Make Room For Revival II, Your House of Prayer

Turn with me to the 21st chapter of the book of Matthew, please. Matthew 21, 21, Matthew 21. And let's read beginning, beginning in verse 12. Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes. Have you never read? Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, Thou hast brought perfect praise. And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany, and he lodged there. Last week we talked about the need that each of us have to come to grips with what God is doing in the earth today to anticipate the move of God by his Spirit. And we acknowledge that if we didn't anticipate, we wouldn't prepare. And if we didn't prepare, we wouldn't participate in that which God was doing. Patrick Johnstone here on Wednesday night in my heart really confirmed what I believe we've been saying about the move of God. Didn't you think that those of you who were here, the evidence is mounting that God by his spirit, all around the earth is moving, causing to spring up life where there was no life. He brought reports of some 50 million believers in Red China meeting in homes clandestinely brought together simply by the Spirit of God. He shared reports of how whole villages in the continent of Africa had turned to Jesus Christ. He was saying how only 200 years ago, just a small little portion of the whole face of the earth was evangelized, truly evangelized, believing in Jesus. And how today we can honestly say that the entire Western hemisphere has heard the gospel. And I was just so encouraged by all of that. And yet recognizing that there's much yet to be done, I guess most of all that night I was so touched by the fact that approximately 4% of all the people on the face of the earth are what we would call evangelical or born again believers. 4%. You ever wonder why that's you? If you happen to know the Lord this morning. You ever wonder why God chose you and somehow another one wasn't Chosen. It's a mystery, isn't it? And yet I trust your response is one of thanksgiving rejoicing. That's why we bring praise to the Lord, because we've been chosen. Now, how do we prepare for this move of God, beloved, which I believe, and Patrick even intimated this, that in America we are ripe for it, that we stand right now on the verge of what God is going to do and that we can enter in or we can withdraw based on our response. What do we do to participate in what the Lord wants to do? You know why this is so important? Because if you don't, please don't be deluded into thinking that somehow you'll be able to tag along and maybe come on later with what God wants to do. Do you know that when God moves, either you move with him or you get left behind? Imagine the children of Israel when the cloud by which God led them through the wilderness, when the cloud left of a few rebellious ones simply said, well, just go ahead, we'll catch up later. Imagine how they kept themselves out of the blessing of God. And eventually, you see, our hearts are such that we'll get hardened and turn from Him. And so what I'm sharing here isn't just an option. For those of you who are interested in becoming evangelists, what I'm sharing is the heartbeat of God in this hour, which I believe is for all of us and requires of us a response. I would submit to you today that there are many dying and weak churches in our country because at some point the leadership of those churches decided that they didn't want to participate really in what God was doing. They'd rather do what they were doing. And God let them, as he always does. He allows them to go on, but that's not what he was doing. And they come into a hardness and a coldness. I believe what we have here today In Matthew chapter 21 is an insight into what we can do to prepare in our day for this move of God. And I trust that as we share this, your heart will be as warmed as mine has been in these last days. Over the simplicity of how God works, I want you to know you don't need a degree to understand what I'm going to say today. It's going to be very simple, but it's going to require a lot of each one of us. There's a quality of insight in this passage. We'll look at it with me. Would you just keep your Bible up there? That I think is very easily overlooked. If you've Read this before and seen this as an illustration simply in terms of the narrative of Jesus moving toward Gethsemane right after the triumphal entry. And you see this as a time when Jesus walked into the temple building and saw all of the merchandising and the philandering that was going on and he just got angry. And you said, that's what I like to see, a macho Jesus bringing out the whips and throwing over the tables. And it's about time we got him out of that little white rag that he wears all the time in the pictures we see. If you've just seen this as a story about being indignant at the racketeering going on in the temple, then you've missed, really, I believe the deeper revelation of this passage. Because, beloved, there's something here that's pictured for our generation for what God is doing today. Look with me. Jesus entered the temple of God. Now we know clearly that that was literally the main temple in Jerusalem. He was right there, the building, alright. But what do we know to be the Temple of God today in 1985? What does the Bible say is the temple of the living God? Our hearts first. Corinthians 3:16. We are the living temple of God. There is no more. A place where God alone dwells. A building, a structure, a facility. And the Scriptures clearly teach that our hearts, individually and corporately, are now the Temple of God. Would you see from this moment everything that I'm going to say in reference to the Temple as being a reference to what God would do in the heart of his church otherwise? We just simply cut off the power of the Spirit to bring this alive to us. For what happens here is an indication to me of what Jesus wants to do in his church in this last day. Let's look at it together. First of all, we see, and we have an outline, I think, that highlights this, the purging of the pollution. He drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. I want to suggest this morning that those who were doing all this weren't really aware that what they were doing was that wrong. Now, in case you're unfamiliar with the tradition of that day, the Jews regularly took pilgrimages from the farthest parts of the nation. And it took a long time to travel. And so they would travel to Jerusalem to bring their sacrifices and so on. And when they got there, rather than having towed this lamb or whatever the whole distance across the country, they simply went to the temple and some merchandisers had some perfect little lambs there to sell them for their sacrifice. And so really, they thought they were doing a service to the people. They thought they were helping the people to worship. They also had money changers. There were those there who would take the Roman currency, change it into the temple currency, and that's how they paid the temple tax, which was a half shekel. Cost you a half shekel to go to church and worship. I really wonder sometimes, beloved, if we recognize the pollution in our own hearts. Or I wonder if we're like these merchandisers sometimes, thinking that everything we're doing is kind of okay anyhow. I mean, I'm God's person, and God's people are free to do what they kind of want to do. And I wonder if we would be startled at what Jesus would say to us when he walked into the temple of our heart. Would we be shocked at the violence with which he might deal with some of the things that we have begun to establish as pollutants in our hearts towards him? What would Jesus say to a believer whose heart is filled with so much distraction and clutter that they'd rather spend three or four hours a day watching TV than being with the people of God when they're assembled together? What would Jesus reaction be to a heart that was filled with reading newspapers 45 minutes a day, but not reading their Bibles at all? What kind of words would Jesus have for those who spend hours looking for the best sales and bargains but don't have any time to support the ministries that are yearning for help? What would he say to so many who invest themselves in how much money they can make to secure their future, but have no time to really find out the needs that are around them and to give something of that resource to those that the Bible calls the needy? What would he say to those who spend more time at leisure than at prayer? I have to say to you, beloved, I don't think Jesus would just sit down and have a nice little talk. I think he'd take the tables and throw them over. I think he'd deal with some of this stuff that we all fall prey to. And he'd deal with it, if you'll permit me to say it violently, because it's an abomination. Do we perceive our hearts? Are we like those merchandisers? Do we see ourselves as well, everything's kind of okay. I mean, I give some here and there. I do a little this and a little that. Or would he say to us what he did. And what he said to them, the pollution, the clutter, all of the difficulty that we allow to accumulate in our lives blocks the Lord Jesus from doing what he wants to do. Notice what he says, would you? Verse 13. My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it what, a den of robbers. Robbers. Isn't that a good word to describe what really happens in our hearts lots of times with all that stuff. Notice I didn't talk about adultery, I didn't talk about child abuse and all the things that we call the heinous sins, beloved. We deal on the level of clutter and pollution, on the level of competing loves and personal self styled selfishness and idolatry. And God Almighty in the person of Jesus calls them robbers. Robbers. And the only way to deal with a robber is firmly, violently put it to an end. And I want to say to you, I don't believe that some of us will ever get free of the things that keep us from the purposes of God until we're violent with ourselves, until we're ruthless with our flesh. I'm meeting with a group of men on Thursday mornings and each of us are submitting to one another parts of our lives which we know are not pleasing to God, whether by omission or commission. And the Lord just spoke to us a few weeks back and said, unless you are ruthless with it, it'll stay there nagging. You ever try to lose weight and deal with the problem of, well, I'm going to get started and you get started and you go away, but you're not ruthless with your flesh and pretty soon your mind rules over that and you're able to rationalize that you deserve a break. And off you go. And it isn't long before weeks later, you're back to where you were. And that's just a petty little illustration. But church, how many of you know what I'm talking about? If you're not ruthless with your flesh, it's ruthless with you. It absolutely dominates you. I'm talking about things like schedules and entertainment, all the things that we, quote, have a right to. Why are we so unwilling to purge that which we know isn't pleasing to God? Why? Maybe you saw the other night James lehrer on channel 13 as he told the story of his heart attack. Another McNeil Lehrer report on PBS, that here's a man in his early 40s, I believe, and he recognized that he had all the symptoms of a type A personality, high strung and all that, that he was overworked, he smoked, he was overweight. He had all those things and he knew it up here and he went along and he was successful in journalism and a broadcaster, nationally recognized and all that. And he knew that he was tempting fate, quote in his terms a heart attack. And in his early 40s, one year ago, he had a severe heart attack, spent something, I don't know, 26, 30 days in the hospital, lost nearly a year of work. And he shared at the end of that hour long special, I see now that it wasn't worth. Wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth denying what I knew to be true. Because in the end, you see, the penalty is far greater. And I wonder if in this spirit we're the same way. We know what's true, we know what we should do, but we deny it and we push it down and we won't purge ourselves, we won't deal with the things that God would have us deal with. And in the end, you know what we're going to say to God? CHURCH I wish I had. It wasn't worth, wasn't worth the indulgence. It wasn't worth the softness with our attitudes and with our practices that we fell. In the account of Mark, Jesus adds one little phrase in there, it's recorded that he says, and he forbade people to go in and out. How many of you feel like I do sometimes, that there are people that are just going in and out of my temple, that there are people who are carrying gossip and information and stuff. There's all kinds of people going in and out wanting a piece of me, whether it's your kids or someone else here or there. And sometimes they're good things, perhaps, but you feel divided in your heart. And I just see Jesus saying, wait a minute. There's a time when you tell people, stop it. You're not going through my heart anymore. You're going to be alone with me. You're going to put an end to the competing loyalties and the things that would be in the way of building communion together. Church when are we going to purge the pollution? Last night, as I was just finishing this teaching, I was leaving my office and I had. I'd been with the Lord and I opened the mail, sort of the last thing I did. And I opened David Wilkerson's latest newsletter. Many of you get this. I know it's called a conspiracy of interruptions. I really love what he says. We hear much today about great conspiracies purportedly aimed at destroying democracy and Christianity. He talks about the Trilateral Commission and Communism. I have a little shelf full of things that many of you have passed on to me about how it's all, you know, in three and a half weeks, someone's going to pull the mask off and we're going to see all these. You know, it's like V or something, all these lizards running the country and the New Wave movement and secular humanism and all these things. And somehow it's all going. You know, there's a lot of interesting things there. But Wilkerson says none of the above conspiracies trouble the heart of God. I love that God's not. I wonder if the Illuminati is going to get in control. You know, God knows he can handle it. And Wilkerson goes on to say, and I won't quote it any more extensively, the thing that God's heart breaks over is the way that we let interruptions, the traffic break our communion with him in prayer and the robbing that goes on of what God should have of our personal fellowship and communion. Am I the only one that feels that? I don't think so. He confirmed in this how important it is to guard your time with God. Now notice what Jesus says in this passage. After he purges the pollution, he makes a declaration and he says, my house shall be called a house of prayer, a place where prayer is practiced. If you want to be prepared for what God by his spirit is going to do in this year and the next, then begin to make your heart a place where you practice prayer. Beloved, I can't tell you how this just began to come alive in my spirit. You see, we are so inclined to fall into the cultural understanding that we go past a church building and we say, maybe somebody wrote on the wall outside with a black spray can and they put some kind of. Defaming remark or whatever on the side. And you say what no one should. What's the word? When you. Yeah. Deface. Thank you. Deface. The house of God. You see. So we've identified the church with the house of God. And I have to say to you, I've heard sermons from people that I know are terrific men and women of God who say that they want their church and they call it a place to be a place of prayer. But do you see with me that Jesus let's today see it not as the building, as the house of prayer, but of your heart, that Jesus said, I want you to be called a house of prayer. I want you to be known as a place where prayer is taking place, a living temple where prayer is practiced. I want people to come to you because they know that you pray. So that we have the living house of prayer, not just a brick and mortar house of prayer. Now, beloved, you know what? I'm finding that I can't be attending meetings and raising a family and fulfilling responsibilities and building relationships and recreating and relaxing and doing all those things and being a place of prayer. Do you find that? I have a question for you. How did Jesus do it? Dog gone. How did he do it? You say, well, he didn't have a family. Well, you're right. Think we have to make some choices. Is the Lord Jesus calling us to leave our families to become prayer warriors? Not in your life. But the Lord Jesus models for us, I think, some of the key ingredients that will enable us to become a place of prayer. How diligently and consistently he guarded those times. If you read the Gospels, read them carefully. Reference after reference. Mark, chapter one. He went away by himself into a lonely place long before dawn and prayed. Mark, the third chapter. He went away on the top of the mountain to be alone with the Father before he chose the disciples. Luke, chapter 5, verse 16. He went off in the wilderness and prayed. Mark, chapter 6, verse 46. He went off in the boat by himself to the other side and prayed. You see, there's so much in here that says to me, Jesus Christ knew that unless he got alone with the Father and prayed and guarded that time and made time to be with him, that he would never be able to do all that God was requiring of him. And you know when we see that most powerfully, of course, in the Garden of Gethsemane, you see, before he hung, he didn't get the guys together and say, well, how about cheering me up? He went to the Father and he wanted those brothers to stand with him. And they couldn't. They couldn't even stay awake for one hour. We're going to talk about that again in the future. That penetrates my heart in Jesus moment of most dire need. They couldn't stay awake. I don't care how tired you are. One hour. Where is Jesus today? By the way, what does the Bible teach us? That. Where is Jesus today? Seated at the right hand of the Father. And what is he doing? He's interceding on our behalf. Isn't that glorious? He is praying today, even as he prayed here on the earth. And yet with all omniscience and understanding and power, and I'm convinced, beloved, and let me say this, and you know the love that's in My heart, that there is a widening gap. Let me say it again. A widening gap in our fellowship between our understanding and our practice of prayer. I believe we know more about prayer today than we did three years ago. And I don't believe that we've really taken our understanding and put it into practice. I believe there's more of a gap between profession and possession now than there was three years ago. I believe God holds us more accountable today than he did in 1981 for our prayer lives. And I don't see evidence, and I don't say this with any condemnation. If you're feeling conviction, it's from God. But I don't see the evidence that we are praying more now than we did three years ago. I don't see it in the prayer meetings. I don't see it in the responses that I get in talking to people. You say, well, you don't know what I do in my closet. I'll tell you this. I believe that corporate expression reflects private convictions, corporate participation, corporate expression reflects our private convictions. If we really feel strongly about it personally, it'll come out when we're together. Amen. I'm not hearing anybody say amen. It's true. It is really true. Church. And I want you to know today I feel so strongly that if the Lord Jesus walked into the temples of our hearts, he would say, my house is to be called a house of prayer. And I believe that he grieves. We have so much in the way of enablements to pray. We have no excuse. I don't think we can ever stand before God and say, well, I didn't really understand or know about it. We have more teaching, we have more gimmicks to pray in two minutes. I've just made this list. We have prayer partners, prayer chains, prayer circles, prayer meetings, prayer handbooks, prayer towers, prayer hotlines, prayer cards, prayer maps, prayer guides, prayer books, prayer tapes, prayer concerts, prayer seminars, prayer letters, prayer class and prayer clocks. Just recently we added prayer networks. There's a whole television network of prayer to televise prayer meetings. That's 18. And I just wrote those down in the flesh. All those ways to pray. And we don't pray. Our prayer paraphernalia to somehow, you know what it is? You know why we get all those things and all those books and all those guides and all those other things. You know why that is? Because we know we should be. And I believe God wants to take our oughts to. Our want to's and want tos will become delights. And that's what the Lord Jesus wants of us. I have so much more I can say, but I'm going to stop. I feel that Beloved, in this passage we see that once Jesus established the priority of prayer, then what happened? Well, then the lame and the blind came to him and he healed them. Then the children came in and shouted hosanna and praise was perfected. And all I can say to you this morning is I believe with all my heart that if we're to be part of what God wants to do in this year and the year to come, I'm talking two years here. Notice that I'm specifically saying 1985 and 1986, that it will begin when different ones of us take a look at our hearts and realize that they're full of money changers and pigeon sellers in a 1985 disguise and that the Lord Jesus would walk in ruthlessly deal with them. The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, Jesus said, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12. That's what that verse is talking about. And out of that we will begin to see the Holy Spirit doing all the things that we just so try hard to do. Won't it be glorious to be able to see God doing things as we have? To some degree, certainly, but in such a scale that we haven't imagined. I believe that's what God has for us, and I'm asking him to come into my heart and turn over the tables and get things right. Will you join me in that? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, we thank you that we today by grace can come that it isn't with a whip that you come to us, Lord, but it's with love and that all that you would want to do is to enable us to get right where we can walk in fullness. Lord of purpose and blessing. Father, I'm so excited today because what you have revealed by your spirit you'll bring to pass, Lord. And I ask for every heart right now that you begin to open it for everyone whose spirit is prepared begin to make a way in that. Minister to us now. We're privileged today to have.