Your Altar is Your Legacy - Leaders' Talks

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Today, be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

I was talking with Steve at the end of June.

We were talking, and he was like, hey, I'm going to need coverage in August.

And I was thinking, what was I going to speak on?

And God had been putting this, building this message in me about kind of the forefathers of our Christian faith, where we're headed, what we, the legacy that we have because of their faith and obedient journey.

And in my mind, I had built the kind of the patriarchs, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this kind of grand, maybe three-part thing that I was going to look at as to where they built and consecrated around Israel, the landmarks and the land that God was ultimately going to bring his people and give his people to at the end of all things, that he would come back and heaven will rest in those places.

And so it was going to be, you know, what was Abraham's contribution?

What is Isaac's contribution?

What was Jacob's contribution?

As I start to dig in, I'm going, this is this is way too big for one message, especially for 37 minutes.

So I'm like going, okay, let's just start with Abraham, and if there's an opportunity, we'll talk about Isaac and Jacob at a later date.

So today I want to talk about the altars of Abraham, the legacy that they that he left, that he's still leaving, and the glory of God that will come because of his obedience.

And I love that we open with that song because he changed my name, right?

And so here's the first patriarch in the gospel where we see a name change because of how he aligns himself with God's kingdom and the unity and the union that he has.

Doesn't do it perfectly, he blows it, and we're going to discover that too.

So he's very human in moments.

But throughout history, altars have been erected by the Lord's people to signify obedience, worship, to pay tribute, and recognize a powerful encounter with God.

They have also come to mark and consecrate a word of promise from the Lord and to leave a legacy.

If I had a thesis today, it would say something like this, and that is, the altars of your life will be the legacy you leave for the generations that follow after you.

So in the scriptures, as we dig in, I've identified four altars that Abraham builds throughout his journey through the land, not yet Israel, but will be essentially in and around Israel itself and specifically Jerusalem.

They are titled the altars of praise, prayer, peace, and provision.

The first three are lesser known.

When we get to the fourth, it's probably the most infamous altar that Abraham builds for his son Isaac in obedience, ultimate obedience to the Father.

What I want to say is that while the altars were built by the patriarchs, I want to say that in today's culture and age, there's an invitation that transcends gender, in that I invite both men and women in the room today, as husbands, fathers, spouses, husbands, and wives, as we journey in and we look at the altars in our lives and where we can take playbook, a couple pages from Abraham's playbook, as we develop and strengthen and discipline in ourselves our altars in our lives of praise, prayer, peace, and provision, and where we can press in and experience the Lord.

So let us begin and we're gonna pick up the story of Abram.

And I will just say for the first three altars that we're gonna talk about, he hasn't had the name change yet.

So he's still Abram and his wife Sarai.

So we're gonna start in Genesis 12, and we're gonna go through 1 through 7 as we uncover the first altar of praise.

I'll be in the New King James today if you guys are following along online or with your digital devices, and you have a choice of translation.

Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

Pause real quick here.

God has just now instantly given an invitation to Abram to start the pilgrim journey.

He's removing him from his father's house, then his invitation to step away from the familiar, the community, the culture, and he's going on the road.

He's gonna pick up his bag, his family, and he's moving out into the wilderness, and he's moving away from the safety and security of his dad's home, and he's now venturing into the life of a pilgrim.

God says, I will make you a great nation.

It's the first time we start to hear this, but this is gonna be repeated throughout his journey.

I will bless you and make your name great, Father Abraham, and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now we're gonna hear some language like that again at the end.

I want you to just kind of highlight uh Genesis 12, 3, because we're gonna hear some similar language from Paul in Ephesians 3 at the end of the message about the families of earth in the name of Jesus.

But I think it's important that we just kind of pin this.

So Abraham, so sorry, so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Then Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan.

And so they came to the land of Canaan.

Abram passed through the land to a place of Shechem, as far as a Terebinth tree of More, and the Canaanites were then in the land.

Now let me just say this about the Canaanites.

They weren't a pleasant people, they would not have welcomed Abram into the land.

He is definitely an outsider, bringing the kingdom of God with him, resting on his shoulders, not entirely fully aware of what that means in his own world yet.

But now God the Father is starting to speak to him, starting to relay promises, starting to build up in his life what is yet to come and what is going to be brought forth in his lineage.

This is implied, but I think because God does search to and fro, as we see in Chronicles, for a heart to strengthen and empower, he finds that in Abram at this moment.

And so he's going to start to continue to work through Abraham's life, Abram's life in this time.

But he's testing him all the while.

And we're going to see it build.

Canaanites, uh, not a friend, not a friendly, as they say.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants, I will give this land.

Based on that encounter with God, Abram then, there in that moment, he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.

He's giving praise back to God.

The first altar that he builds is right here in the land of Canaan among the Canaanites, just beyond, and he's praising God for what is yet to come.

The legacy that is beginning to form.

The altar of praise comes as a response to the promised land of God to the future generations of Israel.

I think it's important that we can recognize in our lives the moments where God shows up.

And I'm uh we talk about it in our home, and I've talked to many of you too.

It's like, how do I hear the voice of God?

When does the voice of God show up?

And we work with our with some of our younger kids who, you know, show up and like, I haven't heard God's voice today, or I haven't heard God speak in a while.

Well, here's what I do know, and I know that he speaks to all of us in different ways, but it's unique to us, and I know that he wants to speak to all of us.

And so we have to train our ears, we have to tune our minds and our hearts.

And what is that?

Well, it's first setting our mind on the things of his kingdom, seeking his kingdom first, and then the righteousness that will follow.

We have to block out all of the chaos, all of the distraction, all of the news, media, etc.

There's a discipline here where we need to go into our quiet place.

The quiet place, the foundational places that we establish with ourselves, with the king.

Now, for Abram, he had a huge advantage because he didn't have 5G, he didn't have social media, even newspapers and mail systems weren't invented yet.

So he had a lot of time undistracted in the wilderness with camels that he could probably press in focused.

But the call and the desire and even the expectation of the God of creation doesn't change, even for those of us today that we do have those as excuses.

But I don't judge you, I just encourage you.

Moving on, the altar of prayer in Genesis 12.

We're gonna pick this up.

And so, right after verse 7, we see the second altar that Abram's gonna build.

And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, which is the house of the Lord, loosely translated, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I on the side, which is city of Rune, is what I would be translated to loosely.

And there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

He called on the name of the Lord.

Sometimes in our lives, we're gonna build altars after we've experienced a call from God where He said something to us that we need to act in obedience to, a job change, how to handle or raise, and maybe there's directional things with our children if we're young parents still.

What we do in our marriages, how we intercede as spouses for each other.

And God shows up and we hear obedience, and we have to relent in our self, our selfishness to become selflessness, more of that, and in that place we establish in recognition an altar of prayer in our lives.

And we're going to revisit this.

And we see Abram revisit this shortly, because shortly after he's built these two altars, we're going to pick, continue to pick up his story in twelve here.

Verse 9, so Abram journeyed, going on still towards the south.

Verse 10.

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there.

For the famine was severe in the land, and it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai, his wife, Indeed, I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.

Now, if he had just stopped there, it would have been a great date night.

But this is not what he does.

He goes on to blow it, and every man in the room can raise your hand at some point to say, If I had just stopped there.

Verse 12, and therefore it happened, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, This is his wife?

She's with him, that guy?

Right?

That's kind of what's going on here.

He's like, I know I like married up like five times.

So he says, Please say that you are my sister.

It's kind of weird, but go with it.

That it may be well with me for your sake that I may live because of you.

Passivity steps into his heart, curse of Adam, here we go.

Protect me, wife.

I mean, come on, dude.

Like, where's the masculine heart, the courage, the strength?

He's like, You're my sister.

You'll you'll save me.

He does this more than once.

Still, we gotta honor the guy, Father Abraham.

Let's press in and see what happens.

So the Lord steps in and intercedes on Abram's benefit because he lacks in that moment the courage and strength to stand on the promises that God has started to give him about the future of his nation, his family, his seed.

So, but the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me?

Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

Why did you say she is my sister?

I might have taken her as my wife, and then I'd be in real trouble.

Insert my thoughts there.

Now therefore, here is your wife.

Here you go, buddy.

Take her and go your way, you weirdo.

So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

So he escapes the news, he escapes.

I mean, you're thinking like when Pharaoh finds this out, he'd be in even more trouble.

But because of the plagues and God's rescue, by the way, don't miss the small foreshadowing of this brief captivity on its face of Abram to rolling forward, you know, to the time of Moses, because of plagues, his people are released.

God's fingerprints are all over this story, so we can't miss that.

So because of plagues, Abram is released back to freedom.

And so what does he do?

Fast forward chapter 13, verse 1.

Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him to the south.

Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold, and he went on his journey from the south as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between the places of Bethel and I, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord again.

Abram revisits this same spot after his close call in Egypt and comes back to his original tenth site and calls on the name of the Lord a second time where his altar had been placed prior to.

Church, sometimes we have to go back to the altar.

Many times we will revisit the altar of prayer lives.

We should be revisiting it daily.

But here Abram's establishing a muscle memory, a discipline to call on the name of the Lord again because he's just experienced a rescue from Pharaoh.

Things could have gone a lot worse for him.

Let's step into number three, his altar of peace.

And second part of Genesis 13, we're gonna pick this up in verse 5.

Let me just say, we all need a rescue of peace in today's culture.

Peace, if I could say, well, there's many things that are robbing us of the provisions of God's kingdom.

Peace primarily being one of those things in our hearts right now.

Flipping on the news, watching latest sound bites.

If you're not anchored in God's scripture and word, you're easily tossed to and fro on the seas of media and social media today.

Sound bites, can you be a president and be in jail and whatever else, right?

I mean, like I, you know, whatever.

And so now all of a sudden we're becoming experts in the Constitution and trying to figure out, you know, whatever.

I'm just gonna leave that there for a minute.

Point is you need a directional asthmuth that's anchored so that you can continue to experience God's peace, because I think the enemy comes to rob, still, and kill our peace first, and then those things.

He has an algorithm in his kingdom that he's going to destroy our belief system by robbing peace first, getting us distracted, anxious, depressed, etc.

But it starts with peace.

Abram is desperately going to seek peace in this moment.

So let's pick this up.

Lot also went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.

Equally, these guys have amassed a significant amount of stuff.

Land, people, wealth.

Now the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

And, in addition, the Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land as well.

So it's kind of like a boiling pot here.

There's things going, it's like eruptions coming.

You can tell that there's any moment there's going to be conflict, and there already started to be some conflict.

So this is what Abram said to Lot.

Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen.

For we are brethren.

Man, if we could just take a pause on that for modern-day church, and if we could take Abram's heart towards our hearts of conflict here, to encourage you, church, to encourage me to seek peace in the area of humility.

Lot's his nephew.

I mean, he could have exercised the patriarchal authority, like you're my brother's kid, you go where I tell you to go, but he doesn't come with that heart.

He comes with a heart of peacemaking.

And this is what he says.

Please separate from me.

If you take the left, then I will go to the right.

Or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.

Kind of like, I'm gonna give you first choice here, dude.

And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere.

Quotations here.

This is important.

Before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go towards Zora.

Sometimes the land that looks really good in front of you, the land that you're gonna go conquer, the things that look good to your eye without God's discernment and understanding, will later become runes and fall to fire and brimstone.

So you've got to be careful.

And this is what Lot chooses.

So he chooses this land that will ultimately be destroyed.

Adam dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

Pausing here just for a minute, you have Abram, who has sent him out to his first choice of land.

He goes, and later we're gonna see Uncle come to his rescue, and he's gonna need to be rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah at a later date.

Again, Abram's heart beautifully positioned and specifically placed for this time in humanity in the history of God because he's being obedient.

And the Lord said to Abram, verse 14, after Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes and look from the place from where you are.

Look northward, southward, eastward, and westward.

For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.

Here we see the third altar of Abram.

Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt by the Terebinth trees of Mimre, which are in Hebron, Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord.

This is huge because fast forward, coming out of the wilderness, right, you got Joshua and Caleb on the scout.

Remember them, they come back, giants in the land, Hebram.

Caleb comes back in his 80s, like I still want Hebram.

Well, there has been a lamp post, a guidepost, a beacon, a lighthouse, if you will, that's been placed in the soil of Hebron by Abram due to his obedience that is drawing God's people back.

Caleb will eventually grab a hold of Hebram as the sacred holy ground for his family.

Abram laid the groundwork first.

Fourth, moving into the altar of provision, in probably the most renowned and most famous of altars that we see in Abram's life.

At this point, he's had a name change.

Fast forward a little bit, and here's what's going on in his world.

Abram's now Abraham, Sarai is now Sarah.

They're both older than they were when the story started.

They have not yet any children.

They've been barren, and God is going to bring the only son between the two of them in a beautiful.

I mean, for lack of a better word, I mean it's kind of immaculate conception here a little bit.

She knows, I mean, she laughs, right?

When the angel shows up, you're gonna get pregnant.

She's like, this is funny.

And Abraham's like, you probably shouldn't laugh at the Lord kind of thing.

She's like, dude, you tried to call me your sister in Egypt.

I'm gonna take a pass on this one, okay?

Remember that?

I mean, you can play that card every time at, you know, pass whatever, every dinner.

She's got that card.

Um, so this is such a beautiful story of provision here, right?

There's there's there's something here, and I'm gonna pick it up.

This is kind of a lengthy section, so I'm gonna kind of move through this as quick as I can.

But picking up the story of Abraham in Genesis 22, 8 through 18, this is what happens.

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.

So the two of them went together.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him, God's leading Abraham the whole time, and he's obedient.

God is Abraham's compass through the land of Israel, putting down these consecrated altars.

Don't miss this.

And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

Number eleven, but the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

So he said, Here am I.

And he said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.

So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of a rain.

Of his son.

And Abraham called on the name of the Lord in that place.

The Lord will provide.

And it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven.

And this is where his legacy is cemented.

He's seen him be obedient with the altars prior, but at this moment, with his obedience with his only son, God cements the legacy of Abraham that we are still experiencing to this very day.

And we're going to connect some dots in just a moment.

And the angel said, By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son.

Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies.

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

Right there, God has just now aligned what Paul comes to say, both Jew and Gentile, which we'll share in Calvary here, fast forwarding a couple thousand years.

But in that moment, what is he saying?

He's saying, In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

This is perhaps the biggest landmark, the biggest lighthouse, the biggest thing that he could leave and consecrate this ground.

This is a fascinating piece of ground, and some of you are steeped in some of the history, but uh as I start to dig in, uh it was really, it was really fascinating to me.

There's a significance in the legacy that is found on the site where Abraham led Isaac on Mount Moriah.

This is roughly a 37-acre piece of land and perhaps the most hotly contested piece of real estate on the globe.

It is a profoundly sacred area to Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

And it's here in Genesis 22 that we discover God's mountain.

And it is introduced in this beautiful foreshadowing between a father and only son in the coming sacrifice of the cross of Calvary in Jesus Christ.

I'm sure it's not missed on any of you today that it's actually Abraham's heart that was on the altar and not Isaac.

God's final test of him in this moment before he solidifies the foundation, the root, this beautiful consecration of this place, this sacred place.

Fast forward about a thousand years later, on that same spot, we find King David negotiating a purchase for this exact piece of ground.

It's the threshing floor of Aruah the Jebusite, and he proceeded to build an altar.

David built an altar to the Lord so that a plague may be held back from the people of Israel.

You find that story in 2 Samuel 24.

His son King Solomon would later build on this altar and land a glorious temple unto the Lord after the death of his father David.

And this temple would last for 400 years until its destruction between 587 and 586 BC by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.

The Jewish people would then rebuild another temple to the Lord approximately 70 years after their release from captivity in Babylon.

This temple would also be positioned on the same site.

Around the first century, King Herod made a significant addition to that structure, and it became known as Herod's temple.

This is the same temple that Jesus would cleanse in 2 John 15.

Think about that for a minute.

Sacred ground, Abraham, Isaac consecrating it there.

One temple built, destroyed, another temple built, and now Jesus is coming back, and there's got to be a special place in God's heart.

And we know that's true because what we're going to find as the third temple is built and the coming of heaven to earth, and what God will restore at the end of the age in all things.

At the first century, we already read that.

After its destruction in 70 AD, so the temple that Jesus cleansed, it's destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman Empire Titus.

All that remained was a retaining wall known as the Western Wall or Wailing Wall.

It's a destination for pilgrims and a prayer site for Jews for many centuries.

Mount Moriah and the site originally occupied by Abraham's altar of Isaac now houses the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount and the Alakas, Alakas.

I always struggle with this one.

Al-Ahasa Mosque.

Let's just say it's a Muslim mosque.

Let's go with that.

And it will be the future site of God's third temple where Bible prophecy will be fulfilled at the end of the age.

All this started with a man who God called out to leave a legacy through obedience by building an altar.

Abraham consecrated the ground around Jerusalem and Israel for God's people with the altars he built and dedicated to God.

The land was marked by his obedience to God as the permanent home of his beloved, his people.

It will be the location when he brings heaven to earth at the end of all things.

Abraham's altars became homing beacons, lighthouses to guide Israel back to God time and again, from the bondage in Egypt out of the wilderness and the captivity from Babylon to Persia and beyond.

Church, the altars of your life will be the legacy you leave for the generations that follow you.

If I could just say this, if you were to take a quick synopsis of about 250 years of Israeli or 500 years of Israeli history, time and again, they go in and out of bondage four different times, into captivity and out of captivity.

Each generation had to discover God for themselves.

There's multiple generations represented in this room today, and as best as our parents did that tried to leave a beacon and a lighthouse, each one of us, and we thank God for them because they did leave a lighted path.

I think about my grandma who studied God's word, and she was a student of the book of Revelation, and she was on her knees praying for her family, her kids and her grandkids.

She was a prayer warrior, she was a matriarch of my family, and she no doubt left beacons and guideposts.

I wish I could say that I had firmly adhered to all of her warnings and her prayers and the conversations that we had, but I too had to go discover the God, the Jesus of Calvary for myself.

It's because of that, all humanity, we're all born with this inherent thing inside of us that we have to circumcise, we have to release, we have to repent and leave it at the cross of Calvary.

And I'm going to tie in God's altar now.

All of humanity suffers from a proud spirit, disobedient will, boastful tongue, an arrogant, lustful mind, and a wicked heart.

Galgotha isn't on Mount Moriah, and for good reason.

I did some research on that because I'm following this thread and I'm thinking, oh, this is pretty cool.

Could it be?

And there's some thoughts that maybe Calvary was close or even inside of that 37 or 30 acre, 37-acre piece of land.

But for good reason it couldn't be because the Jews would never allow a crucifixion to take place at the most holy of places at the time.

So Galgotha still is in what we would consider maybe the foothills of Mount Moriah.

God came down, planted his altar, spilled his blood, and consecrated all of that ground around Mount Moriah.

As almost like a circumference, maybe around it.

A moat, if you will.

If you look at some geographical images and whatnot, you'll see the proximity, and it's certainly not far from the city gates of where Mount Moriah and the peak and the dome of the rock would be.

And the Temple Mount.

The reality for the things that we struggle with in our humanity, the cure for all of these things is the narrow path of salvation that's no wider than the width of the wood of the cross and a fully repentant heart.

I love this quote from George MacDonald, the Scottish pastor and poet, and he says, Man finds it hard to get what he wants because he does not want the best.

God finds it hard to give because he would give the best, and man will not take it.

We know that in the Old Testament that God began his ransom of the human race through the people of Israel, and he came to dwell among them.

Israel experienced the presence of the living God first in the tabernacle and then in the temple.

These were holy places where God came to be among his people.

What's fascinating to me is that both the temple and the tabernacle were adorned with carved images from the garden.

Images of Eden, where man walked with God in the cool of the day.

They were trying to mimic, to restore, and experience God's presence.

These physical structures were meant to be little outposts of Eden created to house the presence of God.

But after the cross and God's complete work and final sacrifice to bleed salvation for over his beloved creation, God changed the playing field forever.

He moved the physical building to the hearts of his people.

Picking it up in 1 Corinthians 3, 16 through 17.

If you're following online, these aren't your notes.

But 1 Corinthians 3, 16 and 17, Paul writes, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy.

Which temple are you?

Challenging words from Paul.

We should all take assessment.

But he restates it in 2 Corinthians 6 16.

For you are the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I will dwell in them and I will walk among them.

I will be their God and they shall be my people.

We are God's temple.

Our hearts are our altars, a living sacrifice to the Lord.

This quote from Thomas Akempis Turn to God with all your heart.

Learn to dismiss external things.

To devote yourself to those that are within, and you will see the kingdom of God come to you.

Your heart is the new temple, the temple of the living God, and it's meant to be filled with the glory of God.

Who is the King of glory?

The Lord is the King of Glory.

What's been fastly becoming my favorite Psalm, Psalm 24, 7 and 8, and it's overshadowed by its big brother in 23.

There's just some beautiful language here, though.

And we pick it up in the middle of this passage in the middle of the chapter.

Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors.

Hold that thought.

And the king of glory shall come in.

Who is this king of glory?

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors.

Might it could be that John's referencing that same scripture in some capacity in Revelation 3.20?

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.

There's this sweet invitation that we were all created and designed for.

From the beginning of the age, God is setting up his story.

And this timeline and where we find ourselves and the humanity of God's story that he's telling is that we are now post-Calvary meant to be the tabernacle, the temple of his living presence, inviting in to dwell with us.

Our hearts are designed to experience and contain the presence of God.

We are to be little outposts of Eden, and we are to steward our hearts, the wellsprings of our lives, the deep inner recesses, the places that we have to care and nurture and take care of that soil.

I talk about when we're hosting sometimes at our house and we have four children, and we'll go in and we're gonna have company and we're cleaning the day of, and we'll go and clean a room, and then we'll leave a room, and then our kids will have somehow manifested in that space while we've been gone, and we come back, and there's like there's another pile or there's another mess.

And we're like, kind of like it's now the 11th hour, we know the company's gonna be ringing, and we're like, how do I want my home to look?

I don't want to look disheveled or messy, and we just kind of start finding places to throw stuff, right?

You're like, okay, all right, we'll come back and revisit, we'll put that where it belongs later.

So the question is, is are we doing that with our hearts to God?

Or are we being consistent stewards of the soil and the garden of our hearts today?

Are we quickly just throwing things aside and not dealing with them and where they should go?

And most of that stuff should go straight to Calvary, washed with the blood of the Lamb, stepping into the river of grace that flows from Calvary today with our hearts so that we can be in turn good stewards of the Lord of heaven.

In a moment, we're gonna go into communion, but I want to ask you, how is your heart today?

Is it a heart of stone or is it one of flesh with fresh soil, renewed and vibrant?

Is the Garden of your hearts a place where Jesus would want to come visit with you?

The reality is he's happy to help you clean your house.

By the way of the cross, when we place ourselves on God's altar, we come to genuinely realize that what initially looks like the altar of sacrifice becomes the altar of provision in our lives by the gracious, overwhelming love of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Abraham came to fully experience that.

It was this place where it looked like an altar of sacrifice, but it came the altar of provision, the cementing of a legacy that we are still living out and living in today, watching the fingerprints of God's kingdom come and manifest in our lives.

The greatest part of his story still yet to be told.

The love of his bride, the ransom of his bride.

What Jesus wants to give above all else is himself.

If we would choose him above all else.

Blood spilling out over his altar to then rip the veil so that we could have direct communion and union with the Lord through his Son Jesus Christ.

The greatest gift that humanity ever has received and ever will receive.

The purchase into eternity, the purchase of our salvation.

And he says, until that day comes, until the other side of eternity, I want to dwell in you and with you, and I want to walk with you, and I'm going to live in your heart.

When you come to the altar of Calvary, your legacy becomes intertwined and connected to the kingdom of God and his eternal legacy for his beloved.

In doing this, you leave a beacon, a lighted path for your family to follow in your and Jesus' footsteps to the cross and find their way to the Father's heart and his throne room.

And if you recall Jesus or God's words to Abram in the first part of Genesis where I began, I want to read this in closing, and we'll enter into communion.

Ephesians 3, 14 through 9.

It's a prayer.

I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Such a sweetness and an invitation in that prayer.

They said, You know, sometimes I think you let yourself off the hook a lot.

I was like, wait, don't respond.

Need to take that one to the Lord.

So God is there.

I said, God is true.

And I started thinking about Proverbs in the beautiful language about God's scales.

All that He talks about, how you weigh things.

Don't be on corrupt scales.

Don't do business with people who have corrupt scales.

And I thought, wow, man, am I willing to put myself in God's kingdom scales?

And so I pray this prayer, God, know my anxious heart.

Know me inside and out, fully, completely.

Help me keep the garden of my heart clean.

I want to walk, I want to experience your presence daily in my life.

I want to hear your voice.

Because more than ever in today's age, I want to know what the Father is saying so I can hear that.

And I want to do what I see the Father doing because I need your lamppost.

I need you to light my way.

So, God, know my anxious heart and weigh me in your kingdom's scales.

Light my path and lead me in your perfect way.

Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.