(Europe 2008) Session 2 - Cleansing the Temple — B.H. Clendennen

Thank God for a prayer meeting, amen. I learned early on in my walk with God that you never go beyond your prayer life. You can impress men with a lot of things, but you can't impress God in heaven except if you have true communion with the Father through Jesus Christ, amen.

Just a blessing to be here. Nine months ago in March in the convention in Beaumont, God dealt with my heart concerning Europe. I didn't go with that intention. I didn't know anything about what God was doing, but God spoke some things to my heart and I'm just blessed that nine months later I'm in England preaching the word of God, amen.

Just a blessing. So blessed, amen. We've had great hospitality, Brother Keith, his wife Candace, Brother Francis, amen. Just a blessing. They've really encouraged our hearts and our lives. Just a blessing to be here, amen.

Becoming a House of Prayer

God wants to talk to us this morning about prayer, amen. Again, there's nothing more important in your walk with God than your life of prayer. Nothing more important. You'll never go beyond your prayer life.

You must be that house of prayer. Prayer cannot be something we do, it must be something we become. Christianity is not something we do. We are so relegated in this hour that we live to doing Christianity.

No longer allow the Spirit of God to make us that child of God that God had ordained for us to be when we truly got born again, amen. But God wants to talk to us this morning about prayer, amen. Take your Bibles out this morning just for a few minutes, turn to John, John chapter two.

John chapter two. Father, I thank you for the privilege, Lord. God, we need to hear from you today, God. We don't need to hear from man, we need to hear from heaven, God. Lord, anoint every word we speak, God.

Lead us and guide us by your Spirit, God. Hide us behind that cross, God. May every man, woman, boy, and girl in this house today, God, have an ear to hear what the Spirit of God is speaking to the church.

Deal with our hearts today, God. Deal with us today, God, in this house. And we give you all the praise in Jesus' name, amen. John chapter two. As we read these scriptures here in John chapter two and Matthew chapter 21, most of you are very familiar with them, but Jesus Christ came to the temple on two occasions.

The Two Cleansings of the Temple

And what we're going to read you this morning, the two cleansings that Christ came to the temple. John chapter two is the first cleansing. We know he came to the temple that day to cleanse the house of God.

And in Matthew chapter 21, at the end of his ministry, he came again. Two cleansings. You may understand that, but get that in your heart and your spirit. We've been taught and we know that the end is contained in the beginning.

Jesus Christ teaches us a valuable lesson here, that the way his ministry started is the way it would end. And on the day of Pentecost, there was a great cleansing in the house of God. A hundred and twenty men and women came to the house of God, to Jerusalem, and the power of God cleansed them for ten days and prepared them for the coming of the power of the Holy Ghost.

I believe with all my heart in these last days, that same cleansing is going to come back to the house of God. He's come here this morning, this week, praise God, to cleanse our hearts. We're not to look to the outside.

We're not to point our finger out there. The problem is right here. The problem's right here in my own heart, in my own life. If I'll get this house right, if I'll get this vessel right, the power of God can flow through us again and influence the outside.

Praise God. You must get the inside right before the outside will ever be influenced. Amen. The end is contained in the beginning, and the way we start must be the way we end. Christ started his ministry with cleansing of that temple, and he would end his ministry with the cleansing of that temple, and if we'll learn this lesson today, we stand on the threshold, I believe, of God Almighty shaking us as he's never shaken us before.

A great shaking can come to England, a great shaking can come to Europe, that the power of God, once again, can flow through our lives, home to a new generation. Praise God. We can see that Pentecost that we prayed about this morning.

We can see a mighty move of God in this land once again. Amen. John chapter 2. Again, reading with verse 11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him.

After this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brother and his disciples, and they continued there not many days. Verse 13. And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting.

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables. And he said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise.

And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thy house hath eaten thee up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What signs showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Amen. Matthew chapter 21. John chapter 2, verse 20. Matthew chapter 21, as he comes to the end of his ministry, he goes in that temple again.

Chapter 21. Verse 12. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves.

And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer. But ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. And the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David.

They were sore displeased. And said unto him, Hearest thou what they say? And Jesus said unto them, Yea, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? Amen. There's never been a time possibly in the body of Christ that there's been great shaking that God has brought forth in these last days.

I'm convinced that if you can be shaken loose, you'll be shaken in this last hour. If you can be discouraged, you will be discouraged in this last hour. But it won't be by the power of the devil or the power of the enemy.

It will be from the power of God. For God is once again looking a house of prayer. He's looking men and women of God that doesn't come to a house of prayer, but they are a house of prayer. And we've allowed God the Holy Ghost to so cleanse us that we have become so dependent upon God that we fall upon our knees once again and we have no strength of our own, we have no ability of our own, nothing to offer God but a vessel that God can pour His life out and through Him.

Amen. If we allow this temple to get cleansed like Christ spoke of here in John chapter 2 and Matthew chapter 21, there is nothing too hard for God. There's nothing that God won't do in and through our lives in these last days.

But there must be this cleansing in our house. Amen. Jesus Christ came to John chapter 2 and He came to Matthew chapter 21 to cleanse this temple. He found something there that very bothered Him, that very upset Him.

There was a white hot anger. This was not an effeminate Christ. This was not a Christ that came weak-kneed and beaten down. This was a Christ of authority. This was the visible image of an invisible God.

Amen. He walked down those streets that day with the determination that He knew what God had called Him to do. This house was to be a house of prayer. Anything less than that, anything short of that would not do.

He must go into Jerusalem. He must go into that house and that house must be brought back to what it was supposed to be in the original. Amen. What did He find there? What has Christ found today? What has the Holy Ghost found in our own hearts and our lives?

Again, I say to you, I beckon you, do not look outside these doors today. The answer lies right here in this room right here. There is enough in this room right here to turn this city, to turn this nation inside out for God.

It will allow this body, the body of the Holy Ghost, the temple of God, to be right with God. He came and He found that they had made religion easy. They had simply made religion easy. If there has ever been a time in the church, in the body of Christ, that we have allowed religion to be made easy, it is the hour we live right now.

We have made religion very easily. You just come as you are. I am not talking about the sinner now. The sinner, thank God, he can come just like he is and God can set that man free. But for the child of God, we are not to come just as we are.

We are to come to the temple of the Holy Ghost. We are to come to the body of Christ. We are to come to get the ice and put on the cake in these meetings, but we are to build that cake in our daily lives.

Amen. And we are to bring something to the house of God. They made religion easy. And that simply means this. If you were to go to the temple in John chapter 2 and Matthew chapter 21, as we read there, they were selling the doves and the pigeons and the rams.

All you had to do was leave your house that day, walk down the streets of Jerusalem. You could go to the temple and there you would find the money changers sitting on the outside of the temple. This was the Gentile temple, the Gentile courts.

And that is what really made Christ angry and hot was the fact that He had asked that nation of Israel to be a blessing to all nations. But they had become self-absorbed with their own self, self-absorbed with their own worship.

And so they sat there in that temple that day. They were not concerned about anyone else except themselves. So you could leave home that day. You could walk down the streets of Jerusalem. You could go to the temple and there were the money changers sitting outside.

They would change that Roman coin to a Jewish coin because we know that the emperor of that place couldn't cross that threshold into that temple. You didn't have to bring anything from the house of God.

You didn't have to bring a dove or a lamb. All you had to do was come as you are. Just leave the house. Get up. Walk to the house of God. No preparation made. No seeking God early. You just come to the temple.

Anything you needed you could buy outside of that court. You could buy that lamb. You could buy that pigeon. You could buy that dove outside of the court. Walk in and offer it up for sacrifice. We see so much of that today in what we call the church.

People come to the house of God and they don't bring very much with them. But God has called these meetings this week, praise God, to do a work in our hearts and our lives. That we no longer just come and we beg of God.

But we bring something to the mix. We bring something to the house of God. What made Christ so red hot angry that day? Well, we know that Christianity is a daily life. Christianity is living that daily life.

They could get up in the morning. They could walk to the house of God. They didn't have to bring that lamb. They could just buy that lamb outside of the temple and walk in and offer it up as a sacrifice.

But Christ knew that house was going to be a house of prayer. It would only be a house of prayer as we allow that cross to deal with our daily lives. As we rise early in every hour of every day, we're dependent upon the power of God in our lives.

You see, it was altogether different to have to go home that day and get up that morning and clean that pen of that lamb. Let's say you were going to bring a lamb to the house of God. Well, if you own that lamb, that means you had to get up that morning.

You had to clean that pen. You had to feed that lamb every day of your life. You had to nurture that lamb. You had to make sure that pen was clean. You had to feed that lamb. Let me tell you something.

When you bring that lamb to the house of God to offer as a sacrifice, you'll appreciate what God has done in your daily life. But oh no, they didn't have to do that. They just came to the house of God as they were.

They could buy that lamb right there. They didn't have to clean out the dung of that pen. Oh no, they didn't have to clean out that dung. Just come, buy that lamb, offer Him up. Let me tell you something, church.

If we, through our daily lives, have allowed that cross to do a work in our lives, we know how precious the mercy of God is. We know how precious the grace of God is. We know what it is to give up the morning.

That pen is not clean. That heart is not where it ought to be. But we seek God. Hallelujah. We seek God. And God the Holy Ghost comes. And He cleanses that house. He cleanses that temple, praise God. And we go to the house of God.

And we come to a prayer meeting. And we offer something to God. We know where that sacrifice came from. It was God Almighty that touched our hearts and touched our lives, praise God. It angered Christ.

It bothered Him. They could come and simply make religion easy. Religion has been devalued. There was no passion. There is no passion just to come to the house of God. There is no passion just to walk in and sit or just pray a few minutes.

But when you come dependent upon God, hallelujah, you will come with a passion. You will come with a validation. You will come with a desire in your heart that God, the power of the Holy Ghost, can move through that temple again.

That's what we need this week. We need to come like we never have before. This house must be a house of prayer. We must do our homework in our daily lives. We must pick up our cross. We must deny ourselves.

We must be men and women of prayer. Not what we do, but what we become, praise God. And we bring that to the house of God. And we offer that as a sacrifice to God that the Holy Ghost can move. Christ was angry that day.

A red-hot anger because they made religion easy. And He came to that temple that day. And He came just like we're supposed to come. I said He came to that temple that day the same way we're supposed to come to the house of God.

If He's a visible image of the invisible God, then we're to be the representative of Jesus Christ. We're to represent Him here on this earth. We are the body of Christ. We are that church, praise God, that He has left here.

We're to come to the house of God the same way He did. And God made this very real to me in my own personal life. I don't know about you, but the last several months I found myself praying more than ever.

God, cleanse my mind. Cleanse my heart. There's many times in the hours of the day I don't have my prayer list, but I'm praying, God, cleanse my mind. Cleanse my heart. Every breath I breathe, this vague air is permeated with the power of darkness.

But it just affords an opportunity for a great light to shine. Praise God. And we'll keep our hearts and our minds cleansed. Jesus came to that temple that day. But He looked down that street and He goes, this is what God made real to me.

He wants to speak this to your heart today. You say, maybe you're not like me this morning. Maybe you never get distracted. Maybe you walk into a house of prayer like this, there's no distraction in your heart, in your mind.

But let me tell you something. If you're after God, every bit of hell is after you. I said the powers of darkness are after you. But let me tell you, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost is greater than any power of hell that will come to your heart and to your life.

Amen. Jesus looked down that street that day and He saw the temple was not what it ought to be. And here's what God showed me most openly in my own life. Many times we'll see things not how they ought to be and we start down that street and we get distracted.

Dealing With the Center of the Problem

That's what Christ refused to do. He walked down the middle of that street today and everything was pulling Him. This prayer request, this need, this problem, and all of it could have been justified. He said, oh no, no, no.

If I can get to the center of the problem, if I can correct the center of the problem, then it will flow to the outside. You see, we come to the house of God and we're so distracted with so many things from the outside.

We do this, we do that, and we do the other. But this day Christ told us a great example. He said, when you come as a house of prayer, you put aside this, you put aside that. You get to the center of that city, you get to that temple that's in the center of that city, and if you'll deal with the problem that's in the middle of that city, there'll be something happening in that heart that'll outflow to those around you.

Praise God. He was telling us, church, you must deal with the center of the problem. He walked down that street that day and no man could pull on Him. No demon could distract Him. No good intention could distract Him.

He said, I will go to the house of God this day. I will cleanse this house. It will be called a house of prayer again. I'm telling you boldly today, God is going to come to cleanse these houses again.

So we must not be distracted with the peripheral. We must let God, the Holy Ghost, get in the center of the problem, and that is our hearts. The problem still lies in the heart states, but thank God for the power of the Holy Ghost that He walked right in the middle of our lives and cleansed us, praise God, from the top of our head to the soles of our feet.

We can be cleansed once again that God may use us in His last days. Do you hear me, church? Do you hear me, church? Oh, I know we've been so praying today and we're going to leave this service, but the last time I checked the power of God, I fell out there.

There's not a Pentecost out there. It must start here, praise God. It must start here, and we must refuse to leave the same way we came. Jesus Christ walked in that temple that day. Lord, return those money changers to this table.

I say, overturn them. Thank God for the power. Cast it down and overturn it. I said, thank God for the power. Cast it down and overturn it. We need that power once again. We need that power back in the house of God once again.

Cast it down and overturn it. The house was a mess. I said, the house was a mess that day. It looked a mess. We don't like to look a mess anymore. We want it all together, all prim and proper. We want everything in order.

We've been taught by the playboys of the pulpit that everything has to be perfectly in order. You have all things together. But God came that day because He realized when Christ came, because that house must be a house of prayer.

And when He got finished in that house, it looked a proverbial mess. I said, they were money changers everywhere. There was things thrown in that house. It didn't look like much to the world. It didn't look like much to that preacher that had everything together.

But to God, I said to God, He was prepared to move once again. I said He was prepared to move once again. That house looked in a mess. He knew that God had been in that house, praise God. And the power of the Holy Ghost was about to move in that place again.

He came and overthrew and cast down it. And when He did that, there was a great stirring among the Pharisees and those religious people. They asked Him a question. They said, what sign shows to you? If you look in John chapter 2, let me just read that to you again.

He said in John chapter 2, verse 18,. Then answered the Jews and said unto him. Then answered the Jews and said unto him. Jesus never asked a question, but they answered Him. What were they answering there?

What question did these Jews answer? They answered Him. They weren't answering a question. They were answering His actions. He had asked nothing. He had asked nothing that day. He had asked permission to go into that house and cleanse it.

He asked nothing. They answered His actions. They said, by what sign do you show us that you have the right to come to our house and turn this place upside down? What sign do you have? Show us a sign.

Jesus would later say, There's only one sign given to an evil and adulterous generation. That's the sign of John. Three days in the belly of that whale. Three days. And what was Christ speaking about?

He tells us here what He was talking about. He said, you destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. He said, what sign am I showing you? You destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up.

And they looked and they said, What do you mean? Forty and six years we've been building this temple. We've been coming to church 46 years. We've been coming to prayer meetings 46 years. We've been giving our offerings 46 years.

We've been intense. We've been committed for 46 years. How dare you come and turn our house of prayer upside down? And many times when I preach this, this is the feeling I get. Come on, preacher. We've been to prayer meetings.

We're here. We're committed. We're here this morning. We're praying. Back off of this, preacher. Oh, no. Christ said it may be good, but it's not what God intended. And God Almighty will not stop till His Son is glorified in heaven.

Praise God. He said what sign do I show you? He said there's only one sign to any generation. It's the sign of death and resurrection. Death and resurrection. Do you hear me, church? He said you destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

What was He saying? The only sign I will give you is the sign of death and resurrection. The sign of the cross. Oh, hallelujah. I said hallelujah. The sign of the cross. What does that tell us? It matters not what the problem is in the house.

It doesn't matter what evil you see. It doesn't matter what frailty, what flaw. The cross, the cross of Calvary is the answer to everything in our lives. Praise God. It will cleanse us. It will set things straight.

Hallelujah. Do you hear me, church this morning? If God is going to move across Europe again, it's going to be because you and I put that cross right back in the middle of our daily lives. The cross. What about that cross?

The cross. You see, if the cross had been active in their lives, they wouldn't have come and bought that sheep. They wouldn't have come and bought that lamb. They'd have been preparing that lamb at home.

They'd have been raising that lamb at home. They'd have been tending that sheep, that pen. They'd have cleaned that pen every day. They'd have fed and nurtured. He said if you'd have had a life of prayer, He said you'd have got up this morning.

Praise God. You'd have nurtured that life of prayer yesterday. You'd have had that cross in the middle of your daily life. Praise God. And that cross would have brought great effect to your heart and to your life.

You'd have got up this morning, he said, and you'd have cleaned that pen. You'd have nurtured that sheep. Praise God. You'd have come to this temple and you'd offer up a sacrifice because you knew that through death, praise God, there is a death that will come to everything in our hearts and our lives that's not like Jesus Christ.

Oh, that makes me want to shout. You see, I've got a long ways to go. I've been saved 30 years next month. 30 years. But I still see too much of me in this life. I still see too much of me. And the only answer is the cross of Calvary.

There's too many apathies in the body of Christ. Too many desires in the body of Christ that have not been accepted. They have not been crucified by that cross. We've accepted everything into the house of God.

And we say that God understands. And we justify it in the cause. We come to prayer meetings. We give our money. We're committed. But Christ said, Oh no, my father wants to move in this house. My father wants to pour out his spirit in this house.

He said, I'll give you one sign. It's the sign of the cross of Calvary. And it'll bring death to everything in our lives that's not like Christ. And it'll bring resurrection power. I said it'll bring resurrection power, which is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, hallelujah. Oh, men and women this morning, do you hear what we're saying? Our pastor preached last night that all God needs is a vessel. All he needs is a vessel, praise God, that'll cling to that old rugged cross.

That'll cling to that old rugged cross. Not for those on the outside, but for those in here, in this own heart, and in this own life. That those things we see in our lives that's not right with God, and we have them today.

I said we have them today. But through the power of the cross of Calvary, this temple will get cleansed. I said this temple will be what it ought to be again, praise God. I said He overthrew the cast down.

Oh, for the ability to overthrow and cast down again. I said for the ability to come to the house of prayer once again and overthrow and cast down. If He casts down, He'll build up. If He overthrows, He'll bring in, praise God.

Our weapons are not weak, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We can come back to the house of prayer once again, and we can pull down these strongholds. We can cast down.

We can overturn once again, praise God. We may look like a mess, but God the Father, God the Holy Ghost, will be prepared to move in our midst and flow out of this place. Oh, hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah, church.

The Cross at the Center of Daily Life

My Lord, we travel across this ocean of great privilege. I thought, God, how in the world could you privilege me to be here this morning? Oh, we're just vessels beat for the master's use, we trust. But if we're anything in God, it's because that cross has been active in our daily lives.

I just can't preach this cross. I just can't sing this cross. This cross must be in the center of everything I do. That's what He was saying that day. You've allowed my house to be a house of marketplace, traffic in and out, in and out of the house of God.

There's no real zeal here. There's no real passion. You've got to have truth, yes, but that truth must be surrounded with clarity and passion. You may not like what a preacher says. You may not really like what I may say this morning, but when you leave, you've got to know I may not like it, but I know what He meant.

There was clarity and there was passion. Jesus Christ walked down that street that day of Jerusalem. He refused to get distracted with the peripheral. He walked right to the center of that city. My pastor told me that Jerusalem is in the middle of this nation or in the middle of this universe.

Right in the middle of this world that we know is Jerusalem. Everything north is north of Jerusalem. Everything south is south of Jerusalem. He went to the center of the problem. Oh, hallelujah. I said He went to the center of the problem.

And that's what God is going to do this week. He's going to use that man of God to deal with our hearts to come to the center of the problem. Not the one out there, but right here, praise God. If I get this house right, there's nothing God can't do.

Nothing God can't do. Nothing. He overthrew and He cast down. I said He overthrew and He cast down. And He made those Pharisees hungry. What sign? Show us now. The cross of Calvary. The cross of Calvary.

Hallelujah. The cross of Calvary. Oh, you see the Holy Ghost will not come upon that cross. It never comes upon that cross. If we're going to have a move of God in England, if we're going to have a move of God in Europe, it's going to be because a few, a remnant rose up and said, God, we're not all we thought we were.

We don't have it all together. This house is not what it ought to be. Yes, I'm committed. Yes, I go to prayer. Yes, I give my money. But I'm guilty, God. I've read the book of Acts. And we don't look like that, God.

We don't look like what this book says we ought to look, God. But we're not going to walk around beaten down. I don't need some humanistic compassion to put its arms around me and say, God understands.

God understands. You've got a small church. And God understands that He's going to try you. No, no, no. I don't need that. I need to grab ahold of that cross and put it right in the center of my life that God the Holy Ghost stirs me as I've never been stirred before to rise up and be the house of prayer that God has called us to be.

If we will pray, God will hear, and God will answer. Praise God. And we can see Pentecost again. Pentecost will not come apart from the cross. I said Pentecost will not come apart from the cross of Calvary.

There will be no Pentecost in England. There will be no Pentecost again in Europe apart from the cross in our lives. Jesus' cross paved the way through Calvary. We know He paved the way through Calvary for Pentecost to come.

If there had not been a Calvary, there would have been no Pentecost. But there was a Calvary. There was a cross. Hallelujah. And Peter finally embraced that cross. And Pentecost came. Praise God. I said Pentecost came once again to the house of God.

He cleansed that temple through the power of the cross. Church, hear me this morning. Oh, I know most of you know it. You got your books on your shelves at home about the cross. You sing all the right songs.

We say all the right words. But there's something amiss in the house of God. There's something amiss in our hearts and our lives. But God, through the power of the resurrected Savior, is going to bring that passion back to our house.

They remember that something was said about Christ. That the zeal of that house had consumed Him. The zeal of that house had eaten Him up. Praise God. Oh, I want that zeal. I want that zeal to eat me up.

Not an outward accolade. Not the outward emotion, but something from the inside that stirs my heart and my life. And the only thing that's going to do that is when I apply that cross and God begins to show me things that I've not seen.

Oh, no. There's things in our lives today I'm convinced that if God would pull the curtain back, we would shudder. But God, the Holy Ghost, little by little, if we're yielded to the power of God, if we're broken, if we're humbled, God will do work in our lives.

This week, praise God. And set us on a ground. Set us on a journey, hallelujah, that we never walked on heretofore. When He got finished cleansing that house, let me tell you something. There was those on the outside that was waiting for that house to be right.

Cleansing the House for the Sake of Those Outside

Do you hear me, church? There were those on the outside that was waiting for that house to be right. If you study John chapter 2, chapter 3, verse 1, in the original it says, Now, therefore. Who was in the shadows of the temple in John chapter 2?

A Nicodemus. Who was in the shadows of Nicodemus? A ruler, a teacher. But he wasn't born again. I said he wasn't saved. But he was looking at that temple, praise God. He was looking toward that church.