Becoming a House of Perfected Praise

Matthew 21:1-

Introduction

This is a very familiar story about Jesus coming into Jerusalem and overturning the tables of the money changers at the Temple. I, like you, have heard hundreds of sermons on this particular passage of scripture. I have heard sermons on temper, I have heard sermons on messianic hope in this passage, and I have heard sermons on how we should be angry but not sin. This passage is full of great insights. One powerful insight in this story is about ORDER.

I. There is order in everything

A. I Corinthians 14:40 says, that everything should be done decently and in order

1. As the priests brought things into the tabernacle and the temple, they were told to arrange them in a certain order.

2. There is an order in creation

3. There is an order even in an atom even though it is more chaotic

4. God is all about order and when things are not in God’s proper order, bad things tend to happen.

5. This story is about order and it shows us the proper order of a church.

6. This is God’s order, not mans order.

7. You see, for a church to be successful in God’s eye’s it has to function in the proper order.

8. In this story, Jesus gives us that order.

9. He gives us the keys to a successful church

10. You can have all the outward signs of a successful church and still not be successful in God’s eyes.

11. Why is that-God has an order and this order is designed for spiritual growth to occur. You can have all the other but if you do not have spiritual growth, you are not successful in God’s mind.

B. What is God’s order in building a church?

1. That is the question that we are asking today and that is the question that I would like to try and answer. Now, let’s get into this story.

I. You recognize the setting-Jesus comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey in fulfillment of the scripture found in Zechariah 9:9.

A. The multitudes spread their garments on the ground before him; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them out before him

1. It was not just the branches of the palm tree; it was also the branches of the myrtle tree and the willow tree.

2. These branches were waved during the feats of Passover and Tabernacles

3. They would shout out loud: Hoshia-na leben David baruch haba be-shem Adonai, Hoshia-na, beshemi ma rom-Hosanana to the son of David, blessed is he that comes in the name of the the Lord, Hosanana in the name of the highest.

4. Twice in Hebrew-Hosanna in the name

5. Hoshiana-means let it rain-prayer for the latter rain and the former rain. It originated from God help us, God save us.

6. It became messianic over the years until at the time of Jesus it meant-send messiah so that the name of God can be lifted up in our hearts.

II. Jesus, fulfilling before their eyes, the messianic prophesy of Zechariah rides into the city and comes to the temple

A. He cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seat of them that sold doves.

1. People have read this and formed all kinds of doctrines on selling things in church.

2. The problem here was not that they were selling animals but that they were selling them for outlandish prices.

3. People had to have these animals for sacrifices and these people were charging crazy prices for them.

4. They were being cheated-THEY WERE GETTING IN THE WAY OF PEOPLE THAT WANTED TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT WITH GOD.

5. They were profiting off the gospel so to speak.

6. The people needed the animals so they had no choice but to pay.

7. We see it today-people profiting off of people’s need to be close to God.

III. VS 12-Here Jesus begins to give us the order for a successful church.

A. My house shall be called a house of prayer-beit Tiffilah-

1. Before anything else, the church must be a house of prayer.

2. It can have thousands of people, it can have all of the money in the world but unless and until it becomes a house of prayer, it is not successful in the eyes of the Lord.

B. It is not the purpose of this message to teach about the different kinds of prayer-you all already know all of that.

C. I just want to talk about prayer in general

1. The average Christian prays about 8 minutes a day

2. In one of the prophecies that came out of the Azusa Street Revival in the early 1900’s was:

a. In the last days, the church would be filled with people who serve a God that they no longer talk to.

3. For many believers, prayer is merely a required formality, a means by which we relieve guilt or measure spirituality.

4. There is too much current teaching that the purpose of prayer is to get a positive answer to our requests.

5. Prayer, you see, has become centered around us.

6. Should our prayer time really revolve around us and if it does should it not focus on how God can transform our lives to be more like Jesus?

7. It is not a question of whether we should pray for ourselves but is that all we do?

D. What is prayer really?

1. Prayer should be about our hearts.

2. Prayer must flow from a heart with the right attitude, desiring a deeper spiritual experience with God.

3. Prayer should take us away from the confines of self-interest and focus our attention on those that hurt around us.

4. Prayer is not a retreat from the world but a way to help us see the world from a different perspective.

B. Prayer originates from God

1. You don’t just decide to pray, God leads you to pray

2. Without God’s aid, man cannot find Him. Without man’s seeking, His aid is not granted.

C. Prayer is the awareness of the Lord’s interest in man, the awareness of covenant, of a responsibility that lies with him as well as with us.

D. There is a stronger partner and a weaker partner in a covenant relationship.

1. Which one are you in the covenant you have with God.

2. It is the function of the stronger to make total provision for the weaker so that the weaker can concentrate on doing the will of the stronger.

3. Our task it is to confer with the stronger so we will know what part of His will He wants us to walk out. It takes prayer for us to achieve His will for our lives.

E. To be effective, we must know, we must believe, that God shares our prayer and our times of prayer, even when we do not sense or feel Him there.

1. Psalm 27:8-You said to me, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face Lord will I seek.

2. Prayer is seeking the face of God

3. Prayer will help us seek his face:

a. In the world

b. In the Word

c. In our families

d. In our ministries

4. It is within our power to seek him, it is not in our power to find him. What we bring to prayer is a readiness to perceive, a readiness to hear.

5. We don’t find our answers in prayer, our answers are revealed to us by God when we seek him in prayer.

F. Jesus told his disciples-Could you not tarry with me for an hour. Could you not watch with me?

1. Watch in this passage means, “to bury yourself, to hide yourself in Jesus.

2. There is just something that I cannot explain about praying an hour a day-things happen, not always good things but things happen and you will find yourselves closer to God.

3. We are told to have the very attitude of prayer-pray without ceasing for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

II. It is when we become a house of prayer that we will become a house of purity.

A. Jesus told them that they had turned the house into a den of thieves

1. You did this thing-he told them

2. You have made what was supposed to be a house of prayer into a den of thieves.

3. Den-me’arah-to rise up and make a place desolate, barren

4. They made it a place of waste, a place that was barren, a place of no fruit.

5. You see, Prayer, Godly prayer brings purity.

6. As we pray, let it be known that the Lord will overturn some tables in our hearts as well.

7. We are all a mixture-I want my mixture to be rich and powerful in the Holy Spirit.

8. I want it to be about God and not about me.

9. I Peter 1:1-7-explain.

III. If we are a house of prayer, we will become a house of purity, Only then will we become a house of power.

A. VS 14-And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them

1. We all want to be a house of power.

2. I long for the day when I see people laying hands on other and they are healed.

3. We all want to be a house of power.

4. Here is the order-must be a house of prayer, must be a house of purity and then we can be a house of power.

5. I want the power to be so strong here that when people drive by on the street they just feel peace from this place

6. I want them to be convicted and desire for them to get right with God just by driving down the street.

IV. If we build a house of prayer, then it will become a house of purity, then it will become a house of power and then it will become a house of perfected praise.

A. Perfected-katatizo-

1. Mended

2. Repaired

3. Put in its proper order.

B. Need to be as children and crawl up into Dads lap and have a little talk-we need to ask him if we are really walking out his will in our lives.

1. There was a prophecy out of the book of psalms-Psalm 8:2- Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightiest still the enemy and the avenger

2. It is through perfected praise that we will be strong as a church

3. Shane won’t be leading us in, we will be leading him in.

4. We will have greater strength that you can ever imagine.

Conclusion-

This is God’s order for a church-be a house of prayer, then you will be a house of purity, then you will be a house of power, then you will be a house of perfected praise.

It all starts with prayer

Pray for those who want their prayer lives to be different

Explain the P area of step-up