A Sweet Fragrance to God // Exodus 30:1-10, 34-38

We're going to be in Exodus chapter 30 in our Bibles.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

If you want to turn there, Exodus chapter 30.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

The title of the message, A Sweet Fragrance to God.

A sweet fragrance to God.

We're working through a series I've titled Leaving the Darkness, where we watch Moses lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, into the promised land, through the wilderness, through the Red Sea, and into a relationship ultimately with God.

Out of the hands of Pharaoh, out of the hands of slavery, out of darkness, out of the world, into light, really into fellowship with God, into salvation, into, like I'd said, the promised land.

And this has been a fun journey.

We've been chipping away verse by verse, chapter by chapter, just scraping through the text, and we're finding a lot of great gold as we dig each week, just looking closely at the scriptures.

We'll cover verses 1 through 10 and then 34 to 38 in our text.

You kind of see the altar of incense packaged on the front and back end of this chapter.

Have you ever walked into a house and known something good was happening before you saw a single thing?

You know.

You smell bread in the oven.

You smell coffee brewing.

You smell barbecue out in the backyard.

Before your eyes ever catch up, your nose has already told you that something warm is happening.

You know, it's that great moment.

You know what I'm talking about?

When the bananas go bad.

You know what I mean?

And you know what that means?

Banana bread is on its way.

And so we take, you know, two bananas and open them up and smash them together and put them in the bread maker.

And uh yesterday morning before the T-ball game, you know, there we are, waiting for the banana bread to get done.

And Eden wouldn't stop asking because she could smell it, you know, coming up.

Is it ready?

Is it ready?

And we literally down to the last minute, waiting for this thing to get done, popping it out early so we can cut up the fresh hot banana bread and smother it with butter, and then yes, you know.

Smell, it has that kind of power, it reaches you before sight, it lingers far longer than sound, it can it can trigger memories, huh?

Smell something in the air, you're like, whoa, it takes you back, it marks a place.

And if there was one smell in Israel's priests' nose that they never forgot, it was the smell of incense.

The smoke rising in the tabernacle.

Outside the courtyard, there was a smell of sacrifice, blood, smoke, fire, burning flesh every day.

But inside the holy place there was this other aroma, the sweet, sharp, sacred, morning after morning, evening after evening, this holy fragrance rising from the golden altar, standing just in front of the veil.

The smell of incense marked the place where the priest came nearest to the presence of God.

The smoke was filling the tent right before, right in front of the veil.

And it was the fragrance of worship, it was the fragrance of prayer.

It was the ultimate, the scent of nearness to God.

And that's Exodus 30 before us here today, verses 1 through 10.

In the end of the chapter, verse 34 to 38, God really outlines what he wants in the altar of incense with the smoke, uh, what is to be happening here.

We're gonna look closely at it today as we have all of the different parts of the tabernacle.

We're in Exodus chapter 30.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

Can we stand for the reading of God's word?

We always stand for the reading of God's word to pay honor to him.

Remember whose word we're reading?

Not my words, not my opinion, not my story, not my ways.

Remember, week after week I'm just a delivery boy trying to deliver the mail.

Say what God has said.

I'm trying to point you to the text.

I'm trying to get you to read the text.

I'm trying to get you to understand the text.

I'm trying to get you, church, to teach the text.

Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teach them to observe all that I command you.

You should be able to teach them to observe what Jesus has commanded us as well.

I'm trying to create many teachers so that you would go therefore and make disciples of all around you.

Amen.

Exodus chapter 30, take a look at verse one.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

Moreover, you shall make an altar as a place for burning incense, you shall make it of acacia wood, its length shall be a cubit, and its width a cubit shall be a square, its height shall be two cubits, its horn shall be of the same piece, you shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides all around it, its horns, and you shall make a gold moulding all around for it.

You shall make two gold rings for it under its moulding, and you shall make them on its two sides, suicide walls on opposite sides, and they shall be holders for poles which with which to carry it.

You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

You shall put this altar in front of the veil that is near the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

Aaron shall burn uh fragrant incense on it.

He shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamp.

When Aaron trims the lamp at twilight, he shall burn incense.

There shall be continual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.

You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar or burnt offering or grain offering, and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it.

Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year, he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of the atonement once a year throughout your generations.

It is most holy to Yahweh.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

And now as we zoom in on this altar of incense, we pray, God, that this altar of incense, this piece that you've placed inside the tabernacle, that we would not only see its shape, the way it's built, but we would say its meaning.

You would teach us through these pieces of the tabernacle that you would reveal to us the spiritual meaning, the depths and the richness of communion with you, what you were trying to do, what you were ultimately pointing to with the priests, entering into communion with you, the smoke would rise, you would smell it, you would experience it, you'd be pleased by it, but something else happening there, a fellowship with you, God.

And I pray, Lord, that your saints, Lord, your people here today, that we would pray to you, we would seek you, we would find you, that our words would be like incense rising to you each and every day.

You would smell the prayers of your people.

It would be the sweetest fragrance.

You'd be moved by us, Lord, that we would be moved by you.

We would find ourselves in deeper fellowship.

Bless our time as we study your word.

Minister to us, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit.

We ask it now in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

You can be seated.

I want to show you the wide angle of the tabernacle once again, and then we'll zoom in on the altar of incense.

This is a snapshot that I took when I was staying in Israel for a little while.

We stumbled across this thing down at the south of Israel, uh, down near a place called Elot.

And uh that is the full-scale tabernacle.

Uh again, that was sitting in the middle of the encampment of Israel as they were traveling through the wilderness.

If you were to if you were to cruise up on the nation of Israel, God's people after they had left Egypt in the wilderness, you would see in the middle of their encampment this thing.

Like, what's that?

That's the tabernacle, that's the tent of meeting.

That's the tent where God meets with the priests.

Uh, that's where they sacrifice animals, that's where they enter into that tent, and the Shekinah glory of God fills that place, and they actually meet with the Almighty in that tent.

And uh, as you go into the tent, uh, we've taken a look at a lot of the different things in there, but today we zoom in on this altar of incense, which sits, notice, right before the veil, and notice the giant curtain, that veil, uh, that's what separated the holy place from the holy of holies.

As you look in behind the veil, there you see the Ark of the Covenant.

You see the two giant cherubim on there, those giant those giant angel-looking creatures sitting on the lid, which is called the mercy seat.

If you push back the lid in there, in the Ark of the Covenant, you would find the Ten Commandments.

You would find manna, a bowl of manna, and you would find Aaron's rod that budded almonds.

I love saying that.

A rod that budded almonds.

Just incredible.

Uh, but we're gonna zoom in here on the altar of incense.

One more picture here, you can see it, and there there is a closer uh picture.

You can see the um the poles on both sides that we just read about, and notice the holes in which the poles, all the little details, notice the horns in which they would put blood on once a year, and then obviously the top of the thing, all dipped in gold.

You see that?

Uh could burn coals and incense on it, and then all of the tools that the priests would use.

But this was sitting at the entrance in front of the veil before you entered into the Holy of Holies.

Point number one, if you're taking notes, God gives his people an altar for prayer.

An altar for prayer.

The first thing we see in this passage is that God makes a place for prayer.

Verse one says, You shall make an altar as a place for burnt incense.

It was not a large altar, it was not designed to dominate the room, it was small.

It was a cubit long, cubit wide, two cubits high, or kind of a three, one, one and a half by one and a half, three feet high, one and a half by one and a half.

Um it was small, it was precious.

It was made of acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold, had horns on the corners, gold moulding around it, rings on the side, so it could be carried wherever God led his people.

And like the other furniture in the tabernacle, it was beautiful, portable, and holy.

But the most important thing about this altar was not its size, it was the location.

Verse 6 says, You shall put this altar in front of the veil, in front of the mercy seat, here it is, that phrase from last week, where I will meet with you.

This is where I will meet with you.

This altar stood right before the veil.

Right before that veil was the ark of the testimony and the mercy seat and the earthly symbol of God's throne room.

So when the priest stood at the altar of incense, he stood as near as he could to come immediately into the presence of God without passing through the veil.

That's as close as you can get right there.

You're standing up against the veil that separated you from the most holy place.

Verse 7 and 8 tell us what happened there, that Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it every morning and every evening, or at twilight.

There you shall, there shall be a continual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.

The smoke will never stop going up.

It will never stop burning.

The fragrance will continue.

Anytime you enter into the tabernacle, you're gonna smell that smell forever.

You know that smell anywhere.

Very similar to the text last week regarding the sacrifice was continual worship before the Lord.

Now the question is, why did the what did the incense symbolize?

What was happening here?

Scriptures seem to point in other places to its meaning.

Was it just smoke?

Was it just a sweet smelling to the Lord?

Was it just to put out the smell of the burning flesh of animals outside?

All the blood and all the sacrifice and all the stuff outside.

It's like they gotta go through that.

So it's nice to enter into a nice war, you know what I mean, you light a candle, a little bit of potpourri.

Remember potpourri?

Nobody does that anymore, huh?

We used to walk, like, you know, back in the 90s and like early 2000s, you walk into every you know, homely house, used to smell of potpourri going off, little potpourri bowl.

And then I remember when I got into the, you know, it's uh what is it?

Yeah, yeah, the incense.

I guess you you know, you start burning your own incense, and you know what I mean?

You know, it's like it was cool to get the sticks, you know, a little setup and burn those things everywhere.

Was it just to change the smell of the atmosphere?

Or was something else going on?

The rest of scriptures seem to point to something else going on in the smoke, in the smell, in the fragrance.

Listen to the psalmist.

Listen what David has to say in Psalm 141, too.

May my prayer be established as incense before you, O God.

Lifting up my hands as the evening offering.

May my prayer be established as the incense.

Luke chapter 1, verse 10, it says, one day Zechariah was serving God in the temple, for his order was on duty that week, and as the custom of the priest, he was chosen by Lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.

Luke 1:10

While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside praying.

The incense is going up by Zechariah the priest in Luke chapter 1, and right outside everyone is praying.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Revelation chapter 5, verse 8.

Revelation 5:8

Kind of a nail in the coffin.

I love it.

When he had taken the book, the four living creatures, the 24 elders, fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

He's holding a bowl of incense.

What a picture.

Before the throne room of God.

And we are told, that's what I love.

You got to be careful with Revelation.

Everybody likes to take the text and stretch it as far as they can.

The best thing to do is always wait for the interpretation hidden, sitting in the text.

When it talks about the dragon, the dragon, the dragon, the dragon, it's great when it says, and that dragon is Satan.

You don't have to stretch the text to figure out who the dragon is.

It says it plainly.

The same thing with the altar of incense.

I mean, sorry, the the incense and the golden bowl.

Here it is, which are the prayers of the saints.

It tells us plainly.

Scripture interprets the picture for us.

The fragrance rising before God symbolizes the prayers of his people ascending to his throne.

God gave his covenant people a continual ministry of approach through prayer.

He made a place near his presence where intercession rose before him.

The altar stood near the mercy seat because prayer belongs at the throne of grace.

Prayer is not an afterthought in the Christian life.

It's not a filler, it's not the opening act before the real ministry starts.

Prayer is one of the chief ways the redeemed draw near to the living God.

Charles Addon Spurgeon had a prayer room under the floor of where he preached.

In the sanctuary, there he was preaching under there.

He called it the boiling room.

Down there, the engine room, the place where there were hundreds of people gathered praying for those attending in service that day.

And he believed that the prayers were the very thing that were the engine for this entire church.

And I believe that too.

We have a prayer meeting that takes place every single morning here before church.

And I do believe the prayers of the saints are being heard.

God is hearing the prayers of his people.

Through Jesus Christ, what the priest pictured, we now experience directly.

We no longer need an earthly priest to step in for us.

We have a great high priest in heaven, and because of him, we can come boldly into the throne of grace.

Remember that God has made a place for your prayers.

You are not speaking into the air, you're not talking to the ceiling, you're not sending wishes into the dark.

I really like even contemplating this.

If I step outside, go on a walk, go stand on the top of a hill and look up to the sky.

I like contemplating that.

Am I a crazy man looking at the sky, yelling out to the sky?

Or am I talking to God?

And does he hear me?

And if I bow down in that dirt, am I staring at dirt worried about ants going to bite me?

Or am I bowing down to the Almighty like the saints of old have done, like the prophets of old did?

I was talking with a few of the brothers about this this last week.

There's it's not so much, it's almost like when we pray, sometimes we're talking to the room around us.

But I do believe the front part of your brain, this glowing part of the front part of your brain doesn't activate until true meditation takes place, until the mind flips into another place.

And oftentimes we can pray and stay in the realm of what's happening right around us, but it is the moment in which we leave the atmosphere we are in and we enter into the throne of God, in our mind's eye, we are focused on Him.

And I believe it is a muscle and it has to be activated over and over and over again.

And I do believe that sometimes I forget how difficult that can be for people who don't pray on a regular basis.

I when I was young, I was in my early 20s, I was sent off in the desert of Mexico basically to learn to pray with Jesus.

I mean, the guy who I was with, he sent us off for four hours one time, said, Go pray for four hours.

And we have the time and the space, and either you're gonna go out there and pick grass and you know throw rocks and kick dirt, you're gonna start trying to commune with the Almighty.

And there's no one to impress, there's nobody out there, it's just you and the birds.

And so as you start to activate and activate and activate and activate, it builds that muscle, that mind's eye, that place in which you can enter in at any time.

And this is why the prophets and the apostles they speak over and over about this praying without ceasing.

This is not this praying so that other people can hear me pray.

This is the praying in which I'm full by the frontal lobe, the full part of the front part of my mind is fully activated.

I am locking into something else.

And humans are losing this, it's shrinking because they don't know how to escape reality, they don't know how to get out and stop talking to the person next to them in prayer, and actually start communing with the Almighty who made you.

That's what you're actually made to do.

But when that happens, the moment that happens, and you sense connection with the Creator, that He has actually heard you, that your words have reached heaven, even greater, you see results come that day.

Your mind is blown forever, and no one can ever steal those moments from you for the rest of your life.

Who can tell you different?

Remember, you're not speaking to the air, you're not talking to the ceiling, you're not sending wishes into the dark, and if you have been, or if you have the repetition of praying to the person next to you when you pray, or to other people in the room, you need the discipline of getting alone with God by yourself.

You start that repetition, you do a hundred reps of that, and you'll see your spirit start to grow.

You'll see the conversation with God start to grow.

You'll see the reality of being able to cross over, enter beyond the veil in your car in a single moment, wherever you're at, when you're actually praying for somebody, you're stopping and just saying vain repetition and good things to say in a prayer.

We're actually talking to God for them.

Prayer belongs in the rhythm of daily life.

The incense was not occasional, it was continual, it was morning and evening.

It was a picture of what God wanted.

This fragrance, this aroma going up to him every single day, all day, every day.

The priests in constant communion, the smoke was never to go out, constant connection, constant fragrance.

The people of God were meant to begin and end the day with the conscious reality that they lived in dependence on him, they were in communion with him.

We must not must not neglect the privilege of nearness.

Some of us would want guidance without prayer, huh?

We'll ask everyone around us for advice before we ask.

God.

We'll ask everyone around us for wisdom, but we don't talk to God about it.

We want peace without prayer.

We want help without prayer.

We want strength without prayer.

We want wisdom without prayer.

But God has given his people an altar for prayer.

You gotta ask yourself, do I actually go there?

Do I meet with God daily?

Is prayer central in my life or peripheral?

Do I live like access to God is real?

Again, this is a new epiphany for me.

I think because that was given to me when I was young, I thought it was a very natural part of the Christian life that everyone just entered into the presence of God all the time.

But I'm I think I'm realizing more and more that this is not uh this is not a regular thing.

This is not this is not a rhythmic part of people's lives, but it must be.

Because that's the whole point of the cross, isn't it?

The cross has broke open the doors of heaven so that everybody can now commune with God.

And isn't wouldn't that be odd that the door of heaven is broken open and everybody in prayer and churches are just talking to each other in prayer?

We're praying to each other.

God's like, hello, I did the cross and the door's open.

Why are you talking?

Why are you talking to the person next to you?

Why is your mind on them?

Colossians 4 2, continually steadfastly in prayer, be watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Jeremiah 33, 3.

I love it.

God's phone number if you ever want to know.

333, Jeremiah 33, 3, God says, call to me.

Text me.

Call me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and hidden things that you do not know.

Romans 12, 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Again, I think sometimes we think prayer is like this: you gotta do some like special, like, you know, you gotta kneel down a certain way, you gotta put your hands together a certain way, thus thee thou saith the Lord Almighty.

You know, we gotta do this, this big, like, no.

God just wants communion.

He wants us to be in constant prayer.

There's a great book called, I think it's called, uh, it's by Brother Lawrence.

It's called Practicing the Presence, I believe.

It's amazing.

The people would travel from all over the world to come watch Brother Lawrence pray in a kitchen as he washed dishes, just to listen to his prayers.

He was communing with God all day while he washed dishes.

He was the dishwasher in this monastery.

Ephesians chapter 6, verse 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

Ephesians 6:18

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Ambrose, the fourth century bishop from Milan, he said, prayer is the wing where the soul flies to heaven, and through meditation the eye sees God.

Ralph Earing said, prayer is a summit meeting in the throne room of the universe.

When we seek the Lord, we'll soon discover that he has never been far away.

Spurgeon said the goal of prayer is the ear of God.

That's it.

To commune with the Creator.

Point number two, if you're taking notes, God only welcomes prayer on the basis of atonement.

And praise God, it's been given.

We have actually looked at this extensively.

Why do you keep talking so much about atonement?

Why do you keep talking so much about the cross, the sacrifice, the blood?

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing.

Nothing but the blood of Christ.

Verse 9 says, You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar or burnt offering or grain offering.

You shall not pour out a drink offering on it.

So God is very clear, this altar was not for whatever people wanted.

It was not for personal creativity.

It was not for self-designed worship.

It was not for a strange incense.

No burnt offering here, no grain offering, no drink offering.

It actually says there, you can't pour a drink offering on it.

Don't do that.

See, one of the guys back, that'd be cool.

Let's, you know, we got the we got the scent going there with the frankincense.

You know, let's let's pour the drink offering on top of it.

You know how, you know, kids, you know.

They always want to throw something on the bonfire, you know.

No unauthorized mixture here.

Why?

Because again, access to God is never on our terms.

This is the whole foundation of the Old Testament.

God sets up the rule and order of worship and demands that the people fulfill it.

And what happens?

We can't fulfill it.

We can't do it right.

We don't do it right, we mess everything up.

You put anything in the hands of humans, they're just gonna mess it up, okay?

That's what they do.

You put it into the hands of Christ, and he fulfills it perfectly.

And that's the point.

The point was to show us that we can't do it and that Christ has done it for us, and that is we have why we have right standing with God.

Verse 10 says, Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year.

He shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of the atonement once a year throughout your generations.

It is most holy to Yahweh.

So here it is atonement on the altar of incense.

Remember in the picture, you see the blood?

The only drink offering being poured out on that altar is atonement, a blood offering put on the horns, and that is the key.

Before the altar of prayer could be rightly used, atonement had to be made for it.

Once a year on the Day of Atonement, blood from the sin offering was applied to its horns, not because the altar had sinned, but because sinful people were approaching a holy God through it.

This is crucial.

Even prayer depends on atonement.

Worship depends on atonement.

Access depends on the blood.

The golden altar of incense was connected to the bronze altar of sacrifice.

The sweet altar of prayer could only function because sin had to first be dealt with.

Prayer depends on the sacrifice.

Access to God depends on the blood given.

Israel's prayers were accepted only because God Himself provided a sacrificial basis for it.

And the incense rose because blood had first been shed.

The altar of prayer was sweet.

We love thinking about the altar of incense and the prayers rising, but it was not cheap.

It was holy.

It stood on the basis of atonement.

It all points directly to Jesus.

The only reason any sinner can pray and be heard by God in a gracious, fatherly way is because Jesus shed his blood on the cross to open the doors for us, to pay for the sin of the world, to push and take care of the sin of the world so that we could enter in.

We couldn't come in just as we are.

We're sinful people.

There has to be an atonement made.

Something has to die, something has to be punished.

And Jesus made that way for us.

And do you know that's why Christians pray in Jesus' name?

Why do we always say in Jesus' name?

Amen.

Why do we say that?

It's not a magical phrase, it's not a religious signature, but it is a confession of access.

We are saying, I do not come on my own merits.

I come through Christ.

I come because his blood has opened the way.

God, please hear this prayer by the name of Jesus, whose precious blood was shed.

By his name I speak, and all that I ask these things in his name.

Amen.

We put his blood, his name, his atonement on the end of the prayer, saying, the only way you're listening to my prayer is because of what Christ has done.

I ask it in the name of your son Jesus.

Please hear my prayer.

Amen.

You know, it's been this sleight of hand thing that says, in Jesus' name, Amen.

And new believers pick up on this and just think it's kind of a thing.

We just slap on the end of a prayer because it's what you're supposed to do, right?

And then the new thing, the the the you know, the new thing is to not say Jesus' name but just say amen.

It it's it's it's we have to deconstruct Christianity uh to such a degree in which we don't want to say in Jesus' name anymore because we don't know what it means.

And so we gotta just we'll just close, we'll just do the amen thing, slap that on there.

But forget that the whole reason, you don't have to do this whole thing we're reading about in the text today.

You want to give a prayer to God?

You better line up some offerings, you better get the blood out.

Your prayer's not being heard.

Hebrews 10, 19, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, that is why the Father hears us.

Not because we are elegant, not because we are disciplined, not because our prayers are impressive, but because Jesus is our sacrifice and our priest.

Never cheap, never treat prayer as cheap access.

Prayer's not natural access, it's purchased access.

It costs blood.

And remember, every prayer you pray has been prayed for.

I'm sorry, every prayer you pray has been paid for.

Prayer is not cheap, it costs greatly, it was paid for with the precious blood of Jesus.

Just think about that.

Every single prayer you offer has been prayed for.

Taken care of by Christ.

He has prayed for us, he is interceding for us, he has taken care of us in prayer, but he's also paid for it.

On the cross with his own life.

Never imagine that sincerity alone is enough.

We live in a time when people want spirituality without sacrifice.

Again, forgiveness without blood, nearness to God without repentance.

But sin is real, guilt is real, judgment is real, atonement is absolutely necessary.

And so, again, we emphasized it last week.

We'll emphasize it again.

Never outgrow the cross.

Some people treat the cross as the doorway into Christianity, but not the center of Christian life.

But you never move beyond your need for Jesus.

Every morning we need Christ, every evening we need Christ.

And prayer depends ultimately on what He has done.

I want to encourage you, please don't let guilt keep you from prayer if you're in Jesus.

Oftentimes we sin and we do wrong things against God and we say, I can't pray.

That's the best time to pray now, isn't it?

I need to go to him.

I gotta go talk with my father.

I gotta go make things right.

He's made things right.

The door's already open, it's already taken care of.

Has your father in heaven ever shut the door on you?

That's the enemy, that's the accuser of the brethren trying to convince you you can't talk to God because you're a bad person.

Yes, you are weak, yes, you fail, yes, your prayers are imperfect, but your access does not depend on the perfection of your praying.

It depends on the perfection of your priest, and he is perfect.

The older I get, and the longer I do this walk with the Lord, the more I realize he is less interested in the performance of my prayer as he is in a broken and contrite spirit.

A real prayer being offered to God.

Remember, remember the Pharisee on the street corner?

Said the big magnificent prayer.

Jesus says, God doesn't hear that prayer.

He's just doing a show.

He says, You know whose prayer here?

See that guy over in the corner beating his chest, yelling to the sky, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

Jesus says, God heard that prayer.

So again, and my ear tunes in to those who pray with a broken and contrite spirit, those who are really praying, trying to talk to God.

My ear, my heart lasers in on those prayers.

All of the vast words and all the things in this, I'm just like, dude.

I mean, bravo.

Spurgeon said, let your prayers in public be short.

Let your prayers in private be long.

And he was the most eloquent.

God's not, you know, he's not impressed.

We can't impress him with our with our fake stuff.

Now, if that's really in you and you're really praying, Nat, send it, man, please.

I want to hear the depths of righteousness.

I want to hear you being moved by the Most High.

But we gotta still be amazed that we can even come near.

We can't be casual about prayer and what what Christ has done to bring us near.

Do I pray like someone who knows access costs Jesus everything?

And that's why we can read verses like this, John 14, 13, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

1 John 5, 14, this is the confidence that we have before him.

If we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of him.

John Newton said, Approach my soul, the mercy seat where Jesus answers prayers.

Spurgeon said, There's no healing medicine in all the world like the precious blood of Jesus.

Augustine, the nature of the divine goodness is not only to open to those who knock, but also to cause them to knock and then ask.

It is not just that we can knock on the doors of heaven, but that we can knock and then ask the King of all kings to move on our behalf.

By the name and blood of Jesus, I ask it.

And that he would hear me.

That he wouldn't send a servant, an angel to answer the door.

Excuse me, who is it?

Sorry, not on the list.

See you later.

That God would hear the prayers of non-believers.

God be merciful to me, a sinner.

I hear that prayer.

Wow.

Martin Lowe Jones says, all the blessings of Christian salvation, none is greater than this, then we have access to God in prayer.

If prayer is holy and access is blood bought, then the altar itself must not be treated as common.

Point number three, and finally, the sweetest fragrance to God.

The sweetest fragrance to God.

Verse 34 to 38, God gives the recipe for the incense.

He says, Take for yourselves fragrances.

Now, I don't know these terms, so I'm just gonna say them, but they're they're uh I see staki and uh and galbanum.

Fragrances with pure frankincense, there shall be an equal part of each.

Now, scholars, commentators all say that no one actually knows the proper mixture of the altar of incense.

We would love to know that perfect proper mixture that they were using back then.

Uh, you know, uh quarter cup of this, you know, two cups of that, you know, and to kind of make the nice recipe and get this thing burning.

Uh, we don't know.

And we don't, everybody's trying to do the translation on what the spices actually are.

Now, frankincense, for sure, we know was a part, but the other ones, it's very difficult.

You go to the NLT and it's talking about the shells of mollusk, you know, and so we're talking about the shells of snails, you know.

There's all these different ingredients that people are speculating on is what was actually in there.

Verse 35 says, With it you shall make incense a perfume, the work of a pute perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.

Man, I love it.

You shall beat some of it very fine, and it shall be most holy to you.

This was no casual mixture, no random ingredients, improvised recipe, uh, no personal variation of expression.

I'm gonna throw a little bit of time in there.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

You're going to do what God said.

It was carefully blended, finely prepared, and expressed wholly.

Verse 37, 38, the incense which you shall make, you shall not make in the same specifications for yourself.

Whoever shall make any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.

You're like, that's a great smell.

I want the smell of the I'm gonna put a little right here and right here before Friday night date night, Shabbat.

No, you're not.

If you take that perfume and you try to use it for yourself, God's gonna strike you dead.

Why such seriousness?

Because what belonged to the worship of God was not to be turned into something common, personal, self-serving.

This incense was for Yahweh, not for private use.

Prayer and worship were holy acts before God.

The incense belonged to the Lord and was not to be copied or repurposed for common use.

You remember Nadab and Abihu?

Strange fire would later, they would die for disregarding God's holiness in this very realm.

They're like, let's put on a different fire, let's do some something else, man.

I got a cool thing I want to do, and this and we're gonna do it on stage and watch this, and we'll see how Yahweh thinks of it, you know.

God's like, You're doing what?

I don't care if you're sons of the priests.

He struck them dead.

You see the stuff that happens on stage these days in churches?

Unbelievable sometimes.

Like, no wonder there's a running away from the evangelical church.

We've gone way too far.

Strange fire.

No strange incense.

It wasn't to be used and abused at all.

God makes it clear it's holy, don't mess around with it, or you'll be cut off.

We've got to remember that prayer must never become casual or mechanical in our lives.

Vain repetitious prayers, I think, are more dangerous uh than simple prayers that you don't even know what to pray.

Vain repetitious prayers are no, it's a mechanical, uh it's a it's a mechanical doing, almost like a works for yourself to make you feel good, to you checked in or something.

But you're only like checking in with yourself, you're not actually communing with the Almighty.

Like it would better be better to say no, you know, mechanical thing and just go to the Almighty and say hi.

I'm just showing up today.

I don't feel super holy, kind of feel sinful and overwhelmed.

Can you help?

Send angels to minister.

Lord, do you even hear this prayer?

God is way if you just read through the scriptures, read through the psalms.

Listen to this, listen to the psalmist and his brokenness.

The prayers, it's amazing to watch the detail of what he prays sometimes.

I hate my enemies.

God, I wish you would smash their teeth.

Sounds like a prayer I'd pray.

You know what I mean?

Like we stay away from that kind of stuff.

But that's honesty, that's real.

We become boldly, we become as beloved children, but not flippantly.

I like the honesty from my kids.

I don't want performance.

I don't want them to perform for me.

You just come to me with whatever you got.

It's okay.

We do not turn holy things into common things.

We don't use prayer as a prop for our image.

Prayer is holy, continual, must be God-centered.

It has to be continual.

The priest offered incense morning and evening.

The very least began and ended with the day with God.

And we should do the same.

Let prayer become the atmosphere of your life, not just the emergency measure when things go wrong.

Just wake up and say hi to God.

You know, check in with the Almighty.

Try.

To some degree.

If you get a nice organized way of doing that, nice repetition, you got a prayer closet where you can go and bow down each day, or a hill that you can go and climb each morning.

Man, do you find your Mount Sinai and make it happen?

But repetition is very important.

Shouldn't just be emergency measure.

We gotta let prayer be holy.

Don't let prayer become rush words, empty habit, again, religious background noise.

We are approaching the living God.

And he sees through all that stuff.

Ultimately, let it be Christ-centered.

We don't come by our mood, our record, or our eloquence.

We just come by Christ.

It's not depending on us.

He is the reason your prayers rise, he is the fragrance that makes them acceptable.

Ultimately, church, don't neglect the sweet altar of prayer.

This should be the greatest joy of our lives.

If we neglect the sweet altar of prayer, we should not expect things to go well in ministry or in anything else.

Prayerlessness is not a small weakness, it's a neglect of a purchase privilege by the Almighty given to us, which we neglect.

Got to ask ourselves, do I meet with God morning and evening?

Do I treat prayer as sacred?

Do I come often?

Do I live like God truly meets with his people?

Again, prayer is the sweetest fragrance to God.

There is no greater smell, no greater perfume to God than the prayers of God's people, their songs, their words from the heart rising to their king.

A band called Leland wrote this song a long time ago called Sound of Melodies.

Says this, we who are called to be your people, struggling sinners and thieves, were lifted up from the ashes, and out came the song of the redeemed.

The song of the redeemed.

Can you hear the sound of melodies, the sound of melodies rising up to you, rising up to you, O God?

The sound of melodies rising up to you, the sound of your love, the sound of your love, that's what you're hearing.

The sound of your sons, the sound of your sons, you've won your children.

The sound of your love, the sound of your love, it's what you're hearing.

Your daughters in love, your daughters in love, you've won your children.

The sound of melodies.

Our words rising to the king.

Philippians 4, 6, do not be anxious about everything, but in everything.

What do you think that word everything means in the Greek?

Everything, yes.

Everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your request be made known to God.

Amen.

It's been made morning and evening.

Go to him in joy and in sorrow, in need and in thanksgiving, in confession and praise.

Come to God through Christ.

It's the sweetest fragrance to God.

That's all that he wants in the universe.

He doesn't need another universe.

He just wants his people to be near to him.

That's it.

John Blanckard said this the real secret to prayer is secret prayer.

Let's pray.

Lord, we turn to you now.

Jesus, you showed us the secret to prayer in Mark chapter 1, verse 35.

Mark 1:35

You got up early before the sun rose, you went into a solitary place, and there you prayed.

You sought your Father.

Thank you for the example.

Thank you for the pictures.

And we pray, God, that we would be a people who seek you in the secret place.

We'd find you over and over again.

And that relationship with you, that quininia with you, that nearness to you, that fellowship with you, that knit heart with you would happen.

The relationship would be real.

I pray for everyone in this place, God.

Any sin in the way keeping us from being near to you, Father, that you would hear from heaven, that the atonement would be brought down, that we would see blood was shed so that all these sins could be forgiven.

Lord, please remove our sin, move it out of the way.

We look to the cross, we say thank you.

Thank you for the atonement.

Thank you for taking our punishment.

Thank you for resurrection.

We pray that you would resurrect our prayer life with you now, resurrect our relationship with you.

And that we would cross into deeper fellowship even in this moment.

We'd make you Lord and Savior over our lives once again.

We would repent and turn to you with all of our hearts.

We love you, Lord.

Thank you for the extent that you went to allow communion, to allow fellowship, to allow relationship.

Allow us just to talk to you in prayer, even as we are doing now.

We love you, Lord.

We bless you.

Thank you for hearing our prayers.

Use us for your glory.

We give you our lives.

We do it in Jesus' name.

Amen.