Okay, so today I've been laboring in prayer. for a message and have been doing a lot of reading, a lot of studying, and have been enjoying it. And hopefully, this message will help you to understand how we can really enjoy being in the Word of God, even if we're having to labor. But the focal point of this message is called the privilege of prayer. And I hope by the time we're done, you'll see that it really is a privilege. It's not something that is available to all. Everyone may pray but not everybody gets a prayer that goes through and that's one of the things we want to see is there's that prayer has a level of exclusivity to it. It's inclusive of all just like the gospel message. Everyone is welcome to come to the gospel message, but you got to come the right way and in the same way prayer has a way to pray and hopefully we'll be able to see it by the time we're done. Okay. I'll get it down in a minute. So my primary text is going to be Mark 11 15 through 17 and it reads and they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written? My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. So I'm going to give you a little backdrop of this particular scene. They were in the temple in Jerusalem and they were in specifically in the court of the Gentiles and it was under the domain of a high priest named Annas. And Annas saw the temple as a way to make money, to get power and wealth. He created what was called the Bazaar of Annas, where he could sell concessions. You can buy space to sell whatever you want. Sheeps, lambs, doves, pigeons. You can make money exchanges. You can sell oil, you can sell wine, you can sell salt, and any other of the requisites needed to go along with sacrifice. And they also used it as a thoroughfare, a shortcut. So you know, I got to get from here to here. Don't worry, just go take a shortcut through the outer court of the temple. So there was no reverence for the purpose of the temple. So here comes Jesus, and he comes in the house, And he has what's called righteous indignation. He has a righteous anger. And he gets to start turning over tables and he stopped people from even passing through. Uh-uh, go around. Go around. This house is a house of prayer. This is a house of prayer. So, and he called them thieves and robbers. And so what he did was he condemned commercialism and desecration of his temple. Now, any of us who pay a little bit of attention on YouTube on any of these ministries that are going around, you can see a whole lot of money-making, money-grabbing people doing it in the name of gospel. Many gospel artists have no regard. I'm like, really? No gospel artists and you like, you don't feel any reverence or regard. for what you're called to do, that this is really not about you and your money-making opportunities. This is about you regarding the God who you call worshiping with your music and with your ministry. So that was part of it. But I also believe they were stealing the focus from glorifying God rather than what it was meant to be. You were supposed to come to the temple and it was supposed to put your attention on the Lord. And the people were hijacking the focus. Look at me. Look about me. My money-making opportunity is what I want. Okay? So he was re-focusing the temple. It's like a consecration of sorts. First Peter, I think Peter probably leveraged off of this one commentary said first Peter, I mean Peter and first Peter said judgment must first begin in the house of God. So because the house of God you're supposed to know what your purpose is, right? You're supposed to know what you're called to. So he was going back. Let's go back to let's go back a little bit to the dedication of the temple and we can see what the purpose of the temple was, right? First Chronicles 7, 11, 22, most of us know this scripture. It's most often quoted probably in verse 14. When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, the Lord appeared to him at night and said, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will hear their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I've chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there forever. So here we are hearing a couple of things. The temple is a place where God and man meet. So there you're coming to meet God. You're coming for the purposes of having an encounter with God. It's a place where you're going to meet God, right? He went on to tell him that, you know, that it was about worshiping God, communing with God, focusing on God or refocusing on God and his will and his kingdom rule. So you hear rejoicing, you hear repentance, you hear revival, and you hear restoration. Amen? He went on to tell them that there would be blessings if they were obedient and cursings if they were disobedient. Now we're gonna go even back a little bit further. We'll take it back a little bit further. We're going to Exodus 25, verse 8-9. Now we're going back to when Moses in the wilderness, he received the tablets of the law. Now, this is the interesting thing, but along with the tablets of the law, he received a blueprint for a building, a blueprint for the tabernacle. And that blueprint, let's read it, Exodus 25, eight through nine, it says, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly. Exactly, exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle. And of all its furniture, so shall you make it. Right, exactly. So you had to build according to spec, according to the specifications. He gave them size and dimensions. He gave them resources, gold, bronze, silver, acacia wood, fine linen, et cetera. And he even assigned persons for the task. He didn't give them room for creative license. And no feedback was needed. We are not asking for your feedback. That should go there. No, that goes there. So you got to build according to spec. God gave the directive, but they had to co-labor with him. They had to contribute the resources. Now, this is where you think about when we come and we bring our ties into the storehouse. He told them how to build it, but they had to take all the things that they had gained in Egypt and contribute it to the building of a temple. So before he left, he provided the resources, and now he said, now you give to my building what I already gave to you. Don't sound a little bit like, you know, when we give our tithes and I bring your tithes into the store because we're building for God's intended purpose, his divine design, what he wants to do, mobilizing his people. So they didn't, he didn't magically appear out of the earth, you know what I'm saying? He say, okay, get, get Acacia wood, go get, you know, gold and silver. No, they had already gotten it because he had given them prior to instructions on taking before they leave, get from the Egyptians, All that stuff, and before they left out, they already had what they needed to do the work that he had called them to do. Okay? Now, I'm gonna give you this thing, and then we're gonna go into it. And this was something that someone told me in the beginning, and you may not have heard it, you may have heard it, but it's a good thing to remember in order to understand the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, because we are going to be a church who are biblically literate. That's the goal. We want to be a biblically literate group at a time when people are becoming less and less literate in the Bible, less and less concerned about the things in the Bible. This church prioritizes biblical literacy based upon sound doctrine. Amen? Not hijacking text to make it say what you want to, not using it for just like the guys in the temple trying to make money on your own, lusting your own greed again. It's about learning what the Word of God says for the sake of allowing it to apply to our lives. So this is something some of you guys may have heard of it. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. So let me repeat it again. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. So the Old Testament had types, shadows, figures, pictures. of what pointing to New Testament realities, okay? So there is no disconnect between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There's a harmony. It's just the Old Testament was pointing to what was coming down the line. You got to remember, this is a God, this is an eternal God, who's outside of time trying to speak to people who are in time, who are only here for a finite amount of time. So he had to use various authors throughout the course of time to speak to them eternal reality. You see what I'm saying? And so he even had to use pictures-type shadows. And then when it came down to it, then the revelation, oh, wait, now, I see what you was doing. So when you're reading the Old Testament, realize that sometimes it's pointing to a New Testament reality. So you want to do the research and understand. OK? So we're going to try to, Lord, help me. OK. Here we go. Now, here we go. All right, it looked pretty good, huh? OK, so when it came to the tabernacle, I'm not going to read to you guys all of it. You can read from Exodus 25 to Exodus 30 if you want to get the details of the tabernacle. Exodus 25 to Exodus 30, OK? First thing you want to notice is that there's a white linen gate. that circled the tabernacle. That white linen gate rested on brass nails. I'm not going to go into all the details because there is so much in the tabernacle construction. You got to remember, who was the designer? It was God. So he got a lot of lessons that he wants to teach in there, so I got to filter this. Other guys, we'll be here too long, and you guys will be looking at me all starry-eyed. We going to talk about so there was a white linen fence going around the building and on brass nails, which spoke to holiness purity and judgment. You couldn't enter into this tabernacle any kind of way. It was only one way in and it was one door and was one gate. There was a holy requirement and judgment permitted prohibited all from access, but through the one door. And so who is that one door? John 10, 7 through 10 says, so Jesus again said it to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came from me before are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, He will be saved and will go in and out to find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy. I came that you might have life and life more abundantly. Jesus also said in John 14, six, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but through me. So what are the believers response to that? You got to come through the door. So the S economical lie is there is not many ways. Don't just come any kind of way. There's only one way Jesus is inclusive of all who come to him but an exclusive of all who I mean, he excludes all who reject it. So in this time where everyone wants to be inclusive and don't exclude nobody know everyone whosoever will let him come but if you reject him, You're excluded. It's your choice. The next thing that I want to go to is the bronze altar. So immediately after you get through the door, you're faced with the place of sacrifice. An animal usually, I mean an animal, a perfect, unblemished sacrifice had to be offered. But let's see, the high priest brought the sacrifice and he killed it and took the blood. Let me read to you. Wait, I'm kind of a little bit all over the place, you guys. These were temporal sacrifices until the perfect one came. So we know right now that one of the things I want to say about the tabernacle is that there is, it's gonna point to Christ, but it's also gonna point to us as believers, our walk with God, the reality of our walk with God. So I'm gonna try to point out both those things. What it symbolized in terms of Christ, but also the believer in Christ, okay? So the first thing they encountered was the tabernacle, I mean, it was the brazen labor, altar, altar. So they took the animal, they killed it, took its blood, and it was used, that was the only way you can enter in with the blood of a perfect sacrifice, okay? So Hebrews 9, 11, 14 says, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, Then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once and for all into the holy place, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh. How much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 9 and 22 says, indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Second Corinthians 5, 21 says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So you come through the one door, but you have to come through the one sacrifice. You have to come through the one blood sacrifice without the shedding of blood. There is no forgiveness of sin. So what do we do? We have to accept the sacrifice. Romans 8, 10, 8 and 11 says, but what does it say? I'm gonna give you guys a lot of scripture as I go through these things to show the scriptural realities in the New Testament. But what does it say? The word is near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the message concerning faith that we proclaim. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. So we put our confidence in what Christ did on the cross for us. His shed blood. We put our confidence in His shed blood. Okay? So, what is our response to that? Once we accept the finished work of Jesus Christ, Then as believers now, I'm trying to show you guys types shadows and figures in the Old Testament that were concealed and now in the New Testament are revealed. So hopefully when you read New Testament, you're like, oh, that's what they need to try to hopefully bring on a light. So when the New Testament we are also sacrifices. We are also priests and we are also the temple. Okay. So Romans 12 and 1 and 2 says, I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, because he's good to you, right? He shed his blood for you. They gave you now access into heaven's holy place, right? Now you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect will. We now, in response to his goodness, in response to his death, now we die to ourselves. He died for you so you could live for him. He died for you so you could die to yourself and live for him. And so that's one of the things that Jeff was talking about. Once we're blood-bought, we're no longer our own. Now the life we live, we live unto the Son of God. So we accept what he did on the cross, and then we turn around and take up our cross. and we follow after him. I believe one of the commentaries I was reading was that the word altar means lifted up, ascended. What did Jesus say? If I be lifted up, I would draw all men to me. He's basically, if you put me on the altar, then I will do the drawing. Amen. The believers are also the new temple. We're gonna see this whole tabernacle thing is speaking to Christ. It's speaking about Christ, and I'll tie it all together as we go along. I'm gonna cover a lot of scripture, but. Okay, now one of the things about it, so when we talk about denying yourself, taking up a cross and following after him, this is a disciplined life. He's not calling you to be lazy, self-centered, unfocused, empty, looking for empty temporary gratification. We use a lot of metaphors in the New Testament, an athlete, a farmer, a soldier, athlete, what do you do? He beats his body under subjection. So this ain't no lazy life. You got to intentionally and purposefully Take, choose this day, every day, who you gonna serve. So you wake up in that morning, choose ye this day. So you wake up with your mind hopefully stayed on Jesus. And if it ain't on Jesus, you get it back on Jesus. Amen? So it's a daily denial, just like the sacrifices were made daily in the temple. Now we, I'm getting some feedback, y'all. We choose to take ourselves and we choose to lay ourselves on that altar every day. Crucify me, Lord. Let me live for you. The believer is also a New Testament temple. Or do you not know that your body is a temple to the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. OK, let's go to the next one. So once they get, now remember, we ain't even gotten to the holy place yet, y'all. We just came through the gate. We outside still. Ain't no roof over our heads. We out in the dirt. We out in the dirt. And so we going from the brazen labor. I'm brazen altar, bronze, bronze altar to the bronze wash basin. Okay, and so that is coming from Exodus 30 verses 17 through 21. Okay, one of the things about this one, I like this right here. There was no dimension. given for the making of the bronze basin. It could be whatever size that you mean. He didn't give any dimensions. That was the one he didn't give any dimensions. It was made from the bronze vanity, the compacts that the women had. So the women had to donate their compacts, which were shiny brass, to the making of this thing. So there was some vanity that was abandoned in the making of this thing. So you had to bring your vanity Throw it in, we're going to make a labor out of this. You're going to wash with this, right? Now, the thing that came to my mind was, and this is a wash basin, before you can even go into the holy place, remember what the word holiness means, separated, separated unto God. Let's define our terms. Holy means separated unto God. Separated from the world is separated unto God. Consecrated ones, you get the word saints from the word holy. Holy is the same word, hagios. So when you say I'm a saint, you may say I'm a separated one. I'm separated from the world and I'm separated to God. Okay, let's let's get our terms straight. So you had to come by way of this bronze washbasin, right? Women's vanity mirrors were thrown in for the creation of the thing could be as big as it needed to be. It could be as small as you needed it to be. One thing that came to my mind when I was thinking about it is that Satan In Ezekiel 28 17 says I was corrupted because of thy beauty and thy wisdom. It's interesting that one of the major success factors in this world is oftentimes is usually rooted in beauty and wisdom. If you look good, you can get some success out of it. If he's smart is as Steve Jobs. We can't ask him no more or Bill Gates. People don't care about your character, don't care about your integrity, but let you sing. And guess who used to sing back in the day, too, in the throne of God? Satan was the chief musician. So you think about it. You can sing, you look good, and let you be smart. We don't care about your character. And then you're looking at the congregation. Oh, he can sing. You look good and you're intelligent. Let's make him the pastor. You got a lot of people in church. They can look good, they sing, and they got some wisdom. No character. So that's why you're not supposed to choose people without having some type of qualification criteria. We got to see. Okay. Okay, you may have a gift. Okay, come on, but let's see where you at. You know what I'm saying? We have to work with you on your character. We know you have to be in this word. First of all, you got to know what it is, right? You know what I'm saying? And then you got to get in here got to live a little bit it showing that you really are about that life in Christ. Jesus needed no washing, but we do. First Corinthians 1, 28 through 30 says, God chose what is low and despised in the world, and Jeff mentioned this last week, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who came to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it's written, let no one boast in the Lord. Let the one who boasts boast to the Lord. So he becomes our Redeemer, but he's also our sanctifier. Now, sanctification is not instantaneous. It's a process. So you are not perfect when you come to Christ. And the reason why you come to Christ is because you're not perfect, right? So you come to him, you give your life, and you pay. You've got idolatrous ways. You've got idolatrous practices. You've been ripping and running, sinning and sinning. And now you've got to learn a different way. You got to come in and you got to know a different Lord because you no longer are on the throne and Satan should no longer be on the throne. You got to get in. You got to now come into the knowledge of who this God is. So getting into the word of God and doing you're going to do a lot of confessing. You're going to do a lot of confessing. It's, let me read this first before I go into it. Ephesians 5, 26 through 27 says, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. That's God's goal is transformation. That's why this whole ministry is built on transformation. We're not just saying, okay, now you say, now just do you and do you and live your best life ever. Totally unbiblical. but totally being propagated in most churches across the land. Believers must examine themselves by the word and through prayer. First Corinthians 11 28, we do this when we're doing communion, which we're going to do today. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. We learn how to Examine ourselves by the word of God you come in you don't go from 0 to 100. So if you come in and you just first the baby and you're learning that's okay, but don't stay a baby, you know, you know, I'm saying you don't let a baby sit there and poop on itself and roll around on the ground and you be like, okay somehow they're going to get to where they need to go to. You got to train that child, right? You got to work with that child. In the same way when new believers come in, we got to train and we got to work with them. You got to be patient with them while they grow in their understanding and their application and you have to bring correction. Well, we have to do that with each other too. So, 1 John 1, 8 and 9 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confession is a good thing. Confession says, you're right, Lord, and I'm wrong. Confession is saying, if my attitude is jacked up, Lord, please fix me, forgive me. You know, if my conversation is not, you know, there's a lot, and when you read the Bible, it has a divine standard. It's not a life that you can lead without leaning on the Lord. Turn the other cheek. Be slow to speak, slow to wrath, and quick to listen, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. How many of us have gone tick, tick, boom, and You know what I'm saying? Some people live in the tic-tic-boom. This is what I do. Don't come at me because I'm going to let you have it. You are not in the word. Get in that word. The requirement of God is what? That we reflect his glory, love, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. We should start to look like Jesus. Well, how do you look like Jesus? Being in his word and praying. Because now we're the habitation of the Holy Spirit. So now the Holy Spirit, take control, Lord. You know if I'm surrendering. Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil and he shall flee. I got to submit myself to you because not only does my flesh want to rise up, but the enemy is usually in your ear. And I'm not saying he's omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent. I'm not saying that. But there is a real spiritual thing going on a lot of time. And a lot of people get used and usually they don't come at you once. Folks can be very persistent. They gonna get you. Okay, we must also consecrate ourselves. We must separate ourselves. So this brazen labor is also a water of separation. Second Corinthians 6 14 through 18 says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? We are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, Go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters to me, says the Lord. That's New Testament. So once we come to Christ, and the Lord has done this with me a lot of times, a lot of your association may not necessarily go with you. I've had friendship makeovers time and time again because you get a lot of people who want to keep you stuck or bring you back to bring you back to Egypt. Come on. We're going to take it. We're going to take a bar train back to Egypt. Right? We're going to take the Egypt Express. No. That doesn't mean you can't love them from a distance. That doesn't mean you can't intercede for them. That doesn't mean you can't minister to them. But you cannot hang with them. What do you guys have in common anyway? That's what it's saying. Y'all around each other 24-7. Y'all hanging tight. What y'all talking about? What do you have in common? Why are you guys so close? I mean, I'm not saying you don't you can't come from among them in the point where you totally detached from but if you're growing in godliness and if you're becoming more and more consecrated, why are you so cool with everything that's going you feel me? There's there's there's a separation that goes on one of the things about this and I'm not going to read it. But when you if you didn't wash properly and you try to call yourself going further the Bible says that you would die. You try to go into the Holy of Holies trying to call yourself be a servant priest and you ain't consecrated yourself properly you would die. Now, we may not have the same kind of zapping kind of thing that went on back in the day. But how many sick, you know, I think in the communion, even when we read it, how many of you are sick among you, right? Because we don't rightly discern the Lord's body. Now maybe that's saying something specific, but there are some things that I think we reap because we are not obedient. You know, there is a suffering for righteousness and there's a suffering for unrighteousness. I can be doing the wrong thing and I'm reaping from that. I can be doing the right thing but still suffer, but it's a different kind of suffering and the only way you're going to know if you suffering for right or wrong is started getting this word and start knowing what's in the mind of the God who you call yourself, sir. Amen. You got to get into the word to know what his kingdom agenda is. Who is this King that you're calling King? Do you know something about his characteristics? Because you're going to learn about it if you get in the Word. You're going to know something about his mission, his commission, the great commission. You're going to learn certain things about his, what he values. A lot of us, we just celebrating people and all they're doing is just cursing the Bible, blaspheming the Word of God. And we sit up there talking about how wonderful they are. We're celebrating them and they're like, look, I don't hate you, but I hate your ideas and I'm not going to put you on a pedestal so you can pollute more people. If you're deceiving, how can I celebrate you when you're against the very God I serve? I need to intercede for you, right? I shouldn't be putting you on a pedestal. We need to put Christ on a pedestal, and I need to intercede for you. And if I need to, I need to tell you that thus says the Lord. No. Marriage is not the way you want to make it. Truth is not relative. It's not subjective. Whatever I feel at the moment is my truth. No, that's called deception. That's called delusion. And we're swimming in it now. People don't even want to talk about the gender of the baby no more. And when they come out, well, we don't know yet because we got to wait for the baby to tell us what it is. I'm like, come on, y'all. Where was we at? What did we do? I'm like, You know, what is going on, right? Are we becoming so detached from reality? I'm not dismissing people's struggles because we want to be sensitive to people's struggles, but we're now making a diluted culture where we're trying to say everything isn't what it is. It's getting crazier and crazier. So let's go to the next part. The Holy Place. Now we come into the Holy Place. Now, the Holy Place, you behold the beauty of the Lord. So you have an experiential knowledge that you won't get from the outer court. Now, the outer court symbolizes being in the world. And that's another thing, too. When you out in the world and you even trying to be consecrated, I'll come and be good. I'll consecrate myself to the Lord. I'm praying. Then you get to your job and your co-workers say, Rick, come on over here. I want to talk to you about something. And then before you know it all your consecration. You just got dirty. And that's what the symbolism is because they were wearing sandals, right? So you out in this dirty floor with these sandals on and you get dirt all up and down you right same thing. We're in the world. We read our word. We're praying but then we get in the world. And all this dirt starts to attach itself to us. And so then you have to be back, get back. Lord, forgive me. I forgot who I was. Lord, forgive me. I mean, you might have to do it a lot, and that's okay, because that fosters the renewing of the mind. Before you didn't, you didn't care. Now you care, right? So you have to pray 150 million times for the same prayer, then one day the light will come on and you won't respond the same way. Jesus says, how many times do you forgive? 70? 70 times 7. So that means that his mercy endures forever. So he says, if you confess your sins, I'm faithful and just to forgive you. So you coming in here, now it's not an empty apology. Well, I'm going to do it anyway. I'm just saying it because I don't want to get out of here. No, not that kind of prayer. It's like, Lord, I'm having a hard time. This is where I came from. I run my mouth too much. You know me, I'm a talker, but Lord, I'm still not trying to make that the goal. My goal is really to become like you. Forgive me, or I don't care sometimes that you want this. This is what I want, but I'm surrendering my attitude to you. I'm bringing everything to you because I want my mind to change. And what Holy Spirit filled implies is that he gets more of you and the only way he gets more of you is that you surrender more of you. So you bring every thought under the captivity Lord. I'm bringing you my thoughts. There I go again Lord. I'm acknowledging you in all my ways. I'm bringing you. You know where I'm going, and I'm gonna flee fornication. You know where my head is going. So you learn how to do those things. It becomes, because it's not by power nor by might, but by His Spirit. That means you gotta be a praying somebody. And that's where He wants us to anyway. Because the tabernacle is where God and man meet. Okay, so we're gonna go to the table of shoe bread. Okay, the table is shewbread. I'm gonna read these scriptures, because I don't wanna hold us too long, but Jesus is the bread of life. John 6, 23, 32 to 39. Jesus said unto them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe me all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me. I will never cast out. So Jesus is the bread of life. So the table of shoe bread was gold. Okay was gold. There were 12 loaves of bread on it. And 12 oftentimes in the Bible is symbolic of God's government. You got 12 apostles, 12 tribes of Israel, right? So we're feeding on the word of God because Jesus also said in Matthew 26, 26 through 28, What does he say? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So we're consumed with Christ. He is our preoccupation. He is our focus. We're living and we're thriving on him. He said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. So our life source is Christ. spiritually and the word of God is our life source. So you cannot tell me that you healthy spiritually and you don't crack that book. You cannot tell me you're discerning the word of God and you don't know what Genesis is or Revelation. I gave you the easiest books in the book. You don't know where Genesis or Revelation is and somehow you're going to tell me, you know, the will of God. No, you got to be in that word. And if you have no prayer life because there's two scriptures. Let me not get ahead of myself. Okay, so we're going to be consumed with Christ. He is our life source spiritually, but he's also our life source naturally. So he is, give us this day our daily bread. I believe it has spiritual implications, but it also has material implications. He supplies all our need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now, one of the things I wanted to throw in here that was in my mind, sound doctrine is key. Because one of the problems is, is people are in the Word, but sometimes they're just hijacking the text. We got a lot of people opening that book and finding a way And people and I've seen this with false prophets and they're out there and some of them we know. Some of them we know, we came through the ranks with. Some of y'all know what I'm talking about. They're false prophets. If they are not preaching the word of God and they're trying to downplay the word of God, they are false prophets, false teachers. Don't call them. I don't care. You pray for them, but they're false prophets. If they're getting up and they're saying the word of God doesn't say what it says, if they're telling people not to follow its commands, I don't care if they wear the title of bishop, I don't care if they're wearing the title of bishop. They're a bishop false prophet. You are a bishop false prophet. You are a bishop false teacher. And no, I'm not going to call you bishop. We're on a first name basis. You ain't got to call me nothing, but you can call me by my first name. I don't care. But I'm not going to call you bishop, because that's what you are. You are a bishop self-deceived. That's the Lord, right? Floating all kind of stuff on Facebook, but you a false prophet with a Facebook account. That's what you are. Okay, second Timothy 3 through 16 says all scriptures God breathed and I'm just going to paraphrase is profitable for doctrine. Right teaching. reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that we may be perfectly and thoroughly furnished and equipped to every good work. We got to start. I mean, some of these things, I mean, we want to go along and get along, but no, if you're a false prophet, I can't hang with you. The wolves and the sheep don't get along really well. No, they don't. They really don't. Okay, we're going to grow in the knowledge of the king, his kingdom, which now really think about it. We're not talking about a literal kingdom right now. It's going to have a visible manifestation. There will be a time when we'll see a visible manifestation of Christ and his kingdom. But in the meantime, and in between times, the spiritual kingdom, we're in hostile territory. We are in hostility and Satan is the ruler, the lowercase god of this world, lowercase g of this world, so the sisters of this world, that's why most of the things that are geared toward children, this is the thing, Satan, Hitler didn't start it. Hitler was good, he said, good, not good, let me take that back. Hitler was strategic in trying to target the children to brainwash them because he wanted to raise up a generation that was indoctrinated into his lot. Well, Satan's no different. That's why the younger generation is more targeted and being propagated with all these lies to try to hijack their life and to send them down the path that not only brings immediate destruction, but ultimately his goal is eternal destruction. Amen? Because the kingdom of God has a different set of values. It has a different set of beliefs. That's why when you read the word you go, dang, this don't sound nothing like anything around me, right? Love them that hate you. Pray for them to despise you. Bless them that curse you. Abstain from fornication. What? You know, we don't even, people don't even fornicate no more. They're adulterous and bragging about it. Before it'd be like, now you steal people's husbands or wives and you want to wear it as a medal of honor. And then people get mad at you if they steal your husband or wife. You need to take a seat. You need to take a seat quick, and you need to sit in that seat, and you need to find some repentance. That's the Lord. Right, and they give him TV shows. OK, Jesus said he's the light. OK, so then we get to the golden candlestick. Now remember now now mind you go into this. There's no light and there's no window. Nothing. You just all you have is the room. That's the only source of light. Now you can imagine what it looked like in there though, because everything was made out of gold. Acacia wood covered over with gold. So the planks around the boards were all gold. The golden candlestick was gold. The table and shoe red was gold. The altar of incense was gold. So and then you had this light that came in and then you had embroidery on the top and then you had a veil over on the side and they were using blue, purple, red colors and then you had the cherubim in there. So what was it supposed to invoke? Okay, I'm now in the service of the Lord. And I can behold God in a way that I couldn't see outside. See when you make your mind up to come by way of the brazen labor, come by way of the cross, when you make up your mind to consecrate yourself to the Lord, you get a vision of God that you can't get otherwise. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. All of us can talk about it. We're going through things, hardships and difficulties, but instead of cursing God, we're celebrating. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Because we're seeing God in the midst of our struggle. We're seeing him, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And so he becomes our strength in the midst of our struggle. He becomes our joy in the midst of sorrow. We learn how to appreciate God that only comes by way of the golden candlestick. He illumines our understanding the golden candlestick. Jesus said in the beginning was the word and the word was with God the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. John 9 and 5, he says, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. As long as I'm in the world. Now, he's not in the world now, he's in heaven. So guess who? The word of God is also described as the lamp. Psalms 119, 105. The word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So the light, illumination comes from reading the word. The Holy Spirit is also associated with the candlestick Zachariah to in the book of Zachariah chapter 4. It was again. There was a golden candlestick to all of trees one on the right one on the left. He said he asked the angel what I mean. I said, what are these things and he said don't you know what these things are and he said that I'm paraphrasing. He said not by might nor by power but by my spirit. So the Holy Spirit is symbolized oftentimes with the golden candlestick. Isaiah, wait, wait, also in the book of Revelations chapter two, I mean, yeah, chapter two, when Jesus is standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, so not only is the light the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, which we're feeding and is illumining our understanding, you cannot understand the Word of God except the Holy Spirit revealed it to you, right? But also the church is the light. Believers are the light, so let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. We are now the light in the world, or we should be. And we're going to get to the last two, and these, and then I'm going to have a part two, but Christ is our intercessor. Okay, the altar of incense. was the right the place right before the Holy of Holies. It was the last piece of furniture before the veil that covered the Ark of the Covenant where the Holy of the Holies was. So when they got to here they had the altar of incense and then there was a specific recipe that you had to use for the incense to burn on the altar. You can just bring anything. You had to bring the right recipe. The altar of incense is symbolic of prayer. It's symbolic of intercession. We know that Christ is our intercessor. Hebrews 7 and 25 says, consequently, he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. A Holy Spirit also in their seat, so we really got it good, you guys. You got Jesus praying. You got the Holy Ghost praying. That's a good setup right there, right? Romans 8, 26 through 27 says, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And so we are called to also intercede and pray. Okay, now I'm gonna toggle back and forth. Psalms 141, 2 says, let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Revelation 5 and 8, this is what I want you guys to see. The symbolism carries all the way through to Revelation. So not only is the tabernacle significant of past realities, but also present ones, but also having a future. implication. So Revelation 5 5 8 says and one of the elders said to me weep no more behold the line of the tribe of Judah the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and it's seven seals and between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. I saw lamb standing. as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." So our prayers are stored up. So if you think your prayer doesn't matter, understand it has significance, so much so that it's even going to carry through to the future judgment. Revelation 8, 1 and 5 says, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and the seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer. And he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints of the golden altar before the throne. That's deep. And the smoke of the incense with the prayer of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashings of lightning, and an earthquake. Your prayers matter. You're called to be a royal priesthood. And one of the things that we're called to do is intercede. We're just not called to criticize. Because I can do that. I'm sorry. I've got to watch it. That's the shortcoming of mine. And I'm dealing with it better. And that's why I was joking around about Siskel and Ebert, because I'm old. Because they probably ain't up there. I think they're both dead now. On one pass, I thought both of them did, though. I thought, but I might be wrong. But see, so in any event, all they would do is criticize. And sometimes I'm looking online and I'm like, oh my gosh, look at these people. They crazy, right? And you know, and then you're looking at it, but it's like, no, pray. Stand in the gap. Intercede. Really pray. Because what you're going to find out is not everybody's prayers matters. Everyone's in praying, praying, praying, praying, but not everybody is really praying first. And not everybody's prayer is really going to the throne of God. Now I do, now this is what I do because there's sometimes there's so many prayer requests. It just seems like there's back to back to back to back to back tragedies in the crisis. So you're going to like, I'll be like, Lord, please help me to remember to pray. And he does, he reminds me because I'm like, I don't want to just say I'm praying. I pray at the moment, but I need to pray more. So Lord, please help me to remember. so I know to pray for all the people. I pray right on the spot, but help me to remember to pray for the people, and he brings things back to your memory. Bless God, because while he's the one that set us apart, he's the one that called us. Now, we're at the last piece. Alt-Tab, that's what Dave taught me. Thank you, Dave. The last place is the Ark of the Covenant. But before we get to the Ark of the Covenant, there was a veil that blocked. So it was restricted. Everybody couldn't get in. And even the one who could get in could only get in once a year. And even that person who could get in could only come once a year. And if he didn't come correct, he died. So, One of the things is that he had to come by way of the blood sacrifice. We already talked about it. And one of the things I forgot about with the altar of incense, you had to bring a coal from that brazen labor before you come. And I'm going to have to expound on it next week. But you can't just pray any kind of way. Nabat and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, when God first instituted the Aaronic priesthood, they got killed because they brought strange fire. They brought strange fire to the to the to the altar of insects. And so what does that mean? And what does that look like? But we're going to I hope to tackle that next week. But the fact of the matter is you couldn't come by way into the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy Place. If you didn't come correct because God's too Holy, right? You can't stand in his presence and you give that you're going to be dead, right? But If you came with the right perfect blood sacrifice, perfect and unblemished, spotless, then the high priest can go in. Now, let me read Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. But wait, wait, before I get, I'm getting ahead of myself. So you have the Ark of the Covenant, but above it was a seat, a mercy seat. And it had the two cherubims facing each other, which, I mean, cherubim signified the holiness of God, okay? The presence of God. So the presence and the power of God was in that place. And so, therefore, you couldn't come in there any kind of way, right? And like I said, the veil restricted anyone from getting in. But here's Hebrews 4.14 through 16 says, since then we have a high priest who has passed through heavens, Jesus, the son of God. No, no, no, wrong one, sorry. I don't know what I did. Okay, I'm just gonna paraphrase, that's all right. When Jesus died and he said it is finished, one of the things that happened was that veil ripped apart. And what that meant was access is now allowed. Because the blood was sacrificed that now did not require annual sacrifices because the blood of goats and bulls and offerings every year had to be brought before they can enter in. Now we can come boldly into the throne of grace. Now we have access to the throne room of grace because a better sacrifice and a better priest came to the table. A high priest who came in who not only offered a sacrifice but offered the optimal sacrifice. He offered himself and he brought his own blood and now his blood gives us access to the throne room of grace. What would be a throne room of judgment is now a throne room of grace to those who come by way of the blood. That's some good news y'all. And if you think of the throne room of God as being heaven, okay, because he didn't just come and bring it into this tabernacle. The Bible says he brought it up into heaven where the through throne room of God, he presented his blood. That's why he told Mary Magdalene, don't touch me. I haven't yet ascended because I have to go present He had to go present his blood and now we have this hope because of what he did that I'm not going to have to stand before God in my own righteousness. Now, I have the righteousness of God that comes by faith because of his blood because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. So his blood paid the price. It was the Atonement. Now, the death angel has to pass over me just like they did in the Passover. I'm not cursed now because of the blood of Jesus. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. And I thought this one thing, and I hope I don't make a mistake, but this messed me up. I love reading the word, and this thing messed me up. But when King flew Abel, his blood cried out. And the Bible says before the altar of God, the saints are crying out. Their blood is crying out. So can you imagine what Jesus' blood is saying? It is saying, it is finished. It is finished. His blood is crying out, but it's speaking in heaven, it is finished. Ooh, bless the Lord. That'll make me go into something, y'all. Let me see. So we keep our eye focused on Christ. He's a mediator of a new, better covenant, read Hebrews, with better promises, built on a better priesthood, built with better sacrifices. So that's why it's a privilege to pray. We can now come boldly into the throne of grace. You can press into God's presence. And the Bible says and you will obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. What does that mean? I need his mercy that brazen labor. I don't have to worry. Okay. I just send okay. Let me not to say I'm trying to encourage sin, but when you send because we all send right then we can come we don't have to worry. I don't have to stay away. I don't have to stay away because now I send. No, I can come and ask for forgiveness. I can come into the throne room of grace, obtain mercy, but I also find grace to help in the time of need because His grace empowers me and enables me to live that life that He intended for me to. So I'm going to take every opportunity to press into His presence every time there's a need, and not only my need but the needs of others. I can come boldly into the throne room of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. And then the other thing too, I'm going to stop this right here. is Jesus said, when he was talking to the woman at the well, he said, you go worship in the mountain, we go, we got it right, I think we, I'm paraphrasing. You know, I don't necessarily always paraphrase right. But the thing is, the time will come, and now is, when they that worship him will worship in his spirit. We don't have to go to a tabernacle. You can pray right where you at. Why? Because you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. You now have his spirit in you. Wherever you go, he is. You see what I'm saying? But what's even better is when you can come together in his name. Because one of the things about the table of she read is people came and they ate together. So it's a communal thing. There's something we get when we come together in his name. There's something you get when we come in agreement. We become a temple of the Holy Spirit. God is able to manifest himself in a deeper and more profound way. And with that I'm going to read this last thing and then I'm going to call it a day. So, you know that like I said Old Testament. Is the New Testament concealed? The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Revelation 11, 15 through 19 says, Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. and the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, we give thanks to you, Lord Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, pearls of thunder, and an earthquake and heavy hail. Bless God. God gave us a... There's a heavenly tabernacle. Okay, so all these things are types and shadows. There's a heavenly tabernacle. where he presented his blood, and now we have access. And now we have the privilege. Privilege is a benefit that not everybody gets. So everyone can try to pray, but not everyone's gonna get through a prayer. Amen? We'll talk about it next week, and I'm gonna talk about the Lord's Prayer, and how that is also reflective of it. Okay, let's pray.