Exodus 30:1–10Scripture
Oftentimes a life that is marked by prayer is a life that's marked by trouble.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 0:00
Amen? That's typically the way it works. Today I want to talk about why that is, why that is, and possibly what God has to do with it. I know we would like to go to a seminar, maybe read a book, that says we'd learn and discover that prayer is something that is absent of trouble, but that's just not the way it is. Exodus chapter 30 says, "You shall make an altar on which to burn incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it. And you shall make two golden rings for it. Under its molding on two opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it. You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you. And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations. You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD." It is most holy to the Lord. So, to get a visual of kind of what's going on, I have a few pictures for you. The first picture is of the altar of incense. Here's kind of what it looks like. It's covered in gold. These are the horns. You see the horns here, the four horns. And this is the general height. They think somewhere around 36 inches tall, and maybe a foot and a half to almost, I don't know, 18 inches square on top. And this is what the altar of incense looked like. It was kind of interesting. They had these poles that went through on the side. And so one of the questions that I was asking myself is, what's the point of the poles? Well, let's
Point 1Prayer is mobile, not confined to a place
Get right into this. Point one for today, because this altar represents prayer. It's the prayer that goes up from the priest. It's intercessory in nature for the people. It's incense. It's prayer to the Lord. And in the life of the church, this is one of the things we don't talk about a ton. The Bible says that this house would be a house of prayer. It is important that the house of the Lord is marked by prayer. The house is not a tabernacle. It is not a tent.
You are the house of the Lord.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:09
This is not the house of the Lord, here at Echo Church in this metal building with drywall and whatever. You are his dwelling place, and everywhere you go, prayer can be offered.
This is why the apostle Paul tells us that our life would be marked by a constant state of prayer. It is not relegated down to a location, but you are the location. So wherever you go, prayer can be offered, that we would be in a constant state of prayer. But I think it's interesting, because on this we see these poles, or what it calls staves, on the side of it, so that the priest could carry it and move it. These furniture pieces were not set and always set. God's presence would lift, and it would move, and everything would have to be packed up. And so this allowed the priest to pick it up and to move it and reposition it, because prayer is not confined to a place. Now, this might be controversial to some, and I'm not trying to be controversial, although oftentimes I am, mainly because I preach his Word, and the Word is controversial. But I'm going to say it: this is why I don't worry myself too much with this whole taking prayer out of school business, or removing prayer from school. We get hung up on governmental decisions and policies and reasons why the government has removed prayer from school, and we get into fights about, "We need prayer back in our school! How can revival break out if prayer is not in our school?" So we think prayer is relegated down to a location. We think that prayer can be contained in buildings and government policies and locations. But there were staves on this altar of incense so that it could be moved, because prayer is mobile. Prayer is not immobile. Those that get hung up on these policies in our school, they don't understand that
Prayer is not found in a location. Prayer is found in a person.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:30
It's in a person. And if a person who loves God is in the school, then guess what? No policy can keep prayer out of it. That's just the way it works. Try to mess with me. Understand what I'm saying? Here's the funny thing: the same policy that tries to keep prayer out of schools demands you go there. And if you understand that his presence is in you and he tabernacles in you, if you understand that prayer is mobile, they might try with a policy to keep it out, but at the same time they force you in. So every time you go in, prayer comes into the thing. Are you... It's crazy. And then we sit around and we make comments on our Facebook, and we try to seem godly because we want to fight for prayer back.
Why don't you just pray? Why don't you just be quiet and pray? Because prayer can't be kept out by policies.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:35
Did you know that you can pray with your lips closed? "Well, I want to stand, you know, on the bus and pray out loud." Just sit on the bus and pray with your lips closed. You can't stop me from praying. You might be able to stop somebody else from praying, but no matter what amendment you pass, you can't stop me from praying. My wife used to pray for our kids every day when they drove to school. Every day before the children went to school, she would pray, and her prayers didn't stop when she dropped them off. I remember her praying through the day for the kids, and her prayers traveled from home, down the street, through the front doors of school, and rested there with them through the day, because prayer is mobile. It doesn't reside where you lift it up. It doesn't reside in a location.
Prayer is like incense. It gets everywhere.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:54
It doesn't just stay in the tent. It doesn't just stay in the inner court. It wafts to the outer court and beyond, to where the tribes reside. Prayer finds its way everywhere, kind of like a good Mexican restaurant lunch. You guys laugh because you know what I'm saying. Sometimes I want some good Mexican food, but I just don't go, because I just took a bath, you know what I'm saying? And I just put on some clean clothes, and I don't want to smell like a burrito all week long. You understand what I'm saying? Because that smell gets in everything. Kind of like bacon in the house. You know what my grandfather's house... His name is Grandpa Bill Dawson... You know what his house smelled like? Bacon. I came down one day, Brook was cooking, and I was like, "It smells like grandpa's house." She's like, "I'm cooking bacon." I was like, "Praise his holy name! Bacon!" It gets everywhere. And by the way, bacon smell doesn't just stay for a couple hours. It stays for days. Can I get a hallelujah? I love some bacon. But it gets everywhere, because it's not relegated to a location. How many of you have ever smelled somebody barbecuing next door, real rudely, and then not offering it to you? Because it gets... The aroma of prayer gets in stuff.
Young people, you think you can't make a difference, but if you're a person of prayer, the aroma of prayer gets in stuff, even in your schools when they try to ban it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:48
It just gets everywhere. Prayer is mobile. Prayer is on the move. You don't even need to get to somebody who's in trouble and lay hands on them to pray for them. There's one man in the Bible that says, "Jesus, you don't even need to come to my house. Just speak the word, and my daughter will be healed." He knew something that we don't know. Prayer is mobile, and prayer touches lives beyond the realm, geographically, of where you are. Why is it that people outside the church understand prayer's mobile, but people inside the church don't? I run into a lot of people, and they'll say, "I'm having trouble with... Would you lift up a prayer for me this week?" They didn't ask me to do it then. They just ask me to do it when I'm away, because they know prayer's mobile. Prayer moves. Prayer is kinetic. It can get there faster than a car. It can get there faster than a jet. It's better than Superman. It's mobile. You must understand that going into the tent is the privilege of the priest. Not everyone could go into the inner court.
Anyone could be in the outer court, but not everyone could get into the inner court. Everyone can get into the outer court, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But to get into the inner court, you had to have a priest, and only Aaron, only the priest, could do things in the inner court. Now, the priest going in represents the people going in, because the priest represents the people. Now listen to this. We learned that aaron had 12 stones on his breastplate. 12 stones. Each of these stones represented a tribe of Israel around the tent. What would happen is they would set up the tent with the outer court, the inner court, and the Holy of Holies. They would set the tent up. God's presence would reside in the midst of the mercy seat, and people would see God's presence there. And the reason they would see it is because they positioned each of the tribes around the tent. So whenever the priest went in with the 12 stones on his breastplate, he went in representing the 12 tribes that were around the outer court. He stood for the people before God. He interceded on their
Point 2Prayer is sensual: unseen, yet it permeates everything
Behalf. So prayer is mobile. You know what else prayer is? Prayer is sensual. Now, I know we've taken that word and we've corrupted it, but something can be sensual and not be sexual, meaning that you don't necessarily see it, but you can smell it. You can't see prayer, but you can smell prayer. It says, "And Aaron shall burn..." Everybody say "burn." I'm making you say that. If I were sitting out there and you told me to say something, I might resist saying it, because I'm stubborn. But I want you to notice something, so if you don't say it, still notice it. "Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it..." He's trying to get a point across here. "...A regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations." This is why, once again, I'm not worried that there's not prayer in schools.
Listen, the greatest revivals in history didn't start with government policies, but with ordinary people crying out to God in everyday life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:57
That's how it started. Jesus warns against praying for show. Actually, Matthew 6:5–6 says, do not be on the corner like the Pharisees do, praying out loud where everyone can see you and hear you. The power of prayer isn't necessarily visible. All right? And the fragrance of incense, which we read about here, spreads unseen, affecting everything around it. It permeates everything. Listen, it permeates everything: the tent, the clothes, the furniture, the walls, and the atmosphere.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you think your prayers don't influence and affect everything, you're wrong.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:02
Now, I know you think your prayers are only getting as high as the ceiling, but your prayers get in everything. It messes with everything. It affects everything. It changes the aroma of everything.
Point 3Prayer is a killer that burns away our will
Prayer is sensual. Prayer is mobile. Prayer is sensual. And prayer is a killer. Yeah, you heard me right. It kills stuff. There actually... And I'm going to tell you where I get this. There are actually similarities between the brazen altar, which is in the outer court, and the altar of incense, which is in the inner court. The brazen altar is where they offered sacrifice of slaughtered ram and lamb and things, and they shed blood and burned it. So let's look at the differences between the way they were constructed. Actually not the differences, but the similarities. Maybe we will look at the similarities. I hope we will look. Do you guys have... There it is. You see the similarities? So on the left you have the brazen altar, which is in the outer court, which is where they made the sacrifice, and they burned and they cooked the offerings. Look at the similarity of the altar of incense on the right. Now, just so you know, both of them require fire, and both of them require blood. Did you catch it? So if you go back... And we don't have time to do this now, but if you go back to the brazen altar and you look at the brazen altar, it requires blood and fire. This requires blood and fire: fire to light the incense, and blood once a year is sprinkled on the horns of the altar of incense. Did you catch it? So death is present. There are similarities. The brazen altar is a killing place, and the altar of incense is a praying place.
On the brazen altar, flesh is killed. On the altar of incense, the will is killed.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:35
It is possible to have salvation purchased at the brazen altar and still struggle with having your will die on the altar of incense. Both require fire. You know how God kills your will?
Fire. Oh man, he kills it with fire. "But what if I just acquiesce and do what he says?" Yeah, he's still coming with fire, bro. He's coming with fire. It's just how he does it. It's how he purifies.
Nothing purifies like fire.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:21
"I'll just obey." Nothing. A life marked by prayer is a life marked by fire, I promise. "Shawn, can you teach a class on how I can avoid that?" No. No. This is why Jesus said... I know some of you are going to think that because I died, and he is the only way to salvation, because I died your life won't be marked by any pain and suffering. But he says, "pick up your cross and follow me." He doesn't say, "I got it for you; you'll never have pain and suffering." The command is you will... The command is you will die to self. Both of them require fire. Both of them need fire to offer the kind of sacrifice that makes your will submit to God. You know why people don't labor in prayer? Because they have to labor in fire, and that ain't fun.
The more... Listen, the more you pray, the more of you is burned away, but the sweeter you
Pastor Shawn Gray · 20:30
Point 4Prayer is intercessory: we have a man inside
Become to his nostrils. Prayer is intercessory. I don't even know how to say that. Intercessory. Okay. Everyone could come into the outer court, but only the priests could go into the inner court. Aaron interceded on our behalf. God begins to give us a sneak peek of what he will do in Christ, because all the children of Israel who dwelt around the tabernacle could not get into the Most Holy Place. But listen, they had a man on the inside. Now listen to me, this is cool, because you have a man on the inside, and he's our High Priest.
And where you can't get, he got on your behalf.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:42
That's good stuff.
That's good stuff. A man on the inside can carry your concerns and deal with them in a place that you didn't have access to get to on your own. That's why the priest went in: to go where Israel wouldn't and couldn't go, to say what Israel couldn't say, to fight battles that Israel couldn't fight on their own. This is why Christ...
Christ is your man on the inside.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:26
Don't miss this. This is a principle that perpetuates itself over and over again in Scripture, and I'll just give one example. Let's talk about Joseph. Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brothers. He was sold into slavery to the midianites. He served in Potiphar's house. He went into prison. He came out of prison and became the prince of Egypt, so that the brothers that sold him into slavery... You remember when they stood and said, "Would you like this man, or would you like Jesus?" They denied Jesus, and they said, "Crucify him." The same men that rejected Jesus saves. Listen to the correlation here. And Joseph is rejected by his brothers, in essence spit on, in essence put in a place to die. He became the prince of Egypt. He became the man on the inside, so that his brothers, who were on the outside in the time of their famine, would have a man on the inside that would save them in the time of need. This is the picture of the gospel. This is why Christ went down into a grave. He went down into a grave, rose up on the third day, showed himself for 40 days, and went up into the cloud as the Prince of Peace, so that we would have a man on the inside. Hebrews 4:14–15 says, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." Hebrews 7:25 goes on to say he "always lives to make intercession" for us on the inside. It doesn't say "on the inside," but I just threw that in there. Some of you wouldn't be where you are today if you didn't have a man on the inside. You'd be somewhere totally different. Thank goodness for a priest that makes intercession for us in
Point 5Prayer gets through, and fire spreads it
Places we could not dwell, because it was too holy for us sinners to be. Prayer gets through. One of my points: prayer gets through. You can't talk about the altar of incense without talking about fire. A great prayer life is marked by it. God sends fire to ignite prayer in the life of believers.
Nothing makes you pray like fire, man.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:30
You don't need a class or a seminar, and you don't need a book. What you need is fire. The Bible says, "It is good for me that I was afflicted." When I pray, my prayer goes up. My prayer goes up. Prayer gets through. It gets through. Prayer gets places where your conversation with people cannot. In a quiet town where nothing much ever happened, there stood an old wooden church. It had been there over a hundred years, weathered by time, patched up by faithful hands, and filled with prayers that had been whispered for generations. One night a fire broke out, and no one knows exactly how it started, but by the time the townspeople saw the glow in the sky, flames were already consuming the steeple. The whole town rushed to the scene. Some carried buckets, others fell to their knees in prayer, but despite their efforts, the fire raged on, and they could not stop the flames. By morning, all that was left was a pile of smoldering ashes where the church used to stand, and the people stood in silence, mourning what they had lost. Then something unexpected happened. Over the next few days, people started gathering, not inside the church, it was gone, but rather around the rubble, right where it used to stand. And they came to pray, and they came to sing, and they came to remember. A week later, a local reporter wrote an article about the fire, and something in it struck a chord. The reporter wrote as a title for his article, "The church may have been burned down, but its fire spread through the town." And that's exactly what happened. People who hadn't prayed in years found themselves crying out to God. Neighbors who barely spoke began meeting in homes to study the Bible together. The faith that had once been contained inside four walls had now ignited an entire community. And months later, when they finally rebuilt the church, it wasn't just a building that had been restored. Rather, it was the people. The fire that had destroyed the church had set something else ablaze, something far more powerful than a building.
So let your fire burn. Let the smoke fill the air, because what the enemy means for destruction, God will use to set a city on fire for his glory.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:59
That's what prayer accomplishes in our midst.
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