Tending the Flame: Building a House of Prayer | Valuing His Presence (Part 5)

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To learn more about Sozokyle Church, including our gathering times in the Kyle area, visit us online at sozoktx.com.

Today's talk comes from Pastor Chris Ball.

So this is the um the final night of talking about valuing his presence.

We spent a little bit of time here as we are just into the phrase and keep using laying foundation, um, putting the culture down that we want to carry into kind of the next wave.

And so the idea of tending to the flame of the Lord in your life has been a metaphor of sorts that has meant a lot to me.

Um I'm a product of my youth group, as many of you guys may be.

And I learned how to pray in about the sixth grade.

Uh I had a youth pastor who before our youth group met every week, invited anybody to come at 6 30.

Youth group met at 7 o'clock.

You can come at 6 30.

And we got in a big circle, and we would uh go around and say two things we were thankful for to the Lord.

Like we're saying them to Jesus, we're thanking him.

And then we'd all go, and then we would uh think of somebody who doesn't yet know the Lord, and we're gonna pray for that person.

And we were just kind of mosey through 30 minutes of doing that, and what faithfulness will get you is you'll learn how to do something.

And so over the course of that sixth grade year, you know, I'm just kind of a pipsqueak.

I learned how to pray and and really learned the value and the necessity of what it means to tend to the flame of the Lord in your heart for your life.

And certainly been, like all of you, up and down with all of that.

But I want to talk tonight about that that house of prayer culture for you personally and for us collectively.

Um, so we do, Natalie mentioned it, we stand kind of on the brink of a transition.

Right now, we've been at this for about five months now, if my math is right, February to not to now, uh, which is a bit of a mind blower, actually, to think that uh a half a year has elapsed since we pulled the trailer around for the first time.

Um a lot of you guys are yeah, that hits hard, huh?

Um, it's a heavy trailer, so and and so I was just thinking and thinking with the Lord about this, I was like, you know, we're kind of starting to transition from like this underground place to this above ground place.

And that's really important.

Now the thing about transitions are that they have a lot of unknowns and uncertainties with them.

If you've ever transitioned from this city to this city, you're like, who's on the other end of that for me to have a social life?

Who's on the other end of that for me to have a job?

Um, what's it gonna be like?

What's the culture like there?

What's the weather gonna be?

I mean, all these things, you've never done it before.

Uh, you go from a single person to a dating person, and you're thinking, okay, what's all that entail?

And, you know, do I still have what it takes for this world?

Yeah, if it's been a while since you've been on it, I who knows?

So the idea of transitions means that there's some excitement built in, but there's also some unknowns around the corner.

I remember when we had our first child, we got all the ducklings on the front row here tonight.

And so Cohen is our oldest.

Um, he's 17.

So 17 years ago, we're having our first kid.

And I remember the morning, like it was yesterday, as they say, because Natalie was on all fours in the living room.

And we're trying to, am I allowed to tell stories about your delivery?

Yeah, we didn't talk about this, but making this up as we go.

And this is our first time.

We've never done this.

We're transitioning from being empty nesters because we never built the nest yet, to like, oh, we're about to have a kid, and so when do you actually go in?

Well, I don't know.

So let's call the doctor and ask, hey, doc, do we come in now?

Well, um, how far apart are her contractions?

I'm like, I don't know.

And so she asked these questions.

I'm like, babe, how far apart are the contractions?

I'm not sure she knows fully.

I mean, she's doing the, you know, she got the watch out, whatever.

And then I mentioned, well, she's on all fours.

And the doctor's like, come in.

Just do you know the way?

I was like, I got I know the way.

And so we come in and it's like 5 30 in the morning, and we're met by a nurse, probably on the end of her shift, and she probably was ready to be done.

And uh Natalie has a contraction, like, you know, bends over or whatever.

And I think the words were something like, Oh, it doesn't hurt that bad.

Not from me.

From from the the nurse lady, and Natalie and I are like, Can we transition somewhere else?

And so, anyhow, thankfully, her shift ends, and we get the world's best um nurse next.

And we get her for all of her 15-hour shift, or Lori was her name.

Yeah, she was fantastic.

And finally, I hear the words, oh, I mean, when I say finally, I mean like hours into it, because it's the first one, right?

The first one's always or stubborn coming out.

And I hear, uh, oh, she's in transition.

And I'm like, what does that mean?

Transition.

And it means that the baby's getting ready to come.

Birth is getting ready to happen.

She's in transition.

So I was thinking about that as I was pondering, okay, I feel like we're we're now in transition.

We're we're positioned for birth to happen.

And so that's why we're we're calling August 30th the grand opening um Sunday mornings, because it's like the the grand birth.

It's the grand the grand opening of transition.

And um, you know, we've been carrying God's purpose and his promise as a church for some time now to impact our community, to do our part uh in this region.

And now, yeah, entering this place of next phase to move from maybe like invisibility to more visibility.

And so what goes into that?

And so I just kind of want to call all hands on deck, prayerfully, resourcefully, to say, hey, there's there's an opportunity here to transition well.

Um, and you know, birth doesn't happen automatic on its own.

There's a midwife, there's uh a staff, there's a baby catcher, as it's well called, uh, to help facilitate and pull out and get in position and all of that.

And so I really see all of our role um as this is your home, this is your community that you have been planted in by God sovereignly to be the people of God on the planet in this piece of time on the earth, uh, to say, okay, what does it look like to be part of the transitioning team?

And I know God is faithful.

I've been personally reviewing my history with God, which is a good thing for all of us to do from time to time, probably with a pen in hand, and find that he's never been early.

He's never been late, even though I've accused him of being late before.

Um, and and he's right, yeah, right in the right spot on time.

And so I just remind us all that God's timing is perfect for us, for us, and for your life as well, wherever that finds you.

And so there's a scripture I want to put before us tonight.

It's uh it's in Leviticus.

There you go, um, chapter six, and it's it's uh it's a good one.

And I don't know if you read it this morning or not, you're reading time, but we're gonna get into it right now.

And I believe it's very telling of where we're at as a community.

It's what uh God told the Levites, the priest of the community, and he says this about the fire on the altar.

Verse 12 the fire on the altar must be kept burning.

It must not go out.

Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it.

And again, if you didn't hear him the first time, verse 13, the fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously, it must not go out.

And this is uh the commandment specifically giving to the to the Levitical tribe that would tend to the altar of the Lord.

And it's worth mentioning that it's uh thought in Hebrew culture that the fire did not originate on earth, but the fire actually originated in heaven.

That as the offering was put on the altar, that the fire of the Lord consumed it and started the flame.

And now the instruction is don't let go out what God started.

So the truth is with your life, it wasn't just a good idea that you had one day when you woke up and said, I think I'll go after Jesus.

It was his wooing and summoning of your heart to him.

He was the initiator of the fire that now burns in your heart.

And now you and I have the opportunity and the responsibility to protect and add firewood and keep the offering fresh on the altar of the fire of your heart.

God initiates, and then we're invited to partner with what he's begun, what he started in all kinds of places in life.

And so get the picture every morning there to see to something that they did not start, but that they're to steward.

Every morning they're to go and tend this fire.

Have you ever tried to smoke a brisket before?

And you go to bed and you sleep for eight hours, and you're, you know, don't got a pellet smoker going on where you can like dial it in and direct it for you, like you gotta be up to tend it, like old school firewood.

Maybe I maybe I'm the only one, but I'm like, ah, I should have got up earlier.

I should have set the alarm for three and not five to go check the fire and make sure the fire wasn't out because now the temperature's dropped to like 180 and we needed that sucker to stay at 225.

Like, there is intentionality that must go into keeping the fire where the fire needs to be kept.

And so when the mandate comes to not let it go out and to keep it going continuously, I can't help but make the parallel that that's our invitation by God for his fire in your heart, and that it's not a one-time set it and forget it and leave it, but that every day, every morning to go and tend to the to the relationship, to the to the love affair, to the unification, to the communion that we just shared in that you have with God.

And so as priests, they played a crucial role in maintaining the soul of their nation, hello.

And really, as the priesthood went, the nation went.

How about that for a sobering thought?

What if your city goes the way that you keep the altar going?

What if there is a partnership extension from God for the people of God, his church, his bride, that says, God says, I have a dream for this region to know me, to walk with me, to love me, to be kingdom builders, but that's gonna go as well as the people of God go to pray it into being, to facilitate it, to partner with me on it.

That like ups the ante.

And the flame of the Lord indicated the health of the whole nation.

Um, do you remember the prophet Eli in 1 Samuel 1 and 2?

He uh he he he was absent at the altar, largely.

And it says that in chapters 1 and 2 that the flame of the Lord burned dimly, meaning it wasn't strong because they weren't tending to it.

And therefore the voice of the Lord was rare in that hour.

It was really diagnostic of what was happening to the soul of the nation at the time, because of the of of who the priesthood was and what they were not doing.

And we, as the church, we talked about this as the new covenant people, we're the new priesthood, and so we have the charge of our city.

And I don't see that, I don't feel like the burden or the weight.

If you do, then I would maybe encourage you to to feel it, to look at it a little differently.

I feel like it's a coming-alive moment to think that I can shape what God wants to do with his partnership as I pray, as I put my head on a swivel, as I keep an eye out, as I put an ear to the ground and say, God, what are you saying?

What are you doing?

And and get his heart in my heart to be the womb so that birth can happen with what he wants to do.

Like that's that's what I'm alive for.

Sign me up for that.

And so that's the picture that's being laid out here in Leviticus 6.

Um, here's another, maybe one you hadn't read lately, Malachi 1.

Uh, verse 10, it's a bit sobering where God is addressing the priest in the nation of Israel and rebuking them to the point that he's saying this, verse 10, oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar.

I don't want the useless fires.

Why?

Because God has a plan of the kingdom of God being known and realized, and the fire of the Lord has intention.

So we don't need useless fires, we don't need weak fires, we don't need half-hearted fires, we don't need sac uh sacrificial less fires.

There's a right fire, and so the Lord is paying attention to the flame that he lit.

God lit it, so he's paying attention, he's watching it, and he wasn't impressed with the condition of the fire at their hands.

He says, I'm not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will accept no offering from your hands, because they were bringing lame offerings, they were bringing weak creatures and blinded creatures and and less than the best.

And so he says, That's not hitting the mark.

And then the next verse 11 is this prophecy, and I believe it's actually relevant for us today in our hour, and he says this to the priest he says, My name will be great among the nations.

So there's something about the ministry of the saints and the fire on the altar and a connection there.

From where the sun rises to where it sets.

So that's the every morning part.

From the rising of the sun to the setting sun is a day.

And he says, Every cycle, every time that comes around, my name will be great among the nations, because the altar of God, the fire of the Lord, will be hot and known.

In every place, incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty.

It's the idea that across the whole earth, fragrances and fires will be lifted to the Lord that will be pleasing to him.

And it says that his name will be great among the nations.

Uh, that's people groups.

So you might be thinking like, World Cup, all the nations right now that I'm thinking of like, like, oh yeah, I know what Cape Verde is now because they played an incredible soccer game, and so uh they're a nation that maybe will know the name of the Lord.

Yes, let it be, God.

But it's not just saying the nations that are far away that you're thinking, how is that even really in the deepest place of my heart relevant to me?

No, nations are peoples, and we got plenty of people groups right here around us, and you know plenty of them, and you touch plenty of them.

And so the prophecy is to say that my name will be great among all these people groups that you interact with in every place.

I think it speaks to believers bringing offering to the Lord morning, noon, and night.

A regular rhythm of sacrifice to the Lord.

That that right there, if I'm being honest with you, which I should be, I'm in church, challenges me a bit.

Scripture uses in a lot of places this directive to always pray.

Now you try to put like tangibility to that, and you say, what does always mean?

Like, do I not have any other conversations with anybody?

Like, I hope you can discern what I'm saying through my prayer as I'm talking to you about what we're eating later because I gotta say it through a riddle or something.

No.

In fact, I think of like what Smith Wigglesworth, one of the older men of God, you know, said, um, I don't usually pray longer than 30 minutes at a time, but I rarely let 30 minutes of time go by without praying.

Like there's just this, I think the word is awareness.

Like this consistent awareness of where's God right now?

What's the voice of God saying?

I'm sitting in class, I'm working at my job, I'm going down the aisle, I'm at the park, like all the holistic part of my life, and just keeping a relevant ear out.

What's the voice of God doing?

Where are the opportunities?

Maybe it's as deep as, oh my gosh, I just walked into a love cloud and felt the love of God.

Like, if you're not aware, you miss that kind of thing.

But it's all over to be experienced.

You see this on the road to Emmaus, um, about the fire in the heart, uh, because your heart is an altar.

And when you decide to receive Jesus' offer of love, there's a flame ignited in your heart.

And so on the road to Emmaus, the men that are walking with Jesus, what do they say?

Weren't our hearts burning within us?

They got up close to Jesus and he lit a fire in their heart, and they were like, Our hearts are on fire.

There's a real flame that now they have the opportunity to tend the rest of their lives.

Like the whole life is changed because of the fire that's burning in the inside of them.

Um, Acts 2 is this prayer meeting in the upper room, when the Spirit is poured out, and what's the symbol of flame?

It's a flame above their head, a fire flame above their head.

There's a fire ignited when God comes.

Um, it was a symbol of what was happening on the inside of them that was seen over top of them.

If you look into the eyes of Jesus, Scripture tells us there's a flame of fire in his eyes.

Hebrews 12 tells us that our God is an all-consuming fire.

Um in the New Testament, we don't offer sacrifices of bulls and goats anymore.

We offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving with our whole lives, and we do that both individually and we do it together.

Thank you.

I love the togetherness of the offering of praises and thanksgiving because there is a synergy, I guess is a good word for it, that when one catches the fire, another can be like, I'm feeling that.

Thank you for picking that up because now I'm running with that too.

Um, I don't know if it was in here Sunday morning.

I was we were talking about uh Darren uh Whitehead, who was the pastor at Willow Creek Church for a long time.

He's one of the teaching pastors, and he lost a child, very untimely, very sad.

And he was like, the last thing I feel like doing is going to church and singing a song of thanksgiving and offering a praise to the Lord.

And he was given like some permission to sit, sit it out for a while while you recover, while you grieve, like totally understandable.

But it was kind of like this Peter thing of like, where else would I go?

You alone have the words of life.

Am I gonna go sit in my bedroom and sulk or something and grieve there?

I might as well go with the people of God and grieve with them.

They'll put their arm around me at least.

But he's like, I ain't about to sing a lyric, I ain't about to join in the melody of the song.

So he sat there and wept in his chair, which opened his ears up to hear the sound of the saints around him lifting their song to God.

And he said in his testimonies that it was the sound, it was the very thing that pulled me back up into life.

It's the power of praise around you.

And so this is the kind of sacrifice that we give.

And I believe that God is looking for people who frankly reject mere cultural Christianity, where we check the Christianity box and we attend church somewhere once a week.

Like that's not the fire God's looking for.

He's looking for people who will tend to his flame in their own hearts and collectively as a church in their cities, I think.

Really in the globe.

Like our the reach of the church, wherever it's positioned as a local church, has a far reach that I think if we could zoom out and see the effect we could have long-lasting and even now ever reaching, we'd be so amazed by it.

He's looking for those who will bring him an incense of prayer and worship.

That's what we talked about last week, and minister to him.

He's worthy of our offerings and our sacrifices eight days a week.

If we could do 25 hours in a day, we'd do it.

He's worthy of that.

He's worthy of it all.

And in Romans 1.21, the problem with mankind is described as no longer bringing offerings to the one they were in relationship with.

Because once upon a time it was Thanksgiving and it was praise, and it had turned into something else.

Uh, you guys have heard me talk about our Friday morning um men's group time that, by the way, if you're in the area and brave enough to get up in the five o'clock hour, uh, come on, we're at my friend Sam Hale's uh RV.

And so we were uh in his house.

It was less glorious, but it was still glorious, um, this past Friday.

And we are going through wild at heart right now, reading through um Eldridge's book, and it's a it's a must for a guy, and I'll say I've never read it before I'm at in my life, and I've I'd read Fathered by God, which is taken from it, doesn't matter.

Anyway, and so it's not the point.

So we're we're just like starting to get into it, start to peel into it, and uh we get into talking about fathers and forgiveness is forgiveness of fathers.

And it was as rich of a time as we have had in such a long time.

And you know where my head was at?

I thought, this is the effect of a guy consistently opening his home and getting up a little bit earlier than the rest of us and making a pot of coffee and saying, Come on.

Like we have a little text thread going, and I think his question Thursday night was, hey, everybody good for tomorrow morning?

Because he's got to know if he's got to set his alarm, get up to make a pot of coffee, you know, to host us and everything.

And so here come the feedback, yeah.

You ain't about to miss it.

We're we're on for it.

And then it took the turn that it took and the tears that it took.

And I think one guy said, We've we prayed for salvation.

For one of the guy's dads.

And his response was, huh.

I've never prayed for my dad's salvation before.

I've critiqued my dad a thousand times.

I've been upset with my dad plenty of times.

I've wondered why he couldn't be the dad I should have had and wanted so many times.

But I've never actually thought to pray for his salvation before.

And I was like, this was worth it.

And I was like, this is the power of a guy's sacrifice.

Like, it's not even, it's not even hard.

It's not even difficult.

It's like, hey, I'll get you together.

We'll make some coffee and we'll see what the Lord's up to.

We'll see where it goes.

And anybody can do that.

That's what it's talking about.

That God says, this is what I'm after.

I'm after sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise to me.

And so I'm excited about continuing to tend the flame of the Lord in my life with you guys until Jesus comes back or however long.

In the life of David, towards the end of his life, maybe you know this story, David takes a census that is really outside of God's will.

He takes a census.

The census basically was how many people we got in the army because we're kicking some butt.

And it was all whether it was like putting faith and hope in the army personnel, or if it was like David in a haughty moment of saying, Look what I've built, and look at the machine steamroller that we've built or everything, God was like, That's not me.

I didn't say to do that.

I'm actually your source.

Follow me, David.

And so he kind of gives David this, I guess, option because he loves him.

He's like, Do you want judgments coming?

Do you want three years of famine?

Or you can choose option B.

What's B?

Uh three months of fleeing your enemies.

Is there a C?

Yeah, there's a C.

What's C?

Uh three days of plague.

And David basically says, I just want to be in your hands.

I don't want to be in the hands of men.

I want to be in your hands, Lord.

Being in your hands, no matter what that costs me, is worth it.

That's the best place for me to be.

And so he chooses three days of plagues and like 70,000 people die at the hands of the judgment.

And so now, David, in response to that, which is why David was a man after God's own heart, because he came back.

Like he kept coming back.

He'd have these mix-ups, he's had these blunders, but it didn't take him out.

And he's like, I'm still alive, I still have choices to make.

Maybe dirtied as my resume may be, I'm I'm coming back again.

I mean, isn't that the mark of the goal of your life?

That even if you look backwards and you're like, man, I missed it.

I went that way, should have gone that way, and and this person's mad at me, and I, you know, missed that opportunity and could have taken that job but didn't, and should have taken that girl but didn't, or whatever it was.

Like, I have made a mess of my life.

Like you're saying I'm not cashing it in, though, because I'm still breathing, I'm still with it.

God, there's still opportunity, so I'm not gonna quit.

In fact, you should write that in the back of your Bible.

I will never quit, Jesus.

And so here you are, and this is David's story, and so he's at the place of the uh Jebuzite.

His name was Ornan.

It's a good name.

And uh Ornan is like, hey, I've got some land, I've got this really high spot on the hill, make a great place for an altar.

I've got oxes, I've got cattle, I've got livestock.

David, I see what's just happened in the country.

70,000 people dead.

Come on.

Let me help.

Please let me help you, David.

Um, I will give you all of my c all of it, so that you can have the most glorious sacrifice to God that the world's ever seen.

It'll be it'll be historic.

And don't you want a historic sacrifice after what you've come through?

And so David now has a decision to make.

Do I take Ornan's offering or do I take one that costs me something versus not letting it cost me anything?

And so David says, Thank you for the offer, but I have to decline, no thanks.

And David gets his own, and um the Lord today is looking for an offering from us, but there's sacrifice mixed in on purpose.

And it won't always be that way on inter eternity, but it's that way today.

And there's power in the sacrifice of your offering.

And just a yes in our hearts that says, Lord, I'm in, I'm in for spiritual family, I'm in for covenant relationship with you, I'm yours, I'm in for regional transformation, I'm in, God, for a refreshment of my yes to you, whatever that looks like, over the big arc of my life.

Just a refreshed yes to you and your ways.

And I believe that that the blessing we're in today is really from yesterday's sacrifices.

Like there is a lot of blessing around you and around us, and frankly, around the church.

And it's largely because of the sacrifices of the ones who have gone before us, and and some of us even being those.

And I'm not saying that we performed, and so God decided to bless us, but the sacrifices of the saints have opened doors that have allowed us to walk to where we are.

And that's that's worth not missing.

And so I think the Lord's wanting to take us um to a place of a fresh yes as we transition into the next phase of our journey together, a fresh yes to the Lord to say, I will pray, I will labor, I will sacrifice, and I will make my life a house of prayer.

That is the phrase that Jesus described his house as being.

And even in the Old Testament, it shows up of what the house of God is meant to be, a house of prayer.

And uh I believe that God, that what God does with us is going to be a part of the solution for how he wants to reach, say, the youth of our region that we've talked a lot about in here, that I know my heart's burning for currently.

I think God wants to make us even more diverse.

I think that we're to have influence in different socioeconomic places.

It's the rich among us, the poor among us, um, diversity in races, diversity in ages.

And I believe that's what God has as an inheritance for those that will make their lives a house of prayer.

And I believe this uh God wants to bring justice where there's been an absence of justice, and it's praying people that bring about God's justice.

Um in 2017, 2018, maybe there was an article written by a guy named George Otis, and he talked about Gen Z.

Gen Z is the young generation that's that's with us today.

In fact, I think like 25% of the earth is Gen Z in age, just to give you an idea of how big the Gen Z generation is.

We're talking like high school students, young adults, maybe early 20s at most.

I don't know exactly the parameters there.

And the article that he wrote about was that um this is the first demographic that is native to technology, and things like suicide is up 30%, and mental health is at epidemic proportions, and there is such a need for the gospel, and the younger you are on the planet today, likely the most case you haven't been to church before.

And that's the way it's tr trending, and so it's kind of like this wake-up call warning of uh of extinction of the gospel as we know it on the planet.

And so, church do something, and so plenty did.

I don't know out of his article alone, but as all the reports of the of the godlessness of Gen Z was coming in, there was a bunch of churches and people that began to pray about it, say, we've gotta, we've got to turn our hearts towards this and join with what God um has made them really for, which is to live for him and not to live for depravity.

And so they began to pray.

And these things like I think they called them Jesus clubs, began to spring up all over the place in high schools, in public high schools, prayer meetings at lunchtime, and it was largely responsible for a for a major sweeping of Gen Z coming to the Lord.

Uh last year, uh Barna and somebody else, I can't remember who it was, they did a survey and said there have been 30 million new followers of Jesus in America alone in the last year, and most all of them are Gen Z.

Like a turnaround shift because the church said, Oh, that fire's dim.

Let's make it brighter.

Let's throw firewood on the altar for Gen Z and for the youth that are among us today so that they don't get lost, but they become the strength, that they become the majority of the church in our earth.

And that that, you know, needs the dots connected.

That when you give yourself to something in prayer, you open your heart up to God for it to become a womb of sorts for birth to happen out of.

And I think it catches God's eye.

And so you give yourself to becoming a house of prayer, and the Lord says, I'm going to entrust what's on my heart to your heart.

That's what it positions you for.

To catch what's on God's heart, to have it put on your heart.

And Micah 2.13 is a verse we mentioned last week.

It's a verse that we should commit to memory.

As one breaks through, many break out.

It's an easy one.

As one breaks through, many break out.

As you, as you go with God's invitation on what he's highlighting to you, it starts to open the door for others to walk through it also.

Like the influence that your yes to God has opens doors for so many people around you to walk through that would have been closed doors had you not partnered with God in it.

One breaks through and then many break out.

That's the heart of what I hear God saying, this is what the transition looks like.

And so, courage be yours, big time.

I believe the local church is the hope for our nation.

I believe that through Jesus, the local church is the sleeping giant in our nation that God's wanting to wake up more than it's been awake.

Um, Jesus has described his people in a number of ways.

Uh, one, you know, the body of Christ, you have the bride of Christ, maybe the army of God, but carrying on what we mentioned last week in Matthew 21 is where Jesus says, but I want to put a title on what the people of God are by saying they're a house of prayer.

And so just been thinking about my own life, been thinking about your life.

And what does being a house of prayer look like for you?

What what what does it look like that you steward in your world where your fire is lit regularly for God to say, oh yeah, that's that's house of prayer right there?

What does it look like for our church as we move forward, as we try to hear as a group together, as a family together, what God's saying to move towards really being a true house of prayer?

And that's that's I mean, just join me on it.

Ask the Lord.

Like we're asking God, show us what it looks like, God, to be a house of prayer because you're you're giving that title to it, you're giving that label to it, you're saying that that's a secret sauce for breakthrough and what he wants to do right here around us.

I mean, I'm giving my life for it, and I think you are too.

So if being a house of prayer is necessary for breakthrough in that, then we want to do that.

And it's easy to take that and say, well, um, you know, I personally am a person of prayer when Jesus says my house is a to be a house of prayer, but I don't think that's the totality of what Jesus meant when he said my house is to be a house of prayer.

That like you personally are a house of prayer, and then you just come and be a part of the church.

I think it's that, but I think it's bigger than that.

And I think it's a picture of us all together being the house of prayer.

And I don't know that we're building a commune tomorrow and all moving in together, you know, and doing that or anything, but there is a way forward to truly be a house of prayer, to be a group of people who value his presence in such a way that that's a defining key piece to what and who we are.

And I think he meant more about that hitting the mark than anything else.

And a house marked by the presence of the Lord, I think is a house of prayer.

I think that's a barometer.

Are you a house of prayer is a is a body, is a is a gathering body?

Well, is the presence of the Lord?

We even talked about the name of the city in Ezekiel, when Ezekiel was describing all the particulars of the city at the end of all of the description that's like got your head spinning with all the math and dimensions.

This finally, and the name of the city, by the way, is the Lord is there.

Like that's the big takeaway of us, of our house, of whether it's in the Onion Creek Senior Center or in Sam's RV or wherever we find ourselves coming together, that the Lord is there, that we're a house of prayer.

Um, Ephesians 1:17, as my friend Steve, who was here with us last week, says, I got 15 minutes left and y'all got to listen faster.

Ephesians 1:17

Paul prays, I pray that you would receive from the Father the Spirit.

This is so good, by the way.

If I it's not original, but let me just pass it on to you.

I didn't write Ephesians.

Um, I pray that you would receive from the Father the Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you would know Jesus.

So essentially, he's praying to God to give you God so that you can know God.

I mean, the connection there, that that's the heart.

Like, oh God, would you help us to know you so that we can we can we can we can know you, that we can get get spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we can know you.

Um programs and various tools to do church with, to do life with, they're good, they're of some importance, but not at the expense of not knowing God.

I mean, he he's the worth.

He's worthy of knowing, of being a house of prayer for.

And so what we need is the spirit of wisdom and revelation that allows us to intimately know him.

And I don't know how you get to know someone outside of spending time with them.

That's the only way.

If the if the if the prayer is um that God would give us God so that we could know God, then the answer is spend time with him, because that's the byproduct of it.

Luke 18, 1, I'll give you another one.

Uh the parable.

Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they would all that they should always pray and not give up.

By the way, a parable is usually a riddle, and Jesus just comes right out with it.

I'm gonna give you a parable, but I'm gonna tell you what it is.

You don't have to even think about this one.

Uh that you should always pray.

There it is again.

House of prayer.

Always pray and never give up.

Jesus, I'll never quit.

And I think always doesn't mean occasionally.

And so there's a pace to a culture of prayer.

If you're gonna be a group who's has a house of prayer, then there's a pace to that, and that pace is regular rhythm.

And in the parable in Luke 18 is the story of the widow going to the unjust judge, trying to get justice from her.

And I believe, like I said a minute ago, I think one of the things that God wants to do with a house of prayer in a region, in a city, is to bring about justice in the places where there's injustice.

But the way justice comes about is when the righteousness of God invades the injustice.

But the Bible tells us that injustice never goes away from anger.

What happens so often, you remember the Israeli-Palestine uh conflict, um, what, last year, two years ago, whenever it was, when there was rioting on the campuses?

Like every time you turned on the news or flipped open the BBC or something, there was a new report of a new campus where it had fresh rioting and and and picketing and anger, and it's like there's an injustice, and like, okay, I can see the injustice.

And what anger wants you to do is to pick a side.

Well, which side are you on on this issue?

It's injust.

We can all see it's injust.

Well, which side are you on?

And it's like back to what is it, Joshua 6, Joshua 8, or something when Joshua is like, he comes up to the angel of the Lord, and it is it's actually Christophane, it's Jesus, and he asks him, Whose side are you on on this?

And the angel says, Whose side am I on?

I'm not on a side.

I am the side.

I'm the only side.

There's no me picking sides here.

The righteousness of the Lord is the only side to be had in the face of injustice.

But a lot of times we go to posting, go to our ex account, make our voice known, make our voice heard, and I'm not saying that you can't have a voice or shouldn't have a voice, but if your having a voice comes at the expense of you not being a house of prayer in the middle of an injustice moment and taking the injustice to the Lord, then then you've missed it.

Because as it's spelled out for us, um justice never comes about through anger.

I wrote it down somewhere.

Where is it?

Um, take take my word for it, it's in there.

Um justice never comes about by anger.

It comes about by the righteousness of God, and the righteousness of God comes about through a praying person.

The prayers of a righteous man are effective.

And so um it's it's for the church to pray and not lose heart.

And this persistent widow, she gets what she's asking for.

Really, there's two things in there.

Um, verse 6 of Luke 18 says, And the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says, and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?

There's that picture again, by the way, of keeping the altar hot day and night, more like continuously.

Will he keep putting them off?

Justice for his chosen ones.

Who are the chosen ones?

The church is.

What are they doing?

They're crying out to him day and night.

What is that a picture of?

Consistency.

So persistence is continuing to do something when faced with adversity.

And that's of some good use.

But that's not the main take-home point in the parable here in Luke 18.

A bigger take-home point is consistency.

And what consistency is developing a pattern, a same habit, going at it day after day after day.

That's really the breakthrough secret that Jesus is highlighting in the parable.

She got her way.

Yes, there was some persistence.

She was pushed back with adversity, but the breakthrough came with consistency of daily going after it.

And that's the picture that we want to build upon as we move into and become a house of prayer.

Um, and then verse 8, I tell you, he will see that they get justice and get it quickly.

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

It's really an end times picture here that when Jesus comes back, the chosen ones that they just talked about, the church, will he find them practicing being a house of prayer or being something else when injustice happens?

Are are they picketing?

Are they doing something different?

Or are they being a house of prayer?

And James 1 says that the anger of man, that's where it's at.

I just had to get to my notes far and far enough along down.

James 1, the anger of man will not produce the righteousness of God.

And so that's that's clear.

We know how to handle injustice because they're not going away right now.

There's injustices in a lot of different places.

And it's it doesn't mean inactivity on our part.

It means ask the Lord, hey, how do you see this and partner with him?

Um I could totally get on a soapbox about I'm not going to do it.

I'm going to practice restraint.

I'm not going to do that because I promise it wouldn't, it wouldn't be good.

But I am fired up about it, but it's not for now.

Um, okay, I am wrapping it up here so that we can spend our last few minutes praying together.

Um, Isaiah 56, verse 7 is really the first time the house of God is described as a house of prayer.

Isaiah 56:7

It says, These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

And that I think right there catches my eye more than anything else for all nations.

Like for all peoples, all who keep the Sabbath and hold fast to my covenant, these are the ones God is bringing into the house of prayer.

These are the ones who have access to being a house of prayer.

It's for everybody, you're included.

And I love the unification that we're seeing right now.

Um, anybody watching the World Cup?

I couldn't help it.

Anybody watching, Natalie has a Mexico jersey on.

Raise your hand again.

Let me just see if you're watching.

Spencer watching it, Brandy, okay?

Miguel, you guys are watching World Cup, okay.

I know, I know.

I know, I know.

Mexico plays in 40 minutes.

Stick around, help us put stuff back in the trailer.

We'll see if we can make record time.

I saw when Portugal beat Croatia the other day.

This is Cristiano Ronaldo's team, you know, and who's the Croatian player?

Uh is that okay, I can't say it, but I'm glad you could.

Um, and this is like his last World Cup because he's on the backside of age for sports in this capacity.

And you see Ronaldo like giving him a hug afterwards, and he's just weeping.

He's just crazy because he's lost.

Yeah, I think they're teammates, right?

Like, is it on whatever league they play in, the Spanish League or something?

Anyway, and like I just I don't know, maybe I'm looking into it too deeply.

Give me some grace here.

I'm like, that's a prophetic picture of what God wants to do with the nations.

Like the unification of togetherness and and inclusivity and compassion for one another.

And so, just like as the world's on pause, at least my world's on pause right now, and we're like celebrating the healing of the globe, like, okay, come on with your hyperboles, whatever, it seems significant to me.

It feels powerful to me.

And um I I just feel like, yeah, there's there's potential.

Like, like as we were thinking about transitioning into the next phase of what we're up to, just feel the current of God pulling us on into what he's actually doing in the earth today.

Like it's really hopeful.

It's not despairing, it's opportunistic, it's optimistic, and we're gonna win at it and it's gonna be amazing.

And so the joy part, you know, it says that there's um joy in the house of the Lord in Isaiah 56.

Uh, house of prayer is the presence of God.

The presence of God is where the fullness of joy is, and what happens when there's joy, Deanna, what happens when there's joy are what do we get?

We get strong, we get strength.

Deanna's such a teacher, she's always like rattling stuff off about joy.

Um, how's that for some spiritual math for you?

Like, I don't know if when you think about house of prayer, if you think about joy, but you should.

If your thought is, oh, deep groans, intercession, yeah, there's that in it.

But you gotta infuse that that's in it with joy, because joy is really the superpower of the whole thing.

And so, oh God, let us be a house of prayer that is fueled by the joy of the Lord to see the breakthrough of the kingdom of God come, at least in our region where we're responsible for, the streets that we walk, and let that go even further and deeper in Jesus' name.

You got five minutes.

So I want you to find somebody and keep in stride.

We may not always do this, but while we're at night times, we're doing this where we pray together.

I think it's part of our culture.

We'll probably do it a lot.

Uh, you're in training, by the way, to be part of the tray the prayer team, not just in the church gatherings, but in your world everywhere.

So you gotta learn to pray for the person next to you because it's coming at you from every angle.

So find somebody, maybe a somebody, maybe two somebody, and why don't you just pray for whatever God puts on your heart from any of this tonight?

But I would say uh a fresh yes to the Lord feels pretty simple.

And that whole spirit of wisdom and revelation, like that that you would have a heightened awareness in your sensitivity.

Like lay a hand on the person that you grew up up with and just bless them with that.

Go for it.

You got four minutes.

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