Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] Patrick, Chuck Allen here with another weekday podcast, and it's the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. My goodness, it got here in a hurry.
[00:00:14] Let's talk about something that's a little different. Now, I spoke about this this last Sunday at Sugar Hill Church, and let's talk about this. Building altars, the stones that tell your story.
[00:00:27] Now, I know what you're thinking. It's like, chuck, dude, I do not have a pile of rocks in my backyard. Fair enough. Just stay with me. In Genesis 12, there's this moment where Abram, who just left everything that he knew, everything, all of his security, all of his comfort, and he stops in the middle of downtown nowhere and builds an altar. Not a house, not a monument to himself. An altar. And here's what gets me. The altar was just a pile of ordinary stones.
[00:00:56] But those stones, they marked an extraordinary moment. They said, God met me here.
[00:01:04] Now, think about that. Abram didn't know what was ahead.
[00:01:08] He didn't have the whole story figured out.
[00:01:11] But he knew enough to stop and say this. I need to remember this moment. Because here's the truth.
[00:01:19] Me and you, we get going 100 miles an hour, and we forget.
[00:01:24] We move fast. Life throws the next crisis at us, and we forget the faithfulness that carried through the last crisis.
[00:01:32] Now, Joshua got this in Joshua, chapter four. After the people crossed the Jordan river on dry ground, he told them to stack up stones.
[00:01:40] And he said, when your children ask what these stones mean, tell them this is where God brought us through.
[00:01:49] Your altars might not be stones.
[00:01:51] Maybe your altar is a kitchen table where a hard conversation finally brought healing. Maybe it's a hospital room where you whispered a shaky prayer and somehow peace arrived. Maybe it's that time you thought there was no way forward. But God made a way where there was no way.
[00:02:09] These are your altars, friends.
[00:02:11] And the thing is, you need them. I need them because. Because when the next hard thing comes, and it will, you need to look back and remember. Remember the pattern of God's faithfulness. Remember how he showed up before.
[00:02:25] And remember that he hasn't changed.
[00:02:28] Lamentations 3 puts it this way. The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness. His mercies begin afresh each morning.
[00:02:40] Every single morning.
[00:02:43] So here's what I want you to do today.
[00:02:46] Take 60 seconds, like right now or later, when, when you're not driving, or before you go to bed tonight, and name one altar, one moment, where God met you, where he came through, where you saw his faithfulness. Up close and don't rush past it. Name it. Because that stone, that memory is going to matter the next time. You need to remember who God is and his faithfulness. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he's been faithful to you before, which means he'll be faithful again and again and again.
[00:03:27] God bless you, friend. I'll see you back tomorrow on another weekday podcast. And have a great day. Bye now.
