Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Continue here in our message this morning briefly. Judges chapter 6, Judges chapter 6.
And we're speaking on the difference today of family altars and false. Altars. I um have enjoyed this series on altars. And we're going to continue with it just a couple more weeks. I just first wanted to say Thank you.
Last week, you recognized our 20th anniversary, and we appreciate all the kind wishes and cars and things. Thank you. For church, you gave us a couple days at an Airbnb this week to go pick up our son from college. And so we are excited to take advantage of that. Thank you.
um for that um and uh we can't wait to have Our oldest, um, back On Sunday, I thought as we were dedicating Little Savannah, I thought, man, I remember this. Feels like yesterday we're dedicating Daniel and Now we're going to pick them up in college. It goes fast. It just does. And I know that you parents know that.
I also wanted to mention that in the near future, we're running our connections class right now, and it's going well. I was able to teach in there this morning. But in the near future, we're going to be starting during our Sunday school hour a discipleship class. We have quite a few people that are interested in our one-on-one discipleship. And we will keep it as a small class.
We'll only have certain slots available. But I'll be teaching that going through our discipleship, what we believe, why we believe it. A lot of Christians have sat in church their whole life and they really don't understand. They haven't really seen the verses. They don't know why they believe what they believe.
And this discipleship helps people. It just does. It helps the people that go through it. It helps the people that lead it. It's just fantastic.
It's worked well with our church.
So many of our people have enjoyed it. And we encourage you, if you're interested in discipleship, even if not in the Sunday school. class, but you say, I'm interested. We have some couples right now that are ready and willing to disciple you once a week. It's a good time of fellowship, and it really answers a whole lot of questions.
So I hope that you'll let us know if you're interested in that, because we would be glad to facilitate that. As we have been talking about altars, for the most part, they've all been positive in the Old Testament especially as we are kind of bridging the gap of what altars meant in the Bible. Today I want to maybe talk just a few minutes about what can be. the negative side of Family altar. When we say family altar, we just kind of automatically assume we're talking about something good.
And family altar can be something good. But for us to understand really what family altar means I think it would be good for us to just stop this morning for about fifteen, sixteen minutes. And let's analyze our family life. Let's analyze our home a little bit.
Some of you like, I don't want to do that. I just, you know, I have to do that 24-7. I don't want to do it at church. But I want us just to stop and analyze some things this morning. I think you understand what I'm talking about.
Family altars in the Bible. A family altar is a place where you gather as a family to worship. It's kind of that simple, but Worship what? Do you know that we can set up altars in our family that worship God? teach our children and our family.
But you know that we can also set up some family altars. to worship wrong things. You know, we can set up family things and just a system in our family lives. that are teaching our kids to worship other things. We're teaching our children to put other things.
in front of the Lord. Exodus chapter 20 is interesting because I have these verses on the screen. You don't need to turn to it because you're in Judges chapter 6. God comes to the children of Israel and He literally asks them, each of them, to set up their own family altars. In chapter 20, verse 22, and the Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
I've communicated with you. Ye shall not make me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. He says, Don't offer me something worldly, and don't you worship something worldly. Look at verse 24. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen.
In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. God says, listen, just take a stone, make an altar, but don't chisel it, try to make it fancy, because now you've put man into the process. Everybody get it so far?
Now, this is Old Testament, we're New Testament, but there is an application here, and I want you to understand it. He says, Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar. that thy nakedness be not discovered. They're on. What's the point here?
He says you you This ought to be holy to you. It ought to be special to you. Just because you say you built an altar doesn't mean you've built the right kind of altar. And here's what I'm afraid is going on. Listen to me this morning.
I'm afraid if we're not careful, we have put up an altar to God on Sunday. And we have established altars to false gods. the rest of the week. We're teaching our kids to put other things in front of God, but on Sunday we want to erect our altar. And say, hey, let's worship God today.
But every other day of the week we're worshiping everything else. You say, is this in a series on altars? Yeah. A man named Gideon. This is an interesting story, so just hold with me.
Now listen. Quickly, we're going to go through it, but you've got to see the verses. First, today I want you to see, this cracks me up. I want you to see the call of Gideon. And Judges chapter 6 is where this all takes place, but you've got to get it all to understand what's going on here.
In verse 11, it says, And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which was in Oprah. Yes, that came from the Bible. that pertained unto Joash the Abazerite. And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
And the angel of the Lord just shows up. And some believe that this might have been an epiphany, I don't know. A Christophanes, some believe this was.
Some believe that this was maybe one of the archives. I don't know. I'm just, there's a lot of debate, a lot of things, and I have my own opinion. But the angel of the Lord shows up, and here's Gideon, just a hard-working man. And the angel shows up and says, Listen, mighty man of valor.
God is calling you.
Now, that is the call of Gideon, but secondly, I want you to notice the frustration of Gideon. Look at his response in verse 13. I love this. And Gideon said unto him, Oh, my Lord. I love that.
An angel appears out of nowhere. God's called you. Oh, my Lord. What is going on? But notice what he says, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us.
Why then has all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee?
I'm going to tell you something. You got to give it to Gideon. At least he was honest. Angel of the Lord shows up and says, Listen, God's calling you. You're going to be a mighty man of valor.
And Gideon says, Oh, God's called me? Oh, really? If God's real. If God's for us, then why has all this happened to us? You ever asked yourself that in your life?
You know, if God loves me so much, then why did he allow this to happen? He says, wait a minute. He says, if God's so great, why did he deliver us into the hand of the Menianites? And boy, God is patient. At least Gideon's being honest.
God said, listen. You go, and I'm going to give you the power, and I'm going to help you defeat the Midianites. Instead of complaining about what you don't like, Why don't you get a hold of God and let God help you change it?
So, third, Gideon wasn't sold yet.
So, now we see the sign that Gideon requested. You've got to hear this whole thing.
So God comes to him, says, Hey, I've called you. Gideon says, Oh, my Lord. He says, I don't, you know, you haven't. You say, You call me, you're not helping me. And God says, Listen, I will be with you.
We're going to defeat the Midianites. I'm going to use you. You're going to be a mighty man of valor. But Gideon needed a sign. He needed to know for sure.
So look, if you would, at verse 16. And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign. That thou takest with thee. Gideon said, if this is the case.
I need a sign. Look at verse 19. And Gideon went in and made ready a kid. Obviously a young animal in unleavened cakes. of an epha a flower and The flesh he put in a basket and he put the broth in a pot.
and brought it out unto him under the oak and presented it. And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon this rock. and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes.
Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Wow. Gideon says, I need a sign.
So he puts food down. Angel says, put that food on the rock. Puts the food on the rock. Angel puts the staff. Boom.
Fire consumes it all immediately. There's your sign. Like Jeff Foxworthy would say, here's your sign. Noticed. I love this after God gives him a sign.
Notice the family altar that Gideon built. Verse 22. And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God. For because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face, then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord. Isn't that something?
And he called it Jehovah Shalom.
Now, you say preacher. What in the world does all this mean? Jehovah Shalom means God is My Peace. We find Gideon putting this altar, but this altar wasn't just for him. It was for the generations after him.
But we have a problem.
So far, so good. He builds this altar. And not only that, I wanted you to notice God comes to him. And God gives him another command. And this is what we're going to talk about, and we'll be done today.
I want you to see the family altar that Gideon tore down. We see the family altar that Gideon put up. God's my peace. And by the way, God is your peace. You're only going to find peace through God.
But God comes to him, look at verse 25, and it came to pass the same night. That the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old. and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath. and cut down the grove that is by it. You see, Gideon's family already had a family altar.
They were captive to the Midianites. He had heard all the stories how God had led them out of Egypt, but they were in captivity now. And the people that had them captive worshiped Baal. And so now that had kind of taken on, and a lot of the children of Israel were Baal worshipers. And Gideon's dad had a family altar.
It was where the whole family worshipped. But it wasn't a good altar. It was an altar. to a false god, Baal. And as God comes into Gideon's life and he calls Gideon, he says, Gideon, I want to do some great things in your life.
When Gideon gets the sign and realizes this is real, this is from God. Gideon put up an altar. to the real God. But God says Gideon We can't go any further. Thank you for putting up this altar.
But we can't go any further till you tear down. That false altar.
So what does Gideon do? This is his dad's altar.
So, verse 26: God says, And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock. in the ordered place. Take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove that thou shalt cut down. Here's what he said: God said, Listen, you go tear your dad's altar down. Your dad has an altar that the whole family and you have worshipped at.
It's a false altar, it's a false god, and there is a grove, there's trees that have grown up by that altar. I want you to tear down that altar and I want you to cut down every bit, every tree out of that grove. And then I want you to get the wood from those trees and you build another altar, a correct altar, an altar of faith to God, and you do that.
So not only do I want you to get rid of that altar, I want you to get rid of everything that has been grown and fed by that altar.
So now the Bible says Gideon was scared of this, and he didn't do it during the day because he didn't know what was going to happen, so he did it at night. And look at you would have verse 30, the resistance that Gideon faced. Let me share this with you and then I'm going to make a couple comments and we'll go. Verse 30, then the men of the city said unto Joash, Gideon's dad. Bring out thy son, that he may die, because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.
And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? Will ye save him? He that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning. If he be a God, let him plead for himself. Because one hath cast down his altar.
Listen, Gideon is already starting to reach his family. Gideon tears down that altar to Baal.
Now the city's mad at him and they come and his dad stands up for him. His dad is the one that had the altar to Baal and his dad said, listen, don't you come try to kill my son. Listen, if Baal is real, let Baal plead for himself. If he's a God, he'll take care of himself. Why do you have to come defend it?
Why do you come because you're mad? If Baal is so powerful, let him plead for himself. And it shut him up. I love this. Look at the favor that Gideon received from God, verse 34.
But the Spirit of the Lord came. upon Gideon. In Gideon's life, it wasn't just about putting up altars, it was about tearing some down. Yeah, we can't have altars built to the Lord on weekends. and altars built for the flesh the rest of the week.
For the Spirit of God to have freedom in our lives, we have to do both. We've got to put up the right altars. And we've got to tear down the wrong ones.
Now here's what's interesting. Anytime you try to get rid of an altar in your life. that is worshiping the wrong thing, you're always going to have resistance. There might be a dad or a mom here today that just decides, you know. And I'm not getting into specifics today.
But today you might think, you know, there's some things that need to change in our family. In our family, we've allowed our boys to worship video games. We set up an altar, that's all they do all week long. When do they ever read the Bible? When do we ever sit as a family read the Bible?
But they sure play video games hour upon hour upon hour upon hour. What are you teaching your kids to worship? You're like, oh my God, let me tell you something, these kids are ticked at me right now. But look at me, please get this. Please get this.
You start changing that, see how they feel about it. You're gonna get resistance. We have altars in our house. You have altars in your house that we set up, and we teach kids that this is what's most important. Sports are what's most important.
TV is what's most important. This is what's most important. Having things is most important. Having entertainment is most important. God's house is set aside.
The things of God are set aside. We don't ever read the Bible, talk about the Bible, teach the Bible, talk about God. But we show up Sunday, and bless God, the church needs to do that for our family. And, dear friend, all I'm saying is this: listen, if we can take all the good things about altars, we need to hear all the truth about altars. The Spirit of God did not come upon Gideon.
when he put up the right altar. The Spirit of God came upon Gideon when he tore down the wrong ones. All I'm saying is this. Do you think maybe just because we've just grown accustomed that we can set up some systems in our family? That we literally have some family altars, but they're not for the Word of God.
We've taught our children. How to worship things. How to worship culture, how to worship. And I'm just here to say this. Listen, we can...
Build the good altars all we want to. But as long as there's still that altar there. And as long as there's still that grove of trees around there. that's still in our life. God's not going to have freedom in our life.
Imagine what God could do with the church when we decide, you know, we're going to tear down the wrong altars. What is Baal? Baal was a false god. How many of you know there's all kinds of false gods in our culture? We can teach our kids that Your physical body is your God.
Oh, we give all the time for physical exercise and all the time we're going to go work out, we're going to go do this, but church is way on the back burner. What are you teaching? What are we teaching? We're teaching, we have an altar to worship this, an altar to worship that, an altar to give our time here, an altar to give all of our money to this, and all of our effort to this, and all of our attention to this. But then we show up Sunday and say, hey, you know what?
We're going to put up an altar. Let's worship God today. Is it almost done? I want to get to lunch. I don't want to have to sit here and wait in line.
Captain Toms is going to get busy. Y'all know I'm telling the truth. Can we all, listen? I'm not against anybody. I'm guilty, you're guilty, we're all guilty, but it's the truth.
No, we don't have stone altars sitting in our house where we're worshiping to a false god, but. We have false gods everywhere in our life. And all I'm saying is this on a Sunday morning. You're like, hey, this is all. Nice feely.
Listen, this is about family. This is about Savannah. This is about our children. This is about the next generation. What kind of altars are we going to have for our future generations?
if all the altars we're setting up are to false gods. That means we can't enjoy life and enjoy things. Y'all know I'm not that kind of person. I mean, I enjoy life. I'm saying I'm the kind of person that enjoys life and all those things, but here I am here to tell you.
God said, Gideon, You're going to have to get rid of that false God. You're going to have to get rid of that false altar. And you're going to have to cut down all those trees surrounding it. But here's what happened. And Gideon obeyed.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. And the Midianites, who they had been in captivity to for all these years. God miraculously gave victory through Gideon. They defeated the Midianites, and Gideon didn't even have to raise a finger to do it. That's what the Spirit of God look at me.
You say preacher I can't help but it feels like you're being a little bit hard today. No, I'm not being hard. If you've been around church while I.
Some preachers can preach hard. How many of you know I'm a friendly preacher? I'm a nice preacher. But I will tell you this, listen to me. That's why so many times you come and you want to sit in office and things are going very bad in your family.
Your kids are running here, kids are doing this, kids have no use for church, kids have, they don't want to be in God's sense, they don't want anything to do with whatever, they don't want this, they don't want that, and here's what I'm saying, dear friend: many times it's because of the altars we set up right in our family. And it's good for all of us to take inventory of our family. And not, hey, do I have a good family altar set up? And I hope that you do. And I hope that you do read God's Word together as a family.
And I hope that you do come to church and be faithful. You're the ones that are here. We're not getting on you. I'm simply saying this: that if we're not careful, we can think because we do this on Sundays. that our job is done.
That's not. Listen to this before we go. Just hear me out. There's some lessons that we need to learn. Number one is this: Gideon's story reminds us that we must always be on the lookout for idols in our lives.
This reminds me that if I'm not careful, something can become my idol. Brother Nick sings a song about this very thing. Even doing things for God can become an idol. Number two. Gideon's story teaches us that we must be willing to tear down these idols.
Not just find them, not just notice them, not just look for them, but get rid of them when they show up. Do you know good things in your life can become an idol? It can take the precedence of God. Notice number three, Gideon's story reminds us that we must eliminate all strongholds. from the false idols.
What did he say? Tear down that altar and all the grove that surrounded it. If you don't, what's going to happen? I'm going to look over there and see that little barren spot where that altar was, all these trees surrounding it, and I'm going to remember all the good times we had sacrificing at that altar. No, no, no, no, no.
Get rid of all of it. Get it out. Notice fourthly. Gideon's story shows us that victory only comes when false idols are eliminated. in pure worship.
is incorporated. You see, what I'm afraid of sometimes we think God, I'm here on Sunday. I'm worshiping you. Why aren't you pleased? Why aren't you pleased?
And God's probably thinking: well, because I get one day of your good altar. And your flesh gets six days of the wrong altars. All of us need to look and make sure: is my life clean? Is my life right? We're going to bow our heads, and all those getting baptized, they're going to start prepping for that.
I'm excited about this baptismal service. Um It's awkward in here, but our staff's done a good job to make things look good. And um I appreciate their work. Let's pray and then they're gonna let us know I think Um Probably um Let's get a song together if you don't mind. Maybe, Brother Jimmy, if you've got a congregational, or Jake, if you got one.
We'll sing, and then when they're ready. We'll do that. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes. I know what you're thinking. Preacher, this was an awkward Sunday morning service.
Yeah, it was. All I can do is just tell you the truth. Notice I didn't do it to try to guilt you out of anything. All I'm saying is this: all of us are prone in our life to setting up idols. We gotta watch out for it.
We've got to look out for it. Listen. I love to play golf. I just don't get to play Harley at all. There ain't nothing wrong with golf, but can I tell you something?
Golf could become an idol if I let it. Or I would want all my time to go to that. Nothing wrong with fishing, but fishing become an idol. Do you know spending can become an idol? It's just this feeling we get from buying things.
And before long, we're worshiping that feeling. A person can become an idol. Teenagers, I want you to understand that The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this to-day?
Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that sin carries the penalty of death.
Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life for the through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept Him as our Savior. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt.
The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans 10.9 says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way. and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever that's anyone can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this.
Would you accept Christ as your Saviour? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Crowin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day.
God bless you. Mm-hmm.
