcast.
May you know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be
found in Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we
would love for you to join us in person.
You can find service times at crosspowerchurch.com.