House of Prayer
Grant van Boeschoten
January 25, 2008
I heard a great joke this week about a man who himself had a great joke to share. He was in a dimly lit restaurant and he leaned over to the lady at the table next to him and said, “Hey, would you like to hear a very funny blond joke.” The lady replied, “I’m 6’3” blonde and am a personal trainer at the local gym. The lady sitting to me left is 6’4” blonde and is a world champion tae kwon do champion. The lady on my right just happens to be 5’9” blonde and an Olympic weight lifter. Are you sure that you want to tell that blonde joke.”
“No, I think I’ll just keep it to myself,” the man replied, “I don’t want to have to explain it 3 times.”
I heard another story this week about a preacher’s young daughter who always noticed when her daddy would pause and bow his head for a moment before launching into the sermon. One day she asked him why. “Well honey,” he began, thrilled that his daughter was paying such close attention to his sermons, “I’m asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.” To which she replied, “Then how come He doesn’t do it?”
Prayer
Our key text for today is Matthew 21:10-17. Why don’t we all stand up and read it together.
10 As he made his entrance into Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken. Unnerved, people were asking, "What’s going on here? Who is this?"
11 The parade crowd answered, "This is the prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth in Galilee."
12 Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. 13 He quoted this text:
"My house was designated a house of prayer;
You have made it a hangout for thieves."
14 Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them.
15 When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, "Hosanna to David’s Son!" they were up in arms and took him to task. 16 "Do you hear what these children are saying?"
Jesus said, "Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ’From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?"
17 Fed up, Jesus turned on his heel and left the city for Bethany, where he spent the night.
Matt 21:1-17 (MSG)
Bless the Word of God, you may be seated.
Research at San Francisco General Hospital has revealed that victims of heart attack, heart failure and other cardiac problems who were remembered in prayers fared better than those who were not. Cardiologist Randy Byrd assigned 192 patients to the "prayed-for" group and 201 patients to the "not-prayed-for" group. All patients were in the coronary intensive care unit. Patients, doctors and nurses did not know which group patients were in. Prayer group members were scattered around the nation and given only the first names, diagnoses and prognoses of patients. The researcher said that the results were dramatic. The prayed-for group had significantly fewer complications than the unremembered group. And fewer members of the former died. The latter group was five times more likely to develop infections requiring antibiotics, and three times more likely to develop a lung condition, leading to heart failure. These findings were published in the American Heart Association.
Prayer is simple, often overlooked and many times a formality or part of a routine. Some people are terrified to pray in public, other people are irreverent towards public prayer. What do you believe about prayer?
I believe that prayer is a gift from God. It is holy, it is awesome. Through the power of prayer our heart’s desires and our requests can be made known to God, the creator of the universe. Through prayer God can make His thoughts known to man. Through prayer God speaks to our lives and gives us love, encouragement, discernment and direction.
The major events of the Churches history all have this one thing in common, prayer was the central force at work.
In Acts 2 we read about The Church as it was birthed out of a prayer meeting. It wasn’t because Peter preached a great sermon, it wasn’t because of the perfect timing of the feast of Pentecost. It was because there was 120 people praying and waiting on God, and the power of God fell on them from heaven and they received power from on high. 3000 were added to the church that day.
When major crises happened in the early church the first response was always to pray. They didn’t call in the experts on legal matters to give them council, they didn’t first go to the justice system and plead their case. They went to prayer.
In Acts 4 we see how the Church responded to early resistance and persecution. Peter and John had been brought to court and had been ordered by the chief justice of the land to stop sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. They could have appealed to higher law, they could have gone to the public and stirred up a mob, they could have put all of their signatures on a petition and made a case of it.
Instead they called the Church together in agreement and prayer. They prayed for God’s blessing on their community, they prayed for miracles, for salvations and they praised God and then they asked him for boldness. And once again the power of God came down on the prayer meeting and the house where they were meeting shook, God filled them with boldness and they preached with increasing courage. Many were added to the Church every single day.
In Acts 12 we read how King Herod Agrippa played to the favor of the Jewish majority and had James, the brother of John, killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the people he proceeded to arrest Peter with the intent to kill him as well.
What King Herod was doing was unfair, it was unjust. You and I might have the first reaction to go to the courts, or to go over the King’s head to Caesar; the Church’s response was to go to God in prayer.
A prayer meeting was held, and in response God sent an angel to prison to free Peter. The angel appeared and told Peter to stand up and follow him. The chains that bound Peter to the guards on either side of him fell off of his wrists. Freely he followed the angel through locked doors and past guards at the prison gate. It was so amazing that Peter himself thought that he was dreaming.
It was a real experience though. The angel of God led Peter to safety and them suddenly left him. Peter went to the prayer meeting with the proof that God does hear us when we pray. His release from prison was evidence to the early Church and to us today, that when we gather together in prayer God can respond in miraculous ways.
There is no better place for us to go for help, wisdom, encouragement and provision than to God through prayer. When we rely on what our government can do for us, then we will get the provision and covering of our government. When we rely on organizations and special interest groups to take care of our community, then we will get what they have to offer. When we rely on ourselves, we get what we can do.
But when we rely on God, we get what God can do.
Maybe this is why God said, “My house shall be a house of prayer.”
When Solomon built the first Temple for God, he prayed a very significant prayer of dedication for it. As I read his words in Scripture I know that they were inspired of the Holy Spirit. This prayer carries authority, and in it we find many of God’s purposes for God’s house, which at the time was the Temple. This prayer was prayed in front of the assembly of the whole nation. Here are some of the highlights that are found in I Kings 8.
In verse 27 King Solomon shows how amazing it is, that God would choose to dwell in an earthly building…
27 "But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! 28 Listen to my prayer and my request, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today. 29 May you watch over this Temple both day and night, this place where you have said you would put your name. May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. 30 May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.
1 Kings 8:27-30 (NLT)
You see, God’s house is a house of forgiveness. It was the place where the people would bring there sacrifices and where they would cry out for forgiveness of sins. Many people still find forgiveness in the Church today through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
In verse 37 Solomon dedicates the Temple to God as a place of Restoration.
37 "If there is a famine in the land, or plagues, or crop disease, or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever the trouble is— 38 and if your people offer a prayer concerning their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple, 39 then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people whatever they deserve, for you alone know the human heart. 40 Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.
1 Kings 8:37-40 (NLT)
Many lives are being restored through the work of Church today. Families find the answers that they need, broken relationships are put back together, people who have sinned are restored to God their creator and lives are restored to God’s original purpose and plans.
In Verse 41 Solomon declares that the Temple would be a place where God’s light shines and attracts people to God himself.
41 "And when foreigners hear of you and come from distant lands to worship your great name— 42 for they will hear of you and of your mighty miracles and your power—and when they pray toward this Temple, 43 then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. Then all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built bears your name.
1 Kings 8:41-43 (NLT)
God continues to use his Church to be his hands and his feet in the earth. We are to be like a city on a hill, a bright light shining in the dark world. And when God’s light shines in his Church it attracts people from near and far to come and enter into a relationship with God Himself.
Finally, Solomon dedicated God’s house, and if you read in between the lines it is obvious that the Temple was a place where God would come and meet with people.
54 When Solomon finished making these prayers and requests to the LORD, he stood up in front of the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands raised toward heaven. 55 He stood there and shouted this blessing over the entire community of Israel: 56 "Praise the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses. 57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never forsake us. 58 May he give us the desire to do his will in everything and to obey all the commands, laws, and regulations that he gave our ancestors. 59 And may these words that I have prayed in the presence of the LORD be before him constantly, day and night, so that the LORD our God may uphold my cause and the cause of his people Israel, fulfilling our daily needs. 60 May people all over the earth know that the LORD is God and that there is no other god. 61 And may you, his people, always be faithful to the LORD our God. May you always obey his laws and commands, just as you are doing today."
1 Kings 8:54-61 (NLT)
What an amazing celebration they had when that first Temple was finally built. It was an awesome testimony of God’s love, splendor and dedication to his people.
It was established that God’s House, would be the place where mere mortals could come and be made right with God, in the presence of God. A place where they could worship God with all of their heart, hear great teaching from God’s servants and most importantly, it was a House of Prayer.
God’s intention for his Church
A House of Prayer
A Place of Forgiveness
A Place of Restoration
A Place Where People Connect with God
That was God’s design. If we fast forward through our Bibles to Matthew 21 though, we will see that God’s House was not being revered and respected at all.
Ordinary people like you and me would want to go to the temple and worship God. They would want to give him their best offering. But somehow through time the idea had emerged that you could only give God money that was minted in Jerusalem. You had to go to a currency converter and switch your money over.
The temple was the only place to do it, and instead of offering a fair service they instead decided to charge exorbitant exchange fees. It might cost you $150 to give $100, because of the high exchange rate. The extra profit didn’t go to the Temple, it went into the hands of the money changers.
And if you had to travel a long distance to the temple, not only did you have to have your currency converted, you also had to bring an animal to sacrifice. And it couldn’t be just any old animal, it had to be one that the Temple workers found acceptable. The thing is, no matter how good your animal was, they would almost always declare it as unacceptable.
Of course, a great service was provided where you could purchase a predetermined animal from the merchants who were set up in the Temple courtyard. Their animals cost 3 or 4 times as much as a regular animal, but at least they were acceptable.
This was not the way that God had planned for it to be. God’s house was always supposed to be acceptable to all races, all income groups and all people. God’s house was supposed to be about worshiping God with everything you have, and I think that it would be pretty difficult to worship if you had just been more or less robbed on the way in by these people in the courtyard.
Is it any wonder that Jesus went straight to the Temple? Is it any wonder that he was so upset with how the House of God had been degraded to exploitation?
Jesus threw over the tables. He chased out the mercenaries. He found everything that was distracting people from God, and he took authority over it and got rid of it. His mission was to return the focus of the House of God to God.
In Holy Anger, he yelled out, "My house was designated a house of prayer;
You have made it a hangout for thieves."
God always purposed, that prayer should be a priority in the believers life and in his church. Over and over again we read in the Bible how Jesus taught on prayer, how he modeled prayer, how he fought every battle in the spiritual world before he confronted it in the physical world.
And if Jesus placed such a high priority on prayer, shouldn’t we do so as well?
We live in a time where knowledge is fashionable. You can find out something about almost anything in 5 minutes or less on the internet. Bookstores are full of knowledge on so many different topics. We live in an information age, and it is wonderful to have so much accessible information, it really is power to do better in life. But I would prefer that we lived in a day where prayer was the focus of our lives.
I would prefer that God’s house would be known for prayer above all other things. We can have all of the great music, we can have all of the great programs and ministries, we can have some of the best Christian teachers come to our church and fill us up with God’s truth. But the central of the Church has always been prayer.
Some Christians have every podcast in the world playing through their speakers. They’ve got every Joyce Meyer book ever written and an autographed copy of Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven life”. They’ve got the best praise and worship CD’s in their collection. But if they don’t have prayer what does it amount to.
They are kind of like your car that is souped up on every level. It’s got the alloy rims, the turbo injected diesel engine, the indash GPS and DVD’s in the back for the kids. Heated leather sits and tinted windows. The only thing missing is Gas for the engine.
Prayer is your power.
• Prayer connects you to God.
• Prayer brings your dreams to life.
• Prayer gives God a voice into your life.
• Prayer opens your eyes and your heart to the hurts of the world around you.
• Prayer lets you tell God how much you love him, and lets God tell you how much he loves you too.
• Prayer gives you answers for the people around you that God has purposed for you to reach.
• Prayer gives you a certain hope for your future.
• Prayer holds marriages together.
• Prayer offers protection for our lives, and for our families.
• Prayer pushes forward the purpose of God in our community.
• Prayer gives us the victory in the supernatural before the battle even happens in the natural.
• Prayer prepares us for what lies in store.
• Prayer builds you up, it strengthens and encourages you.
• Prayer adds to your life, and it never takes away.
MUSIC BEGINS
Jesus was furious because the Temple had changed its focus from connecting people to God to other things.
God’s plan is that his Church would connect people to God. His plan is that his Church would rise up as the head in communities, cities, provinces and nations. His plan is that the Church would be a healing agent in the world. His plan is that the Church would attract people to God through positive example. His plan is that the Church would be the most powerful force on earth, because through the Church God works.
And God’s plan centers on the work that Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. And the fuel to get us to wear God wants us to go lies in the power of prayer.
The most important part of the service is the part where you are connecting with God. The job of the Pastor, the worship leader, the Children’s worker, the prayer team, the job of the Church is to bring people to God….in prayer.
Some of us have some repenting to do, because our focus has been more on music, or teaching or other things than prayer. But when we have prayer working, everything else works out just fine.
And so I am declaring publicly today, that this Church will be a house of prayer. Our prayers are going to make a difference in our communities. Our prayers are going to usher in the lost. Our prayers are going to connect us with the power of God to reach out, and to be the hands and the feet of Jesus.
And in one year or less, the most famous thing about this church will be prayer. Leaders will rise up strong in our community because of prayer. Our numbers will grow exponentially, and God will receive the glory and the honor that is due to his great name, because we will humble ourselves and cry out to God in prayer.
And if Jesus were to show up in the flesh at our church, he would have no need to turn over the tables and to have a fit. No, he would feel at home. Because Word of Life Centre, Church and Ministries is a House of Prayer, a place where people can easily connect to God.
The alter is open. The music is playing. And I want to invite you to come to God in prayer this morning. Come to the altar and connect with God. Come to the altar and pour your heart out to him. Come to the altar just to tell God how much you love him. Come to the altar to say how badly you miss him, and that you want him back in your life again.
And it all starts in prayer, Come to the altar and make Jesus the Lord of your life.
As we sing this song, just slip out of your seat and come and do the most important thing possible this morning. Pour your heart to God and connect to Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the first the last, the beginning and the end. Boldly come to God in prayer.
