 Isaiah chapter 56, and while you're turning there, I just want to say this. I felt led this morning when I was down in the front here and we were just worshiping the Lord, just thinking about the goodness of God. One of the things that is a great privilege for Jane and I is that over all of the years we've been a pastor of this church, so many of you consistently have reached out to us and send us cards or write us letters or emails, drop off scones, which thank you, and different things like that. And because oftentimes we get so many of those, we don't necessarily have the opportunity to write back or to send a gift back or those kinds of things. I just wanted to just say thank you. Thank you for loving Jane and I and thank you for loving our family so well. It means so much to us. And I was just reading a card this morning that somebody sent after I did a funeral for their family. I just thought that was just so kind. And as a pastor, oftentimes you're walking with families through some of the most difficult seasons of their life. And the fact that people, whether it's weddings, whether it's child dedications, baptisms or just pastoring people throughout the day in and day out is a huge privilege. And I just wanted to say thank you. Thank all of you for making pastoring this church the most incredible church on the face of the earth. And so we love you guys. When I'm not here, I want you to know that I'm representing you. I was just this week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I was in Los Angeles speaking at a prayer conference to an all Spanish speaking ministry. And that was mas fuego, let me tell you. I mean, it was, those people know how to worship. And I was preaching on prayer through a translator and they were just so kind. I love all of those experiences. And as time has gone on, God has just invited us to help influence other churches and strengthen other churches. And so when I'm not here, I'm so grateful that I have an amazing team that is here. But I want you to know that's where I'm at. I am representing you. And you guys are talked about throughout the entire country. Everybody knows that I love to preach about Jesus in lots of different contexts, but there is no better place than Radiant Church. And so we love you guys. And so I just want to clap my hands and say thank you. All right, enough of that. Isaiah chapter 56, verses seven and eight. It says, even them 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 nations. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him. A title of my message this morning is joyful in the house of prayer. Joyful in the house of prayer. A couple of weeks ago on Vision Sunday, I rolled out our brand new mission statement and you may remember that it starts with these words that Radiant is a praying and a worshiping church. One of the things that I felt coming into this fall was not just to make that statement and then change those words and then move on as if it was just assumed that nothing has changed. But I really felt the Holy Spirit impressing upon me that it was a season for us to really grab ahold of and maybe for some of us to reiterate what it means to be a praying and a worshiping church and why that's important. How many have ever heard of Charles Spurgeon? He was called the Prince of Preachers in the 18th century, 1800s. He's one of my heroes. Charles Spurgeon was called the Prince of Preachers. He preached for many, many years at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England. More of his sermons were published in his era than any other preacher. That's why he's so well known. But one time at the zenith of his success, he had several young ministers from around both England, the UK and America that gathered together for a pastors conference because they wanted to see what was the secret to the success of this powerful preacher. You may or may not know this, but long before there were podcasts, Charles Spurgeon would have somebody sitting in the front row transcribing word for word in his entire sermon. And then Sunday, they would wire that across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States and they would publish it on Monday mornings in three of the largest newspapers in America. He was the original podcaster. Monday morning, people would read the newspaper and read Charles Spurgeon's sermons. He would preach to 10,000 plus people without a microphone. I mean, that's powerful. But yet when all of these pastors gathered together in his church and said, hey, tell us the secret. Is it in how you study? Is it in the books that you're reading? Do you have, what's the method? What's causing you to be so impactful? Because thousands and thousands of people were saved in London alone through his ministry. And he said, if you wanna know the secret to my success, I'll show you the boiler room. And they said the boiler room. Nobody wants to see the boiler room. You know, the boiler room's the furnace room. Nobody wants to go to the furnace room because it's a scary place, right? I mean, I grew up, we had a boiler in our basement and you avoided that. It all cost because it made creepy noises. There was cobwebs down there. It's dirty, it's filthy, it's dusty. And he said, no, I'm gonna show you the boiler room. And he took them summarily down the winding staircase of Metropolitan Tabernacle into the basement. And all of these young pastors were following him in lockstep because they thought we're gonna see this success. And they were somewhat confused because how can it be that the secret to what God is doing in this world-shaking church is the result of a boiler? Charles Spurgeon marched him past the boiler room into the real boiler room, which was a prayer room where there were dozens of intercessors that were praying in this room while Charles Spurgeon preached. And he said, this is the boiler room. Because what happens in secret in this room affects everything that's happening upstairs in the main room. And that so impacted me when I read that years ago because I believe with all of my heart that prayer is at the center of what it means for the church to function the way Jesus wanted it to function. See, praying churches are not praying churches because you have prayer meetings. Praying churches are built and made up of living stones of praying people. Prayer is one of those things in the church today, especially in the Western culture that you and I live in that is completely misunderstood. It might be believed on. I mean, if you ask the average Christian, hey, do you believe that Christians should pray? Almost every single Christian would say, well, yeah, absolutely, that's what Christians do. But when you ask them, do you feel confident? Do you feel strong in the place of prayer? Do you understand prayer? Most Christians would say no. And if you ask the average Christian, let me rephrase it. If you ask the average pastor, do you have a strong prayer life? Most pastors would say no. Most Christians would say no. And you know what that produces in people? Shame. That produces the sense of, I'm not good enough. I'm not, I don't know how to pray. I don't know what I should pray for. I just know I should pray and I don't know how to pray. This is one of the problems that we have in American culture in the church. I believe it's one of the main reasons why most churches are not described as praying churches. And you might think to yourself, why is it important that we talk about prayer and why is it important that we describe ourselves as a praying church? Because I don't believe that there is a powerful church that isn't a praying church. And I don't believe that there's a powerful Christian life that isn't a praying life. So if we want powerful lives, we need to understand the power of prayer, not the religious ritualistic shame and posing type of prayer, but I'm talking about, we need to understand prayer from God's perspective. Why is it that prayer is so powerful? What are we missing about it? If this is such a vital part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, remember this, that when Jesus called the disciples to himself, remember, he called these 12 and they're following him around and their first hand, they're sitting in a front row watching Jesus perform miracles. They're watching him teach doctrine, preach sermons, hold revival meetings. When they got Jesus off to the side, these good Jewish kids, they didn't ask Jesus teach us to perform miracles. They didn't ask Jesus, how did you multiply the bread? They didn't ask Jesus any of those type of questions. You know what they asked Jesus? They said, teach us to pray because they had watched Jesus pray. And there was something about the way that he prayed, even though they had prayed their whole life, there was something about the way that Jesus prayed that was different than they had ever seen before. What if everything that we've ever understood about prayer is tainted? And what if everything we've never understood about prayer is available to us? And what if, listen, we built praying lives that then connected together like Legos into a praying people and we actually became even more of a praying church and God were to use us to be a model to other praying people and other praying pastors and other praying churches. Is it possible that there could be a nuclear reaction that takes place in our culture that shifts the generational curses into generational blessings that changes society, not by legislation, but by prayer isolation? What would happen if the kingdom of God were to come on earth as it is in heaven? And it all had to do with us understanding what it means to be joyful in the house of prayer. That's what I believe with all of my heart. So I'm gonna take the next several weeks and I'm gonna be teaching and others are gonna be teaching about why it's significant and what is significant about prayer and worship. It's more than just the surface issues. It's more than, okay, we prayed prayers, we pray, all right, get on with it. Now there's so much more of the iceberg below the surface of the water. And this morning I wanna lay a foundation for that based out of Isaiah 56. One of the most beautiful things out of Isaiah 56 is God expressing to us his intentions for us. He says, and I will bring them to my holy mountain and I will make them joyful in the house of prayer. I will make them joyful in the house of prayer. Wow, joyful in a prayer meeting? How does that happen? I've been in a lot of prayer meetings throughout my life and I can tell you that if I'm being honest before God, especially as a young Christian prayer meetings were the most boring environments I was ever in. That's like, why are we here? I mean, it wasn't because prayer is not powerful, it was because I didn't understand it. And I was confused every time I would read through the Bible, I'd get to Isaiah 56. I would understand what it means to be a house of prayer. I'm like, okay, God wants the church to pray. But how in the world is it possible to be joyful in my house of prayer? Well, when we understand prayer from God's perspective, it brings joy. And so what I wanna do is start from the very beginning and talk to you about understanding God's original design for you and I to begin with. And this is where prayer starts. Prayer, before we understand the action of prayer, we have to understand the reason for prayer. So open up your Bibles in Genesis chapter one. In Genesis chapter one, they're gonna pop it up on the screens. Genesis chapter one in verse 26 through 31, as God is creating, we see and hear God explain to us his whole purpose for creation. If they'll put Genesis one up here, it says, and God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image and in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them and God said to them, here's the mandate, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see I've given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food. Verse 30. And also to the beasts of the earth, to every bird of the earth, to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food and so it was. This not only tells us how God created and what he created, but it tells us, if we're looking at it the right way, it tells us why he created mankind. He didn't create mankind as an experiment, he created mankind for a purpose. His four intentions that he had for creating human beings are number one, to represent and to bear God's image to the rest of his creation. That's the first thing. He created man, it says, in his image and according to his likeness, he didn't create him to replace God, but he created him to represent God. So that all of creation when they looked at mankind would see and understand the image of God. And when it says he created them in the image of God, it says he created them male and female. If anybody ever tries to tell you that there's more than two genders, they're not in an argument with you, they're in an argument with God because God's the designer and God who is the designer is the only one who's allowed to be the definer. In our culture though, one of the reasons why this is being an issue is because number one, there are a lot of people who are really confused, okay? And we have compassion and empathy with people that are going through very difficult circumstances and gender dysphoria and we need to have compassion and care for them. But I'll tell you the underlying reason for that confusion is the enemy hates the image of God and he wants to destroy, pervert and distort the image of God in the earth. And so what does he do? He attacks human beings and one of the very foundational reasons why we exist which is to reflect the image of God. And part of that is it's found in how men represent that and part of it is found in how women represent that. We're different, have you figured out? Men and women are different. And so women represent some of the most beautiful aspects of who God is. And men represent some of the most powerful, strong aspects of who God is. The whole image of God is found in humanity in male and female. This is one of the reasons why God created human beings but the second is just as important. He created human beings to have governing authority on the earth. It says have dominion over everything. Notice what he gives us dominion over. The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, ladies, he even gives you authority over creeps. It says over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So the next time some creep approaches you, say I got authority over you in Jesus' name. But over all the animals, over everything on the face of the earth, he's given us authority over and he's called us to not just have that authority but to actually subdue whatever we find that is outside of the imprint and the purpose and the intentions of God. So God created the garden but then he gave mankind that he set in the garden the mandate to take the scale model of what the garden was and to reproduce that in the rest of the earth. He said, here's the scale model. This is what it means to walk in relationship with God. And by the way, the Garden of Eden was most likely a mountain and the way that God viewed the Garden of Eden was it was actually his sacred place or his temple because it was where heaven and earth met. If you look at what temples and altars are throughout all the Bible and even ancient civilizations is they are high places that men believe that heaven and earth meet. Well, that's exactly what Eden was. Eden was a place where heaven and earth were one. And if you read the last book of the Bible the book of Revelation, when it's all said and done guess what God is gonna do again? The Jerusalem from heaven is gonna come down and meet with the Jerusalem of the earth and God will dwell among his people and heaven and earth will be one. He's restoring Eden. But what he told Adam was what is happening here in Eden, Adam, I want you to reproduce that. And as you go out into the wilderness and into the highways and in the byways of this creation that is void and formless and wild I want you to bring it into submission because you have authority because you bear my image. And the third thing is he said I want you to multiply and be fruitful. So one of the purposes that God had for humanity was to build families, have children. The book of Malachi says God wants a righteous seed or righteous offspring that fills the earth. God wants Christians to have kids, raise them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord so that we fill the earth with righteous sons and daughters that know God. This is one of the mandates. This is that one of the intentions that God had for human beings. How many know that when Adam and Eve came together and had children and God wasn't like caught off guard and going, whoa, didn't see that coming. Well, okay, whatever, we better start a Sunday school class. I mean, now this was actually hardwired into one of the reasons why God created us. Number one, to bear his image. Number two, to exercise authority and to bring everything that's out of order into order. Number three, to multiply, fill the earth with Godly offspring. All of that, all of those three things though flowed out of intention number four, which is that we would walk in constant relationship with him. Because the Bible says, Genesis, it says that God would come into the garden in the cool of the day on a regular basis, daily at least, and he would walk with Adam and Eve and he would teach them and talk to them, get a review from them of how their day went and also give them mandates of what they were supposed to do next. God would literally walk with Adam and Eve and give them the why behind the what. Think about that. Think about your daily devotions where God himself coming in meeting you and walking with you and talking with you. There's an old hymn that my grandfather used to sing and he walks with me and he talks with me. There's an old song called In the Garden. We've forgotten those kind of hymns, but we can't forget those kinds of messages because that was the original intention. God did not create Adam and Eve to just obey him. He didn't create Adam and Eve to just do things for him. He created Adam and Eve for relationship. What he ultimately was looking for in creating mankind was building a family on the earth just like he had angels and an angelic family in the heavens. He wanted a family and that means relationship. Now what happens when Adam and Eve fell and by the way, the target that the enemy of God and the enemy of man, the devil, when he came into the garden and he tempted Eve and both Adam and Eve fell, how did he do it? He came at them and he didn't challenge their authority. He didn't challenge the image of God on the inside of them. He didn't challenge the mandate to be fruitful and multiplied. No, what he came and he challenged was relationship. That was where the temptation came. He came in and he challenged relationship and here's how he challenged it. Has God really said? What's that? That's communication. Because what did God told him about Adam and Eve as he put them in this beautiful garden which represented his temple or his home at the center of it was a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was not just the knowledge of good and it wasn't just the knowledge of evil. It was a tree that its fruit was all about making the determination for yourselves of what's right and what's wrong, how things should be, how things should not be. And God told Adam and Eve, do not eat that fruit. You can have all the other trees, but not that one. And that's the exact one that Adam came or that the devil came and tempted Eve and Adam equally fell when they ate that fruit and here's why he did it because relationship is determined by obedience and relationship is reinforced by communication and what God had communicated to Adam and Eve here's my word, it's right, obey me. And the devil came in and challenged that, why, because he wanted to break relationship because listen, he understood this, if I break relationship, I break life, I steal life, I steal authority and instead of them generating a righteous seed in the earth, they're gonna produce a rebellious seed in the earth which I can take advantage of. And what he did was he called into question the integrity of God. He said, God just doesn't want you to eat that fruit because he knows that in the day that you eat it, your eyes are gonna be open, in other words, you're gonna be smart and right now God's keeping you in a state of ignorance and knows that you're gonna be just like him which was a perversion because they already were like God, they were created in his image and you're now gonna be able to make your own decisions about what's right and wrong. In other words, you're gonna be able to build your own kingdom and it appealed to Adam and Eve. I don't know what kind of fruit it was. You know, artists always portray it as an apple. I don't know what it was. It was, I know it definitely was not a Kiwi because those are the nastiest fruit on the face of the earth but whatever it is, the Bible says that it was pleasant to the eye and I don't know if it was the actual physical description of the fruit or what the fruit would produce that was the greater temptation. And Adam and Eve ate it and they fell and here are the implications of the fall. Number one, the broken image of God. They no longer reflected the perfect image of God but now it was a reflection. It was like a mirror that had been shattered. Could you see the image of God in them? Yes, it was there. It's how we're created, it's how we're made but now the image is like a shattered mirror because it's perverted and distorted. Now, if you've ever looked into a broken piece of mirror, glass, you can see the image but it's distorted by the brokenness. That's how our image of being bearers of the image, the Amago day of God in us is now broken and we can look at human beings, we can look at each other and see that spark of divinity, that beauty, that part of God in us but it's perverted because of our sin. The second thing that was lost or the second implication of the fall was forfeiture of authority on the earth. God had given mankind the keys of authority and dominion over everything, birds of the air, the animals, the fish, all of creation but now he had taken those keys of authority that he had given to mankind and man by choosing to believe the enemy over God surrendered those keys of authority. It's why the devil has authority over death and sickness and disease in the earth today. It's why the Bible now describes this present age in which we're living in as a present evil age that's under the sway of the devil. It's because God didn't give him that authority, we gave him that authority because God gave it to us and we gave it to him, we gave it to the enemy. But how many know there's coming a day when Jesus is gonna come back and he's gonna take back over and he's gonna put the enemy out of the garden again, he's going to establish his kingdom on the earth, wipe away every tear and all that has been lost is gonna be restored. It's gonna be a good day. Third thing that was lost is the removal of godly offspring but now the introduction of death. You see, when you're multiplying that means life on the earth is growing but now with the entrance of death offspring die. And then last, here's the greatest thing is just as much as God created us to exercise all of this authority in relationship, the greatest thing that was lost was intimacy with God. We lost intimacy closeness, relational closeness with God. The Bible says in Genesis three verses eight that after they had sinned, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden and the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. And they did it among the trees of the garden and the Lord God called Adam and he said to him, where are you? This is maybe the saddest verse in the Bible. Here's God a father who loves the human beings he's created. He loves the relationship, intimate relationship of a father with his children. Some have said, well, if you loved us so much, why did he put a tree in a garden and allow a tempter to come in? It's because what God wanted most was love and love cannot truly be love if there is not a choice. The point of the tree was not a trap, the point of the tree was trust. And now God comes down to cool of the day and instead of mankind running to him, nothing better when you're a dad and you come home or a mom, you come home from a day of work and your kids are little and they've not yet discovered smartphones and computers and screens, but they hear the door knob turn and they know that mom and dad's home and your kids come running to you and wrap their arms around your legs and say, mommy, daddy, and they just wanna spend time with you. That's how God was used to Adam and Eve responding to him showing up in the cool of the day, but now instead of running to him, they run from him and they hide behind trees. God asks a question. He says, Adam, where are you? How many know that when God asks questions, he's not looking for answers? God has X-ray vision. He can see right through trees. I see you. Eve, I see you. You're hiding behind trees. Where are you? He's asking the question, not for him, but for them. What have you done? And look where it's gotten you. Where are you? You're ashamed. You're stained. You're guilty. You used to live for the moment that I would walk into the garden because human beings were actually created for relationship with God. We don't have to learn how to pray. We don't have to learn how to worship. It's hardwired into a spirit, soul, and body. It's who we are. But now because of our rebellion and our sin, we've given up authority. Our image is broken and in its place it's been replaced with guilt and shame and a desire to put something between us and God. The part of us on the inside that's a worshiper that was created for relationship and dialogue with God, which we call prayer, has never gone away. It's just now been tainted. It's like a well that has a crack in it that's now been poisoned. He says, where are you? At Adam's response was, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. You know what, the realization of nakedness but Adam and Eve is not that they looked at their bodies that God called good and said, wow, we're naked. It was, they felt the absence of the pleasure of God. They felt the absence of the glory of God now because the glory of God cannot dwell on sinful human beings. They knew something was missing. It's like the absence of the favor and the goodness and the glory of God on our lives leaves us with a counterfeit residue called shame and guilt. And yet we look in the mirror at ourselves and I know I was created for something more than this and I can't quite figure it out. And so what we do is we live our lives in pursuit of something other than God. You might call it a tree that we hide behind or you might call it a career or you might call it an addiction or an obsession but we're looking for something to give our whole heart to because that's what we were created for. We were created to give our whole heart to God and in return receive life, identity and purpose but when shame and guilt have been our covering and we're fearful of the presence of God and when God draws near to us it awakens our sin and our shame and our guilt and our reminder that we are not acceptable to God. What we do is we live our lives trying to worship somebody, something, we try to find something that satisfies that longing on the inside of us because that's what we were created to do. You don't have to learn how to worship. You're a worshipper. Westminster's catechism or the confession, the shorter version of it says the chief end of man, the whole reason why man was created was to glorify God and to enjoy him completely. This is why God created us. He created us to glorify him and to enjoy him completely but what does sin do? It robs us of that. Ultimately what we lose is our intimacy with God and Genesis three says therefore the Lord God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken and he drove man out of the garden and he placed the cherubim at the east end of the garden and a flaming sword which turns in every direction to guard them from the tree of life because if they in their sinful condition had eaten from the fruit of the tree of life they would have stayed that way forever. There would have been no redemption but they were driven from the presence of God and you might think to yourself what does that have to do with prayer? What does this have to do with God making me joyful in the house of prayer? Well the opposite of fear that drives us from God the opposite of shame that is a replacement for our identity in God is religious obligations. This is what we are drawn to and listen, this is what steals our joy in the place of prayer. It's because we're so prone to, hey, I need a tree between me and God. I'm a prayer and I'm a worshiper but I need something between me and God because if I get too close to God he's gonna see my flaws. If I get too close to God I'm gonna be reminded of the things that I've done and how I don't know how to really articulate prayer. I don't really know the Bible. I'm not measuring up. You know what all that is? That's legalism and that's religious obligation. What if I were to tell you God's desire and what Jesus accomplished at the cross removes the shame, restores the perfect image of God to us, makes us righteous, restores authority and dominion to us and most of all what it does is it connects us back to God and we no longer have to hide behind trees. We can draw near to Him in our Father's house and we can be perfectly intimate and close with God with no shame, no filters, no big leaves, no trees between us and Him. Do you know what that does? It awakens joy on the inside of us and that's what God desperately wants. If our image of God this morning when it comes to prayer is, I'm gonna try and pray God. I'm gonna try and be a worshiper of God but I don't know how to worship. I mean, I go into church, everybody's got their hands raised and I'm like, ah, be clapping and doing this and I'm like, I don't feel comfortable doing that. How many have ever been to a concert that's not worship? Well, like Taylor Swift. I mean, apparently she's a Kansas City fan now but I mean, I saw Taylor Swift up in the press box watching Kelsey playing football for the Kansas City she's the other day and she's up there. She doesn't know anything about football. So she's doing what Taylor Swift does. She's just up there and maybe some of you have actually been to a Taylor Swift concert and you've posted it on Instagram. You know what's interesting is to see people outside of a religious context, letting down their guard and doing the very thing they were created to do. They got their wave and they're singing their songs and their high five and their friends. They've spent thousands of dollars to go to this. They've got their glitter and their little sparkle jewelry on and this is just the guys and they're and they're loving their Taylor Swift. You know what they're doing? They're worshiping, they're worshiping and then those same people will come to church and how long is this gonna go? I can't pray and it's not because it's not in you. It's just because in one environment you feel free, you feel accepted and you feel joy. What if I were to tell you God's desire is for you to feel joy like that, joy unspeakable in full of glory in his house. God wants you to have it in his house. Isaiah 56 says, even then I will bring them into my holy mountain and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Psalm 16 verse 11 says, you will show me the path of life and in your presence is the fullness of joy. The fullness of joy and that your right hand or pleasure's ever more. You wanna know how you know when you're worshiping right? When you're more joyful in the house of God than you are anywhere else. You wanna know how you know when you're praying right? Not that you've got the right words and you're confessing and blessing and dressing and naming and claiming and framing and you are just so impressed by yourself. No, it's when you are in the place of prayer and you come to the end of yourself and then you realize it doesn't matter because Jesus has done it all. I am accepted, I am renewed, I am brought into the beloved. Jesus has paid it all, all to him I owe and I am accepted as a child of God and God just says like a little child would you meet me at the front door, wrap your arms around me and you don't even have to say the right things, just a smile on your face puts a smile on my face and this is what I've been longing for. When we draw near to God like that, imagine what would happen if our experience and worshiping him as a church and as individuals was based more out of restored intimate relationship because of what Jesus has done than it is fear and shame because of what we've done. This is how Jesus wants it. Jesus is the great restorer in closing and I'm so grateful for the keys behind me because that's my alarm bell, it tells me I'm done. See Jesus came as the great restorer, not for us but for God. Jesus came to restore primarily, listen to me, Jesus came to restore primarily what God desired and lost, not primarily to give us what we want and lost. Now we get the win because Jesus came to save us from our sins but he didn't come because we wanted it, he came because God wanted it. Do you know how Jesus started his earthly ministry and ended his earthly ministry? In the exact same way, it's bookends. In John chapter two, Jesus starts his ministry. A lot of people think these are the same event just out of order but they're actually two separate events I believe that are represented in how the gospel's laid out and John chapter two, Jesus starts his earthly ministry. He goes into the temple, God's house of worship and prayer and he turns over the tables and he says, you have made my father's house a den of merchandise, a den of robbers. He turns over the tables and then he leaves the temple and he does his ministry for three and a half years and just before he's going to the cross after everybody's celebrated his entrance into the city of Jerusalem. You know what Jesus does? He goes back into the temple and he turns those tables over one more time and he says, my father's house will not be a house of robbers and a den of thieves. My father's house will be a house of, do you think that this is important to God? If Jesus does it twice at the beginning and at the end, why was he turning over tables? Because the tables were the religious barriers that man had put up between God and man and set the religious leaders between people and God and said, the only way you get to the heart of God is through me and it's by what you do. Jesus came and threw over the tables because he wants no barrier between us and him. God wants his house to be a house of prayer for all people. This is what he came to restore for the father. And when you begin to realize God wants relationship with you. That's when prayer and worship become joyful. I want you to stand with me wherever you're at today. That's when it becomes joyful. That's when prayer becomes enjoyable. That's when spending time with Jesus in worship is enjoyable. And listen, I know a lot of us have probably been shaped in our view about prayer by just more by religious ritual and obligation than we have by invitation into relationship. There's nothing wrong with reciting the Lord's prayer. I do it, but that's not where it ends. Just like you don't spend time with your husband or your wife in reciting your vows that you made at marriage. Nothing wrong with those vows. But imagine if every time you got together the only time you talked was, I, I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband to have him to hold, love and respect, cherish until death do his part, sickness and in health. And I betroth unto thee, you know, some, say, hey, no, talk to me. Okay, I, I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband. No, no, no, I want you to really talk to me. I love the vows, but I want your heart. That's what God's asking from us. He wants us to be joyful in this house of prayer. Before we can ever be a house of prayer and before we can ever have joy in it, we have to know that that's his desire as well. Just want you to bow your heads with me all over the room today. Father, I thank you that you are the one that pursues us. Lord, that you love us. And even though our lives may be broken, even though we may be hiding behind trees, even though we're trying to cover ourselves up with fig leaves as protection from you, the greatest thing we can do is to remove every barrier between us and you and to receive mercy, grace and forgiveness and to allow you to restore us and remind us that you made us to love you and you made us to be loved by you. Jesus, we love you. We love you because you first loved us. And I'm praying today, Lord, that whatever barriers today in this room are between us and you. Maybe it's our misconceptions of what you're looking for. Maybe it's fear that we don't measure up. Maybe it's the reminder of our sin and the things that we've done that we're afraid if we ever draw near to you, you're gonna condemn us and judge us. Maybe it's the inadequacies that we feel because we've been around people that pray and know the Bible and worship and they do it extravagantly and we just feel outmatched. But just like every father wants to hear, I love you from every one of his children. Lord, you wanna hear it uniquely through every image bearer, every son and daughter of God. And those I pray today that struggle with that, Lord, you would not today not put a yoke on any of us. Oh, I've gotta do better. Lord, more than that, we would hear your voice walking in the garden of our life, calling our name and inviting us to draw near to you because you love us. And Lord, when it's all said and done, you're gonna make us a house of prayer, not just some ministry, not just some building and not just some meetings, but you're gonna form us to be people, to be loved by you that are becoming vessels to love you back. That's what we long for. Have your way in us today. We wanna invite our prayer team, they would make their way up along the front today. And how we're gonna dismiss is this, there's a tenderness to the presence of the Lord here today. The sense is tenderness. Sometimes that tenderness is just simply God in his kind intention steps into a room just like he did in the garden. And I think for some of us today, he stepped into this moment. For some of us, he's calling us to surrender to him completely. I just sense that there's some people that you've, you're not walking with the Lord. And today, maybe you need to make Jesus Lord of your life for the first time. And maybe for some of us, it's returned to your first love. Some of us have just felt ashamed, guilt-ridden, distant. Some of us are cry to God has been, Lord, teach me to, teach me to love you. Teach me that or show me that you see me. I wanna just assure you today, he sees you. He knows you. And I know some of us are going through battles and struggles and here's the beautiful thing is when Jesus steps into a room, as he has this morning, is he comes with the kind intentions of the Father. He comes to heal, comes to save, he comes to set free. And if that's you today, if you need today to be reconciled in your relationship with God or you need him to heal you, body, soul and spirit or set you free or to come and to fight a battle with you on your behalf, the way he meets us often is when we pray for one another. So today I'm gonna dismiss and when I do, if today you wanna just remain, you can. If you wanna come and you wanna receive prayer today, I believe God's gonna meet us in this place. Father, send us from this place today. Be joyful because we've been with you in the house of prayer. The Lord would you shape us and manifest yourself to us. Answer our prayers when we cry out to you, Lord. And renew a right spirit within us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.