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Campion Seventh Day Adventist Church

The Altar of Intimacy

Micheal Goetz

Middlemost

5 parts, 4 in February, 1 in March, and then our campus will go on a spring break.

Doesn't mean our church will go on a spring break, but we'll stop the sermon series there.

I'm telling you, when I sit down for a sermon series, I've got currently a page and a half, single-spaced ideas, bullet points, of sermon series that are coming up.

We got enough sermon series to last us until Jesus comes, whenever that is, right?

But this 1 emerged this winter out of an article I read, and I'll share it in the middle of the sermon.

I'll share some of the references where I said, we've got to talk about this.

And then, new freedom to love, this question of what is ravaging the families in our world.

Men and women being taken down by addictions.

And at the top of the list is the question of pornography and sexual addiction.

It's not as destructive as other addictions.

We think it doesn't cause car accidents, but it causes family wrecks.

Father in heaven, Speak, we pray, and let it be that our hearts were open to hear.

Of course, Bible students were thinking, oh, stones stacked up and some sort of sacrificial offering.

But there's another altar that many of us have thought of, some of us have visited.

The altar is the term we use for when 2 people come together and commit.

In an intimate commitment of marriage we say, you got to take her to the altar man, you got to meet at the altar.

Or worse, worse the tragedy of being left at the altar.

I went online this week to find out that there are whole forums of people just telling their story about how they were left at the altar, men and women, brides and grooms being left at the altar.

1 groom says, or 1 bride says, after an hour of waiting it was obvious that my groom wasn't showing up.

He finally called me and said he just couldn't do it.

I stood before everyone at the front of the church and explained that the groom had gotten cold feet but we were still having the wedding reception.

I walked around in my wedding dress joking with all the guests about his cold feet.

I mean we had been together, we had dated for 6 years.

Went to check in on him that evening, he was sitting on his couch watching TV like nothing had happened.

Another 1 says, hey, I've got a story too.

We're at the front of the church waiting for the bride.

With about 15 minutes to go, the groom said he needed to use the toilet and he walked to the back of the church.

A minute or so later, this friend says, it hit me that the toilets weren't in the back of the church and I started to worry.

He was not near or around the toilets or even around the church.

And then another testimony speaks, hey, I've got a story, 1 says, I was a bridesmaid.

All of my friends, including myself, her parents and everyone else, had been telling her, we're not quite sure about this guy.

We don't wanna ruin it for you, but we're just not quite sold on him like you are.

He seems just, no, he just doesn't seem to be the right match for you.

We'd all given up by the time the wedding happened anyway, and we were trying to be happy for her We had all decided that we were gonna celebrate her decision anyway They're standing before the minister This bridesmaid says they're standing before the minister and he turns to her in the vows expecting her I do and she looks around the room and runs down the aisle.

We were all just silence over the congregation of witnesses.

Silence except for her father, who's sitting on the front row, says in an all too loud a voice, Thank you, Lord.

It's the point in which 2 people come together in a bond, in a place of commitment, of intimacy.

It's the beginning of a bride and groom's life.

It's where the couple will stand and become 1 in marriage.

They will share their covenant vows, their promises to each other, and they'll lock it with a kiss.

And so when we talk about an exploration of the Old Testament altar, we will find that that's not altogether different.

It still becomes a place of covenant when 2 people come together and they meet in a holy sacred covenant.

It's usually a raised, listen to that line, raised structure or place on which sacrifices are altered or incenses burned in worship, often used figuratively to describe a thing given great or undue precedence or value, listen to this last line, especially at the cost of something else.

The altar becomes important, so important that something else has to be given up or surrendered, sacrificed.

In the scripture, there is such a thing as the law of the altar.

Although we won't through the series, we are going to primarily move into the New Testament view of some of these Old Testament altars.

The altar sprinkled throughout the Old Testament.

We're talking about Noah, who led in the first time an altar is mentioned.

We're going to Exodus chapter 20 today for the law of the altar.

You say, I remember another law in Exodus 20.

It's called the 10 Commandments, the law of God.

You know, and I've preached on this, I wish we had come up with a different term because the 10 Commandments, the law of God, is a covenant expression of his faithfulness to us and an invitation to respond with faithfulness to him.

The 10 Commandments is not a law in the civil sense.

But as you know, that's the 10 Commandments.

That's where the decalogue, the covenant was given to God's people.

Now at the end, at the end of all of this, at the end of God's speaking, it was so powerful, the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpeting and saw the smoke.

They shook and then they cried out to Moses.

We don't want God to speak directly to us.

The very next thing God says, all right, so play out this line.

God gives this deck log of covenant where he is declaring what he will be for God's people.

I will be this for you, I will be faithful to you.

And now in response, this is your faithfulness to me.

And then the people respond with trembling because they see the trumpet, or they hear the trumpet, they see the thunder.

And then they turn to Moses and say, you be the go-between.

We want to hear from God, but through you.

The very next thing that God says is what is known as the law of the altar.

Listen, verse 22, Exodus chapter 20, verse 22, Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites this.

First

For the honor and glory of your name, we dive into the study of scripture.

Speak, Lord, and may the bigger miracle actually be that we hear and apply, that we leave changed from the way we came.

Okay, I need you to listen very carefully.

I'm going to explain something to you, and I need your full attention.

Put it at the very front here so I can explain it.

Let me put it as a picture on the screen.

The legality of owning 1 of these kangaroo.

If you live in Wisconsin, West Virginia, or South Carolina, you can own a kangaroo without a permit.

If you live in Washington, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, you can own a kangaroo but you must have a permit.

So Wisconsin, West Virginia, South Carolina, you do not have to have a permit to own a kangaroo.

But if you live in 1 of those other ones, Washington, Idaho, Northwest there, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Illinois, I'm repeating it so you get it.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, you have to have a permit to own a kangaroo.

Now what about if you live in Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Oregon, Any other state, the states you see in red there, you cannot own a kangaroo.

Apparently you got to give it to somebody that lives in Wisconsin, West Virginia, or South Carolina.

Any other state in red, We're in red, Colorado, my home state of Oregon.

Now, just keep in mind, kind of extra credit here, that if you do live in Colorado, you can't own a kangaroo.

You can't, you're not supposed to smoke them, but you can own 1.

Now, I don't know why you need to know all of that and someday if your brain drive runs out of storage feel free to delete the information.

Point is, what we're going to talk about next is something that we need to know.

But what we do, what we do study today, you do need to know.

There's a pew Bible right in front of you.

You can grab that pew Bible or your phone, of course, electronic device if you have it.

What we're going to study, what we're gonna spend the rest of our moments together in study is life and death.

I shared with you Dwayne Esmond's line in in the Ministry Magazine of December 2022 just a few months ago when he wrote that article back to the altar and it grabbed our attention.

He writes, the broken worship altar, that is the personal and family worship altar, represents the single greatest threat to the Christian life and purpose.

The broken altar, the forgotten altar of personal worship or family worship represents the single greatest threat to your Christian life and purpose.

Maybe it's because of the altar, the broken altar.

The restoration of the personal and family, The restoration of personal and family worship among Christians is the most pressing need of our time.

And so we took Esmond at his word, and we said, well, let's spend some time going back to the altar.

And so we opened our Bibles last week to the law of the altar, Exodus chapter 20.

But today we're going to Exodus, not Exodus, we're going to Genesis, Genesis 8.

Genesis 8 is the first direct reference in scripture to an altar.

Now there's, now there's, it's inferred earlier on with Cain and Abel.

They were to bring their gifts, but it never says to the altar.

But in Genesis chapter 8, we pick up the story of Noah.

We're gonna hit the end of Genesis chapter 8 and then we're gonna jump into Genesis chapter 9.

What did he come out of together with his sons and his wife and his son's wife?

They'd been locked up in an ark running the globe the high seas, literally the high seas.

Not for 40 days and 40 nights, that's the rainfall.

They were locked up there for months and months and months, and now he came out.

Now Imagine after being locked up in an ark for a year, and you land on now what is just totally a rearranged planet.

And you get out of the ark It seems like there's a few things on your to-do list Mrs.

Noah as we affectionately refer to her no doubt had the honey-do list of what needed to be done Maybe maybe a little a little garden.

We need some fresh fruits and vegetables.

Hey, let's get those trees and that vineyard planted right away because we haven't had some of that in a long time.

They probably didn't like the idea of a little anything.

We want a big house, lots of windows, and open space.

But, but, verse 20 jumps up and says, then the very first thing, the very first thing that Noah did is the Biblical is the very first biblical reference to the altar then Noah built an altar It's the very first thing he did.

And then Noah built an altar to the Lord.

Because he arrives on a wrecked planet and it seems like it would have made good sense for them to save what they could eat, the clean animals.

The very first thing that Noah did, and if ever there was a man that had a list of things he needed to do, it was Noah.

Everything

Invitation, based on a line from an article entitled, Back to the Altar.

Line read, the broken worship altar in the Christian or the Adventist Church represents the single greatest threat to the Christian life and purpose.

The restoration of personal and family worship among the church is the most pressing need of our time.

And so we took that and said let's talk about it for 5 weeks.

Unbeknownst to me, 1 of our illustrious teachers on campus, Jennifer Bazzama, is taking her classes through a commitment, a challenge.

We said, we said, let's do 28 days on February 4, we said, let's do 28 days of personal devotions, family worship.

That must have seemed a little embarrassing to the to at least the junior class that was launched into a 40-day challenge.

Buzama was kind enough to share some of the entries from her students.

But they wrote, or she wrote, when she shared them with me, She said, I was blown away and couldn't stop reading their journal entries.

And I'm telling you, junior class, I am very proud of you.

What God has done in your individual lives is both beautiful and a challenge to the rest of us.

Through this challenge, this junior wrote, I learned more about God's love for me go figure when we go to the altar We're gonna learn and feel more of God's love I found that taking the time to read the words he inspired Paul to write was always rewarding it relieved my stress and oftentimes gave me answers I was looking for.

This is from Junior B, who also got an A grade, I'm sure.

I learned so many things about God during these 40 days, although it was difficult to reprogram and to Discipline our life is not easy.

It's not the way that we would naturally fall.

Although it was difficult, writes this high school student, I managed to finish.

I'm very proud of you as well, because never in my life would I have thought that God can hear us in times of despair and cares about us.

He is a loving and understanding God and we have, if we have just enough faith, we can be healed from our needs and worries like the woman that touched Jesus and was healed instantly with her faith.

Said it became easier after time and more rewarding as each day went by.

That's The art of discipline and practice.

I would definitely say I think God spoke to me in many ways, but 1 of them was when I went to visit some of my family members 1 weekend and I was telling them about my 40 day challenge and how it was hard, but rewarding all in the same way as I was sharing with them how it was working, and they decided to join me in my challenge, and they still got 20 days or so, but they are going strong, growing in their faith, just like I did.

Come on, champion, gonna change the world.

Because they went back to the altar, and they start sharing it with their family and their friends.

You take these and you can't but go to the altar." Grab your Bibles then.

Not just on their word, but on the word of an Old Testament narrative, 1 of my favorite Bible characters.

Looking in your Bibles, Genesis chapter 35.

If you'll just check this monitor, somebody I think turned it off.

If you could just find that button on the top, see if it turns itself back on.

Then God said to Jacob, Jacob go up to Bethel.

Hit the pause button on this because Bethel was an operative place in the life of Jacob.

Well, Jacob and his older brother Esau had a conflict.

Several ways, but it kind of came to a climax over a birthright.

I'm gonna just flip 2 pages back in my Bible to Genesis chapter 38.

Jacob is now running for his life because he did a little...

God would have brought about the same thing in his own time in his own way, but Jacob got in the mix of it and then caused even more stress And now Esau is angry and he's coming after him.

He runs to as far as he can, exhausted he falls down.

Put a picture on the screen, not the text, but just the picture he had a dream, in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

There above it stood the Lord And he's at the top of the stairway looking down, and he says to Jacob, I am your God.

I'm your Lord, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac.

And I will give your descendants the land which you are lying, and your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and the east and the north and the south.

All the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

Verse 15 of chapter 28, and I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised." Did you hear what he said?

I'm gonna go with you, Jacob, and I will bring you back to this spot.

I will not stop until I fulfill the promises I have given you.

And Jacob woke from his sleep and said, God was right here.

I was not aware that this is the very door, the very house of heaven.

And so he named it Bethel, the house of God.

There was a staircase, God at the top of it, speaking down to his servant Jacob, I'm gonna be with you Jacob, you're on the run now, you're on the run now, but I will be with you.

God says go up to Bethel and settle there and what?

I want to bring you back like I promised and we're gonna have a meeting there, a special meeting.

All In

At 5 o'clock, we're going to worship again, but we're not done listening for your voice.

I pray with all of my heart that your spirit, the third person of the Godhead, will be unfettered and have unhindered access to our hearts.

The world needs young and old, men and women, Christians who are going to stand for the right though the heavens fall.

And today we pray that you would do that work in us.

This is our final, our final for the altar of intimacy, invitation to come and again meet Jesus on a regular daily basis.

I want to start with a story you have already heard.

I've stood in the spot, looked out over exactly where this has happened, and maybe so have you.

Joshua Chamberlain was a student of theology.

You can tell him he would have been a great preacher, no doubt.

But when he was called to duty, Chamberlain answered.

He climbed the ranks, become a colonel of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Union Army.

On July 2, 1863, Chamberlain and his 300-soldier regiment were all that stood between the Confederates and certain defeat on the battlefield of Gettysburg.

My first invitation to serve as a pastor was just up the road from Gettysburg.

At 2.30 on July 2nd, The 15th and the 47th Alabama Infantry Regiments of the Confederate Army charged, but Chamberlain and his men held their ground, then followed a second and a third and a fourth and a fifth charge.

By the last, By the last, Chamberlain stood with only 80 men of his original 300.

80 blues on the battlefield of Gettysburg.

At 1 point, you know the story as it's been told, Chamberlain himself was knocked down by a bullet that hit his belt buckle.

But the 34-year-old schoolteacher, I'm telling you, it takes a lot to knock a schoolteacher down and it takes a lot to keep a schoolteacher down.

But this schoolteacher got right back up and it was his date with destiny, July 2, 1863.

His sergeant informed him that there were no reinforcements coming and his men were down to 1 round of ammunition per soldier.

Standing on that very small hill, Rise in Gettysburg, The rolling hills all around, scattered with trees, waving grass.

And he knew, He knew the weight that was on his shoulders and the time that he had to make the decision, and so he acted decisively.

Their lookout, a young boy perched high in a tree on Little Round Top informed Colonel Chamberlain that the Confederates were forming rank again.

A sixth charge was coming and they wouldn't last.

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Series

The Altar of Intimacy

Sacrifice

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Middlemost

41m

First

42m

Everything

41m

All In

43m

Misunderstood

39m

Sacrifice

42m

Cogent

43m

Sound Doctrine