Leftovers from "The Altar"

Ever wondered why the church altar holds such an allure, or why context is crucial in understanding the Bible? Join me, Pastor Jason, as I take you beyond the sermon, The Altar, to explore these curiosities. Discover the altar's role as more than just an ecclesiastical centerpiece—it's a silent witness to personal transformations and a testament to Jesus's grace that has graced the milestones from salvation to sanctification.

Dive into scripture with a fresh perspective as we connect the dots between Numbers 32 and Joshua 22, unearthing the rich historical tapestry that forms the backdrop of biblical events. It's not just about reading the Bible; it’s about engaging with it, letting the stories of the twelve tribes of Israel shed light on the Word and its relevance today. This insight fuels our weekly services, where scripture is not merely read, but brought to life, nurturing your spiritual growth each time you listen.

And when it comes to faith, communion, and public profession, the waters run deep. We'll unpack the sacred act of communion, often misunderstood and misinterpreted, through the lens of 1 Corinthians 11:17-26. It's a call to examine our hearts and actions, ensuring we embody the grace and unity that communion represents. 

Enjoy this message? Consider visiting Ravenna Church of the Nazarene where Pastor Jason is serving as the Senior Pastor. Have a prayer need? Want to share something with Pastor Jason? Send The Dirt Path Pastor a message. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thedirtpathpastor

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Transcript

Pastor Jason: 0:37

Thank you All right. Well, good afternoon everybody. I'm Pastor Jason, pastor here at Revenant Church of the Nazarene, and we are starting a new weekly episode on our Facebook page and on our sermon podcast in connection with the sermon podcast called Leftovers, and we all like leftovers most of the time right, unless they've been sitting in the fridge for a while. You know there's nothing better than a late-night snack, than your leftovers most of the time right, unless they've been sitting in the fridge for a while. There's nothing better than a late night snack, than your leftovers from the day before, or going to sleep knowing that for lunch tomorrow, whatever delicious meal you had for dinner, you're going to be able to have it for lunch tomorrow too. I call this, this is called leftovers because in the weekly sermon I don't necessarily have time to get to everything that I want to get to in the message and sometimes I'm sure that leaves questions in my mind or questions in your mind. So Leftovers is an opportunity for you to ask questions based on the sermon from the previous week. So if you're there on Sunday and got to watch the message, the altar that I shared here at Renner Church of Nazarene this past Sunday, this is your chance to ask me some questions pertaining to that message. If you had some questions, or maybe a question has hit you now as you're watching this video, just post them in the comments. I'll do my best to try and address them as this video is going on, but if not, I'll get to them at some point or in some way, shape or form. But that's the point of this whole episode. It's just called Leftovers, re-exploring some old things, and really the purpose of this past Sunday's message was we were looking at that piece of furniture in the church called the altar and trying to remember and understand what the purpose of the altar is at the front of the church and for so many of us.

Pastor Jason: 2:42

We have witnessed so many people go to the altar and get saved over the years. We recognize it as the feet of you know. I grew up recognizing it as the feet of Jesus. That's the place you go to cry out and seek Jesus for help, and there's some element of truth to it. There's a sacredness to that, because that's what so often takes place at the altar right, whether they're seeking salvation in Jesus or sanctification through Jesus or some type of healing, some type of power from Jesus. That's why people go forward to the altar, right, they're seeking intervention from Jesus somehow, shape or form, on their behalf. But here's the thing you and I also know that the altar is not the only place where that can happen. We can go to Jesus any place, any time, anywhere. There is no place where we can be at, where we cannot seek Jesus, where we can't kneel down in prayer and ask God to help us or intervene in the situation. There's nowhere, everywhere. That's a possibility.

Pastor Jason: 3:38

So the point of this message, and as we looked at Joshua, chapter 22, verses 9 through 34 in that message, as we looked at that, and when verses 9 through 34 in that message, as we looked at that and we studied, the takeaway from that passage for us pertaining to the altar, was that the altar is not Jesus is where we find grace. We find grace, we find power, we find healing from Jesus. Not necessarily the altar itself, right, the altar is not the place of power, but Jesus is. And when we go to the altar, that's what we're recognizing. So the purpose of the altar itself. Right, the altar is not the place of power, but Jesus is, and when we go to the altar, that's what we're recognizing. So the purpose of the altar, then, is that it stands as a witness to the power of Jesus. Right, when you and I look at the altar, we can remember our own time of a moment where we were washed in the blood of Jesus and saved from our sins. Right, we can look back in our own lives and remember that moment where the fire fell and we were entirely sanctified. The altar is a testimony to that. It's a witness to that, not just in my life but into the lives of those that surround us, and so that's the purpose of the altar and that's what we looked at in this message.

Pastor Jason: 4:38

But, again, there might've been some other questions that came to your mind as we explored that passage, and I have some notes on some questions that were lingering in people's minds, and perhaps in your mind as well, that maybe you just forgot to ask or didn't know that you could ask it. And asking questions about what comes to our faith is very important. Remember, jesus tells us that when the little children come to Jesus right to worship him and be at his feet, remember he gets on the disciples for rebuking the kids. And Jesus essentially tells his disciples hey, if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you've got to become like little children. He's not saying that we are to have blind faith, but we as Christians should be allowed to come like kids. Because what do kids do? They ask questions. They want to know and they want to learn. So they ask questions so they can understand and learn about why something happens and why they should participate in it. And we should be the same way in our faith. We should not be afraid of asking questions, but we should ask those questions but seek the answer, and seek the answer from God and from God's word.

Pastor Jason: 5:42

Now, as I dig into this episode and some of the questions that were left over here, first off, I got to make a confession. All right, in the message I talked about how you know, as I was setting up the message. In the introduction I was talking about the different types of pews. Right, and I make the comment that so many of us, you know, grew up sitting on those old, uncomfortable wooden pews that had absolutely no padding and that we were thankful when the song leader invited us to stand. Well, again, I have to make a little bit of confession here. I grew up in Martinsville First Church, the Nazarene, and they have had the same pews my entire life, right, and they probably still have the same pews right now. They were these light pews with cushion on them and they're cushioned on the bottom and cushioned on the back. So these cushioned pews that we could sit on during the message, during the worship time for the services. Now, I wasn't completely being dishonest when I was saying this, because when I went to children's church the children's church is where they placed those old wooden pews and we had to sit on the old, uncomfortable wooden pews in Children's Church. Now that wasn't the entire time of my time attending Children's Church there, but that was part of it. But I also attended other services at other places where they had those old wooden pews. So again, I figured I'd better set the record straight on that, because at Martinsville First, you do have nice cushioned pews, although they're probably getting older now. So if you go visit that church, there's Christian pews there.

Pastor Jason: 7:10

Now the other thing about this message that I thought was interesting and I thought I would bring up in this leftover section is that I make the joke that the passage I was about to share and that I did share for that message was a really long passage. I mean it was really long. I mean verses 9 through 34, right, that's over 20 verses long, and in a lot of sermons I can kind of narrow it down actually to two or three verses, or maybe even one verse that I'm particularly focusing on in a message, but I still go ahead and read the whole passage anyway, right? And if you listen to my message, to my sermons, you'll realize that I read the entirety of a passage, the entirety of a section, almost every week, and then we end with this is the word of God for the people of God, with everybody saying thanks be to God. And so you may ask why do I read long passages like that? Because it definitely adds time to the message, right? I mean, it was probably a good two to three minutes worth of the sermon length this week of just reading through the passage.

Pastor Jason: 8:06

And so you might be wondering why do you do that, pastor Jason? Well, there's two reasons. One, there's a danger in just picking out one single verse. And while all of Scripture is God breathed and is profitable, and while I believe all of Scripture is pointing us to salvation in Jesus, when we just take one verse out of an entire section, we risk pulling that verse out of context. And when we pull it out of context we might disconnect it from the meaning that the author had for it in the writing of it. And that's the purpose of us studying scripture. And that's the purpose of us studying scripture we're trying to not only understand how this connects us to the story of Jesus but also understand how the writer is conveying that, to point people to faith in God or to remind a people, such as in Joshua, of God's faithfulness to them.

Pastor Jason: 8:58

As a nation we don't want to just take one Bible verse, so I try my hardest to try and give us an entire section around. If I'm just sharing a message on one verse or a couple of verses, I do my best to try and present the context around it. Now, sometimes I don't always read the entire context around it. Sometimes I'll just summarize it to kind of put it in. But again, I'm still trying to give you a fuller view of that verse and what the author was intending, but then also taking it into how God intended it for us to you know how God connects it with for us in the story of salvation through Jesus.

Pastor Jason: 9:36

But there's also a second reason why I read through entire passages, especially the long ones, like I just did this last week, and it has to do with the fact that there are so many Christians that do not read the Bible. They profess salvation in Jesus, but they and they might have it. Now there's some Christians. They don't have a Bible, they've not been able to afford one or or something like that, and then that's okay, right, we understand that. But if you don't, if you're struggling and you don't have a Bible because you can't afford one, let your pastor know, let somebody in your church know, because I guarantee you we all have at least five laying around that we don't use, or we would be very quick to get you one to make sure you got a Bible. So if the reason you're not reading your Bible is because you do not own one, let somebody know, especially here at Revenant Church, nazarene. If you do not have a Bible and you would like one to be able to read it, let us know. And, matter of fact, I would probably even, worst case, give you one of the Pew Bibles that are in the back of the Pew, so that way you would have something. But that's not the case for everybody.

Pastor Jason: 10:37

These statistics come from pewresearchcom, and I'm not sure what the year on it was. According to pewresearchcom, only 9% of millennials read their Bible one time per week or at least once per week, and 35% of boomers read it per week. So that tells us a large percentage of those who profess to be Jesus, and that would include a large percentage of those who attend church on a Sunday morning. They do not crack their Bible open, probably more than once, and that one time is probably in the service on Sundays. Part of the reason why I read these lengthy passages is on the back of my mind. As a pastor, I know that this may be the only time where someone is going to read the Bible for that week, and so I want to make sure when they're at church on Sunday morning, when they walk out of there, they can at least know that the Bible was read to them, and so they can be honest when they answer questions that yes, I read my Bible at least one time per week and it was read to them in that moment.

Pastor Jason: 11:36

It's important to read the Bible, because reading the Bible is how we grow in our understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us. The more we study the Bible, the more we begin to see and understand that, while Christ himself was perfect and sinless, god's word itself demonstrates to us that God shared his perfect message of salvation through imperfect, broken people who were seeking to live out their lives in faith to him and allowing the spirit to work in them and through them. That's what the Bible itself teaches us, through its very own creation. That's why I read long passages like that. So another thing, that question that might have come to your mind when we were doing we're thinking of the leftovers for this message is I kept focusing in on, there were two and a half tribes, right, the tribe of Reuben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, and then there was the other nine and a half which were the other, and all of these 12 tribes, when you add two and a half plus nine and a half, you get 12. That's the 12 tribes of Israel, that's the entire nation of Israel, right? And so this dispute that we talk about in Joshua 22 that occurs occurs because the two and a half tribes of Reuben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh build this altar on their side of the Jordan, and the other nine and a half see it, knowing that the one true altar to offer sacrifices and worship to God was in Shiloh, within their territory. And that's where the dispute arises.

Pastor Jason: 13:04

But some of you may question the fact that. Well, well, why did they settle in that part of the land? Why did they stop there? And to kind of give you a place to go back and look at that? This is where numbers chapter 32 connects in with joshua, chapter 22. And so joshua 22 all the fighting's been done and accomplished, chapter 22. And so Joshua 22,. All the fighting's been done and accomplished. God's people are in control of at least most of the land at that point. They may not have conquered all of it yet, but they are in enough control where it seems like that's a certainty moving forward if they're willing to put in the work and continue. And Numbers that was far from done yet right, but Numbers is setting us up for this story later on.

Pastor Jason: 13:45

In Numbers 32, it gives us the account of when, when the tribe of Reuben and Gad go to. Well, let me backtrack a little bit. So Numbers 32 is when the tribes of Reuben and Gad are going to go to Moses and they're going to make a request of him to take possession of this land and have it be their inheritance, rather than some type of land in the later parts, right Like the rest of the tribes. But even in our understanding here in Numbers 32, there's still more backstory to it. And again this goes back to the importance of reading the Bible for ourselves and digging in and studying it, because, again, there was no way I was going to have time to preach Joshua 22, preach Numbers 32, and then even then still missing part of the context, which is back in Numbers 21, verses 21 through 35.

Pastor Jason: 14:37

And if you really want to dig into the backstory of this, start in Numbers 21 and read verses 21 through 35, and you're going to read the accounts of when the Israelites go to battle against the king of Sihon I'm probably pronouncing their name wrong, but the king Sihon of the Amorites and then later on in that same section, they're going to go to battle with King Og of Bashan and the Israelites are going to be victorious over these two kings. And both of these two kings have lands that are on the near side of the Jordan, right the side of the Jordan, where the people are going to have to cross through, to cross through the Jordan to get to the promised land, where the people are going to have to cross through, to cross through the Jordan, to get to the promised land. So this land is next to the Jordan, but it's not across it, like where the rest of the land is where they're going to go and fight. And so in Numbers 32, this is after the Israelites have victory over the king of the Amorites and the king of Bashan. So after they have victory over these, these two kings, some other things happen.

Pastor Jason: 15:37

But the tribes of Reuben and Gad go to Moses because they they see that this land on, you know, the trans side of the Jordan, before they cross the Jordan, that that land there, they see that it's very profitable, very fertile, to raise cattle, and they have a lot of cattle. And so they go to moses and make the request hey, moses, we have a lot of cattle. Uh, can, can we just have our families settle here on this side of the river? And so moses is hesitant though because and again this is described to us in numbers 32 moses is hesitant because the way he sees it is okay. These tribes are wanting to opt out of doing battle with the rest of the tribes. The rest of the tribes are going to still have to cross the Jordan and go fight for their inheritance. Meanwhile, reuben and Gad are already going to have theirs, and so because they already have theirs, even if they do go and fight, there may not be the same intensity or desire to fight alongside their brothers moving forward. So that's Moses' concern. The tribes of Reuben and Gad tell Moses hey, look, we are not going to be at rest until all of our people are at rest. Yes, our families may settle here, our cattle may settle here, but rest assured, moses, our warriors are going to go with our brothers and they're going to fight alongside them until we all achieve victory, until we are all victorious. And so that's the covenant they make with Moses, and Moses agrees to this with him.

Pastor Jason: 17:02

That sets us up for what happens in Joshua, chapter 22, which is our passage that's being studied in the sermon the altar, and again, kind of a sidebar from that. There's so much truth in that, though we as Christians have to understand we may have already punched our ticket to heaven through faith in Jesus, but one we got it. To get to heaven, we got to cling to our faith in Jesus. Right, we can't just have a decision at the altar and then get up and go live our lives the way we want to. No, that moment is the beginning. Right, it's everything, but it's the beginning.

Pastor Jason: 17:38

I'm growing in grace and growing closer to Jesus, and part of that growing closer to Jesus is recognizing that we cannot, on this side of heaven, we cannot be at rest until all of us are at rest. Does that make sense? Our goal as Christians is to see everyone come to faith in Jesus Christ Everyone. That's why Jesus died on the cross. He wasn't just to save a few, it was to save everyone. The gift is made available to everyone. So we have and as his fathers we have a responsibility, by both the way we live our lives and through sharing it with our own testimonies, that this salvation is available through jesus. So that that's what that's very important, um, and that's kind of what this maybe doesn't directly point us to, but something that makes me think about when I'm studying this passage.

Pastor Jason: 18:28

Now, another leftover thought that I had from this message, um, was about misreading intentions, and that's kind of exactly what happens, because remember the other nine and a half tribes in Joshua 22,. They look at this altar built by the tribes of Reuben Gad and the half tribe of Unash. They see it and they think they are rebelling against God. They don't actually do any investigation right off the bat, they just see this altar, they gather up their military leaders and they head off into battle to face their, their cousins. At the very least they had the wisdom to pause and send in the high priest, or phineas, son of eleazar, first right, to kind of warn them and give, give, maybe, perhaps, if you know in their minds, perhaps those that are trapped in the land, who aren't caught up in what's happening, a chance to get out.

Pastor Jason: 19:12

But we, we and I know from reading the story this is a and having studied it in this message, that it was all a big misunderstanding, that the intention behind building this altar had nothing to do with being a rebellion against god or worshiping some other god apart from god, from these two and a half tribes. But it was a desire to as to be a reminder that you know what we, our tribes, our families are separated by the Jordan and in future generations it may become a thing where your descendants don't remember that our descendants are part of the same faith of God as you are and that they have the same stake in the tabernacle as your family does, and so they set that all throughout as a witness right, as a witness to be shared between them, as a reminder that they both sides, on both sides of the Jordan, there are people that belong to the same faith and the same God, and so I thought there was a point to stop here and discuss. You know, we misread intentions all the time. So many of our disputes that happen in life with other people, so many things that damage relationships, comes from misreading intentions. We just assume that the other person is out to get us, and sometimes that may be very well, true, that may be their goal, but a lot of times that's not the intention behind it at all, and so I thought there's a.

Pastor Jason: 20:37

I've been studying in Proverbs in my own personal study right now. I thought Proverbs 16, one through two, had a some words of wisdom here, which is from the book of wisdom. This is what Proverbs 16, one through two, says. It says the plans of the mind, the plans of the mind, belong to mortals, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All one's ways may be pure in one's own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit, and so when I pause in my sermon to talk about this a little bit, that's what I'm getting after is I can understand what my intention is, but there is no way for me to prove 100% to you that my intention is what my intention is, because so often my intentions are questioned after the action or the words that have been said occurs right, and so I can convey what my intentions were after the fact. But even then, trying to prove your intention after the fact to somebody who's questioning your intention is almost an improvable thing. It's unprovable. You've already done the action that, in your mind, proves the intention, but the person has already looked at what your action and determined a different intention on your part. Our intentions are unprovable to one another. There's only one person that knows it, and even then our.

Pastor Jason: 21:53

I think what the writer of proverbs is getting at here in this particular proverb is, but when he says, but the answer of the tongue is from the lord, it's meaning that when you and I are questioning each other's intentions one in response to being questioned right we need to keep our faith in the lord and understand that the Lord knows our intentions and so speak, speak the truth, trusting that God will allow you to be heard and allow the hearer to hear it, and, at the same time, when we're hearing somebody share their intention, right, we have to trust the Lord To help us to hear what the other person is saying, and we have to allow the lord to help us take them at what they're saying. Value wise. Because, again, I cannot prove your intentions and you cannot prove mine. The only one that truly knows our intentions outside of ourselves is god, and so God is the only reliable witness, and so we have to have faith in God, and by our faith in God, we can have faith in one another. Now, again, there are times where people prove themselves not trustworthy, but that's a repeated occurrence that happens. It's usually not a singular moment, but a repeated occurrence, right, we have to trust in god. With that, we have to trust in god in helping us respond, both when it's against us and when we're against. Well, when we're questioning someone else's motives and intentions, because god is the only one that knows. There's two other things I want to get to. Hopefully we have enough time to do that At the end of this message.

Pastor Jason: 23:32

I conclude with communion and I start talking about how Jesus when he died on the cross. His blood was shed for everybody, right, and that's what the elements of communion represent. I even make the comment that the communion itself, the elements, represent a means of grace. It's not that we get saved by taking communion, but the elements of communion point us to Jesus and our need for him and the grace made available through him. But then I make a statement about how there are that Paul talks about in one of his letters, profaning communion, and so many times we've interpreted that as well. Somebody profanes communion when they are not living out faith in Jesus, and so often we apply that, though we apply it to people that maybe are visiting our church, have not grown up in the church and maybe they've not made a decision to follow Jesus yet, and so we we make the assumption that them taking communion is profaning communion. But that's not what Paul's talking about when he's talking about profaning communion. Our hope is when a person outside the faith takes communion, our hope is the Holy Spirit helps them to understand what those elements represent and it can become the pathway that leads them to Jesus.

Pastor Jason: 24:46

But what Paul's getting after is something else, and you find it in 1 Corinthians 11, in verses 17-26, and I'm just going to read it to you. It says Now in the following instructions I do not commend you. This is he speaking to the Corinthian church. Because when you come together, it's not for the better but for the worse. For to begin with, when you come together as a a church, I hear that there are divisions among you to some extent. I believe it. Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine.

Pastor Jason: 25:16

When you come together, it is not really to eat the lord's supper, for when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What do you do? You have homes to eat and drink in, or do you have to show contempt for the church of god and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you in this manner? I do not commend you, for I received from the lord what I also handed on to you, that the lord jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said this is my. And then verse 27. Verse 20. Verse 20. Examine yourselves and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. And so you have to take again. This is the importance of taking all of it into context. We can focus on verse 27 and say well, we've got to make sure we're taking communion in a worthy manner.

Pastor Jason: 26:38

But what Paul is talking about he's not applying it to those outside the faith. He's applying it to those who are professing faith, believers of Jesus Christ, the faith. He's applying it to those who are professing fake believers of jesus christ. And these professing believers of jesus christ have this division among themselves, right where those who are well off are eating them, eating the lord's supper, because they did the lord's supper a little bit different. Back, they're eating the lord's supper, but they're not sharing with those less fortunate, and so in some ways they've puffed themselves up like they're superior because god's blessed them with the means to be able to do the Lord's Prayer. Meanwhile, god must be punishing those other ones because they can't take it.

Pastor Jason: 27:11

And Paul's saying that attitude, that division, the attitude, the vision that's taking place in this church is making those who take the communion unworthy to take it. They're professing faith in Jesus, but their heart does not reflect Jesus. They're professing faith in Jesus but their heart does not reflect Jesus. They're professing faith in Jesus but their actions are not demonstrating the values of faith that they're proclaiming. And that makes them unworthy to partake of that meal because it's disrespectful to the very elements that are proclaiming grace available to everyone, because they are determining certain people are worthy and certain people are not. So that's what I'm getting after when I talk about profaning communion in this message. It's those who take it profane it when we do not honor god with our lives and our actions when we go to take it. But even then, those elements of communion become an opportunity for us to stop, examine ourselves, ask the holy spirit to examine us, and if there be a wicked way in us like that, then that's the opportunity of the holy spirit to convict us and for us, through by taking a communion, to get ourselves on our hearts and right minds right with christ. And that's what those elements represent in its entirety anyway. It's about getting ourselves right with god. Jesus provided the means to do so, and so when we eat and we drink the Lord's Supper together, we take communion together. It's pointing us back to that.

Pastor Jason: 28:34

Well, as I wrap up this first episode of Leftovers I want to end with there's one other benefit of the altar right, and again I make the statement that the altar isn't. I make the statement that the altar isn't. It's a witness and it's a testimony to the power of Jesus. I mean, yes, we can find Jesus, but we can find Jesus anywhere. But when we look at the altar, it's a witness to when I found Jesus, it's a witness to when you found Jesus, wherever that might have been, and it's a witness to the saints that have gone before us and it's a witness to the saints that are going to come and join us. Right, that is testifying to the work of Jesus, wherever and however the work of Jesus occurs. But there's one last benefit to the altar that I want to share, and that one last benefit of the altar is something that might strike us a little differently as Protestant Christians.

Pastor Jason: 29:23

When we make the decision to come forward to the altar, it is a public profession of faith, even when the pastor you know so often, when I do altar calls or something like that, I will say with every head bowed and eye closed, and sometimes I transpose the words right, I say it with every eye bowed and head closed. I make that statement. I invite people to come to the altar. Why? Because I want to take the pressure off people when they get up, to come forward, to not feel like everybody's watching them. But even then, even when that happens, if someone gets up from your pew, you're going to hear it. You're going to hear their footsteps going down the aisle.

Pastor Jason: 29:56

So when we make a decision to go to the altar, there is a public profession of faith that's taking place. And again, this is why it's so important when we make this covenant. We made this covenant together, as members of the Revenant Church of Nazarene, that we are not going to be. We're not going to judge anybody that comes to the altar, because instead we're going to rejoice. We're going to rejoice because somebody's coming forward to find power in Jesus Christ. Right, they're finding Jesus' blood, that's. They're coming to be washed in the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin. They're coming to Jesus because they believe they can be filled with the Holy Spirit. They're coming to Jesus because they believe Jesus can heal them. They're coming forward because they believe Jesus can heal their marriage, but that person getting up from their pew and taking the step down to the altar, they are declaring not only in their own heart and mind that Jesus has that power. They're declaring to all of us. I believe Jesus can do this. I am coming to Jesus because I believe Jesus can help me.

Pastor Jason: 30:51

So that's the other benefit of the altar. It's a public profession of faith and that's why it's something we should celebrate as believers. It's because somebody's professing their faith in Jesus. Well, that's all I have for this time. Hopefully. Be sure to join us. This week. Service starts at 11 am, 10.45 am, here at Ravenna Church in Nazarene, located at 530 Main Street here in Ravenna, kentucky. We'd love for you to join us either in person or online. If you miss us in person or online, you can always catch the video, or you can find us on the Dirt Pastorman Podcast. Listen to us that way, but listen in. If you have questions with this week's sermon or if you still have some lingering questions from this week, be sure to send them to me. You can either text them to me, you can post them in the comments or send a message to this Facebook page, and I'll do my best to try and answer those for you, thank you.