This sermon emphasizes the importance of having an altar in our lives for prayer and communication with God. It highlights how people have become weary of spiritual matters and diagnostic rather than seeking the cure through prayer. The speaker draws parallels to historical figures like Abraham who built altars to meet with God, emphasizing the need for a personal and unashamed connection with God through prayer. The message urges a return to the practice of continual prayer and the sanctification of the altar as a place of meeting with God.

Now dear friends, we shall start this is a huge subject which I have before me this morning Isaiah chapter 43 Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 22 but thou has not called upon me Oh Jacob but thou has been weary of me Oh Israel you know we talk of being weary of this and weary of that and I have yet to hear of people who are getting weary of all the sad and dark things that people are saying today see in the innocence it is sickening the very atmosphere appears to be sickening what no hope gloom now here you know we are not to be just diagnosed issues suppose there's a hospital or a group of doctors who say we only diagnose here we don't cure anybody I wonder who will want to go there so today everybody has turned into a diagnostician see that's wrong this is wrong that's wrong this is wrong but nobody to suggest the cure but God says you have been weary of me you won't call upon me in other words there's no altar in your life now that seems to be the root of the problem no altar you know when the heathen man Abraham obeyed the call of God I wonder what comes concept he had of God the heathen only seemed to think of God as some terrible be powerful yes and terrible be if you turn to the twelfth chapter of Genesis you will find that when Abraham began to obey God about the first thing that he did was in the seventh verse and the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto your seed will I give this land and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him an altar he said I need a place where I meet God an altar you know it's very amazing that in heathen homes they set aside to see a room where they keep their gods and they call it puja room prayer room in heathen homes you can see it if you go into a Chinese place of business you will find a little shrine right in front they're not ashamed of it you know whatever figure they put inside or image they have a place of prayer they call it and when business opens in the morning the first thing they do is offer their prayers or their incense that's the first thing which they do you know one of those great engineers sir Arthur Cotton he he turned a great river into a source of great blessing for a whole district a mighty river almost three miles across when I first drove over that Annie cut as it is called a little strong masonry structure which crossed the river right across I said mine three miles and he managed just there was room for me to drive the car just upon that road and the river was just about a yard away or four feet away from me held by a little structure otherwise the whole flow of water would have gone into the ocean by stopping the river he managed to irrigate give supply of water to a whole district and it is such a prosperous district green and beautiful as far as your eye can see yes and of course it must have and when he began his work every day he would go on horseback and before he got his workers to work don't forget that was before concrete and that was before cement it was a masonry structure with which stood a mighty river he would gather all the crew and pray with them that was his first act before he got them to work there were some people who were unashamed of their altar I do not know how the White House is today and when they have heathen festivals celebrated like Diwali which is a purely fictitious mythological festival replete with idolatry to bring it into the White House is an abomination that the nation must repent of but you see people who are ashamed of prayer I remember on the turnpike from New York to Philadelphia I was in a little restaurant and there below the glass top was a little statement a printed note don't feel ashamed to bow your head and thank the Lord for your meal yes there were people who were unashamed and yet today we almost apologize if we are found at church or if we have an altar where we pray and where we want to be really private and cut off from the world people don't understand this but here in the eighth verse so Abraham moved on to the next mountain and at Bethel and the eighth was and there he builded an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord and he called upon the name of the Lord he was not ashamed now if somebody asked him a what's this that you put up here it is an altar that I pray that I call upon the Almighty God the name of the Lord so my dear friends if you turn to Exodus chapter 29 and verse 42 this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord where I will meet you to speak there unto you so there was to be an altar an offering made by fire unto the Lord and a continual burnt offering you're saying and the 44th was I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God so God wanted an altar and the 30th chapter begins with thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon you know friends a continual burnt offering there were to be two lamps one in the morning one in the evening to be offered to the Lord and that was to be a continual process you know enjoying prayer not as though it is something by root you know some people have say their prayers by root and they hardly know what they're saying and some of them have a system even today you know they say their prayers in Syriac in Latin and languages that they don't understand they don't know what they're saying you know I was talking to a yoga teacher on the plane he said he was a yoga teacher I asked him a question all right you say certain prayers and chants do you understand them no what you say prayers which you don't understand oh our guru knows it our guru knows it my dear people you see that's what has happened to prayer today no over in Germany they said to me you see saying prayers for the dead has got very costly over here it is cheaper to send those prayers to Spain and Portugal where it is less expensive to say those masses or those prayers for the dead I said has it come to this it's all to do with money and you want prayers for the dead to get them out of purgatory into heaven and so you want it done as cheaply as possible so you send those prayers over to priests in less expensive Spain see folks we have made a kind of travesty of prayer a ridiculous imitation of prayer did your did anybody teach you how to talk to your mother did anybody tell you how to call your dad dad did somebody teach you how to say mother nobody did it came from your heart the altar is something which comes from your heart you want to cry about father you are my father now so the altar abandoned by a people by a nation and what is placed instead some ceremony a ceremonial ritualistic prayers by road now my dear friends can you ever displace those little war blinks that come from a baby how precious they are I used to kind of you know before my children became articulate and before they could talk I would say all kinds of little noises to them quack quack or something and they would respond you know it was it was a language which they understood before they could speak yes they wanted to communicate there is in the heart of man that desire and the necessity to communicate with the heavenly father and the abandoned you know some of our churches look really disused all through the week they're shut up cemeteries may speak of more activity is it because somebody is getting buried there and so they have to keep it open kind of for people to come in and go out but the altars are abandoned now what more do you see in Genesis chapter 22 you see that marvelous altar which Abraham built you know that altar that speaks of the cross take now your only child your beloved child and go to a mountain that I will show you and Abraham obeyed and offer him there for a second verse as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I tell you all you see God he loved God more than the gifts of God you know we make a very big mistake there we love him for his gifts you see well I don't give too many gifts to people except when they are in real trouble but if people say to you I only love you because of the gifts which you give me otherwise you mean nothing to me you know there should come a time of spiritual maturity when we say hey gift or no gift I want the giver I want the father of all mercies I need Jesus just to love him because of his many gifts yes we all enjoy many gifts see I always feel that I am very ungrateful I can't help feeling I am that I am very ungrateful because I have so much to praise him for that I am living at all this is mercy and his gift of life but suppose I love him just because of his gifts how poor that relationship would be suppose your father became a really poor man and he became a beggar and you say how can I love a beggar no he's my dad he's my dad let us pray let us tell God Oh God let not my alters be broken down save me father to make time at the altar the altar of prayer the altar of intercession how much I seem to fail at the altar in intercession in the shedding of tears for the nations Oh my father give to us that humility that came to men Nessie that hard man bent on his idolatry and indulgence of self Oh my father that we too may humble ourselves we pray and ask you repair the altar Lord let not our alters be desolate we pray we cry to you teach us how to make room for the altar the centrality of the place of prayer the heart of prayer the pure conscience with which to lift up holy hands please father teach us to pray instruct us teach us father teach if needs be chastise us and teach that the altar may never be moved out of its place and the false altars may be thrown out of our city like men I said we asked this in Jesus holy name amen