A House of Prayer for All Nations

What Kind of Church do we want to raise our children in?

Today we are dedicating Bro. Justice and Sis. Vicki’s baby daughter and this moment has influenced my thinking for this sermon and the next few weeks. the question that has captured my attention is, “What king of church do we want to raise our children in?”

When it comes to our children we tend to think about what kind of neighborhood or school do we want our kids to live in and attend, we think about how we want to protect our kids and keep them safe, what we want to teach them and what we don't want to teach them. BUT have we ever thought about what environment/church we want to create to raise them up in the ways of the Lord?

I have heard it say that Sunday morning is the most segregated time in the United States. People attend churches that for the most part look like them, sound like them, act like them, and think like them and then we wonder why the United States has people problems that create tension and anxiety racism and separation.

Jesus taught us to pray in which is called the Lord’s prayer and in verse 10 of that section he teaches us to pray “Our Father’s will on earth as it is in heaven”. However, we must not really know how to pray or maybe we don’t really know our father’s will because our churches are not living as though God’s will in heaven changes how we live on earth. Especially when it comes to the reality of our brothers and sisters in christ that don’t look like us, talk like us, or think like us.

What is interesting is that often times we struggle with realizing that racism and separation between people groups has been a human problem from the beginning of our human story and we see one of the first examples of a person viewing themselves better then another person and having such hatred in their heart that it lead to murder. In , we see the story of Cain and Abel where Cain despises his brother Abel because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice over his sacrifice and in Cain’s anger he rose up and struck Abel and killed him. one of the issues that humans struggle with is the idea of Being blessed or Being cursed… in our Humanness we want to be the one that Is viewed as Blessed so we tend to try and find others that don’t look like us, act like us, speak like us that we can say, “I am blessed, because I am not like those who are cursed” and the idea of blessing and cursing is based off of our preconceived ideas and notions of what blessing and cursing looks like not what the bible says about it.

This heart issue that we see come out in the story of Cain and Abel is actually a deeper rooted issue in our hearts that we see in the dialogue between the serpent and Eve in the creation story in when the serpent tells Eve that God doesn’t want her to eat from the forbidden tree because then she will become like God. and at the root of the evil of our own hearts is PRIDE… Pride is what rises up in us when we begin to judge and pass judgement on others… why is it easy to point others peoples short comings, failures and sin out but when it comes to our issues we usually our blind to our own conditions. Its because of our pride and our struggle to humble ourselves and submit ourselves under God’s authority and supremacy that we as Christians are not living on earth as it is in heaven.

Isreal struggled with this issue their entire history. They saw themselves as the only nation blessed by God and refused to realize God only blessed them so they would be a blessing to all nations. Isreal was suppose to be an example of what God would do for all nations if all nations would submit themselves to him as his people and call upon him as their God. ; give us this example that through Abrahams Obedience his descendants will be blessed and the other nations will call upon God’s blessing for them by reminding God about how he blessed Isreal.

Only once we start understanding what God’s heart is for all the people of every nation can we only begin to understand what means. Only once we begin to learn about God’s Love for all people from every nation do we begin to see the importance of play out where God’s spirit fell on all flesh and all tongues. and then becomes extremely important as we begin to see all flesh and all tongues coming together to share all things with one another

After Jesus died a rose again the church that Jesus created was multicultural and multi-generational. Paul speaks of the great mystery of the gospel and he explains it in is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ. In other words, the church body is suppose to be filled with people from all nations united in their love for God and their love for one another. The Church is suppose to show the world how the world could be if they surrendered and humbled themselves to God.

The Problem is that the church sometimes forgets what God’s Intention was for the church.

English Standard Version Chapter 56

56 Thus says the LORD:

“Keep justice, and do righteousness,

for soon my salvation will come,

and my righteousness be revealed.

2  Blessed is the man who does this,

and the son of man who holds it fast,

who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,

and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

3  Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,

“The LORD will surely separate me from his people”;

and let not the eunuch say,

“Behold, I am a dry tree.”

4  For thus says the LORD:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

who choose the things that please me

and hold fast my covenant,

5  I will give in my house and within my walls

a monument and a name

better than sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name

that shall not be cut off.

6  “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,

to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,

and to be his servants,

everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,

and holds fast my covenant—

7  these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples.”

8  The Lord GOD,

who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,

“I will gather yet others to him

besides those already gathered.”

English Standard Version Chapter 56

Salvation for Foreigners

56 Thus says the LORD:

“Keep justice, and do righteousness,

for soon my salvation will come,

and my righteousness be revealed.

2  Blessed is the man who does this,

and the son of man who holds it fast,

who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,

and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

3  Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,

“The LORD will surely separate me from his people”;

and let not the eunuch say,

“Behold, I am a dry tree.”

4  For thus says the LORD:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

who choose the things that please me

and hold fast my covenant,

5  I will give in my house and within my walls

a monument and a name

better than sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name

that shall not be cut off.

6  “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,

to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,

and to be his servants,

everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,

and holds fast my covenant—

7  these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples.”

8  The Lord GOD,

who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,

“I will gather yet others to him

besides those already gathered.”

God’s House was suppose to be a place where all peoples and all nations could come into his presence and pray.

God was not only interested in the salvation of Isreal but he was also interested in the salvation of the entire peoples of the world.

With all of this knowledge and understanding Jesus enters the temple in

English Standard Version Chapter 11

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.

When we look into these scriptures deeper we find that the place where the money changers and others that Jesus chased out was the courtyards reserve for the unbelievers to come in and here the word of God. and Isreal had denied the place where the people of all nations could come and hear God’s word and be saved.

The very thing that was God’s heart and intention was the very thing Isreal Denied.

We forget that the church is not for our comfort and for our needs, but the church is for serving the Lord and allowing him to use us to live on earth as it is in heaven.

The kind of church that we want to raise this child and all children in is a church that 1. Pleases God 2. lives on earth as it is in heaven 3. A house of prayer for all nations to come in and pray 4. a place that shows the world how we can love God and love each other