How to Develop More Effective Prayer, Part 1

Thank you very much. It brings back a little bit about the memories of medieval times and beautiful music that they played at that time as well. I'm going to begin this message, lighting up a little bit of incense. Now, incense is mentioned in the Bible, and it's mentioned in other parts as well. This is not some type of special ceremony we have here now, but I'm going to go ahead and light it up. There we go. At least I'm going to have a nice smell around fragrance around my area here. What is incense? Don't worry about it. It's going to continue burning along as I speak. Notice also the smoke rising.

Incense is a fragrant substance that is burned and is made up from the gum of aromatic plants and trees found in North Africa and in the Middle East. Of course, in Arabia it was very famous. The area called Yemen today from where the Queen of Sheba supposedly came from, and she brought a lot of the nice incense to that area, to the times of King Solomon, to the area of Israel.

In the days before scented candles and deodorizers, the world was a pretty smelly place.

There was no city garbage retrieval. Most people lived with large extended families in cramped houses with no plumbing. Everyone lived very close to their animals and their waste. Incense smoke could freshen the air and make indoors smell sweeter.

Since incense was very expensive, it was saved for special occasions when an important guest was coming.

Because incense ingredients were grown in remote places and were often rare to find, incense could be worth its weight in gold.

Some experts estimate it was about a hundred dollars per pound of incense.

So if you were going to offer incense in prayer, it was going to be a costly gift.

Burning incense in the presence of someone important became a sign of honor and respect.

If you were celebrating a feast day, a wedding, or a special friend coming to your house, you burned incense in anticipation of that coming. As a matter of fact, incense was burned in the ancient temple of Jerusalem twice a day. For the evening and the morning time of prayer, it would send a wonderful fragrance throughout the day and would purify this place of God's presence in His holy temple.

It was the time when Zachariah, the priest, once as the lot was cast, they had the ruling that a priest could only offer incense once in his life. Of course, they had thousands of priests at that time, and the lot fell upon Zachariah's, and he went into the temple to light the incense, to stoke the coals to make sure the incense was properly done. Probably it was in the morning offering, and that was when the angel Gabriel appeared to him.

Let's go to the scriptures and read that account in Luke chapter 1, verses 8 through 10.

Luke chapter 1, verses 8 through 10.

It says, So it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.

Now, some commentaries think this was a Sabbath day, because usually you only had a small crowd coming in early in the morning. But on the Sabbath day, there was a huge crowd. That, of course, cannot be proved, but it was the hour of prayer.

And so, from long ago, incense and prayer were connected.

Long ago, the connection of the sweet smoke of the incense rising was equated with the prayers that are sent off to God in heaven.

And they should be a fragrant aroma before God.

Let's turn to Psalm 141, verse 2, to see the connection between incense and prayer. Psalm 141, verse 2. David here was praising God, as he did in most of these Psalms. And he said in verse 2, And so, he says that my prayer is like some sweet-smelling incense that rises up, that pleases God when we pray before Him.

Now, there are many other scriptures that equate incense with prayer. We see in the New Testament, let's go to Revelation 5, verse 8, where it makes a direct connection between incense and prayer. Revelation 5, verse 8. Notice here, it says, Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

So, to God, incense, the sweet-smelling aroma, as I have around me, is a welcome sign for God, when our prayers go up to God in the proper way. So, prayer and incense are intimately related. Now, it's tough to have a continuous and rich prayer life. We know that. It's easy to begin a prayer, but it's hard to continue after a while. The thoughts can rapidly run out, and no more can be said, but the symbolism of incense can help us out. Notice the parallels. Number one, incense is beaten very fine. It is something that has to be beaten and made into a very fine powder.

Let's read Exodus 30, verse 1, where God prescribes how to make the incense that was going to be burned in the temple. This was something God did not want to have done in a haphazard way. He gave the formula for making the right incense before Him.

In Exodus 30, verse 1, it says, "...you shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood." And it was to be covered with gold. This is called the altar of incense, which was in front of the curtain, in front of the Holy of Holies. There were three objects in this area. One was a golden candelabra. Another one was on the other side, the table of showbread. But in the middle was this altar of incense. And it was supposed to have incense burning there day and night. That was one of the roles of the priest. And they would have to, twice a day, bring new incense, make sure that it did not die out. Continuing in verse 6, it says, "...and you shall put it before the veil that is before the arc of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you. Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it." And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. "...You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, nor shall you pour a drink offering on it. And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year, with the blood of the sin offering of atonement, once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations." It is most holy to the Lord. It has a great significance before God what this altar of incense meant. Now, going to verse 34, we get even more information about the ingredients that were to be making up the incense. It says in verse 34, And you shall beat some of it very fine. So here's where you had to make it very fine, and put some of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. So as in ancient times, before you had an honored guest, you would have incense in your home.

It would be very aromatic. There was so much incense burned in the temple of God, that some of that aroma and fragrance could be smelled all the way to Jericho. These, according to Josephus, that there was so much incense that it would finally descend down the valley, well, the mountains, to the valley down. You could smell the incense from Jerusalem.

So incense is beaten very fine. And to make our prayers effective, we must pray in detail. We should name names. We should give circumstances. We should describe feelings and avoid vague generalities.

Notice it is a blend of ingredients. Our prayer should contain a blend of thoughts on a variety of topics. And it will not just burn one ingredient. It's a mixture. We should discuss everything with God, as it mentions in Philippians 4-6. I'll just give it as a reference, where it says there to go before God, with all our needs and all of our thoughts and feelings before Him, because He cares for us. Now, another aspect of incense is it doesn't work until it is heated up. Without heat, incense is of little value. It doesn't give off any aroma.

The same is true of prayer. Without fervency, the heat, without the enthusiasm, without the real desire, prayer can become dead. It can become lifeless and useless.

Notice in Matthew 15, verse 17, Matthew 15, verse 17, it says, it's a little bit before that. I should have put, it's Matthew 7, that's not 17. Matthew 15, verse 7, it says, Jesus Christ said about the prayers of the Pharisees. He said, Hypocrite! Well, did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, These people draw near to Me with their mouths. Oh, they pray to Me, yes, and honor Me with their lips. But their heart is far from Me. And so you have these prayers that are listless. Many times these liturgies that people recite time after time after time. That's not the type of conversation God wants with a person. You wouldn't want someone to come to you and just be repeating the same thing at time and time. You want to have an intelligent conversation with someone else. And He says here, And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They weren't doing the proper thing, but they thought with their long prayers they were pleasing God. But it did not come from the heart. It was not heartfelt. It was something done automatically, by rote, mechanically, and their heart was not in it. You can tell when a person's heart is in something or not. When they're just going through the motions or when they really sincerely mean it. God doesn't want us to just go through the motions. Notice in James 5. James 5. It says here in verse 16, Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another. James 5. 16. That you may be healed. So we need to pray for one another and to let others know of our needs. And it says here at the end, The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It's sweet incense rising up to God. It's something that God acts upon. It is something that He feels it's from the heart. He sees that the person means it. And the third point here is, it smells sweet. Incense is very nice. I don't usually burn this in my home, but it sure smells nice right up here now. I don't know if any of you can feel it a little bit. Just push it off here and give you some of this nice incense. Raise your arm, get some of that there going. No, just kidding. All right, got your attention. That's what I want. Prayer should be appealing to God. Something that He wants to savor. Let's go to another scripture. We're learning a lot of new scriptures as we get to this new topic. Leviticus 16 verse 12, God says even more about incense. All these hidden jewels that we find in God's Word. Leviticus 16 verse 12. This is, of course, talking about the Day of Atonement that we celebrate each year. It says in verse 12 about the incense. It says, then, talking about the high priest, He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony lest He die. And so He had to present this incense as He went in, because it was symbolized as sweet fragrance. The presence of the people of Israel was going to be pleasing to God at this time. But it was very interesting, a little detail. Where was the incense burned from? Where did you light up this incense that you came through the veil once a year with all of this incense? You took it from the altar of sacrifice, where you sacrificed the animals, and the blood had to be spilt, the sin offerings that were offered.

And so, looking at it in the New Testament, you realize that Jesus Christ on the altar, He died for us. He shed His blood for us. He was a living sacrifice, that He died for us. He was the Lamb of God.

And, symbolically, we take some of the coals from that sacrifice, and we add it to the incense of our prayers. And so it isn't just us coming, because Christ does redeem us, and through His sacrifice, it makes it a lot more pleasing. Just as it says here, you didn't take the coals from just anywhere. You took it from the altar of sacrifice, where one creature there had to die. Just like Jesus Christ had to die for us, and through that sacrifice, mixing it with our prayers, they're pleasing to God. So this is the beginning of a series of sermons on how to develop more effective prayers. I know we all need it. I don't think anyone would say, Oh, my prayer life is just wonderful. I don't need any more help.

I think that's something that characterizes this century, the 21st century that we live in. Very kind of a lackadaisical society laid back and just accept me as I am type of an attitude. And we've got to shake that off. Got to realize what kind of God we're coming before, and that our prayers are not something just lightweight to God or superfluous. They're very important. They can determine whether we make it into the kingdom or not. If we charge our prayer life, we can withstand the temptations of this world. And people get hurt in this world, and they get taken over by Satan sometimes because they don't have any spiritual strength left. And that roaring lion is ready to leap and just grab and tear everything away from us spiritually speaking. And so we will be giving the series, God willing, up to the time of the Passover, preparing ourselves.

And so we will carefully go over the seven parts of the model prayer given by Jesus Christ. And he gave it in a very easy way to remember, but it was just a sample prayer. It was an outline that we should fill in. He never expected us to just be repeating this by rote and just constantly saying the same thing. No, these were the categories that he wanted us to focus on. He wanted us not to repeat this model prayer, but to develop each one of those points, and to make them like fine incense, very detailed, be able to talk with God for more than five minutes.

So there are going to be seven points to each one of these points itself. And at least once in our lives, to be able to listen to how we can develop our prayer life in a more effective way, it's worthwhile to beat down, beat finally, this incense of prayer before our God. So we start with the first part this time, which we read in Matthew 6, verse 9.

This is the model prayer. This is the outline that Christ laid out for us. Seven main categories that he wanted us to develop in our lives. He certainly didn't go around using the Lord's Prayer on its own. He never did in John 17 or any of those. But he used them as an example, an outline that we should use. So we're going to focus on the first category, which is, Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name.

And so for this first point, we should focus on the place that we are directing our prayers to. Just like the incense rises, our prayers rise up to heaven. We should send these prayers not before a statue, not because there's a big church or cathedral. God is not in there. He is much higher and in a much more tremendous and magnificent place. Heaven itself. And we have a description of heaven in God's word.

Let's look in Revelation 4. Revelation 4. God allowed us to have a glimpse of what heaven looks like. John the Apostle says in verse 1, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. So here God was going to allow him to have a glimpse of heaven. Now he was still on the earth, but in a vision, God took him to the presence where God the Father and Jesus Christ governed.

I'll just have an aside here, just to build a little suspense. My daughters were always after me, that I had to go see Avatar, the movie. And so I went to see Avatar. And visually, the graphics, it is just incredible what they have been able to develop in technology. I said the only time I felt just overwhelmed by the magnificent graphics and the painting that it drew of all of this was when I was a student here at Ambassador College, and some friends took me to Hollywood to see the first Star Wars.

One of these big theaters, big screens, and just watching that first ship just go right over you, and it had me hooked. And so that was impressive. But I'll tell you, since then, I haven't seen a movie that is just so impressive as this Avatar, as far as the graphics are involved.

And also the beauty of many of the inventions of Cameron's imagination, the director. But here's something that is much better than anything in Avatar. Why wouldn't this be great to be able to picture it graphically? I will humbly try to just show you a little bit, every time we go before God in prayer, what the scene is when some of that incense of our prayers rise up to Him.

He says, God sat on the throne, and He who sat there was like a jasper. Now, jasper is generally a transparent stone, so He could just see the shining, the brilliance, like a diamond. If you've seen the brilliance of a diamond and sunlight, the many colors, this is what scholars think the jasper stone was like a diamond, because it was transparent, crystal-like. And Sardius, which is a red stone, in appearance.

And there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. So God, over His throne, He has a rainbow. And He mentioned that He would have a sign that He would never again destroy the earth through a flood. And that is God's covenant with us, that He would never again do it, and as a reminder, He has over His throne this covenant rainbow, which is symbolic of the mercy that God is showing to mankind through the ages.

The emerald is a green stone, and green is symbolic in the Bible, overall, for mercy. Just like you see the plants turn green in the spring, there's life. It comes from the death of the winter. Everything is revived, and green in the Bible symbolizes life and mercy, something that God extends life to all of us, and forgiveness.

He says, around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the throne I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. God has many types of angels in heaven. We know various categories. We have the normal angels, which do not have wings. They appear before, for instance, when Jesus Christ was going to go up to heaven, and the angels appeared to the apostles.

They look like ordinary men, of course, with a very beautiful appearance, with white robes. Those are ordinary angels. But then you have carabim, which are angels that transport God's throne. They have four faces. So when they transport, they don't have to look. But we need four faces when we drive sometimes, right? It would be kind of nice to have that.

It would be like having four different periscopes. You could just see that. But these angels have four wings, and Lucifer is called a carabim.

Michael is an archangel. Possibly it's the same type. And also, Gabriel can be one, although we've never had it described. He's just also one of the archangels.

But here, there are four living creatures, and there are 24 elders. These are elders with very important responsibilities.

We can see they are even over the normal angels. They have certain responsibilities, crowns, which they wear. In verse 5, And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. A lot of things are going on around God's throne. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Now that's described later on. These are angels that travel through the earth, and they inform God of what is going on. Before the throne, there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and in back. So there was a sea of glass. And the throne has a separation, and this beautiful, shining, transparent. And the transparency in the Bible, the glass, is something that shows God's nature of being pure. There's nothing evil. There's no spot in God. And He is surrounded by this beautiful crystal. There was an ancient tradition in the Middle East that when King Solomon built his throne, he also had a sea of glass made in front. And when the Queen of Sheba came to visit him, she thought it was water.

It was so crystalline and so beautiful. And that she went forward, she thought it was going to be kind of dipping in water. So she lifted her skirts as she walked and then surprised it wasn't water. It was a sea of glass. Of course, that's just a tradition. But again, it just shows you here a sea of glass that before you come, before His presence, there's transparency, there's purity. God is that way. He says He is light. There is no darkness in Him.

Continuing on, it says, And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

So they also have the ability to see front and back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. Also, it's very interesting what is brought out that according to the Jewish tradition, the strongest beast in the field was the lion, the strongest domestic beast was the bull, the most powerful of the birds was the eagle, and the greatest creation on earth is the human being. So these have different representations of these different creatures. And it says, verse 8, The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes, around and within, and they do not rest day or night. And by the way, these creatures are also described in Isaiah 6, the first verses, and they're called seraphim.

So you have carabin that have four wings, and then you have the seraphim, which have six wings. And they repeat the same thing in Isaiah as it says here, that they say, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come.

And it says, whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. So God is the creator of everything that we see in this universe, including ourselves. Now, how do these molecules inside of us work? How are they coordinated?

There are approximately a hundred trillion cells living in our body, and they're all coordinated, and they have languages, not only the DNA language, which is the one that gives the instructions for protein building, but we have also the neurons communicating a language. And every second, millions of signals come in, and we're able to process them, and that's why I'm able to talk to you without even thinking about it, almost unconsciously, that the words come and everything is something created by God. So they give glory to Him. And so in chapter 4, it's a description of God as our creator, that we go before Him. And many times when we have these drowsy prayers, we forget that this incense goes up and is able to glorify God. In chapter 5, it says, and I saw, in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne, a scroll written inside and on the back. And then going on here, it says, verse 5, And it says here, And verse 11, And so 10,000 times 10,000 is 100 million. So there were over 100 million angels in this area. And they are praising God every day, every moment, as God makes decisions, they praise Him. They thank Him for what He is. When they throw the crowns, the elders do it, just like today, when you see a great play, a magnificent performance, especially in old days when people would have hats, they'd pick up their hats, and they'd throw it up in the air, just cheering. Well, this is the way they all praise God and Jesus Christ. And notice that both are worshipped here. They both are worshipped. They are both part of the Godhead. Not just God the Father, but Jesus Christ is worshipped by all these angels. So He cannot be just a superior angel, because only God can be worshipped in the Bible.

So this is a very magnificent scene. Many times we forget when we go before God. Notice in Hebrews 4, verse 14, it says, "...seeing then that we have a great High Priest, and Jesus Christ is there as our High Priest." Isn't it interesting that this was the Lion of Judah? And probably John expected this powerful being, the Lion of Judah, who can open the scrolls in what appears?

A lamb that has all kinds of wounds on him, as if he had been slain. So this is the modesty, this is the humility that God has to picture Jesus Christ as this lamb that had been slain for us.

"...seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need." So this is the first picture that we have, just beating very finely the incense of the prayers that we have, the description of God, our Father, who art in heaven. Those words in heaven mean a lot. In Hebrews 12 verse 18, it says, "...for you have not come to the mountain that may be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, which was in Mount Sinai." But he says later on here in verse 22, "...but you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are registered in heaven." So the book of life is there with the names of God's people. "...to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men, made perfect, to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." So that's what we should focus on.

Secondly, we should focus on who we are addressing. Not some far-off deity, as other religions have, a God that is so great and holy that we always have to be so separate from Him. No, it says, our Father, it is the most intimate of names. The Father is one who loves, protects, provides, and develops His children to be the best that they can.

Notice Romans 8, verse 14. What a privilege it is to be able to call out to God as our Father. Verse 14, it says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons, which should mean here children, because it includes daughters. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but receive the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The term Abba is a word denoting tenderness and means an intimate relationship with the Father. Jesus and His disciples remember they read Hebrew when they went to the synagogues. But in everyday speech and preaching, they used a closely related language called Aramaic. In Biblical Hebrew, ab means Father. But in the Aramaic, abba is the word derived from the baby language.

As the rabbi said, a small child, quote, learns to say Abba or Daddy, an Imma, mummy. In Spanish, we say, well, we say mom and dad in English. In Spanish, we say mama, papa.

Now our little gabros learning to say tata, which is grandpa, and then nana is for grandmother. We're enjoying him starting to say that. In the pre-Christian era, the usage of the word broadened so that Abba was a form to address one's father, even when you were an adult.

So it means our dear father. That's how God wants us to direct our prayers to him. It's a warm, familiar ring, which we may feel in such an expression of concern, of affection toward God. Thirdly, when it says our father, it means also a family relationship. And God is a growing family. Notice Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14. Paul says here, So God has an expanding family that's being named more and more as he has more children of God. So God is an ever-growing family, which we should always remember. Jesus Christ is also there. We shouldn't forget he is our high priest, our mediator, and our elder brother. In Romans chapter 8, verse 31, let's read here that explanation, Romans 8, verse 31, how Jesus Christ is there when we pray. He actually comes as our advocate before the father. He's our defense lawyer. He knows what it's like to be tempted. He gave his life for us. So he always is advocating in our stead. In Romans 8, verse 31, It is God who justifies, who is he who condemns. It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercessions for us. And so we see here, we have this wonderful relationship. When we go before God the Father, let's not forget. Jesus Christ is there as well.

Then we focus on the fourth point on the phrase, hallowed be your name. Now the term hallowed is not used very much, but it just means sanctified, for your name to be sanctified, because it is holy. We honor God when we recognize his holiness. Here's a commentary by Gil.

It says, by sanctifying his name is not meant in making him holy, but acknowledging and declaring him to be holy, and at glorifying him in all his perfections. So here we can focus on why God is holy, and giving him thanks, because we live in a very evil world. God is not part of that world. He is not evil. We have a loving Father. He is light. There is no darkness in him. And so we should always remember that God our Father should be honored in that way. Now sometimes we go through tough patches in life. Sometimes we have doubts. We like God to do things our way. And sometimes we think that things are delaying.

But just remember, God is all wise. He is all loving. He is all righteous. And he knows how to intervene, when to do it, and how to do it. So we should honor him. We should not put him behind us. We should put him in front of us. He is wiser. He is greater. And he knows how to operate better.

Then the fifth part is to focus on the attributes that are part of his name. When it says, hallowed, yes, that is something that he is holy, but it includes his names. He has many names, and they all reflect different aspects of his character. He is a merciful. The Bible says God is love. His chief characteristic. He is kind. He possesses all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, faith, gentleness, goodness, and self-control. Temperance is the same thing as that. All those attributes are part of his name. We should always recognize that when we come before him. And then the sixth point, we should thank him for all of this, for his care for us and his help.

Remember, his time is not our time. God's justice sometimes might appear slow, but it is always effective. Notice here we're in Romans 8, verse 28. Romans 8, verse 28, it says, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. All things work together. Sometimes maybe we have to be tried. Maybe our patience has to be tested. Maybe our loyalty to the church and to the faithfulness has to be tested. That's why Satan is there. He tries to discourage us. He tries to disunite us. But God is in charge, as I once heard from a friend of mine back 30 years ago at Ambassador College in our senior year. Sometimes we go up and down. Like I say, I'd much rather have a church that has all of these counterbalances, checks and balances to it, where we can go up and down like a wave instead of a zigzag where you just have one person in charge of everything and then you depend upon the person's righteousness and perfectedness to figure things out. And so you can go more like a zigzag. Well, I'd rather have one that has a wave effect. And it mentions here that all things work together for good and that God is in charge. And as I heard from this friend, he said, don't worry. Up to now, nobody's been able to dethrone God or Jesus Christ. You know, they're on their throne and nobody, not Satan nor any other power, can unseat them. They are in charge. They know what they're doing. And just be confident. Let's do our part because God is going to do His. And finally, the seventh point, let's be grateful for the opportunity to serve Him. That is something that we are all servants of God. We already are part of His church. If we're here, because we want to be part of His kingdom one day. We want to serve under God the Father and Jesus Christ, or else we wouldn't be here. We're all learning. We're all disciples. We're all students. And we're in training now to perfect ourselves, to learn from our mistakes, to pick up with worn-out tools and build ourselves according to what God requires of us. He will do His part, but we have to do ours. Grateful for the opportunity to serve Him, for a life full of meaning and service to His work and to His church. And we all look forward to that kingdom. So we should thank Him that we're able to be involved in something that is not man-made. This isn't a man-made religion. It is something Christ built when He came here on the earth. So incense is a fitting symbol for prayer. But to be effective, it has to be finely mashed down. It has to be detailed, our prayers. Mixing the ingredients together to be a sweet aroma before God.

Let's think for a moment how our prayers are to God from His point of view. What would you like to hear if you heard some prayers? Would you like to hear short, unimaginative, dull prayers, mumbled from a sleepy mind, just moments before going to bed? Or prayers that are whiny and shamefully self-centered? It's all about me, what I need from God? No. We want to hear well thought out, heartfelt, outgoing prayers that are presented from God's point of view. Now, of course, God understands we're human beings as we get older. It's more difficult, but we have to use whatever energies we have to do the best. That when we come before that throne of God, that throne of grace with Jesus Christ and the multitude of angels, to pay respects to Him, to take it seriously, to focus just a little bit of our time and going before God our Father, our wonderful, loving Creator who gave so much for us and be able to have heartfelt prayers. This is why God gave us this muddled prayer, an outline for us to use. Let's take time to think deeply about what we're going to say and then say it fervently, really meaning it before God. Now, this is only the first part. We've only covered addressing God. Next week, God willing, we'll have the second part to a more effective prayer.