The Altars of Change - Special Guest Carl Brock

Episode Description:

What happens when the altars of prayer are neglected? In this powerful message, the call goes forth for believers to return to the place where heaven meets earth. Drawing from Elijah’s restoration of the altar in 1 Kings 18, this teaching explores four life-changing altars: the Altar of Redemption, Transformation, Manifestation, and Power. 

Discover how prayer restores intimacy with God, brings spiritual breakthrough, releases divine power, and positions believers to walk in their God-given purpose. If you are hungry for revival, personal renewal, and a fresh encounter with the presence of God, this message will challenge and inspire you to rebuild the altar in your own life.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Summit Church Podcast. Thank you for joining us as we share weekly sermons and teachings from Summit Church in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Our prayer is that today's message encourages your faith and helps you grow in your relationship with Jesus. Check out our website at summitchurchtn.com. Thanks for listening, and we pray this message encourages you today.

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Did you come today to hear from the Lord? Amen. I I'm thankful today for the for the church that we pastor. We got great people and thank all of you for coming out today. They get to hear some of this twice. Amen. But that's all right. But it's changed a little bit. Amen. God does that. And uh thanks Shift Church. And I just feel like that Church on Fire Shift and Summit are just all we're all one big family. And uh I I know God is doing some great things, amen. I wanna I want to start by saying this is not something I've I've kind of run from from a little while. Pastor's been after me to come preach, and I've I've stayed in behind my pulpit and my comfort zone. So today, I'm just being real with you and honest with you, this is uh a day that the walls come down. It's uh it's been a day that the walls today, me standing here before you is not something I sought after, but walls have come down. I've kind of stayed in my place. Amen. Anybody get hurt or affected by ministry before? Amen. It's it's there, and sometimes the the best place to stay safe is at home, amen. Amen. I I I think about those things, and as I say that, God gave me an assignment with this word. And I'm not gonna tarry much longer, but I just want to say this my assignment today is this title, The Altars of Change. And church, we have to come back to the altars. And we we just recently, the some of the leadership anyway, wanted to rededicate our nation back to God in the month of May, and that took place, and I'm thankful to God for that. But God began to speak to Mickey, and she came to us, and Mickey is one of the most spontaneous people I know, amen. And but I love her, and I know she hears from God, and she spoke and she said, We gotta build altars. And I said, Okay. I said, What's that gonna look like? She said, Well, I don't know. And that's how it began. And we started, and she came around and she's basically giving us at the church on fire and shift church the assignment that we got to build altars for the people, and people got to return to the altars. Then God started dealing with me about the altars of change in our lives. And I I want today, if if I don't get anything else out, I didn't come today just for a shout. I'm old school, I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna get climactic. I may get real loud, amen, but they got somebody that controls the mics, amen. And I I don't always go on script, amen, but uh, but I want the anointing in this place, amen, to break the yokes of bondage. This isn't this isn't something I desire, but but I desire the presence of the Lord. I don't desire the shout, but I desire the people to say yes. Amen. Are you with me this morning? Amen. If you got your Bibles with you, or if you got your phones out with your Bibles on, I want you to turn to 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse 30. And I'm just gonna read one verse right now. Amen. 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse 30. And when you found it, say amen. Amen. Wait just another second. Oh, my wife is here. Praise God. Amen. Amen. 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse 30. And it simply says this, and Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. I want, like I said, my assignment today is the altars of change. And we build up altars in our lives. When we look through the Old Testament, uh, Abraham built altars. We've got men of God, men of old, men of renown that built altars before the Lord. What is an altar? It's a place where we uh get intimate with God. It's a place uh an altar is where uh we begin to pray and talk to God, but not just to talk to him, but to listen. That's something I had to learn. I had to learn how to listen to God. Amen. I I knew how to pray. God, I need this, God, I need that, and God, I want this, and God, I want that. It's not about all of that, amen. I had to learn what was important, and God grew me, and it took him a while, amen, to grow me. Amen. I I liked my life the way it was. I didn't want anything, but God still kept intervening in my life. Amen. And here we find in the book of Kings, Elijah had called all the people to come near unto him. Here we find that the people, amen, the nation, God's people, uh, was stuck between two opinions. They were stuck uh between the opinion uh uh of those prophets of Baal, and they were stuck between the opinion of the God that delivered them. Amen. And when we look at uh uh this story here, I love it, and it the more I read it, the more God brings things out to me. Amen. The prophets of Baal came and and the prophet Elijah made, amen, a decree, basically, and he told them and made a challenge to come out. And let's see, let's end this debate once and all and for all. Amen. Who is God? Amen. If it be Baal, then let it be Baal and we pray to Baal. But if it be God, then we pray to God and it will be God. Amen. Today we got a lot of people serving a lot of different gods. Amen. I know we don't look like it. Uh uh sometimes we don't look at uh even the cell phones that we have, uh, how they become an idol in our lives. Amen. We don't look at uh at the different things that we have in our life, uh, whether it's entertainment, how much entertainment has become an idol in our life. We can't do without it. There's sometimes I know that I've come home from work and been tired, and I'd begin to sit down and I'd say, man, I'd like to watch a good movie. And I began to watch a little movie, turn it off, and then go to YouTube. I'm a YouTuber, amen. I like YouTube, amen. I don't put content out there, but I like to watch content and I like to learn, amen. But I began watching it, and the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and he quickened me. And he said, I want you to talk to me, amen. I sat there a little while longer, and then after a while, God begins to make you uncomfortable when you're not where you're supposed to be. That happens to a few of us, doesn't it? He begins to make us uncomfortable when we're not where we want to be, but let me move on. I'm gonna try to squeeze uh four messages into one today, but I won't keep you past two hours. Amen. In the old testament, an altar was a designated meeting place between God and man, and it still is, let me say. In the Old Testament, an altar marked where heaven touched earth, and it still does today. Amen. An altar in the Old Testament was a place where God revealed himself and something changed. And God told me this today something is about to change. It's not from this man right here, amen, but it's the word that God's given that it's time that we go back and repair the altars and turn back to prayer. Amen. I don't want anything else but God. Amen. Let me be good today. I'm gonna stay on uh script for just a little while. But throughout scripture, altars were and still are a place where God manifests his presence. Altars were and still are a place where covenants are established, where promises are confirmed and judgments stopped. Amen. I didn't have that in my any of my studies before, but when I found that, uh I begin to shout. Amen. Because when we build up an altar of prayer, amen, prayer changes things. Amen. Uh uh see, altars were and still are a place, amen, where prayers become visible. Did you know that? Is there any prayers that you're praying for it to be visible in your life right now? Amen. I'm looking for a change in this place. Amen. And where altars in the Old Testament and they still are a place where instructions are given. Amen. This is good stuff for Carl, amen. It's where man's limitations, in other words, meet God's supernatural ability. Amen. Oh, finding an altar of prayer is necessary for us as believers to be redeemed, to be transformed, to encounter the manifestation of God's presence and walk in the power for the purpose and plan that God has called us to. Uh. I look through the scriptures and I found this. Luke 18 and 1 says this, speaking a parable, he was, that men should always pray and not faint. Amen. In other words, when we pray, we're gonna draw strength and we're not gonna faint. 1 Thessalonians 5 and 17 says this, that we are to pray without ceasing. Oh, let me go a little more word here. 1 Timothy 2 and 8 says, I desire then that in every place men should pray. Every place that men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling. Amen. But one that I really love. One that I really love. I told you I'm a little dramatic, amen, but that's all right. You'll get used to me in about another five minutes, amen. 2 Chronicles chapter 7. Verses 12 through 14. After Solomon had prayed and dedicated and finished the work that God had him do in building his house, amen. The word says this. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night. And uh let me say that again. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon into the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer. I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. If, and some versions will say, when I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, then it goes into this. If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Even in the midst, I never looked at this scripture like this, even in the midst of judgment, it whether you believe uh the word if or whether you believe when, I shut up the heavens so there was no rain, or command the locusts uh uh to devour the land or send pestilence among my people. He says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. Prayer and altars change circumstances and situations. Uh prayer and altars, amen, turn back judgment. Amen. I don't know about anybody else, but I was at a point, young years in my life, where I needed judgment to be turned away from me. I couldn't go no farther where I was. Let me tell you something. Uh sin was making me sick, amen. But I'd been around a little bit of the power of God before that I knew what it was. Even as a young boy, I had to wear braces because I couldn't turn my feet right to walk. And I remember my grandmother. She got my mom and she said, uh, Linda, we're gonna take that boy to church. And there's this church I want to go to. And she went to a spirit-filled church. Amen. And we went in this church. I don't remember it, but this is the stories they handed down to me. And I couldn't walk none without those braces. But as I sat there, the braces, after a while, they had to stay on a certain amount of time. And when those braces were on, my mom took them off. And that's when uh some spirit-filled folks come back and begin to pray. Amen. And as they begin to pray, by the end of service, I was walking the back of the pew. They didn't have chairs back then, but they had a pew. Amen. I didn't know nothing. I didn't know about God. I was just a little baby, uh, just barely old enough. I might have been around two years old or three, whatever it was. But uh, I know this that by the end of service, my grandmother testified to the fact and my mom that God had healed me and I began to walk. Amen. I'm telling you, God will change things when we begin to pray. When we return to the altars, amen. Nations will be changed, homes will be changed, uh, kids will be saved, wives will return to the Lord, husbands will return to the Lord, amen, when we pray. Hallelujah. Prayer changes things. My assignment today, the altars of change. When I'm looking at this, James 5 and 16 teaches us this that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. I like to think about that, and I'm not uh of the deepest of preachers, but I want to flow in the anointing today. I want to tell you this uh it teaches us that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. What does that mean? Fiery prayers, amen. I heard pastor say a hundred times or more bring the fire, Mickey. Bring the fire, Carl. Amen. We need people that can pray fiery prayers. Amen. I'll never forget watching that movie with that little old woman, amen, and how she began to pray. Let me tell you something. They didn't get just anybody for that part, they had to get somebody who had the goods who could pray a fiery prayer. When I'm in trouble, guess what I want? I don't want a blanket prayer. I don't want somebody to play pray over me just something simple, but give me somebody that'll pray with fire, amen. Effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. In other words, it means something to God. It's gonna conquer some things, amen. But not just the fiery prayers, let me just go on praying in the spirit kind of prayers, amen. It moves God, anointed prayers that break the yoke of bondage, it moves God, and hungry and thirsty prayers, they move God. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, Lord. Because these kinds of prayers have weight with God. Oh. Surface prayers ain't gonna cut it. We're in a day and time. I look around, there's a lot of churches, and I don't want to come against churches, uh, but they lack uh power, they lack manifestation. I gotta be good, I gotta stay right there for just a minute. Amen. But but I want to say this everywhere that Jesus went, multitudes followed him. Why was that? Because he operated in power. He had the power to change circumstances, he had the power to change the elements, he had the power to move mountains. Amen. How do we know this? Because he went around and he messed up funerals, he went around and he healed the sick, the blind and the lame, and those that had the issue of blood. Amen. And he spoke to the wind and the sea, and it obeyed. See, when Jesus came on the scene, he changed things up, he messed it uh all up. Amen. It's no wonder the multitudes followed him. Where are the multitudes today? Oh stick your toes out, I'll get them good, and we'll keep on going. Amen. Where are the multitudes at today? The multitudes, amen, that followed Jesus went because there was power in operation. There were manifestations that were taking place, and we're going to get into them just a second. It's no wonder that the multitudes followed him. I want to propose to you today that the multitudes will return when the power returns to the church. That's what I heard the Lord say. It's no wonder the multitudes followed him. It's no wonder why the religious leaders were afraid of him. He didn't do ministry the way they thought it should be done. Amen. He was messing up their system and he was coming in. They were threatened, in other words. Amen. But today we're going to dive into a little bit of this message titled The Altars of Change. I'm not talking about a superficial change. I'm not talking about a temporary new habit. I'm not talking about a new resolution that only lasts for a few days, but I'm talking about an altar that'll truly bring change. I'm talking about a deep structural shift in our life, in our families, in our finances, in our destiny. How many have heard the sing the this saying? And maybe you've even said it yourself. I wish things were different. Change isn't a wish. Change is spiritual construction. Change isn't a wish, it's a spiritual construction. Many believers are frustrated because they're asking God for a change of season, but they haven't built the structure to sustain it. Can I preach there a minute? Oh, in the Old Testament, whenever God wanted to change the course of history and shift a nation or transform individuals, he demanded an encounter at the altar. Amen. Are you with me today? Amen. Change isn't a wish, but it's a spiritual construction. I began to talk with some different people, amen, about construction and building. And if I could get a couple people to bring this altar up. When Mickey asked us about building the altars, amen, said we need to build altars. Our two churches got together and we began to build. And this is the product of what we began to build. And our church is quite a bit smaller than this one. Amen. And we ended up building 20 of these altars. Amen. It almost filled the stage up, amen. Because God has told us and commissioned us that we need to tell people to return to prayer and return to building and repairing the altars. Amen of God. And I, we began to build these altars out of obedience to God. Not uh just to build them to look pretty. I told them, uh, many of them, I said, we're not building them to be a bookshelf. Uh we're not building them, amen, for anything but for prayer. If you can't kneel on your knees, sit on the bench and begin to pray. But in other words, this uh God is here because he's here, amen. And when it's not just this wood, uh piece of wood that we put together, uh, but when we built these altars, amen. When we got God here and we begin to pray, we can see a change, we can see movement, amen. Uh, they sing a song sometimes that drives me up the wall. And I'm gonna step out here. You invited me, so amen. You just get all of me. I'm country as it can be. But they sing this song, I'm climbing up the rough side of the mountain. I don't like that song, amen. Because God told me to speak to the mountains as though they are not, as though they are. Let me tell you this uh when we begin to pray, we'll see mountains move, we'll see elements change. There's times we prayed and I prayed. I said, God, stay the rain just for a little while. And I kid you not, not because I'm some great thing, but because God is in me. And when I prayed that, I saw the rain stop. And when the rain stopped, we done what we needed to. And immediately after we got done, guess what? It started to rain. Hallelujah. But construction. See, change is a spiritual construction that a lot of people don't want to go through. Sometimes it's painful. Amen. Can I talk about a few altars today? The altars that bring change. The first one, and I'm going to try to go through these as quickly as possible because I feel God wants us in the altar today. The first altar is the altar of redemption. This is where your past is buried and exchanged. This is a place of salvation where our guilt is traded for God's grace. No doubt many of you in here we profess to be saved. Amen. And we know that, but I want to just tell you what's important. Because even though each of these altars are not really different, at different times in our lives, we come to different places in our lives. And at one time, old Carl had to get on the altar of redemption. Amen. And it had to change me. It had to turn me upside down. Was Carl totally changed? No, I'm not going to talk about it yet, but there's an altar of transformation that began to take place in me after I was at the altar of redemption. Is this all right today? Redemption isn't something we earn through good behavior, it is a free gift paid for by the blood of Jesus. Amen. Redemption is what happens when we surrender all, say all, of who we are to God and repent. Let me say this: redemption cannot begin until our control ends. Redemption cannot begin till our control ends. You know why it took me a long time to get things right with God? Because I didn't want to release the control. Come on, if I preach on me, I stay out of trouble. I preach on Mickey, I get in trouble. Amen? Many of us are exhausted because we are trying to fix what only the blood of Jesus can wash away. You ever seen people so exhausted in ministry that they're running over here to do this and then they're running over here to do that, and we got to get this done and we got to get that done? Thank God He delivered me from all that. Amen. Guess what? If I see something on the floor when I'm walking into church that morning, I'll pick it up. But if I don't, I ain't sweating the details. Amen. Amen. Because in the Bible, altars were messy places anyway. Amen. I'm not saying our church should be messy, amen. But that's the way I'm looking at this. Amen. Because it's more important that the power of God be released, amen, to the believers, so that we can turn this world upside down for Jesus. Amen. We can't fix everything, but God can take care of everything. Amen. Let me tell you about this altar of redemption. You arrive here as a captive. You arrive here as a captive to sin, but you leave as a redeemed child of God. Did they get Ephesians 1 and 7 up? I don't know. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. Oh, I'm glad my guilt met grace. Are you today? Let me go to the second altar. Amen. Thank you for having that time up there. Amen. Hallelujah. The second altar is the altar of transformation. This is where our character is built and our present is reshaped. Now it's not just one thing, but it's twofold here. Where our character is built and our present is reshaped. Did you know that God has to work on our character? Amen. Oh man, my daughter-in-law, I don't think she's here today, but bless God. When Josiah was growing up, I prayed, God give him a woman like his mama. Somebody fiery, somebody full of the Spirit of the Lord. Amen. And then he sent, he came home one day and brought Victoria home. Amen. And Victoria was a little, I'm going to just say it this way, and she knows this. I've had this conversation, so I'm not talking about her. She was a little different than what I expected from Josiah. Amen. She came in and she needed a little more of Jesus. Amen. That's the best way I know to say it. And I was looking and I said, God, if this ain't the one, you get her gone right now. Come on, moms and dads. Don't tell me you ain't prayed that prayer. Amen. And she wasn't what I was looking for. She didn't look like I thought she should look on the outside. Amen. She didn't talk like she needed to talk. Amen. But God was doing a work in her. Sometimes God will put people in your life that you wonder, what in the world is God doing? And God brought her into our household. And we'd sit at the dinner table and pray. And I'd look up every once in a while because when we would pray, she'd be looking around at everybody. Amen. She didn't grow up like this. Amen. But I'm here to tell you that God has done a turnaround and begin to change. And she's experiencing transformation in her life. Amen. I'm still preaching on redemption and a little bit on transformation now. Redemption at the altar of redemption. See, redemption changes our eternal destiny. But transformation prepares you or your character for your future. Amen. That's what transformation does. How many want to stay stuck? Mm-mm. Redemption is immediate. Transformation is a process. Oh God, thank you for working on me. Redemption changes where you're going, but transformation changes who you are while you're walking there. Come on. We aren't going to stay the same. When God saved me, I didn't know what I needed to know. I didn't know the spiritual warfare. I didn't know about that there were devils and demons in the spirit realm that was coming after me and that the enemy wanted to steal, kill, and destroy my life. I thought, well, once I'm saved, I'm okay and everything's good to go. But I found out there's more to my relationship with God. I don't want religion. I don't want to kneel down and get salvation and then turn from God and turn away from it. But I want to keep moving, amen, and process, in the process that God has me in. Amen. Romans chapter 12 and verse 2 says this. See, you can't be transformed unless you begin to change this upstairs. Where's the battlefield that goes on? Right here. And if it stays here long enough, then it goes to here. You know that? Amen. One old preacher told me one time when I was young in the Word, and I didn't understand it or even have a clue, but he said it, and I've never forgotten it. He said, When sin becomes sin is when you begin to paint the picture. In other words, if it stays up here too long, amen, it's going to get you in trouble. You're going to take it into here. What you entertain or the devils you enjoy playing with, amen, ain't going to go away. Amen. You've got to give them an eviction notice. Amen. Oh, hallelujah. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. God's had me in places where I've had to turn off the entertainment a little more. He's had me in places where I've not had to be looking at projects and say, I need to do this and I need to do that. I've had to go to the Word of God and begin to pray and begin to study. I'll tell you this: when we had the fire at the church, amen. I will I just sat in the ground when the church was on fire. Amen. It was fit in the name at that time. But I didn't like this fire. It came to destroy what God had wanted. And I sat out there in the yard and I began to weep. God, I don't understand. We just got here. We just got in this building and this work that you want us to do. And as I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself and thinking, God, how are we going to pay for this? And how are we going to pay for that? And how's this going to happen? We had insurance, but I didn't know that it was going to cover everything. But the fire chief came out and he told me this. And I'm telling you these stories, not to glorify me or the church that I pastor or anything else, but I want to glorify God. He came out there and I don't know if he was a saved man or not, but it kind of sounded like it. And he said, Pastor, and I looked up at him and I had tears still on my face, and I was wiping them off. He said, I want to tell you this. He said, I want to tell you your God story in this. And I said, What is it? And this is what I've called it. This is our God story. Amen. Where the fire started, amen. Started right next to the water main and it got so hot it burst the water main and the water mane put the fire out. Amen. That's what God will do, amen. Amen. When we begin to pray, it resolves situations. I begin to wipe my tears. I begin to feel better. Put my shoulders back, and I said, okay, where's the insurance company? Amen. Where's the people I need to talk to so we can get back to what we need to do? 1 Kings 18 and 30, we read, but I want to say this about this scripture. Before the prophet Elijah could see fire fall from heaven, he had to repair the altar of the Lord that was broken down. See, the altar had been neglected. Why was it neglected? Because they were standing between two opinions. The nation was standing there and they were worshiping Baal, and then you had the altar of God, and the altar of God was neglected. Oh, the fire of God. Thank you, Holy Ghost. The fire of God will not fall on abandoned altars. I want to say that first. What are neglected altars? Can I say it this way? Part-time altars. Oh, neglected altars gather dust because we don't pray enough. If we don't dust the house at our house ever so often, man, the dust gets real thick. Oh, that the tears would take away the dust on the altar, that we would get back to an altar of prayer, that we would repent at the altar of redemption, and that God would begin to grow us at the altar of transformation. Amen. Hallelujah. Transformation will always cost you something. A sacrifice is not a loss. A sacrifice is a seed sown into your destiny. In other words, when I sacrifice the entertainment, what am I getting in return? Oh, I'm sowing a seed that God's going to bring a harvest from. Amen. Oh, if we could learn to turn, and I ain't trying to be bad, I got a TV, I got four or five TVs in my home, but if we could turn the TV off or the turn the phones off for a little while and begin to pray, what kind of change would we see in our homes and in our children today? If you want to transform mind, you have to do this. Sacrifice toxic environments. Sacrifice toxic environments. If you want to transform mind, you have to sacrifice unhealthy and ungodly relationships. God gave me another thing here. If you want to transform prayer life, you have to sacrifice an hour of sleep sometimes. If you want to transform prayer life, you have to sacrifice an hour of entertainment. We've already brought that up. Fire doesn't fall on empty altars, on abandoned altars, and on neglected altars. And then the Lord spoke this to me. If there isn't any wood and no meat, there isn't anything for God to burn. Absence leaves an altar empty. I don't have that in my notes. You write that down, honey. Absence keeps the altar empty. You know what comes to mind here for this altar of transformation? The story of Cornelius comes to mind. In Acts chapter 10, Cornelius' altar shattered prejudiced. God broke Peter's religious traditions to open the door of faith to the Gentiles. It wasn't just to the Jews, but it was to the Gentiles. Oh, thank you, Jesus. How powerful that we see this. The one I want to get to, and I'm going to move just a little bit faster, is this the altar of manifestation. This is the third altar that we come to in our life. The altar of redemption, the altar of transformation, the altar of manifestation. This is where our faith becomes a visible reality. In other words, look at your neighbor and say, That's the breakthrough. Hallelujah. And it says this, and David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. And then 1 Chronicles 22 and 1. Then David said, Here shall be the house of God. And here the altar of burnt offering for Israel. Now I want to go to 1 Kings 18 and 38. I'm giving you some scripture here, and you can do some studying on your own. Don't just take let me say this. Anybody that stands behind the pulpit and preaches, you need to know the word of God. Amen. I'm telling you, there's too many things that are being said that isn't factual. But this scripture says this then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Oh, hallelujah. In both David and Elijah's cases, or in their stories, the fire was God's signature, if you will. It was his seal of approval on their sacrifice. From Elijah, we learn that the altar of manifestation brings evidence that silences the critics. Think about that. For Elijah, the fire ended the deception of the false prophets. That's what it did. See, when manifestation happens, amen, it ends deception. It'll silence the critics, in other words. The altar of manifestation, in other words, will bring, always bring clarity. Is that not what it did there for Elijah? From David, we learned the fire showed that the plague was over. From David, we learn the sword was sheathed and judgment was stayed or stopped. See, we learn this. Amen. When we build our altar, it will stop cycles of plagues. When we build our altar, when we pray, amen, we will go from a season of judgment and a season of struggle to a season of approval. Right there is what God spoke to me, really strong. That we're going from a season of judgment and a season of struggle to a season of approval. If we'll make an altar, rebuild the altar, and begin to pray again, we will see the hand of God. We will experience the manifestation of God. And his manifestation will bring clarity, amen, to what's going on in our lives. Manifestation doesn't happen on a dusty prayer life. Manifestation doesn't happen when we have a cluttered heart with distractions or idols. Amen. A manifestation doesn't happen when lives are filled with mixture. In other words, when we're filled between two opinions. Is it Baal or is it God? Let me say this, and I'm not careful to say it. They're not the same. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, Lord. God gave me this, and I wrote it down for me and Mickey, and I feel I'm going to say this here. I declare that the fire of God is falling upon your obedience right now. And that it is consuming the bales of your past. What you have prayed for in secret is moving into public manifestation. What you have prayed for is moving into public manifestation. Oh, oh, the bells ain't going to be strong enough to hold you down. Guess what? We done found out. They're going to be silent because they can't hear you. Amen. Amen. Can I go back to Romans where this is concerned? This is Romans 12 and 1. And it says this I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. In other words, we're not killing things and putting them on the altar and having to sacrifice them no more. That'd be pretty messy in here on this carpet, wouldn't it? Amen. But we're coming as a living sacrifice. Who's the sacrifice? We are. We are the sacrifice. You know what's scary about living sacrifices? They tend to want to walk away from the altar and the power and the presence of God. We can't walk away from this. Amen. Oh, what God has called us to, amen. We need to stick it out. We are the sacrifice. Our time, our focus, and our surrender are the wood that's on the altar. Amen. Put something on the altar, the Lord says that'll burn. Amen. Put all of you on the altar, not some of you. You're not a part-time Christian. You may have a job. I hate that when they say, well, I'm in full-time ministry. Amen. Me too. And guess what? I got another job to go along with it. And I'm okay. Why is that? Because I'm not a part-time Christian. Amen. When I go into work, I'm praying. When I'm leaving work, I'm walking through the parking lot praying. So much so that one guy, every time he sees me and we're there at the same time, he'll come up and we'll pray together, walking into that hospital. I know this prayer changes things. When we go from one altar in the process from redemption to transformation, we can't help but come into the altar of manifestation and we'll see God's presence manifested. God showed me this. Without an altar, there's no landing strip for his power to manifest. Without an altar, without prayer happening, we don't have a landing strip. How many know a plane has to have a landing strip? Leviticus 6 and 13 says this the fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, and it shall never go out. And we come to the fourth altar, the altar of power. I had to look at this a little different because in my mind, in my little bit of education, I thought, well, is manifestation not power? It is. But this is the altar of power where we are empowered. Where your personal breakthrough becomes territorial authority. I understand this. Oh, this church has power in Pigeon Forge. Not just Pigeon Forge. But it has power, it has territorial authority. Church on fire and shift? Oh, it's got territorial authority with it. See, we have to come to these other altars, the altar of redemption, the altar of transformation, and the altar of manifestation, where God manifests Himself to us. Amen. And then comes the altar of power. Amen. What did we see in the book of Acts? And you've been preaching there in chapter 2. We saw that the church come and they began to speak in tongues, and amen. And then not only Acts chapter 2, I'm getting more familiarized with Acts. Amen. In Acts chapter 10, we find Cornelius' prayers and what had happened, amen, uh, to the Jews happened, amen, to the Gentiles, and they were filled with the Spirit and the presence of God. See, once you've been where the manifestation of God is, you can't help but walk in power. Hallelujah. Thank you for the four of you that said something. Amen. And I'm not trying to get after you, but I'm telling you, we need churches to be full of the power of God. We've had too many churches stand up and build a house of God, supposedly, and I'll say it in quotes, out of man's ambitions, amen, out of men's methods and out of egos. Amen. I'm telling you, I don't want an ego stroke no more. I'm too old for that. Amen. I don't want, I don't have an ambition. I didn't want to be a pastor in the first place, but God called me to be. Amen. So I've got to do it. Amen. Because it teaches me in the word that is gives and the calling of God is without repentance. Amen. I'm not gonna have to try to repent for something I'm not doing. Amen. But I'm gonna do what God says to do. We're building churches today that don't have power. Why is it the multitudes are disappearing? You can blame it on whatever you want. COVID, you can blame it on all these different things, and people went to doing more church online. Oh, but let me tell you something. You let somebody hear about the power of God being manifested in this house and watch and see if I know there's a lot of chairs here. Watch and see if every chair ain't full. That's what happened to Jesus. He messed it all up. He had he was coming and then they didn't want to go away. And when he'd try to leave, they hear they'd come and follow him. Amen. And you have to send him away. He even had to feed them because he stayed so long. Amen. Come on. This is the God that I'm talking about. But we need that kind of power in operation in the house of God. We don't need something built on something else. Amen. Or a man's thoughts and opinions. Many churches today aren't seeing the manifestation of God's presence. They're not seeing or operating with the power of God. Let me go into this and I'm getting ready to close. They want to come up to the music, that's fine. In 1 Chronicles 21. And we're not going to read all of it, but it's eight. The scriptures are 1 Chronicles 21, 18 through 28. This is where David bought the threshing floor of Ornan. He wasn't a Jew, he was a Jebusite. And when David bought it, see, he said, I'll just give it to you. David said, No, I don't want something that hasn't cost me something. People say they want it, but they're not willing to pay the cost. We say that we want this and we want that and we want to see these things, but we're not paying the cost. What is that cost? It's that we go to prayer. Prayer is warfare. We've got to rebuild the altars. Amen. Even before the fire came down, guess what? Elijah had to rebuild the altar. And it said he laid all the wood in order and he done all this stuff. Amen. In other words, he was preparing. What does God want us to do today? He wants us to prepare. Prepare us. Prepare the sacrifice. We're not preparing the sacrifice. Oh, can I go just a little farther? But he bought the threshing floor of Ornan and built an altar there. And in 2 Chronicles 22 and 1, I think we've already read it, but if they've got it, want to put it up, David declared, Here shall be the house of the Lord. In other words, where the altar was. And if this is new revelation for you, great, but but it was new to me, so don't burst my bubble. Second Chronicles 3 and 1, Solomon began to build the house of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 3 and 1. He began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David his father at the place that David appointed on the threshing floor. Say the altar. But maybe we can look at Isaiah 56 and 7, and maybe we can look at this and it dives us a little deeper. Even them will I bring to my holy mountain. What were they on? Mount Moriah. And make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar, for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. And again in Matthew 21 and 13, when Jesus was getting mad at them for what they were doing, he goes in. Amen. And he said the same thing. But you've turned it into a den of thieves. God doesn't just manifest his glory to give you a personal blessing. The manifestation of glory isn't just for your personal goosebumps. When we come to an altar, amen, and we go through redemption and we go through transformation and then we come to manifestation. The manifestation of Him and His presence is what brings the power. It brought it on both the churches in the book of Acts, chapter 2 and chapter 10. And Acts 1 and 8 says this but you shall receive power, say power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me. Acts is New Testament, right? See, I have a problem, and I gotta say it. I have a problem when we come to God's house and say, Well, God's good for me and I'll accept salvation, but that's as far as I want it. God has something more. See, his house wasn't meant to be a house of religion, it wasn't meant to be a house just of worship. We worship here, but it wasn't built on worship. It wasn't built on the children's ministry, on the youth ministry, or anything else. But it was built on a house of prayer, and I find it interesting here that the very place that David built an altar on the threshing floor, amen, where a change. When you get into that same mountain, you find that's where Abraham bought Isaac, amen. And Isaac was there, but guess what? It wasn't Isaac that was going to be crucified on that mountain. I don't know how big that mountain range is. I don't know the exact spot, but I know this Jesus was crucified there, real close, amen, to where we're talking about. So it wasn't to be Isaac, so it was stayed. But he built a temple on the altar. In other words, he built the temple on prayer. Maybe, maybe that's why we find in New Testament scriptures and the old, where it says, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. It was meant for all nations. Luke 10 and 19. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents, scorpions, and over the power of the enemy. And nothing, say nothing, shall by any means hurt you. He gave us power. Amen, but it's about relationship. Oh, two more minutes. Okay. If more churches operated in the power of God, the Lord gave this to me, I believe the multitudes couldn't help but show up. It's time we stop making excuses, church, and go back to the altars of God. Amen. And begin to pray again. Ignite the flame that used to be in your life. Amen. God saved you, but he gave you power to tread over the serpents. He gave us power over the enemy. Amen. Amen. In Genesis, and I've said this for years now. When I was a young minister and didn't realize the fullness of it till just now. In Genesis, we were fighting the serpent, but in the book of Revelation, the serpent turns to a dragon. Amen. And we didn't we can't defeat the dragon with the serpent anointing. Guess what? We need a dragon anointing. We need the power of God manifested in our lives. Amen. That God will use us. Amen. We cannot stay silent no more. We cannot stay on neglected altars and dust them off when somebody's coming over. Amen. But we've got to return to the altars of God. Amen. God wants, I told you I don't want to shout. I just want your yes. Amen. But whatever God does is okay. When you leave the altar here, the altar of power, you will be equipped to heal the brokenhearted. You will be equipped to stand unshakable in spiritual warfare. Oh, you'll have them cleats in your shoes like the soldiers used to have. And the enemy ain't gonna be able to budge you, in other words. Amen. If he backs you up a step, it ain't gonna be too, amen, because God is our deliverer and he'll be with us in a time of need. But I can't leave without saying this four pillars of the altar. And I'm not gonna lie, I kind of looked this up and I found this. Mickey did actually. And it says this surrender establishes the altar, the altar of redemption. Alignment strengthens the altar. That's the transformation. Sacrifice sanctifies the altar. In other words, that's the seed, and that's where we see the altar of manifestation. And then persistence sustains the altar. That's the altar of power. The altar of redemption is entered through surrender, the altar of transformation is maintained through alignment, the altar of manifestation is revealed through sacrifice, and the altar of power is attained through persistence. So I came all the way over. This is my assignment to ask you. What kind of altar is your prayers building? Where are you at? Just stand up across the place. Where are you at in your life? Are you needing the altar of redemption? There's no shame you can come down to this altar right now. Are you needing the altar of transformation? This altar is open across here. Come on, I've asked for your yes this morning. This is not something I wanted, amen, but it's something God said. Maybe you need the altar of manifestation where God reveals himself to you. The altar of power. You love the Lord today, Pastor. I'm going to turn it over to you. I've said and done what I felt like God told me to say and do. But this altar is open. Don't forsake your altar. If you have to come up here and do something in the physical, wipe the dust off. We've had to do that. Can I share one more story? It's real quick. Keep coming. Don't wait on me. I might go for a while. And we got to get this thing going. But but it was told to me by a member of our church, and he said this. He said, we were talking about the altars and how we're going to bring them home and we're going to make a space in our home. God isn't just here, God's here. But what this altar does, it's a reminder of where we found what we needed from God. And he was telling me, he said that he was told. He said, when those altars come to our house, we're going to have to clean our house up. And I went home and I said, God, I thank you. I thank you that you're already speaking to the hearts of the people that you're going to clean some houses up. That altars will be restored. That prayers will begin to be prayed again. That we won't be stuck between two opinions, but we'll have one, and it'll be to God our Father.