SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that human build beings are our builders?
SPEAKER_00: From the very beginning of history, we've had this irresistible desire to build.
SPEAKER_00: We build homes to protect our families, we build businesses to provide for our families, we build schools for our children, we build hospitals for our sick, and we even build churches for people to gather and to worship.
SPEAKER_00: We love building.
SPEAKER_00: I think the infatuation with construction projects is at least in part because they leave something visible behind, something we can hold on to, something that we can see.
SPEAKER_00: And they can become monuments to our effect and our effort and our creativity and to all of our accomplishments.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is, the greatest construction project you'll ever work on isn't the project that consists of mud or bricks or fabric.
SPEAKER_00: It's rally really not about steel and concrete.
SPEAKER_00: The most important thing that you're building is your life.
SPEAKER_00: All of us are building a life.
SPEAKER_00: We choose a plan, we choose a direction, we choose what we like, and we start this building.
SPEAKER_00: We're building a life, we're building a legacy.
SPEAKER_00: Every day, with every decision you make, every priority you choose, every dollar you spend, every relationship that you nurture, in fact, every word that you speak, all of this goes into building a life.
SPEAKER_00: It's all a part of the blueprint for living.
SPEAKER_00: So let me begin with a simple question today.
SPEAKER_00: What are you building?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about your house, I'm not talking about a retirement plan, or not talking about your career.
SPEAKER_00: What are you building with your life?
SPEAKER_00: How are you building your life?
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Genesis, we're introduced to one of the most significant building projects in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But before we're introduced to this massive project, this towering project that we read about in Genesis 11, we're told of a much more simple project.
SPEAKER_00: The simple project was far more significant and important, even if it was quite a bit smaller and seemingly less striking.
SPEAKER_00: This week and next, we're going to look at these two famous construction projects, both recorded in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to compare these two projects and reveal the stark contrast in the two and how they speak to the way we build our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Frankly, these passages have been rattling around in my heart now for weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I studied the passage weeks ago in preparation for the devotional that I work on, and they just wouldn't go away.
SPEAKER_00: The thought wouldn't go away.
SPEAKER_00: The contrast just kept consuming me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to share it with you for the next couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Comparison to two projects revealed this contrast in many ways.
SPEAKER_00: One was nothing more than a pile of rough stones, while the other was made of finely formed brick and reached towards the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: One was built by a man who was overwhelmed by the grace of God, and the other was built by a generation of people who were consumed with a false sense of their own accomplishments, of their own greatness.
SPEAKER_00: One was an altar, and the other was a tower.
SPEAKER_00: One was the object of God's pleasure, the other was the object of his judgment.
SPEAKER_00: To be more specific, the two structures I'm referring to as the altar that was built by Noah when he first came out of the ark.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the story of the flood.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to rehearse that to you, but do you remember that when Noah came out of the ark, the first thing he built was an altar?
SPEAKER_00: And the other is known as the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_00: You may know less about this Tower of Babel, but it was actually a tower of confusion that served a very important person.
SPEAKER_00: Now, while I'm interested in the buildings for several reasons, while I'm interested in the bricks and the stones, and I want to learn about those things, I'm more interested in what these two structures can teach us about building our own homes and really our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: So let's take a little bit closer look.
SPEAKER_00: At one this week, we'll look at the altars.
SPEAKER_00: Next week, we'll take a look at the tower.
SPEAKER_00: I think there are some incredibly good lessons for us.
SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, the altar of Noah.
SPEAKER_00: One life says, God, you are great.
SPEAKER_00: Noah's altar clearly says to us about our life, God, you are great.
SPEAKER_00: One lifestyle says, Look what God has done, uh, the altar.
SPEAKER_00: The other, the Tower of Babel, says, Look what I've done.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll notice that different.
SPEAKER_00: One is marked by worship and one is marked by pride.
SPEAKER_00: What direction is your life going?
SPEAKER_00: Are you building altars?
SPEAKER_00: Are you building towers?
SPEAKER_00: May seem like a silly question, but I think it'll make sense as we begin to go through it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin, first of all, by thinking a moment about Noah's circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: He had just lived through the greatest catastrophe the world has ever known.
SPEAKER_00: He had just spent months on a boat that he had built, even though there was no such thing as rain, many scholars believe.
SPEAKER_00: While people were jeering at him, making fun of them, he built this ark.
SPEAKER_00: He entered into the ark, he, his family, and a lot of animals, and for more than a year they were confined inside this ark.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that many of you like cruises, I do too, but I can't imagine a year-long, over a year-long cruise, not knowing where your destination is, or really how long it would last.
SPEAKER_00: When the floodwaters finally receded and the door was open, Noah stepped onto ground, dry ground for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Here the world has been judged.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing left.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that of the former life that he had that was still there.
SPEAKER_00: So what do you do when you step out of the ark?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's the first thing you build?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I would think the first thing would be in order would be a house or at least some kind of a shelter for you and your family.
SPEAKER_00: I would think that maybe some fencing to protect the animals and to keep them nearby.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a barn to store some food and or maybe a garden to put I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you start?
SPEAKER_00: Well, interesting for Noah, the priority was none of those things.
SPEAKER_00: His priority may surprise you.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the very first thing Noah builds is none of those.
SPEAKER_00: He builds an altar.
SPEAKER_00: The single decision tells us something profound about Noah's heart.
SPEAKER_00: Saved people respond to God's grace with worship.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read the part of the text.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be too long to read it all.
SPEAKER_00: You can read that later.
SPEAKER_00: But let me just take a portion of the text, Genesis 8, beginning in verse 18, and show you what happens.
SPEAKER_00: It says, So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, came out.
SPEAKER_00: All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, all the flying creatures, everything that moves on the earth came out of the ark by their families.
SPEAKER_00: Then Noah built an ark to the Lord, an altar to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from the youth onward.
SPEAKER_00: And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
SPEAKER_00: Noah comes out of the ark, he builds an altar first, and obviously God is very pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Now again, every life is under construction.
SPEAKER_00: We're either building altars that glorify God, or we're building towers that glorify us ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: So let's think about these altars.
SPEAKER_00: This altar that Noah built, and maybe some other altars that will help us to see how we build our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Well, throughout Scripture, we see people building altars to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham built altars.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of the most fascinating things in Abraham's life is that he repeatedly built altars at key moments of God's revelation.
SPEAKER_00: The altars were used to mark places of worship, to mark places of thanksgiving, to mark places where he made a commitment or expressed dependence on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He put altars everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't merely piles of stones, they were memorials of God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Each one pointed to God and said, Look what God has done in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Isaac, his son, also built altars.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Isaac built fewer altars than Abraham, but the ones he built are very significant.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham seems to have built an altar wherever God gave a promise.
SPEAKER_00: Isaac builds altars at moments when God reassures him and gives him peace.
SPEAKER_00: And his altars are always closely connected to God's presence and his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: But again, they point to God.
SPEAKER_00: Look who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: When King Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem, he constructed two primary altars, you may remember.
SPEAKER_00: The great bronze altar or brazen altar, that is the altar of burnt offering, was the largest and most prominent altar that stood outdoors in the inner courtyard, directly in front of the temple's entrance.
SPEAKER_00: This outdoor placement kept burning animal sacrifices and heavy smoke and blood away from the wood-lined interiors, the gold-covered interiors of the main building.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was the golden altar, the altar of incense, was the second altar, and it was really much smaller, but it sat strictly indoors within the holy place, positioned directly in front of the veil of the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_00: No blood sacrifices were permitted there, but instead rose an aromatic flavor that was a blessing and was a reminder and a symbol of sorts of the prayers of God's people that as the smoke ascended toward the roof, our prayers would ascend before God.
SPEAKER_00: When Solomon finalized the construction and offered his first dedicatory prayer, biblical accounts note that fire fell from heaven to consume the offering, confirming God's presence and God's pleasure with the altar that he had built.
SPEAKER_00: So throughout history, men have been building altars and even continues today.
SPEAKER_00: Altars became places where people encountered God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I think it's important for us to build altars instead of towers today.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, because an altar says thank you.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: An altar says thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Noah's first act stepping after stepping onto the dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: His first act of building this altar was a way of saying thank you.
SPEAKER_00: It was an act of worship.
SPEAKER_00: It shows gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: It shouts gratitude from Noah's heart, from the depth of his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And notice he didn't build a house first.
SPEAKER_00: He built this altar first.
SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing you think about when God answers prayer?
SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing you think about?
SPEAKER_00: What's your first instinct after God brings victory in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is it to worship him?
SPEAKER_00: Is it to honor him?
SPEAKER_00: Is it to point to him?
SPEAKER_00: When God does something in your life that is life-changing, what's your thought?
SPEAKER_00: And what about the little moments in life?
SPEAKER_00: When God just gives you, well, an extra day of life as his gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you build an altar?
SPEAKER_00: Do you worship him?
SPEAKER_00: Do you point to him and say, look what God has done?
SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing in your heart that you celebrate?
SPEAKER_00: God or yourself?
SPEAKER_00: An altar says, Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, an altar says, I need mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I need mercy.
SPEAKER_00: When when when Moses stepped back onto the, I'm sorry, when Noah, I knew I was going to call him Moses before I was done with this.
SPEAKER_00: When Noah stepped back out of the ark and onto solid ground, he must have thought, really, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I deserve judgment as much as all the other people on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God save me?
SPEAKER_00: And we know it was because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it was just simply God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: God extends grace to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not deserved, but every sacrifice placed on an altar after that acknowledges I deserve judgment too.
SPEAKER_00: I need God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I need his grace.
SPEAKER_00: Worship at these altars celebrates grace and dependence upon God.
SPEAKER_00: The altar wasn't celebrating Noah, it celebrated mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Altars celebrate God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Towers point to what we do.
SPEAKER_00: That's next week.
SPEAKER_00: Altars are always pointing to what God says.
SPEAKER_00: And third, an altar says, You are Lord.
SPEAKER_00: An altar says, I'm ready to surrender my heart.
SPEAKER_00: An altar declares, My life belongs to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, Paul writes to the Roman church, the Roman believers, and says something very similar to this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, chapter 12, verse number one, therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is your true worship.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Paul says that we need to continue the practice of building altars.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't think he's talking about stones.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's talking about piling stones up.
SPEAKER_00: Although I suppose that would be okay.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's talking about building altars in front of our churches that are ready to receive burnt offerings.
SPEAKER_00: And no, he's not talking about that.
SPEAKER_00: So what do altars look like today?
SPEAKER_00: If I'm if if you're saying, Pastor Eddie, you're saying we need to build altars, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: I think it looks like us building lives.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like today?
SPEAKER_00: Well, for example, I think it's important for us to learn, just gonna name a few, family altars, right?
SPEAKER_00: Family altars.
SPEAKER_00: This is building prayer and scripture into my family life.
SPEAKER_00: It may look very informal, not necessarily trying to have a church service or a Bible study at home, although it could, and maybe you can do that, but prioritizing faith in family life, building a family altar, a place where family, a time when family comes together to acknowledge God and to say, look what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: I think with our family, back to the many times when we would sit around and very informally not try to teach a Bible study, just say, look what God has done, or look what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And then something that might be called gratitude altars.
SPEAKER_00: I try to build gratitude altars in my life.
SPEAKER_00: This may be built by simply keeping a journal of how you see God at work and what God is doing in and through you, or maybe sharing with others the blessings that God is blessing in your life, or maybe even giving thanks publicly in some forum or some platform.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly a gratitude altar would include celebrating answered prayers.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's good to pray specifically.
SPEAKER_00: Then we can praise Him specifically and say, look what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: And then financial altars.
SPEAKER_00: I I try to keep financial altars before me all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Offering our finances on the altar brings great peace and joy.
SPEAKER_00: When we struggle with finances, when finances seem to have a grip on us, why not offer our finances to the Lord on an offer?
SPEAKER_00: How do we build these altars?
SPEAKER_00: By learning to give our first and our best to the Lord, not leftovers.
SPEAKER_00: By being generous to people, by being generous with our giving, not just being generous, but to have generosity in our heart and by putting God before all of our things.
SPEAKER_00: And then I also think that when we are serving, we're building altars.
SPEAKER_00: These altars are built obviously through serving other people.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's in the church, maybe it's outside the church, maybe it's in the community, maybe it's a family member.
SPEAKER_00: But we're using the gifts that God has given us and putting other people first.
SPEAKER_00: And one more I'll mention, I could go on, but for time's sake, let me mention one more.
SPEAKER_00: I like to call them obedience altars.
SPEAKER_00: These altars are built by choosing faithfulness, obedience to God, even when nobody notices, even when nobody's looking, and even when we know that to be obedient and faithful, it's going to be costly.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've talked a lot about these altars, and I hope you can see that building altars is an important focus for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: What are you building right now?
SPEAKER_00: Are you build- how are you building your life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you focusing on building altars into your life?
SPEAKER_00: Very, very important.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the takeaway for today, and I think it'll help me down this thought, and that is this altars remind us of who rescued us.
SPEAKER_00: See, altars in our lives are important because it reminds us of who rescued us.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us of our priority, it reminds us that Jesus must be first in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He himself said to his followers, seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things are going to be added to you.
SPEAKER_00: So, next week, we're going to go just a step further, and I hope that be able to tie it together and make even more sense.
SPEAKER_00: Because next week we'll discover that towers aren't made of bricks anymore.
SPEAKER_00: They're made of achievements, reputations, followers, accomplishments, and anything else we hope might make our name to be remembered.
SPEAKER_00: What we're going to see next time is that while altars point to God and say, Look what God has done, towers point to me and say, Look what I have done.
SPEAKER_00: I want that to soak in with you for a little bit this week, and we'll be back next time.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to see that we have a choice when we're building our life.
SPEAKER_00: We can say, Look what God is doing, or we can say, Look at me and look what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, I think for most of us in our current culture, everything points toward me and what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be a reflection of his glory and say, look at what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this time today.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts on this subject matter.
SPEAKER_00: God, show us where we are building altars and where we're building towers.
SPEAKER_00: And God help us to understand the importance of these altars and drill down into our hearts, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to see deep within that we can see whether or not our lives are being built for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: May it be so.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.