Sunday Sermon

 

A House of Prayer

Isaiah 56:7

I will bring these people to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. The offerings and sacrifices they place on my altar will please me, because my Temple will be called a house for prayer for people from all nations.”

The church’s positive influence on the world cannot be understated. Making that statement might be considered controversial in today’s political climate but as a historian the data is clear. No other evidence need be advanced but the fact that it was Christian nations that ended the legal slave trade in the modern world. England not only outlawed the slave trade but then sent navel forces out to prevent the slave trade from even happening. William Wilberforce was the man who drove the political fight to end legal slavery and he did it because of his Christian faith. The power of the church to affect society over the centuries and millennia is not in dispute. A clear movement of God has shaped large groups of people over history and understanding the power God has through the church can help us develop a great trust in the God who loves all humans. We need to be clear that the church is made up of humans and that means that the church is not a perfect entity but God can still work through it and that is what we need to know. What tells me about the power of God to work is that each church by itself seems not to have much power but when God gathers his people amazing things can happen. Today the missionary movement of the nineteenth century is treated as an abuse of nonwhite people but in fact that movement put in place people and organizations that would have a huge impact in the two world wars. It is an easy thing to say that God used these people to save hundreds of thousands of lives. As imperfect as it is God works through the church and that can help us build a real value for the church and what it means to us and our faith. Our faith is not in the church it is in the God who uses the church and that tells us about the meaning and purpose of the church. Being in church does not save us and yet at the same time it is the church that God uses to send people out into a dying world to speak of the salvation from sin God offers. To most people the church does not seem like a very important thing but to God who established the church it is the vehicle that is used to change the world in very real ways. It is interesting that the people who understand the power of the church are not believers but those who hate the church. There is a reason one of the first things that get destroyed by atheistic political ideas is the church because they know the ideas and principles God teaches real value and effect on people and that teaching happens in the church. If the church had no power the enemy would not try to corrupt it and to divert it from the purpose God made it for. The church does not change society because that is it’s intention but the church changes society because the God who redeems sinful humans is taught about in the church.

It helps my faith to know that God works through imperfect people in the church to communicate His love for every human and Jesus’ work to transform sinful people into redeemed lovers of God. God’s work in the church is to speak to the broken state of humans and to tell the world there is another choice about how to live that fills people’s lives with hope and joy. The work of the church is not to save people but to equip people to go into the world and to live with such peace and righteousness that it has a powerful impact on the world. Think of the church as a tool box and each person in the church is a tool in the hand of God. It is not us but God working through us that changes the world. God’s work through the church means that the church is not just some institution or organization but it is God personally working in each humans life to remake them into what God longs for them to be. We find such joy and hope in this God who knows us by name and calls us to the church because it is in the church we will find the tools and training we need to be the people God wants us to be. Our God is personal and not some far away authority that just wants to control us. What God teaches us is to bring healing to us and to build in each human the things they need to find real meaning and purpose in life. God does not command us so much as He calls to us and invites us to find in Him the solutions to the things that trouble us in life. Sin is destroying us and Jesus is the one who comes with the answer to our sin. This is what the church does and it tells us about the God who established the church to save broken people and bring healing to every human. Let us serve and worship God in church and then go out into a world that needs to know the love that God has for people.

One of the problems that we get into is that we think of the church as an institution instead of a place where we can connect with God on a personal level. We get together as a group to celebrate and worship God but each of us come as single individuals who are loved by God. The call that God makes is not to the church but to each person and their place in the world. It is only when we know this do we understand the power of what the church is all about. In our verse we hear the voice of God wanting to lead people to His place not to control them but to fill their lives with joy. And the words “my house of prayer” ring with the longing of God to have a deep effect on our lives and the world. God calls to us to come to Him and to follow Him because He has the answers to the things that we need in life. Our faith is based on the idea that God wants to give us life and so He speaks to us about our sin not to make us feel guilty but to tell us what is wrong because He has a plan to fix us. Obeying what God teaches does not save us but it is a response to God’s call to us and his offer of salvation from the destruction sin brings. The words “house of prayer” are so wonderful because it tells us God not only calls to us and tells us things but we are invited to spend time talking to God. Prayer is a place where we both submit to God’s authority and we fall before God to speak to Him about our pain and our need for healing. In scripture we find over and over that God speaks to people in very personal ways and that tells us God is interested in hearing what we have to say. When God decides to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah God takes input from Abraham. We are told Moses talked with God like a friend talks to a friend. The house of prayer is a place where God and humans meet because God wants it and God longs for us to meet with Him. And look at what happens when we answer the call of God to come to Him and meet at the house of prayer. We find joy and I like that a lot. Our God wants us to fill our lives with good things like hope, peace and joy and part of that process is accepting God’s invitation to be part of the house of prayer God Himself builds. When we meet with God as a group of people God works in powerful ways that change people, nations and whole societies. This is the hope we have in the living God who loves us and brings healing to us because we need it.

A cool thing I like about God is that He makes things very clear. In this verse God starts by leading people to the house of prayer but them God compounds on that thought. The house of prayer is to be for all nations which tells us that God is not just speaking to the Israelite people but God wants all people to be part of His house of prayer. God explains how the house of prayer becomes a place for all nations and it is based on the idea that when we live by God’s ideas the world will notice. Living by what God teaches makes us better humans and that pleases God. It is not the obedience but the fact that when we live by what God teaches us that our faith grows so that we become what God longs for us to be. That Isaiah uses this term twice to describe the vision God has speaks to who God is and what God thinks about. God gives us His wisdom and shows us about our sin because we need to know those things but they are not what makes our faith and creates the house of prayer. It is our faith in the living God and that we trust in the work of Jesus on the cross that brings us to the house of prayer. That God uses this term to describe His Temple is so wonderful because it speaks to how God wants our faith to work. Humans need God because of our sin but God redeems us because He loves us and does not want us destroyed by our sin. When we grasp this concept we become part of the house of prayer. All of this is based on the idea that God wants to be pleased with us. God’s anger is righteous and it is for all the right reasons but God does not want to be angry with us. The proof of that is the cross. Jesus goes to the cross not because God is angry but because God longs to redeem us and to have us learn how to live as we were meant to live and that pleases God. How can we reject a God who wants us to be pleased with us. Best of all is that God is not pleased by our obedience but the hope, peace and joy that our faith produces. The house of prayer is a wonderful thing because it tells us about the God who loves us.

Nothing is more exciting then the fact that God wants to build a house of prayer because it pleases God to do so. The joy God feels when we come to Him and seek His salivation is unprecedented. The God who created the universe by just speaking wants to save us from our sin and is willing to die to do it. In a house of prayer we come before God because He has invited us and calls out to us to come and speak with Him. This is a God worthy of worship who we can trust what He says. When God teaches us it is because He wants us to find healing in His words and strength in living by God’s ideas. Learning to love a God who wants to bring joy to our lives so that we can trust in Him is a God who is one we can feel safe in. Let us look to the God who calls us to a house of prayer because it tells us who our God is and what he is all about.