Living Between Two Altars | Pastor Paul McGee

Amen. If you're here today, you're

blessed to be here. Amen.

In the House of the Lord is telling in leadership prayer.

From what I could count up, there was about 12 households

this week that have been influenced by sickness here out

of the church. And so a prayer revival started

out like like attendance like this.

And by Friday it was like this and we had family game night,

which when it first started, it was literally that my family,

the Masons family, it was family game night.

And so but sister Sam end up showing up with Xavier and we

had two guests, actually 2 guests.

He meant for family game that as well.

So we just kind of felt like, you know, the last survivors,

the last the Mohicans, whatever. I don't know, but such, So we're

thankful that God is touching people in their homes and that

they're getting better and some of them that had been impacted

are here today. Amen.

We're grateful for that. I told Brother Malone I was

going to all blame it on him because last Sunday afternoon he

told me got it from nap. He wasn't feeling good.

And that was the first, that's the first call I think I got of

anybody being sick. So everybody can thank Brother

Malone for no, I'm just joking, Amen, Amen.

No, you, you could, it's everywhere.

So you pick this up anywhere. Amen.

Going to turn to Exodus chapter 27 this morning, Exodus chapter

Exodus 27 · chapter mention Exodus 27 · chapter mention

27. And I want to read just a few

verses of Scripture in Exodus 27, and then I want to turn a

few chapters over into the 30th chapter, the same book.

Amen. Today, Exodus 27, I'm going to

begin with verse #1. And thou shalt make an altar.

Everybody say altar shine and wood 5 cubits long and five

cubits broad. The altar shall be 4 square, and

the height thereof shall be 3 cubits.

Thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof.

This his rather his horn shall be of the same.

And thou shalt overlay it with brass.

Going to chapter #30 here within the same book I want to start

reading with verse #1 And thou shalt make an altar.

If I say altar to burn incense upon of item wood shalt thou

make it. A cubit shall be the link

thereof, and a cubit the breath thereof.

So we understand this is a different altar, don't we?

Four square shall it be, and two cubits shall be the height

thereof, the horns thereof shall be of the same.

And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof and

the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof.

And thou shall make unto it a crown of gold round about,

skipping to verse #6 And thou shalt put it before the veil,

that is, by the ark of the testimony before the mercy seat,

that is over the testimony where I will meet with thee.

And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning when

he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it when Aaron

lighteth the lamps. And even he shall burn incense

upon a perpetual incense before the Lord.

Throughout your generations. You shall offer no strange

incense thereon, nor burnt offerings, nor meat offerings,

neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.

We're talking about a couple pieces of furniture.

Amen. Out of the Tabernacle in the Old

Testament that God had prescribed for Moses to to build

and to construct. And just real quickly, the

Tabernacle had all these different furnishings.

It's very important. We'll talk about that here in a

minute. The Tabernacle had all these

different furnishings, but within the Tabernacle it speaks

of this altar that was in the outer core and the altar that

was in the Holy place. And so for a little while, I

want to minister this living between two altars, living

between two altars, Amen. Let's pray today.

Father, we thank you Jesus for God the privilege and the

opportunity to be in your house. I pray, oh God don't want to

take it lightly and light. Lord of all the sickness, God

that has surrounded us this week.

We counted a privilege and honored to be here God and with

grateful hearts we pray continue Lord to move up on those still

yet sick. But God touches in this moment

today as we gather. Lord help us God to understand

and process the Lord the meanings of your words in the

name of Jesus Christ that I pray and the church say Amen.

You may be seated this morning in Jesus name.

Among among the elements of the Old Testament that the writer in

the New Testament of Hebrews describes as a shadow of good

things to come is the Tabernacle that was in the wilderness,

applying, if you will, the law. There's a law in like biblical

interpretation called the Law of volume or the law of proportion.

And basically what it means is this is that whenever you see

that there is a lot of a lot of scripture that is dedicated to a

particular subject and that means that subject must hold

some type of importance. I'm trying to get this thought

back, take two hands that there's a lot of importance

concerning that subject, that a lot of proportion of Scripture

has been contributed to that. And so with that being said,

then the Tabernacle in the wilderness must play a very

important role in the mind of God for the Old Testament.

And because of all the space and, and the chapters and the

verses that are dedicated to it. And thus as a result of that, it

it also highlights the importance of some New Testament

concepts because it was just a shadow of of other things that

was to come. So for instance, in Exodus

alone, 13 chapters are directly related to the Tabernacle. 10

chapters in the book of Leviticus focus on the

Tabernacle and its worship in the priesthood.

While also there are 10 chapters that are dedicated to it in the

book of Numbers that pertain to how it was to be set up and the

function of the different furnishings and the transporting

of the Tabernacle. So all of that being said,

Sister Cox, there's at least 33 chapters of the Bible that are

dedicated to the tabernacles design.

It's construction. It's, it's means and mode of

worship and, and function. And so the Tabernacle then is

very much so central to God's plan.

But it wasn't just a tent like someone might envision it just

out in the desert. It, it was the dwelling place as

the Old Testament relates to us, the dwelling place of God's

presence. He would come down and meet with

that high priest there in the holies of holies upon the ark of

the covenant between the two cherubim.

We would see the Bible says oftimes that there would be a

cloud or a pillar of fire that was above that ark, above rather

that Tabernacle. And whenever it moved, the

people would move and it it in essence, the Tabernacle would

foreshadow the the work of Christ and it would be a emblem,

if you will, even of the church. And not only that, the

Tabernacle is a good plan or pattern that that depicts the

growth, growth of a Christian, the growth of a Christian.

Without going into detail, much detail this morning, Christ

fulfilled the entirety of the Tabernacle system.

He is the sacrifice that is at the brazen altar.

He is the water, might I say, even living water that's at the

brazen labor. He's the bread of life at the

table of showbread. He's the light of the world at

the Candlestick and our intercessor at the altar of

incense. He is also, if you will, the

High priest functioning amid the holiest of holies.

Amen. Where God's ark and that mercy

seat was. And because of him, we have

access to all of this. Additionally, though the

Tabernacle also symbolizes the modern church, the modern day

church in the Old Testament, God's presence dwelt among his

people in the Tabernacle and today the church serves as God's

dwelling place where those that are filled with the Spirit of

God have experienced the power of God.

Witness, give witness to his Spirit moving among His body,

his his members. This is God's manifestation in

the world through his church. And so various aspects of the

Tabernacle illustrate what should happen in the life of the

Church. Again, the altar and the labor

in the outer court symbolize repentance and sacrifice and

baptism and cleansing. And in the Holy Place there is a

more intimate relationship with God, represented by the golden

Candlestick, which is illustrative of the

Enlightenment of the Holy Ghost and the light of revelation in

our lives. The table of shoe bread, where

there is continual communion of nourishment with the bread of

life. The word of God, Amen.

And then you go into that altar of incense that represents a

place of prayer and worship and bridging the gap between

humanity and God until finally, again, the holiest of holies, we

find the ark of the covenant where God's presence dwells.

It's, it's enveloped, if you will, by a cloud.

There's a veil that separates it from the other places that are

there in the Tabernacle. But we know according to the

Scripture, that that veil is no longer there.

It's been pierced. It's been and twain from top and

bottom because of the work of Calvary, of Christ Jesus.

And so this is characteristic of what the church should embody,

repentance and baptism and and nourishment from the word.

All these things are depicted in the Tabernacle.

And yet, among all of these things also the Tabernacle is a

picture of a Christian's life. It depicts in many regards the

journey or the trajectory of spiritual growth for you and I

or a Christian, what we should experience again, because just

pair with me in the outer court. We come to the brazen alter and

as a Christian, we surrender there.

We surrender there. We go to the Laver and we're

baptized. It's a place of renewal, a

remitting, if you will, of sins, the holy place, right, because

then you go there and you go to that table of shoebread and

you're feeding on the word of God.

The Bible, the New Testament apostle even said it's the word.

Thereby we grow and so we get nourishment there and we we go

to the Candlestick and it's our guiding light, if you will, It's

the the instruction. And we can see clearly because

of that light. And we go then to the altar of

incense as we have this past week.

And we are offering a prayers and supplications and

Thanksgiving and intercessions and then the holies of holies

experiencing, if you will, the presence of God and having

spiritual authority with God and communion with him being the

apex of our journey. So Sister Sheila, in many ways

it is a progression of the spiritual life of a Christian.

And so since the Tabernacle resents all of these elements

and everything in it seems to comprise that comprises it

pertains to the church, our Christian growth pattern.

It's important, I think also to note that there's only one

entrance into the outer court. There's only one entrance into

the Holy place. There's only one entrance into

the holies of Holies. There's only one Laver, There's

only one table of shoe bread, There's only one Candlestick.

There's only one ark of God. However, there are two altars,

the brazen altar and the golden altar, the altar of burnt

offerings and the altar of incense.

That would mean that if this is the pattern for the Church, if

this is the pattern for spiritual growth, it would

indicate that the life of a Christian or the life that has a

pattern of spiritual growth must have two altars in their life.

Essential, non negotiable 2 altars in their life that we

already seen that Jesus even fulfilled in his own life.

I know someone here is already feeling a little nervous because

to realize that our Christian life should include two altars

may begin to overwhelm us just a little bit rather than alone

because we understand. I have a hard time maintaining

an A altar. I have a hard time maintaining 1

altar in my life, let alone 2 altars.

You know I did just to get to 1 altar daily is is difficult

enough without the added burden of attending to two altars.

But these altars are distinct. These altars differ.

They they, they maintain. We're going to see in a little

bit. They maintain a connection one

between the other. One altar actually relies upon

the other altar. You you, though, cannot replace

one of the altars with the other.

You, you can't say insuffice to say well I have the altar burn

offering that does well then for both.

No, it don't work like that. You can't do one or the other.

Both hold significance. Both are essential to the

Tabernacle and therefore the Christian life for that matter.

If God believed He could suffice with just one altar in the

Tabernacle, he would have instructed Moses just to build

one of them. But that wasn't the design nor

the plan of God. He says I need 2 altars within

this building that's going to be a representation of my church

and the Christian life. I need 2.

So he invited, he invited Moses to a place where he provided a

plan for these two essential, distinct altars in the

Tabernacle to be completed. Someone say man.

So with that Bishop, I begin to understand.

Then my life needs these two altars.

It's necessary. It's imperative.

I I can't. I can't emphasize 1 and neglect

the other or vice versa. Both are essential for my life

to be in alignment according to God's plan.

Someone say man. So when we look at the brazen

altar, also known as the altar of burnt offerings, it's the

first piece of furniture that a person would come to.

When are they entered into the Tabernacle?

When are they entered into that outer court?

It would be the first piece of furniture, but more

particularly, it would be the first altar that one would come

to. Sacrifices were made there.

Blood for the atoning work would happen there.

As a matter of fact, no priest could ever go into the presence

of God without blood. The scripture said so it was

important because the bloodshed there was going to address the

sin problem. Amen.

Of the nation of the people of the world.

And one thing is for sure, we we observed that there's even blood

at the at the Laver where the water and the blood for the

washing and we see blood other pieces of furniture.

Amen. All along the journey, no one

again has access to the holiest of holies.

Amen, The ark of God without blood, without some sacrifice,

without some animal offering itself in its life.

And all of this, of course, points to Christ.

All this points to him as being that once and for all sacrifice

for humanity. Shedding his life's blood is a

willing offering. No one took.

The Bible says no one took his life, though that's the way it

may appear in our stories. Amen.

No one took his life. He laid down his life.

He said I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it

up. Amen.

It was a willing sacrifice. If I'm say like this, it was a

surrender. What he did was a surrender,

right? A surrendering to the Father's

will. You remember his prayer in the

garden. Father, if this cup can pass

from me, then so be it. But nevertheless, not my will,

but thine be done. What was that?

That? That was a sacrificing of self.

That was a surrendering of self. And so at the brazen altar,

surrender takes place. Surrender took place for God.

Surrender, if you will, of a life took place there.

And for our Christian lives at the brazen altar is where

surrender happens for us. It's it's that place of

repentance that says I'm I'm turning away from what I once

known to something different. It is a surrendering of a former

life. It's the surrendering of a

former way. It's a dying to self.

It is the sight of surrender. And you cannot skip that altar

in your approach to God. You cannot skip that altar on

your way to God. You can't bypass it, for that

matter, in this episode, you can't get to the next altar.

You can't get to the next altar without having the altar of

surrender in your life. Someone say man.

Then the second altar that we come to in this Tabernacle plan

is the altar of incense. It's called sometimes the golden

altar. It's situated in that next place

from outer court to the Holy place.

It is nearer the Ark of the Covenant than the other altar in

its positioning. There's incense that that is

burned upon that altar of incense, and the smoke in the

incense arises up to God, which is one reason why we call it the

altar of incense. But we see in Scripture that

this incense symbolizes something.

We have directives in Scripture that tells us exactly what that

embolizes. And we'll look at a few of them

here in a moment, that that incense symbolizes prayer.

So reason why another reason, sometimes it's not just called

the altar of incense, but even modern day people call it the

altar of prayer. David mentioned in Psalms 121 in

verse 2, he spake these words that he desired that his prayer

would be set before the Lord like incense.

Amen. And so that again gives us some

port of the idea of incense representing prayer.

But when you get in the New Testament Scripture, you

remember a priest by the name of Zechariah who was the father of

John the Baptist. And the Bible says in Luke

chapter #1 that Zechariah was in the temple fulfilling his

office, and his office at that time was to to burn incense at

the altar of incense. And the Bible says in verse #10

of that chapter that while Zechariah was offering his

incense, that the people without were praying.

Then we might think, well, that what's the big deal?

He's offering it, but they're praying.

But he it wasn't just that they were praying.

The Bible says whether the Angel, the Lord, showed up to

tell Zechariah about he and his wife going to have a child.

He basically tells him that he understood that Zechariah, his

prayer, had been heard also. So Zechariah is offering up

incense at the altar of incense praying and the people are

outside praying. He's really acting almost as a

intercessor. He is praying about what the

people are praying about and for his own needs.

And the Angel said, thy prayer is heard.

And so again, here's a man functioning at the incense altar

and it's coupled with pray. But there's another example.

If you go to the Book of Revelation and you read

Revelation chapters 5 and eight, one passage explicitly states

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

this, that the incense represents the prayers.

In Revelation 5/8, the Bible says golden vials full of odors,

which are the prayers of the Saints.

In another instance, the Bible says that an Angel comes and

he's offering up incense along with the prayers of the Saints.

And so it's. It's clear that the altar of

incenses function is a function of an altar of prayer.

It's where prayer takes place. It's where intercession takes

place. And the fragrance from that

altar arises and pleases God and it that closes a gap, if you

will. It shows a intimate relationship

with the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody doing OK?

I'm just like building a case. That's all I'm doing, OK,

according to Exodus 30 and six that I read in your hearing this

morning, the Bible even says the placement of the altar of

incense is very instructive. Look at it with me again.

And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of

testimony, all otherwise known as the ark of the covenant or

the ark of God. I shall put it before the veil,

that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy

seat, that is over the testimony where I will meet with Thee.

What interesting about that is when you walk into that holy

place, on one side you have the golden Candlestick.

Over here on the other side you have the golden, the golden

table of shoe bread. But right there in the middle,

right before the veil of where one would go from holy to most

holy, from where the Ark of the Covenant was, it to where the

Ark of the Covenant was, where God said He would meet with

them, stood that golden altar of incense.

What that means is this, if we realize it or not, that when a

man stood at the altar of incense, when a man stood at the

altar of prayer, he was as close as possible to the ark of God in

the presence of God that he could be without being the high

priest. When he stood at the altar of

prayer, he was as close as he could be without being the high

priest himself, as he engaged in prayer.

I like that as he engaged in prayer, he was as close as he

could be without being the high priest himself.

So it's essential to convey then this morning that this altars

function, though the altar of incenses function, depended upon

what they carried over from the first altar.

Watch me here. Because the second altar, in

order for the incense to burn, the Bible would call it that it

needed fire or coal. You can take incense that's

pulverized and throw it up on that altar every day of the

week, But if there's nothing to cause the incense to rise, if

there's nothing to 'cause that incense to rise, then it is just

pulverized spices on a dead altar.

The coals in the fire that was at the altar of the incense came

from the altar that was brazen in the outer court from the

sacrifice that they offered there in the fire that they had

there in the wood that they made there.

They would take a portion of that and bring it into the holy

place and have them codes that they could put those old dried

up spices that are pulverized on it.

And because of the codes of the previous altar, they could have

a lifting up of incense at the second altar.

But if there was no attention paid to the first altar, it

didn't matter how much incense you had, there was no arising of

it at the second altar. We see this in the Book of

Leviticus chapter #16 that it was needful and that it was

necessary. And so with that, I'm telling

you this morning, it is necessary for us as Christians

to have both altars a part of our lives because they have a

connection. There is a connection direction

between your surrender and your prayer that you read Scripture.

The brazen altar is the largest piece of furniture in the whole

Tabernacle and in all of the Tabernacle.

But while you see, the altar of incense is the tallest piece of

furniture in all of the Tabernacle.

Both of them are square in their work.

Their dimensions are different, but they are square in their

work. Both of them have a horn at each

of the four corners of that square.

They're used at the same times, it would seem, of the day, in

the morning and in the evening. There's going to be surrender

out in the outer court and there's going to be prayer on

the Holy Place morning, morning and evening.

But the altar of incense relies on the brazen altar.

That priest, he needs smoke to go up.

He needs fragrance to feel the house, but that fragrance will

not permeate the whole house without a fire from the first

alter, without toes from the first alter.

You want to put power back in your prayer, then go back to the

place of surrender. You want to put the unction back

in your function at the altar of the incense, Then go back to the

altar of surrender and and say, here am I God, every bit of me,

every thought, every conversation, every way that I

order my life, that will put fire in your prayer.

It's essential. The privilege of the incense was

contingent upon sacrifice. No.

In essence, then no incense would arise without surrender.

Yet please understand, if we never get to a place of

spiritual growth in prayer, if we never attend to the altar of

incense, of spiritual growth, of prayer, then we're really

despising the sacrifice in the surrender at the first altar

because in part, part of its purpose is to aid in what goes

on at the second. Someone say Amen.

And when I say that I'm not just talking about your surrender,

Brother Reese, but I'm talking about the surrender that took

place on Calvary for you, that enables you the path.

I don't want not to pray and despise that sacrifice and

surrender that opened up the court for my feet to tread.

You know, this was usually like a little niche thing.

Only priest could do this. Only high priest could do this.

Common man couldn't do this. It was like a niche.

Not just anybody could do this, but whenever Christ did his

sacrifice and surrender, it opened the door for whosoever

will could boldly approach the throne room of God.

And I'm not going to say, well, nobody in the other generation

could do this and so I'm not going to do it.

No, there were people that wishing they could just get a

glimpse, if you will, of a golden altar of incense.

And now we have have the privilege, and we Amen without

surrender. Those ancients, those ancients

without sacrifice, they're those ancients and possess no power.

Again, it's just dry incense going on a dead altar with no

way to get it to be lifted up or to rise.

But surrender ignites the fire of what you do in your prayer.

Someone say Amen, it's in Christ.

Yes, without him we have we have no power in prayer.

Yes, we have that one time sacrifice there that we should

be thankful for and appreciative of.

But to follow him and emulate him and be a Christian, Christ's

life would be to walk in his footsteps as the Apostle Paul's

did and said, I die daily. That's a reference to the brazen

altar. That's a reference to repenting

there. I, I know I repented and I know

baptism took care of my sins, but I'm going to make some

mistakes along the way. And I, I'm going to need some

fresh repentance, you know, in my life.

And I'm going to die. David, he's, what's he talking

about? He's talking about a daily

surrender. I know you made a choice to

follow the Lord 10 years ago, but how do you choose today?

All right. You know, in your relationship,

you just choose to love the same person each day or like the same

person each day. You, you make a choice every day

to continue the relationship. And Paul says, I'm going to the

altar today. I'm going to the altar of

sacrifice. I'm going to the altar of

surrender. I'm going to die here again.

I'm going to surrender here again for number one, I know my

surrender here is going to do something else at the next

altar. I, I'm, I was going to do

something else at the next altar that I encounter.

And so we got to recognize that our prayer life must be

anchored, yes, in the complete work of Christ, but also our

prayer life must rely on our daily choice and our daily

surrender to the one who did die for us.

Hey, man, write it. OK, here's the sad matter.

Sometimes people get stuck at either altar.

Sometimes as Christians, we get stuck at the brazen altar in the

outer court where we spend our time, and we never progress any

further spiritually in growth. We feel some of us like the

animal tethered to the horns of that altar right there.

We remain there and we remain in the constant posture of just

repenting, repenting, repenting, repenting, repenting, repenting

and not accepting his forgiveness, His forgiveness,

his. I've found people in my own

life, they get stuck at the altar of surrender and they're

pleading, they're asking for forgiveness.

They're even recounting their wrongs that Christ said, hey, I

already took care of that. But they're just tethered to

that altar of surrender and it seems like they'll never enter a

deeper relationship with God because they can't get beyond

that altar. Someone say Amen.

They're not unable to move on because they just feel like they

can't. They reach a point in their walk

with God or their experience with God that they believe.

You know what? Maybe I can't be forgiven for

XYZ or or maybe I did something too terrible, Amen for that

blood to cover or, or why in the world would someone like me

deserve something so good when I've done such things so bad and

they find themselves in a constant cycle of just

repentance and just surrender. And yes, God is appreciative of

that, but he wants you to move beyond that.

And yes, he believes that you should die daily, but it's not

as though you should live there daily.

You got another altar to visit. There's another altar.

So let's say Amen. The idea, yes, the idea and the

fact that sacrifice has already been made, yes, it has to

resolve our reason for being at the altar of burnt offering.

We need to embrace and we need to embrace what Christ has done

for us. That even the the writer of

Hebrews told him that they would leave the foundations of

repentance and that they would go on, right, Because you're on

a spiritual growth pattern. It is not Christ's will for your

life. Just constant stay in the place

of thinking that you've never been forgiven for what he's

forgiven you for. There's a whole lot more road

ahead of you to travel beyond that place.

Never feel good, right? Never feel good about

themselves. Don't feel like I could delve

any deeper in the relationship with God.

To have communion with God outside of telling him I'm a

lowdown, no good dirty person center.

I don't deserve a holy place. The outer court should just be

the best that I get. Believing that if they reach

that first stage, then that's achievement within itself.

But can we just look again at scripture?

In the Old Testament, we never see that the priest just stayed

at that brazen altar all day. They didn't enter that place, do

the sacrifice of surrender, and then just remain there all day.

They moved on because if I could say it again, there was another

altar that needed to be visited in this day.

See, there comes a time that we must move beyond mere just

surrender in our life of prayer. More, more than just surrender,

we got to move into intercession.

We got to move into communion with God.

I dare to say. Listen to me, tell me if I'm

wrong. You don't have to verbally,

unless you just really want to. But some people, some people

struggle, struggle at the altar of incense because they don't

feel worthy to approach God by prayer.

They'll stay at the altar of burnt offerings because I need

to surrender more and sacrifice more and beat and poke my flesh

more. I'm not worthy to go to the next

altar. I, I, I know better than

anybody, Sister Cox, what I've done in my passing.

So I need to just stay right here.

All of those burdens of yesteryear, preventing them from

progressing forward. So I'm going to stay at the

altar of sacrifice. And I'm, I'm going to

continually repent. I'm going to continually cry day

and night, night and day, weeks and weeks, months upon months.

And I'm never going to accept the forgiveness.

Someone say Amen. The Bible says in Exodus 30 and

verse 9, if you can throw that back up there for me, for the

Mason, it says ye shall offer no strange incense thereon.

This is Speaking of the altar of incense.

You should offer no strange incense thereon, nor look earth

sacrifice short meat offering, neither shall you pour drink

offering there on. God has given very particular

instructions here. This is the altar of incense

we're talking about. Yet he's talking about burnt

sacrifices, meat offerings, and drink offerings.

They're not to go on the altar of incense.

Meat offerings, drink burnt, all of that pertains to the first

altar. He says don't come to the second

altar and attempt to put on it what you put on the 1st halter.

He's giving clarification here. He said don't confuse the altar.

Yes, there's an altar to surrender, but there's also

altar to commune, to intercede, to pray.

Don't put on this halter what you put on that altar.

Don't confuse the altars. Amen.

Someone say Amen, he said. Because this altar of incense is

not intended for what the altar burnt offerings was intended

for. Sacrifice.

Surrender belongs here, but there should be power in your

prayer and communion with me here.

You're as close as you're ever going to be when you're right

here. You don't come to the altar of

incense and, and, and keep the sacrifices.

No, no, no, no. You come here and you start to

you start to make contact. You start to grow in

relationship. You, you, you going on a journey

right here. What you established back there

is supporting what's offered right here.

So basically what what's put on the brazen altar can't be on the

altar of incense, and what's put on the altar of incense can't be

put on the brazen altar. There must be clarity in the

altars. Let me say this this morning

maybe someone needs to hear you cannot earn access to God

through excessive surrender and sacrifice, but neither can we

have power with God without it. So every believer, someone say

that's me, must have two altars in your life.

Our lives to have this spiritual growth or to mirror the pattern

of the Tabernacle, then we need, Sister Cox, an altar of

surrender and an altar for prayer.

We must first come by the brazen altar daily, and we must

surrender to the Lord every every morning or in that day.

And then we must continue to follow him in giving our lives

all right, for his sake and unto him, right.

That's a daily act. That's a intentional act, but

we're never meant to remain there in that day after we made

that decision that we are surrendered to the Lord today.

We got to move on to a place of communion of prayer with the

Lord. We got to transition to the

other altar and we got to OfferUp incense that will only

go up because we have coals from our previous fire at the other

altar. You remember the story of Nate

dab in the by who sons of Aaron. We've been in line for being the

next some of the next high priest.

The Bible says that they came in particularly the altar of

incense. They offered strange fire.

What's that mean? That means fire that came

somewhere else than an altar of surrender.

They wanted to try to get incense to arise off of coals

and fire that didn't come from surrender.

Life says that this was incorrect, that the Lord cut

them off from Israel, literally cut them off from the earth for

that matter, because they were trying to predicate a a, a

relationship with God that didn't include serenity.

So again, folks, I'm not trying to emphasize more one or over

the other. I'm saying both are vital and

both are important. I surrender to God and that puts

power then in my prayer and intercession to God.

It's just the way it works. We will frustrate ourselves if

we try to live a life of prayer without a life of surrender.

Some people's frustration in prayer if they not kept their

surrender, David said. And this is for people that have

no heart that's wanting to turn for God.

But David said if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord

will not hear my why so? Because to regard iniquity is a

surrender issue. Well, glory, but I want the

smoking incense to go up. That only comes from one other

altar. It comes from a place of

surrender. Amen.

So we got to embrace both altars, got to spend time with

surrendering to Him, and I may need to move to a place of being

fully aligned to communication, Amen.

And power of interceding in His presence.

Hallelujah. Someone say Amen and stay with

me today. I'll hasten to a close.

So yes, Christ, life, death, ultimate sacrifice was made

because the sacrifice. We all have access to these

altars. The veil on the temple rent in

twain. Scripture says no longer

standing now, no longer do we stand now outside of the holies

of holies when we stand in prayer.

If I can, if I can visually like this in my own eye, my own life,

when I go to the altar of surrender and then go to the

altar of prayer, when I stand there in prayer, I'm within just

arms reach of his presence and his power.

So the question you must ask yourself this morning is this.

Are you lingering at the altar of sacrifice and surrender,

pleading, going on as though nothing's happening there as far

as in your surrender and his forgiveness and never moving

forward? Or are you trying to burn

incense at the altar of incense, maybe without the fresh coals

and fire of a surrender? Because real spiritual life is

really found living between the two alters a life of surrender

and not war and a life of prayer.

We can bow our heads today. I'm urging someone in this place

this morning that it may be time for you, for you to move on.

It may time be time for you to sacrifice and surrender on the

1st altar and then ignite fire, if you will, upon the second

altar. It might be time for you to move

on and pray with some power and pray with some, some, some have

some worship and some passion and and to fully live in between

those two altars, if you will, to lay yourself down in one

instance and then let the incense rise from your life in

the other instance. Live in between two altars.

I felt this week during prayer revival that I needed to go here

after prayer revival. I know we talked about

intercession before prayer revival.

I feel like we needed to talk about these two, two altars

after prayer revival because I, I don't want you frustrated in

your prayer and I don't want you stuck just in surrender mode and

never growing and maturing on to the next altar because you need

to live between two altars. That's the pattern.

That's, that's the design that God gave Moses.

Those two folks. Again, it's a lot of other

places we could go in Scripture, but they were attended to daily.

Those altars were attended to daily, not just five days in a

week. That just happened daily,

morning and evening. Sacrifice of the lambs on the

brazen altar. Incense burned morning and

evening. The altar of incense got to

live, live between two altars. That's the thing, live there.

I say this in other regards of, of, of spiritual disciplines and

things of that nature. You know, if a person read 1010

books of the Bible one day and told me, I'm going to think

that's great. But if they read 10 books of the

Bible one day and then they don't read anymore for months,

that's not living with the Word. You might tell me you had a

three hour, 4 hour prayer session the other day.

That's tremendous. But then if you go without

prayer for the rest of the year, what are you saying?

I'm saying I believe it's more pleasing to live between the

altars than to get stuck at one one day and then not frequent it

again for several days. The altar is open to Sporn.

This is what we call the altar here.

But maybe this altar today for some needs to be a place of

surrender, but maybe for others it needs to be a place of prayer

and intercession. You know which it needs to be.

Maybe it needs to be both for you today.

And I know we just finished a week of being at the church

every night and praying. And that's OK, because we'll

never, like exhaust the need to pray, will never exhaust the

need to participate in these two altars.

They're connected. One relies upon the other.

Can someone begin to just talk to the Lord right now?

You know where you are. You know your circumstance of

life better than any. I only know what I can observe

from the outside. But in the innermost places of

your heart and mind and your life and the secrecy of your

life, only you and the Lord really know the dynamics of all

of that. But I'm challenging you today

that if if you're feeling some frustration in the place at

incense, maybe you need to go back to the brazen altar and

surrender. And if you're not getting

anywhere, you need to accept the forgiveness of the Lord.

You need to accept the forgiveness of the Lord.

You accept it for everybody else's life except your life.

You knew, except the forgiveness of God.

Allow Him to carry you on into a place of maturity where now it's

not just getting me taken care of, but it's interceding and

speaking on the behalf of others in circumstance, situations.

Power in prayer. Hallelujah.

Oh, let's talk to him today. I need the Lord.