Participants:
Series Code: SSOS
Program Code: SSOS190009B
|
00:01 Welcome back...
00:02 before the break, we were talking about 00:04 how prayer is the breath of the soul 00:06 and the secret of spiritual power. 00:09 Prayer is like talking to God as to a friend. 00:13 I finished a book recently, it's from Susan Scott entitled, 00:18 "Fierce Conversations" 00:20 and listen to what she says, 00:21 "Our lives succeed or fail gradually, 00:24 then suddenly, one conversation at a time. 00:28 While no single conversation is guaranteed 00:31 to change the trajectory of a career, a business, 00:35 a marriage or a life... any single conversation can. 00:39 The conversation is the relationship. " 00:49 Now, when I first read this book and I read that one line... 00:52 "The conversation is the relationship... " 00:56 I just sat back... I said, "What a profound thought. " 01:00 Remember we said that prayer is conversation? 01:03 Now, many times we talk about our relationship with God 01:07 as though it's this nebulous ethereal thing that's out there 01:11 but in reality, when we're talking about our prayer life, 01:16 what are we talking about? 01:17 We're talking about conversation and what is conversation? 01:21 Conversation is our relationship. 01:24 In other words, no conversation... 01:28 no relationship. 01:30 So, when we talk about our prayer life, 01:34 we're not talking about this discipline or this thing 01:37 that we have to do, no, no, no, no... 01:38 we're talking about our relationship with God 01:42 because conversation is relationship. 01:46 Now, I was dating the person that now became my wife, 01:50 and she went over to Africa for a period of time... 01:55 about nine months... 01:56 how did we maintain our relationship? 02:01 Now, when you're talking about a relationship 02:03 with that individual that you're about to marry, 02:05 there is nothing ethereal about it, 02:08 you know exactly what is necessary 02:11 to maintain that relationship 02:12 and it was very expensive to call Africa 02:15 and I would go off to this local international food store 02:20 where they sold these calling cards 02:22 which was like 70... 80 cents per minute 02:25 and I would buy a stack of those 02:26 and every month, my bill was 400 to 600 dollars per month 02:33 and it was worth every penny. 02:36 Why? 02:38 Because talking to the person that was going to be my wife 02:41 and maintaining that relationship was so essential 02:45 because conversation is the relationship. 02:50 It's the same way in our relationship with God. 02:53 You cannot have a relationship with an individual 02:55 that you never talked to... 02:57 that you never opened your heart to... 02:59 that you never show the insides of the inner sanctum 03:05 of what's happening in your heart and mind, 03:07 if you don't talk to a person, 03:09 you don't have a relationship with that person... 03:11 the conversation is the relationship. 03:15 Notice how much this conversation is to take place 03:19 during the course of a day, Psalm 55 verse 17, 03:23 "Evening, morning, and at noon will I pray, 03:28 and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. " 03:32 In other words, prayer is not just something that you do 03:35 during breakfast and lunch and dinner, 03:38 prayer is something that you do over the course of a day. 03:41 You don't always have to be on your knees to pray, 03:44 although there are times where that's the appropriate posture, 03:47 but you need to be in prayer as you're going through the day... 03:51 as you're walking the streets... 03:53 as you're going about your business, 03:55 as you're having a critical conversation with a co-worker, 03:58 you can be uplifting your heart to God in prayer 04:01 and saying, "Lord, help me to have the words 04:03 in this conversation. " 04:05 You're conversing with God as to a friend 04:08 and the beauty of our conversation with God 04:10 is that God is available any time... any place... 04:14 His appointment book and His schedule 04:17 is always open... we can talk with the King of the kings 04:20 and the Lord of lords at any point of our day, 04:25 evening, morning and at noon will I pray to God. 04:29 Now, I want to share with you about one way that we can pray 04:34 that incorporates the important elements of prayer 04:38 and now, this is not the only way that we can pray, 04:40 and there's time for structured prayer 04:43 and there's time we just throw a prayer to God and say, 04:44 "Lord, I need your help... " 04:46 but this is one way that we can pray 04:47 that can help us in approaching God through the sanctuary 04:52 using the sanctuary as a reference point 04:54 and the first part of this is, you enter into the Courtyard 04:58 and the Bible says, 04:59 "Enter his courts with praise" Psalm 100 verse 4, 05:02 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, 05:03 and his courts with praise: 05:05 give thanks to Him, and praise His name. " 05:08 Sometimes, we can get into this rut 05:11 of just going to God all the time and just asking 05:14 and asking and asking and asking. 05:16 Now, there's appropriate times when we need to make "asking" 05:21 especially in critical moments 05:23 the primary objective of our prayers 05:26 but have you ever had a friend 05:28 that the only time that they called you 05:30 was when they wanted something? 05:31 How does that feel? 05:33 Well, here, God loves to have us come to Him 05:37 and praise Him, 05:39 and the difference between praise and thanks 05:43 is praise... is giving adoration for who God is, 05:48 thanks... is giving gratitude for what He does. 05:52 Both of them are essential 05:54 but which one do you think is more appreciative to God? 05:58 If I go to my wife and I say, 05:59 "Thank you for cooking the wonderful dinner, 06:01 thank you for what you did?" 06:02 I'm sure she'd be... have gratitude for that... 06:05 be thankful for that... 06:07 but what if I went to my wife and I said, 06:09 "Honey, you have a tender heart, 06:11 I want to thank God for who you are. " 06:16 Which one do you think would mean more to her? 06:19 I guarantee, it would be... 06:21 "I have a heart full of gratitude for who you are... " 06:25 and that is where worship comes from, 06:28 when we are touched with who God is, 06:31 that is where adoration and praise come from 06:35 and I believe that God wants to bring us 06:38 from this transactional relationship 06:42 to a... to a true relational dynamic 06:46 from transaction to a transformative 06:49 relational experience. 06:51 Then we come into the Courtyard with praises on our lips 06:55 so, in our praise life... in our prayer life, 06:57 one thing that we can do is open our prayer time 07:00 by just thanking God... 07:01 "I want to thank You for Who You are, 07:02 I want to thank You for what You have done in my life" 07:04 and just fill your prayer time with praise. 07:07 Then we come into the Altar of Burnt Offering, 07:09 that is where we receive forgiveness of sins 07:11 and that is where we can say, "Lord, clean my heart, 07:14 wash me and make me new... 07:16 create in me a clean heart 07:18 and renew a right spirit within me. " 07:20 We can come to God openly and say, 07:21 "Lord, I'm a sinner in need of grace... 07:23 I want to accept You as my Savior and Lord of my life. " 07:26 We come in and look at Jesus on the cross 07:30 and accept Him again as our personal Savior. 07:33 We need to die every day... 07:35 not just in the beginning of our Christian experience 07:38 but every moment of our day, so, we come into the Courtyard, 07:40 we thank God for what He has done 07:42 and then we look at the Altar of Burnt Offering 07:45 and we accept Jesus again as our Savior 07:47 and Lord of our life, 07:48 we ask for forgiveness of sins... 07:50 we think of the times in our lives 07:51 when we have been selfish, 07:53 we think of the day before and we recollect 07:55 and we say, "Look, I am sorry for the ways that I've hurt you 08:00 by the sins that I have done... " 08:03 and I believe that the confession should be 08:07 specific in nature. 08:09 Now, there are times for general prayers, 08:11 but there's something that happens when you say, 08:13 "Lord, forgive me for the way that I spoke to my wife... 08:17 forgive me for the way that I spoke to my children. " 08:21 This is where we can come in 08:23 and then we come to the Altar of Burnt Offering 08:25 and ask for the forgiveness of sins 08:28 and we behold the sacrifice of God... 08:30 behold the Lamb of God 08:32 who takes away the sins of the world. 08:34 Then we come to the Laver... the next article of furniture 08:38 and we ask God to cleanse the heart, 08:40 the Bible says, "If we confess our sins, 08:42 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 08:44 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. " 08:47 We ask for God's cleansing power in our lives at the Laver 08:51 as we come into the sanctuary, 08:53 then we come to the Lampstand 08:55 and this is an important part in our prayer life, 08:57 the Bible tells us in the book of Luke 08:59 that we should ask for the Holy Spirit every day... 09:02 evidenced by the oil that is in the lampstands 09:04 and when we have the Holy Spirit, 09:06 we have the fruit of the Spirit as well. 09:09 We can ask for the fruit of the Spirit 09:11 of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, 09:15 goodness, faithfulness and self-control. 09:18 I know I can use more of that in my life. 09:21 In other words, this is a fruit not a root, 09:23 you can't fabricate love in your own heart. 09:26 You can't fabricate gentleness in your own heart 09:28 but you can ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you 09:31 and when the Holy Spirit comes in, 09:33 these are the natural outgrowths, 09:35 the natural result of a Spirit-filled life. 09:38 So, every single day as you come in your prayer life, 09:43 you can ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you 09:45 each and every day... an important element of prayer. 09:49 Then we come to the next article of furniture... 09:52 the Table of Shewbread... and we feed on the Word... 09:55 Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 16 says, 09:57 "When your words came, I ate them; 09:59 and they were in my mouth... 10:01 my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear Your name, 10:06 O LORD God Almighty. " 10:08 And this is a good time to pause in your devotional life, 10:11 feed on the Word... 10:13 spend time reading and meditating 10:16 on the words of life. 10:18 Then you come to the next article of furniture, 10:20 you come to the Altar of Incense, 10:22 and this is where you have intercessory prayer... 10:25 Psalm 141 verse 2 says, 10:27 "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before Thee. " 10:31 This is where you can go through the list of people 10:34 that you are praying for 10:36 and ask God to intervene in their life. 10:40 Ask God to... to put forth His angels 10:44 to surround that individual that you are praying for. 10:47 Our prayers should not just be about ourselves... 10:50 we should pray for others. 10:52 We should have a list of people 10:55 that we pray for on a daily basis. 10:58 Our family members that we want to be in the kingdom 11:00 and there's something about intercessory prayer 11:03 that is so beautiful. 11:05 In other words, I believe that intercessory prayer 11:10 gives God permission to move above and beyond 11:14 in the scheme of the great controversy, 11:17 that He would normally be able 11:19 unless He has authorization. 11:21 In other words, 11:23 when you pray for another individual, 11:25 God has special authorization to move in that person's life 11:31 above and beyond what He normally would be able. 11:34 Then we come to the last article of furniture. 11:37 The Ark of the Covenant. 11:38 Inside the Ark of the Covenant was the Law of Love, 11:42 Romans chapter 13 verse 10 says, 11:45 "Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. " 11:50 We come into the Most Holy Place and there we say, 11:55 "Lord, I don't want You to write Your law on tablets of stone 12:00 but I want You to write them on the tablets of my heart. " 12:04 And God says, "I will do this thing... 12:07 I will be the One that transforms your character... " 12:10 and you say, "Lord, just like Adam and Eve 12:12 had the law of God on the tablets of their hearts, 12:16 I want You to do the same for me in my life today. " 12:20 So, we can use the sanctuary as a reference point in our minds 12:25 to enter the Courtyard with praise... 12:27 ask for forgiveness and cleansing 12:29 and then move on and ask for the Holy Spirit... 12:32 intercede for others... 12:33 feed on the Word... 12:35 and then, go to the Law of Liberty... 12:38 the Law of Love and say, 12:39 "Lord, I want You to write Your Law 12:40 in my heart and in my mind. " 12:42 Prayer is the breath of the soul... 12:45 the secret of spiritual power, 12:48 we are dependent on prayer just as we are dependent on air. 12:54 I want to encourage you in your prayer life today 12:58 to ask God to create in you a deeper desire for Him. 13:02 Won't you ask God of that today? 13:04 Won't you come to Him just that the way that you are 13:06 and say, "Lord, help me in my prayer life. 13:09 Create in me a desire to seek Your face 13:12 and to seek it on a daily basis. " 13:14 Continue to study with us as we go through the sanctuary 13:17 as a model for understanding the work of Jesus Christ... 13:21 what He has done... 13:22 is doing... 13:24 and will do... 13:25 God bless you... and join us again as we study 13:27 the sanctuary, salvation and our Savior. |
Revised 2019-10-08