Open Windows, Part 6: House of Prayer for All Nations

Hi, welcome to the Vine Life Church podcast.

We're in Boulder, Colorado, and we're following Jesus by staying limited in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission so that hearts are awakened with his odds.

And if we can help you in any way, reach out to us at VineLife.com.

For now, here's a short sermon from last week in Vine Life.

Again, thanks for joining us.

But it's a big day for another reason.

Actually, here at Vine Life.

If you haven't been with us the last several weeks, we've been starting our year off with a big emphasis on prayer.

And we've been talking about daily prayer rhythms.

In fact, last week we handed out this card.

If you didn't get one of these cards, you can get it at the info hub out in the foyer.

It's a kind of a cheat sheet for establishing a daily prayer rhythm in the morning, midday, and in the evening, and some prayer points for to pause and be with Jesus three times a day.

And uh you can go back and listen to some of the other sermons on that.

But today we're also celebrating that we get to launch, we're launching for the first time a brand new redesigned prayer room on the third floor of the church.

And uh um and uh it's going to be a place uh with over 30 interactive prayer stations for you to be able to come in different pockets of the week, different different pockets of time during the month to go uh prayer missionally.

And there's stations that help you orient your prayers towards what God is doing around our region and around the globe and around our country.

And there's also another room that talks about that that helps you uh uh be with the Lord, specifically reflecting on his work inside of you.

And uh Jeanette's gonna come back in just a little bit and give you a little bit, flesh out the details on that.

But if all this is new to you, you know, this whole kind of prayer rhythm, prayer space, all this, it's okay.

Teresa of St.

Teresa of Avala once said, we're all beginners at prayer.

And uh I don't know anybody that just feels like they're crushing it at prayer all the time.

I've never met that person.

Maybe they're here.

Um if that's you, teach me your ways.

Let me sit at your feet.

Um, I will take your online course for that.

Um, but you know, it's it's an orientation of our heart, believing that God wants us to be in communion uh with Him.

And so why are we launching a prayer room and what does that mean for you and I today?

And again, maybe you're here in Divine Life and you're thinking that's great, but what does that mean for me?

Because I actually do believe that a prayer room is more, uh, it's more than just about a room, it's about a larger picture of what God is doing.

Um, I want to read one passage to tee off of this morning.

If you have your Bibles, open up to Mark, Gospel of Mark, chapter 11.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

Um, and this is one of those passages where we get a snapshot of uh it's a different kind of Jesus.

And what I mean by that is not that he becomes a different person, it's just a different part of his um a different part of the love of God and the passion of God is expressed in this moment.

And uh, but it looks a little bizarre when you tee it up next to some of his other uh moments.

And so Mark 11, chapter or uh Mark chapter 11, verse 15, says this.

Mark 11:15

And they came to Jerusalem, and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.

And he was teaching them and saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?

But you have made it a den of robbers.

In the Gospel of John, there's a little addendum to this as well.

It says, His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me, which is uh a throwback to Psalm 69.

Um, and so again, we read a passage like this: Jesus storming the temple courts and he's flipping over tables, he's chasing out animals.

And there's this, there's something that there's something that caused him to flip his lid, right?

And it's really interesting though when you think about why this moment, and not other moments, it could have been any other moment, why not the moment when he finds out his friend Lazarus is dead?

Or why not the moment when they're pulling his beard and putting a crown of thorns?

That would have been a good moment just to create some upheaval.

Um, but there's something about this moment that's actually very important to understand the heart of God, um, where the tender land of God looks a lot more like a roaring lion in this kind of scenario.

And, you know, to understand this pastor, there's a lot of layers here.

We're not going to go super in depth, but it's more than just about money and commerce.

It's more than uh than Jesus having a beef with people doing business.

Um, it's about anything that becomes an obstacle to worship and that keeps people out of the house of God.

That just sent Jesus a little berserk in this in this in this passage.

It just tweaked him the right way because there was an obstacle in the house of God to people coming into the house and the home of God.

And so Jesus in this moment, I believe, is tapped into the fiery heartbeat of his father to be home with his people.

Um and it could be said that the Bible, from start to finish, really is a story about God making for himself a house, a home to dwell with his people.

From start to finish, God is building a home to be with his people.

And I want to show you just a uh a quick some of the movements of this throughout scripture.

And I hope this is helpful for you when you think about the Bible as a whole, and this explains in shortly this will explain why we're doing a prayer room.

But everything started out in the Garden of Eden, in a place we could just call it paradise.

So God created out of the love of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, He created a world in which there weren't earthquakes yet, in which there wasn't cancer yet, there wasn't disease yet.

Um, people were not affected by sin at this point.

It was a world permeated in delight and love and the affection of God towards the ones he made, towards Adam and Eve, and they were together joining forces out of their loving friendship and relationship, cultivating the earth and naming the animals and actually moving that out to tend to the earth, right?

Um, but as you know, it didn't take long for Adam and Eve to be deceived.

Sin entered, it broke trust, it broke relational trust, and then new boundaries had to be set.

And so at a time where the presence of God filled the whole earth, and in and and the Garden of Eden was a kind of a focal point of that, the presence of God filled the whole earth.

Now, because of sin, God had to find a way to make a home for himself with um uh with the ones that he loved.

And so from paradise, he begins to call a people and and and said to himself, he called Abraham to go into the land of Canaan, um, in a land full of promise.

And and uh the story unfolds where they get trapped in slavery and he liberates them from slavery, and then at Mount Sinai he reintroduces them to this vision that you are my people, you're a people of my own possession.

And he was promising to bless them, that they would bless the whole worth, but he wanted to be in the center of his people, so he calls them to create it to have a tent.

You're gonna pitch a tent, and I want to be in the center of my people, and that's how you'll know.

And so they did this, and he provided for them and he led them until and it worked until it didn't.

Um, the people had a difficult time keeping God in the center, so they would disobey him and turn back from him, um, all the way to the point where they would just start forgetting the of his presence altogether.

And and the really the culmination of this we see in the life of King Saul, where King Saul is the first king over Israel, and he didn't even know where the ark was.

It had been captured by the Philistines, and he had just kind of given up on it, and he wanted to lead in his own strength.

He wanted to lead out of his own wisdom.

And so that's why when David becomes king, the first thing, the first order of business, top of the agenda, we're gonna go get that ark, and we're gonna we're gonna march it right back into town, and we're gonna put it right at the smack debt of the city.

And so David knew that they were toast without the ark of God's presence.

And so they went, they brought the ark, set it in the center of the city.

He danced mightily before the Lord.

He danced in his underwear.

He was so excited that he danced in his underwear, priestly garments, uh, as they ushered the presence of God back into the city.

And not only that, not only did David want the presence of God in the city, but he said, I'm gonna actually build you a house because you deserve a house.

I have a mansion, you deserve a better mansion, a palace.

It wasn't something God asked for, but something God honored.

And so um, so it moves from paradise to God calling a people to God filling a place.

A house became an actual place called the temple.

And so um, so uh so they begin to worship God and and and and Solomon, David had plans for the temple.

Solomon was the one who built it, and the presence of God flooded, the glory of God filled this actual house, an actual building.

But even that wasn't enough to sustain that wasn't entirely the house that God was building, right?

And the system became corrupt, and even though God had filled his temple, the people were straying in their hearts from God, and they need they weren't living rightly before him, and so something had to change, and God had to send his son Jesus.

And so we go from the house of God being paradise to the house of God being encapsulated in a people to a place all the way to a person who is Jesus, that when Jesus came, he came as the new house of God.

In fact, in this particular passage, when he says, uh, you know, um uh um my father's house, and when he's he's arguing for his father's house and and to protect his father's house, shortly after that, he says, uh somebody asked him for a sign, and he says, Tear down this temple and I will rebuild it in three days.

And so, even according to Jesus, even according to his words, the temple that they were talking about, they thought they were talking about a building, he was talking about himself.

He was the new temple.

He said, Tear this down, and it will be rebuilt in three days.

And so Jesus had to come to make right all that had been done wrong, and through his sacrifice to undo the power of sin and death, and through resurrection to release life back into the world, so that sons and daughters could come home to the Father.

He could adopt into himself, into the Father.

Sons and daughters all around the world, and he had to do that, he had to become the tabernacle of God's dwelling on earth in order to get us back on track to build to rebuild what God had in mind from the garden.

But it doesn't end there because as Jesus became the person, he became the tabernacle, he he also, before he ascended into heaven, he says, Listen, I want you, he said, I'm gonna go.

It's gonna be better for me to go, I'm gonna send you the Holy Spirit.

But in order to find the Holy Spirit, you need to go lock yourself in a room in Jerusalem, and you need to wait until I show up.

So it's really fascinating because he comes as a person, but he leaves and he says, I want you to go into this place.

I'm going to fill a place again so powerfully that you'll never be the same.

And so they go into the upper room, and in Acts 2, we read about the Spirit of God empowering them with new tongues.

Hey, there's the tie-in.

New tongues, boldness, and faith.

And we know that God's desire here wasn't that they would just become about a place and just trap themselves in the upper room for all the days of their life, but but the type of people they would become as they left the upper room.

And so we see that it was their experience in a place that launched them to become a people again, which we call the church.

It wasn't really about finding a place, it was about transforming them from inside out to be a new kind of people who could actually be a new house for God, which is why Peter would later write, you are living stones being built into a spiritual house.

So this the spiritual house that God was building wasn't a really a place, it was a it was a people again.

And he was filling them up to send them out.

But as they would go out as a people, here's the cool thing, and here's where everything comes full circle, as they were filled in a place and became the kind of people, the ultimate invitation was not just about a social club, a new social club with a little Holy Spirit mixed in.

It was about lifelong participation in the kingdom of God, to join God in the work of re-establishing his kingdom on earth just as it is in heaven.

Going out in gospel power to see the lost come home, to heal the sick, to eliminate poverty, to bring freedom to the captives, and to the whole world was invited back into a restoration of the new heavens and the new earth.

And that's where, as we read and we kind of close the final pages in the scriptures, with the story, it really ends at the final scene where the dwelling place of God will once again be with his people, and God will be worshipped in a new kind of paradise that would only happen because of his work and his plan.

Isn't that cool?

So God is building a house, and it does involve places, it involves people, but it involves the ultimate vision of participating it with him in the restoration and the renewal of all things.

So this does have to have, this does matter as we talk about a prayer room.

We'll get to that in a second, but just before we do, I just want to remind us here this morning.

Um, maybe you're here and you're you've been looking for a sense of home in your life.

Um, oftentimes we move to new places, we change jobs, we change churches, we change locations, we change a lot of things in our life because we're looking for a sense of where am I going to feel settled?

Where am I going to feel home?

Sometimes we change people and relationships looking for a sense of home.

Some, you know, a certain we're looking for our people, quote unquote.

We even imagine a paradise sitting on a beach or playing golf in retirement or a big family gathering with all the grandkids running around.

We imagine these climactic scenes of where our life is headed, and they're actually good things, but um but I do feel feel like there's an invitation this morning that if you felt unsettled in your life, and maybe you're here this morning because you know that something needs to get settled, the invitation this morning is that Jesus wants you to be at home in him.

Home can only be found in the heart of God.

You can change every part of your life.

But until you step into the home of the heart of God, the person and the work of Jesus Christ, and you you come into home with him and you invite him to be in home with you, there will be a constant unearthing and uprooting and resettling in your life.

But the opposite is also true.

When you come into home with Jesus, you can move anywhere and you'll still be at home.

You can have any job and you'll still be at home.

A lot of things can change in your life, but you will be living out of a place of I live as a spiritual dwelling of the house of God, and I'm going to let that affect every relationship and every activity, everything that God calls me to do, because he's invited me to participate with him and inviting the whole world, the whole earth to come home to him.

So that was for somebody here.

That's for me.

I'm sure it's for you too.

Jesus is knocking.

So what does all this have to do with a prayer room and a prayer room at the church?

And after the service, actually, some of you are gonna invite you to come actually up to the prayer room and tour it and take a look at it.

And some of you are gonna go up and be like, hey, cool.

That's a nice prayer room.

That's great.

That's fantastic.

But others, if you if you're if you're catching a larger vision of what God is doing, then these moments that we have as communities, bodies of people to set aside a prayer room, it means something different.

It means that this prayer room is about setting aside a place that anchors us into a person so that we leave the prayer room as a people marked by God's presence who join him in the restoration of the whole world until it looks like his paradise again.

I can say that again.

It's not actually about the room, it's about the story that the room is inviting us into.

That God is ever present, that God is speaking, and he is committed to unearthing the prayers, unlocking the prayers deeply seated in your spirit.

And so sometimes we have to set aside places to do this.

And so some of you might be like, Well, I can't I just pray anywhere?

I'll just pray at home.

Why do I have to come to a prayer room?

And it's true, like you don't you can literally pray anywhere.

That's the whole idea, unceasing prayer, anywhere.

Fantastic.

Um, that's a good thing.

But there is something about both a prayer, a space that exists to catalyze prayer, but there's something about leaving where you are and going to another place to be with God.

Like all of you left home this morning, unless you're watching online, uh, a lot of you left home, you drove here, you all actually drove up a hill, you ascended a hill to get here.

And in the process of getting out of bed and getting dressed and actually pushing through those like fights with your family and kids or whatever the morning looked like, and you actually made that decision, you changed the orientation so that you could go be at a place, and there's something transformational about leaving where you are.

It's kind of a mini pilgrimage because I'm not going to stay where you are, because there's something about going to a place that is just as transformational, and you'll notice as you walk up those stairs, and you're gonna walk up two flights of stairs if you're able to get to this prayer room, you're gonna be out of breath when you get up there, but you'll notice that even the journey affects you on such a deep level because God calls us often to leave where we're at and go to a new place.

And so it's an invitation for us to pursue Him.

Sacred spaces matter as well.

In a world that everything has become so secularized, we're not used to having sacred spaces.

They used to have church buildings with majestic construction and stained glass, and you would walk into the space and immediately connect aesthetically with the majesty of God.

We lack those kinds of places, and our hearts actually crave spaces, times and spaces set aside for the purposes of God.

The Celts used to call these thin places.

Places where um uh locales where the distance between heaven and earth collapses and you can feel the imminence of God.

Maybe this you've experienced this on a mountaintop before and next to a river, or maybe even an Irish pub.

Thin places can be experienced in a lot of places.

But I say all that um because I I do believe this is part of a responsiveness of this church as God has called us to steward an identity of a house of prayer through rhythms and through places that over this next year we're gonna be inviting you to come and as you can spend time in this prayer room and pray communally and join prayers with others there.

And to that end, I'm gonna invite Pastor Jeanette to tell us a little bit more about the space and how you can interact with it this year.

And we are going a little over on our time this morning, so if you have to leave, um, we welcome you to do that.

But she's gonna share a little bit about the space, and then we're gonna give you a chance to come and see it.

But I gotta say this.

We tasked Jeanette this last year with uh creating a space, and we had one thing in our minds.

She had a totally different thing in her mind.

And she has given blood, sweat, and tears and a lot of sleep to the space.

And I know a lot of you guys have too, but I just want to just take a moment and honor Jeanette for her work this morning.

And it was a joy and such an honor.

I I truly am so thankful that you guys trusted me with it.

Thank you, elders and leaders.

Um you know, this that space up in the third floor was designed as a prayer room.

It was actually Actually architecturally designed to be a cross.

So there's two rooms.

One room is the base and the arms of the cross, and the other room is the top part.

And so you walk into there, and there's years and years.

I think that place was built in the 90s.

So people have been up there praying.

It is saturated with the presence of the Lord in prayer.

It had just gotten a little tired looking.

So we wanted to revamp it.

And the beauty of this space is you can come and join as a small group and pray, but we have carefully curated 30 different prayer station invitations for you as an individual to sit down and encounter God and join into a conversation with Him over various topics.

And the fun thing about it is when you come, even if you're there alone and you're the only one there with the host that has opened up the space, you'll see evidence of other people that have been there before you.

You'll see things that they've journaled, you'll see things that they've pinned up on the on the boards and prayers that they've prayed.

And so it, even though it's it's largely an individual thing, it does build community.

So we have two rooms.

Um the first room is called the gallery, and in the gallery there are 18 stations that are all, like Luke said, missional-minded.

So this is intercessory prayer that will encourage you.

Okay, that is not the gallery.

Can you go to the file that has the oh I'm sorry, the studio, the studio file?

Well, there we go.

So that's a nice little living room space for you to gather and pray as a group.

Um we also have prophetic words that have been spoken over this house in a pamphlet or a huge three-ring binder that you can go through and pray.

Um, we've got, we wanted this space to be visually stimulating and interactive.

So there's lots of visuals and um poetry and artwork and all kinds of hands-on activities for you to do, and and cozy little corners for you to tuck away with the Lord.

This um, so you see Graham, Elder Graham is doing that.

That area is to pray over dreams and ways that you can um release the things that God has given you and deposited in you to bless others, and there's books there that'll work you through.

That that area is to pray over Colorado.

So we have a map, and there's a basket on the on the floor there that has um things you see.

Pat working through.

There's all kinds of guides to help you.

So when you sit down and you think, okay, I'm gonna pray for Colorado in five minutes and you're done, and you're like, I don't know what else to pray.

We've got things there to help spark you in your prayer and um ways to help you go places that you might not have gone on your own if you were home.

So we can just keep rattling through.

That's praying over the nations and praying over our nation.

Um, keep going.

There we go.

That's a long table that we have for you to pray blessings over your friends and draw pictures and send them little words of encouragement.

You see Luke praying over our city.

Each of those jars has dirt in it from all the different um towns around the area.

So you can hold that dirt, you can put it in your hand while you pray, and then there's uh sunflower seeds for you to deposit into a jar with the name of the town that you prayed for.

So when somebody else sits, they're gonna see, like, whoa, there's been a lot of prayers for Erie.

That's awesome.

Um praying for your enemies.

You see, um, Piper at Praying for Change.

This is a justice station where you can um be guided into praying over things that need to change and w places where there's injustice happening, and we can pray for God's justice.

So I'm gonna let it keep going, but all of that is in the the studio space, and then Blaze, can you switch over to the gallery?

So this area is for um contemplative prayer, it's the internal prayer and vertical prayers that you're having between you and the Lord.

And so all of the stations here, there's 12, they're gonna guide you in um caring for your soul and connecting with God yourself.

So lots of interactive things throughout the room.

And um Neil Armstrong is working on a I don't have a picture of it yet because it's still in process, but he is doing a beautiful original painting, and um yeah, there's just lots of fun things.

So you'll definitely want to come over after service if you have time.

Come up.

We're not gonna open it up for prayer per se today, but you can walk around and kind of look at it and get the pictures, just don't do it justice.

So um, I know that I was tasked with this, I've overseen it and I've been working on it a lot, but I could not have done this space without you all.

Definitely took a tribe.

So I want to acknowledge all the many people that helped me.

People were coming to paint, people were out there digging in the dirt and frozen ground to get me dirt.

Um, I had people running, uh people were going all the way up to Greeley to grab uh furniture pieces and bring them to the church and haul things out.

And some of you were here on a Sunday where we were taking couches down and helping these girls from CU take one of our couches, and uh it's been a journey.

So as I say your name, if you're here, will you stand up so we can acknowledge you?

Larry and Linda Hawkman, Graham and Piper Keppen, Aaron Young, Larry Boroff, Rose Rapp, Gary and Emily Lee, Melissa Cazot, Trinity Ross, Martha Robbins, Travis Ross, Luke and Megan Humbrights, Kate Arnold, Oliver Note, Neil and Karen Armstrong, Kim Nye, Tate Ross, Dee Dee Peck, Carla Denke, Jaden Ross, Tiana Miller, Jackson, Jessa Ross, my whole family helped.

Um, Karen Quinn, Blaze Cooper, Jace Ross, Dale and Jennifer Peterson, Stacey Vott, and Mike and Nancy Jeanette.

Thank you so much.

You guys are awesome.

And so, this prayer room, we wanted to make space and make it available for you at various times.

So, no matter what your schedule and what your season of life, there would be a time in the month that you can come.

Now, my expectation is when you come to this prayer room, you're not gonna get through all 30 stations.

There's just no way if you're like meaningfully trying to engage.

Really, I I expect one or two stations of visit.

Um the Lord, I mean, they're designed for you to meet the Lord, and they're designed that you would be able to go back to that station on a second visit if you wanted.

So it's meant to take time.

So you'll want to look at our schedule of when we have the prayer room open.

We have morning slots, we have evening slots, we have weekend slots, we have daytime slots, um, and we have hosts that have volunteered and said, I am willing to come for 2023 and host the space so that you all can come.

So I'm gonna acknowledge them in a minute, but I do want to tell you there is calendars out on the info booth.

There is a calendar on the door of the prayer room, but you can also go to vinelife.com slash prayer room.

Luke made a beautiful website just for our prayer room, and each month it'll have the calendar on there so you can check it to find a time that works for your schedule for that month and go ahead and set to be here.

So um I'm gonna invite the the hosts to come because we're gonna pray over you and celebrate you for your your volunteering and the sacrifice that you're willing to make for our community.

So Larry Hockman, Piper Keppen, Martha Robbins, Lou Cumbrecht, Kate Arnold, Kim Nye, D D Peck, Van Pelt family.

I I will say the Van Pelts are doing Saturdays once a month from three to six, and the first hour they're gonna focus on praying for families.

So if that's on your heart, come and join them.

You can pray together with them over families, and then the the room will be open after for people to use individually.

Um, Pat Mansfield, Karen Quinn, and Paul and Aaron Fonkin.

If you are hosting, can you come down and meet right here?

Let's give it up for these guys.

I wouldn't have been able to be in the room all of these time slots, that's for sure.

I think Graham, are you coming to pray?

Oh, Bob.

Okay.

Wow.

It's the real deal, isn't it?

Has this been a real deal morning?

That's right.

All the people that worked on this prayer room, this is a double down on a promise we've had for decades.

For decades.

And now what makes it real is right here.

It's right here.

And we've come to this moment.

I can't tell you how excited I am.

It is absolutely cool.

So right now, let's invite the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, extend your hands, please.

Lord.

Right now, we're asking for a release of blessing, a release of authority.

These are watchmen, Lord.

Give them the gifts of watchmen, give them discernment.

They hold a space, a sacred space.

It's holy ground, Lord.

Prepare them, empower them, release them, let them be a blessing, let them be blessed, let them hold this space with discernment, with integrity, with faith, with promise, with hope, Lord.

Give them that gift that they may be a blessing to everyone who comes to this space.

This is a house of prayer.

You commanded us to have a house of prayer.

We're doubling down on that.

The time has come, the season is here, Lord.

Release these blessings on these hosts that they may hold this space and that they may be a blessing to this entire region.

And we ask this in the name of our King, the Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

And lastly, I'm just gonna quickly pray over the actual room itself and uh would just bless us.

So if you would just join me in your heart, just um in a place of gratitude for uh what we have.

This is this is a huge deal.

Uh, I don't know if there's ever been, I mean, if there is, there's not many places in Boulder County that are dedicated completely to prayer.

Uh might be the first place.

And this is not just for us, this is something that we want to be a resource to the community.

So just join me uh as we pray, Father.

Um, we thank you for uh the decades, literal decades of leaders who have um caught the vision for this property, who have held a place in their hearts uh for your dreams for this property, and that even that this building was built, that room was built with the intention of being a place set apart for prayer.

And so, God, again, we consecrate that room.

God, we thank you that um we can steward this on your behalf and on behalf of this region and this community, God, and we pray that each person that steps across the threshold of that um doorway would encounter your presence in a unique way, that they would be drawn into prayer.

And God, that as they walk up the stairs and look out over the valley that you have um put before us, God, thank you for uh the the um the responsibility to be a blessing to that valley, God, and we pray that this prayer room would be that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, we are done.

Thank you so much for being here this morning.

As you go, the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, lift up his countenance to you and give you peace.

Amen.

Love you, have a great week.