Tcb (Taking Care Of Business) - Pt. 3 - Incense And Oil

TCB

Part 3

It was recorded in 1956 in Nashville. “Heartbreak Hotel” introduced Presley to the American national music consciousness. It was released as a single with the b-side song "I Was The One" on January 27th. "Heartbreak Hotel" became the first No.1 pop record by Elvis and was the best selling single of 1956.

"Heartbreak Hotel" was no. 1 for 8 weeks on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart when released in 1956 on RCA Records. The record was no. 1 for 17 weeks on the Billboard Country Chart and reached no. 3 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues Chart. In 2006, more than 50 years after its initial release, "Heartbreak Hotel" returned to no. 1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart when re-released.

The song is ranked #45 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is in the Grammy Hall of Fame. The song contributed to the first Gold Record Elvis ever received with over 1 million sold.

Again I remind you that Elvis was just TCB. We should be taking care of business as well. As priests we have daily duties that we are responsible to carry out. We have talked about 4 of those duties so far. 1. Diagnose and provide remedy for sickness. 2. Transport glory. 3. Remove the ashes from our lives. 4. Keep fresh fire burning.

Did you stay off your ash this week? Did you conduct a daily heat check? We must TCB!

Let’s continue our look at the daily duty of the priest.

TEXT: Exodus 30:1-8; Leviticus 24:1-4

1“Make an Altar for burning incense. Construct it from acacia wood, 2one and one-half feet square and three feet high with its horns of one piece with it. 3Cover it with a veneer of pure gold, its top, sides, and horns, and make a gold molding around it 4with two rings of gold beneath the molding. Place the rings on the two opposing sides to serve as holders for poles by which it will be carried. 5Make the poles of acacia wood and cover them with a veneer of gold. 6“Place the Altar in front of the curtain that hides the Chest of The Testimony, in front of the Atonement-Cover that is over The Testimony where I will meet you. 7Aaron will burn fragrant incense on it every morning when he polishes the lamps, 8and again in the evening as he prepares the lamps for lighting, so that there will always be incense burning before GOD, generation after generation.

1GOD spoke to Moses: 2“Order the People of Israel to bring you virgin olive oil for light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. 3Aaron is in charge of keeping these lamps burning in front of the curtain that screens The Testimony in the Tent of Meeting from evening to morning continually before GOD. This is a perpetual decree down through the generations. 4Aaron is responsible for keeping the lamps burning continually on the Lamp stand of pure gold before GOD.

5. Burn the Incense

The Israelites would take precious spices and grind them together to form this very special incense that would be burned every morning and night before God. The incense was made up of at least four ingredients and was to be made and stored in the temple. This type of incense was sacred and could not be used by anyone for their own personal use. In fact, if a person were to make the incense for personal use they would be excommunicated from the camp and in some cases executed. Every morning and every night the incense went up before God. Tradition says that the priests believed the words of their prayers actually mixed with the smoke of this incense and were caught up to heaven to God.

David must have understood this concept because he says in Psalms 141:2, “2Let my prayer be set forth as incense before thee; The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”

This daily stop at the Altar of Incense speaks to us about the business we should be involved in daily. It speaks to our prayer life. You do have a prayer life don’t you?

There are some principles here about our prayer life as priests that we need to consider:

a. First point I want to make and just mention briefly. The priests would cast lots to see who would be the one to burn incense each day. They could only go in one at a time. Only one priest could be at the altar at a time. This teaches us that we must develop our own prayer life. No one can pray for you. Oh, they can pray for you, but they can’t pray for you. Do you understand what I am saying? We can’t expect the prayer team leader to do our praying. We can’t expect our grandmother to do our praying. We must learn to pray for ourselves. We have a duty to develop our own prayer life!