Have You Lost Your Way To The Altar

Have you lost your way to the altar? Have you lost your way to the altar? And of course that comes from Richard's song by that same title that he just released. And just some things to think about. The altar, what it used to be called is a mourner's bench.

How many of you knew that? Where the old Methodist would have a bench up front where people could go up front who were concerned about the direction of their soul? The direction of where they're headed. And the altar was really a place of brokenness that brings wholeness. It's a place of death that gives life and it's a place of surrender that offers freedom.

So taking that step, taking that initiative and saying, Lord, I want to give you everything. But if you've lost your way to the altar, you can change that tonight. And there's a couple of ways that can redirect us.

Number one, the wrong path of pride. The wrong path of pride. Pride clouds our vision so it's hard to see the way to the altar.

Have you ever been there? You can't see that way to the altar because pride creeps in. And Obadiah says the pride of your heart has deceived you. One of the Puritans, Josiah Shute said, the sin of pride is so ingrained in us that even when other sins decrease, pride grows.

The sin of pride is so ingrained in us that even when other sins decrease, pride grows. Pride is a wrong path, but so is the deceptive road of misled pursuits. The deceptive road of misled pursuits.

Matthew 6.24 says that no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other. Beware, if God is not first in his glory, our own glory will be our downfall. Lay your pride down at the altar tonight.

Also, maybe if you've been on the road of deception and you've been misled by the wrong pursuits, you can lay that down as well tonight. And then another reason we can get knocked off the course and we need that light back to the altar, it's because of the highway of pressure, the highway of pressure. Anytime you feel that pressure in your life, that pain in your life, I don't know about you, but that can push me away from the altar.

That can push me away from drawing close to God. That pressure of life and the strength on the inside of you must be greater than the pressure on the outside. 1 Samuel, but David strengthened himself in the Lord.

And that's what happens at the altar many times is you can lay down this burden, lay down this pressure, lay down this pain and say, God, take this burden from me. Take this away from me tonight. Another way we can get off track and we get caught in the lane of misaligned priorities.

Misaligned priorities can cloud the way to the altar. That's why Paul said he disciplined his body and brought it under control so he could get his priorities back in alignment again. And they're called spiritual disciplines for a reason.

Discipline prevents the drift. I'm gonna talk about this to the men in a few weeks. Choose your heart, choose your heart.

Yes, following God is hard, but so is a life void of God. Following God is hard, but so is a broken marriage. So is a life caught in addiction.

Choose your heart. Parenting is hard, but so is raising prodigals. Choose your heart.

And then often we can get on the bitter trail of pain. Pain often leads to blame. How could God allow this? Anybody ever experienced that? How can God allow this? And I'll come to church and I might sing a little bit, but I'm not gonna go to the altar.

I'm not gonna go press in deeper with God because this pain has derailed me. It's knocked me off course. Another Puritan, Henry Greenwood said, in the world there is a fourfold invitation.

Are you guys ready for this? There's a fourfold invitation to take the wrong path. Yet only one leads to salvation. The devil says, come unto me and I will destroy you.

The world says, follow me, but I will deceive you. The flesh says, follow me, but I will fail you. Christ alone says, come unto me and I will refresh you.

So again, I wasn't gonna be up here long at all. I just wanna encourage you. Have you lost your way to the altar? Have you lost your way to the altar? Because there's no other name that can say, we know that, but others need to know that.

There's no other name that can restore. No other name that can heal. No other name that can cure.

No other name that can renew. No other name that can revive and bring spiritual life to us. No other name that can refresh.

But I also wanna encourage you in this, healing takes time. I sought my God and he heard me. The psalmist would cry out.

The prophets would cry out too. I sought my God and he heard me. It's not a one and done.

There's pursuit, there's passion, there's priority. Listen, I don't know how it works. I don't know exactly how it works.

I can't put all the pieces together. I just know what the Bible says and I know what is true. And I know that my experiences line up with the truth.

I don't know exactly how it works, but I don't know how a car works either exactly, but it got me here. I pushed on the gas and it got me here. So if you've lost your way to the altar, you've lost your, you've kind of drifted from God.

He's become distant. He's become something you do versus pursuing that relationship. He's a hobby, not the priority.

Other things have come in and taken your mind captive. They've taken your heart captive. What I love about God is it can change.

All that can change in a moment, a moment. Lord, help me. Lord, get me back to a place of brokenness and humility.

Guys, there is no plan B. Life is hard without God. And the devil tricks us and consumes us and implants those thoughts in our mind and we become bitter and we become resentful and we allow pain to keep us away. How many people allow pain to keep them away from church, keep them away from God or lukewarm living? We allow that to keep us away from God as well.

And we don't wanna be on fire for God because of deception in our own mind. And we have to get back to that pathway to the altar. So I'm gonna have the team come up and we're just gonna go right back into worship.

We're gonna focus on that theme. Have you lost your way to the altar? That can change tonight. Again, the altar is a place of brokenness that brings wholeness.

It's a place of death that gives life and it's a place of surrender that offers freedom. And Lord, we do thank you for the altar. We know it's not just a bunch of steps.

We know that it's a point of submission in our lives. It's a place where we can be renewed and restored and re-energize and reignited. Lord, give us that passion again to seek you with all of our heart.

And Lord, I pray many would find you even tonight. Lord, overcome the struggles we have in our mind to keep us away from you, to keep us distant, that highway of loneliness, the highway of pain, the highway of wrong priorities of serving two masters. God, we pray that you would expose that tonight in Jesus' name, amen, amen.