Build an Altar to Stay the Plague
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Fernando Cabrera has proudly served as the NYC Council Member representing the 14th district in the Bronx since January 2010. He is also senior pastor of New Life Outreach International in the Bronx. He is a former program director for the Mental Health and Counseling program at Mercy College, where he also taught for 12 years. Council Member Cabrera earned a B.A. in Religion from Southern California College, M.A. in Counseling from Liberty University and a Doctorate in Counseling from Argosy University. He is married to Elvia Cabrera, and is a father of two and grandfather of five.
Transcript
God bless you. Hey, I want to share a word with you today. I want to take you to 2 Chronicles 29. I only have a couple of minutes, so during your devotional, please go there. But I want to remind you—remember King David? King David got prideful. He got so prideful he says, "I want to count every one in my kingdom. I want to boast." The Lord was displeased with that, so what did God do? God sent ... He gave him a choice of three judgments, but one of them, which ended up being what they went through, was the plague. The plague came, the Bible says 70,000 men died. 70,000 men. As a matter of fact, it sounds very close to the projections that we're going to have, the number of dead between now and August.
But I want to let you know this, church, that even though the judgment—listen, even though the judgment—was already declared, King David decided to make an offering before the Lord. He bought a piece of land. He made an altar, the Bible says, and he burned an offering there, and God ... the Bible said that he relented ... and God in human terms changed his mind. What's significant about that story that I want to share with you is this. Please don't miss this. This is so good. That very piece of land that he bought, which the owner wanted to give to him for free, and he says, would I offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing? He ended up buying it, ended up being Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah was where the temple was built. I want you to listen and listen carefully. At the moment where there's something that seemed like a curse coming down, there was a turnaround to become a place of blessing. A place of blessing. Did you hear what I just said? A place a blessing from the Lord.
Everything that we're going through right now, boy, does it look tough. Does it look like it's anything but a blessing? But in that place I want to encourage you to build an altar of prayer. Build an altar of surrender and sacrifice to the Lord. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, through the sacrifice of what Jesus did upon the cross, and there, beloved, it's going to be the place where God is going to turn things around and what was meant for bad, God will turn it for good. May you find your Moriah during this season, and let it be a place where God will bless and put forth His favor upon your life. God bless you.
