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My House Will
Be Called A House Of Prayer
Mark 11:15-18
The
spiritual climate of our society today has made it so that we expect
preachers to stand before us and tell us how good we are, how good God
is, and how everything is really alright. As a preacher I am expected to
stand before a congregation and tell you stories about Jesus the loving
Shepherd, or how Jesus dealt with the little Children. But we tend to
get uncomfortable when we turn to scriptures like the one we find in
Mark 11:15-18. Let’s read that this morning.
But today instead of focusing totally on how Jesus treated the Pharisees
that had ruined His Father’s house I want you to look with me at what
Jesus said in verse 17:
"Is it not written: "'My house will be called a house of prayer for all
nations' ? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
This is not the first time that Jesus has rocked the temple. A couple of
years earlier, we find the story in John 2, Jesus even made a whip out
of cords, and physically thrashed the people out of the Temple, again
driving out those who were buying and selling in the temple.
Now God’s Son has gotten agitated again.
Can you see the feathers flying, and the coins rolling every direction
down the hallways?
Can you hear the businessmen shouting to the top of their lungs for the
police, “We have a madman in here, somebody come and arrest this crazy
man.”
Jesus says above the noise of the situation, “This place looks and feels
more like a mall than a temple. Whatever happened to Isaiah’s word about
the real point of this building --- to be a house of prayer for all
nations, all nationalities and races?”
The odd thing about this story is that if the Hometown Eyewitness News
Crew had interviewed any of those merchants that day, each one would
have very strongly defended their right to be there, saying.... “We
provide an essential service to the worshipers,” “How else are the
people going to get the required animal to sacrifice? If you live any
distance away, you can’t be herding your sheep and cattle through the
streets of Jerusalem, We’ve got to help the program along...”
Of course, what they wouldn’t tell Hometown News is that they were
adding huge surcharges to their price... they were making a huge profit.
I don’t think God is too pleased when we turn our places of worship into
a commercial enterprise...
Have you ever noticed that on TV today you can buy a prayer cloth, you
can buy holy water, you can purchase all kinds of things that supposedly
will enhance your religious experience.
While in college I was sent a cross cut out of Burlap. The enclosed
letter said if I would place that cross under my pillow for 10 nights
and pray over that cross, then send it back with a check for $49.99 then
God would answer all of my prayers.
I don’t believe that God is impressed. For those of us who are leading
God’s Church, God is not only concerned whether we’re doing God’s work,
but also How and Why we’re doing it.
When I stand before the Judgment seat of Christ, the main questions for
me will not have to do with the growth of this church or the budget or
how many times I went to the hospitals to visit, but with why I
preached, and in what Spirit.
If your teaching a Bible class, God will not ask you if you taught the
judges or the 5 steps to salvation, but instead the question will be did
you teach that class with a heart that radiated God’s love for the
students? Are you teaching for the right reasons?
If you
are serving this church by cutting the grass, or cleaning the building,
or preparing the Communion, or scrubbing toilets the question is not are
you are serving, but instead, how are you serving? Are you serving with
a spirit of love or is there some other reason.
God says in 1 Corinthians 13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and
all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but
do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed
the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love,
it profits me nothing.
I’m sure the money changers would tell you that they were providing a
ministry, but God wasn’t pleased with their motive, He wasn’t impressed
with their service.
Leonard Johnson, one of the founders of Faulkner University, told me
that when we was holding a tent meeting if people left a meeting talking
about what a wonderful sermon he preached or how beautiful the singing
was, the meeting had failed. But if the people went home saying things
like, “Isn’t God good?” then it was a good meeting. There was to be no
sharing the stage with the Lord.
Today when we gather here it’s not about the songs that we sing, even
though I am grateful to Jimmy for leading us. It’s not about how well
the one who brought the thoughts before the Lord’s Supper did, or even
how you like this sermon. When we gather here for worship it’s about
having an encounter with the Living God. Did you come into His House
today with the mindset of “God has something He wants me to hear today,
and I’m not leaving until I hear it?”
When we will come in to our worship time expecting God to visit us, and
through prayer, we seek Him with all our heart, through Prayer we call
out to Him, through Prayer we admit our need for Him.... Don’t you know,
He will answer us!
How did you come into the service today? I know you didn’t bring in your
animals this morning for sacrifice, because we are not required to bring
those kind of sacrifices. But I wonder if we don’t come into worship
with the same kind of mindset.
God, here I am. It’s Sunday morning, God instead of my sheep or cows,
Here’s my two hours of time, I could be in bed, or fishing, or playing
Golf, or cleaning, or cleaning the house but God I want to give this
time to you, so here you go. Now, please bless me, and please answer all
my prayers.........
Now, I know none of us actually had that train of thought when we walked
in, but my question, is that what our attitude is about our Sunday
worship?
Are we coming in to punch our spiritual ticket? Or have you come today
knowing and expecting that God wants to have a personal encounter with
you, an encounter that will affect your life, an encounter that will
transform your life. When we encounter the Lord it changes us.
Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “My house shall be called the house of
Preaching.” Nor did He say, “My house shall be called a house of
singing.”, or even My house shall be called a house of Communion.”
Jesus said that His Fathers house is to be a “house of prayer for all
nations.” Preaching, Singing, the Reading of God’s Word, and Communion
are obviously things we must incorporate into our lives, and in our
worship, but the overriding, defining mark of God’s dwelling is prayer.
The honest truth is that God can do more in people’s lives during 5
minutes of prayer, real prayer, than in an hour of my sermons.
In Acts 1 and 2 we see the very beginning of the Church. The 11
remaining Apostles and about 120 disciples were in a room praying
together, and the results of that Prayer is found in Chapter 2.
On the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus' resurrection, the
believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a
sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies
above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. Then, what
looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of
them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began
speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
Godly Jews from many nations were living in Jerusalem at that time. When
they heard this sound, they came running to see what it was all about,
and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the
believers.
What does it say about our churches today across that nation, that God
birthed the church in a prayer meeting but today, the prayer meetings in
our churches are almost extinct?
Last year Churches spent over two hundred thousand dollars to get church
Growth experts to come to their buildings and give them a detailed
written report of what they need to build in order to grow their church.
Do we really need to ask why our churches aren’t growing? Do we need to
ask why we aren’t seeing people being saved? Do we need to ask why
marriages and families in the church are just at risk as those who don’t
even attend church?
Today we have nicer buildings to worship in than ever before, we have
been trained more extensively than at any time in our history for
ministry, we have more books, better education on how to save our
marriages and families than ever before, we have more money coming into
the church than ever before. But even with all this over 95% of all
Christian churches in America and Canada are either in decline or are
stalled in their growth.
Brethren we’ve got to go back to where we started, We’ve got to look at
the early church and understand what they were doing that allowed these
untrained, these uneducated, these untested disciples to start a
revolution for Jesus Christ. The examples are there we just need to
follow them.
In Acts 4, when the apostles were unjustly arrested, imprisoned, and
threatened, they didn’t call for a protest; they didn’t reach for some
political leverage, they didn’t call a lawyer. Instead they headed to a
prayer meeting. Soon the place was overflowing with the power of the
Holy Spirit.
Listen to the words found in Acts 4:31 “When the apostles had finished
praying, their meeting place shook. All of them were filled with the
Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God boldly.”
The early church had this instinct: When in trouble, pray. When
intimidated, pray. When challenged, pray. When persecuted, pray. When
bored pray, when happy pray, when in doubt pray.
We need to understand the real power in our Christian walk is our prayer
life. Satan’s main strategy with God’s people has always been to
whisper, “Don’t call, don’t ask, don’t depend on God to do great things.
You’ll get along fine if you just rely on your own cleverness and
energy.”
The truth of the matter is that the devil is not scared of our
buildings, education, and speaking ability. He knows he will win unless
we lift up our hearts to God in prayer.
Do you believe the Bible? Do you really believe the Bible and the
promises found in the Bible are true and attainable today?
We are told in James 4:2 You do not have, because you do not ask God.
Do you have some heavy burdens today that your tired of trying to carry
around all by yourself?
Do you have an unsaved family member that your heart aches for?
Do you have a neighbor, a friend that you know needs to find Jesus as
Lord?
Are you in a financial fix, where there seems like there is no way out,
and you feel like your drowning?
Do you have a big decision to make, and your torn, you don’t really know
what your supposed to do?
Whatever the need is today the answer can be found through Prayer. The
truth is we need to make this place a House of Prayer, not just on the
Sunday when I preach on Prayer, but every time we come here, every time
the doors are open, we need to realize that the real reason we come is
to Find God through prayer. You do believe in Prayer don’t you?
Jesus said, " `My house will be called a house of prayer for all
nations’?
Will this be a house of Prayer? Will we be a people of Prayer? Will we
cry out to God until we hear from Him?
We will call upon the Lord in this place? If your serious about seeing
God’s Hand work in your own life, and in the life of the church it will
come through constant and persistent prayer.
Let us pray.
Originally Preached by Jim Cymbala
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