ATTRACTING GODS ATTENTION

ATTRACTING GODS ATTENTION

Series: Prayer

Lesson #7

Is. 66:2For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

I.The Prayer Closet Is A Battleground.1.It is the war.

2.The prayer closet is a place where we contend with God.

3.It is a place where we contend against the powers of darkness.

4.The battle is either won or lost in the prayer closet.

5.We are not corporate presidents, we are soldiers of Jesus Christ called to endure hardness as that good soldier (2Tim. 2:3).

6.The greatest problem that I see, and want to convey here to this school, is inconsistency. We are too easily distracted from those disciplines that lead to excellence.

7.We have seasons of meeting with God, but we dont live in His presence.

II.But We All, With Open Face Beholding As In A Glass The Glory Of The Lord, Are Changed Into The Same Image From Glory To Glory, Even As By The Spirit Of The Lord (2Cor. 3:18).1.We become like whatever we behold. Behold means to gaze intently. It also means to behold earnestly, steadfastly, to look up, to fasten our eyes.

2.We do not behold His glory, we merely glance occasionally - usually on a Sunday morning.

3.1Samuel 13:11 is a picture of most of us. Saul has just offered a burnt offering.

1Sam. 13:11And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;

1Sam. 13:12Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.

4.Saul is not a man to seek the glory of God, he is not a man of prayer. ...I have not made supplication unto the LORD (v. 12). I have not sought the favor of God.

1Sam. 14:35And Saul built an altar unto the LORD: the same was the first altar that he built unto the LORD.

5.This man is the king of Israel. He has fought wars, but never built an altar unto God. He is not a man of prayer.

6.In 1Samuel 13, Saul offered a sacrifice. Why? He was in trouble.

7.That is a picture of the church, living always on a crash program - no consistent prayer life - trouble comes, and they are out there offering a Saul sacrifice.

8.There are many who are deeply involved in the work of God who have never built an altar unto God.

9.To know the presence and power of God we must live in His glory and not just glance at that glory on a Sunday.

III.We Are Talking About Living In The Glory.Num. 9:17And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.

1.When the cloud moved, Israel had to move with it. Sometimes the cloud would stop for long periods, other times only one day at a time.

2.In a desert place, the cloud would stay for a month. But in a lush oasis it would only stay maybe for one day.

3.When the cloud moved they had a choice - they could stay at the oasis or they could move with the cloud.

4.The oasis for the moment seemed wonderful, but had they stayed, the heat would have become unbearable, for the cloud was their only covering. They would have frozen at night, for the fire left with the cloud.

5.Had they stayed they would have starved, because the manna only fell under that cloud.

IV.The Oasis Of The Natural Life Represents The Allurements Of The Devil To Draw You And I Away From Gods Glory.1.The oasis is often a place of ease and comfort, but if you set your heart upon the oasis and do not live in the glory, you will find yourself unprotected, because there will be no covering.

a.Your heart will grow cold, for there is no fire.

b.You will be without substance, because no manna will fall.

2.The cloud is where the manna falls, the water flows, and the fire burns.

3.The cloud is our covering. It is Gods glory, and in His glory I am changed into His image by the Spirit of the Lord.

V.In Ezekiel 44:9-14, The Prophet Is Shown A Vision Of The Temple, The Church, And Is Told That Certain People Are Forbidden To Minister There.1.Verse 9, ...No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary,...

a.We have no problem identifying the strangers. They are the unsaved.

2.Verse 10 is a shock! And the Levites that are gone away far from Me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from Me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.

3.Verse 13, And they shall not come near unto Me, to do the office of a priest unto Me, nor to come near to any of My holy things, in the most holy place; but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.

4.Listen to verse 14, But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.

5.The Levites were ordained for ministry.

Deut. 18:5For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.

6.Now they are forbidden. Their ministry now is confined to the outer court. Those who were ordained and set apart for ministry have been reduced to custodians of the temple.

7.Why? ...because they went astray from Me after their idols... (Ez. 44:10).

8.This is a picture of much of todays ministry - set apart for ministry, yet living so far from the holy place of intimacy with God.

9.Pastors are caught up in serving tables, running to and fro in the outer court, keeping gates, and cleaning the temple. They are religious executives, stewards over the fruit of the past.

10.Like the Levites, we have gone astray from God after our idols.

11.Ours are not idols of wood and stone, they are idols of perception and presumption.

a.We perceive ourselves to be more important than we are. A preacher in Houston was discovered to have been having an affair with maybe three or four women in the church. When he was brought before the council of men in charge of such tings, he said, When I was doing this I knew it was wrong, but I thought that I was an exception. Think of that! He thought he was an exception. He had a large church, or thirty-five hundred people. He believed that because of this he was so important to God, that God would overlook his sin and indifference to the things of God.

b.We tend to make God dependent upon us.

c.We presume that God is so dependent upon us that He will anoint our work without our seeking His glory.

12.Whatever threatens or gets in the way of the principle of consecration is an idol, and it will lead you astray. It doesnt matter what it is, it could be your wife, it could be your family, it could be your farm, or your business. Anything. Whatever gets in between us and the pursuit of the glory of God is an idol.

13.Paul defined this principle in one line, ...This one thing I do... (Phil. 3:13). In Pauls life, Christ had no rivals, there were no side issues. He was sold out to the cause he had become a part of.

14.When the cares of the world and preoccupation with life threaten the principle of consecration, they become idols because:

a.They undermine our spiritual intensity. If there is one thing God shows us, it is His hatred for the lukewarm. He said, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth (Rev. 3:16). This shows the hatred of God for that lukewarm condition. Yet we see so much of this. When we have these things that come between us, when they become idols, and more important to us than the glory of God, when they interfere with the principle of consecration, they erode the intensity.

b.They erode our passion and love for God. This is what happened at Ephesus. This is very important because you, as a minister of God, as you move out into this life to minister for God, you have got to realize that there is just one thing that can control your life, and that is God and His glory. If you allow anything to detract from your love and passion for Christ, then that has become an idol and will ultimately stop the work.

Rev. 2:1Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

Rev. 2:2I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

Rev. 2:3And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my names sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

c.All of this is to the credit of that church. In other words Christ is outlining all that is good. Then comes this word:

Rev. 2:4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

d.In other words, all these things are necessary, but they can never be the first thing. That is what happens in ministry. We just become glorified administrators over something that we have put together, and God is secondary.

e.Our prayer life stops. Our love for Christ wanes. Our love for Christ was once so that we would never leave that prayer altar. When anything in our life undermines any principle of consecration, that is what happens.

f.It was commendable what the church of Ephesus was doing, but they never existed for that. That was not their purpose. Those things work out of it. They existed for the glory of God. But now they had left that first love. Christ wasnt preeminently their reason for being there. Their reason now is to win souls, carry on evangelistic meetings, and not for the glory of God.g.When anything undermines the principle of consecration, whatever it is, it becomes an idol and steals our time. This again is what is happening here in the church of Ephesus. Time is stolen. The man of God is no longer giving himself to prayer and the Word of God, but he is giving himself to things that other people could do, or things that dont even need to be done.

h.They take us from the prayer closet. When that happens, it is over with. Prayer is the measure and gauge of grace. When a man doesnt pray, then grace has vanished from his life.

VI.Hath A Nation Changed Their Gods, Which Are Yet No Gods? But My People Have Changed Their Glory For That Which Doth Not Profit. Be Astonished, O Ye Heavens, At This, And Be Horribly Afraid,... (Jer. 2:11-12). ...Ye Have Walked After Things That Do Not Profit... (Jer. 2:8).1.The major problem throughout the church age is Gods people have walked after those things which did not profit spiritually - success, prosperity, and self-esteem. These become very big things in the church that has left her first love.

2.It begins with the man of God. He makes his idol - his own presumption - the Gospel. He then leads the sheep into that spiritual desert.

3.There is no pressure like the pressure of someone saying, God told me...

4.But no matter how successful the message, if it does not make me a more holy person, it is a doctrine of a devil. If it doesnt instill in me to seek after the holiness of God, if it does not lead me to seek Gods glory, it is of no profit.

5.Jeremiah cries out to God concerning this deplorable situation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed?... (Jer. 15:18).

6.God answered that cry in verse 19, ...If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before Me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be My mouth:...

7.We can literally become Gods mouth. For this reason He has called us. But we can only be that if we are willing to extract the precious from the worthless, only if we are willing to deal with those things that are interfering with this principle of consecration.

8.God is not going to scream at you between commercials. He is not going to speak to you at halftime. God will not chase you around town to talk to you.

9.If you ever hear Him speak, if you ever have His word in your mouth, you will take time to be alone in prayer with Jesus.

VII.Gods Attention Is Drawn To Praying, Broken Men And Women.

Is. 66:2bbut to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

1.The lack of spiritual power in the church is the result of idols in the heart.

2.We are suffocated with the frivolous and unimportant that has robbed us of the prayer closet.

3.We have learned how to promote and bring people in, and we have mistaken the ability to promote for faith. We have borrowed the worlds programs therefore we have had to reduce our standards to that of the world. As a result, we have filled the church with half-breed Samaritans that are cursed of God.

4.We cannot drag the idol self into the holy place, he is not allowed there.

5.God said to the Levites, nor come near to any of My holy things,but they shall bear their shame (Ez. 44:13). Their shame was, they were reproached in the eyes of the people. The people knew they were set aside for ministry but are now confined to the outer court.

6.People know when you have been alone with Jesus, and they know when you have not. The shame is trying to minister in the flesh without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

VIII.The Sons Of Zadok.

Ez. 44:15But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:

Ez. 44:16They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.

1.Ezekiel identifies a remnant of priests among the priesthood, the sons of Zadok. The Levitical priesthood as a whole had corrupted itself, but in the midst of that corruption there was a faithful remnant.

2.Zadok means one proved righteous.

3.These sons of Zadok are able to come into the holy place with God, and minister to God, while the Levites as a whole were not to touch the holy.

4.God says, These were faithful to Me while the others went after their idols. They had no secret sin, no lusts, they had clean hands and a pure heart.

5.The Zadok priests were clothed with linen garments (Ez. 44:17). Linen is the righteousness of the saints.

6.Ezekiel 44:18 says, they shall not gird themselves with any thing that makes them sweat. No running around in the outer court, sweeping floors, keeping the gates, exhausted, out of breath, dragging their idols.

7.They (the remnant), have put on the white linen of righteousness. They have been in the holy place before the Lord.

8.It is this remnant, both then and now, who leave the holy place to minister in the temple, to teach Gods people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

9.This says that when you touch God in the holy place, you can touch men in the outer court.

IX....If Therefore Thine Eye Be Single, Thy Whole Body Shall Be Full Of Light (Mat. 6:22).1.The one outstanding characteristic of the Zadok remnant was, their only true possession in life was the Lord Himself. The Lord said of these, I am their inheritance (Ez. 44:28).

2.In the midst of the greed, corruption, apostasy, and ruin in the ranks of ministry, God is calling for a Zadok remnant.

3.God wants a people who are faithful to their Lord, a people with whom repentance is a way of life, a people separated from all that is touched by the world, with an intense desire for God and His kingdom. To such people God is attracted.

4.God is separating you unto this ministry. This is why He sets you aside, separating you unto a ministry totally unto Himself. And to do that, you have to spend much time in the presence of God.

5. Prayer must be the key issue of your life if you are going to minister God when you

come into that sanctuary.