On Saturday evening Pastor Kelly continued with our “Sanctuary Series” and preached a sermon entitled “A Sweet Fragrance.” A blessing to all of us! Want to find out WHY God may not answer your prayers, the way YOU want him to?! take a look 
Exodus 30:1-10
Pastor Kelly began by sharing a story about his childhood, growing up in Los Angeles. He stated that back then, the thing was to go to the Fox Hills mall! There was always a check list prior to going. They first needed a ride, then make sure their cross colors were right! The cell phones were the size of your head so they didn’t have one. You needed a pad and a pen when you went to the Fox Hills mall. The guys were there to see someone, ladies were there to be seen. One passes, and you look back. The ladies are giggling, etc and they would stop walking. You would reach in your pocket, walk over to the group and say “yo, my boy thinks you are cute, can he get your #?” (hahahahha) He explained that he got his wife, in a similar fashion. One of his friends was good friends with his wife, Tia. So one day, him and the same friend went to dinner and Tia was at the same restaurant having dinner with her family. Pastor Kelly asked his guy friend to get Tia’s number for him, if that was ok. Needless to say, he got Tia’s number J Pastor Kelly explained that he had an intercessor on that day… somebody who could say for him what he couldn’t say… do what he couldn’t do. Someone who could present his case better than he could…. We have all had someone talk for us at some point. They go representing us but know how to say it better.
The Sanctuary
- Now Christ is entering to the Holy Place and this is important because Jesus had a goal; He had something he must do… intercede on our behalf. Hebrews 7:25-26 says “Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them. 26[Here is] the High Priest [perfectly adapted] to our needs, as was fitting–holy, blameless, unstained by sin, separated from sinners, and exalted higher than the heavens.” THAT’S the person who stands before us. Christ is the person who is constantly pleading your case before God. It seems simple but know that even when you are not worried about your case, Jesus is worried about your case. We have an intercessor who knows how to say it better than we do.
- ‘The Sanctuary’ message becomes important. The Israelites know that when everyone else kicks me to the curve, I’ve got somebody who is talking to the Father about me. We have an inside track because Jesus and God are related. If I am related to Jesus, then Jesus has some extra incentive to present our case, doesn’t He? For He doesn’t want to loose any of us.
- The most holy place: the act of sanctification takes place there. Menorah, table of show-bread. The altar of incense had practical and symbolic purpose.
Altar of Incense Purposes:
- First purpose: (practical) When you have dead animals around, it doesn’t smell too nice!!! On the Day of Atonement they would sacrifice all day long. Sometimes they would take the fat off the animals and it would be burned up. The incense had to be going at night, in the morning, etc… so things would smell nice!
- Second Purpose: (symbolic): Revelation 5:8 says: “And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] prostrated themselves before the Lamb. Each was holding a harp (lute or guitar), and they had golden bowls full of incense (fragrant spices and gums for burning), which are the prayers of God’s people (the saints).”
-The incense is representing the prayers of God’s people. One of the best ways that we communicate with God is through prayer. It is no accident that the altar is the closest article in the most holy place to the arc of the covenant. The closest that we can get to God is when we are on our knees and talking to him in prayer. There is something about prayer. E.G White says that “Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as one to a friend.” A lot of us don’t spend enough time in it. There is a shield around you when you spend time in prayer… lock yourself up with Him. God loves it when His people pray. God is so serious about prayer that He wants to make sure that each one of our prayers gets through. Even at our best, our prayers still stink of heaven. Revelations 8:3-4. He looks at the disciples and say “ it is expedient that I go…the one way that you will be able to connect with me and the Father is through prayer. But you guys don’t have a clue what to pray for.’ He first has to take our prayers and allow them to make sense. Even with the best vocabulary, the Holy Spirit gets it the right way first! The Holy Spirit says ‘I have to mix some of myself with your prayer, outside of me, your prayers don’t deserve to reach heaven.’ Now the prayers are mixed with Jesus Christ and He can definitely hear those.
Pastor Kelly talked about the fact that we get frustrated when prayers aren’t answered, especially the ones we REALLY pray for. Unfortunately, sometimes when our prayers are not answered, we stop praying. And the devil is saying “YES!”
Reasons why our prayers are not answered:
- Unbelief: Unbelief handcuffs God. God has a hard time answering, not because he can’t… but he has a hard time when someone who doesn’t believe what he/she is praying. We come to God in prayer because it is the right thing to do, not because deep down we KNOW that God will be able to handle it. Something about when you come to God in prayer understanding that what you are bringing to God, He can handle. If He doesn’t do it, it could be that He thinks its best not to do it. Praise God for who He is, first and foremost. Once you praise Him for who He is, you begin to build confidence in what God can do. When you have that kind of confidence, then unbelief doesn’t find way in your prayer.
- Selfishness: Exodus 30:36-37 when was the last time you spent time praying for someone else more than yourself. Most of our prayers are just about us! We even say “God help them, so they can help me.” Our prayers are selfish. The prayer that gets the attention of God is the prayer that has nothing to do with you. If you found Christ praying for himself, it was it was to get the strength to help His children. If we can take selfishness out of our prayers…. spend time praying for someone else and God will answer prayers you never even asked about.
- Willful disobedience: It hinders our prayer. The key word is willful! We have all been disobedient. We sometimes just mess up and fall short but some of us are bold with it and are disobedient willfully. We still think God will answer the prayer. We can hear God saying “If I were to answer the prayer of that person, you may think that you can live how ever you want to live and I will be able to do the same things in your life.” Can you imagine being married to a person that way? Who does whatever they want to you, except cheat (because that’s the only way your spouse can leave you). We must not be willfully disobedient. There is a difference between the person who is struggling and seeking God, vs. the person who isn’t seeking God.
- Evil Heart: Fall on the rock Christ Jesus and allow him to remove iniquity out of our hearts.
- Unforgiving Spirit: One of the things he likes about prayer… prayer not only bring us closer to God but brings us together with one another. The early church prayed separately but also prayed collectively, not just at prayer meeting, but they would go to each other’s homes. A lot of us have issues with one another that we still haven’t gotten resolved, that’s why we don’t do it (pray with one another). God states that if you have an unresolved issue with someone else how can you expect to come to me?! God cannot answer the prayer of someone who doesn’t have the spirit of forgiveness with their brother. Your prayers didn’t get through, not because you weren’t praying the right way, but there may be family members or a church members you haven’t gotten it right with. We still have some ill feelings for someone else and you have to let it go because God is waiting to do something in your life through your prayers!!! But it’s like He is saying “I won’t because you have an unforgiving spirit.” We have to have that spirit because our God is the most forgiving!!!! That is one of the things that tears churches apart the most… our inability to be able to forgive one another and move on in the name of Jesus.
- Submission to Gods will: too many of our prayers are mixed with our will, desires, wants and needs.
Jesus stands before the father in the garden of Gethsemane and has a heart to heart with God: “this is starting to get a little rough and tough… not the sins on my shoulder, I can deal with that, but because of the sins I am not feeling you like I used to, since I don’t know what it is to ever be apart from you. So God, is there any way that this cup can pass from me?!” He is being real with God, isn’t He?! He said “not my will, but YOUR will.” He is feeling separation from the Father because for the FIRST time, he is being separated. And he is saying “I am so into your will that even if your will means me experiencing something I have never experienced in my life, I am down with it. If your will is us not being together it is all good because it’s your will. Let this cup pass from me, but if it’s in your will that we have to be separated, the most important thing for me is not that you answer the prayer but that I am in your will.” When you and I can pray like that, every prayer will get answered… “not my will, but yours.” When God says “Wait,” or “Yes,” that’s what I wanted anyway because it is not my will. At the end of the day it is all about being in His will. No matter what happens to my prayer, I know everything will be ok as long as I am in the will of God.
Our prayers are a sweet fragrance before God, because there is someone who takes those prayers, brings them up to heaven and gives us the strength to pray. Jesus Christ, constantly taking our prayers and pleading on our behalf.
Challenge: Spend more time, than you ever had before, talking to God in prayer beginning this week!
Prayer: We pray that today’s message was practical. We want to be in your mix, in your presence. We pray that we apply the things we learned to our prayer life. We want the sweet perfume to fill heaven in a wonderful way. Thank you for Jesus Christ and the Holy Sprit in that altar, that does something to our feeble prayers. Thanks for being a prayer answering God!
We pray this sermon was a blessing to you and shed some more light as to who God is… how merciful and loving He is! Please take time to participate in the challenge by spending more time in prayer, and praying for others!
Be blessed and a blessing
xoxo,
VIews from the pews
To view this sermon:
1. Go to www.mtrubidoux.com
2. Click on “Featured Sermond” (top/right corner)
3. Scroll down to the date and hit play
