I have a dream! It’s a dream deeply rooted in God’s dream for the Body of Christ! I dream that one day our church will rise up and live out the true meaning of its calling as the people of God, that we would be a loving family, a reaching family, a teaching family, and a training family! And we are! We’re doing great things, but … can’t we do better than this? I believe we can if we follow Paul’s advice to the church at Rome: “With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, brothers and sisters, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable to Him. And don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands, and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” [a]

And so, we come to offer ourselves – mind, body, and spirit – to God, but like the altar of Yahweh in Elijah’s day, the altar of God is in disrepair! If we are going to offer ourselves to God, and become all that God dreams for us to be, then we must first rebuild the Lord’s altar! And that’s what we’re learning to do! We’re learning to altar our prayers by altering the y we pray! That’s where our revival starts – 5 minutes of prayer at 5:55 – but that’s just the beginning. In addition to altering our prayers, we must be present in our church’s programs and ministries! We must altar our presence!

In the earliest days of the church, the mother church, the church at Jerusalem, set a pattern for all Christians to follow. Borrowing from the patterns of the Synagogue, they began meeting together to celebrate the resurrection of their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Here’s how Luke described it: “All the believers devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, and to prayer! A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the Apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had … they worshiped together in the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity – all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.” [b] Luke says the church at Jerusalem met for worship at the Temple every day and in people’s homes to share the Lord’s Supper.

But often that which starts as an explosion ends with a flicker! And soon, people started drifting away and attendance wasn’t as strong as before. So, by the time the Book of Hebrews was written in 64 AD – just 30 years later – the author had to challenge the church: “Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing.” [c] And about that same time, Paul wrote to Timothy and said: “Now the Spirit clearly says that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” [d] And when John wrote to the churches of Asia Minor, he told the church at Ephesus: “You have lost your first love.” [e]

So, you see, what we’re experiencing is nothing new.  It’s the same old temptation and the same old challenge that the church has faced in every generation since the beginning.  For lots of reasons – most of them bad – people choose to leave the church.  And even those who continue to attend, do so with conflicted motives.  Some come to be seen; some to save their marriage or to help them parent; some come for the music program; and others come seeking romance!  The reasons people attend are very diverse, but friends, God calls us to altar our presence, to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice.

And if we’re going to altar our presence, we must start by altering our motivations!  Our primary motivation for coming to church must be our passion for God!  You see, our attendance is an act of love!  Jesus told the scribe: “The first and greatest commandment is this: ‘You will love the Lord your God.’”

In John 12, we are told about a woman with a questionable reputation.  Remember her?  Jesus was eating at the home of Simon the Pharisee and a woman broke into the room, came over and knelt at Jesus’ feet, poured oil over Him and wept over Him.  Now, we aren’t told what was happening in her life; we don’t know if she said anything; we don’t know what Jesus had done for her.  All we know is that she had one thing on her mind: pouring her affection upon the Lord.  In this woman, we see true worship.  She didn’t care what was happening around her; she didn’t care that she wasn’t wanted; she didn’t care if others were watching; she worshiped the Lord, because she loved Him.  After your motivation!

Second, if we’re going to altar our presence, we must alter our expectations!  There is a mentality in the church today that basically says: “I come to church for what I get out of it.”  We’ve turned the church into cheap entertainment.  As long as the church is entertaining – the sermon’s good, the music is good, the staff makes me happy – then, I’m there!  As long as I get something out of it, it’s okay!  But friends, instead of coming to church for what we get from it, we should come for what we can give to God through it.

When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, one of the issues he had to address was worship.  All kinds of things were happening in worship and Paul had to set them straight.  And listen to his instructions in        1 Corinthians 14: “When you come together, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.  All these things must be done to build up the church.”  Paul says: “Look, the church is most healthy when everybody is contributing to it.”  You see, in church everyone participates; no one spectates.

And the beauty of God’s plan is that when we come together and everyone participates, everyone offers themselves to God and to others, then we all leave blessed!  Because it’s in giving that we receive the greatest blessing.  When we invest ourselves in Sunday School or Small Group, God blesses us.  So, we’ve got to change our expectations, stop expecting to receive and start imagining ways we can give ourselves to God and one another.  Alter your expectations!

And then, finally, if we’re going to altar our presence, we must alter our priorities!  Church gatherings should not be optional for the people of God; they should be a priority!  Like the church at Jerusalem, we should continue meeting together for worship, discipleship, fellowship, mission, and ministry!  We can’t sit around all week thinking, “You know, if I don’t have anything else better to do, I think I’m going to church this weekend?”  That’s not a priority!  That’s not following Jesus’ command to: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” [f] nor His command to pray: “Your Kingdom come; Your will be done.”

Now, we all know that we live in a different world.  We’re all busy and we all have a million things to do and a million places to be, but here is a great spiritual truth: We do what we want to do!  If you want to be in church, you’ll be in church and nothing will stop you.  It’s all about priorities!  And from time to time, our priorities get out of whack.  We need to alter our priorities.  Paul said: “Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed.”  Alter your priorities.

Altar your presence!  Make your participation in church life an offering to God … by altering your motivations, your expectations, and your priorities!  After all, isn’t that what we promised to do:

I will be faithful to God and to First United Methodist Church and I will uphold it with my prayers, my presence ……… my gifts, my service, and my witness!