The Altar

This message is from Salem Methodist Church.  I will attempt to post all of the messages I preach here, however, this is not a park service. 

The Altar

9/20/2026

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So I just learned um last week that uh this center part of the altar can be taken out, and there it is right there. Um I didn't realize that that that's what it was sitting in there, and uh that this altar um was built uh what around 75 years ago, right? So you know we've had an altar here for 75 years, and um you know the altar has become huge to me in my life. I mean, almost every huge decision I've ever made for the Lord um had to do with me walking from wherever I was out there to right there and kneeling down at an altar. I mean, so many exchanges, wonderful uh exchanges have taken place in my life at an altar. And it always involved that that butterfly, that worrying about what people thought, worrying about everything and that just draw and that pull. And you know, sometimes I sit there and clutched on and I never moved. But the times I moved were some of the greatest, greatest moments of my life. And how cool is it that we have a uh a built-in altar right here at our church. Um, and your knees don't even have to hurt, it's padded, you know. I mean, like that's that's pretty cool. But these things that I believe I've taken for granted for so long are starting to become so important to me. Um, probably around a couple months ago, um, I I decided to do this like 100 days of communion. I don't even know why I came up with a hundred, but you know, I bought the little pre-filled cups, you know, and and I read and I try to get one word and I just take the Lord's communion. I've learned every place in the Bible that communion uh is taking place. I'll probably mess it up right here because I'm in front of you. But if you go to Matthew 26, 26, there's your first uh communion, you know, right there. If you go to Mark 14, 22, there's your the the same thing said in a in a little different wording through Mark. Um you go to Luke, uh it's chapter 22, and uh John um he talks about everything else, but he actually could uh skips the communion um ceremony, you know, where he says this is my body take. And um then you can go to um first Corinthians chapter 11, and those those are the places that you can read about the communion, and no matter what I'm doing, you know, whatever I've decided, I I'm just it's just me and the Lord, and I open up that that Bible and I try to just pretend it is Jesus Himself telling me to break and eat and telling me to take this cup and drink. And it's just been some of the most wonderful moments of my life these last couple months. This week has been terrible. I mean, it's like I've I've not been able to just connect with the Lord every time I try, something happens, something goes up. And you know, at first, uh, you know, it is easy to say, oh, well, it's just the devil trying to keep you from that. But um I really believe this week that that it was God that put up these barriers for me because I think he wanted me to know what it feels like for people who are lost without God. Guys, I mean, think about it. I want you to think about what we have in this right here. I mean, think about it. We understand the salvation of the cross. We have had our sins forgiven, and no matter what we've done, no matter how bad we've been, we can always go get alone with him, and he'll forgive us every single time. He'll restore our relationship with him. We have that, and this week it just felt like I haven't had that. And I'll tell you what changed everything is one day when I came up this week and I just practiced the piano, just worshiped the Lord by playing the piano, and I knelt down right here and just made the exchange, you know, like Lord, it's my sinful life, my sin, my worldliness that I'm bringing, and he gives me perfection. You know, he just clothes me with righteousness. And man, what did we do to deserve that? Nothing. And he gives it so freely, and we have that, and we have this altar. And these guys, I'm just gonna let the Bible preach itself. Um, and I want to show you something that this group of people did that, I mean, maybe I've interpreted this wrong. I've done this a couple of times, and and some people are like, well, you know, I think you're wrong about this. But I'll let you be the judge and we'll just let the we'll just let the Bible talk about it. But right here we see this, these tribes, it's Reuben and Gad. Okay, now we should know who they are. If you go back to uh Jacob, you know, Jacob really loved Rachel, right? But uh Laban tricked him into marrying Leah. He didn't want Leah, he wanted Rachel, so he worked seven more years for Rachel, and each one of them gave them like this, their these handmaids or whatever, uh Zilpah and what was the other one's name? Um what is it? Was it WordPress? I don't think so. I I knew it right before I got up here. Bilah and Zilpa, I think is their name. And um, and man, it just became this baby making contest. And they had Reuben, they had Gad, they had Judah, they had like all this, and that's where the 12 tribes of Israel come from. And we got Reuben and Gad. Okay, now I did this a little bit like one of those movies where it shows you some huge scene, and then they say, Yeah, years earlier, and they build back up to it. Okay, so right here we got these guys, they're defending themselves. We built an altar, right? But if we did it for ourselves to turn away from the Lord or to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings, may the Lord punish us. The truth is we built this altar because we fear that in the future your descendants will say to us, What right do you have to worship the Lord? They think they're gonna be forgotten. The Lord has placed the Jordan River as a barrier. Now, did the Lord do this? We're gonna find out. Did the Lord place this barrier between them? Um, you have they're gonna they worried that their people will forget about them. So they built an altar that they didn't even plan on using. Okay, like an altar is meant to be used for that sacrifice to go on that altar. This morning, before I came up here, I said, Lord, there's no way I can preach to them. I just feel like I haven't been with you all week. I don't want to step up there and there'd be no power. So I took a walk and I did the prayer that I told you guys one of the first weeks I was here. I just walked through the tabernacle, I went through that gate, enter into his gates with praise, enter into his courts with praise, his gates with thanksgiving. Boy, I just entered in and ran right into that brazen altar. And boy, I thought about Jesus and all that he had done for me. And I just made the exchange and it was so instant. And boy, then I just went to that labor and I just cleaned all the worldliness off of myself. I went over to the show bread and thanked him for the bread that leads to life. Thank him for the bread of the word, because man does not live on just bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. I walked over to that menorah and I just filled myself up with oil and I asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. And I just walked over to that altar of incense and just lit it up and watched that little spiral go up to heaven and say, Lord, please hear my prayers as I just beg of you to use me in a way that's useful, Lord. I don't want to get up there and just make some great sermon and it all have come from my own mind. I want your power to be all over it. Boy, then I walked into the Holy of Holy, and boy, I just enjoyed just being in the presence of the Lord. And I have so enjoyed every bit of it this morning. But I want to talk about this tribe, and I want you to see what they did to come to this place of their conversation. I wanted all of us to be together, so let's open this book, page 189, okay? Everybody should have one. And listen, if you're like at the end of this, if you're like, Adam, don't you ever read that much again. I'll change, okay? If it's hitting your thing, I'll just tell the story. But I think y'all are gonna enjoy this as much as I enjoyed this. We're gonna go to page 189, Numbers chapter 32, okay? And and remember, keep this in mind. That was the middle of the movie. We're going to the beginning of the movie to see how all this happened, okay? So 189. Y'all got there quicker than me. All right. All right, here we go. Now the Reubenites and the Gadites, the Gadites are gonna be the main ones I want to talk about. They owned a very great number of cattle. Like, man, we are so wealthy in animals. All right. When they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a good place for cattle, the Gadites and the Reubenites came and spoke to Moses, to Eliezer the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, Adaroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshban, Elach, Elielah, whatever, Sebum, Nebo, and beyond, the land that the Lord subdued before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle, they continued. If we have found favor in your sight, let this be the land given to your servants for a possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan, okay? Don't make us look, we got all these animals, man. Like we got we're we're so rich. And boy, this land right here, it looks so good. And I know God wants us to go into the promised land, but right here on this side of the Jordan, that is not the promised land. We want to just hang out here. We don't want to go all the way in. How many Christians in churches today, like, boy, I really like the singing, I like the preaching, I like the fellowship, I like the good things that we do. But I don't want to go all the way in. I don't, don't, don't make me really consecrate my life. I don't know if I really want to do this this Christian thing. I mean, that is where they are. Like we're very, very wealthy, and we want to stay on this side. Now, I think Moses recognized it for what it was. Okay. So, let's see if I can find my place again. All right, verse 6. But Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here? Why will you discourage the hearts of the Israelites from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? Your fathers did this when I sent them from Kadash Barnea to see the land. When they went up to the Wadi Eskol and saw the land, they discouraged the hearts of the Israelites from going into the land that the Lord had given them. The Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, Surely not one, none of the people who came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward shall see the land that I swore to them to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not unreservedly followed me, none except Caleb, son of Jephunah, and Kenazite and Joshua, son of nun, for they have unreservedly followed the Lord. The Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until all the generations that had done evil in the sight of the Lord had disappeared. And now you, a brood of sinners, have risen in place of your fathers to increase the Lord's fierce anger against Israel. If you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people. Moses says, I've seen this before. We went to scout out Jericho. And the people were saying, Oh, we can't we can't go in because there's giants there. You know, we we can't do it. You know, we we lost our faith, and the Lord made us wander around for 40 years. And now here you think you all this prosper, and you're like, Oh, well, this is good enough for me. We don't want to go in. Moses is like, have you lost your mind? Verse 16. Then they came up to him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our flocks and towns for our little ones, but we will take up arms as a vanguard before the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Meanwhile, our little ones will stay in the fortified towns because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until all the Israelites have obtained their inheritance. We will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east. Okay, like we just want to settle here. This land's good for what we want to do. And hey, when it's time to fight, we'll head on over and we'll we'll fight with you. You know, we'll we'll do the good things that that that we know God wants us to do, but we're just gonna stay here. Our wives, our children, we're gonna build stuff and we're gonna we're gonna plant it here. So Moses told them, if you do this, if you take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, and all those of you who bear arms cross the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before the Lord, then after that you may return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel. This land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you do not do this, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. And guys, I have used that verse so long. Be sure your sin will find you out. And I never knew that was the context. Never knew it. Okay. Um, build towns for your little ones and folds for your flocks, but do what you have promised. And the Gadites and the Reubenites said to Moses, Your servants will do as my Lord commands. Little ones, wives, flocks, livestock shall remain there in the towns of Gilead, but your servants will cross over. Everyone armed for war, do battle for the Lord, uh, just as my Lord orders. And so Moses gave the command concerning to Eliezer the priest and Joshua. So without reading it, he just tells them, he just tells them the plan. Okay. Now, let's fast. That's how it all came about. Okay. We don't know anything about an altar yet. All we just know is that they don't want to go all the way into the promised land because life's good right here. I like my life right here. Okay. I don't want to go on into the other side. Now let's go to page 240 to Joshua chapter 1. 240, which is Joshua chapter 1. Alright, and I'm going to start in verse 10. Okay. Preparations for the invasion. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, pass through the camp and command the people, prepare your provisions, for in three days you are to cross over the Jordan, to go and to take possession of the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess. I don't know how much time those Reubenites and Gadites and all this had to start preparing thou town. But they were already building their lives. This is the day where they were to go across. Okay? This is the day it was all happening. Okay. So those Reubenites and Gadites had to suit up and they go to war. And as far as I can tell, they did fight with their brothers. Okay. To the Reubenites and to the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, Remember the word that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The Lord your God's providing you a place of rest, and will give you this land. Your wives, your little ones, your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan. But all the warriors among you shall cross over arm before your kindred and shall help them, till the Lord gives rest to your kindred as well as to you, and they too take possession of the land that your Lord God, that the Lord God has given them. Then you shall return to your own land and take possession of it, the land that Moses, the servant the Lord, gave you beyond the Jordan to the east. They answered Joshua, All that you've commanded us will do, and wherever you send us we'll go, just as we obeyed Moses and all these things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous. So here's the thing they got exactly what they wanted. Okay? All right, you wanted to still fight with us, help us get the land, great. But you are parked here on this side of the Jordan, not the promised land that God had promised. Okay? Now, one more, uh, two more places. Joshua 22, so we're gonna go to page 264. 264. Alright, now if you look up there to verse 43, the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors. Right? They got it. They're here. Okay? Now let's look what happens in chapter 22. Joshua summoned, Reubenites, Gadites, half tribe of Manasseh, and said to them, You've observed all the the Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, and have obeyed me in all that I have commanded you. You've not forsaken your kindred these many days down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charges of the Lord your God. Now the Lord your God has given rest to your kindred as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the other side of the Jordan. Take good care to observe the commandment and instruction that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, to love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, keep his commandments, hold fast to him, serve him with all your heart, with all your soul. So Joshua blessed them and sent them away. And they went to their tents. Now, to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses gave a possession. Okay, he basically said the same thing to the to the other thing. Okay. So there you go. You got exactly what you wanted. So then why are they doing verse 10? Okay. When they came to the region near the Jordan that lies in the land of Canaan, Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of great size. The Israelites heard that the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh had built an altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan in the region near the Jordan on the side that belongs to the Israelites. And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh to make war against them. Guys, the altar belongs in the temple courts. There is a gate, and the altar belongs inside the outer courts of the temple of God. And they just decide they're just gonna build this big ol' altar. Okay? And I'm telling you, the rest of the Israelites were like, Whoa, you are not gonna do this. Alright? I mean, it was fighting words like crazy. Verse 13. Then the Israelites sent the priest Phineas, son of Eliezer, to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, and with them ten chiefs from one of one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them, the head of a family among the clans of Israel. They came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, and they said, Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, what is this treachery that you have committed against the God of Israel and turning away today from following the Lord? By rebuilding yourselves an altar today in rebellion against the Lord. Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor, from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and from which a plague came upon the congregation of the Lord that you must turn away today from following the Lord? And look up that sin of Peor. Look at how the like prostitution and all this kind of ran through the camp, and how one guy went up there and took a spear and planted it through two people to end this plague and this it's crazy. Awesome, awesome story. They never make movies about those kinds of things. All right. If you rebel against the Lord today, he'll be angry with the whole congregation of Israel tomorrow. But now, if your land is unclean, cross over to the Lord's land where the Lord's tabernacle now stands. Hey, if you don't like where you are right now, come on into the kingdom, come into the Lord's land, come into the promised land. Take for yourselves a possession among us. Only don't rebel against the Lord or rebel against us by building ourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. Did not Achan, son of Zira, break faith in the manner of the devoted things? And wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel, and he did not perish alone for his iniquity. Then the Reubenites, Gadites, half tribe of Manasseh said, in answer to the heads of the family of Israel, the Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods, he knows, and let Israel itself know. If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith toward the Lord, do not spare us today for building an altar to turn away from the following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or offerings of well-being on it, may the Lord Himself take vengeance. No. And then we get to where we just read here today. So they didn't like it when they got what they wanted. And now all of a sudden they're worried. Oh, well, you're just gonna forget us. Well, duh, you chose to live outside of God's promised land. And here's the craziest thing. Guess which one was the first tribes that got conquered right here? Because they didn't even have the river as protection. They chose the side of the river where they were completely wide open to their enemies. But hey, we had nice stuff and we needed to take care of it. You see what I'm saying? That's what happened. The altar is not there as a memorial. The altar is there for an exchange to take place, the holy for the unholy. And how wonderful is it that in this church today there is an altar, not for us to just look at it and say, boy, isn't that nice to have? I don't really need it because I got nice things. My refrigerator's full, my bank account's fine, I can pay all my bills, I got everything I need, and boy, that altar is really, really nice. No, let's use this for the exchange to take place that needs to happen in every single soul that is alive before they draw their last breath. It is not gonna matter. You know, all this stuff that we had in our lives, all that is going to matter is did you make the great exchange your unholy life for his holy life? Remember Paul Harvey? Wonder what the rest of this story is. Go to page 47 in the New Testament. This will not be as long, okay? Remember that demon-possessed guy in Mark 5 that Jesus healed? Well, if you don't, you're about to find out about him now. All right. They came to the other side of the sea and into this country of the Garasenes. Now, look at the little footnote, also known as the Gadarines. Also the descendants of this person we just talked about right here. This is the region that they were in. Okay? When they stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him anymore, even with a chain. For he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him night and day among the tombs, and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed before him, and he shouted at the top of his voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he had said to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. Then Jesus asked him, What's your name? He replied, My name is Legion, for we are many. He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was on the hillside a great herd of swine that was feeding. So those boys back in the day that didn't want to go into the promised land because boy, we've got cattle, we've got sheep, we've got all these wonderfully clean animals that the Lord has blessed us with, and we want to raise them here. Well, what are they raising 1200 years later? Unclean pigs. You didn't want to go in, okay? And I know in the short term it sounded so good, but in the long term, it didn't work out. Okay. Send us into the swine, let us enter them. So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine and the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. The swine herds ran off and told it uh and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothing in his right mind, the man, the very man who had the legion, and they were afraid. They wasn't afraid of the dude when he was like in chains and shouting all these obscenities and doing all this crazy stuff. When he was in his right mind, whoa, something crazy has happened here. We're afraid. Okay? That's crazy. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. You messed with our pigs. You messed with our livelihood. And 1200 years ago, your forefathers didn't want to go all the way in to the promised land. Guys, me and you both know. Actually, only I and God know, and only you and God know if you have made the great exchange. If you are completely right with God, you know if you're playing the church game, you know everything, okay? And I told them this morning, guys, who cares if I could sit here and fool you into thinking I was a godly person and I was not? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? Guys, it's the most valuable thing we have. It's the one thing that the devil and this world and your own sinful self are going to try as hard as possible to just drag to hell. But you know what? We got an unbelievable weapon right here. We do not want to be like Gad and say, you know what, I got really nice stuff and I'm comfortable. Let me show up and sit in my pew and listen to a nice lesson. Adam, I want you to spend God with all week, and I want you to come off the mountain with your face glowing, and I want you to talk to us, but I don't want to go up there myself. Today, such an opportunity for us to go in ourselves. So we have that little bit of the altar right there that's kind of been sitting in there for people to look at. But if you don't mind, will you put it in place right here? Man, let's use the whole altar, guys. We've got it right here, and I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm gonna take my place. And guys, I I believe I'm right with God. I believe I'm as close to Him as I could possibly be right now, but I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna kneel down right here and I'm just gonna say, Lord, I just oh, please make the great exchange one more time. There's a song by Jason Crab that I know I'm gonna cry when he sings. It's called Day One. And all he's saying is, Lord, take me back to day one when I so enjoyed that salvation of the Lord. Take me back to day one. I just can't wait. It's gonna be awesome. And I can't wait to kneel right down here with any of you that want to join me. Play for us.