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The Altar & Tent: The Marks of a Called Life {ABRAHAM Series} (Genesis 12) · (Un) Common thoughts of Christ

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Podcast title called The Altar in the Tent: The Marks of a Called Life.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: In our first episode, introducing Abraham, we saw Abram as a man called by God.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Called out, not by his own choosing, but by the sovereign voice of God.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that raises a very real question.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: If God calls a person, what does that life begin to look like?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: What actually changes?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: In Genesis 12, God gives us a simple, but profound answer.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Two things begin to mark Abram's life.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: The altar and the tent.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: We read in Genesis 12, 7-8, which says, Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants, I will give this land.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he moved from there, and he pitched his tent, and there he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: The first thing we see is this.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Abram builds an altar.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: God appears, and Abram worships.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: He does not pause to plan.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: He does not calculate.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: He does not hesitate.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: He builds an altar.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because when God becomes real to the soul, the heart bows.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: And when we come into the New Testament, this becomes even clearer.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: In the Gospel of John chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, the hour is coming.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: God is spirit.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: To worship in spirit means it is real from within, not outward, not ritual.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And to worship in truth means it is according to how God has revealed himself in Christ.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So when Abram builds an altar, he is doing in type what the believer does today, not offering sacrifices, but drawing near to God.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: The altar speaks of a heart turned toward God, a life lived before him, a relationship that is real, and it becomes a pattern.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Wherever Abram goes, the altar appears again, which quietly asks us, is there an altar in my life?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Not outwardly, but inwardly.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something real between my soul and God?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: But right beside the altar, Abram pitches a tent, and this is just as important.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: The tent speaks of a man who is not settled.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: A tent has no foundation.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: A tents, as his home says, This is not my home.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the New Testament uses this same language.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Peter, in his first epistle, chapter 2, verse 11, says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: But here is what makes Abram so striking.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: He was not a poor man.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: He had wealth, flocks, herds, silver, gold.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: He had the means to settle, to build, to establish something permanent.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And yet he lived in a tent, not because he couldn't settle, but because he wouldn't.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: His circumstances did not control him.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: His calling did.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And this presses on us because the question is not simply do I have things, but do those things have me.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Our Lord Jesus in Matthew 6.21 says, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Abram could hold things in his hand without letting them take hold of his heart.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: The tent says, I am passing through.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: My portion is not here.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: My future is not tied to this world.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And here is what is so important.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: You never see Abram with just the altar, and you never see him with just the tent.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: They always go together because they describe one life, the altar that connects him to God.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: The tent that separates him from the world.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the New Testament brings these together.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Paul tells the Romans in chapter 12, verse 1, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: That is the altar.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: The following verse in that Romans 12 2 says, Do not be conformed to this world.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: That is the tent.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: If I truly worship the Father, I cannot be at home in a world that rejected his son.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if I settle into the world, the altar will quietly disappear.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And Abram himself shows us how real this is.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because when trial comes, and trials do come into each of our lives, Abram goes down into Egypt and leaves his altar and tent behind.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Does he miss them?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: There is no altar.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: There is no tent.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: For a time he loses both.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the New Testament warns us.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Paul writes to young Timothy in the second letter, chapter 4, verse 10, saying, Damas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: A believer can drift, the heart can settle here.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And when that happens, the upward life fades.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So what does it mean to be called by God?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Not perfection.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Abram was not perfect, but direction, a life that turns toward God and a life that is not settled here.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: The altar and the tent.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: The altar speaks of a heart that worships the Father, both in spirit and in truth, real, inward, and centered in Christ.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: The tent speaks of a life that, even while possessing things in this world, refuses to be rooted in it.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: A life that moves through as a pilgrim, not as one at home.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Together, they show a person who belongs to God yet does not belong here.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Drawn upward in worship and loosened from everything below.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Let's close this meditation on Abraham's altar intent, with these words, our Lord Jesus states, in John 4 23, saying, The Father is seeking such to worship him.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is for you and me today.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: The Father is seeking such to worship him.