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Part 7 of 7
Alterations Series
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I want to start with one of the core values of our church: honesty. When we say honesty, we do not mean simply the absence of deception. We mean the presence of authenticity. It means that we refuse to be paralyzed by the religious norm of pretension—acting as if I am somewhere I'm not and someone I'm not.
Doing so is actually the biblical, not cultural but biblical definition of hypocrisy. When Jesus uses the word hypocrite, the Greek word he uses is a word that was used for those who engaged in theater, who wore masks. For Jesus, the hypocrite is not the imperfect individual. For Jesus, the hypocrite is the imperfect individual who acts like they are perfect. Hypocrisy for Jesus is in the mask.
Until God's people get free from the religious social norm of pretension, they won't be able to honestly admit where they actually are in their spiritual journey. And until you acknowledge where you actually are in your spiritual journey, you can never actually get to where you want to be.
Very often in religious circles, we create an environment where you feel the pressure to act like what you never actually become. So I want to ask: Am I talking to anybody that will acknowledge and admit I'm in process? I'm committed to the process. I'm sold out to the process. I will not abandon the process. But I am in a process.
If you're honest and open and authentic about your spiritual journey being a process, then you would have to admit that there were situations where you felt like or where you assumed we were in seasons and then discovered we were in cycles. If we're honest about some processes, we would have to admit that there were some situations where we were wrestling with some imperfections that we thought would come and go and we realize they come back and stay.
If we're honest and authentic about our process, we would have to admit that there are some struggles that are more stubborn than others, and there are some issues that seem to be a bit more insubordinate. These patterns and these issues are so deeply entrenched into the soul of our hearts that even after we prayed prayers, practiced principles and made promises to God ourselves and to other people, we experience seasons of freedom, but not a lifetime of liberation.
We become free for a season. And then just like Pharaoh followed Israel out of Egypt, that issue from an old season will follow us into a new season and say, "What you doing?"
If we're really going to dive to deeper levels of authenticity, we would have to admit—if we've ever had these experiences—we would have to acknowledge it's a confusing conundrum because we'd have to admit that sometimes we hate what we like and like what we hate. We need to quit what we don't want to stop and don't want to stop what we need to quit.
When you are serious about your spiritual journey and you're not infected with spiritual apathy—where you just settle for arrested development and spiritual immaturity—when you are passionate about being everything that God wants you to be, you can't be where you are and know it's not where you're supposed to be and be okay. There's something in you that makes you allergic to settling.
And even when you commit to settle, God won't allow you to settle in places that are less than his best for your life. God is not going to let you stay out there long. He's going to tap you on the shoulder and say, "You don't even look right out here. Come on in here." He said, "No, I'm not going to let you get away with that because many are called but few are chosen, and I got my hand on your life. And every time you forget that I got my hand on your life, I'mma snatch you back and remind you you belong to me."
Those of us who are serious about our formation journey know that this tension we feel can be discouraging, disheartening, and disappointing. However, I was studying scripture and I stumbled across some good news for God's people.
Here's my hypothesis: Just because something has not been changed does not mean it can't be changed. Just because you have wrestled with it most of your life does not mean you will have to wrestle with it for the rest of your life. My God is a cycle breaker.
I don't care how long the cycle has been and how strong the hold the cycle has. My Bible tells me in John 5, a man was in a cycle of sickness for 38 years. My Bible tells me in Luke 18, a woman had a bent back for 18 years. My Bible tells me in Mark 5, the woman had an issue of blood for 12 years. But when they ran into Jesus, he broke the cycle. And I'm speaking prophetically over somebody in here. He's getting ready to break it over you.
I've got a holy hypothesis that I think may help us. Here it is: Some things haven't been altered because there are some things that are only altered by the altar.
So many individuals are frustrated because we're trying to get the alteration (with an E) without the altar (with an A). The father wants us to know that there is some progression you can make with effort and with energy and with principles. But there are some issues that we have been wrestling with too long. They are embedded too deep, and we like it too much to simply walk out of that behavior without supernatural assistance.
And so God allows there to be limitation in the alteration to expose to us when we are practicing an altarless Christianity.
What do I mean by an altar? An altar is an instrument we're first introduced to in the Old Testament. The most notable altar was positioned outside of the tabernacle, which was a portable tent that God had Moses construct. This altar was positioned in what's called the outer courts—not the holy place, not the holies of holies—because Moses's tabernacle is a pattern for worship and the way the Father has to be approached.
It was positioned outside in the outer courts, speaking to the strategic role that the altar plays in accessing divine presence.
The altar was the place of alterations. The altar was the place of alterations.
It doesn't matter what something was before it got on the altar. Once it was put on the altar, it became something different. A regular goat was just a goat off the altar. But when you put the goat on the altar, it becomes what's called a scapegoat. The priest would lay hands on the goat as a sign of the sins of the people being transferred to the goat. And so the goat became a scapegoat and was sacrificed instead of the people, on behalf of the people, for the benefit of the people.
A sheep was just a sheep off the altar. But when you put the sheep on the altar, it became a substitutionary sacrifice for the propitiation of my sins—the divine appeasement of the wrath of God. That the wrath of God has been settled. That he's not mad at me now. He is madly in love with me.
A bull was just a bull off the altar. But when you put a bull on the altar, it became a burnt offering—a sweet smelling savior. The smoke that came up from the burnt offering was a metaphor of the prayers and the praises of God's people ascending to God. I don't praise him because I've been good to him. I praise him because he's been good to me. Every time I praise him, I'm sending up a burnt offering. Every time I give him glory, I'm sending up a burnt offering.
You might say, "Pastor, you showed us the Old Testament altar, but we're in a New Testament dispensation. And in a New Testament dispensation, we shouldn't be subject to Old Testament regulations."
Well, the New Testament does not remove the importance of the altar. It just changes the place of the altar. There's another piece of furniture that was the ultimate altar—that altar was on a hill called Calvary. That altar was at the place of the skull, Golgotha. And the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus went to that altar and he was the ultimate expression of altar theology.
So now the altar is not limited to a geographical location. Wherever me and Jesus are, it's up. Catch me in my kitchen. It's up. Catch me in my car. It's up. Catch me in the living room—it's up. When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me, my soul rejoices.
In the New Testament, we do not build altars with wood. We build them with worship. Because your altar is your meeting place with God.
Listen to this family—and this is the essence of what's missing. What did I miss? This is the essence of what's missing in the life of many modern believers: regular encounters with the manifest presence of God.
We have been such robust content consumers. We have overdosed on principles, but we are anemic with power. We have not properly distinguished between the omnipresence of God—he's everywhere at the same time—versus the manifest presence of God, which is when he shows up in a way that the Old Testament uses the word kabode, which means heavy. That's the Old Testament word for glory. It mean heavy.
It's when God manifests, there is this sense of something different. I know he's everywhere at the same time, but when he show up, it get heavy.
The pathway to the manifest presence of God is not getting something from God, but being with God. That's a difference. The pathway is the spiritual discipline of worship.
So this means not relegating worship to a Sunday corporate communal experience. Yes, this is important. This is necessary. The Bible tells us, don't forsake assembling. I get that. But many people's understanding of worship is what we're doing on Sunday. I'm talking about worship as a spiritual discipline that you do privately on Monday.
Just like I pray on Monday, just like I study scripture on Monday, just like I fast regularly, worship as a spiritual discipline. And many have confused and conflated worship as a spiritual discipline with listening to worship music. So we think because we listen to worship music on Monday, we're worshiping.
Listening to worship music is reflection. When music is written, there are all types of worship music that come from different places. Some worship music is confessional—I am confessing or declaring something about God. Some is testimonial—I'm testifying of my experience. Some music is prophetic.
When I'm listening to worship music, I'm listening to their testimony. I'm listening to what they believe about God to be true. I'm listening to them through song prophesying regarding how they believe God's going to intervene in the affairs of their life. That's reflection.
Even if I'm singing it, singing is only worship when you mean the lyrics. But worship as a spiritual discipline becomes a meeting place with God that leads to alterations.
In John chapter 4, we see this encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. The text opens up with the writer letting us know Jesus and the disciples are heading to Galilee, and the Bible says that Jesus says "I need to go through Samaria."
The disciples are a bit perplexed because there's historic hostility between Samaritans and Jews. The Jews were so set during this time period of not even interacting with Samaritans. Even though if they're going from Galilee to Jerusalem or Jerusalem to Galilee, the shortest route might be through Samaria. They would go all the way around. But Jesus said, "I am not going around. I'm going through." Because sometimes you got to get to the point where you stop adding distance trying to avoid drama.
He goes to Samaria. He gets to a well and then sits down. It's the power of the pause. We don't even know why he's sitting down till the Bible says later a woman comes to the well to get water. Because sometimes God will sit you down and make you wait on an explanation regarding why. Sometimes he sends you down. It's a pregnant pause, a supernatural pause. When God says, "I'mma press pause, not because you did something wrong, but something's coming. And I'mma press pause because I want you to wait on what you'll miss if you move too soon."
You may be wondering why aren't things moving and why aren't things progressing. Sometimes God will press pause and make you sit down. Not because you did something wrong, but somebody's coming.
This woman comes to the well just to get some water. She doesn't know who Jesus is. So from her perspective, he's a single man sitting at a well. She's just trying to get some water, and he says, "Give me some water."
I love her honesty. She says, "First of all, you know, Jews and Samaritans don't like each other. Why we even... What we doing y'all? We worship over here at Mount Gerizim. You worship over there."
Jesus says to her, "If you knew who you were talking to, you would be asking me for something that this water can't give you. Because I know what you really thirsty for. I use what you think you thirsty for to show you what you really thirsty for. You think you thirsty for water. But let me ask you a question, because I know where your real thirst is. Where your husband?"
She says, "I don't have one."
Jesus said, "I know. I know you've had five. And the one you got now, he's not yours."
Jesus has never met this woman. So how does he know this? Jesus gives what the Apostle Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 12:8 a word of knowledge—a supernaturally imparted truth or insight that the recipient would not otherwise know, given to enable effective ministry usually in a pastoral or an evangelistic context. It is when God lets somebody know something that they wouldn't know, should know, and couldn't know unless God made them know.
When he gives her this word of knowledge, she says, "Sir, you a prophet." She thought he was just a man until a regular man—until he gave her the word of knowledge. Then she said, "You a prophet." He told her what was going on with her and she told him who he was.
My God. He told her what was going on with her and then she turned around and started telling him who he is. You're not just a person. You're a prophet.
She had one sense of who you were at the beginning of this exchange. Now I got a revelation and I responded to the revelation I have by telling you who you are. But I can't tell you who you are if I don't have a revelation.
So when she tells him who he is, she's worshiping him because worship is telling him who he is, testifying of how great he is. But she was only able to worship because she had a revelation.
And here's the problem in church. We're trying to get you to worship beyond your revelation. We're trying to sing you into belief you don't have yet. But this woman had a revelation and she responded in worship.
Look what happens. The text says she left her water pot. She left a jar. She went back into the town and told him, "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?"
Do you see the progressive revelation? First, she calls him a prophet. By the time she gets back home, he's the Messiah. She called him a healer yesterday. But between yesterday and today, she sees he's a deliverer. He's a provider. He's a way maker. He's a heart fixer.
Don't you judge my worship. Because you don't know my revelation. Don't you look at me strange when I begin to give God glory because you don't know like I know what the Lord has done for me.
Is there anybody here that can look back over your life and say, "When I look back over my life, I can truly say that I've been blessed. I got a testimony. He blessed me, kept me, healed me, and delivered me." I got to get out of here. But is there anybody here that feels a thank you down in your soul? I got a reason to give him glory. I got a reason to give him praise.
And this woman had this encounter and she wasn't in church. She was at a well. It wasn't corporate. It wasn't communal. It was individual. That's good. That's good.
It speaks to worship as a private spiritual discipline. And today I believe the Holy Spirit is laying a foundation for a conversation he wants to have with us over the next few weeks. And that is making space for the altar. Making sure that we are not so occupied with what we have from him that we don't make space for him.
You are carrying too much not to carry his presence daily.
When she left the water pot, her jar, it doesn't mean she didn't want him. It meant she didn't want water. It meant she want him more. She found something so much better than what she had. She was willing to leave what she thought she couldn't live without.
See, some of you are waiting to stop liking some stuff before you leave it. And sometimes you got to put it down and walk away—not because you want to put it down, but you found somebody you want more.
I just want you more. And you carrying too much not to carry him. A presence, conscience, life. I need him.
If you've never given your life to Jesus, I hope you were blessed by that message. I hope you are challenged to recognize the importance of living a presence conscious and a presence-driven life. Not just principles from God, but presence of God.
