The Get To-Do | 1-4-2026

So today my, my corny title QQ corny title is the get to and I

don't think we, I don't think we as Christians dwell enough on

the get to of Christianity, right?

So we're going to talk about prayer today.

And Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and any other any other

of the little gods out there, they require prayer, right?

They require sacrifice. They require Muslims pray five

times a day On each occasion, worshippers stand facing the

holy kebab and Mecca in Mecca and perform the steps of the

Salah as taught by the Prophet Muhammad.

Sounds like something you want to do, right?

Sounds like a sounds more like a have to than to get to.

So why, why is Christians do we get a really dwell on the fact

that we just get to pray and how is it and how, how important is

it to God that we just get to right?

So we'll, we'll be, we're going to be all over the word today.

Our anchor verse is going to be in Exodus 40 if you guys want to

turn there, but we'll start with some prayers.

So Lord, I just thank you for everybody here.

I thank you for this time. Lord, I thank you for all that

you've done for us. I thank you that you've given us

a road map and guidance and Lord that your word does just tell us

what to do. And Lord, that you would speak

to me and that you would speak through me.

Lord that you would be be here in our midst.

I'm speaking to hearts, Lord, guiding and directing.

I pray all this in Jesus name. So Jesus just on the Muslim side

of the thing and the and the repeating the same thing over

and over again. Matthew 67, Jesus says and when

you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do,

for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

So we talked about this the end of last year, Genesis 3/8

through 10, it says, and they heard the sound of the Lord God

walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of

the Lord among the trees of the garden.

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you?

So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid

because I was naked and I hid myself.

So the whole point of, of the word of God of the Bible from

from Genesis to Revelation is for God to get back to this

point with his with his children.

This this leads you to believe verse 8 God walking in the

garden in the cool of the day that this was something God did

with Adam on a regular basis, right?

We don't know how long, how long before how many days that he had

walked with Adam before they fell if it was years or days.

But this was something that that God did and it's something God

wants to do with us. And as as we talked about last

year is the differences between US and angels is angels were

created to serve God, period. We were created to love God.

And in order for us to love God, we have to have a choice to not

love God. And it is he isn't willing to

force us into that. And so since the fall, God knew

the only way to restore fellowship with man was through

death. And when God reintroduced

himself to Israel, he, and this is an Exodus.

If as we go, we'll, I guess I should explain that part of

where we, how we got here and why we're on a topical study

instead of in a book. So we're going to be going

through the book of Exodus. And I still have some more study

to do before I can, I got to get it all outlined and everything

before I can actually start off on the book.

So but Exodus is an amazing place that God begins and

everybody when you read the Bible, Genesis pretty much tells

you where it's at. Right in the beginning God

created. But Genesis isn't where the

Bible started. And that sounds funny.

It is. It is absolutely history and it

happened 1st and it truly happened.

But Moses wrote Genesis down in Exodus and there was a 400 year

gap for the Israelites that the Israelites were a family that

moved to Egypt and then they were isolated.

And 400 years later the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob showed

up and explained to them all. And that's what's fun about the

book Exodus is, is God just tells them, this is how to

worship me. This is who I am, right?

I mean, he goes all the way through it like you are they

they are confused. I mean, and and they rightfully

were confused because they were in a country full of other gods.

And so all of that is just kind of a introduction, But you got

to ask yourself, what does this have to do with prayer?

Exodus 43 starting in verse 3, it says he took Moses, he took

the testimony and put it into the ark, inserted the poles

through the rings of the ark and put the mercy seat on the top of

the ark. And he brought the ark into the

Tabernacle, hung up the veil of covering and partitioned off the

ark of testimony as the Lord had commanded Moses.

So that's that's whenever you hear about the Holy of Holies,

that's it. There's the Ark of the Covenants

inside with the testimonies in it, which is the 10

commandments, and then there is a veil.

There's a mercy seat on the Ark, and then there's a veil that

separates that from the next place, which is the Tabernacle

of Meeting. And the Tabernacle of meeting

looks like this. On verse 22, he put the table in

the Tabernacle of meeting on the north side of the Tabernacle

outside the veil, and he set the bread in order upon it before

the Lord. As the Lord had commanded Moses.

He put the lampstand in the Tabernacle of meeting across

from the table on the South side of the Tabernacle.

He lit the lamps before the Lord.

As the Lord commanded Moses. He put the gold altar in the

Tabernacle of meeting in front of the veil, and he burned sweet

incense on it. As the Lord had commanded.

He hung the screen on the door of the Tabernacle, and he put

the altar of burnt offerings before the door of the

Tabernacle, and the tent of meeting and offering upon the

burnt offerings, and the grain so offered upon it, the burnt

offerings and the grain offerings.

As the Lord had commanded Moses. He set the labor between the

Tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and put water there for

washing, and Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and

feet with water from it. So what I, I'm going to keep

asking and see if you guys see before we get to it, what does

this have to do with prayer? And God had a plan from the very

beginning to get to this relationship that he wanted in

the garden. And in order to overcome the sin

or the the fall of man, he, he knew there had to be death.

There had to be a covering and the whole point of the

Tabernacle is and, and I will go specifically through it in a few

minutes, but this is a picture of Christ and what He does for

us in Revelation 13, seven and eight.

It goes through and talks about who the enemy can and can't

touch. And it was granted to him to

make war with the Saints and to overcome them.

And the authority was given to him over every tribe, every

tongue, and every nation. And all who dwell on the earth

will worship him whose name have been written in the book of

life. Sorry, I missed somewhere, I

lost a word whose name have been have not been written.

There it is, whose name have not been written in the book of

life, of the Lamb slain from the foundations of the earth.

So in Revelation, what it's saying is, is that Satan and his

minions have control and power to manipulate and run ragged

everybody except those whose names have been written in the

book of life of the Lamb that was slain from the foundations

of the world. So in the Tabernacle, lambs were

brought to the altar and the only way, the only way that your

sin was covered is by that altar and, and the death that happened

on it. And, and what it's saying is, is

that Jesus has been that since the foundations of the earth,

right? So it's as we talked about

before, is that this is not something God went well, now

they sin. Now I got to come up with a way

for them to have relationship with me.

He had this plan from the beginning because he knew we

would fail. And and the question is, do we

believe that to the level that that it takes And what it takes

is just Lord, I can't and you have to that's that's repenting

and believing in him. Romans 10/9 verses 10, 10/9

through 13 it says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord

Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the

dead, you will be saved. But with the heart one believes

unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto

salvation. For the scriptures say, whoever

believe on him, believes on him will not be put to shame.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him.

For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And it it is really truly that easy.

Do you trust in who he says He is?

It's in all through, all through Exodus and, and Numbers and

Leviticus and Deuteronomy is really shown over and over again

how big, how mighty and how holy the God of Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob is the I am. And he just continually shows

them how big a God they serve, how big a God they serve.

And, and in that, that holiness that they need to sacrifice in

order for their sins to be covered, right?

I mean, when Jesus came and walked with Israel and shared

their need to repent, and then they didn't turn when they

didn't turn. And in Matthew 23 through 37, he

said old Jews, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the

prophets and stones, those who are sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your your children together as a

hen gathers her chicks under her wing, that you were not willing.

God has been after his children from the very beginning and he

mourns for them and he mourns for all of them.

Guys, it's I mean, he mourns for all the lost and dying of this

world at the, at the level that he was willing to die for him,

right. And we've, we've talked about

that. We've talked about John 1930.

It says so when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said

it is finished and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

And this is where this is hopefully I get this all tied

together and you can see how much the Tabernacle matters

because what was finished on the cross, there was a curtain.

There was a curtain in that. We talked about the veil in the

temple at that point and it was ripped in half when he said

that, right? His mercy seat was inside.

We, we saw that. So now, so now, so in Jerusalem,

there's a there's a veil that's been torn in half.

And why does that matter to me today?

You know that that 2000 years ago in a city I've never been

in, a curtain was tore from top to bottom.

It's separated that separated the holy from the holy of holies

from the Tabernacle of meeting. How, why does that matter to me

today? Hebrews 85 says, and this is

talking about Moses who served the copy and shadow of heavenly

things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to

make the Tabernacle. For he said, see that you make

all things according to the patterns shown you on the

mountain. So the Tabernacle is made on

earth, but it is a picture of something that is in heaven.

It is a picture of God's throne room.

Hebrews 924 through 28 talks about Christ here, and it says,

for Christ has not entered the holy place made with hands which

are copies of the of the true, but into heaven itself.

Now to appear in the presence of God for us, not that He should

often should offer often, as the High Priest enters the Most Holy

Place every year with the blood of another, He then would have

to had to suffer often since the foundations of the world.

But now once at the end of the age, He has appeared to put away

sin by sacrifice of Himself, as it is appointed for men to die

once. But after this the judgement, so

Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many to those who

eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time apart from

sin for salvation. So there is that is a mouthful,

and there is a month worth of study in that, in that set of

verses. But the point of those verses

are what what Jesus did on the cross and when he said it is

finished. And in Matthew 27 it says, then

behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to

bottom and the earthquake and the rocks split.

This was this was a heavenly event, not just an isolated

Jerusalem event. There was now a the ability for

man in Christ to go into the throne room and talk to God.

So when I say we get to talk to God, we get to pray, I don't, I

don't guess on whether or not the Lord hears me.

Doesn't matter if it feels like my prayers are bouncing off the

ceiling, I get to pray. I he, he cared about my prayers

enough. He cared about, he cared about

our relationship with him enough to send his son to die and to

rise again on the third day to prove that he was who he said he

was. But the Tabernacle, the ark, the

veil, all of it is a picture of what actually truly happened in

the heavenly places. So Moses didn't know this,

right? Moses did what God told him to

do. God had rules and it required

death to pay for sin and blood to wash us clean.

So if we look at the Tabernacle and all of the little intricate

pieces and I'm, I, I love the Tabernacle and we're going to

spend when we get there, we're going to spend a bunch of the

time looking at these and enjoying them.

But when we break it down, Jesus on the cross answers the altar,

right? When you get to that, when you

get to the tent, when you get to the the outside of the tent and

you open the doors, there is an altar between you and going

forward. And he is that altar, right?

And and he satisfies what is required on the cross.

And then his blood is in the basin that washes us clean.

And then when you get into the the tent of meeting, you have

the lamp stand that it was a room that was layered in gold.

And so a menorah lampstand would have just made it bright in

there. And so the lampstand is a

picture of the Holy Spirit. And then the table of showbread

is bread is the word of God. And the altar of instance is our

worship. And and then we get to go in to

the holy of holies because the veil is no longer there and we

get to talk to God. So when I say that that we pray

and it's a get to, it's not a have to guys.

Buddhists have to do what they do.

Hindus have to do what they do. Christians don't have to do

anything we get to. And I say that I was thinking

about my usually when I'm thinking about things like this,

I think about my wife because she's awesome.

You guys met her. So I get to wake up every day.

I get to wake up every day next to Faye Birdie Adams.

And she's awesome, right? And I get to talk to her about

whatever I want to talk to her about.

And she has to listen to VUI. There was a whole thing where

she agreed to. And I get to spend time with

her. I get to take her in public.

I get to tell other people about her.

That's the God we serve, right? We serve a God that has that

desire for a relationship with you.

And so when we talk about work, like, hey, I have to do this or

I have to do that, guys, I can guarantee you God is not sitting

up in heaven going well, man, I wish they'd work harder.

It's just not his nature. You don't have any.

Any skill, any, any material, you don't, you don't have

anything that God didn't give you, right.

So when we agree to, to spend time with him, when we agree to

give it back to him, all of that stuff is just recognizing that

it's his to begin with. So there's never a works

mentality. I heard a pastor and he was, he

was, it was actually a good illustration.

So I stole it. So he's got a brand new truck

and said, so there's this guy sitting down in the front row.

He goes, so if I gave this guy my truck, I'm not going to give

you my truck. But if I gave this guy my truck

to use and he's going to use it for a few weeks and he's using

my truck and in my brand new truck and and then in a in a

week and 1/2 he comes over, he says, Hey, Pastor Jovi, I got

something for you. And and he hands me the keys to

my truck. I'm like, what are you doing?

It's my truck, but you're giving me my that that's not giving me

anything. That's how God thinks about

giving. Just so you guys know, right,

It's it's not it's God's already given it all to us.

It's his to use as we need it. Yes, he needs it used.

That is his relationship with us, right?

What he wants, he want your stuff.

He doesn't want he doesn't want your your obedience.

You know, I mean, all of that is byproducts to he wants you.

He wants he wants you to understand that Carl, that

picture of the Jesus and the guy sitting at the benches.

He wants you to understand that he just wants to talk with you.

He wants to sit with you and, and it was worth his son on a

cross to do it, right. I mean, it wasn't like it cost

him nothing for that conversation.

And so then for us to think that it's something I have to do is

heartbreaking to him. No, Do you understand what I did

for that? And so then, then I'm going to

get into with this. Now we know why we get to pray.

Now I'm going to give you some nuts and bolts, bolts.

If your prayer life is feeling less than but I don't want you

guys to take this and go so now that now I got work to do

because it doesn't work. But in Nehemiah, Nehemiah goes

through a process of just spending time with the Lord and

this is Nehemiah one verse 4. So it was when I heard these

words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days.

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

So get quiet and get along, right?

The Lord of all the things he is, he will not yell over the

noise, right? I, I am, I am as guilty as

anybody. So it's why you probably get to

hear about social media or just phones in general.

They are, they're, they're no different than money, right?

Their love of money is root of all evil.

Well, the love of phones, the love of technology will suck you

in. And it it's it's just you're

instead of being quiet and alone, you have, you have a

background of noise in the background of your phone.

Charlie Kirk shared a or somebody shared a video of

Charlie Kirk. I guess I'll say that.

And he was talking about why it's important to have your

Bible and not not use your phone.

And I've never actually mean he's better at saying things is

probably why. But I've never actually been

able to put my finger on why, you know, because your phone is

way easier, right? I mean, I can whip my phone out

and I can get to a verse. I'm, I'm quite quick at it,

right? I, I know my way around my Bible

app really well. The difference is when I have my

Bible, when I have my Bible, my Bible has a weight to it.

And the only thing, but shockingly, the only thing I do

in my Bible is, is read it and take notes, right?

This is what I'm doing when I'm in my Bible.

Anybody, the only thing you do is on your phone is read your

Bible, right, The weight of your phone.

So it's, it's kind of having, it's like when you go to pray

and having a place that you pray.

Well, when you're reading the word of God, having a place that

you do that and that is in your, your Bible, right.

When you're, when you're on your phone, there are even if there

are not distractions like you've, well, I put it on

airplane mode, but just having it in your hand, your, your mind

knows all the other things you do on your phone, right?

And so it's God is not willing to yell over the noise.

He, he wants. I mean, and if you think about

it, you're not willing to yell over the noise, right?

If if somebody is talking to you or you are talking to somebody

and they get their phone like you're in the middle of a

conversation and they go, uh huh, uh huh.

Are they? Do you feel like you're being

listened to? OK, so the Holy Spirit isn't

playing that game right. He just isn't.

And and this isn't a this is not a condemnation on any of our any

of us, probably more on myself. It is something that that I

like. I have to put my phone off in

another place, right so that I'm not messing with it because it's

they play games on it and I waste time and so be in your

word, but get by and along with the Lord, open your Bible and

say, Lord, what do you have to say to me today?

You know, you get that. I mean, he wants to talk to us.

I mean to the point, like I said to everything it cost him.

He wants you to have that. He wants that relationship.

Verse 5 and Nehemiah says they said, I pray, Lord God of

heaven, oh great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant

and mercy with those who love you and observe your

commandments. So it never hurts to remember

who you're talking to. I mean, God already knows who he

is, right? So you're not telling him

anything when you're praying like that.

Nehemiah wasn't telling him anything.

It was just remembering who you're talking to that you truly

do get to talk to the Lord of the Universe.

I was talking to Mark after his message last week and talking

about the fact that I'd already had this plan and he's really

lined up with it. But if, if I told you guys that

I just got a phone call from the president and he would like me

to give him a call every morning and he was going to give me a

download of what was going on in the world and things that I

could help with and that kind of stuff, do you think I'd make

that phone call in the morning, right?

I mean, would you guys encourage me to make that phone call in

the morning? So we the, the president of the

United States is a big deal on earth.

God is a big deal everywhere, right?

And we, we have a God that wants to talk to us and remembering

who he is and how much power he has and what he can do when

we're praying is an awesome place to get to.

Verse 6, it says, please let your ear be attentive and your

eyes open that you may hear the prayers of your servant, which I

pray before you now day and night for your children of

Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children

of Israel, Israel, which we have sinned against you both my

father's house and I have sinned.

So remember that yes, Jesus died for my sin and he, he, he did it

once forever on the altar. But when I come to the Lord, I

need to, I need to be clean, right?

I need to say, Lord, what is there between me and you?

And I'll guarantee if there's anything between me and the

Lord, it's my, my issue, right? It's I've, I've said no

somewhere in my heart, Lord, I don't want to talk about that.

I don't, I don't, you know, I Peter, Peter on the roof when he

said not so Lord, you know, and if you, if you dissect that

sentence, it makes no sense. You know, Lord means I'm going

to do anything you tell me to do.

And then you're going to start off with no Lord.

So but when we're praying to to have that open heart, Lord is

there because, because guys, we are sinners.

We are sinners to our core. Our hearts are dreadfully

wicked. And so if you're meeting with

the Lord on a regular basis and you and he isn't pointing out

sin, you're not praying hard enough because there's something

that you got something going on, right?

It might be selfishness, might be pride, It could be all kinds

of different little things, but you got something right.

And then verse 7, we have attacked, we have acted very

corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments and

statutes nor ordinances which you commanded your servants.

Moses. Just always remember that our

dirt isn't hidden right? I, I, I say that that's

Colossians 323 do everything as unto the Lord and not to men.

And I can stand in this room and I can tell you, you know, I live

that verse. You know, who knows whether I'm

living that verse? God, because it doesn't matter

if you guys think that I'm, I'm holy and above reproach.

God knows where my heart's at. He knows if I'm falling short,

if I'm ignoring him, right? And so having that open heart

with him, that's like, Lord, change me from the inside out,

cleanse me of my iniquity. And then verse 8 says, remember,

I pray the word that you commanded your servant Moses

saying if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the

nations. But if you return to me and keep

my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out

to the farthest parts of heaven, yet I will gather them from

there and bring them into a place which I have chosen as a

dwelling for my name. So it's important for us to be

in His word because there are promises in there.

There are promises in there that you can, you can pray out loud.

That doesn't mean God doesn't already know the promise, right?

You're not holding his feet to the fire suddenly and saying,

Lord, you said you have to do it.

He knows what he promises, but it's good for you to know.

You know, it is, it is a, it is a solid place for us to stand

proclaiming his truth and praying through the word, right?

I, I do this, I do this quite a bit when I don't have when, when

my prayers feel like they're bouncing off the ceilings,

ceiling. And then I just get along with

him and, and go through the word and, and just reword it and, and

pray through it and say, Lord, I'm not hearing you.

And it's because somewhere in here, there's a disconnect and

it's in me because that's the thing guys, is that he's in this

room right now. If you gave your life to Jesus,

he's in you right now. And if there's a disconnect and

you're not hearing him, it's it's about you getting quiet and

alone. It's not him.

He's with you. He's there.

He wants to talk to you, but he's a still small voice.

Like last week with with Mark's study and Daniel.

I always say that, that that set of study or that section of

Scripture, if you guys didn't hear, he's going through Daniel

when Daniel started to pray and 21 days later Gabriel got to him

and said, so I started coming when you started praying and it

took him 21 days because he was opposed.

And guys, your prayers matter not because God couldn't just

snap his fingers and Gabriel's with Daniel.

God can do it however he wants to, right?

But somehow, some way, for some reason, he decided the way to do

it, the way to do this spiritual warfare, the the battle that we

can't see is through our prayers and angels obedience, right?

And Daniel's prayers matter. I mean, for whatever reason,

however that works, but that means your prayers matter like

that, right? Is, is that there is that battle

going on and we get to be involved.

We get to have those conversations and they matter.

And then verse 10 Now these are your servants and your people

whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong

hand. Oh Lord, I pray, please let your

ear be attentive to the prayers of your servants and the prayers

of your servants who desire to fear your name, and let your

servants prosper this day. I pray and grant him mercy in

the sight of this man, for I was the King's cupbearer.

So a couple things about prayer that to the Jesus's era.

So the 1st century Rome, if you gave your life to the Lord and

you are a slave to Jesus in Rome in the 1st century, it was it

was required by law for a slave owner to feed his slaves.

You ever you ever ask him for things and and wonder whether

he's going to give them to you. It was required by law to house

or to shelter his their slaves. And by law it was it was that

they were ordered by law to direct or give the slaves of

purpose. So my question with that is, if

a slave owner of the Roman Empire was required by law to do

those three things, don't you think just by default God is

going to do those three things, right?

He's going to, he's going to take care of your how you eat.

He's going to take care of how you stay warm and he's going to

give you a purpose. Now, what are we 9 times out of

10 when we're praying, what are we praying about those things,

right? And that doesn't mean that he

doesn't want to hear from us and that he doesn't enjoy any of

those conversations. But if every time I talk to to

Faye or every time Faye talked to me, all she did was ask how

are we going to eat tonight? How are we going to eat tonight?

How are we going to eat tonight when there's food in the fridge

and there's money in the bank account or where are we going to

sleep tonight? Where are we going to sleep

tonight? Where are we going to sleep

tonight when there's a nice warm trailer and, and a made bed,

right? What are we going to do today?

What are we going to do today when we have lots to do?

Trust me. My point there is, is that

that's we, we get hung up on those three things and God has

so much more for us. He has so much relationship that

he wants to have with us that he wants to talk to you about your,

your hopes and your dreams. He wants to have that that

relationship that is, is a caring father, a caring friend.

And it's it's something we get to do.

We don't have to go to work to do it.

As a Christian, we did not get saved into rules.

And so many religions out there are and all other religions are

rule based. You have to do this, you have to

do this, you have to do this and and Jesus says, no, you have to

love me and we were saved. We were literally saved into

time with our Lord. That's what we were saved into

is, is to be able to spend time with him.

Galatians 518 through 23 says, but if you sorry it isn't, it's

18 and 22, I'm sorry. But if you are led by the

Spirit, you are not under the law in verse 22, but the fruit

of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law. When you gave your life to the

Lord, that's what He gave you. He gave you love, He gave you

joy, He gave you peace and on and on.

And it's a get to you get to have joy, you get to have peace,

you get to have love. So as we, as we close today,

dwell on that, spend some time knowing how awesome our God is

that he really is truly that big and he really, truly does love

you that much that all he wants to do is spend time with you.

He doesn't want you following a bunch of rules to spend time

with him. He just wants to spend time with

you. So Lord, I just thank you for

everybody here. I thank you for this time.

I thank you that you're here with us now.

And Lord, that you just want to hear from us whether you would

guide and direct us through our week that you would put

appointments in front of us, Lord, that we would have

opportunities to share you with other people.

I pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.