Introduction
"Sundays are great and powerful, but I believe the engine room of the church is the prayer meeting." That is how the preacher opens The Altar, the weekly prayer meeting at Birmingham City Church, on a dark, rainy autumn Tuesday evening.
The Sunday before, Paul Hudson, a regional leader and long-time friend of the church, had preached on the altar from 2 Chronicles 33 and the story of King Manasseh. The preacher picks up that message and applies it to our lives: you can look fine at church while your heart quietly starts to drift.
He draws four steps from it: recognize the drift, humble yourself, remove what has taken God's place, and ask him to restore. The evening continues with four times of prayer built on those steps, using Psalm 139, 2 Chronicles 33 and the parable of the prodigal son.
Message Outline
1. A King Who Led a Whole People Astray
- The preacher explains that even before coming to Birmingham City Church, he followed the services online from Luton, where he was living at the time. Paul Hudson was starting a teaching on the altar.
- He describes him as someone who "carries authority": as he opened the Scriptures, he drew things out of a passage already read many times that the preacher had never seen in it.
- That passage is 2 Chronicles 33: Manasseh, a king who was evil "in every way". His father was not, but Manasseh did more than turn away from the Lord himself: he led God's whole people away from him.
- This story, played out on the scale of a king and a nation, applies to our personal lives too.
2. Recognizing That Your Heart Is Drifting
- "You look good, you smile, you shake hands, you're on the welcome team, you even know when to sit and stand during the songs." You can know the verses and the songs and still, on the inside, your heart begins to drift.
- Drift deserves your attention precisely because it is never intentional: "Nobody sets out to drift."
- At eleven years old, on holiday with his family, the preacher was playing in the sea on a little inflatable dinghy his father had given him. His father turned away for a moment, and the boy found himself about half a mile from the shore.
- His father, not a confident swimmer, could not reach him. It was his grandfather, his childhood hero, who swam out to bring him back, telling him: "You have to watch the tide, because it carries you away and you're gone before you even realize it."
- The spiritual life is like that: you can do church, the prayer meeting and the home group, and still drift. The Holy Spirit acts like that grandfather: he warns us when we start to drift.
- So we need to look back, find the race we had set out on and run it well. Maybe you have stopped training, or grown careless about the things of the Spirit.
3. Humbling Yourself Before God
- When Manasseh realized how far he had gone, he humbled himself (2 Chronicles 33:12).
- The word has a bad reputation in our culture. The preacher jokes about Kendrick Lamar's song Humble, then clarifies: being humble does not mean "sitting down and being quiet".
- "Being humble is recognizing a mistake in our own heart, in our own life, and owning it."
- It is simple to say and hard to do, especially in front of others: in front of the church, in front of the people you walk with, in your home group, daring to say "I think I got it wrong, and I felt a correction from the Lord in my spirit." When you share it in community, a lot changes.
- Manasseh measured what he had lost through his drifting. Before the King of kings, we sometimes need to acknowledge what we had and have lost, and ask: "Lord, show me a little more of where my heart has drifted."
4. Clearing What Clutters the Altar
- "Whenever we have space, we fill it with something." When we have moved away from good things, we often fill the gap with lesser things or distractions.
- These things are not necessarily bad in themselves: a relationship, friendships, a hobby. But when they take the King's place and speak into the areas of your life where Jesus should be speaking, you need to deal with them and remove them.
- Manasseh did it: he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, tore down the altars he had built and threw them out of the city (2 Chronicles 33:15).
- During the time of prayer, one of the people leading insists that it is not enough to see and acknowledge: you have to remove. A faith that acts does not stop at regret; it repents by taking away what clutters the heart.
- That person prays that God would make us uncomfortable with the things we have grown used to, and for "cleared altars", with room for his fire, the fire that purifies.
5. Asking God to Restore
- Once those things are removed, we need to ask the Lord to restore what was lost, as Paul Hudson had suggested.
- Manasseh "built up the altar of Yahweh, and offered sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving on it" (2 Chronicles 33:16).
- During the prayer, the question is put to each person: what are you offering the Lord? Is your praise really directed to him? Sometimes we offer our praise to the wrong things, whether work or even family.
- "Are we thankful for what the Lord has done? Do we recognize where he has brought us from?" The prayer asks that our sacrifices would not be a chore, but would come from the heart, with joy.
6. The Father's Heart Waiting for You to Return
- What moves the preacher is God's Father heart: he knows us intimately, he is good and he loves us.
- Often, what keeps us from being humble and honest before God is the fear that he will punish us or humiliate us to make an example of us. "That is not the God we serve."
- "The God we serve loved us so much that he sent his only Son to the ultimate altar, the cross."
- The last time of prayer sets two stories side by side. Luke 15:20: the prodigal son comes back hoping at best to be treated as a servant, but his father sees him from far away, runs to him, throws his arms around his neck and kisses him.
- 2 Chronicles 33:13: Manasseh prays, God is moved by his plea, brings him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom, "and Manasseh knew that Yahweh himself was God".
- The Old and New Testaments show the same Father's heart. God has not changed; we have: he has taken away the heart of stone and given a heart of flesh, able to respond to his Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26).
- He is not waiting for you angry and seated, ready to scold you: he is waiting with open arms. So you can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), because Jesus has already opened the way back.
Key Takeaways
- Spiritual drift is never intentional: you can attend church and know the songs while moving away from God.
- The Holy Spirit warns you when the current starts to carry you away, like the grandfather who brought the boy back to shore.
- Being humble means recognizing a mistake in your heart and owning it, including in front of the people you walk with.
- What has taken God's place must be removed, even if it is not bad in itself, and then the altar must be rebuilt with thankfulness.
- God is not waiting to punish you: he loved you so much that he gave his Son on the cross, and he runs to meet the one who returns.
Personal Application
- In what area of your spiritual life have you "stopped training" without really deciding to?
- Take a moment to pray Psalm 139:23-24: "Search me, God, and know my heart." What is God bringing to light?
- Is there a mistake you need to acknowledge before the Lord, and perhaps before a trusted person in your church?
- Which relationship, habit or hobby occupies the place today that Jesus should occupy?
- What picture of God do you have when you come back to him: a judge waiting to reprimand you, or a Father who runs to meet you?
Verses Cited
- 2 Chronicles 33: Manasseh's reign, his drifting and his return
- 2 Chronicles 33:12-13: Manasseh humbles himself, prays, and God brings him back to his kingdom
- 2 Chronicles 33:15: he removes the foreign gods and tears down the altars
- 2 Chronicles 33:16: he rebuilds the altar of the Lord
- Psalm 139:23-24: "Search me, God, and know my heart."
- Luke 15:20: the father runs to meet the prodigal son
- Ezekiel 36:26: a heart of flesh in place of the heart of stone
- Hebrews 4:16: approaching the throne of grace with boldness
- John 3:16: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "drifting" mean in the spiritual life?
Drifting means moving away from God without having decided to. You can keep coming to church and knowing the songs and the verses while your heart slowly moves away. Nobody sets out to drift, which is exactly why you need to be intentional and listen to the Holy Spirit, who warns us when the current starts to carry us away.
What does the story of Manasseh teach us in 2 Chronicles 33?
Manasseh led the whole people away from the Lord. In distress, he humbled himself and prayed, and God answered him and brought him back to his kingdom. He then removed the foreign gods and the altars he had built, and rebuilt the altar of the Lord. His journey traces four steps: recognize the drift, humble yourself, remove what clutters, and ask God to restore.
Will God punish me if I admit I have drifted away?
The preacher answers no: that is not the God we serve. He loved us so much that he gave his only Son on the ultimate altar, the cross. During the time of prayer, we are reminded that, like the father of the prodigal son in Luke 15:20, he runs to meet the one who returns, with open arms, instead of waiting to reprimand them.