Dressing the Lamps & Burning the Incense (02/10/2002)

Back over on this side of the building, we have new shutters on the windows, placed because of some visitors we had the night before last.

And the interesting thing about it, Brother Otis' class this morning, he discussed the verse where it says you have not yet been tempted, was it tempted to blood, or not yet resisted temptation unto blood, that's what it was.

And when you think about the persecution that we get in America, it's so silly compared to what people have gone through in Hebrews chapter 11 that we studied this morning in Sunday School, where they were sawn asunder and just all killed by the sword and on and on and on.

This country's been so blessed. And yet, at the same time, I'll bet that it's been 25 years,

I'll bet in the last 25 years there's never been a church broken into in this little town, and in the last six weeks there have been four broken into at least.

So times are changing, and we don't know why this happens from a human viewpoint, we don't know if this was a gang initiation or satanic worship or just little kids trying to ring a doorbell and run, except they're bolder than we were when we were kids.

We don't know exactly what it is. But it did offer a wonderful opportunity for fellowship yesterday for Brother Charlie and June and Russ and Brenda and Trudy and myself, and it was blessed.

We had a good time together, didn't we? Thwarts the old devil when we have fun and persecution, doesn't it?

And the Lord did protect us because they came in and roamed all around and they really didn't do much damage.

They didn't take anything except three of my Civil War chest pieces, and they probably took those so we can identify these kids later when we catch them.

So be thankful that the Lord watched over this place. They didn't get in this part at all.

So our nursery is pretty much destroyed, though. We're going to have to have the carpet removed with all the glass that's on it and replace that window, and insurance will take care of that.

So interesting times we live in, though, isn't it? We're going to have a men's meeting this afternoon and discuss this a little bit about some precautions we might want to take in the future.

But also, more important than that, we're going to discuss just for a few moments this afternoon with the men our mission's thrust, and one of the things that I want to bring up has to do with an idea, or actually a ministry, but it's an idea brought to our church by Brother Roy Frink, and I'd like for you to come up,

Brother Roy, just for a few minutes. I want him to, just in a nutshell, I want you to tell them what you told me about this idea that you have, and how it's different than in the past the idea seemed to have been to distribute

Bibles all over the world, which is a wonderful thing, but come up and tell them about this idea, because it's something

I would like to discuss with the men, but I'd like the church to know a little bit about it. There is an international, really a worldwide counseling ministry now loosely affiliated called

Exchange Life Ministries, it started a few years ago in Denver, Colorado by a man named

Lee Lefebvre. There is a

Dallas, in New Orleans now, I think, office associated with it, started by Dr.

John Best, who used to teach at Dallas Seminary, Dr. Best left the seminary and started this ministry in his living room.

A couple of y 'all here have been to the Exchange Life Conferences, Charlie, you've gone, haven't you? You didn't go to one?

None of y 'all have gone to one yet? Okay. Anyway, they have a weekend conference that takes

Friday night and Saturday and Friday, Sunday maybe, and then a workshop where they teach you to work with the material a little bit, and then you can go on through either a nine -month weekly training program, or you can go to Denver for two months.

When you finish the advanced training program, they call it, which a bunch of us over at BBC went through a few years back, about ten years ago, you have to do a project.

And when I went through it a few years ago, my project was suicide, and I'm pleased to announce that both of my victims are still alive today,

I'm not sure why, surely it wasn't my fault, but anyway, one of them's in Corse County and one of them's in Idaho, Iowa.

But one of the ladies that went through the workshop, her project was to take the conference notebook and turn it into this little booklet.

She did the graphics on her home computer. Her name is Sally Racketts. Sally's in California now recovering from what they thought was a cancer surgery.

She got the announcement that she had cancer and her husband lost his job on the same day. That was a great day last week. Anyway, Sally produced this little booklet,

New Life in Christ, and we started handing these out over at the bakery, and it occurred to me one day that I didn't have anything in Spanish and about 95 % of the people in the bakery are

Spanish. So I went to Sally a few years ago and she said, well, you get it translated and I'll get it published.

That didn't seem like too big a chore. So after our fourth translator and about two years later, the

Lord brought a Spanish pastor named Pedro San Jaime to visit

Corse County. He lives here now. His daughter's in college and he's doing some counseling ministry and he attends over at BBC and teaches at Nevero College.

They're going to go back to Spain someday. But he's been a Spanish pastor, counselor. He's got a doctorate degree, on and on and on.

And he got this done for us in Spain, Nuevo Vida en Cristo.

It was an interesting little project because our translator was in Spain, our linguist was in Dallas, our author was in California, and I was the electronic switchboard that plugged all these people in on the

Internet. It took about a year, but we finally got it done in Spanish. Our primary outlet now for these is

Cuba. There are two mission boards that we work with that take these to Cuba when we have some money to give them to them.

One is World Health in Lynchburg, Virginia, and one is

East -West Ministries up in Dallas. But in the last few weeks or months, somehow or another, we got in touch, oh, through this

Internet connection, we got in touch with this lady who had come over from Russia named Diana Gritskovich.

She's a Chernobyl survivor over in the United States for cancer treatment, and she wanted to do some translation work.

So I sent her one of these, and she started working on it in Russian. And then out of nowhere came a man named

Victor Zhuromsky, who is an exchange life teacher working in Russia now. So we plugged

Diana and Victor in on the Internet, and they're working on a Russian translation of New Life in Christ now.

Our primary outlet for this is going to be someday, Lord willing, Russ' play, The Judgment Day, which is traveling around through Russia.

And I just sent Diana an email yesterday and told her to hurry up with the translation because we have two outlets in Russia for the book waiting for it now,

Russ' play and Victor's ministry. I hope Russia someday will be our primary outlet.

But the extension of this is someday our goal is to set up a whole ministry of discipleship literature.

It occurred to me in the course of human events and meeting these people all over the world primarily on the Internet that almost every country in the world has

Bibles, and almost no countries in the world have evangelistic literature translated into their language.

Almost nothing is translated. So Dave and I were talking about setting up an organization called, what are we going to call that,

International Discipleship Literature, IDL, and translate booklets like this and try to get it out to countries where the people have

Bibles but have no way of explaining or understanding using the Bibles. So right now we have it in Spanish and this has gone to Cuba, Guatemala, Brazil, Spain itself,

I think the Philippines, some folks in Florida, Mexico, and I don't know how many states, and our primary outlet around here though is in the jails.

Thousands of these have gone, I guess, into prisons and jails. I take them to the Corsicana jail and just hand them out to everybody and the jailers are real open.

Well, we have a kind of little Internet link, you know, with folks here and there and yonder, and we've had,

I don't know, numbers, but lots and lots of people have come into contact with this little book and then written back that they accepted

Christ after going through this little book. But we've seen broken families restored, suicides averted, people saved, people in emotional shock waves have their lives straightened out.

A man wrote to me a couple of years ago and he said, he said, my wife has been in a debilitating depression for eight years.

She, I have to do the dishes for the kids, I take the kids to school, all she does is either sit in the room or sit at the computer.

She doesn't even, she won't go to church, she won't go out of the house. He said, how does the Lord handle the tough problems?

And we put her on a prayer chain and sent her a little yellow book and started an Internet connection with her, and I've saved all of her letters on a

CD disc. And now she's back in church with her family, she's been working a job, and her and her husband have been taking,

I don't know if you're familiar with Bill Gillum videos, what's the name of that, Lifetime Guarantee.

They've taken the Gillum videos out to other family members and now we're doing a little Internet counseling with her sister -in -law, who is about to leave her husband and run off with some other man.

And she got the yellow book. It just goes on and on and on. The interesting thing about this little book is

I've seen a lot of things and movements and ideas and notions such as going to churches and people being pulled apart.

And everywhere this goes, people are pulled together. I've never seen anybody taken further from Christ or their family or their own personal antagonists after going through the yellow book.

We were talking to a lady just the other night, Russ and I were, and she was explaining all of her insecurities and doubts, this, that, and the other.

And she'd already had a little yellow book, she wouldn't read it. And we talked for a while and I said, Lady, every question you've raised is answered very plainly in the yellow book.

Everything you said. What it does, it goes through the idea that God has a plan for how life should work, what went wrong and how to fix it.

And it focuses on how to fix it, not what went wrong. So we are moving the, hopefully, the game plan is to move the money ministry from,

I believe it's our church over here because it's so hard to get to the man that runs the money over there. He works out of town, he has three jobs and he's just totally out of reach.

So I do not handle the money. There's a few supporters that send money in. I think we've got about four or five hundred dollars in the account now.

But my name's not on anything and I don't touch the money. The church handles all the money.

I send out appeals and the money comes back to the churches and they pay the bills. I have invoices at home we can send to Sally and the publisher.

And now they've moved the warehouse to my son Brian's garage for the

Spanish books. The New Life in Christ. The Nuevo Vida. He's pretty stoked, yeah. So our goal is to move the money ministry to Park Meadows and let y 'all take care of that.

And we'll continue the other ministry of just contacting the folks and getting the books out.

But once we get them over here, anybody's welcome to get them out. In fact, I could use more help getting them distributed.

It costs about, they send them to me for 85 cents a book. And they come in blocks of 230 in a box.

So it costs almost $200 to get the other.

Thank you, appreciate your time. But I want to put it in a nutshell if that's possible.

For me to do. The big idea that is so unique to me, and I like big ideas.

My favorite thing in life is to think about big ideas and then get other people to follow them through. In fact, it'll be

June's job to follow through the big idea of us taking care of that money in a different bank account in the church.

But basically what that would be all about is just simply his ministry would come under the corporate shell of our church.

So that if he gets a tax exempt benefit, we just have a separate checkbook for him. And if he needs one, he'll go up and see

June at my office and he'll get one of his checks signed and so forth. So we can handle that very easily.

We'll discuss that at the men's meeting. But I wanted you to hear a little bit about it from Roy. So you know what we're talking about.

But the great idea, the big idea that I saw in it is the fact that this country has sent

Bibles and New Testaments everywhere in the world for years and years and years. And no one, to my knowledge, has sent a

Bible study help and put it in different languages. Like you get a Bible, think about yourself when you first got saved and you had this book.

Did you know where to start? You probably tried Genesis. About the time you got midway through Leviticus, you start throwing your hands up saying,

I need help. I don't know how to study this book. And when I first got saved,

Rocky Freeman gave me a little yellow book called Your Life in Christ, which is not exactly the same as that book, but it was very similar.

And it is the first Bible study I did as a brand new baby Christian. And I don't know where I'd been if I hadn't had that book because that was my first step after baptism.

In his ministry, the whole idea is to supply that first step in different languages.

Same place as all these Bibles have gone, follow them up with a Bible study help. And I've read through this one.

It's very sound. And Roy, I've got some ideas. In fact,

I've written one little Bible study for brand new Christians. I'd like to put it in with these and translate it, get it translated in there.

There would be other material that we can add to this through the years. So I think it's an excellent opportunity for a worldwide mission outreach from this local church.

And Roy brought it to me a few weeks back. And I want to mention it to you. We'll discuss it some more in the men's meeting and then later with the whole church.

Let's turn to Exodus chapter 30 and verse 1. We're talking still about the duties of the believer priest as pictured by the priests of the

Old Testament times. And this morning I want to speak to you about the duty of dressing the lamps and burning the incense.

Dressing the lamps and burning the incense. Turn to Exodus chapter 30 and verse 1 and let's pray together.

Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for your

Holy Spirit who makes it come alive in our hearts and minds as you speak to us by your word and by your spirit.

Lord, we would be totally blind without it. So we thank you that you speak to our hearts, you energize us, you move us into your will, you reveal the duties that you have for us each, specifically each of us, as you've given us gifts and purpose in life.

And Lord, we pray that as we look at this duty that each of us has, that you would put it in our hearts to do this, to do it right, do it well, and to see the glory of it.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Just follow along with me and we're going to look at some things about this passage.

I'm going to stop after verse 1 though because I want you to see a passage of scripture in the

Bible, in the New Testament. So you might want to look over at Revelation chapter 8 verse 3 and put a hand there.

So you'll be there because I want you to see it. But in Exodus chapter 30 and verse 1, it begins to describe the duty of burning of the incense.

And God gives specific details on how to build the altar of incense and where to place it.

And all the little details that are in this Old Testament passage are just colors of the truth that the

New Testament teaches about prayer. We could know that we're supposed to pray and we can even know how to pray in many ways from the teachings of Jesus and the apostles.

But this passage from the Old Testament gives us some colors that we would never see without it.

In Exodus chapter 30 and verse 1, it says, Now I want to stop right there and go to Revelation chapter 8 and verse 3 and make this connection so that we'll know what this altar of incense is all about and immediately know what it pictures.

Look at Revelation chapter 8 verse 3. And another angel came and stood at the altar having a golden censer.

And there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

Now we see the actual thing before the throne, this golden altar of incense, was the real actual altar that the one in the wilderness tabernacle was a model of.

And so God gave them a model and said, build it like this. And that was a picture and a model of the real thing that was in the heavenlies before the literal throne of God.

And so we see a picture of the real thing here and we see these angels and they have golden censers of incense and he says that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

Now we're going to go to another passage in the book of Revelation at the end of the message in chapter 5 and it says very clearly in that that the incense is the prayers of the saints.

This passage says it's the prayers of all saints. So I want you to keep that in mind as we study through this.

What is being pictured by this incense is the prayers of all saints going up before God.

Now let's go back to Exodus chapter 30 and verse 1 and see what we can learn from this passage. And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon of shittum wood shalt thou make it.

This wood is from the acacia tree which grows only in the desert.

It thrives in desert places especially around the Dead Sea. It is a very hard wood.

It is a very heavy wood. It's indestructible by insects. There are no ants, no termites that can destroy this wood.

The tree can grow as large as 20 feet and it tends to do that in the most dry places.

And at some times of the year it has pretty little yellow flowers on it. But this was the tree that they had out in the desert wilderness.

God told them to use the wood of this tree to build this altar of incense.

Now it's a beautiful picture because the wood pictures man. The wood pictures man on the earth.

The earthiness of man I guess you would say. But let's read on.

It's interesting what else it says about this. He gives precise measurements in verse 2.

A cubit shall be the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof. Four square shall it be and two cubits shall be the height thereof.

The horns thereof shall be the same. I believe that the precise measurements of this are for two reasons.

One is because it was a model of a real thing in heaven. But secondly because God is teaching us that prayer is to be precise.

Now I don't want you to take that the wrong way. Prayer has been made by God to be such that the little child can pray unto him.

But the little child doesn't recognize perhaps how precise his prayers are.

And exactly how they have to be to keep from being blasphemous.

Now as we grow older we can understand more of that by studying passages such as this.

But the precise measure of this altar of incense proves to us that our prayers have to be done precisely as God says they have to be done.

We cannot offer them like we want to do. We cannot invent a new way to offer up this sacrifice of prayer unto

God. We don't want to be the Cain. We want to be the

Abel. We want to worship God, God's way. Much of this has to do with praise.

So we want to praise God, God's way. Verse 2 proves that there is a way and that it is very precise.

Now let's go on to verse 3. And thou shalt overlay it. This thing made of this hard gnarly wood that pictures man in the flesh.

And I don't mean that in the immoral sense. I just mean in our bodies on this earth. But look at verse 3, this same wood.

It says thou shalt overlay it with pure gold. The top thereof.

Look at how specific this is. He didn't just drop it and say overlay it.

He says the top, the sides thereof, round about the sides thereof, and the horns thereof.

And thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about. You know what the gold pictures?

The gold pictures the perfections of Jesus Christ. And so this wood was literally overlaid all around every corner with gold.

And one might say that this wood was literally baptized in Christ.

Pictured by the gold. Now we're talking about prayer.

So keep that in mind. Here we have this wood totally baptized and surrounded by and engulfed by the gold, which pictures the

Lord Jesus Christ. His perfect righteousness. His perfections in every way. Now we go into verse 4.

And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it. By the two corners thereof upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it.

And thou shalt be for places for the staves to bear it with all. And thou shalt make the staves of chitim wood and overlay them with gold.

Do you remember any other object that had to be carried in such a manner and was not to be carried in any other manner?

The ark. And what happened one day when someone got a good idea of a better way to carry the ark?

Killed him. Just like that. They decided to put the ark on a cart.

Doesn't that sound like modernism? We have a more modern way to worship God. The church today in America is so filled with this modernistic type of worship and praise.

And yet God will not accept it unless it's exactly like God says it has to be done. Now notice that this ark is carried in the same manner as the ark of the covenant.

And yet this, I didn't mean to say ark, but this altar of incense is carried in the same way. What does it show?

It shows that it is not touched with the hands of man. Now what could that picture for us with regard to our own prayer life?

Don't you see that this signifies that your prayers ought not be touched by man? They are totally between you and the

Lord. They're very private, they're very personal, they're very intimate. They ought never be designed to please the ear of man, especially public prayer in the church or in any group.

They ought never to sound good to man. That shouldn't be the purpose of the prayer. They are not to impress man.

They are not to be touched by man. They're very intimate.

You know, another thing that happens sometimes with modern prayer is man has been taught in churches in these last days that what prayer is all about is to get things from God.

To get things from God, sometimes even a thing for another person, and that is just a roundabout way of allowing man to touch your prayers.

Our main goal when we go before God in prayer ought to be to please Him and to bring glory to Him and that His will might be done perfectly on earth as it is in heaven.

That is the main purpose of prayer. It's the only purpose of prayer, I should say. And when man comes before God with any other purpose, he touches the very altar of incense and totally defiles it.

He touches it with his hand. So that's what is pictured here in verses 4 and 5.

Now let's go on to verse 6 and we see yet another thing. And thou shalt put it before the veil, that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

This had a particular place where it was to be placed. If you can picture the holy place, and it has the lamp stand on the left side and the table of showbread that we talked about, the face bread on the right side.

And as you approach the very veil that goes into the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the covenant was, right at that place is where this was to be placed.

Right up against that veil, perhaps. Very close to it anyway. It would be impossible to get into the

Holy of Holies without brushing up against this. That's where it was placed. Now, it's interesting that it's placed directly before the place where God says

He meets with man. Do you see that in verse 6? He says, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

So this altar of incense is placed in a place right where God will meet with you, which shows very clearly that you cannot get to the place where God meets with you if you don't go past this altar of incense.

There's no way to get there without prayer and praise. Very strategically placed.

Man gains entrance into the presence of God via this altar of incense.

Now look at verse 7. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning. Now look when he does it.

When he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. It doesn't mean upon the lamp.

It means upon the altar. But he does it when he dresses the lamps.

Now let's go back and review a little bit about these lamps. What do they picture? The lampstand.

When he goes in and it's his duty and you can come all the way forward in time. You can go forward 1 ,500 years into the future from the place we're reading in Exodus.

And you find the father of John the Baptist. Going into the temple and fulfilling this role.

This very same role. 1 ,500 years later they were still doing this the same way that God taught them to do it in the wilderness.

Zechariah went in there. And he went and as he made sure that he kept the lamps burning he then went to the altar of incense and burned incense.

He was doing that when the angel came and told him all about Jesus and all about his son that would be born named

John. And he came out speechless. And when the priest goes in and he dresses these lamps and he's already been commanded one of his duties is to never allow those lamps to go out.

And the reason is because the lamps picture what? Who can remember what the lampstand and the light on the lampstand picture?

Give me several things. Who can give me one? Jesus Christ, the light of the world. What else does it picture?

About God himself. About his nature. What would it teach us about his nature?

What does that teach us? Right, eternally. And even before that you were thinking light means wisdom and knowledge probably.

Light, wisdom and knowledge from God. But the fact that it never goes out is eternal.

The duty of the believer priest in the Old Testament was to never let that light go out because if it did it destroyed the type.

It destroyed the picture that it gave of the fact that God is both eternal and omnipresent.

He is there with you everywhere you go, sees everything you do and he gives the knowledge and wisdom of the light of God as pictured as light.

All of that is there but Brother Otis got if you put them in order the last answer would be the light of the world which is

Jesus Christ. Now as he lit the lights he then remembers the next duty which is to go to the altar of incense and burn the incense.

You cannot burn the incense without that light. You cannot send up prayers to God without Jesus Christ and the light that he gives to even give you the wisdom and knowledge to know what to pray for and how to praise him.

It would be totally impossible. If the lamp stand is not here then the altar of incense means nothing.

How many people in the American church today even know that they have to look and think about the light before they go to the altar of incense?

How many of them know that the altar of incense is chitim wood but is totally baptized in Christ which means it has to be totally spiritually one.

I don't think once they overlaid the goal Brother Rush you're an engineer you might tell me was there any way to separate that goal from that wood once it was placed in there?

Did it ooze into that wood and kind of become one with it? I bet it did. That would be an interesting study.

But that is the place we have to be before the prayers can go up. It's all pictured for us here.

So it's interesting that as he goes to keep the lamp's trend and it pictures the eternal light of God, the eternal presence of God, the eternal nature of God, the wisdom and knowledge of God in Jesus Christ the light of the world he then steps to the altar of incense to offer up the prayers.

He takes care of his duty to keep the lamps burning and at the same time is reminded to burn the incense.

Philippians chapter 1 verse 11 says this being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.

There is no way we can bring glory and praises or prayer unto

God except by Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11 says for both he that sanctifieth and he that are sanctified are all one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying

I will declare thy name unto my brethren, Jesus says in the midst of the church will

I sing praise unto thee. That's a verse I'd never seen before this year. And I come back to it this morning because Jesus says in the midst of the church,

Father, I will sing praise to you. From within us Jesus sings praise to the Father. What a beautiful picture of the way prayer works and praise.

Praise and prayer work the same way. It has to be initiated in heaven.

You can't have prayer of the chitim wood without the overlaid gold.

We can't simply take prayers to God in the flesh. It just won't work.

In fact, only by the oneness of our spirit where our spirit and his spirit become one at that place where we are truly filled with the

Holy Spirit can we pray and praise God. Only when that gold meets that wood and is overlaid and becomes one with it is prayer of any value at all.

As we move on through this passage we see it's more than saying is it of any value it is dangerous if it comes in any other way.

Verse 8 And when Aaron lighted the lamps at evening he shall burn incense upon it upon this altar a perpetual incense before the

Lord throughout your generations. Just as the believer priest was taught to always keep that light burning which pictured the eternal presence of God, the eternal wisdom and knowledge of God and the

Lord Jesus Christ he was told to keep the perpetual incense before the

Lord throughout all generations to teach our children and our children's children how important this kind of prayer and praise to God is.

Now verse 9 and 10 are the last two verses we'll look at but I want you to see these because they're very important in the context of this.

He shall offer no strange incense thereon nor burnt sacrifice nor meat offering neither shall you pour drink offering thereon.

Not on this altar, this is for prayer but offer no strange incense either don't send up any prayers of the flesh or of the world or of the devil not from this altar and Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations it is most holy unto the

Lord. This altar has to have the blood of Jesus attached to it as well. And we see all of this we see that fleshly carnal prayer is a strange incense unto the

Lord and it is dangerous to touch this with man's hand it is to be done in a precise correct way.

Let me show you what that correct way is. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15 go ahead and turn there

Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15 while you're turning to that verse

I'm going to read a couple of the verses above it to show you who we're talking about. It says we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought to the sanctuary by the high priest for sin or burned without the camp wherefore

Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the camp let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach for here have we no continuing city now we come to verse 15 it's talking about Jesus Christ it says by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually you see that the continual burning of the incense was a continual offering of praise but it can only be done by him that's why he had to stop by the lampstand first that's why that the altar itself was overlaid with the gold of Jesus Christ totally baptized in Christ and then

Romans chapter 8 verse 26 it is so clear I can't believe

I missed it for 20 years of ministry I knew the concept but I I didn't really see it in the scriptures until I saw this verse

Romans 8 26 and I saw it in the context of the fact that prayer has to be initiated in heaven

I had a teacher once that told me to add a coffee then I found this verse it says likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought fleshly prayer would be lost because it doesn't even know what to pray for it doesn't even know what it ought to pray for and so James says when we ask sometimes we ask amiss that we may consume it of our own lust that's fleshly that's strange fire going up before the

Lord strange incense with the wrong purpose I read a little book years ago and I won't give the man's name because I you know

I have to believe the man meant well he was a famous, truly a famous man among the

Independent Baptists but the whole title of the book was Prayer is Asking and the whole book was written about the fact that prayer is to get things from God and for no other purpose in fact he said prayer is not praise prayer is not this that or the other it is asking and prayer is getting and if you don't get then you didn't get the answer from God and he even mocked certain other theologians who had said well sometimes

God answers no and he comes back and says well that's confusing to the children of God it's not answered unless it's answered yes

I used to think that was the greatest book ever written on prayer I didn't understand what prayer was about prayer is about bringing glory and praise to God and fulfilling his purpose on this earth and having direction and knowing what he's about to do so you can join in with it through prayer likewise the spirit helps our infirmities for we know not what we ought to ask well then what good is prayer if we don't know what we should ask it's nothing but vain vanity until you see the next part of this verse but the spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings now this word groanings is the

Greek word stenogmos which means a sigh it does not mean gibberish by the way in case you didn't know that they use this verse to try to prove that this is tongue talking it's not you have to find a different verse maybe you can but you can't use this one this has nothing to do with the gibberish type of tongues the modern tongues at all what this does have to do with is your innermost prayers as they go before the very throne of God in the heavenlies the spirit makes intercessions with a sigh which cannot even be uttered by man your prayers are meaningless without this they can't even be translated into God's language and yet the

Holy Spirit who searches our hearts and how can he know the heart of man because he is one with your spirit when he indwells your body at the moment of salvation you are then commanded to be filled with the spirit which means to become one to lock up in the dearest form of fellowship spiritually with him and at that point he searches your entire heart he sees the panorama of your whole life and every need that there is and he takes that right before God before you said one word

Jesus said I know your needs before you ask how, here's the mechanism and he takes the yearnings of your heart which can't be spoken our language is far too inadequate it is so limited and yet the

Holy Spirit sees our heart not the language of it but the need of it and he takes it before God with a sigh that you could never understand but God says

I hear you and it's as incense before God because Jesus himself brings it to him by his spirit and he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit so he knows the mind of your spirit but he also says he makes intercessions for the saints according to the will of God because he knows the mind of God because he is the spirit of God he is the connection between you and God and your prayer must come in this fashion it must come from God via his spirit to your heart and mind and then you offer it as incense back to him it totally destroys the

Armenian power of humanism I know that there are people who left this church two years ago because it bothered them that their prayers are not what made the world turn around your prayers don't make the world turn around your prayers are nothing but an offering but if we could only know how valuable this offering is to God then it takes great value but not from the humanistic viewpoint because it's not the specific little details of the things that we ask that are so important as it is the fact that it just comes before God and glorifies him and brings him joy and I want you to see that as we close turn to Revelation chapter 5 verse 6 and I want everybody to turn there so you can read it with me so that I can take advantage of you because this is glorious and I wanted to put it at the first of the sermon because I know that's when you're listening but it goes at the end.

Revelation chapter 5 verse 6 we've seen in this passage in Exodus that you have man as pictured by the wood totally baptized by the gold which pictures

Jesus which pictures the oneness that you have only when you're both saved and filled with the

Holy Spirit and we see that it's carried with staves so it's not to be touched by the hand of man.

We see that it is done in the concept of lighting the lamps which means you have to have the light, wisdom, and knowledge from Jesus to even know what to pray for and then we see there's a grave warning against burning strange incense on this altar at all and so we see that it all has to do that it must come from God it must come to you by his spirit it must enter your heart and as the two of you are one you begin to think and you know then what you're supposed to pray for you know

God's will, you know where he's moving you, you know what his program is and you become a part of it humbly rather than moving him around with your prayers, he's humbling you and saying you're my servant and I'm moving you into this area pray for this and when you do that it's an offering up to God and look at this, this is unbelievable what we're going to see here, it's absolutely fascinating what we're going to see here but you've got to read carefully with me

Revelation 5, 6 and I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth, now wait a minute we don't want to pass this even though it's lunch time, think with me right before this passage you can go back in an earlier chapter and it's going to picture

God the father sitting on this throne and it pictures him as something that is there physically there but indescribable beautiful lights and jewels and resplendent light but you do see his hand coming out handing the scroll to the lamb so we see his presence, the father's presence is on this throne and in the midst of this very throne you see the lamb, that's

Jesus Christ, the one slain and here we see him now on the front of that throne of the father you see seven lamps and the bible says the seven lamps are the seven spirits of God now when you look at the eye of Jesus you see in his eye, you look in his eyes and what you see are the same seven spirits and the bible says at the end of verse 6 that these are the seven spirits or you might say this is the seven fold

Holy Spirit you can go in the Old Testament and find what the spirits are what the characteristics are of the

Holy Spirit but it is the same spirit that you see the father having, now the son has them and now look what it says which are sent into all the earth guess who else has that spirit you do all of his children we are all connected do you see you know brother

Roy was talking about the amazing thing about the internet how you can take a translator in Spain and the author where was the author

California and he is here in Texas kind of coordinated and they are all connected but they are separate entities you take the father and you take the son who we know are separate entities we know

Jesus is God but we know there is a Jesus and there is a father there is a Christ and there is a father there is an eternal son and the eternal father and then there is us and Jesus said

I am one with the father and the father one with me I in him and he in me but then he said that you may be one in us and us in you and you have that same seven fold spirit in you and your spirit has been melded together with it as the gold is to the chitim wood and now look what is happening here all of a sudden we come into this place the

Holy Spirit is in all the earth but he is also there as the lamp in front of the throne and in the eyes of Jesus he is there he is here so we are here but we are also there because we are connected we are seated in Christ at that throne right now you did not know that did you thought you were sitting here getting hungry getting the old rear end hurting because these pews are not built right not because the preaching is too long because the pews are not built right and this great connection is here in verse 7 says and he came and he took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne that is the father and when he had taken the book the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors guess what these are which are the prayers of the saints now think with me you got to think don't leave me right here otherwise

I got to preach this again next Sunday and put it at the first of the message each of these beasts and all of these elders these elders have in their hand golden vials full of incense which are the prayers of the saints now watch what you've always focused on when you read this passage because I know you're just like me is you focused on these beasts and on these elders praising and worshipping

God and you said well someday I'll be doing that and you've missed it so did

I but we got it this morning follow with me look what they're doing and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our

God kings and priests you see we have a duty as a priest and we shall reign on the earth and I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the elders and the number of them was ten thousands times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb what are they doing praising him worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power he is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them hear

I saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and to the lamb forever and ever and the four beasts said amen and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever and you know what they never ever came before God and offered one praise without your praises with them look back at verse eight now this will blow your mind if you can just transcend time a little bit and realize that the life you are living right now is already in heaven in these vials and that it is absolutely impossible for these angels and these beasts and these elders to say one praise to the father if you don't pray here because those vials will be empty if you don't that's impossible of course because God's ordained that you will but you are responsible like we talked about in Sunday school the responsibility comes in as do you want to pray do you want to praise him do you want to take some time out of the busy day and just think about the

Lord for a little bit and send some send some incense up so that some angel says I got one now

I can go play participate now I got some in here here's mine Lord and when he had taken the book the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of the saints and none other they have nothing in their vial if you don't pray and every prayer that you pray and every praise that you send up when you're connected to the

Savior and God himself initiates it in your heart to do and you do it with a willing heart because you want to do it and it brings joy in your life and brings joy to God every one of those lands in a little vial that's pictured here and as these come before him and all of these thousands upon thousands and thousands of thousands are praising him with music and a sound you can't even comprehend now and before God and just bowing down and saying how worthy is the lamb you are right there in the midst of it and without you they can't do it it is your duty as a believer priest to send the incense up every day as you keep the light of the lamp burning and are reminded that the next step is to send up the incense.

It's very important but not because it moves God around to do your will on the earth it's very important because you will see as clearly as we see this morning someday far more clearly we'll understand the importance was that it came up as a sweet smelling savor to God let's stand and pray together

Father we thank you for your word and how it guides us and keeps us from ignorance to the extent that we would study it

Lord help us to send up our prayers even more this week than we might have because you've ordained that this message would be preached there's a purpose in the message and we will be more thoughtful of this in weeks and days and months to come may we send up many many precious much precious smoke to you

Lord how wonderful it is to look forward and see that we are participating in this great praise service that we saw in heaven that our prayers are right there our praises are there and without them it wouldn't even be going on and you've ordained that we would be a part of it all an important part and that the prayers of the saints may be the most important part of that whole event as far as the praise coming forth

Lord help us to realize that we participate in that event right here and now somehow as we transcend time and we're brought into the very presence of that throne by being in Christ by the precious

Holy Spirit as he makes that connection for us Lord may you remind us of these things throughout our days may you bless our fellowship together today and our meal as well and we ask it in Jesus name