We begin a series called, “Altar
Ego.” I want you to think about the
beautiful altars, all around the world, that adorn churches. I think I’m going to pick out a pretty altar
picture for every week so we can just enjoy the beauty that sits at the very
front of so many churches. It means
something to have an altar. There is
something that our altar speaks to us very, very clearly when we put bread and
wine on the altar, and hear again the mighty words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and in his name, and in remembrance of him, and receiving by faith the altar
pours forth life and forgiveness for God’s people in the Sacrament. The altar:
It has a different function in churches today than it did in Old
Testament times, because Jesus Christ is the perfect sacrifice.
Now, I want you to notice the
spelling of “altar” that’s the correct spelling for this kind of altar. But we’re more used to seeing “alter ego”
spelled with an “E.” And that’s the
correct way to spell “alter ego.” It’s
Latin for “the other I.” Now, there are
some famous “alter ego’s” that we know about.
For instance, Dr. Jekyll had his “alter ego”—Mr. Hyde. It’s the other “I” that he experience after
his drinking those crazy chemicals—right?
Superman had his “alter ego”—Clark Kent.
We’re familiar with these famous “alter egos.” I wonder if we could think of a few more
maybe. Last night I was watching the
“Avengers” with my kids. I wasn’t
interested in the movie, but there were so many explosions and things that I
went downstairs to see what they were watching.
Dr. Banner had an alter ego—do you remember who that is? The Hulk.
I think the character with the most “alter egos” I’ve ever known is
Snoopy. Here’s the World War I Flying
Ace; here comes the world famous surgeon.
Every time you saw Snoopy he had an “alter ego.”
Alter egos come from the identity
we get sometimes from other people. In
this painful world labels abound--all kinds of labels. We’re labeled for our skin color; we’re labeled
by where we live; by our jobs; by our problems; by our deeds. There are so many famous people who are
famous for their deeds, that their names are sometimes synonymous with a
label. Think about this one: Thomas.
It’s not just Thomas--it’s what?--Doubting Thomas. How would you like to be a Doubting
Thomas? Here’s another one: Benedict Arnold. OK? If
someone says, “Oh, he’s a Benedict Arnold,” you know right away he’s a traitor. “He’s a real Einstein.” Smart—right?
“She’s such a Mother Teresa.” All
these are really like almost like labels, huh?
“He thinks he’s Fred Astaire.” I
threw this one up for fun: After our
wedding, we’re standing outside the chapel, and a long-time family firend came
walking out. She was so excited. The wedding was so beautiful, and she said,
“The two of you are just a Barbie and Ken.”
All of these characters, all of these people are almost like
labels. You know we tend to wear labels
that people give us.
I come to find that to learn who I am I’ve had to learn who I
am not. Maybe that’s true for
you too. I believe a lot of people need
to hear this truth: You are not what
others think of you. Remember a few
weeks ago I shared those painful lessons from my wrestling career. Kids from Anchor Bay chanted, “Loser,
loser.” Sure I lost a lot of wrestling
matches, but that does not define me.
You are not your past. You are
not what did. Brothers and sisters, you are who God says you are.
An altar in Old Testament times
in the Bible was something that was used quite often to change things. This is a typical biblical altar. You can have four horns on the altar and the
horns on the altar have the blood from the sacrifice. You know, this is what an altar may have
looked like in the Bible. It’s not
“a-l-t-e-r”, it’s “a-l-t-a-r.”
Let’s talk about our “altar
ego.” I don’t know if it’s going to be
Latin or what, but I just said, “OK, we’ll just pretend its Latin.” Our
altar ego is the “I” in sacrifice.
It’s not the other “I” that people tell us we are; it’s not the other
“I” that we feel we are or think we are; it’s the “I” in sacrifice. It’s so significant that God’s people start
to understand that we are who God says we are—and we’re not finished becoming all he has made us to be. That’s good news, because I’ve got a long
ways to go. It’s comforting to know I’m
not yet who I’m supposed to be, because he’s still working on me.
I sang this song for the Thursday
night group so I may as well sing it for you.
It’s a kid’s song, but I love this message. It goes like this:
He’s
still working on me
To
make me all I ought to be
It
took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars,
The
sun, the earth, and Jupiter and Mars
How
loving and patient he must be,
Because
he’s still working on me.
He’s still working on me. He wants us to discover our “altar ego”—the
“I” in sacrifice.
Over the course of the next
several weeks we’re going to lay some things on the altar. We’re going to become more and more of what
God created us to be. There are going to
be three, major, big-time sacrifices that we’re going to look at--three things
that have got to go. The word where “altar” came from, the etymology of that
word “altar” actually comes from the word “burn up.” Some things in our life just need to burn up
and go away.
The first of these three
sacrifices would be to sacrifice our false
self for our sacred identity in Christ. That’s hard.
We spent all our life hearing and seeing and feeling and believing our
identity from our experience from what other people have said from our needs
and our thoughts, and our condition.
Over the next few weeks we’re going to take a look at this particular
difficult sacrifice. What will it take
for us to just burn up that false self and grapple with the truth of who we are
in Christ?
The next enormous sacrifice that
we’ll be talking about a few weeks later is that we will learn to sacrifice cultural relativity for
eternal values. Now, before
you think, “This is just about being good and bad.” That’s not it. We, in this country, have embraced a
life-style, a culture, an understanding of how people ought to be and how
people ought to think and how people ought to act based on how we fit in with
the rest of the culture. It’s hard to
throw that on the altar. It’s not
cool. There’s a song, maybe you’ve heard
it on KTIS, “I’m not cool, but that’s OK, my God loves me anyway.” We need to get rid of the cultural relativity
for eternal values.
The third big sacrifice that
we’re going to be talking about, and I hope I can get this done before
Christmas, is we’re going to learn to sacrifice
self-justification for passionate living in Christ. We have a tendency to want to justify
ourselves, our behaviors, and our thoughts.
We think well of ourselves, we try to think highly of ourselves, and
give us that sense that we’re doing OK and often times we self justify. “That’s not my gift. That’s not my calling. I get uncomfortable in those
situations.”
So these three huge sacrifices on
the altar will help us see the other “I”--the “I” in sacrifice. You know, when I say these things, you might
be like me just doubting and thinking, “Wow, I don’t know if I can make all
those sacrifices. I don’t know if I have
the fortitude, the strength, the ability, the courage to put those things on
the altar and burn them up. My identity,
my culture, my defense of myself, can I really let that go and let God speak to
me about who I am in Christ. I don’t
know if I have it in me.” Who is the “I”
in sacrifice?
There aren’t any animal sacrifices
to cover sin. There is “the” sacrifice
the Lord Jesus Christ, but who’s the “I” in sacrifice? Have you noticed there are two? Two “I’s” in sacrifice. Galatians 2:20 tells us: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” The “I” in sacrifice that is me has been
dealt with on the cross. The “I” in
sacrifice with all the labels, with all the wrong values, with all the fears of
self-justification--that “I” is gone. Crucified with Christ—it is no longer I who
live but Christ lives in me. Two “I’s”
in sacrifice. The “I” I brought to the cross was crucified with Christ.
But the verse goes on to explain
that there is more. “The life I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me.” What’s good about this is that
when I think about the great big sacrifices and my weakness and inability
sometimes to put those things on the altar, Jesus already took them--He already
took them.
So over these next few weeks,
we’re going to learn about the sacrifice of our false identity. And we learn that we are not defined by
others, but instead we are God’s masterpiece.
We’re going to learn that in a world where people are defeated again and
again by sin, death, and the power of devil we are truly overcomers. It is my prayer that we truly see how
powerfully we are called to be ambassadors for this One who gave himself for
us. This is who we are in Christ.
When we learn about the sacrifice
of worldly values and the difficulty of giving up the culture that makes us
feel so comfortable we will learn that God will give us such things as
patience, integrity, honor, and gratitude.
These are the kind of things that will characterize our life—the life we
now live in flesh. We live by faith in
the Son of God, and patience, integrity, honor, and gratitude, those kinds of
things will mark our lives, because God has made us different. The “I” in sacrifice, my “I” is gone, and all
that Jesus is and has done is given to us.
When we learn to sacrifice our
self-justification and our puffed up pride, we will discover passionate living
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Things will
take on a boldness you may never have known before with bold choices for
living, bold prayers, bold words, confident words, words that come from
Scripture and are rooted in our souls.
And a bold walk that people will see the grace and the goodness of God.
There’s another “I” in my life.
An “altar ego”, super hero, Jesus Christ. Like the Adult Bible Class between services
we’re going to discover what it is to have the God of the Universe living in
us, working in us, changing us, showing us the other “I”—Him. It’s going to make a difference for our lives
and our ministry.
Gracious God, thank you for the
gift of your Son, Jesus. His death on
the cross has given us every reason for hope and joy. Lord we ask that you would fill us with your
Holy Spirit, as we learn about that in our Bible Class in just a few
minutes. That you would just fill us
with your Holy Spirit and calls us to live like we mean it. With your grace and favor, not our own
strength, but with your strength, with the sacrifice you made we are
forgiven. In the power you pour out we
are enabled to serve you with full and happy hearts. In Jesus name, amen.
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