The Language of Prayer
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Intro:
1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.
The title of my message is, [The Language of Prayer].
Since my childhood, I have been fascinated by other languages. It started because my Great-Grandpa was from Columbia. That is Medellin, Colombia, SA, not Missouri.
He came to the states to learn to build cars, with plans to return and teach people to build cars in their town. However, he got here and stayed.
He spoke Spanish and learned English by going to the theatre and listening to this new language. His entire life English was always his second language.
Though he never spoke in Spanish. Truthfully, I do not remember him speaking, just saying, OHH. When I would go this bedroom, he would watch Spanish TV.
He would not teach his grandchildren or great-grandchildren Spanish, but he did try and teach his kids. Grandma always told us he wanted her to learn Spanish so they could talk about people!
Grandma was not fluent, but she did know some words. Her favorite was— CALLATE LA BOCA, literally shut your mouth. Us grandkids heard that one a lot.
We would ask her how to say words. Once I asked:
how do you say dog— perro
how do you say cat— gato
how do you say house— casa
how do you say table— mesa
how do you say iron— I CAN’T THINK WITH ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS!
So us kids would speak the limited Spanish we knew to each other. I would say “Hola” and my little sister, who only knew Spanish numbers, would answer, “uno, dos, tres, cinco, seis.”
But, the desire to speak Spanish stuck with my sister and me. I took five years in school, and still no very little. I can read it enough to understand and if were lost in Mexico, I know enough to get us home.
My sister on the other hand is taking it in college and married into a family whose first language is Spanish. Her husband is bilingual and they plan to raise their children bilingual.
Still, I have an interest in languages. I hope to one day be able to preach in Spanish. Once in Costa Rica, I was able to pray someone through to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, using the little Spanish I have.
In our world there are over 7,000 languages in this world. And over 350 different languages spoke in the United States.
Languages are unique to humans. At creation, God’s word spoke the world, plant, and animal life into existence. But it was when the Godhead determined to make Man in their own image, that they gave man speech.
Animals can make noise, but they do not speak. When our cats meow, it might be because they are hungry or annoyed. We cannot communicate with animals.
Why would God reserve the ability to speak and communicate to humans?
Remember His original plan for humanity— communication, conversation, and fellowship. He wants to speak to us and hear from us!
But with the fall of man as a result of Adam’s evil choice to sin, now, the same means God gave us to bless His name is also the same means many people curse His name.
Think about it, it is through language and speech that people:
praise God or mock God
confess God as Savior or declare there is no God
speak to God or stay silent toward God
Language enables us to pray. Therefore, I want to look at the language of prayer. I find it captivating that regardless of our language, when someone prays God hears them.
It is estimated people speak about 16,000 words a day, sometimes more and sometimes less. Within those words, we use an average of 7,000 different words.
The question we have to ask, the language God gave us, how much do we use it to pray?
With all of my daily conversations, phone calls, emails, or texts, how often to I talk to God in a day?
Is God my first conversation of the day? Or do I talk to everyone else and try to wrap up the day with a quick conversation with Him as I drift to sleep?
God gave us a language so that we might communicate with Him! We speak to Him and He speaks to us.
But as we have noticed so far in Genesis, whenever God gave something to His creation, Satan always lurked nearby to destroy the pure gift God bestowed on us.
Today, I want us to see what what happened when humanity allowed their language to be used for pride and arrogance and the consequences that followed.
Then we will notice, anytime Satan tries to ruin something, God always comes to redeem and restore what Satan attempts to destruct.
So let’s look at two stories where language is pivotal to the story. I have two points, [Languages as Babel] and [Languages at Pentecost].
Let’s begin
1. Languages at Babel
1. Languages at Babel
1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
Notice the first verse, the entire world spoke the same language and used the same words. Since Adam they all used the same language.
Where did they learn their language?
Evidently God gave them the language. Since Adam was created, not as a baby, but as a man, he was created to speak and understand what he said.
Therefore, from Adam to Cain, Abel, and Seth, to Enoch, to Noah, everyone spoke the language God taught them in the garden.
Remember the purpose of God giving humanity the ability to speak, to praise and worship Him and to pray and seek Him.
Even though God spared Noah and his family, as they repopulated the earth, people began to do what people do, they began to sin. They became prideful and arrogant.
So they began to speak to one another. Instead of using their language to join in unity to pray and declare their need for God’s help, they chose another route.
Someone came up with the idea, why don’t we make bricks and build a great city for ourselves. In the center of the city, we will build a tower that will reach up to the sky.
By doing this, we will become famous and everyone will know our names all over the earth.
Notice what was absent. There was not a mention of building a tower to reach God or become closer to Him. Not, it was all about pride and popularity.
They tower was a sign to God, we don’t need you. This was not the opinion of a few people, for everyone agreed on the plan, for they all spoke the same language.
Though they did not seek God, they sure got His attention.
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Notice the play on words, God came DOWN to see the city. With their best efforts, all rooted in pride, they were unable to get very high off of the ground.
Instead, God left heaven to come and look at their insignificant work. Why would God come down?
Because humanity have united in their pride against God. They arrogantly professed in speech and conduct that they did not need God.
So the Lord had a plan. He would confuse their languages.
This was not a vindictive decision on God’s behalf. No, had he not intervened, humanity would have sunk deeper into self-indulgence and spiritual despair.
Imagine how sad this must have been for God. He changed their language. The world would lose its ability to collectively call on God in one voice and one language.
As a result, of their arrogance and indifference to God, He confused their languages and took it a step further.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Their collective disregard for God and their self-centered unity against God made it necessary for God to get involved. Think of how confusing it must had been for the people.
It doesn’t say that God spoke to them, but that He came down and confused them. Therefore, they didn’t see God, but felt the effects of His judgment.
One author describes the scene this way:
a friend asked for a brick and his friend answered, “mah atah rotzeh?” And turned to another guy with tar who said, “Arigato,” and asked a guy with a shovel who said, “Como esta?” and looked to the fellow with a wheelbarrow who said, “Gesundheit.”
Soon bricks and tar were flying everywhere, and by the end of the day people who spoke the same language were heading out of town together.
Confusion and pandemonium broke out in the city. People could not understand each other all because they used their unified language to unite in their opposition to God’s help and intervention.
This means that EVERY language, including ours, has its origins in pride and arrogance. We would not speak English today had people not united against God.
Therefore, language at Babel focuses on one language saying one thing, GOD WE DO NOT NEED YOU.
But remember, what Satan uses to distract us from God, the Lord redeems for His glory and purpose. Though the origins of our languages are rooted in pride and rebellion, God had a plan.
2. Languages at Pentecost
2. Languages at Pentecost
15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. 17 Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Fast forward thousands of years and we find Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem. Once humanity’s languages were confused, God began to focus on one group of people, the descendants of Abraham.
God planned to redeem humanity through Abraham’s family, who became known as Israel. They headquartered in Jerusalem, where they built their Temple.
The Temple, which was supposed house the worship of God’s people had become contaminated with pride and arrogance toward God.
After cleansing the Temple, Jesus instituted His desire for the Temple, to be a HOUSE OF PRAYER. But notice what Mark added that Matthew and Luke did not, a House of Prayer for THE NATIONS!
When did the nations divide up by culture and language, at Babel. The place of rebellion and arrogance. Now, Jesus promised that He would draw the nations and give them an ability to pray.
When did this occur? When did God begin the process of rescuing the nations?
Something extraordinary occured on the Day of Pentecost. There were 120 of Jesus’ followers waiting in an upper room. Suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing mighty wind and filled the house.
Read what happened:
3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?
As Pentecostals we’ve heard this part of the story where they began to speak in tongues. But he commotion in the upper room caused a crowd to gather.
There were Jewish men, from every NATION under heaven in Jerusalem. They listened to this group of Galilean men and women speaking in tongues and were amazed.
For within the languages God gave the 120 were sixteen different languages that spoke STRAIGHT to the men gathered from EVERY NATION.
What did God speak to the nations of the world on the inaugural day of the church?
He spoke the WONDERFUL works of God. Think about that for a moment. Thousands of years before, pride and rebellion caused the division of nations and the confusion of languages.
Now, on the Day of Pentecost he reverses the alienation and confusion with a sign, divine tongues and languages that spoke to the hearts of people.
At Babel there was one language saying one thing, God we do not need you.
At Pentecost there were many languages saying one thing, WE NEED GOD!
The crowd responded:
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Do we see how God RESTORED what Satan tried to destroy. Satan thought through pride and arrogance he could keep people from God. He was part right.
What Satan did not see was the judgment God used to confuse people, languages, was the means God would use to draw people to His Son.
The 3,000 on the Day of Pentecost heard the gospel in THEIR language and they repented, were baptized, and filled with the Spirit.
But Peter promised, this gift of salvation is ALSO available for your children and future generations. Anyone who CALLS on God’s name can be saved.
The promise of God came to pass. I will not read the passages, but let me tell the stories.
Acts 8— God brought the Samaritans to Him. The church grew beyond Jerusalem, all Jewish, to Samaria, half Jew and half Gentile.
They too were prayed for they might receive the power of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 10— God sent Peter to Cornelius’ home. This was taboo and looked down on because Peter was Jewish and Cornelius was a Gentile.
But God spoke through Peter and listen to what happened:
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered,
While Peter preached the gospel to them, the Lord poured out His Spirit. They began to speak in tongues, languages of heaven.
Do we see how God is opening a door for people to pray in their language and in supernatural languages!
Acts 19— Paul went to Ephesus, a nation foreign to Israel and preached the word of God to them. Likewise, they too were empowered with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues and prophesy.
Every time they spoke in tongues it does not mean that they were speaking in earthly languages, often they were tongues that no one on earth knew.
But it reminded them of what God did at Pentecost. He restored the language of all nations. Now, no matter where we live of what we do, we can pray to God!
Close:
Languages, there are thousands of them. But what the enemy did at Babel through pride and rebellion, God restored at Pentecost through humility.
The language of Babel— one language saying one thing- God we do not need you.
The language of Pentecost— many languages saying one thing- God we need you!
Now, in 2021, we have to decide, do we want the language of the world that ignores God? Or do we want the language of the church that implores God to come and meet with us!
For the vision God has for His church is to be a house of prayer for ALL nations. That means anyone in any language can call on the name of the Lord and He will accept them!
For the purpose of language is not ONLY for communication between other people, but to pray. God has given us a means whereby we can spend time with Him.
And now the church of Jesus Christ is made up of:
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
When we pray, we join with people from across the world calling the SAME God. Sure their language is different, but when we call on God in sincerity, He responds and answers.
And there will come a day when we ALL will stand before God, sing a new song and thank Him that He redeemed us! Until then, He has given us a LANGUAGE that we might call on Him.
Some may remark though, I do not know what to say?
That is when we ask Jesus to teach us how to pray. Babies are not born with a full language, they learn it from their parents.
Likewise, we can learn from the Father how to pray. If we stumble over our words and run out of thoughts to speak, that is fine, start where we are.
For we can pray in OUR language. And we can pray in the language of heaven.
15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
Paul says it perfect, pray in English and while we pray in English, ask Jesus to give us a language from heaven. It is a wonderful feeling to pray in tongues.
For God hears us in English and in tongues. So let’s decide, with all my words and conversations, make sure we have many times of communication with God!
The language of Babel— one language saying one thing- God we do not need you.
The language of Pentecost— many languages saying one thing- God we need you!
Let’s decide, I want the language of Pentecost, I want the language of the church, Jesus I NEED YOU!