Attitude and Approach to Prayer

When I got down there, I remembered there was one other thing that I wanted to mention about camp before I sidetracked myself telling about my own stories. There's always accomplishments that people make, and at Pinecrest they specifically have proficiencies for various activities, and that's something to be proud of. But I learned when I came in that one of our own hearing from the Portsmouth congregation was given a special award at Pinecrest known as the Ozzy Engelbart Award that was Ben Shoemaker. And that's an award—I don't remember the exact wording, but it's basically for exemplary leadership and service among the campers. So it's a high honor.

Ozzy Engelbart was a staff member of ministry who—yeah, it is worthy of an applause. I think it's Ben hiding downstairs. We know you're there. But, yeah, I mean, not to say that others here didn't do some pretty specific, you know, pretty good things, but it is noteworthy that getting that award is something that only comes to one camper each year.

And I'm sure he deserved it. Took a breath in and realized I wanted a drink. How many of you have walked into a house where someone was baking bread? I see that smile come up. What's the first thing you notice? Ah, is there anybody that doesn't like that smell? I haven't met anyone—there could be, you know. But, boy, what a wonderful aroma. And it always often takes you back somewhere. Now, I do realize what seems like a really good aroma to some person isn't always to someone else.

I see that in my case. One of my favorite smells is to go out into the woods in the autumn. It helps because autumn is my favorite time of year, and I don't know what it is out there. I just—I love that smell. And some people don't particularly care for it. But what we like and don't like can change over time. I know—I used to think, ah, people talk about that new car smell.

That's no big deal. Why are they making a big deal of it? Until I bought my first new car. And it was my first Subaru, the one before the one I drive now, and that smell lasted for a whole year.

I'd get in it and I'd go, ah, I love that. Now, it was probably doing very bad things to my brain, I'm sure, you know, with the fumes or whatever. But I did like the smell. And it's funny, any time I smell it now, it reminds me not of the car I have now or whatever car I sit in, but it reminds me of that car. Smell has a way—and I think scientists have proven that our sense of smell is tied strongly to the memory section of our brain.

Smells can evoke memories. And sometimes, I think in some ways, it seems more real to us. And I'm speculating here, but maybe because of the fact that movies and TV don't convey smell. So when we do smell something, it gives a sense of realism. It's there. I've had some smells trigger a memory, and it really is a memory of a feeling, not of an event. And that happens if you've been to one of those beaches that's—I don't want to say—this morning I said old beaches, and I realized they're probably all about the same age. But, you know, some beaches are kept more pristine and nice.

If you've been to Panama City for the feast, it's kept real clean and all that. But some beaches have a little bit of seaweed and more shellfish here and there. There's a smell that comes from that that I noticed a few times would always make me feel sort of nostalgic and happy at the same time. And I had to search my memory and say, why am I getting that feeling? And then it finally came to me.

The first time I smelled that was going to Hampton Roads for the Feast of Tabernacles, back in the 70s, I believe. It was one of my early feasts. And now when I smell that, it makes me have that happy feeling of an early feast.

Now, you might wonder, why am I going on talking about smell, other than, as I said, it brings back those memories. Well, Scripture makes an analogy to a special aroma, a smell, to something that's very important to God. So it should be important to us. If you'll join me in turning to Revelation 8. I'll quickly make this connection, and we'll circle around and come back to this as we go. Revelation 8, and we'll begin in verse 3. And, of course, this is part of John's vision of the end time.

And he sees visions of God's throne in various things. And here he says, another angel having a golden censor. And I wonder if censors come in different sizes and shapes, but I think it was sort of like a metal pan that can be suspended by a chain or held on a handle, but it's something that could carry something hot.

Having a golden censor and stood at the altar, and he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayer of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. So there's a clear thought. Incense, prayers of the saints, ascending before God. Now, the book of Revelation uses a lot of symbolism, and it also helps us to understand symbols from other parts of the Bible.

And I mentioned that we're familiar with the two witnesses. And if I understand the long series of Bible studies Mr. Smith gave, I only say long because I saw in the records that it was many parts, speaking on the two witnesses. But if you, we could go back to the book of Zechariah and see that there was a description there of two olive branches emptying a golden oil, and it wasn't until the book of Revelation that we say, Oh, those two olive branches represented the two witnesses at the end of the age.

Well, thinking of this revelation helping us understand earlier symbolism, is it possible that Revelation 8 is telling us that incense could be a symbol of prayer? Actually, I don't think that's a stretch. I'm not the first one to come up with that, but I wanted to show it from Scripture. And if you'll turn with me to Psalm 141, we'll see that that idea goes back much further. Psalm 141 and verse 2, we know that King David had God's Holy Spirit at a time when most people did not, and he made that connection.

Psalm 141 and verse 2, Let my prayer be set before you as incense, and the lifting up my hands as the evening sacrifice. So David was telling God, let my prayer be like incense before you. Now, before I go further, I want to stop and correct something. Now, I might be the only one in the room that had this thought. When I start thinking of incense, it might be a certain period in the country's history, because growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, I remember there was sort of a fad that swept across the country of burning incense. And I think it originated, I don't know, with a heavy rock and roll, drug music, occult. And I know a lot of other people tried it because I didn't hang out with anybody that was into occult or drug use. But I remember visiting a friend of mine's, and this was when I was pretty young, and going in and going, What's that? Oh, we're burning incense. Oh, it burns! It stinks! That was my view of incense, and it was for many years. So I had to try to push that out of my head when I think of incense being like the prayer of the saints. Well, I had to come to learn to realize, come to, that's what it says, complex. I had to eventually realize that not all incense smells the same. And so when God is saying our prayer is like incense, He doesn't mean something that burns His nose and is kind of stinky and acrid. He's referring it to something that smells good. As I said, different incense could smell different just like different glade air fresheners might smell different. You might enjoy some more than others. Nowadays, we don't even have that so much. It's Febreze, right? And that makes even my basement smell good.

As any of those air fresheners I mentioned, I remember a friend of mine when I was living in East Texas had one of those strawberry scented ones in his car, but it was during the summer when it gets about 180 degrees inside a closed car, and so you get in and it smelled like burnt strawberries.

Okay, that's not what the prayer, incense being like prayer is. When God refers to that, it's something wonderful, good.

And so, in my mind, I replace incense with something that I think smells as good as incense, and that's what God meant. I liken it to a few weeks ago, Sue baked cupcakes one afternoon. I don't remember the exact date, but I didn't know she was doing it when she started, because I was downstairs working in the office, but when I came upstairs, it's like you walk into a zone of, oh, that's just so wonderful to smell. And not just once or twice, it lingered all the rest of the day and into the next day.

That, or the smell of baking bread, that's what I want you to keep in mind when we read that our prayers are like incense to God.

It's something good and something that God wants. I'm going to refer to Luke 18 in verse 1. You can turn there, but it's an introduction to a parable about praying, that I don't want to get into that meaning right now. I just love the way Christ introduced it, or the way Luke did when he wrote it. It says, He spoke a parable that men ought always to pray and not lose heart.

Men ought always to pray and not lose heart. And part of the reason is what I've just been discussing. It's pleasant and good to God. Prayer is for our good, but I think God enjoys it too, especially when we pray to Him in an open way in communicating the way He intends.

With this as a pretty long introduction, I want to talk about prayer and our attitude and approach to prayer as much or more than the mechanics.

We instinctively realize that there are different types of prayer for different occasions. There are times when we're more formal, times when we're more relaxed. As I began studying in preparation for this message, I made a discovery in the semantics, in the actual words, that it was something that I sort of knew, but I didn't really understand it or see how pervasive it was. And it's based on the fact that our English word, pray, can be used in more than one way. And I discovered that in Hebrew and Greek, that there were actually different words for those different meanings. Let me give you an example. We can turn to Genesis 12. Genesis 12 will see one of the most common early usage of the word pray that's not common anymore. As a matter of fact, I want to read the King James version. Since I've got new King James up here, I've got it printed in my notes. This is the first time when Abraham was going down into Egypt and he was afraid that people would say, boy, Sarah's looking good. Let's kill that guy and take his woman. And he didn't want that to happen. So he was going to ask her to tell a half-truth. So Genesis 12, verse 13, Abraham speaking to Sarah says, Say, I pray thee thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake. I pray thee. He was talking to Sarah. Now my new King James simply says, Please say that you are my sister. Instead of translating as pray, it says, please.

The Hebrew word that's used here is nah, transliterated n-a. I'm not sure if it would have been pronounced nay or, but I like nah. It reminds me of a cricket when you get it going, nah, nah. That goes back to another camp story. I don't have time to tell. But 400 years ago, it was translated as pray, and more modern times, they translated it into simply the word please.

But it means to ask earnestly, to beseech, to make a formal request. Please is a very good translation of that. And that is something that we do often when we pray to God. And by the way, I'm not implying that one is... Well, I will imply that one's better or more meaningful, but not that it's wrong to do one or the other.

But we can see that doing this, you know, making that nah, that earnest request, is not something that's limited only to God. Abraham prayed to Sarah in that sense. There's a similar word in Greek. It's arato. E-R-O-T-A-O. And so I said that. I'll leave it at that. I don't know if I'm pronouncing it the way a Greek person would, but you don't have a Greek person up here, so I'll do the best I can.

It's used in Luke 14. And Luke 14 is part of the parable of the rich man giving a supper. I'm not going to turn there and read all of it, but you're familiar with the parable. A rich man decides to hold a great supper and invites all these people. And then when he's ready to bring them, have them come to the supper, he sends a servant. So Luke 14 and verse 18, after they've been invited, it says, the first says, I have purchased a field and must go see it. I pray you to have me excused.

So once again, in Greek, that same usage, I pray you have me excused. The new King James translation of that simply says, I ask you to have me excused. Now, I hope this is an astounding or groundbreaking for anybody, but I'm building up to something here that I hope you'll understand why I'm spending as much time as I am.

You know, I grew up reading the King James Bible, so none of that seemed surprising. Using pray as a way of saying please or making a special request, it didn't cross my mind much until years ago, it clicked as I was reading a biography of Winston Churchill. And you might say, when's that? Well, Winston Churchill was a master with the English language, and he liked to use words, you know, a little differently, or use them to the fullest extent.

So when he was acting as Prime Minister running the government during the war, he would often use that word in notes that he would send to subordinates. For instance, if he sent a note or a memo to the First Lord of the Admiralty, it might say something like, pray, send me the current list of shipping available on the channel.

He would have said it with an English accent, I'm sure. Or a note to the Secretary of Air Defense might say, pray, have all the fighter squadrons ready for attack by Tuesday. So he used pray as making a formal request. Men in the administration got used to that. They started calling these Winston's prayers. They were noticeable because most people by the 20th century didn't use pray in that way, even though it's a proper definition of the word.

Now again, why am I focusing so much on that definition since we don't use it that way anymore? Well, I wanted to understand it because I was fascinated when I pulled out my strong concordance. I said, I don't want to miss any important scriptures about how we pray to God and our attitude. And what fascinated me is in the Old Testament, the word nah is used almost all of the time. Very seldom do you see the other word. Now there is another word. As I said, when they used that word nah, making a formal request, my suspicion is that's not quite what Jesus Christ meant when he said, men ought always to pray and not lose heart.

When he said, men ought to always pray, there's a different word for that, the type of prayer that I think he meant. In Hebrew, that word is pale, P-A-L-A-I. And if you want the Strong's number, it's 6419. And the Greek equivalent is prosukomei. Believe it or not, I think I'm pronouncing that one right.

Prosukomei, that Strong's number is 4336. And I'm not going to quiz you on that later. I'll mention, I realize I'm going to have to upgrade some of my Bible helps beyond having the children's books that I don't mind referring to. But in the pastoral class that I've been taking online, just this week, Ken Graham, well, actually it was a recording of the class I missed while I was at camp, mentioned he doesn't like the lexicon that's in the Strong's at all.

He says, that's really an inferior. You've got to go buy a better lexicon, even though you want to still use the numbers. But these basic meanings hold up, and I checked them in some other sources. But this prosukomei, or the Hebrew, Palai, it means to pray, but it means to make supplication. It has a... infers a sense of communication that's interactive, and most importantly, also one that is worship.

Now, you can have the na making a formal request, and it not be worship, because you can use that with people that aren't God. Abraham prayed Sarah to tell this half-truth. You know, the fellow invited the rich man, supper said, pray, have me excused. But, when we talk about this, this real communication with God, it's this other word. I think it's what's meant in Psalm 32. I want to look at a couple of scriptures in Psalms, starting with Psalm 32 and verse 6.

So I said, when these words are used, it can only be used for communication with God. Psalm 32 and verse 6 says, For this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you. So everyone who is godly will pray, and that's Palais, not na. And a time when you may be found, surely in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near to him. So a person who is godly is having this communication, this interaction with God. If you will, turn back a few pages to Psalm 5 and verse 2.

Psalm 5 and verse 2. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I will pray. My voice you'll hear in the morning, O eternal. In the morning I will direct it to you, and I'll look up. Now, this is a picture of prayer as I think God intends. It's wanting to connect with God, so much that you do it early in the morning. I want to get in touch with God, not just give him a list of things I'm asking for.

Now, of course, and I think that's what David meant, even though David was not shy about asking God for things, and we shouldn't be either. We're also going to get the things we need. We do need to make requests of God, but we can go beyond that. And that's that point I wanted to make. Interesting, the word that just means please is almost exclusively what you find in the Old Testament, in Hebrew. Only a few people seem to use that word, palais. David was one of them, and we know David had God's Holy Spirit.

There are a few others, like Job, Samuel, Nehemiah, and Jeremiah, all have that word associated with their communication with God.

Now, here's where I can reveal my... Well, there's not much to reveal, since I don't keep it that secret, but my research technique... I was looking through my Strongs, and I thought, well, I've got to see it with the big guys like Moses and Abraham, and then I didn't see that word with them. Boy, is my theory just not working? But then I thought, well, wait a minute. Maybe they're even beyond that. If you'll turn with me to Numbers 12, let's see an important thing about the way God spoke to some people in the Old Testament. I'd say that's a high level for us to shoot for, although I don't think we're going to get this one, because only Moses had this, and Abraham, I'd say. Numbers 12 and verse 6. And this is cutting in on the time when Aaron and Miriam, you could say, got a little full of themselves, and were getting critical of Moses for the woman he married. And they were saying some bad-mouthing Moses a little bit, so God decided to call them on the carpet. So when we begin in verse 6, it says, He said, that's God speaking to Aaron and Miriam. He says, Hear my words, that there's a prophet among you. I, the Eternal, will make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream, not so with my servant Moses. So I don't speak to Moses in a dream or a vision. He's faithful in my house. I speak with him face to face, and plainly, not in dark sayings. He sees the form of the Eternal. So why weren't you afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Now that's something, that's the level we'd love to get to. I think most of us are going to have to be born into God's kingdom before we're speaking face to face.

So if Moses doesn't use the Palais, maybe it's because, as I said, he was speaking to God face to face. We could see a similar thing about Abraham. I'm not going to turn there, but remember the story of when God decided he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He came down to have dinner with Abraham and talk about it. And Abraham was so comfortable talking with God when he learned the news. He said, well, say, what if there's some righteous people there? Are you going to kill them too? What if there's 50 good people in Sodom? So he goes, well, if there's 50 good people, I'll spare the whole place. Okay, I see Abraham. Well, what if 10 of those 50 are somewhere else? What if they're lacking? And he was able to converse with God on that level. And perhaps that's something we can strive for.

But I think the difference of how people who are close to God relate to him and communicate and those who are not can be demonstrated by a story here, part of Moses' story. We're in the Old Testament. If you'll go over to Exodus, chapter 19, let's look at this particular example. It's one I've referred to a number of times because I find it a very interesting story that I like to refer to.

Now, this is after the children of Israel had had had good opportunity to see that this was the God. He'd rained down 10 plagues on the Egyptians and led them out with a high hand. Then he led them into the wilderness and parted the Red Sea in front of them and led them right through and brought the sea back together and drowned all the Egyptians after them. When they were getting hungry, he brought manna from nowhere to feed them. He brought water out of a rock.

They had an idea. There's some powerful God, but that wasn't enough. He wanted to make sure they knew who he was, that he was going to speak in person. So in Exodus 19, verse 9, after all that, it says, The eternal said to Moses, Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. I'm going to make sure they know that it's me speaking to you. You're not making any of this up.

Let's go down to verse 18. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the eternal descended upon it in fire. It's smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And we know what happened next, that the mountain's shaking and it's on fire, and then they hear this booming voice speak the Ten Commandments. The people all heard it with their own ears. And what was their reaction?

We turn over a couple pages. We'll see it in chapter 20 and verse 18. They had a chance to hear God directly and perhaps even then to talk to Him directly, but this is what they said.

Exodus 20, no wonder I went one too far, 20 and verse 18. Now all the people witnessed the thundering, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we'll hear, let not God speak with us lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear. God has come to test you that His fear may be before you so that you do not sin. So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

I think this story demonstrates the state of mankind's relationship with God for most of human history. For most of human history, man has stood afar off and only a few chosen people have been able to draw near to God. Now, by the way, I don't want to cast aspersions or seem like I'm blaming people. We're going to come to where we see, of course, that the difference is heaven, God's Holy Spirit. And we know that Jesus said, no one can come to me except the Father, draw Him. So people being afar off isn't something we have to blame them and say, those dummies, why didn't they get near? But it does show a difference and that once we have God's Spirit, we don't want to be standing afar off.

Let's see another representation of this, another example of how that worked a little nearby in Exodus 34.

Exodus 34, and we'll begin in verse 29.

Now, this is, of course, after Moses goes up and spends some time talking with God, God gives him the Ten Commandments written with His own fingers.

And now it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't know the skin of the face was shining while I talked to him. For some reason I find that amusing because Moses, here I come, everybody's going to be happy, and they're like, what's going on? His face is shining. It says, when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, the skin of his face shone, they were afraid to come near. Maybe they thought he was radioactive or something. But Moses called to them. I mean, maybe it was shining so bright they couldn't even make out the features of his face. Who is that guy? And they hear Moses' voice say, it's me, come over here. And he didn't know that he was shining. Anyways, that's in the side. As I said, for some reason I like to imagine it in a funny way, but pretty serious business. Moses called to them and Aaron and the rulers of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Now, I wanted to skip down.

Yeah, okay. I did want to go down. So, when Moses, in verse 33, when Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. So, he had to put the veil on his face to be able to interact with in public. But whenever Moses went in before the eternal to speak with him, he'd take off the veil. He didn't need anything separating between him and God. He could talk to him directly. When he came out and would speak to the children of Israel, whatever he's commanded, and when the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining or shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him. So, as I said, the people had to stand afar off. They couldn't have that direct communication. Now, let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 to see a little bit more explanation. 2 Corinthians 3, beginning in verse 12.

I'd like to say I was clever enough to have thought of this explanation all on my own, but it's right here. The Apostle Paul explains it. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 12.

Think of that. So, without Christ, there's that veil there. Anybody trying to come to God has something between them, but it's taken away in Christ. We'll go a little further to see how that is. It says, Moses has read, Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is spirit. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The spirit is the key, of course. When the Holy Spirit is given to us, it takes away the separation between us and God. And we don't have to have a veil in our communication. I said the problem wasn't with the children of Israel, in a sense, but they weren't able to directly relate to God without that Holy Spirit.

Now, as I said, using this veil on Moses' face is a pretty good analogy, I think. It shows that, in general, people have not had open and easy access to God, because without the Holy Spirit, they don't really know Him. They can't communicate in that open way. They might pray, and I'm not saying people don't want to pray and do pray. There are many people without God's calling and Holy Spirit that pray diligently, and they live good lives as they know. And I believe God hears those prayers, but I would say it's a prayer that's described by the Greek word the ero... Now, erotomei... I'm going to have to check the spelling again later. I've got it written down. But, you know, me and my pronunciation, the nah in Hebrew, not necessarily the prosokomei, the palay, that worshipful communication that comes only through the Spirit. There's a different veil that similarly makes that representation, and I want to look at that example. That's the veil in the temple. The veil that was originally in the tabernacle, and then in the temple that separated the Holy Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies, the most holy place. The formal ritual system was given to ancient Israel, of course, because they didn't have the Holy Spirit, and of course Christ sacrificed and not yet happened, so they needed that to relate to God. Animal sacrifices symbolize Christ's sacrifice for our sins, and I believe the burning of incense that was a part of that system represented prayer and communication with God. That's where I found it interesting, again, noting the Old Testament. Have you searched the Old Testament to find instruction on how to pray?

Interesting, in all of the first five books of the Bible, there's a lot of instruction in how to do those sacrifices and how to do that. There's not really teaching in how to pray in the Old Testament, because without the Holy Spirit it wouldn't work very well. There was a veil between those people and God. Let's turn to Hebrews 9. See that that veil was there, and it did symbolize something real, but it would be removed. Hebrews 9 will begin at the first verse. Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and earthly sanctuary, for a tabernacle was prepared.

The first part in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. That's the holy place. Behind the veil, then, was the second part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, sometimes called the holy of holies. Skipping down to verse 6, When these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. So that first part was the table and the showbread.

The priests went in there every day, but the holiest of all, only the high priest could go in, and only one day a year, which is the day of atonement. Into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance.

The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way to the holiest of all, was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was standing. It was symbolic for the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the sacrifice perfect in regard to consciousness. I'm going to come right back here, so if you want to hold your hand here, but I want to turn back to Leviticus 16.

There's something that the author of Hebrews, who most of us believe was Paul, there's some dispute that it might have been someone other than Paul, but they do a good job, and the main message is very clear, but I found it interesting that he didn't make reference to something else that the high priest took with him that one day of the year. And of course, Leviticus 16 is all about the service that was done on the day of atonement with the two goats, the one day of the year that the high priest could go in.

Let's look at verse 11. Aaron, or whoever is high priest after him, shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. Shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. And then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of the fire from the altar before the eternal, with his hands full of sweet incense, beat and fine.

By the way, there's instruction elsewhere that shows exactly how to make this incense, and God said, don't make this for yourself. This is only for me. If you make this special blend and use it for anything else, you're going to be in big trouble. So this is special incense that one day of the year he brought in, and he shall put the incense on the fire before the eternal, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony lest he die. And then he'll take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat.

So that was a symbol. We know that the blood represented Christ's sacrifice. But the incense was also an important thing, and I believe, as we saw earlier, that it represents the prayer, the prayer of the saints, that communication with God. Now, if we go back to Hebrews 9, we'll see, of course, that we don't do this ceremony anymore. Hebrews 9, verse 11, Christ came as a high priest of the good things to come with a greater and a more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, as if Christ went into heaven itself, to actual God the Father.

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. So Christ's sacrifice put an end to the need for the animal sacrifice. And so we don't have blood sacrifice anymore as part of our worship, which makes me very happy. Because I had a job where I did some meat cutting when I was a younger man, and when I was a younger man, it was tiring. Imagine what it'd be like now. I think that's the reason, I'm trying to think, was that Levites did it until they were about 50, and they said, okay, now you let the younger men take over and you do some other work.

But not only did the blood stop as part of the worship, but the burning incense also, that went away. You know, you can burn incense if you like, or I'd prefer to have your wife bake cupcakes, because I think that smells better. But we don't need that as part of worship. We have prayer. We can have what it represented, the real thing. And that's a very good thing. I think that's part of why Jesus' instruction to his disciples on how to pray talked about this real interaction and talk with God. Let's turn to Luke 11. Luke 11, we'll look at... This is one of the two places where what we call the model prayer is given.

Now, remember, as I said, in the Old Testament, you don't find a place where it says, this is how you pray. And so it's not a surprise then. It says, it came to pass as he was praying, that is, Christ was praying. When he ceased, his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us how to pray. John taught his disciples. So we can't read it in the book, and the priests don't really know.

Teach us how to pray. And then he gave them this outline, or we believe a model. He said, when you pray, say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who's indebted to us. And don't lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Now, we could summarize, and you've heard whole sermons focused just on this. One of the interesting things, of course, we know Christ came to reveal the Father. So he said, when you pray, pray our Father in heaven, and praise His name. That does bring up the question sometimes. Should we ever pray to Jesus Christ? Now, He didn't instruct them to pray to Him, but of course He deferred to the Father in all things. We know during His ministry there was a time when someone came to Him and said, Good Teacher, what should I do to have eternal life? Before He answered the question, He said, What are you calling me good for?

There's only one that's good, and that's the Father. So Jesus wouldn't have told people to pray to Him, because He was a human being. Now, we could say, of course, He's been sacrificed, and now He's at the Father's right hand. So that could change things a little bit. But still a little bit of speculation to say it could change things. That's why when there's any doubt, we looked at the Scripture of what did Jesus teach, and He said, Pray to the Father.

And He would say, Ask things in My name. Now, we don't believe it's wrong to refer to Christ in our prayers and even pray to Him, but we often, you'll hear men sometimes say, Our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ at Your right hand. We certainly acknowledge He's at our right hand, and He's our Advocate. But our primary instruction is to pray to the Father. That brought to mind, I didn't have this in my notes, but it popped in my head this morning.

I don't know. I think it was the day I got back from camp last week in the evening. I hadn't seen TV in more than a week. We turned on the TV and we saw that fellow walking the high wire across the Grand Canyon. Did any of you see that? That was spectacular scenery, wasn't it? And then you look and say, How crazy is that guy?

But I was sort of pleased, and I'm not sure just... I was interested that he was praying the whole time. If you had the sound on, you noticed he was nonstop, and so would I have been. But of course, he was praying, saying, Jesus. That struck me because Jesus said to pray to the Father. And I thought, You know what? It's not wrong. I said, I have a funny feeling about that. I always defer to praying primarily to the Father and referring to Jesus in those prayers. Anyways, that's a sidelight, but as I said, the question comes up, and that's the answer that I always give.

But let's look at John 16 to see something interesting. Something that I think has... Part of Jesus' way of saying, Things will change after my sacrifice. John 16 and verse 26. As he's telling the disciples about that they're going to have the Holy Spirit, and that he's going to go and be with the Father.

And he says here in John 16 verse 26, In that day you will ask in my name. So you'll ask in my name. He says, I don't say to you that I shall pray the Father for you. The Father Himself loves you because you've loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. Here, I knew I had this in my notes.

Do I have it here? Mmm. That's bad. Well, anyways, the Greek word that Christ was using here was erota. Erotia. The Greek means the making a formal request. Please. And he's saying, you're not going to pray in my name. You're not going to... He says, I tell you, I won't pray the Father for you. So I won't be passing on a formal request using that style. Don't send me a memo in all initial and give the Father... It's like Jesus was saying, it's not going to be that way anymore. The Father Himself wants you to come and talk to Him. It's not just a formal thing. You don't just have to pray in my name or ask me to pray to Him for you. You pray to the Father.

So the Father Himself loves you. He wants you to come and talk to Him, to establish that real communication. A communication with understanding and worship. Remember, the Father was seeking people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

And I wanted to mention that understanding is important. Understanding is part of our prayer. That brought to mind a line from a movie, and I wasn't sure which movie. I think it might have been the Blues Brothers. That was a movie I really loved back when I was like 16 years old when it came out. Where I think at one point, you know, they're talking to somebody and He says, Me and the Lord, we got an understanding. Not that kind of understanding, a real understanding. You know, God already understands us. He wants us to understand Him.

Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 14.

1 Corinthians 14, and we'll begin reading in verse 14.

Now, Paul is speaking of something slightly different, but I think it holds true.

1 Corinthians 14, in verse 14, he says, If I pray in a tongue, and he means a different language, My Spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What's the conclusion, then? I'll pray with the Spirit, and I also will pray with understanding. And I'll sing with the Spirit, and I'll sing with understanding.

Now, Paul goes on, and I'm not going to read more, because he was actually talking about, you know, people in the Corinthian congregation, or the congregation that Corinth, being given the gift of speaking in different languages, and apparently sometimes being able to speak in a language they themselves didn't understand, which to me is kind of mind-boggling. But when you apply that to prayer, you know, there are religions that teach people to recite a certain prayer that might be in a language they don't understand. It's not uncommon for people to recite prayers in Latin, or in another language to recite a prayer in Yiddish, or in Arabic. And, as Paul's saying, there's no understanding. You're saying the words, but don't know what they mean. Much better to be praying with understanding, talking to God.

Now, some people would say, well, wait a minute. Didn't Jesus Christ give something to recite? You know, say, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. On earth as it is in... I thought I could say it fast, and then I couldn't. On earth as it is in heaven, give us by day your daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who's indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. You know, there are some people that will recite that, like that, and say, I'm praying. And if I do it more often, that's all the better.

That's not what Jesus meant. And if we see evidence of that, let's... By the way, that's found in Luke 11, where we were looking also in Matthew 6. And I'd like to go to Matthew 6, just to highlight the way Christ introduced it, shows us clearly that's not what He meant. I found it interesting, though, when I was preparing this, I had a larger Bible that had subheadings typed into it, which the publisher puts those in to help you find subjects, and the subheading put into that Bible said, the model prayer.

I said, well, whoever put that in there, they got the point. Now, as a kid, I used to always think, only we know that this was a model prayer. Now, it turns out that there are other Christian, you know, those who call themselves Christians that understand it's a model, not a chant to be recited. And that's okay, we want people to understand as much as possible.

But what Christ said by way of introduction makes that clear in Matthew 6, we'll start in verse 7, He says, When you pray, don't use vain repetitions, as the heathen do. They think that they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them. So don't just say the words over and over again. He said, For your Father knows the things you need of before you ask Him. And then He goes on saying, In this manner, pray. He doesn't say with these words, but in this manner, in this outline, in this format.

That's interesting, though. You think, Well, if God already knows what we need, why does He insist we pray to Him about it? Why couldn't He just provide what we need? Well, I think it's simple. It's because God wants us to come and talk with Him. He wants us to share our thoughts, to build that relationship. And this is yet one of many more things, many things in Christian life that I understand now much better as a parent than I did before I was a parent.

All of you who have kids, how many times have you wanted your kids to come and talk with you? Come and share things. You know, Connor loves to talk about trucks. And he'll say, Let's go talk about trucks. And we get on the bed and he'll look at me and say, What does a dump truck carry? Well, it carries the same thing as last time you asked me. But we'll talk it through, you know. And I'll ask him, What does a garbage truck carry? And I know what a garbage truck...

But we're talking and we're learning to trust each other and know each other. God might know some of the things we're going to discuss, but He wants us to come and talk with Him. And hopefully, as we're maturing, we start talking on a higher level than just saying the things that He expects, you know, that He knows the answers to fully in advance.

I had a note that came up, and I'll share this. Some of you that were at Camp Catubik might not have heard this, but this came from an incident, an unusual incident. And I guess I should give a little more explanation before I mention it. That there is a family that runs the facility. You know, we rent Camp Catubik, and the man who lives there, and now his son works with him, is named Dave Stevens.

And he's been a good friend to our program. And he's known affectionately as Uncle Dave. I say affectionately. I think of it affectionately. He said before he ran the camp, he was a church pastor. He had been Pastor Dave. And he wasn't a pastor anymore, so Uncle Dave somehow caught on.

Well, anyways, I've worked with him for the last three and a half years. But during the week we were there, he actually suffered a heart attack. Now, he's doing okay, so in case I forget to tell the end of the story.

But I was surprised at lunch one day, his son took me aside and said, look, Dad's having a heart attack. They're taking him to the hospital. And at that point they weren't sure if he was going to need a catheterization or if they'd do open heart and do a bypass, which is what they did.

But I was taken aback, and I said, well, we'd like to pray for him. And he said, yeah, fine. They told me this during lunch. All of our group was there in the kitchen, so I got the microphone.

I called everyone's attention, and I explained the situation and said, let's pray for Uncle Dave. We bowed our heads. And I said the type of prayer that I think any of the men here might have. I talked about, I told God, he's been a good friend to our program. You know the good he tries to do, and we want to ask that you'll heal him, that you'll minimize the results, that you'll guide the doctors, and so on.

And the good thing is, I think God heard our prayers. And I was really impressed when I would be in dorm meetings later in the week. A lot of the campers remembered to pray for Uncle Dave and continued that. And as I said, last I heard, he was about to come home.

He'd come through the procedure, just in case any of you were wondering. He's doing fine. I haven't talked to him directly since then. But what surprised me is a few days later, Bonnie Harrell, which is our staff member that interacted with the kitchen crew, said, you know, I was talking to the head cook, and she was just amazed at the way you prayed.

She said, it was like I was listening in on his private conversation with God. And that made me feel good. I thought, wow. And I thought, wow, not everybody prays that way. I guess, you know, to me, I didn't think it was a great example, but it was just being heartfelt. I mean, I did think of Uncle Dave as a good friend, and I wanted to talk to God about it and ask for his intervention. But someone who might not have been as familiar with that style of praying was really taken aback.

Well, I don't think my example is the best. I want to look at, as I said, I wanted to bring that up because it surprised me to hear that. But let's look at a couple of examples from the Old Testament. Not for their substance of what they prayed about, but the style and how they did that. And the first one I want to look at is King David.

King David is one, as I said, not many people in the Old Testament had God's Holy Spirit. And so we're going to look at an example where, as I said, what he was praying about is something we'll never be able to pray about personally. Well, you'll see when we get to the story. But he provides a good example of how he talked to God.

And we see that throughout the Psalms. He wrote many of his prayers were written down and then put to music. But this is a different incident. It's in 2 Samuel, Chapter 7. Sorry, I'm talking and not looking where I'm going in my Bible. 2 Samuel, Chapter 7. This will be mostly self-explanatory. It's after David has been established in the kingdom. He's not running from Saul anymore. He's there and he's king over all the land.

So it says here in Chapter 7, It came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the eternal had given him rest from all his enemies all around. The king said to Nathan the prophet, See now I dwell on a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. So he's implying, hey, maybe we should do something a little better for the ark. Nathan said to the king, Do all that's in your heart, the eternal's with you. Nathan didn't talk to God first. He said, Well, God's supporting David in everything he did.

He does. This must be a good idea. But it happened that night that the word of the eternal came to Nathan, saying, Go tell my servant David, thus says the eternal, Would you build a house for me to dwell in? For I've not dwelled in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day. I've moved about in a tent, in a tabernacle.

Wherever I've moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken to anyone saying, Why haven't you built me a house? A cedar? So that's not what I'm concerned about. But let's skip down to verse 12, and we'll see. God says, There's something else I want to talk to you about. I want you to pass this on to David. Verse 12, He says, When your days are fulfilled, and you rest with your fathers, I'll set up your seed after you who will come from your body, and I'll establish his kingdom.

He'll build me a house for my name, and I'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever. There's two things he just said. I'm going to let your son build me a temple, and I'm going to establish his throne forever. Now, every king thinks, I'd like to have a son to follow in my footsteps. Most of them think, I'd like to have my dynasty go on for a while.

To have the God of all the universe say, I'm going to put your dynasty on the throne forever. That's something pretty special. So, we know God did fulfill that promise. After David died, of course, Solomon led the building of a beautiful temple, and after Solomon died, God made sure that his son stayed on the throne in Judah after the two kingdoms split. And even when eventually Judah was taken into captivity, we believe that God used Jeremiah to bring the king's daughters to Ireland, or somewhere in the British Isles, in transplant, that dynasty, and then it continues today in the House of Windsor.

So, most of us are familiar with that story, and that's a fascinating thing.

God agrees, I hope.

That reminds me of a story. Well, a few of you were in Dayton for services two weeks ago. I was giving the sermon. And I'll share this now, because if you want to hear, the punchline comes up every now and then. I was trying to be very inspiring and get people right revved up to go to camp, and out of the corner of my eye, out the window, I saw this white thing.

It was an albino squirrel. And I stopped. As I'm in the middle of my conclusion, I've never seen an albino squirrel before. And then I'm like, where was I in my notes? Talk about defusing everything. But a lot of people got a lot of chuckles out of that. So thunder's not quite as effective. Now let me back up and say, of course, we have this thing going on. David talks to Nathan, the prophet, saying, I want to build a temple for God. And Nathan says, that sounds like a great idea.

But then God sends Nathan back to David and says, well, no, I don't need you to do this. Well, I'll let your son build me a temple, but I'm going to make sure your dynasty endures forever. And David... well, let's see what David goes and talks to God about it. In verse 18, and this is what I've always found his reaction fascinating.

King David went in and sat before the eternal, and he said, Oh my, O Lord God, what is my house that you've brought me this far? And this was a small thing in your sight, O eternal God. And you've spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of men, O Lord?

Now, what more can David say? For your Lord God, you know your servant, and for your word's sake, according to your heart, you've done all these great things to make your servant know them. And he goes on to say, okay, God prays you you're glorious. You can go ahead and do this. And as I said, the substance what David's praying about isn't something we'll model. But I find his easy manner. He went down, he went in and sat before God. Now, he didn't get on his knees, leaned over his bed, and say, Our Father who art in heaven.

And I'm not implying that there's anything wrong with that. And I don't think that he was meaning to be informal. I envision him of going and sitting on the ground. I don't think there were couches or chairs in the tabernacle that they were using.

He probably sat cross-legged on the ground and was kind of dumb to say, Wow, God, is this really what you want to do? I'm blown away. Sort of if you were saying in the vernacular that we use today, he was having an open, easy talk with God. And he was comfortable doing that. He wasn't intending to be flippant or disrespectful. I think in any way he was just sharing with God his thoughts and saying thank you in a certain way. Let's turn over to Psalm 8 to see another example.

And this is in David's word. As I said, I think a similar way of David relating to God can be seen in this. Psalm 8, this is a very familiar Psalm. We quote it all the time, but not always as a prayer or of a style of prayer. Psalm 8, I'll pick up in verse 3. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers and the moon of the stars which you've ordained, what's man that you're mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him?

You've made him a little lower than the angels, yet you crowned him with glory and honor. I put yet, it should be and. You've made him to have dominion over the works of your hands and put all things under his feet, sheep and oxen, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name and all the earth!

Have you ever felt like that? You're looking at this great scene of something God's created and you're like, wow, God! Where do we fit in all this? You're fabulous! This is amazing! And I really appreciate where you've put us and what you plan to do. Sometimes what you see of God's creation inspires your talk with him. I don't think that's a bad thing. That's a nice way to pray to God at times. Now, remember, there's different times. There's times when we need to be very formal and strict, and of course, we also need, always need to be very respectful and worshipful. I think there's a place where it says, God is in heaven and you're on earth, so keep your words few.

You know, we don't want to lose track of that. As I said, being at camp has helped me learn a lot of lessons because I'll pray to God all the time as things are coming up. I'll skip some of the examples I had here because I don't know how many times I had things come answered prayer.

As I said, God granting us the weather, healing people. I had one example. I pulled something out of my pocket at one point when I was talking to someone, and later I noticed I was missing my little vial of oil that I used for anointing. I went back and I looked and I looked, and I had another one. I've got one like four times the size. It's like carrying around a bottle.

So I liked the little one. It was the last day of camp I happened to be in a vial. I stopped and I prayed. I said, Father, I really like having that vial. If you could help me find it, I'd appreciate it. I looked down and it was right at my feet, right at the time I finished praying. Now, that could be pure coincidence. As I said, that's another case. I might get in the kingdom and God say, I didn't do that. You just happened to look in the right place.

Or he might say, yeah, you thought to ask me, why didn't you ask me sooner? You could have had it two or three days sooner. But we'd need to talk to God about big things, about little things, and sometimes about things that are troubling us. I want to look at another example in Jeremiah 12. Jeremiah 12.

Again, for those of you that were on the cubic staff, I think I used this in the orientation. I've used this sometime recently, and I don't remember which time. But this is another one of God's servants, Jeremiah, conversing to God in prayer in a way that's different than we normally do. But when we go through trials, I think it's good to keep in mind that we can talk to God and sometimes express some disappointment or dismay.

He only wants us to be open and honest, but also to accept His open and honest answer. Jeremiah 12 in verse 1, Jeremiah says, Righteous are you, O Eternal, when I plead with you, yet let me talk with you about your judgments. I could see this saying, God, I know you always do what's right, but let's talk about what's going on here. Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? This doesn't seem to fit with the teaching I know from your word. You've planted them. Yes, they've taken root. They grow. They bear fruit. You're near their mouth, but far from their mind. And you, O Eternal, you know me. You've seen me. You've tested my heart towards you. So pull them out like sheep for the slaughter. Prepare them for the day of slaughter. Jeremiah is saying, Go get those guys!

Sometimes we do that. We say, God, I know you want good for us. Why am I suffering like this? Have you ever had that case? I've had a couple times in my life where I found myself feeling angry. And I'd have to go to God and say, I have feelings of anger, and I know that's not appropriate for me to be angry with you. But this is why. Can you help me to understand? Why is this trial taking so long? What am I missing?

Like I said, be honest with God. But if you do that, we have to be prepared. God might show us where we're missing the point. As he did with Jeremiah. Let's read in verse 5. This is God's answer. He says, If you've run with a footman and they've wearied you, how are you going to do with horses? Basically, Jeremiah, things are just barely started. And you're getting upset and all worn out on this.

Even the land of peace, which you trusted, they wearied you. How are you going to do in the floodplain of the Jordan? You've got it easy now, kid. It's going to get a lot tougher. Even your brothers, the house of your father, even they've dealt treacherously with you and called them ultimately and said, Hey, you think you've got a rough... Did you know your own family is plotting against you? No, you didn't. I haven't abandoned you. And I'm putting words in God's mouth. I don't mean to do that, but I want to convey this tone.

Because Jeremiah is saying, God, you always do what's right. What's going on here? How come they're doing so good and I'm suffering? And sometimes God says what my good friend and predecessor Gary Smith would say, Suck it up. Suck it up and tough it out. You know? Now, it can be humorous to say that, but I do want to make this point. God might sometimes say, You need to hear that. But you know what? I can assure you, He will always listen.

If we come to God and we respectfully talk to Him and tell Him what we're thinking, He will listen. He might correct us. He might show us that we're in a bad attitude, but He's listening. He would much rather have us come and explain that we're troubled or we don't know what's going on than give Him the silent treatment.

And it's funny, I was talking to someone in Athens this morning where a lady mentioned that she'd had strong words with one of her kids and he wouldn't talk to her for two weeks afterwards. And I was like, Yeah, you'd rather Him come and let it back out. I'm guessing. So, I'm guessing God is like, He wants us to always be happy and pray, but pray to Him in a respectful way and we should always be respectful. I don't want to ever tell you, Blow off steam and yell at God. I'd advise you not to do that. Worship Him, honor Him, praise Him.

But be honest and open, but whatever you do, do pray. Communicate with God and let Him communicate back with you. Because He always does listen. He won't turn His back on us as long as we're seeking Him. He says, Seek me early and you will find me. I guarantee you that promise is in His Word and He won't forsake that promise.

And I want to tie that back to our introduction. I started talking about how powerful aromas can be in our mind with the idea that prayer can be that way. I think that's why God made incense a big part of the worship for ancient Israel. Without God's Spirit, they couldn't pray to Him in the way that He wants us to pray. But He gave them a symbol of something to convey that something powerful and moving that cuts into the heart of our mind.

He wanted to give them that symbol. But we don't need that.

If you enjoy incense, or if you're like me, you enjoy cupcakes, go ahead and enjoy those things. But we don't need them to worship God. We do need to pray. And hopefully that real intense worshipful communicative prayer. Praying to request things is certainly good, too. I appear before God with my hand out all the time. Sometimes He probably says, That's enough. I've already given you one.

Sometimes we're going to have a formal prayer. We'll appeal to God in a specific format. But there are times when we can relax a little bit. Talk with God as our Father, because He wants us to be His children. He wants to be a Father to us. Talk with Him as our Shepherd, as the One who's been waiting for us to come and tell Him about our day.

Share your thoughts, your hopes and dreams, your concerns and fears. He wants to hear all of them. When we do that, I promise our prayer will be as a pleasant aroma in God before God's face.