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00:00:00 I want to read today from Genesis chapter 12.
00:00:25 If you have your Bible Genesis chapter 12 and just follow me.
00:00:32 I'm going to begin in the 10th verse and the scripture reads, "Therefore it shall come
00:00:41 to pass that when the Egyptians shall see thee, they shall say, 'This is his wife.'"
00:00:52 Let me give you a little bit of context.
00:00:55 Sarah, Sarai at this point and Abram are leaving the only home that they had ever known and
00:01:04 because there is a famine in the land and they are leaving there and he knows that as
00:01:12 they head into Egypt that because Sarah or Sarai is beautiful that they will kill him
00:01:22 just to take her and put her in the king's harem.
00:01:28 So he's saying to them now, if they ask you if you're my wife, what I want you to tell
00:01:33 them is that you're my sister.
00:01:37 Okay, let me read this again.
00:01:40 All right.
00:01:41 "Therefore shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee that they shall say, 'This
00:01:46 is his wife,' and they will kill me, but they will save you alive.
00:01:53 So say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake."
00:02:02 I'm not getting all this right here.
00:02:04 It's got to be well with you.
00:02:06 It's got to be well for your sake, but what about Sarah's sake?
00:02:11 He said, "If you say it, then my soul shall live because of thee.
00:02:15 And it came to pass that when Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that
00:02:21 she was very fair.
00:02:24 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commended her before Pharaoh.
00:02:30 And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house and he entered Abram.
00:02:34 I'm sorry.
00:02:35 And the woman treated Abram well for her sake.
00:02:39 And he had sheep and oxen and he asses and men's servants and maid servants and she asses
00:02:48 and camels.
00:02:49 And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's
00:02:57 wife.
00:02:59 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this that thou hast done unto me?
00:03:05 Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
00:03:10 Why saidst thou she is my sister so that I might have taken her to me?
00:03:16 I might have taken her.
00:03:17 I didn't even touch her, but just because I almost touched her, I got plagues breaking
00:03:23 out everywhere.
00:03:24 Now, therefore, behold thy wife, get with your wife and get out of here."
00:03:30 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away and his wife and all
00:03:38 that he had.
00:03:39 So he ended up getting all of those animals and all of those, the she asses and the things
00:03:46 that he got, he ended up giving them anyway.
00:03:49 So he's leaving the country richer than he was when he got there, even though he lied.
00:03:58 And we'll understand it better by and by.
00:04:01 And 13 and 1, and Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot
00:04:09 went with him into the South.
00:04:11 And Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and in gold.
00:04:16 And he went on his journeys from the South, even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent
00:04:23 had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the altar, which he
00:04:33 had made there at first.
00:04:37 And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
00:04:41 Notice he's not calling on the name of the Lord when he's in Egypt.
00:04:45 He doesn't even have an altar when he's in Egypt and all hell is breaking out.
00:04:51 But when he finally gets out of there alive, what does he do?
00:04:56 He starts retracing his steps and says, I've got to get back to that place because I can't
00:05:05 live apart from that place.
00:05:07 Look at your neighbor and say, retrace to the place of the altar.
00:05:16 Say it again, retrace to the place of the altar.
00:05:22 See it was his memory.
00:05:24 His memory became the means by which he was able to find God once again.
00:05:29 His memory.
00:05:30 See, if you have a memory, I'm telling you, if you can just remember the goodness of Jesus
00:05:36 and what he has done in your, your memory will help you find the place of the altar.
00:05:47 Spirit of God, I thank you.
00:05:48 I asked you to just come into this room.
00:05:52 Help us.
00:05:53 We want to position our ears to hear and our hearts to receive.
00:05:58 We want to hear what you're saying to the church.
00:06:01 Help us.
00:06:02 Oh God, to be ready.
00:06:04 Help us, oh God, to be prepared.
00:06:06 Help us.
00:06:07 Oh God, to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
00:06:12 Blessed today in this house, we'll give you glory and honor in Jesus name.
00:06:16 Somebody say man on your way down, touch somebody and tell him, retrace to the place of the
00:06:22 altar.
00:06:28 I want to give a big shout out to all of the people that served last Sunday.
00:06:38 We had an amazing Easter service.
00:06:41 I want to say thank you to all of you because we could not have done that without you, especially
00:06:49 to the parking lot team for getting everybody on and off the property.
00:06:55 That was excellent and I am grateful for all of you who have served.
00:07:04 After the fall of Adam and Eve and after the floods of Noah's day, God erected a plan.
00:07:12 God established a plan to redeem the entire world.
00:07:18 His choice to lead the people toward that redemptive plan was a man that we know his
00:07:27 name is Abram.
00:07:29 We just read about him today.
00:07:32 We know him actually by the name Abraham, but he was born Abram and at a very critical
00:07:39 point in his life and in his life story, God changed his name and for the first 99 years
00:07:47 of his 175 years that he lived on the earth, he answered to the name of Abram.
00:07:55 Abram was just an ordinary member of society.
00:08:01 He was no different from those that were his neighbors or his family.
00:08:08 As a matter of fact, like his relatives and like his neighbors, he worshipped idols.
00:08:15 He was into idolatry.
00:08:16 Yes, this is Abraham.
00:08:19 He worshipped idols and he accepted mythology as truth and yet it was to Abram, this sinful,
00:08:30 superstitious idol worshiper that God appeared and God said to him, "Leave your country,
00:08:39 leave your kindred, leave your father's house and go to the land that I will show
00:08:46 thee."
00:08:47 He made promises to him in Genesis 12 of the things that he was going to do in his life
00:08:53 and because you and I are the seed of Abraham, those promises that are in Genesis 12, they
00:08:59 belong to us as well.
00:09:01 It would do us all good to just read that every now and then so that we would know the
00:09:06 blessings of Abraham that God has appropriated for all of us.
00:09:12 He made him promises like he said, "I will make you a great nation."
00:09:18 Now nevermind that he never even had a son at that point, but God said, "See if I won't
00:09:23 bring a nation out of you."
00:09:26 He then goes on and he says, "And I will bless you.
00:09:30 I will not only bless you, but I will bless you to be a blessing.
00:09:37 So I am going to bless you so much that you will have to be a blessing to somebody else."
00:09:44 And then he goes on and he says, "And I will bless those who decide to bless you."
00:09:53 And then he goes on again and he said, "And I will curse those who try to curse you for
00:10:01 through you, all who through Abraham, the idolater, through Abraham, the moon, the sun
00:10:09 worshiper, through Abraham, God said, shall all of the families of the earth be blessed."
00:10:18 Why Abraham?
00:10:21 Why did God pick him?
00:10:24 Look at somebody and tell them it was just grace.
00:10:29 It was just grace, the grace of God.
00:10:32 He did nothing to earn it.
00:10:35 He did nothing to deserve it.
00:10:37 And only heaven knows why that God chose Abraham.
00:10:42 God simply wanted to use him and he appeared to him.
00:10:46 He was chosen out of the crowd by God.
00:10:51 And because he was chosen by God, he believed God.
00:10:55 And as a result of the relationship that he and God had together, he became someone whom
00:11:02 God, to whom God would reveal his secrets.
00:11:07 God had secrets and he would reveal those not to everybody, but he would reveal them
00:11:13 to Abraham.
00:11:14 He became, Abraham became somebody that God himself would in turn, turn around and say,
00:11:21 he's not just Abraham.
00:11:23 He's not just Abraham.
00:11:24 He is my friend.
00:11:27 I am the friend of Abraham.
00:11:29 Okay.
00:11:30 And he was actually one of the first great intercessors of the Bible.
00:11:39 His prayer.
00:11:40 How many are in here who know what I'm talking about when I say intercessors?
00:11:46 Yeah.
00:11:47 You know that God has called you to intercede.
00:11:49 You know that your prayers make a difference.
00:11:51 You know that when you pray, you climb in between destruction and calamity and you hold
00:11:58 things at bay.
00:11:59 It's intercession.
00:12:02 He was one of the first ones of the Bible and because of his prayer life, it enabled
00:12:09 him to know God.
00:12:11 People that pray, know God in a great way.
00:12:15 He, it enabled him to know God and knowing God is what gave him the faith to step out
00:12:22 and to believe God.
00:12:24 Abraham was a man that had a lot of great promises, but he also had a lot of great convictions
00:12:31 and he had a lot of great principles that he lived by in his life.
00:12:35 He was also a man that was very wealthy and yet his hope was never in the promises.
00:12:44 His hope was in the promisor.
00:12:47 Now here's what I want you to understand today.
00:12:50 That if I know that a lot of people fall in love with the promise, but they fail to develop
00:12:59 the relationship with the promisor and the promisor is so much greater than the promise
00:13:07 that if you're going to grab hold of anything that I just said, just let go of the promise
00:13:12 and grab the promisor because if you get him, you get it all.
00:13:17 I said, if you get him, you will get it all.
00:13:20 And he also said that if you will keep your mind stayed on me, that I will keep you in
00:13:27 perfect peace.
00:13:29 Abraham was greatly blessed by God, but he taught us as long as we cling to things that
00:13:39 are material, that we will never really embrace the reality of the promises that God has made
00:13:46 to us.
00:13:47 Um, the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil.
00:13:57 Okay?
00:13:58 So it doesn't say money is the root of all evil.
00:14:01 It says the love of money.
00:14:04 And I'm telling you, if you can get to the place where you don't love money, money will
00:14:10 flow in your direction.
00:14:14 Hear me.
00:14:15 I'm not saying I don't appreciate it.
00:14:17 I appreciate it.
00:14:18 I need it.
00:14:19 It answers all things.
00:14:20 But at the end of the day, I don't love money.
00:14:24 I just love what I'm able to do with the money that God gives me.
00:14:29 And I've told him, if you bless me with money, I'll make sure that there is not a need around
00:14:35 me that I don't try to reach out and fix.
00:14:39 Oh, it's quiet.
00:14:41 Maybe I should talk about that.
00:14:43 Love.
00:14:44 I don't love money.
00:14:47 I appreciate it, but I don't love it because I know the God who knows how to give it to
00:14:53 me anytime that I have need of.
00:14:57 So Abraham understood that principle and he understood that if you're going to be blessed,
00:15:02 go after the blessed, not after the blessing.
00:15:06 Abraham could have never become Abraham.
00:15:09 He could have never have been called the father of faith.
00:15:13 He could have never become God's man of faith if he had stayed where he was, which was in
00:15:20 the Ur of Chaldees because Ur was full of idolatry.
00:15:27 Had he stayed in the Ur of Chaldees, it would have seriously affected the outcome of his
00:15:35 life.
00:15:36 Therefore, though it was home to him and though it was a comfort zone to him, he had
00:15:44 to lay all of it on the altar and he had to step away from it in order to make an advancement
00:15:51 in the kingdom of God.
00:15:53 Because every step of real advancement will always involve an altar on which you have
00:16:01 laid some very dear fragmented, broken pieces of your life.
00:16:11 If you don't lay, if you don't have nothing laying on the altar, then you have no reason
00:16:15 to advance.
00:16:16 Abraham loved God.
00:16:20 He served him.
00:16:21 He believed him.
00:16:22 He consecrated himself to God.
00:16:26 He was a great husband.
00:16:28 He was a great friend.
00:16:29 But one of the first and foremost things that made him great was not how he dressed, what
00:16:37 he wrote, what he had, but it was the fact that he built an altar unto God.
00:16:46 What is an altar?
00:16:47 I know some of you know this, but just in case there's one or two that don't know it,
00:16:52 an altar is not just the edge of the pulpit.
00:17:00 An altar is a place where sacrifices are made unto God.
00:17:07 It's the place where change occurs.
00:17:10 Has there been anybody that has come to the edge of the stage and you pray and change
00:17:16 occurred in your life?
00:17:18 Anybody?
00:17:19 Right.
00:17:20 So you know what that means?
00:17:22 That means this went from the edge of the stage into being an altar because change happens
00:17:28 at the altar.
00:17:30 Change is where you reach out and you touch the almighty God.
00:17:34 Change is where you humble yourself.
00:17:37 And that's important because I don't care how tall you are.
00:17:41 Everybody has to look up to see him.
00:17:45 I said everybody has to look up to see him.
00:17:49 An altar is a place that you have set aside exclusively for your communion with God.
00:17:57 If you never own a home, if you never drive a brand new car, if you don't wear designer
00:18:05 clothes, if you don't have jewelry or you don't have art hanging on the wall of your
00:18:11 house, it is imperative that you do have an altar.
00:18:18 If you never have a friend, if you never have a confidant, if you never have a child or
00:18:24 a spouse, or if you never have somebody that you can pour your heart out to, it is imperative
00:18:33 that you have an altar.
00:18:36 Every believer, how many believers are in this room?
00:18:41 Every believer has got to have an altar.
00:18:47 Every believer must have a place that they have marked off.
00:18:51 I'm not just talking about this right here, but every believer has got to have a place
00:18:57 where they have marked off and said, this, this right here, this is my altar.
00:19:03 You have to have an altar in your house.
00:19:05 Maybe it's your closet.
00:19:06 Maybe it's, maybe it's somewhere you go on your job, wherever it is, you got to have
00:19:11 an altar.
00:19:12 An altar is a place where you separate and you isolate yourself.
00:19:19 An altar is a place where you shut yourself in and you shut the world out.
00:19:27 There also has to be an altar within you.
00:19:30 The vessel, there has to be a part of your life that you designate this part right here
00:19:37 belongs to God.
00:19:39 It belongs to him in good times.
00:19:41 It belongs to him in bad times.
00:19:44 It belongs when I understand him, it belongs to him when I don't understand him.
00:19:49 I'm not talking about a physical place right now.
00:19:52 I'm talking about a place within your heart.
00:19:55 You say that belongs to God.
00:19:57 That's why you can never bankrupt me completely emotionally because I do have a place I can
00:20:05 go.
00:20:06 I said, I do.
00:20:11 That's why you can't give your whole heart to anybody.
00:20:14 I said, you can't give your whole heart to anybody.
00:20:18 There has to be a part in your heart where you say this belongs to God and you can try
00:20:23 to bankrupt me.
00:20:24 You can talk to me like I'm a dog, but when it is all said and done at the end of the
00:20:28 day, I will go to my altar and I will find restoration for my soul.
00:20:40 The altar is a place that is completely off limits to everybody that is in your life.
00:20:47 It's where you let nobody but God come on the inside.
00:20:51 It's where you also lay the knife to fleshly attachments.
00:20:56 Can we talk about that for just a minute?
00:21:01 It is a place where you go in and you say, God, I don't want to come out until this has
00:21:07 been cut out of my life.
00:21:10 I want it cut out once and for all, because no matter how bad I want it for me, I know
00:21:18 it's not your will for me.
00:21:20 So I'm laying this down on the altar and I'm asking you to cut this out and I'm asking
00:21:26 you to cut that out.
00:21:27 An altar is the part of you that you make no apologies for and no explanations about
00:21:38 and you defend it with all that you have.
00:21:44 You defend that place in your heart.
00:21:49 Let me set the record straight that some, some of us right now, you got, you got to
00:21:58 be careful about that part of your heart.
00:22:04 But I'll tell you about me.
00:22:06 I don't care how close you get to me.
00:22:11 It doesn't matter.
00:22:14 You might think you are so close, but I'm going to tell you what you will never get.
00:22:21 You will never get my altar because if you get my altar, you got me.
00:22:32 And I need more than you.
00:22:35 And I need more than you.
00:22:36 What I need only God can give to me.
00:22:40 So let me tell you, be careful who you are giving little pieces of your heart to, because
00:22:48 there'll be a moment that you'll find out that you are, if you gave it all away and
00:22:53 you are empty.
00:22:54 I'm not saying you can't love people.
00:22:57 I'm not saying that you can't let people into your heart and into your life, but there has
00:23:03 got to be that inner sanctuary.
00:23:06 I said that inner sanctuary that says that is reserved for God alone.
00:23:12 He has reserved seating in my heart.
00:23:18 He has reserved seating in my heart.
00:23:22 Every one of us should have a place that is marked exclusively for him.
00:23:28 You don't let your spouse into that place.
00:23:30 You don't let your kids into that place.
00:23:33 You don't let mom and them into that place.
00:23:35 You don't let your friends in.
00:23:36 You don't even let worry get into that inner sanctuary.
00:23:43 Don't let your bills get in there.
00:23:45 Don't let your boo get in there.
00:23:50 None of nothing can occupy that place that is reserved for God alone.
00:23:57 Why?
00:23:58 Because it is in that place that God restores and God renews and God preserves and God stabilizes
00:24:07 you, but he ain't going to do it as long as you got other things in that spot.
00:24:12 No idolatry can go into that spot.
00:24:16 I am who I am because of the place.
00:24:20 I am who I am because of my altar.
00:24:24 I am who I am because I have, he has reserved seating in my life and if I give it up, then
00:24:33 I can't be the woman I need to be.
00:24:35 You can't be the man you need to be or the friend or the mother or the leader or the
00:24:41 pastor or the preacher that you need to be if you give up his seat to somebody less.
00:24:53 Why is that such a big deal?
00:24:55 Well, I'm glad you asked because if I lose my altar, then I lose my convictions and then
00:25:11 I lose my consecration.
00:25:14 I lose my standards.
00:25:16 My standards go down.
00:25:19 Have you ever noticed when you stop praying, the thing that you look at and you say is
00:25:25 cute six months ago when you were in the throes of prayer, you wouldn't have give that the
00:25:31 time of day, but now you say it's cute because your standards.
00:25:46 Desperate people do desperate things.
00:25:50 If I lose my altar, I lose my conscience.
00:25:54 Okay.
00:25:56 And then if I do all of that, then I become somebody completely different.
00:26:00 Losing my altar could mean that you would not even recognize me anymore or that you
00:26:06 wouldn't like me anymore.
00:26:08 Abram had an altar and having an altar was important.
00:26:13 If you go back through the scripture, you will see that great men of old have had alters.
00:26:19 Isaac had an altar.
00:26:20 Moses had an altar.
00:26:22 Joshua had Gideon had an altar.
00:26:25 Saul even had an altar.
00:26:27 David had an altar.
00:26:28 Paul had an altar.
00:26:31 Samuel had an altar and Elijah had an altar.
00:26:35 Let me tell you who else had an altar.
00:26:37 Noah.
00:26:38 Noah was a man that had an altar.
00:26:40 And when the rain, and let me tell you something, when the rain stopped coming down and when
00:26:46 the flooding subsided, the first thing that Noah built was not a house.
00:26:53 He didn't say, Oh, I'm going to come out of here and build a ministry.
00:26:56 I'm going to build a business.
00:26:58 I'm going to build a church.
00:26:59 I'm going to build a database.
00:27:01 I'm going to build a website.
00:27:03 I'm going to get on Tik TOK and build myself up a following.
00:27:09 Absolutely not.
00:27:10 The first thing that Noah built when he came out of the ark, he built an altar and on that
00:27:20 altar he offered sacrifices and praise and thanksgiving to the God that brought him through
00:27:28 that storm that wiped every other person out that wiped the entire earth out.
00:27:34 Only thing left was him and his family.
00:27:37 He said, before I do anything to regroup, I am going to build an altar and tell God,
00:27:44 thank you for the storms that he's brought me through.
00:27:48 Is there anybody in here that has a place where you can tell God, thank you.
00:27:57 Thank you.
00:27:59 That's what an altar is.
00:28:02 The altar is where you say, thank you God.
00:28:05 It's where you wrestle down your flesh.
00:28:07 Your flesh is going to want to go to the right and your spirit is saying, no, go to the left.
00:28:12 And so there is a war within your members.
00:28:14 What do you do?
00:28:15 Call my friend.
00:28:16 No, you call on Jesus.
00:28:19 You go to your altar and say, God, my desire is going one way, but my spirit is pulling
00:28:25 me another way.
00:28:26 And right now I need my soul to turn in the direction unto thee, oh Lord, to I lift up
00:28:33 my soul, my will, my mind, my intellect, my emotions.
00:28:40 It turns at the place of the altar.
00:28:43 The altar is where I learned to cope.
00:28:46 It's where I learned to find hope.
00:28:48 It's where my heart learns that it can keep on going on.
00:28:53 The altar is where God increases and Cheryl decreases.
00:28:57 God, what are you saying?
00:28:59 I'm saying that God meets us at the altar.
00:29:03 Look at somebody and tell him if you don't have an altar, you don't have a meeting place.
00:29:13 God meets us at the altar, at the altar.
00:29:17 He gives answers at the altar.
00:29:20 Things that you've been worrying about, things that you've been stretching, stressing out
00:29:24 about.
00:29:25 He gives you the strength to take it to the Lord in prayer.
00:29:28 He gives answers at the altar.
00:29:30 He gives direction at the altar.
00:29:33 He gives counsel.
00:29:34 I wish I was in a church that prayed because y'all could be saying amen right there.
00:29:39 He gives strategies.
00:29:41 Has God ever given you a way out?
00:29:47 At the altar, when my heart is overwhelmed, I don't run to people.
00:29:54 The first place I run to is the altar.
00:29:58 Why?
00:29:59 Because he said, call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.
00:30:10 Abram had an altar.
00:30:14 He was a man that had faith.
00:30:17 He had an assignment that God had given him and he did really good until he went to Egypt.
00:30:29 It doesn't say he went into Egypt, but if you read that, you know, I tell y'all to read
00:30:35 your Bible word by word because if you don't read it word by word, you'll miss very important
00:30:41 things.
00:30:42 But that verse says that he went down.
00:30:44 Clue.
00:30:45 That's a clue.
00:30:46 Okay.
00:30:47 He started a spiral road downward.
00:30:48 When he went into Egypt, going down into Egypt would be pretty much the equivalent of us
00:31:00 aligning ourselves with the world, aligning ourselves with the world system.
00:31:06 It would be us depending on the arm of the flesh.
00:31:11 And Isaiah said, whoa, be unto them that go down into Egypt for help.
00:31:20 Don't go looking to the world to help you.
00:31:24 If you want to take help to the world, take it, but don't go down to the world looking
00:31:31 for help.
00:31:32 That's what Isaiah said.
00:31:33 I understand that, that, that, that Abram was in a famine.
00:31:38 I understand that Sarah was with him and I get that, but I will say this.
00:31:43 He would have been much better off in where he was in a famine with God, didn't go going
00:31:51 down into Egypt where there was plenty, but you didn't have God.
00:31:57 At that point, you would have thought that the man of faith would have just thrown the
00:32:01 responsibility back on God and say, God, you're the one that brought me here.
00:32:07 You are the reason that I am here.
00:32:09 I will trust that you will meet every need that is in my, so I'm going to stay right
00:32:16 here until I clearly know the way that you would choose for me to go.
00:32:22 And rather than trying to see the famine or trying to see a God through the famine, he
00:32:31 should have just stayed right there and God would have met him because his name is Jehovah
00:32:38 Jireh.
00:32:39 Whatever your Ian, his name is still wherever you are.
00:32:47 His name is still Jehovah Jireh.
00:32:52 What does that mean?
00:32:53 That means he is my provider.
00:32:56 I'm in a fight, but he's with me.
00:32:59 I'm in a storm, but he's with me.
00:33:01 I lost my job, but he is in it with me and he will provide.
00:33:11 Abram was God's friend and he was a man of faith.
00:33:15 He was a man of integrity.
00:33:17 He was a man of character, but he went down into Egypt and he found himself being sucked
00:33:24 into a lower system.
00:33:26 He was sucked into paganism.
00:33:29 He was sucked into evil.
00:33:32 He was sucked into everything that you can imagine.
00:33:37 God's friend.
00:33:40 I'm talking about God's friend.
00:33:43 If that can happen to God's friend, don't tell me that it can't happen to you.
00:33:52 He found himself overwhelmed and now the man of faith, this man of faith starts acting
00:34:02 like a man of fear.
00:34:05 Who is the woman that is with you, Abe?
00:34:09 Oh, her.
00:34:11 That's my sister.
00:34:14 Her name is Sarah.
00:34:15 Sarah, meet them.
00:34:16 Sarah is my sister, but he lied.
00:34:17 I know technically she was his half sister, but when he said it, he meant it to be a lie
00:34:33 because the motive behind what he said was, I want you to do this for me, Sarah, because
00:34:40 if you don't, they might kill me and I need it to be well with me.
00:34:44 Nevermind what they're going to do with you, but I need it to be well with me.
00:34:54 So there was an element of truth, but he meant for it to be a lie.
00:34:59 And now because of what he is facing in his life, because he is in Egypt, now there's
00:35:07 a man of God, this man that's filled with faith.
00:35:12 He begins lying.
00:35:17 Quiet.
00:35:20 Why would Abram lie?
00:35:24 Because one sin is never enough.
00:35:29 One sin leads to another sin that Leo is quiet because you don't want me to preach about
00:35:36 sin.
00:35:37 You're in the wrong church because I'll preach about sin.
00:35:40 Oh yes.
00:35:42 You can't shout about the blood and not preach about sin.
00:35:46 Come on y'all.
00:35:50 What do I need the blood for if I don't sin?
00:35:57 But we need the blood.
00:36:01 So now he is not just stepped outside of the grace of God, but he is also a liar.
00:36:12 God's friend is a liar.
00:36:21 When Abram lost his altar, he lost his faith.
00:36:27 He went down into Egypt and in Egypt he lost his courage and now he's become a liar.
00:36:37 You'd be surprised to know how many people will lie in the name of Jesus.
00:36:45 They lie for all kinds of reasons.
00:36:52 They lie to be accepted.
00:36:54 I want to be accepted so I will lie because I know this will get me accepted.
00:37:00 They lie to feel like they fit in with the crowd.
00:37:04 They'll tell you about friends that they do not have because they want you to be friends
00:37:11 with them.
00:37:12 They'll tell you about money that they did not make.
00:37:16 They'll tell you about accomplishments that they did not accomplish.
00:37:21 They'll tell you about members that they do not have.
00:37:29 And they'll compromise their standards.
00:37:32 Liars will compromise their principles.
00:37:35 They will compromise their character just to be accepted.
00:37:42 Compromise runs all the way through the life of Abraham.
00:37:47 Now Abraham was terrified for his own well-being so in a cowardly kind of indefensible act
00:37:57 now he endangers Sarah.
00:38:00 Hope you feel okay.
00:38:01 Hope you're happy about that friend of God.
00:38:08 He exposed her to all kinds of issues.
00:38:15 He exposed her to danger.
00:38:18 He exposed her to rape.
00:38:22 He became selfish and he became full of fear.
00:38:29 He was the man of faith.
00:38:30 He was the man of promise.
00:38:33 And had he been doing so great he would not have went down into Egypt.
00:38:39 But when you go down into Egypt you mess up everything.
00:38:42 Look at somebody and tell them you mess it all up.
00:38:48 He was on his way to the promised land.
00:38:51 He was on his way to the promises of God.
00:38:55 So he never should have ever went down into Egypt.
00:38:58 Why?
00:38:59 Because there are just some places you don't go.
00:39:02 Why would I go down into Egypt when the promised land is an option in my life?
00:39:09 There are just some things that you don't touch.
00:39:13 There are some things that you don't do when you have been marked as a child of God.
00:39:19 It does not matter who you are.
00:39:21 I don't care who you are or what your title might be.
00:39:30 You better recognize that your first title is human.
00:39:36 I said your first title is human.
00:39:39 And you have to look at somebody and tell them you better recognize.
00:39:44 And so because you are human you have to have boundaries.
00:39:48 Well I'm anointed.
00:39:49 Well all the more reason.
00:39:53 Anointed people need boundaries.
00:39:56 Hello?
00:39:57 I said anointed people need boundaries.
00:40:05 That means you can't because of who you are.
00:40:08 It means you can't stick your ear into everybody's conversation.
00:40:14 You can't go into every open door.
00:40:18 Hello?
00:40:19 You can't answer every, first of all, don't give everybody your phone number.
00:40:24 But if you do, you can't answer every call.
00:40:28 That's why you have caller ID.
00:40:29 Identify it.
00:40:30 Quit acting like I ain't talking to you.
00:40:31 You know good and well I'm talking to you.
00:40:32 You act like, oh she ain't talking to me, praise the Lord.
00:40:44 I'm talking to every last one of us in this place.
00:40:47 It is time out for us being phony.
00:40:49 It is so time out for all of that.
00:40:54 Temptation is coming to every, every woman.
00:40:55 And every man.
00:41:05 Sometimes we need to stop churching and shouting long enough and stop trying to impress people
00:41:12 long enough for us to say, I need to identify what is tempting me.
00:41:19 My issue is not your issue.
00:41:20 Your issue is not my issue.
00:41:22 But I'm going to tell you something, we are all God's children.
00:41:26 God issues.
00:41:28 And if we don't identify them, they will become huge distractions.
00:41:37 I said, if we don't identify them, they will become huge distractions.
00:41:43 And other people, they may be able to handle it, but it's too much for you.
00:41:50 Look, I can't tell everybody this because I can't see in everybody's eyes, but if y'all
00:41:55 will let the Lord use you right now, look at somebody in their eyes and tell them it's
00:42:00 too much for you.
00:42:05 So what do you do?
00:42:07 You keep walking.
00:42:09 You keep staying focused.
00:42:10 You don't pass go, you don't collect $200.
00:42:15 Cause you have some Delilah distractions.
00:42:18 Yeah, you have Delilah distractions.
00:42:22 And when I say that, I'm not just talking about Delilah or a woman.
00:42:26 Okay.
00:42:27 I'm talking about, you had a distraction like Samson did whose name was Delilah.
00:42:34 And when you know that you say, I can't afford to play with that.
00:42:38 Cause I know that's, that's a problem for me.
00:42:41 So I got to turn that off.
00:42:42 I can't be doing that.
00:42:44 I can't give myself to that.
00:42:46 If I keep laying my head in the lap of my distractions, I'm going to lose my hair.
00:42:54 I'm going to lose my strength.
00:42:56 I'm going to lose my life.
00:42:59 And I'm going to keep on tripping over these same things.
00:43:04 These are areas of issues.
00:43:06 You have to identify them.
00:43:08 You have to admit them.
00:43:10 You have to stay away.
00:43:18 Write that down.
00:43:19 I got to identify.
00:43:21 I got to admit, and I've got to stay away.
00:43:27 And another thing, I don't care who tells you that it's okay for you.
00:43:32 It is not okay.
00:43:34 Well, I just want to win them to Jesus.
00:43:38 I just feel like I could win them.
00:43:40 Stop it.
00:43:41 It's not time for you to do that right now.
00:43:46 And I don't care who all can do it.
00:43:49 You cannot do it.
00:43:50 Where you are concerned, it is not okay.
00:43:54 It is not all right.
00:43:56 Be careful who you talk to when you go down into Egypt.
00:44:01 Oh, it's no big deal.
00:44:03 It is a big deal.
00:44:06 Why?
00:44:07 Because it could set you back.
00:44:11 It could send you through a relapse.
00:44:15 It could make you relapse and fall back into what you have worked so hard to get out of.
00:44:22 I don't care who all can.
00:44:25 I care that you can't.
00:44:27 And now you got to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
00:44:35 But until you get some things worked out, stay away.
00:44:41 Because you ain't strong enough yet.
00:44:44 And a man that don't know his own limitations is a fool.
00:44:49 Look at somebody and tell them, "Don't be a fool."
00:44:53 Sin is expensive.
00:44:57 It will nickel and dime you until it hits you what you just paid to be in the full throes
00:45:14 of sin.
00:45:15 It's expensive.
00:45:16 It'll cost you your stuff.
00:45:21 It'll cost you you.
00:45:23 It'll cost you your joy.
00:45:26 It will cost you your peace.
00:45:27 It'll cost you your freedom.
00:45:30 It will cost you the influence that you've worked hard to get.
00:45:34 Abram went down into Egypt and he compromised his wife's safety.
00:45:41 And the minute he did it, he thought, "Oh God, why did I just do that?"
00:45:52 You ain't got to say nothing but if there's a root of God anything in you, the minute
00:46:00 you do it, "Oh God, why did I do that?"
00:46:04 Come on, anybody will admit that to me.
00:46:08 "Oh God, why?
00:46:09 Why?
00:46:10 That was so stupid.
00:46:11 That was so crazy.
00:46:12 I know better than to do stupid stuff like that.
00:46:13 What was I thinking?"
00:46:14 You of all people, God's friend, how did you get involved in that?
00:46:29 Why are you in that apartment?
00:46:35 Why are you in that house?
00:46:39 Why are you watching those movies?
00:46:43 Why are you looking at that magazine or that website?
00:46:47 Why are you listening to that music?
00:46:51 Because music has power.
00:46:54 I said music has power.
00:46:57 And if you ain't careful, it'll break you down.
00:47:02 Why are you watching that?
00:47:06 Abram went down, nearly died in Egypt, and his wife was almost raped.
00:47:15 Because when you go down in Egypt, when you go down into sin, when you go down in your
00:47:20 standards, you don't just jeopardize yourself.
00:47:24 You jeopardize everybody.
00:47:25 Everybody that is around you, you jeopardize your family.
00:47:36 You jeopardize your reputation.
00:47:38 You jeopardize your ministry.
00:47:41 You jeopardize your name.
00:47:43 You jeopardize your focus.
00:47:45 You see, when you go down into Egypt, things that you used to have under control, you pray
00:47:54 to get them under control.
00:47:56 You had them lay hands on you to get them under control.
00:48:02 And now the thing that was under your control is out of control again, because you went
00:48:10 down into Egypt.
00:48:11 And once you allow yourself to become desensitized, little by little, once you allow yourself
00:48:22 to become lazy in your prayer life, once you allow yourself to back off out of your Bible,
00:48:31 you allow yourself to stay home a couple Sundays, you allow yourself, "Oh, I just let down my
00:48:38 guard just a little bit."
00:48:43 Once you let down your standard, can I tell you, flesh increases in Egypt.
00:48:54 I said flesh increases in Egypt.
00:48:57 Flesh will rob you from the promises of God.
00:49:01 Flesh will start flexing every muscle it has when it is down in Egypt.
00:49:08 It's frightening because you've given it an inch.
00:49:12 But what did it do?
00:49:13 It took a mile.
00:49:18 And now it's embarrassing because stuff that you used to have the victory over, now once
00:49:31 again has the victory over you.
00:49:35 It has the power over you.
00:49:37 Stuff that you used to have under your feet, now it's on top of your head.
00:49:42 Stuff that you reckoned as dead, oh God, is alive and it's well.
00:49:51 And you don't want to tell anybody that you're losing ground, but that's exactly what is
00:49:58 happening.
00:49:59 It's embarrassing because so many people respected you.
00:50:07 So many people used to look to you, ma'am.
00:50:13 So many people are challenged by you, sir.
00:50:19 So many people are impressed with you.
00:50:22 So many people have put their confidence in you.
00:50:26 And the reason they did it was because you had an altar.
00:50:34 You used to be an intercessor.
00:50:39 You used to be a prayer warrior.
00:50:42 You used to have power in your prayer life.
00:50:46 You used to get in your car and not put it in reverse until you said, "Father, give your
00:50:51 angels charge over us and keep us and let no hurt, no harm, no danger come nigh our
00:50:57 dwelling."
00:50:58 Now we get in it and ride all over town, never acknowledging the Lord in our way.
00:51:07 People that used to look to you, people that believed in you, people that relied on you,
00:51:12 people that had faith in you.
00:51:14 How do you tell them that you went down into Egypt?
00:51:20 How do you tell them that you lost your prayer life?
00:51:23 How do you tell them that you no longer have an altar?
00:51:28 How do you tell them?
00:51:31 And to be honest, once you have known the real power of prayer, it's hard to not have
00:51:39 it.
00:51:40 Once you've known the real anointing of God, once you've had a real walk with God and a
00:51:47 real communion with God and a real relationship with God, you now know the difference.
00:51:54 Some of y'all, the worst thing you could have ever done was come into this church because
00:52:02 now you know the difference between singing a song and tapping into worship.
00:52:14 Tell somebody, "I'm ruined.
00:52:15 I'm ruined.
00:52:16 I can't go back to where I used to go.
00:52:20 I cannot endure what I used to endure.
00:52:23 I cannot... call me a troublemaker.
00:52:25 Call me whatever you want, but I am torn now because I can't go back to that."
00:52:37 Abram went down into Egypt.
00:52:41 Going down cost him to pick up a couple of things that he should have never picked up
00:52:48 because it was in Egypt.
00:52:52 They brought her out, but it was in Egypt that he met this lady by the name of Hagoff.
00:53:01 So he picked up a relationship that was never the will of God for his life.
00:53:10 Y'all don't have to act like you know what that's like.
00:53:14 He picked up a soul tie that he should have never been tied up with.
00:53:21 He made the wrong decisions, the wrong choices.
00:53:25 He made the wrong connections.
00:53:29 He connected with somebody who pulled an Ishmael out of him.
00:53:37 Y'all know what Ishmael's name is?
00:53:44 His name is a wild ass.
00:53:49 The friend of God hooked up in a relationship with somebody who pulled that out of him.
00:54:01 Yes, he slept with the bound and as a result he became bound himself because you will never
00:54:11 lay down with less and ever get up with more.
00:54:24 Let me say it like this.
00:54:25 If you lay down with dogs, you're going to get up with fleas.
00:54:33 He would have never met her had he not went down.
00:54:38 Look at somebody and tell them Hagar's waiting on you in Egypt.
00:54:49 She distracted him.
00:54:51 She broke his focus.
00:54:54 She got him off course and she set him back.
00:54:59 She almost destroyed his marriage, his ministry and his life.
00:55:07 If he would have stayed out of Egypt, he'd have never met her.
00:55:13 He'd have never messed up with her.
00:55:15 Look at somebody and tell them, stay out of Egypt.
00:55:20 Tell them again, stay out of Egypt.
00:55:23 Somebody's contemplating on stepping over into Egypt right now, but look at him and
00:55:27 tell him you better keep yourself out of Egypt.
00:55:35 You're going to jeopardize everything.
00:55:37 You'll jeopardize your future.
00:55:41 You're going to jeopardize your family.
00:55:44 You're going to jeopardize your destiny.
00:55:46 You're going to jeopardize the assignment of God in your life.
00:55:55 He jeopardized his wife and he has no idea at this moment that endangering Sarah meant
00:56:09 he was endangering the promise of God.
00:56:17 She was beautiful, but had it not been for a God who sees everything and knows everything,
00:56:31 she would have been raped.
00:56:34 Look at how his whole family is now at risk.
00:56:39 Why?
00:56:41 Because he lost his altar, because he lost his prayer life, because he lost his boundaries.
00:56:48 He has compromised her safety.
00:56:52 Why?
00:56:54 Because he disregarded all the flashing lights.
00:56:58 He disregarded the warning signs.
00:57:01 He disregarded the very thing that was there to protect him.
00:57:08 Now he has went over the edge.
00:57:11 This is what I want you to know.
00:57:14 Sin doesn't only affect you.
00:57:17 It affects everything attached to you.
00:57:23 So if you don't want to get right for yourself, do it for them.
00:57:34 Do it for your son.
00:57:36 Do it for your daughter.
00:57:39 But whatever you do, tell somebody, stay out of Egypt.
00:57:45 Abram has lost his altar.
00:57:47 When you lose your altar, you set your whole family up for destruction because they will
00:57:53 become exposed to things that they would have never been exposed to.
00:57:57 They're exposed to sin.
00:57:58 They're exposed to danger.
00:58:00 They're exposed now to disease.
00:58:02 They're exposed to hate.
00:58:04 They're exposed to evil.
00:58:05 They're exposed to crime.
00:58:07 They're exposed to destruction.
00:58:09 All because somebody that they were riding with jumped the guardrail and lost their altar.
00:58:21 Abram, when he wouldn't speak up for Sarah, she still had a man in her life that said,
00:58:34 "I got you."
00:58:37 God told Pharaoh in so many ways, sent plagues and all kinds of plagues into Egypt.
00:58:50 He said, "Listen, my friend Abe, he ain't told you the truth.
00:58:58 That's not his sister.
00:59:01 That's his wife.
00:59:03 And you better not touch her.
00:59:08 Don't put your hand on that woman right there."
00:59:13 Because see, Sarah is a praying woman.
00:59:17 And if you touch Sarah, if you start messing with somebody that has a prayer life, if you
00:59:25 take advantage of this woman right here, I will turn this entire city upside down.
00:59:35 Church, you better be careful who you go to grabbing for, who you go to reaching for,
00:59:43 who you go to laying hands on, who you go to striking out against.
00:59:49 Because that's probably why some of y'all are in debt right now and out of money.
00:59:55 You're in debt, but you're out of money because God can't bless you because you're grabbing
01:00:00 things that you have no business grabbing.
01:00:08 When you lose your home, you lose your convictions and you start touching whatever you want.
01:00:14 I'll touch whatever I want to touch.
01:00:17 I'll do whatever I want to do.
01:00:21 You thought you could do it and get by with it.
01:00:25 Look at God.
01:00:26 He brought you to church today and brought me to church today and he said, "Preach on
01:00:30 it."
01:00:31 You thought you were the king of your kingdom.
01:00:42 You thought you were...
01:00:43 And let me tell you something.
01:00:44 I'm not just talking about men.
01:00:45 I'm talking about women in this place too.
01:00:47 You thought you were the queen of your castle.
01:00:51 You thought you were the king of your game, but even kings are held accountable.
01:01:02 God said, "I am the king of kings and I am the Lord of lords and sin when it is."
01:01:14 What?
01:01:15 "Finished."
01:01:16 Look at somebody and tell them it might not be finished yet.
01:01:21 That's why you okay.
01:01:25 But sin, when it is finished, it brings forth death.
01:01:35 Look at somebody and tell them, "Finish it before it finishes you."
01:01:40 If you touch that woman, I'll shut you down.
01:01:47 I'll curse everything that you put your hands on, Mr. Pharaoh.
01:01:54 And it might not happen all at once, but little by little, piece by piece, like Samson, you'll
01:02:03 jump up to do what you have always done, except now you have no anointing to do it.
01:02:15 And because you refuse to break up with your Delilah distractions, Delilah will break you.
01:02:27 You see, as long as Samson remained consecrated, as long as he remained awake, as long as he
01:02:34 remained aware, as long as he remained on the altar, he was unconquerable.
01:02:43 You couldn't conquer him.
01:02:45 He was a strong man, but he was deceived by his own strength.
01:02:54 Because even strong people harbor hidden weaknesses.
01:03:01 The secret of his strength was his hair.
01:03:06 The secret of his strength was his consecration.
01:03:10 The secret of his strength was the fact that he had an altar.
01:03:14 But when he lost his altar, he lost his consecration.
01:03:17 When he lost his consecration, he lost his hair.
01:03:20 When he lost his hair, he lost his strength.
01:03:22 And when he lost his strength, they gouged out his eyes.
01:03:27 So they took his vision.
01:03:28 They didn't take his vision at first.
01:03:32 He lost his altar first.
01:03:37 Little by little and lock by lock.
01:03:40 Now he has no altar.
01:03:43 He has no consecration.
01:03:45 He has no hair.
01:03:47 He has no strength.
01:03:49 Now he has no vision.
01:03:50 Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
01:03:57 He was strong.
01:03:58 And he thought he was okay.
01:04:03 He thought he was in control.
01:04:04 He thought he was doing fine.
01:04:06 He thought he was one step ahead of it all.
01:04:09 He thought he was standing, but let him that standeth take heed lest he.
01:04:15 Samson lost his altar.
01:04:18 Abram lost his altar.
01:04:20 And had it not been for a God who knows all, sees all, and speaks up for his own, he would
01:04:26 have lost his wife to the hands of an abusive king.
01:04:32 All because he lost his.
01:04:37 God spoke up for Sarah.
01:04:41 The king said to Abe when he heard and he found out that Abe was really her husband,
01:04:49 the king said, you lied to me.
01:04:56 That is not your sister.
01:04:59 That is your wife.
01:05:00 Man, get her and get out of my face.
01:05:06 I just almost touched her.
01:05:08 And I've got plagues on the right and on the left.
01:05:10 I've got diseases.
01:05:11 I got people dying.
01:05:14 Get her and get out of here now.
01:05:18 Because when a man loses his altar that used to have an altar, not only is he the one that
01:05:26 gets judged, but everybody that's playing with him gets judged too.
01:05:31 And the Lord played Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah Abrams
01:05:43 wife.
01:05:44 And those who served his lust were punished with his plague.
01:05:54 Partners in sin, partners in punishment.
01:05:59 Get her out of here now.
01:06:07 Abe lost his courage.
01:06:08 He lost his courage.
01:06:09 He lost his faith.
01:06:10 When he lost his faith, he traced it all back to the fact that he was in Egypt and he no
01:06:26 longer had an altar.
01:06:31 His only recourse was, I need to retrace my steps.
01:06:48 And he reached out for Sarah's hand.
01:06:54 He said, Sarah, I'm so sorry.
01:07:00 But I promise you, I've got us into this, but I won't get us out of there.
01:07:14 I meshed it all up.
01:07:19 You could have been hurt, but I'm going to get us out of here.
01:07:28 We're coming out of this place.
01:07:32 I'm coming out.
01:07:33 You're coming out.
01:07:34 I failed you.
01:07:35 Let me just say it.
01:07:36 I failed you.
01:07:37 I'm not going to try to shift any blame.
01:07:42 I failed you.
01:07:44 I let my standards down, but we're coming out of it.
01:07:49 I failed God, but we're coming out of it.
01:07:54 I fooled around too long, but I've reached one too many times, but we're coming out.
01:08:09 I delayed our blessing.
01:08:10 I compromised your life, but we're coming out of it.
01:08:11 I did stuff I'm ashamed of.
01:08:12 I'm so sorry.
01:08:20 We're coming out.
01:08:21 I hooked up with the wrong people, but we're coming out of this.
01:08:26 I let the wrong people hook up with me.
01:08:30 Baby, we're coming out.
01:08:35 I want you to just pull on somebody next to you and tell them we're coming out.
01:08:40 We're coming out.
01:08:42 I'm coming out.
01:08:44 Do you understand this?
01:08:48 Coming.
01:08:49 It's not an event.
01:08:52 It's a journey.
01:08:55 I'm coming.
01:08:57 I'm not where I want to be, but I'm coming out.
01:09:04 My feet are headed in the right direction.
01:09:11 I'm coming out of it.
01:09:12 Thank you for mercy.
01:09:13 Thank you for grace.
01:09:14 It may take you a minute, but you can come out of it.
01:09:26 Trust will have to be rebuilt, but you're coming out of it.
01:09:32 I'm on my way back to the place that I had in God.
01:09:39 I'm on my way back to the relationship that I had with God.
01:09:44 I want my prayer life back.
01:09:46 I want my consecration back.
01:09:49 I want to build my altar back.
01:09:53 God has been too good to me for me to lose my altar.
01:10:05 How could I forget what you've done for me?
01:10:12 How could I forget how you set me free?
01:10:16 How can I forget how you brought me?
01:10:21 Jesus, I'll never forget.
01:10:24 Nothing I got in Egypt is worth my altar.
01:10:28 Nothing I got over there is worth what I get in my altar.
01:10:36 Because I remember how you used to meet me.
01:10:44 You would meet me at my altar.
01:10:48 When I would kneel down, you were there.
01:10:51 You would sit with me in the altar.
01:10:55 You would pray through me.
01:10:57 There would be times I would start praying, but then all of a sudden, the Holy Ghost would take over.
01:11:03 And now you were praying through me.
01:11:07 You were praying the perfect will of the Father.
01:11:12 Abram said, "I remember that place, and I'm not going to stop, Sarah, until I get back to that place."
01:11:24 And Abram went back to the place where his tent had been at the beginning.
01:11:37 I'm going back to my first love.
01:11:42 I'm going back to the place of the altar.
01:11:46 And when he got there, he called on the name of the Lord.
01:11:51 He went back to his place of consecration, his place of communion with God.
01:11:57 He went back to his altar.
01:12:00 He went back to the scene where he first knew God.
01:12:12 When you feel away, and you feel lost, and you feel like you don't know what to do, retrace your steps.
01:12:26 This is where I met him.
01:12:30 This is where I knew him.
01:12:33 This is where he told me I was somebody.
01:12:36 This is where he met me.
01:12:37 This is where he picked me up.
01:12:39 This is where he wiped all of the mess off of my...
01:12:42 It was right here at the altar.
01:12:47 And I will work until I build it back again.
01:12:53 How do I do that, Pastor Brady?
01:12:56 You say things like, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation."
01:13:07 "Renew in me a right spirit."
01:13:13 "Create in me a clean heart."
01:13:17 "Cast me not away from your presence."
01:13:22 "Don't ever take your Holy Spirit..."
01:13:30 "Don't take your spirit from me."
01:13:38 "Cleanse me from my secret faults."
01:13:45 "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart..."
01:13:51 "I don't want to think about anything that is not acceptable..."
01:13:56 "In your sight."
01:14:01 For when we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
01:14:09 And the truth is not in us.
01:14:15 God, I want my altar back.
01:14:18 I want my place of communion.
01:14:20 I want my place of fellowship.
01:14:22 If I've got to give up friends, I'll give them up.
01:14:25 If I've got to give up connections, I'll give them up.
01:14:28 If I've got to be alone, I'll just be alone. That's okay.
01:14:31 I just want my altar back.
01:14:33 If I don't get the job, give me the altar.
01:14:41 If I don't get the house, give me the altar.
01:14:46 If I don't have the title, I've got to have the altar.
01:14:52 Because I can't be who I'm supposed to be without you.
01:15:01 So I want it back.
01:15:04 And I'll worship.
01:15:07 I'll wait back.
01:15:10 I'll pray my way back.
01:15:12 I'll serve my way back.
01:15:15 I'll give my way back because I've got to have my altar.
01:15:20 I want my altar back.
01:15:21 I want my prayer life back.
01:15:22 I want my consecration back.
01:15:24 I want my reputation back.
01:15:26 I want my good credit back.
01:15:28 I want my peace.
01:15:30 And whatever it costs, I will pay it.
01:15:33 No, do not put it on sale.
01:15:36 I will pay the full price.
01:15:42 I'll pay it because Sarah, I can't be your husband without an altar.
01:15:49 Abram, I can't be your wife without an altar.
01:15:57 My altar is where I get in touch with God.
01:16:03 And not having an altar is like living in a house without a phone, without a computer, without any of that.
01:16:16 You just feel utterly disconnected.
01:16:21 [music]