Repairing Our Altar

Let me ask you a question, friend, and please be honest, before God. Is your walk with God a red-hot love relationship? Can your walk with God be improved? Stay with me as I bring a message before you on an intimate walk with God. I want you to turn in your Bibles, friends, to 1 Kings.

We're going to be in chapter 18. For in this rich passage of Scripture is the story of the prophet Elijah and his prayer battle with the prophets of Baal. We will be in verses 30 through 39.

And the title of my message today, friends, is Repairing Our Altar. I want to begin this message by reading verse 30 to us at this time. May the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word.

And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. I want us to see, friends, a repaired altar.

Perhaps this broken down altar of Elijah represents your own devotional life where your daily quiet time has fallen into disrepair. Perhaps your Bible is a closed book and your eyes are dry when you pray. The altar where you once met God is now covered in cobwebs and dust from disuse.

We see, friends, in our passage that the prophet Elijah realized the broken down condition and he went immediately to work to repair it. This is what we must do as well. There was a period in my own walk with God that I realized my altar needed repair.

I was maintaining a daily quiet time with Him, but something was missing. There was no sacrifice attending it, and God delights in sacrifice, for He sacrificed His only begotten Son. So to repair my altar to God I had to adjust the time.

I rose in the morning to an earlier time where I could spend more quality time with Him. I am reminded of a story of a boy and his dog. They lived on a farm out in the country, and the dog would sit on the front porch each morning, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his master.

And as soon as the screen door opened and the boy emerged, the dog would wag its tail and jump up and down with joy. Then off they'd go on a hunt through the woods with the faithful dog beside the boy. Why, everywhere that boy went his dog wanted to tag along.

But one day the teenage boy met a neighboring farm girl, and it wasn't long that the boy only wanted to spend time with that pretty red-headed girl. The dog would at first tag along, but soon the boy grew weary of the dog and viewed him as a nuisance who was only getting in the way. So finally he'd beat the dog violently with a stick to make it stay away.

But still, each day as the boy came out onto the porch, the dog would still wag its tail, but cower in uncertainty whether his master would pet him or beat him. Finally, the dog ran away. Do you know, friend, that God is like that boy's dog, in the sense that he is disappointed when we don't make time for him, when we ignore him, when he desires to spend time with us, and we either neglect him or wound him with our behavior.

Listen to me, friend. If your altar is broken down, then it needs repair, and a repaired altar is necessary for our continued intimacy with him. Now want to read us verse thirty-three? Listen to these striking words.

And he put the wood in order, and cut the bollock in pieces, and laid them on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. We see, friends, not only a repaired altar, but a prepared sacrifice. There is a poem I like.

It was written by Evan Roberts of the Welsh Revival. And what is significant about this poem is that Evan Roberts wrote it at the end of his life. Listen to his holy fire of a life lived on the full stretch for God in prayer.

Listen to the words of Evan Roberts. Here I have built my altar. The wood I've placed in order.

The sacrifice is ready now. Send, O Lord, the fire. And that's what we need, friends.

We need a sacrificial quiet time that is attended by fire. Listen, friends. What counts costs, and what costs counts.

Are we willing to get up on that altar as a sacrifice unto God through a holy life of consecration to God? The prepared sacrifice. Because only a prepared heart can seek the face of the Almighty and call unto Him with the holy boldness of an Elijah. Lastly, I want us, too, to see this third aspect from our text.

Look at verse 38. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. So, friends, we not only have a repaired altar and a prepared sacrifice, we also see an accepted offering.

This, to me, is a fantastic picture of God as He sits before that offered sacrifice like He would enjoy a hearty meal, and He licks His lips, if I may so speak, at this delicious and satisfying offering which He has accepted and delighted in. I believe the words of J. Sidlow Baxter sum up this thought magnificently. He wrote, What I give to Him, He takes.

What He takes, He cleanses. What He cleanses, He fills. And what He fills, He uses.

Is this not true, my friends? Now, let me ask you. Is your altar broken down? Well, what are you going to do about it? God's heart aches to spend time with you, here in the life that you live for Him in the present now. He wants you to get to know Him better, so you can enjoy Him more fully throughout eternity.

Let us pray.