David Bailey - Talking With God - Class 2 - The Requirements of Prayer

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Excuse me? We understand from Psalm 141 that incense represents prayer and, and elsewhere revelation as well. And incense being. Part of the Tabernacle we find there, while God in that Tabernacle service, He provides a basis for what He requires for acceptable prayer. So in Exodus 30 and in verse three, the first thing we notice about the altar of incense is that it’s all gold. It says, And thou shall overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof and the sides thereof roundabout, and the horns thereof, and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold roundabout.

2. 0:58

   The first thing you notice about the Psalter is that it’s all gold. And we understand from the Bible also that gold is a symbol of faith, as as Peter says. Let’s hope this works. Yes, the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes. And there are several other passages as well that express this fact. So the primary principle of prayer is faith, as Hebrews 11 says this well known passage, verse six. But without faith it is impossible to please him. Now listen to the implications of prayer here. For he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a.

3. 1:51

   Rewarder of them that. Diligently seek Him. Both those expressions coming to God and seeking Him, are expressions that refer to prayer as well as the word of God in the In the case of the second, we’ll consider that a little later. So if we come to God in prayer, we’ve got to believe that God exists.

4. 2:20

   God must be real. He is who he says he is and what he’s like. We understand that. And ultimately the the only assurance that we have that God exists is in the Bible. It’s because of what he has said that word must convince us. And the second point was is that God rewards those that diligently seek Him.

5. 2:53

   Seeking Him requires our faith in God and that He rewards us. It must believe in the reward itself. So what’s the reward? Well, the passage itself gives us the answer. You see, God is the rewarder of those that seek him. He’s the reward. So that means we it implies that we can find him.

6. 3:37

   So what does it mean to find God? Is it not in a relationship with him the one that we seek? Now let’s illustrate this. There are several passages, but we’re going to use the same passage that we’ve just been considering in Josiah in Second of Chronicles. No, it isn’t. Actually. It’s concerning ASA, But anyway, Second of Chronicles 15.

7. 4:07

   I am coming back to Josiah, but I think it’s in our next study. Second Chronicles 15 and in verse two. And he went out to meet ASA and said unto him, Hear ye me, ASA, and all Judah and Benjamin, Yahweh is with you while ye be with him. And if you seek him, there’s our expression He will be found of you.

8. 4:50

   But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. So God is with us while we are with Him. So this describes this fragile relationship.

9. 5:06

   And the fragility is ours while God is the stable and responsive 1 to our efforts. God is with us while we be with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found of you. Seeking him means seeking him in prayers, in prayer, and finding God in in his word. It’s in this case it’s prayer. That’s what he’s talking about.

10. 5:42

    So while you seek Him, he will be found. How will he be? Found by responding, He will listen to you. He’s listening to your prayer while you’re seeking Him. So it’s all done in faith and it’s faith in God’s Word hearing him. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

11. 6:14

    So we’re listening to Him, and He will respond when we seek Him. Our relationship is one of faith and trust. I want to come back to Exodus chapter 30. In fact, it might be an idea to keep a marker there, because we’ll be constantly coming back here, right? Exodus 30 and verse seven.

12. 6:53

    And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning. When he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps of even, he shall burn incense upon it. A perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations. Now see what he’s saying here concerning times for prayer.

13. 7:21

    There are set times and prayer is to be offered constantly or continually. So there’s two things regarding. Prayer. Here there’s constant prayer and there are set times for prayer. So we’re going to look at each of these. First of all, we’ll look at set times for prayer. It would be. Very easy, wouldn’t it, brothers and sisters, if we simply pray to God whenever we lead it and turn God into a bit of a crisis genie who we call upon at our will?

14. 8:06

    But the law in the Tabernacle provides set times. Now we know what those set times were because it was in the morning and in the evening. That’s what it says. Those are the set times that the oil, sorry, the the incense was replenished. And we know from elsewhere that in Acts chapter 3, it’s called the hour of prayer.

15. 8:34

    So there was a specific time for prayer morning and evening, and there were others that went beyond the law, and they included another time at noon. David, Daniel, and Peter followed this practice. In an actual fact. The Jews did also, probably following the example of David and Daniel. So they have set a set time for prayer at noon as well. Now most of us have probably tried this practice of set times for prayer with some mixed success. So what happens is our brother arrives home late from an evening class or he finishes.

16. 9:21

    His Bible class talk. In his study, or he’s serviced his wife’s car, or after hours on the phone about some ecclesial matter. It’s late. He’s tired. He thinks I’ve got that early. Morning meeting tomorrow. Morning I’ve just got to get to bed. Oh, I’ve got to give him a prayer. And then he feels guilty about his attitude, but he’s so tired. He sits on the, the, the, the his bed and perhaps it’s very cold.

17. 9:54

    So he gets into bed. And to keep his mind on track, he resorts to his usual default phrases and pattern and he gets through it so that at least he’s given his prayer or he wakes up

18. 10:20

    and he’s too tired. I’ll just. Have to do it in the morning. And even if he reached Amen, he feels it was lackluster and not that close to God. The next night is the same. And the next, actually, the next night He doesn’t get past our father.

19. 10:43

    As the saying goes, a prayer invaders never said, or our sister, a feeding mother or a working mother. The day is never her own. At the day’s end, she’s absolutely exhausted and feeling stressed. She goes to bed and relaxes with a book and wakes up several hours later with her glasses Askew and a book digging into a face. I’ll just have to.

20. 11:15

    Give my prayer tomorrow. Or our young sister with all those young people’s activities, school homework, varsity studies or work that she’s brought home from the office and she’s got, she’s committed to all the young people’s activities and she’s trying to catch up with an old friend, perhaps someone who’s struggling. And of course, she’s got to have time for a boyfriend. So it’s all essential and tiring and prayer. Is a little.

21. 11:49

    Bit hit and miss. And at best squeezed. In As for a morning prayer, the alarm sounds and we hit the snooze button, and after several times it’s a race to get through everything. So prayer becomes sort of, if possible, squeezed into giving thanks for the breakfast.

22. 12:15

    As for a midday prayer, it often gets subdued into giving thanks for lunch and for many a lunch break. What’s that? We find it hard to fit prayer into our day. Think about what I just said. We find it hard to fit prayer in. What that means is we find it hard to fit God into our day.

23. 12:53

    It’s hard to fit God into our daily schedule, but prayer is not a thing we do, brothers and sisters. It’s talking with God, with God. Now part of our problem is, is fitting or off fitting God in is is how we view prayer. Prayer becomes like the poor cousin to the word it There’s the subtle hierarchy that we have we we read our Bibles and we know that we ought to give a prayer before we open our Bibles. And while prayer is important, the most important thing to us. Is studying God’s Word.

24. 13:46

    Perhaps it’s because we get a lot out of studying God’s Word. At least we learn principles and we get moved and motivated by it. But prayer we struggle with and it sort of gets tacked on and sometimes becomes a little bit of a nuisance. You know, even in the ecclesial games nights, it’s a time of fun and activity with our.

25. 14:10

    Children and family and. Brothers and sisters, and to sort of give it a bit of spiritual legitimacy, we feel the need to tack a prayer on at the beginning and then we get on with the fun. And that’s how we tend to view prayer. We tack on prayer and tick it off. It’s almost as if prayer is a bit of a nuisance. It’s the thing we’ve got to do before we get on with the real stuff.

26. 14:44

    Now I want you to have a look at Exodus 30 there and verses 7 to 8. Can you find any hierarchy there? The lampstand oil represents the word of God. It is replenished at exactly the same times as the incense is replenished. Twice a day. Together the word and prayer go together. It’s not fitting in at our convenience now. Set times were part of Israel’s national religion, so everyone stopped for prayer, those that were spiritual at least. And we live in a totally different world. Our lives are productivity driven. Efficiency demands that we compartmentalise our lives, including God, and then we prioritise those compartments, God included.

27. 15:57

    See who’s at the. Centre of this. It’s not God, it’s us. We’ve got to fit all those things in. Is God first in our lives like we profess? Is he our priority? I think he comes off second best in fact. Not just second, but 3rd, 4th, 5th, last. Often just a phone call can interact.

28. 16:23

    It’s our readings or even a prayer or a time for prayer because we have so many competing priorities. God is just one of them. Like everything else, He gets put where it suits us. The daily readings get done if it suits. Prayer more than anything else gets done at our convenience. A phone call or text someone drops in the meeting for our job, our games, our hobbies, our family, our friends, our neighbour, our health, our exercises, our tiredness, our disappointments, our trials, our triumphs, our discussion. A discussion, a book, the Internet all interrupt, and we put them before God.

29. 17:17

    Our problem isn’t fitting God in, brothers and sisters. It’s more that we’re crowding God out. You would think. Excuse me, this is a tiredness sort of catching up, I think. Sorry, I forgot to bring some water out. You would think that. Stipulating set times for prayer would create a mindset that compartmentalises our lives and fits God in.

30. 17:58

    But that’s not so. You examine those set times, What were they again? Well, there they are on the screen, just even taking the two set and the law. Thank you very much. Thank you.

31. 18:23

    Just look at those morning and evening or evening and morning is as it is there. They’re not as soon as we get up or the last, the very last thing at night. Now, the third of the night there, that’s 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM. They’re the best times of the day, when we’re awake, when we’re alert, we’re energized, when we can put thoughts together.

32. 19:04

    Oh, I see another. It’s you. You went to Bethlehem to get there. Do I call it? Thank you, they’re the best times is not when we’re dropping off to sleep last thing at night. God is first and we centre our days around him. It’s very hard in in the world which we live in, but we’ve got to fit him in to that world instead of God fitting ourselves around him.

33. 19:48

    God deserves to be the best. We say that, but we’ve got to do it. Really think about that. It’s not the end of the day. Nor is it. Fitting them in when it’s convenient. Now think about those times that occurred in an Israelite’s life. 9:00 AM is mid morning and 3:00. PM mid afternoon.

34. 20:15

    And if we add in the midday, well, that’s middle of that, that time, middle of the day. Now think about those times in an Israelite’s day. They’ve already started work. They’ve got to stop work to pray. They then carry on and they’ve got to stop work to pray. Then they’ll carry on and stop work.

35. 20:42

    It’s not it’s fitting God in. Well, it’s not fitting God in. It interrupts their day labourers would reach this momentum and they had to stop and think about God. This is morning tea break and lunchtime and afternoon tea time for us. It was I, I believe for them too. But they didn’t stop to fill their bellies as it were. They did perhaps did at lunchtime. But first came God in prayer, so they got their sustenance from Him.

36. 21:22

    They really meant it. Well, that’s what it’s in the law. That’s why it was put there. God interrupts their day for their spiritual benefit. That’s exactly the same with the Sabbath, wasn’t it? It interrupted their work week and they had to stop. And for the disgruntled knows that weren’t spiritual, it was a bit of a nuisance, but for the spiritual it was, it was a delight. It says inside in Isaiah 58 concerning the Sabbath. It’s the same here.

37. 21:57

    So God through his law interrupted their day. Now you think of the benefits of this, of putting our times for prayer at times that are the best. Sure, we’re going to have to arrange it because everyone’s circumstances are different. It’s not like we’re in Israel where everything was more set nationally. We can’t do that, but we can take it’s spirit, can’t we?

38. 22:30

    I remember when I worked in an office environment and just life was consumed. Your mind was consumed. You’re on a screen all day and you’re it was full of interruptions and meetings and schedules and preparing notes and, and, and various things for other people and in your job. So I had no time to think about God in the midst of this, but interrupt it. And you can.

39. 22:57

    Refocus and sure I had to find a. Place where I could. Go I could. Book A room. Sometimes, sometimes I had to use the bathroom and lock myself in a cubicle because there was no other place but to give break my time to give it to go.

40. 23:19

    That’s what the Lord did. That’s what God has hinted at in His Word now. This is what God intended, and it’s what Christ did also. He set times aside to spend with God. Mark One, verse 35. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed, Matthew 1423. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray, And when the evening was come, he was there alone.

41. 24:02

    Luke 6, verse 12 to 16. It came to pass in those days that he went. Out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God and Luke Chapter 9. Whoops. Oh dear.

42. 24:21

    And it came to pass about an 8 days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James and went into a mountain to pray. Now I think there’s something about all of those passages that indicate that Christ was a bit busy. He was extremely busy and finding time was obviously very, very difficult, but he made the time. Brothers and sisters, he’s constantly being badgered and pressed, constantly healing and and teaching and and mentoring, advising, preparing, debating.

43. 25:06

    He was always on the go. We talk about our lives being busy and fitting God in well. He made time. And he prayed for long periods of time because he knew he needed his Heavenly Father and time with now in our topsy turvy world, how do we make that kind of time? Well, you’ve already been given this point.

44. 25:39

    I accidentally put it up before. We make an appointment. With him, if we make an appointment to go and see the dentist, do we put it off because it’s not, you know, very convenient or a nice experience? We don’t because we know we need to, despite the pain. But we do with God and we’ve got to make that appointment and we’ve got to keep it.

45. 26:12

    So the phone goes quite sure what’s happening there, but just ignore it, interruption. The phone goes, you don’t answer it because you have an appointment with God. Your boss wants to call around 9:00 AM say sorry I I have another appointment I can make it at 10 little Julie wants time with her dad sorry love you know I have an appointment with God but I’d love to spend time with you on that after I’ve given my prayer an. Appointment with God is sacrosanct. Remember Daniel in Daniel chapter 6? And the jealous officials, they knew exactly what time to go and check and see if Daniel was still praying to his God instead of bowing down to the island.

46. 27:11

    They knew exactly what time because it was a set time. And sure enough, there he was praying even though it could cost him his life. God wants us to be constantly conscious of him. So there’s this other idea of continuing in prayer, or a continual prayer He wants us to be. Constantly conscious of him.

47. 27:47

    So he interrupts that day, but there’s also this other thing in verse 4. Can I just that verses four and five of Exodus 30 speak of staves and and these staves were never to be taken out of the those rings and these these staves. Why it was such a small little? It was only about a meter high, and it was just a small little piece of furniture that someone could put on their shoulder.

48. 28:34

    But they had staves and four. People would carry it. And that the point is, is that these states represent our travels through the wilderness of life. They’re also covered in gold. And so it’s wherever we go in faith, it should be accompanied by prayer. Whatever we do in life should be accompanied by prayer at the beginning of a journey, a move to a new town or ecclesia, a move to a new job, contemplating marriage, each meal, each Bible readings, perhaps a phone call to encourage a sister or a brother, greeting a brother or sister and preparing for the memorial meeting. Or a Bible.

49. 29:31

    Class, going to work, or perhaps even a walk in life’s journey. Each step should be one of prayer. That’s what the staves are telling us. Prayer must be an integral part of our lives because it brings God into our lives. It’s been conscious of Him. It’s reminding ourselves of Him every living moment, walking and talking with God wherever and whenever.

50. 30:06

    But it’s more than that. You see these set times for prayer speak of this perpetual. It’s in verse eight. There a perpetual incense before Yahweh. And a perpetual incense means a continuous stream of incense from that altar. And in actual fact, even morning and evening is a Hebrew idiom which means continuous, even though it was also representing set real set times.

51. 30:47

    It’s continuous. Paul says it this way in Romans 12 and verse 12. Rejoicing in hope, patient and tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. It means ready for prayer at an instant, ready to pray at an instant at any moment. Now we’ve got many examples of this. One of the most famous, of course, is in Nehemiah. Let’s let’s turn to that in Nehemiah and chapter 2, Nehemiah 2.

52. 31:27

    Nehemiah had prayed in chapter one, hadn’t he? And he prayed to God be with him this day, this particular day. And now he goes before the king as the King’s cup bearer. And as he’s handing the wine to the king, the king notices Nehemiah’s face that it was sad. And you don’t do that in the presence of a Persian king God. So it says in verse two.

53. 31:57

    Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad? Seem thou art not sick. This is nothing else but sorrow. Hard. Then I was very sore afraid, and said unto the king, Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father’s settle, gives lies waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and said unto the king, If it pleased the king, it can’t have been a long prayer. He couldn’t have got down on his knees and and gone through a ritual.

54. 32:44

    It was obviously a help. Me a cry and I have a. Presence of mind in such a situation, it shows that this is a practice of Nehemiah. It was something he was used to, something he did now, Nehemiah wrote in his. The book after his name, I believe it was really an official diary, and he includes these little prayers all the way through, these short spontaneous prayers, through the record.

55. 33:25

    And we find the same thing in the epistles as well, don’t we? The apostle Paul in particular, but also Peter and John likewise insert these spontaneous prayers into what they’re writing about

56. 33:42

    in their letters. It was a practice by these people, these Jews, these spiritually minded Jews. That’s how they thought. They naturally just brought these little prayers into what they’re talking about. In other words, they were conscious of God and brought them into what they’re doing. Come with me to Matthew Chapter 11, Matthew 11, verse 25.

57. 34:27

    Jesus is standing with the disciples and he brings this blistering attack upon Corazon, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. And then it abruptly says in verse 25. At that time Jesus answered for he responded what to what he was just doing. He was He was pronouncing these judgments upon these cities, and he responds and says, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because there has hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in my sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knows the Son, but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father saved, and he’s speaking to the disciples. It’s like he just inserts, he’s he’s lambast in these nations, gives us prayer and he carries on talking to his disciples. It’s like God is included in the conversation. It’s how he thought.

58. 35:31

    It’s how near my thought, how the apostles thought, how they could bring God into their speech, their activities. They were conscious of God at all times. And we can do this too, brothers and sisters, but we need to get into that kind of habit Now. What about the prayers themselves? What? What makes? An acceptable.

59. 35:58

    Prayer and coming back to Exodus 30. I’m going to have to move on here. Exodus 30 What makes a. Prayer. Acceptable to the Father. This is sort of like that getting it right thing. But I want you to notice what God tells us is acceptable. Verse 9 Ye shall offer no strange incense on this golden altar.

60. 36:38

    He’s telling us what can’t go on the older, and he can reverse that. And it tells us that prayer must be to God, not ourselves, like the Pharisee who prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I’m not as other men. Now that’s a prayer to show how religious he is. And they prayed on street corners and made long flowery, flowery prayers to be seen of men. These are prayers to the God of self. And James says you ask and receive not because you ask and miss that you may consume it upon your own lust. It’s all about ourselves.

61. 37:22

    And the second part in in chapter 30, verse 9 is nor burnt sacrifice, nor meal offering, meat offering, neither shall we pour drink offerings thereon. So what are those offerings? Why aren’t those offerings allowed? They’re allowed on the altar and in the outer court. They’re obviously acceptable offerings to go up, but they’re not allowed on this altar. Why?

62. 37:50

    That seems strange. Well, the burnt offering refers to total dedication, and the meal and drink offerings represent our own laborers, our own efforts dedicated to God. So what’s the point that’s been made?

63. 38:08

    Our service and the ecclesia cannot replace prayer. They’re good things, but they can’t replace prayer. You can’t put them in place of prayer. And that’s what quite often what happens, doesn’t it? At least I’m doing all these things in the ecclesia. I might not be very good at my prayers and I’ll fit them in whenever I can because I’m so busy in the ecclesia doing all these wonderful things. And God says, no, that’s not good enough, you have no relationship with me.

64. 38:38

    If we don’t pray, it’s worthless. So let’s investigate this, this incense and we find the incense described and we’re just going to have a fleeting look at it in verses 34 to 38, the incense itself. This is what God wants. We’ve seen what he doesn’t want. Now we’ve got to see what he actually wants.

65. 39:06

    And we have a list of each of the ingredients there in verse 34. And Yahweh said unto Moses, Take unto these sweet spices, stacked in on again, and Galvan these sweet spices with pure frankincense of each, Shall there be a lightweight? Now God specifies the quantity of each ingredient of each Shall there be a lightweight?

66. 39:30

    It’s literally, it literally means part for part. So what does that mean? Well, there’s an emphasis on two parts in. Particular. Here’s what this this is saying here take out to the these sweet spices that Deonica and gilbane, these sweet spices with pure frankincense. So this is what I believe it’s really sad. Those 3 sweet spices are one part and frank pure frankincense is the other part.

67. 40:03

    And that’s why sometimes it seems is described simply as frankincense, because it’s the major part. But the point that I wish to make out of this is that there is distinctive quantities, distinct quantities, there’s order and there’s balance here. So does that mean that our prayers have got to be ordered and balanced?

68. 40:34

    Now you could find no better example of a prayer that has order and balance than the Lord’s Prayer. So come with me to Matthew chapter 6. Don’t. Forget to put the marker in Matthew chapter 6, I’m. Going to put this up on the screen, but we are going to be reading from Matthew 6 so it’s.

69. 40:56

    Worth. Looking at now, I’ve broken this up into there’s all sorts of different break UPS of the Lord’s Prayer, but this is as I see it. It’s opens with a an invocation it it closes with. Really. And well, you’ve got three sets of, sorry, two sets of petitions. As I mentioned yesterday, there are three petitions relating to God’s glory. There are three petitions relating to man’s need. And then there’s these three statements about God’s assurance and his ability to to perform this. And then there’s the final confirmation. In the word Amen.

70. 41:38

    Now this this prayer breathes order and balance. So as I asked. Before. Does that mean that our prayers must be structured, must contain this kind of balance, follow the same order as the Lord’s Prayer, or be only on these subjects? Is this how we get it right? And some would point to the structure to highlight that the Lord’s Prayer opens and closes with praise.

71. 42:12

    And they conclude therefore, that our prayers ought to as well. Now I mentioned this in our opening remarks. Opening and closing prayers with praise would must be a good thing. But we cannot use the Lord’s Prayer to justify that, To justify that we must do it and everyone must do it. I’ve heard even brethren say that they could not say Amen to a prayer because it did not. A prayer did not open and close with praise. And as I’ve said yesterday, the Lord doesn’t always do that. And you can find so many psalms and prayers in the Bible that are simply just petitions.

72. 43:03

    And so is this prayer. I’m going to come back to the fact that it breathes. Praise. But this is a prayer. It’s asking. There is no opening praise to God. Sure. Praise for God’s Kingdom. But they are. Petitions, all of them are petitions and this in in point number four, trust in God’s assurance and ability to perform.

73. 43:32

    It’s just saying yours is the Kingdom, it’s yours. And there’s a kind of acknowledgement there of God and praise, but it’s not praising God. This is a prayer. It’s asking God for something.

74. 43:53

    And the fact is that in the Lord’s Prayer, the second time he gave it, Luke, he drops off the second part of what some would describe as being praise all together. So it’s just simply just petitions.

75. 44:13

    He’s not teaching praise first and last in this prayer. And yet for all that, brothers. And sisters, the whole prayer breathes praise to God, as we shall see. Why then did Christ provide this prayer twice a model prayer, and why is it so structured? Well, I believe, brother and sister, when? When Christ gave this this prayer, he gave it, we call it a model prayer because, well, what was it that he was modelling? Well, he gave it for the disciples to learn. And how did they learn in those times? You just need to look at the sounds. You’ve got these acrostic sounds and they’re very structured and ordered.

76. 45:00

    He wanted them to commit it to memory, not so that they could just recite it, but for another reason, not just quote it verbatim. I believe he gave it brothers and sisters to learn to memory because they had to do the same with the Bible and they had to commit it to memory so they could think about it. Think.

77. 45:25

    Upon it to. Meditate upon it. Have you ever noticed why Matthew 6 here the Lord as soon as he finished the prayer he refers to part of? That. Prayer. Look at this 14 It says, For if you forgive me their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Why does he just bring that out of the prayer?

78. 45:49

    Was that what the prayer was about? No, the context shows. This is how you pray, not like the Gentiles and not like the Jews.

79. 46:02

    So why did he just bring out that that statement out of the middle of the prayer? Because it was an example, an example of what’s there, if you think about it. And the same goes for Luke and Luke 11 there in, in verses two to four afterwards, he, he, he expands on the need for continual, persistent prayer. Just need to keep track of the time. I’ve got to finish, don’t I?

80. 46:37

    All right, OK, I’m just going to finish by going back into Exodus 30, verse 35. One of the things about the Lord’s Prayer is there are two things that stand out. It’s simplicity and it’s sincerity and that it’s God centered. The whole prayer is totally God centered. So talk about praise. Everything is about God. We need God.

81. 47:29

    Even in the in the petitions, it’s all about God, the whole prayer. So there’s the structure of it. It’s all about God, everything about it. I think I had it there. It is all about him.

82. 47:46

    But secondly, it’s simplicity and sincerity. The words. This is so beautifully simple and sincere. And here it is in Exodus 30 verse 35, it says they’re tempered together, pure and holy, and that it means the word temp. Tempered means salted the covenant. Salt of the covenant. Is it’s mixed in with it. It’s God sent it and it was pure and holy at the end of verse 35.

83. 48:21

    Pure. It’s unadulterated, it’s sincere, it’s holy, it’s totally dedicated to God. It’s God sent it and it’s simple and sincere and in verse 36 it says and thou shall beat of it very small and put of it before the testimony of the Tabernacle of the congregation where I will meet with thee. It’s beaten small.

84. 48:46

    It means it’s the most refined. It’s the best and they use. The thing, brothers and sisters, about this is that God isn’t looking for in these ingredients. He’s not looking for the right way. He’s looking for a right attitude. Everything about those things is about attitude. And the other thing is there’s this meticulous preparation.

85. 49:13

    It requires the correct ingredients mixed with the right proportions, without impurity, seasoned with salt, very fine flour. Sorry, ground, very fine. God tells us that preparation makes acceptable praise. And if you think about it, brothers and sisters, we want to praise God. Do we just go to the memory banks of the phrases that express praise to God?

86. 49:46

    Does that praise Him? Or do we think about it, prepare and really think who He is, what He’s like? That’s what Christ was doing in that Lord’s Prayer.

87. 49:59

    And we are leaky vessels, Brothers and sisters, we need constant reminding. So to prepare our minds for prayer, we need His Word, the 2GO together.