Harrison Faith Church
One Spirit - Part 7 "Patterns of Prayer" | Pastor Scott Brandon | July 28, 2024
Man, that was awesome last year. I don't know if you know it or not, but it's VBS Week. Yes, yeah. You probably didn't notice any of the decorations coming in at all. We are excited about that. Can I tell you? I don't think I've ever been this excited in my life for VBS. And I'm not even a kid. I'm excited to see what's going to happen. I think right now we have over-- who knows? 100 plus volunteers, 150 kids. It's just going to be crazy this week. It's going to be awesome this week. And let me just say right now, if you're a volunteer, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, so much, because none of this happens unless you're here. And if you've been thinking somehow, I need to be able to talk to my neighbor or my co-worker about getting them to come to church. This is a great time-- if they have children, this is a great time to say, you know what? My church is going to have an incredible VBS. You should think about letting your kid come. And then their kids are going to come home, and be like, my God, it was-- you know what? Then how about how to be right? And then so they'll come and want to see what's so awesome about this church, amen? You guys don't seem too excited. OK, we're going to have to figure out how to jump you up. Sending next week, let's do Red Bulls for everybody, all right? We are excited. That's for sure. You know, as we look around, what I notice is this, is that there's a lot of excellence going on. And I was talking to Sarah the other day, and I was talking how important excellence is. Excellence creates transparency. The better you do something, the more transparent the message is. And when we see things that are excellent, we have to ask ourselves, why is that the way that it is? The family and I, we went to Washington, DC, last week. And can I tell you, it was a lot of walking. I think we added it all over, like, almost 40 miles plus. 40 miles of walking. I'm going to tell you right now, my feet and my calves hurt this very second right now. And so I was offered a chair to sit down today, but I didn't feel like I was that soft. So I went ahead and just going to stick through it, feel guilty. But what I noticed was this, we went to the cemetery, the Argentine cemetery, and we went to the tomb of the unknown soldier. How many of y'all been there before? As you go there, you realize everything is perfect. It's pristine, right? Everything's calculated. It's just, it's incredible. If you've never seen it before, it's incredible. And it were changing the guard every 30 minutes. And so it was, it just blew my mind, record the whole thing. And after I got to seeing the whole thing, the question that came to my mind was, why? Like, why, why sets precision, why sets perfection? And so I did some research and it was simple. It's respect, duty, and honor. They understand that those who have given their life for this country, they deserve respect, duty, and honor. And what I realized is this, is that when we operate in excellence, there is a meaning behind that. People ask us why, why is that happening? In fact, that's how our life should be. Our life should be as excellent as Christ enables us to be. Because somebody ought to look at your life and say, why are you that way? You should say there is a meaning behind that. In fact, we weren't the only people who understand excellence. Moses was given a tremendous job. He was given a job to build the arc. If your children don't do this, OK? At home, he was given a tremendous responsibility of building the-- not the art. That was Noah. [LAUGHTER] Y'all like, we're going to a different church next week. That brother don't even know who built the art. Ark of the Covenant, actually, that I was talking about. And he was in there somewhere. And so Moses was given an incredible-- he was taking up to the top of Mount Sinai, and the Lord says, see this pattern, this temple, this tabernacle. I want you to build it after the pattern. And so he went down, he built this immaculate tabernacle, and the Lord gave him all the resources. And he had people anointed to build furniture. And so what we see is when we see this excellence and what God does, we got to ask the question, why? Why is that so important? We look at what Moses did. Moses was creating a sacred place in the middle of a place not their own. And they're soul-journers, right? They're wandering in the wilderness. That's not their home. They don't belong there. But they're in a place. They're in a secular place. They're in an unholy place. They're in a common place. And God says, I need you to create a sacred place. Because I want to dwell with you is what he says. He says in the Exodus chapter 25, and let them make a sanctuary that I made dwell in their midst. That's what God wants to do. He wants to dwell in their midst. But sometimes it's difficult for you and I to find God's presence. Have you ever prayed? And you said, I just-- I'm just hitting the ceiling today. And you just cannot press through. There's been seasons of my life where I feel like I'm just walking in the desert. And everything I tried to do is just empty and void. And it was just a hard, dry season. And as Christians, sometimes we go through those moments. And we need to know how to get into the presence. The funny thing is, is that Moses shows us away how to get into the presence of God when we find no other way to do that. We've been talking about this series called One Spirit. That we stand in One Spirit. And we do many things in One Spirit. We worship in One Spirit. We pray in One Spirit. And we're kind of finishing this little mini series. We've talked about the problem of prayer, the priority of prayer. Yesterday or last Sunday, Pastor Burton talked about the power of prayer. And then today I want to talk to you about the pattern of prayer. Because prayer is not only something that brings us close to God. It's the heart of God. It also brings us together. And so as we jump in, here's what we're going to do today. We're going to walk through the tabernacle. We're going to walk through each furniture, each piece of equipment. We're going to look at it and say, OK, well, what are you teaching us here? Because the goal is to get to a place where the presence of God is. This is why this is important. I'm going to let you know right now I'm going to be a little long today. So just relax and get comfortable, OK? But here's why you need to know this. It's not just a need. You must know this. Because you and I, we live in a land that is not our land. This is not our home. And everywhere you go, the world is trying its best to impress on you and to oppress upon you, its culture, and try to lead you away. Do you know that when Israel was going through the wilderness, they were blessed and they were tried to be cursed. They tried to hire someone, a prophet to curse them. And he could not curse them, but here's what he did. He taught them to be led astray and they, 24,000 died that day because they were led astray when we're operating in a land that's not our own. We have to understand that the culture is intent on trying to compromise our values. If he can compromise our values, he can compromise our ways. He can compromise our prayer time. He can compromise God's presence in our life. He can compromise our purpose in our life. And for you and I to survive in a culture that is not getting better worldwide, it is not getting better. I'm sure you guys saw the Olympics when we were in DC. I love DC, but the culture of DC and the historical origins of DC are not in agreement. What the forefathers meant and what it is right now are not in agreement. And you and I, we have to live in Babylon. And the Lord gives us the ability to thrive in Babylon. Until he comes and he brings us out of this place. But we need to know how to make that. And if you and I don't know how to turn our living rooms into sanctuaries, we're doomed. We're subject to manipulation. We're subject to false teaching. It's important that you know your word. It's important that you study your word. I've said it before, but I pray I'm not the Word of God in your life. I pray that my only job is to prompt you, is to make sure you hear the Word of God and then go research it yourself, allow the Holy Spirit to speak into it yourself. And so as we study the Word of God today, I want to just give you an example or a model of the tabernacle prayer. There's many different prayers. The model of prayer is obviously the Lord's prayer, but this is a model of a prayer that will bring you to a place to find God's presence. And that's what we need. If people are drawn to this church at all, it's because the presence of God that is in this church. If people are drawn to you at all, it's because the presence of God that resides with you. And you and I, we have to understand how to turn our sanctuary, our living room into a place of God's presence. So that way our churches can know what it's like to be God's presence, that way our city can know what it's like to be in God's presence and a culture and a country. You guys know right now we need God more than ever before. But we need His presence. People know we are the people of God by His presence. So if you'll turn with me, matter of fact, I think I'm just going to, let me just give this scripture to you first. I want to remind you as we walk through this, this, this tabernacle here that the priests are the only ones that can walk through the tabernacle. And here's who you are. 1 Peter 2 9 through 10 says this, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own God's own position that you may proclaim. Notice the reason, the purpose, right? That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who calls you out of darkness into His marvelous life. Once you are not a people, now you are God's people. Once you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. You and I, we are priests. So let me just give you an overview of the tabernacle, if you'll go ahead and show that first video as you come into the courts, the first thing you'll see right here is the bronze altar. It's where the sacrifices were made, in which the slaughtering tables are drained blood to throw on the sacrifice. Here is the labor where the priests went to next to clean their hands and their feet. As you enter the most holy place on the left is the gold manure or the candlesticks up, they switched me. We're over on the bread of presents. This is the table of show bread on the other side, is the candlesticks, and then this is the altar of incense that was right before the holy of holies. You go into the holy of holies where only the high priests could go. You see the ark of the covenant, and on top of that is the mercy seat. You see the two cherubim there. This is where God's presence was said to be enthroned. The Ten Commandments were placed in the ark of the covenant, and they were kept there. This is holistically kind of what we see when we talk about the tabernacle of Moses. We have six different locations we could stop at today, we're going to talk about five. But as we walk through here, we want to see what is each location, how does it help us in our prayer? Now, let me just say this, I've said a few weeks ago that we want to pray first always. We want to make sure we're constantly praying first, but we also want to make sure that we don't have to get caught up in the idea that every prayer has to be sensational. We know that. Sometimes we're just going to pray for things, and it's going to be a quick prayer, a short prayer, a simple prayer. We're going to go on about our day. But then there's times when we really have to press in, because we have real need. We have a real situation, and we got to get into the presence of God, and today is what I'm going to show you is here is how you can press into the presence, because when I get into the presence of the King, I know that golden scepter gets tipped forward towards me. Jesus, whatever you ask in my name, I'll give you, and so we want to make sure we know how to get into the presence. So the first place we come to is the brazen altar, the bronze altar. At this place we see in Exodus chapter 27, Moses is talking about this place that sacrifices were made. It's the first thing you encounter as you come into the courtyard. David says, "I enter the courts with praise and worshiping and singing." But the first thing that you see, the first thing you must stop at is the altar. Why is that? Because the altar in the Old Testament is the cross in the New Testament. We see that in the altar, there's so much we could talk about. In fact, I think I taught like 13 or 14 weeks on just the tabernacle, there's so much richness here. But as we come to this altar, what we need to know is this, is that this is teaching us about who Christ is. It's the place of atonement. It's the place of judgment for our sins. What you should know is that when we come to this place, that you can't go any further in your walk or in the journey of prayer and finding God's presence until you stop here. It's the reason why Jesus says, "I am the way," there's no other way into the presence of God. "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life." There's no other way who cares what Oprah says, right? Who cares what anybody else says, "I am the way," not a way, but the way. That's why other religions don't work. That's why we're not compatible with anything else that doesn't claim Jesus Christ as King. He says, "I am the way." If you want to go into further places, deeper presence with the Lord, we must understand that He is the way. Not only is He the way, but as we see here, as we move into this place, it's on a small mound, which is symbolic of Mount Golgotha, where Christ was crucified as well. As we come to this mound, we come to this altar, what we find is that we could bring our sacrifices. These sacrifices were handled in such a way to remind us of the cost here. They would bring their sacrifice, their animal, and as they would bring in, they would place them upon the altar. The person who was bringing them, typically the head of the household, would come and they would lean on the animal, and as they leaned on the animal, they would cut the animal's neck and we'd bleed out. The reason why they would do that is because they were simply transferring the identity, the responsibility, saying, "We lean on the innocence of this animal," and this animal will die in our place, and as the animal was killed, it was placed upon the altar and then burned, and they sit there and watch this animal burn to death. The whole reminder is this, that's supposed to be me. The only reason why I have life is because that thing is taking my death, and so every time they came in and they offered up this sacrifice, it was a reminder that the only reason why I have life is because there was a land that was slain for me. It was a land that was burned in the wrath of God consumed by the fire of God, and as we come into our place in prayer, we have to understand, we have to acknowledge that before we go any further, we must acknowledge that the only reason why we can access the throne of God is because there is an altar, there is a cross that makes a way for us. As we're there, remind ourselves that we don't deserve to be there, we were too weak to be there, Romans 5, 6 says, "For while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, you don't have the ability to put yourself up there and die for your sins. Christ did that for you." And Isaiah also gives us a better perspective as we approach this place in our journey of prayer. Isaiah 53, 5 says this, "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." Because there are four symbolic things that are being laid out here that have weight. The first thing is this, he was pierced for our transgressions. What our transgressions, Pastor Scott, the things that you did wrong, the acts of selfishness, the disobedience, those sinful acts. He was pierced for that, funny enough, he was pierced in his hands and his feet. The places you go, the things that you do with your hands, those actions. He says he was pierced for that, he died for what you did but not just for what you did, but he was crushed for our iniquity. See transgressions of what you've done wrong, iniquity is who you are. You were born into iniquity, your nature is to sin. Again, we've said before, you're not a sinner because you've done things wrong, no, you just came out the womb that way. You do things wrong because you are wrong. It's not God forgive me for what I've done, it's God forgive me for who I am. My very being is in contrast to your nature. And I say it says that he was crushed for our iniquities. That word, "crush" means to be bruised or to be conformed out of shape. When I read this, I realize it's not just a heavy bruising. It really is speaking to the fact that the Hebrew says you're violently compressed out of natural shape. What I realize was that Jesus, because he knew no sin became sin, he was no longer regarded as the Son of man, the Son of God. He was something different altogether even before the Father because of sin was upon him. He could not be in the same relationship with the Father anymore and he had to separate himself. What sin does to Jesus on our behalf is it regards him as something lesser. Not that he is something lesser, but that it regards him as something lesser. But the blessing in that is this, is that it regards you as something greater. He became something lesser even though he was not, so that you could become something greater even though you were not. That's what we see when we see what God is doing at this altar. He also said for us to have peace. Jesus, can y'all all smell this thing right here? Everybody smell this? Some of y'all want, I can tell y'all I didn't grow up smoking it all. I put this out, because I know some of y'all say I can't even understand what you were saying past Scott, because I'm over here smoking, who knows what? That could be something you don't, you bought at a medicinal store. He wants us to also have peace, peace. Do you know where the peace came into? Peace says in Philippians 4, 7, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding what guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Do you know why I need peace? I need peace, because I have stressed in my life, you might have got stressed in their life. There's fear, there's anxiety, right? There's all those things, there's worry, and those things don't only just seek to be in my life, they seem to consume my mind. But Jesus took upon his mind, took upon his skull, his crown of thorns, a crown of many thorns. And it says the word says he was, he endured the chastisement for our peace, that is speaking to the fact that he has overcome worry and fear and stress and anxiety. Those things seek to rule over you like a crown, like a king, and Jesus, as I took that for you, you have to understand when you come to the cross, Jesus has delivered you from those things. How do we get peace then? How do we get separation from that? Because all of us are struggling to some degree with worry and fear and stress. You've got to go back to the cross and say, "Jesus, you took this, you took this, I don't have to stress, I don't have to be worryful, I don't have to have anxiety, I don't have to have these things, let your peace guard my mind and my heart." And then lastly, on that verse, he says, "I was wounded for your sicknesses, for your diseases, I like the term your dis-ease." There's a principle here we have to understand, is that you will find that all throughout Scripture, especially Jesus, when people came to him and they were sick, here's what Jesus often said. He said, "Your sins are forgiven." That's important to know. It's important to know that sickness and disease is tied to unforgiveness. Every time, are you saying to Pastor Scott, "I'm sick because there's unforgiveness." Well, maybe, but you need to clear that up, but not all the time, but most of the times what we see in Scripture is that that is always the pattern that we see. The funny thing is that medical scientists have confirmed this. People who harbor unforgiveness in their life deal with health conditions constantly. So if you're struggling with sickness, the first question is not the only question. It's the first question is this, "Lord, I need forgiveness." And the way that you receive forgiveness is if you forgive others. And forgiveness is not something that people receive. Forgiveness is something that we give. It makes no difference that they receive it or not. What matters is that you give it, that you unfetter yourself to their bitterness they've put inside of you, that you unfetter yourself from the hurt that they've given you. Many of us in here have church hurt. Can I tell you that your job is to unfetter yourself from church hurt, unfetter yourself from that person who spoke something into your life? Because can I tell you the real church would not hurt you that way? And Christ himself is not desire for you to walk in pain and hurt, but you'll never experience forgiveness so long as you're blaming his bride for hurting you. It's important. So let me move on to the next part. This is the bronze labor. So important. As we come to this place, what we find is this, is that at the altar we were justified, at the altar we were made righteous, but now at the labor we find ourselves being sanctified. You see the water on the basin. The priest would come over and he would begin to wash his hands and his feet. It's so important for us to understand that, "Safification is the process that God is cleaning you up." You guys do realize that you're not perfect, right? Right? It knows that. Right? We're not perfect. And as we're not perfect, the word of God wants to cleanse us, wants to sanctify us. So when we come to this place in our prayer, we ask God to forgive us, we acknowledge Him to be the sacrifice, but now we're here at the place we're saying, "God, we're forgiven and we're justified, but now I need to be sanctified. My life is not like what you want it to be. I don't look like you. John says one day, we will behold Him and be just like Him. But until then, God is working on us and some of us more than others. Some of us, we take, we take "Safication 101" over and over again, right? But can I tell you that God has given us the opportunity to come to the place and deal with our sin and cleanse us? Many of us have come through hard lives. And Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 6, I'll just back up a bit and just read this for you. He says, "Don't you know that doing such things have no share in the kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who live sexually immoral lives who are idol worshipers, adulterers or homosexuals will have no share in His kingdom, neither will thieves or greedy people, drunkards, slanders or robbers." And then Paul says this, "And such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." Paul equates washing with sanctification. Jesus equates sanctification with the truth of his word. He says, "In John 17, 17, sanctified them in your truth, your word is truth." It's so important for you to understand. You'll never progress in your walk with Christ if you don't know how to pray for sanctification in your prayer. And sanctification comes by the word, by the washing, by the regeneration of your mind. It's important to do this, you'll always struggle in your faith. You'll always struggle in your faith if you're not in your word. Because it's your word that's washing the residue. When the priest would come to the labor, it was made out of mirrors from the women. When the women gave the materials and when he would walk up to the labor, there was water in it and he would look over in the labor and he would see his reflection. He would realize that I still got some dirt on me, I still got some things on me. And the longer he looked into the water, the longer he looked into the labor, the longer he looked into the word, he realized the things that were there that weren't supposed to be there. And the reason they were there is because he just left the altar of death and flesh and sacrifice. And you and I, we live in a world of death and flesh and sacrifice. These feet were dirty because he walked an unholy ground. You and I, we live in a world full of unholy ground. How in the world, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, how in the world can we escape the culture that we live in, we bring it into this sanctuary unintentionally. But we still do. How he's supposed to fight Pastor Scott, how do we keep gossip out of there? How do we keep just mental out there? How do we keep those things on the outside? You do it through the word. You sanctify yourself to the word. The reason why you're walking in those sins is because you're not walking in obedience, reading the word of God. And that is in your prayer life. You've got to incorporate the word of God. I don't care what you went through. Can I tell you, I've mentioned this before. I went through years, years of pornography was my job to look at pornography. And when I left that job out, my brain was stained. It was permanently stained. I could not see things the way I saw things. And the only way that God delivered me and renewed my mind was through sanctification in his word. I don't preach this to you like it's something in the word of God. And this is great. I know this. I know this. I know this. Because I don't know what you're struggling with. It could be pornography, it could be anything else. But whatever is stained you, whatever is caused you to see people in lesser forms, whatever causes you to be drawn to sin, this is what you need. You need to hang over that lever and say, "Lord, cleanse me, Lord cleanse me, cleanse me." Because how can we go any further into the presence of God? You can't walk into the most holy place which is the next place if we're not clean, if we're not clean, as we walk into the most holy place, what we find is this, there is no electricity in this tabernacle, there's only one source of light that is the golden manure, the golden candlestick. What we find is this, if we just draw a comparison, outside is the sun. Outside is natural light. You make decisions on the outside by your senses, by what you hear, what you see, what you smell, what you taste, what you touch, but those things don't exist here on the inside because you can only see because there's a light, there's a light at the candlestick. Everything you do, everything you see, every decision you make is because of this candlestick. It's important to understand that Jesus is a lot of the world, we know that. You know, the word is a light, it's a lamp at two feet, a lot into our path, we see those things. And so what is the statement here, what are we trying to learn here, Pastor Scott, simple. In prayer, sometimes we don't know how we ought to pray. Sometimes we don't know how God is going to meet a need or to give us wisdom or direction. In fact, we don't even know the power that we need, the strength that we need to overcome a challenge or a situation in our life. And the candlestick reminds us of this, is that it is the light, it is the flame. In fact, if you look at the candlestick, what you find is not just a normal wick, it's actually, it's an oil base, it's cups. And so what you find is this is that the priest would come in, he would cut the wicks down and as he would cut the wicks down, then the flame burned brighter. You and I are that wick, you and I are that charred wick. And as the oil has been filled up, more oil can flow through a new wick. Oh, I wish I got time, I am going to have to take time. The Lord told me I had all the time I want to take today. All the time, all the time. Because your kids need this, your wife needs this, your husband needs this, you need this. So when we come to the place in prayer and we say, Lord, you see what's in my life, cut it away, cut it away. And as he cuts it away, what happens is the oil begins to flow through the wicks stronger and the flame burns brighter. You'll know someone who knows how to be in prayer and God's been trimming away because they disappear and all you see is Jesus. All you see is him. But when your flesh is on front street, when your flesh is out front and center, when your flesh is on display, I can tell you, I know you've not been in prayer. You've not allowed the Lord to cut your wick down because that old charred wick, eventually that flame will go out and we'll see you for what you really are. But if we don't allow that oil to flow through, then we lose the brightness, we lose the illumination. And what we need that fire, that fire is the power of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit for several reasons. Isaiah says this, 11-2, "And the Spirit the Lord shall rest upon him and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." Can I tell you that when we come to this place in prayer, you need to be asking God to feel you with His Spirit or to refill you with His Spirit. The apostles thought it was so great, they found themselves being filled over and over and over again at the very beginning of the church because they realized they needed wisdom, they needed power to accomplish what only God can do. That light is important. If you're making decisions outside the Word of God, you're walking in the dark. You're walking blind. We need to understand that. We need wisdom so we can walk in His ways. We need power to overcome all that stands in our way, whatever habits or addictions or curses or lack of will or whatever the attacks of the enemy have. We must have this in our life. We must come to this place of prayer that says, "Lord, consume me with your fire and feel me with your Spirit." Now as we leave that place, we turn right back around to the table of su bread and we find as this, we come to the bread, we come to the bread of presence. I noticed this, you don't know where the bread's at unless the flame is lit on the candle. There are things in the Word of God, promises, provision, purposes and plans that God will reveal to you in His Word, but how do you know where they're at? How do you know to eat of the bread of presence if the candle's not lit? If you're not walking by this divine illumination, you're missing divine nourishment. And what happens is, is we rely on our strength and that's why we get burned out. That's why we get so tired. It's because we do so much on our own strength and God has provided us a way for us to be nourished and to be helped out as we walk in this light of the candlestick. We see things that only the Word can reveal, only the Word reveals them, not our reasoning, not our understanding because without the revelation of the light there can be no participation in the bread. And what does the bread symbolize? The bread is symbolic of Jesus who is called the bread of life. That's significant because normal bread is a dead thing that requires a living thing for you to have life. Normal bread is dead, it's dead wheat, dead grain. It requires you to be alive so that you may have life from it. But the bread of life is different. It is a living thing that seeks out a dead thing so that you might have life. I don't know about you, but you must understand there are things in my life that are dead. There might be situations like there are hopeless and lost causes. And you need the bread of life to cause those things that are not as though they were, that's what he said about Abraham. Abraham believed, he called those things that are not, those things that were dead. Sarah's womb was dead and he said, no, I don't believe that I'm going to operate in faith and believe in the Word of God. If you and I want to see dead things, non-existent things to come to life, we must take of the bread of life. We must take of Christ. So at this place in our juncture of our prayer, we stop and we acknowledge God that he is our spiritual provision. He is our supernatural provision. I'm not saying God asked, Lord, pay my bills, that's a different time for that. Right now what we're saying is God, fill me with your spirit. God, give me your wisdom. God, I speak to those things that are dead and I pray you bring them to life. What marriage is dead? What child is gone? What career has ended? What body has failed in here? The Word says that he is the bread of life and that if you'd partake of the living bread, that every dead thing must come to life. This is the place that so many of us need to be because we've lost not just things but we've even lost our identity. We don't even know who we are, dead to people's labels and dead to people's criticisms and ridicule. And Jesus says, if you'll get back to the Word, I'll show you. I'll speak life back into you again. The problem that people had with Jesus, they called him manna, they don't know what that was. Jesus wants to know today is that is he manna to you? Something that you say, what is it? How does it benefit me? God's promises are manna to you when you don't operate in the light of truth. God's blessings are manna to you when you don't operate in the light of truth. God's Word, God's will, God's ways are manna to us when we don't operate in the light of truth. This is why VBS is so important. We need to teach them that God's Word is such that this is the living bread so that children can walk in God's ways and God's words and God's will. We need to partake of this bread every day. So how do we pray? We pray God. Whatever dead things in my life, whatever things are a loss of hope, whatever dead situations or I pray you speak those things to life. And that brings us to the last one, the altar of incense. The altar of incense is the last place and we find ourselves approaching the closest we can become without being the high priest, the closest that you and I as a priest can ever get to the ark of the covenant which is where his presence is thrown on top of the mercy seed. So last stop we find is this, we can't get here unless we go through the altar, we can't get here unless we go through the active forgiveness, we have to wash off our defilement off our hands and our feet and we must be in the holy place. This is the place we want to be because this is where he wants to meet with us. Exodus 36 says this and you shall put it in front, this is the altar of incense. You shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seed that is above the testimony where I will what meet with you. That's where I want to be church. I want to meet with him. The great thing is this, is he wants to meet with you, where I will meet with you. Are you looking to meet with the Lord, do you need the Lord, is he just a supplement to your diet of life or is he everything that you possibly could desire and the Old Testament the closest you could ever get to God's presence was at the altar of incense. That tells us this, that the closest you can ever get to God is through prayer. I just feel like God is so distant from me and I just try to, you must persist in prayer. And if you feel like you can't get close to him, go back through those places we talked about. Go through a place of forgiveness, go through a place of sanctification, go through a place of illumination, go through a place of provision, then go to the place of the altar of the incense which is intercession. The heart of God is to intercede. The heart of God is to have you on his mind. That's why Paul tells us in Philippians 2, 3, he says, "Do not consume your life thinking about you. Do not count others more significant than yourself." This is the mind of Christ Paul is talking about when we cause other people to be more important than us, imagine that. Imagine what your family would be like if you counted other people more important than you. Imagine what our country would be like if, in our prayers, we counted the president more important than ourselves. This is a cultural thing. This is a kingdom cultural thing. It's not something that's ingrained inside of us. Every one of us want to pray for ourselves and say, "God, help me endure so-and-so. Help me overcome this problem. Help me deal with so-and-so." We never say, "Lord, you know Joe Biden might have to die." You know Joe Biden might have to die, and he's been causing all kinds of issues. Now I lift them up to you. I pray you save his soul. I pray you reach him, Lord. I pray you give him wisdom. I pray you give him might. I pray you give him the spirit of understanding and knowledge. We don't pray those things. We don't pray that way over our mayor, over our governor. Maybe you do, but this is the way we're supposed to be praying. Pray for your pastors. You hear me? Pray for me. I need it. I need it. Pray for your life leaders. Pray for your dad. Pray for the head of your household. Pray for those things that God has established in the order of hierarchy and leadership. Pray for those things and authority over you because they are the ones that decide whether your life is content and peaceful. You and I are called to pray. That's what he tells us in 1 Timothy 2 verse 1 through 2 as the worship team comes back. He says first of all then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and for all who are in high positions that we may learn or lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Do you know that your final calling as a priest is to pray? The moment I let that instance, people started coughing, ducking the smell. That's what prayer does. Prayer changes the room the moment, the moment you light it. Your job is to change the atmosphere. You are a priest. You know a priest has been in the office of prayer in the most holy place because when he walks out he smells like what he's been around. That's the problem with the world. They come to next to a Christian and they smell what we've been around and it smells like them when it should have been smelling like prayer, when it should have been smelling like forgiveness, joy and peace and love, it should smell like those things. You and I, we have to learn how to pray. The fact that we pray usually last is why we don't dwell in an atmosphere of prayer. That's why it's so important for us to pray first. If I had let this thing burn all day long, I've probably been preaching to my wife and I'll be about it. It affects people, prayer affects people. The longer I let this thing burn, the more you're in its atmosphere. So what is it in your life that needs to change and have you subjected it to a lifestyle of prayer? Well, are you trying to figure out everything else and then you will be here in the last second? Lord, I hope you change things. I would have been like if you prayed first or things would have changed. I would have had worked out for your favorite, if you prayed first, as a priest, our job is to pray, it's to intercede, it's to lift up. Your spouse will never change if you're not praying. Your kids will always be disrespectful, never want to come home if you're not praying. Your job, your career, your boss, those things will always be a problem. Maybe they're a problem because the Lord sent you there to change the atmosphere. Maybe that's the reason why you're there. The anointing breaks something or removes something. And sometimes we don't realize that there's a situation, somebody might be praying and asking God to do something and you don't realize it but you're the answer to the prayer that somebody else is praying. They don't know what to do. You know what to do. And God put you in a hard place that you might in a difficult situation or a difficult season like Samson call upon the Lord one more time that you might break down the strongholds of the enemy in the place that you're at. Many times God puts us, puts us in a place just so we'll call on His name because He knows you know how, He knows that you will, sometimes you just need a little extra motivation. Stay with me all over this place. Lastly, we come to the Mercy Sea, we come to the Ark of the Covenant. The Mercy Sea is simply this, you notice this, you saw two tank amendments come out, slipped back in. You come all this way, finally in the presence of God. Here's something that we cannot leave without understanding. Those tank amendments, those things that condemn you, they stand there, they're placed in the Ark of the Covenant. When God looks down, He sees those tank amendments and He reminds Himself that you're guilty. You've been judged, you're wrong. But the great thing about it is He puts it in the Ark of the Covenant and on the Mercy Sea the priest comes in and He covers it with blood, He covers it with blood. What's happening there? When God looks down on the tank amendments, what He sees is His covered in blood. He sees a payment has been made. The only reason why you can walk this far in is because a payment has been made. You and I, oftentimes, we put those tank amendments in our backpack and we walk around, we carry it around like, "Man, I'm spiritual, I'm religious, I got these things, I've been doing good, I'm a good man, I'm a good wife." The whole time we forget that those tank amendments, damn us, they condemn us. They bring us to a place of judgment and we do not leave in favor. They belong in the Ark of the Covenant, they belong under the Mercy Sea, they belong under the blood of Jesus. You have no standing before Christ unless you're covered in the blood. At the same time too, you can still approach Christ, you can still approach a throne in the grace and not in law, but in the grace of God, because that's the reason why most of you won't even pray, because you bring all this condemnation, you bring all this guilt. I've not prayed, I've not been doing what Patrick Scott said I've been supposed to be doing. God would remind you today as you approach the place that He wants you to be. You can go because it's already a debt that's been paid. Every head bowed, every eye closed, when I ask you this morning, if you're here this morning, you say, "Beshah Scott, I need that blood applied to my life, I'm not walking. I'm not walking like a priest. I'm not walking like a child of the king. I'm not walking out the purpose of God in my life, and I need to accept Christ. I need my heart to be covered by the blood of Christ. I need His grace, I need His forgiveness. I need Him to restore me, remove my shame, and accept His love." If you're here today, and that's the kind of love that you want in your life, and you're ready to receive that, will you raise your hand? Yeah, thank you. Yes, it's easier. Father, in heaven, I pray for my friends, and pray for those God who have fallen short, like I have fallen short, pray for today they would know your forgiveness, and they would acknowledge you as being the Lord and saved of our life, and pray God that you would lead them, got to bring them to us that they might not just confess the Lord, kind of have prayed they would follow you and baptize the world, become disciples of your word and your spirit. He uses the church God to build them and love them. Today, you say, Pastor Scott, I've been struggling with the presence of God. I've struggled getting in to His presence, and I need to get back there. There's some things that are in my life that are dead, and I need Him to bring life back to those things. I lack wisdom. I lack power. I lack the spirit, and I know He's given to me. I need those things. I need to go back to His presence, if that's you, we're going to open the altar so you can turn at your seat and pray. Before we leave this afternoon, can we take time and just respond to His Word, respond to His promises? [music] (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]