House of Prayer - Part 3 — Jim Cymbala

The Temple Must Not Become a Business

Why we did what we did and how we did it. But that's not my main point this morning, but that's a well-taken point for all of us. Not only on the crass business side of money, because it's so easy to make gospel work, just another way to make a living, that's what these people were doing.

Giving Glory to Jesus Christ

They weren't interested in people getting in contact with God, they were making a living out of it. But as we do God's work, we must not rob the glory that is only due to Him. Whenever we do and whatever we say, the Lord wants to remind us through this that all the glory and all the honor must go to Jesus Christ.

Jesus Defends His Father's House

But the thing that really provoked Jesus into this angry tirade was this. He said, you men don't even understand about my father's house. You've revised, you've given your opinion about the temple, but the temple doesn't belong to you.

The Father's House Is a House of Prayer

My father's house shall be called a house of prayer, and you've made it a den of thieves. This is a first principle of religion, so listen closely. Jesus said, my house, my father's house, shall be called a house of prayer.

Prayer as the Atmosphere of Christian Gatherings

The atmosphere of my father's house is supposed to be prayer. The atmosphere around the things of my father must be that aroma of people opening their heart and coming to my father in worship and in petition and supplication.

And instead of keeping that atmosphere and aiming at that atmosphere and understanding my father's purpose, you've made it a place just to make a buck. So out with you. My house shall be called a house of prayer.

The thing that's supposed to distinguish Christian churches and Christian people and Christian gatherings is the aroma and the atmosphere of prayer. You might say, well, Pastor Symbol or Brother Jim, that's not our style.

We come from a different tradition. It doesn't matter what your tradition is or what my tradition is. It's his father's house. And his father says, in my house, it shall be a house of prayer and supplication.

The Temple and the Church Are Not Sacred Buildings

Now, we know that that temple is unlike any church. The Brooklyn Tabernacle, the building that I pastor in, is not a sacred building. Your church building is not a sacred building. There are no sacred buildings like the temple.

We know that. That temple that sat there in Jerusalem, which now the Mosque of Omar sits on that land, was the only place that God said the brazen altar could be put and the animal sacrifices could be given.

It was the only geographical spot in the world where the holy place and the holy of holies could be. So what I'm not trying to say today is that in our churches, there's some counterpart to the temple.

We know that. In fact, the Bible says we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. But what I want to say to you is that God's work from the very beginning is not like you and I often imagine it. God's work, God's house, the Christian religion is always supposed to have the aroma of prayer.

Prayer Must Define Every Part of Church Life

Preaching, yes, but not my house shall be called the house of preaching. Music, yes, but my house shall not be called the house of music. My house shall be called the house of prayer. There were choirs, but it was called the house of prayer.

There was the reading of the word, but my house shall be called a house of prayer. So the Bible tells us that when Jesus Christ died and resurrected and went back to heaven and he began his church, which the gates of hell shall not prevail against, he kept the same line running through the formation of the church, which was in his father's house.

The Church Was Born in Prayer

Have you ever noticed that the Christian church was not born while someone was preaching, but while people were praying? Have you ever noticed that in the second chapter of the book of Acts, when the church was born, they were doing nothing but just waiting on God and praying?

And they were just sitting there, and as they were praying and worshiping and waiting and having heart communion with God and God shaping them and cleaning them out and building faith into them and doing those heart operations that only the Holy Spirit could do, the church was born, the spirit was poured out.

The Apostolic Church Responded to Threats with Prayer

My house shall be called a house of prayer. In the fourth chapter, Peter and John are arrested and they're slapped around and threatened. Don't you preach anymore in that name. And what do they do? They don't go and protest.

They don't go to the Supreme Court. They don't try to get some political leverage. They go back to a prayer meeting. They go back and say, behold the threat. Oh God, look how they're threatening us. But oh God, we lift our voices together to you.

Oh God, behold their threats and give your servants boldness that we might preach the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus and the place where they prayed.