When Someone Decides to Pray

Exodus chapter 32, if you'll go there, please. It's the last verse of Exodus 32 and the verse 14 of Exodus chapter 33. The message title is When Someone Decides to Pray.

When someone decides to pray. Father, I thank you, Lord, for the abiding presence of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, God, that you validate yourself.

You don't validate us. You don't validate our ministries. You don't validate even this house.

You validate yourself by coming, as you did today in the worship, to tell us that what we're about to read and partake of is true. Help my heart, Lord Jesus Christ, to embrace and to be an embodiment of everything that I'm about to speak on. Help us as a congregation to recognize a moment of hesitation when you have come to us and you're speaking to us and you're inviting us into something of yourself, Lord, that cannot be found with human effort.

It's only accessed by invitation. I pray, God, that you would override my frailty, that you'd cover me with your grace, that you'd speak to this church solidly, strongly, to each of our hearts. Father, I thank you for it.

Give us the grace to follow where you lead, in Jesus' name. Exodus chapter 32, beginning at verse 35. So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.

Then the Lord said to Moses, depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying to your descendants, I will give it. I will send my angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.

And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the children of Israel, you are a stiff-necked people. I could come up in your midst in one moment and consume you.

Now therefore take off your ornaments that I may know what to do to you. So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of Meeting.

And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the Tabernacle of Meeting, which was outside the camp. And so it was, whenever Moses went out to the Tabernacle, that all the people rose and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the Tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the Tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

And the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the Tabernacle.

Then Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you've not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you've also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you, and that I may find grace in your sight, and consider that this nation is your people.

And he said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. You know how quickly we forget our own history, how quickly we forget the holiness of God, and his right and his power to judge sin. In this scene, we see a people who were recently delivered, carrying with them the outward adornments, it's called ornaments here, but it were the adornments and spoils of a victory, which they had not won by any measure of their own effort, their own human effort.

In Exodus chapter 12, verses 35 and 36, says the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses. And they asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested, and they plundered the Egyptians.

For those of you who don't know the history, for 400 years, the people of God had been in Egypt. And for many of those years, the final part of those years, they were treated violently by the leadership, to the point where their firstborn sons were thrown into the river to die. Even the people of the land of Egypt have so feared the people of God of that time, that they felt we've got to take away the next generation, because they are more and mightier than we are.

And if they ever find out that they are, they'll take away our authority and our power. But God gave them deliverance. And most know the story, through plagues, through wonder signs and wonders, God gave deliverance, led them through the Red Sea.

And as they were led into that place of freedom, they wore the spoils of victory. When an enemy army would go in and spoil an army that had been set apart to destroy them, they would gather the spoils, and quite often they would wear the clothing and wear the jewelry as a sign of their victory. And this is what the people of God were adorned with.

You know the story that Moses went up into the mountain to commune with God, and because he hadn't been there for a season, and the word of God was not really alive yet in the people's hearts, they took off the gold, some of the gold that was part of the spoil that they had of their previous captivity, they threw it in this cauldron, and Aaron, Moses' brother, fashioned the golden calf. It was a terrible thing that they did. And this is the case of this nation, the United States of America.

Many, many people fled here to escape bondage, and others who were not so fortunate nevertheless found freedom here in spite of that which tried to hold them in captivity. In a short season of time, America became arguably the envy of the nations. There's hardly a land in the world where people would not take the opportunity at one point, at least in history, to live here.

America became a place of opportunity, a place where people who were cast out even by other societies or oppressed because of their belief in God could come. God brought people together from all nations, gave an intelligence that caused through this nation technology to be throughout the world. The whole space program came because of this nation, a young nation called America.

And being the envy of the nations, we were adorned with the trappings of freedom, of thought, freedom of will, freedom of worship. Freedom became what America represented. No matter where you came from, you could come to this country, and if you worked hard, you could be free to be everything that you were born to be or destined to be.

And just as Israel did when she experienced her freedom, Israel sought to intermix gold and self-will with the worship of God. And that's what America did, mixing gold to the point where gold is even part of much theology that's even promoted in our generation. False worship is always accompanied with gold.

Look in the Old Testament, study it carefully. When you see gold in the mix, the talk of gold, gold in the air, gold in all of its forms, it's always represents using God in some measure for personal gain and self-will. The scripture tells us that even though Israel was outwardly adorned, she'd become inwardly spiritually naked, unable to go forward in former victories, victories of grace over her enemies.

Verse 25 says, when Moses saw the people were unrestrained, for Arod had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies. The barriers had been broken. They'd come into the thinking that there are no consequences to behavior, that somehow we can behave any way we want and grace simply just covers it, that we can willfully walk away from what God has revealed to us clearly in his word, should be our future, should be our character, should be our value system.

We can somehow simply walk away from this, craft our own religious ideas about God and not suffer a consequence for it. They were naked. Moses came down from the mountain and he knew that if the enemies that were so amassed against him and that they were so outnumbered by, came against him, he knew they couldn't stand.

They'd lost their strength. The outward seemed to be intact. The clothing was still there.

The victory was still fresh. The adornments, the jewelry were still very much a part of their daily living. The story of the plagues and the mighty deliverance and the coming through the Red Sea, all of those things were still very, very much alive.

They walked in the miraculous. But Moses had spiritual eyes and he looked and he saw a gathering of people purportedly called to be the people of God in the earth. And he saw they were naked.

They had no power to stand before their enemies. And you and I can't help but wonder what kind of a situation do we find ourselves in today? And so the Lord plagued them. Verse 35, the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made, he plagued them.

Their victory was hollow. Everything was history. They were troubled.

No doubt the people became troubled in their mind. Troubled in their homes, troubled in their families. Yes, they still knew about God.

Yes, they still had the history. And yes, they could still rightly say they were the people of God. But there was a troubling in everyone's heart.

And then came the most shocking news of all. Chapter 33, verses one to three, it says the news that God said, I'll send messengers. And through these messengers, you're gonna always know a measure of victory.

But I will no longer be with you as I have formerly been. I don't think there's anything that would scare me more in this church. And it should scare the people of God in this nation.

When all that there are in the pulpits are messengers. Thoughts about God, strategies for the future, seven steps to victory, three steps to being a better parent. There will be victory because the principles of God do bring victory, but that victory will come through human effort.

And there will be something hollow in that victory, something missing in that victory. And what will be missing is the presence of God. For when God is with his people, when God is with us, the victories are supernatural.

When God is with us, the weak become strong, the blind are given sight. Destinies are formed in the hand of God. The things of the past no longer govern our future.

We are delivered from having to figure it out with our own minds and our own strength and our own strategy and our own power. We go into the presence of God. God speaks, we move with God.

The miraculous begins to happen and worship begins to come to the fore again. Verses four to six tell us in Exodus 33 that when the people realized this truth, some refused to put on their ornaments and others took them off in obedience to the word of the Lord. In other words, they put off the pride of their former victories.

The pride of thinking that there are no consequences to forbidden behavior. The pride of thinking that somehow our value system can become different than the value system of God and yet we can still prosper and still know his presence and still walk in the miraculous and still subdue nations. But something was beginning to happen that had the potential to change the future, folks.

I want you to hear me like you've never heard me. Something was beginning to happen. In Exodus 33, seven, there was a man, Moses, says he took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp and called it the tabernacle of meeting.

It was his house. He took his house and he took it out of that place of common thought, common religious thought. He says, I'm not dwelling here anymore.

I'm not staying in this place of defeat. I'm not content to be in a place where there's only thoughts about God but not the presence of God. I'm not content to be there.

And it says everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting that was outside the camp. Now, I have no doubt, I have no doubt that Moses was dealing with a deep inner sense of failure. The scripture doesn't tell us this, but I know it in my heart because Moses had once set out to deliver the people of God and he set out to do it in his own strength and in self-will and anger.

The scripture tells us he slew an Egyptian and because of it, he ended up 40 years in the wilderness until his heart was ready that God could use him for his glory. Coming down from the mountain, now looking at his people in another form of bondage and almost an inconceivable spiritual ignorance had come into the hearts of the people of God. After all they had seen and all the history they had to turn from it and to fashion this other God of gold.

He was overwhelmed and he held in his hands the loss of God given to him by God himself and in anger again, he took it and smashed it. And I know in his heart, he must've felt I failed again. I failed again.

The second time God gave me another chance. A moment of grace in my life. Maybe I shouldn't have gone as long as I did.

Maybe I shouldn't have thrown down the tablets. I actually broke the law of God. God had written it with his own finger and I smashed it in anger.

Maybe I shouldn't have done these things. It's only one thing that Moses knew. That God is a God of grace and God is a God of mercy and he doesn't call the strong into his presence.

He calls those who know they are not to come into his presence to find the strength that can only come from God. Moses would have remembered the season where he was in that backside of the desert with a few sheep and the Lord appeared to him in the midst of a flame of fire in a bush that was burning yet not consumed. He would have remembered his own heart when he said to God, God, I have lived and longed in a sense, I'm paraphrasing him, but I know what was in his heart.

I've longed for the freedom of the people of God, but I'm too old, I'm too far gone. I've lost my power to speak. I stammer now, I can't handle a sword.

I've got no influence in Pharaoh's palace. But he had an encounter with grace. God called him not in his strength, but in his weakness.

God called him not in his success, but in his failure. And he knew it in his heart. And he knew if there was one way forward for the people of God and for the testimony of God in the earth, he had to go back into the presence of God again.

The God that he'd come to know as a friend, the God that had exhibited such mercy in his life. And so he moved his house away from common thought. And went far from the camp and pitched it there and basically said, I'm deciding to pray.

I'm going to pray. You see, somebody knew it was time to pray. Somebody, thank God, decided to pray.

And Moses started a prayer meeting. And when he did, the people started to take notice of it. In verse eight, it says, so it was whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.

When you make the choice to pray, people will start watching you. When you get up in the morning and you go to that special place of prayer, your children who don't want to go to church, don't want to live for God, your children will watch. Or if they don't see you, they'll hear your footsteps.

Go down the hall. Your family will see you Tuesday night. When you get up and you get your subway token, you head down the street in your pocket.

I'm telling you, people stand up and they start watching out their window. Somebody is going to the house of God to pray. And I love the fact that it says that each man stood in his tent door.

There was this reverence of God that began to return again. When you go into the workplace and you've spent your day in the house of God on Sunday, and you've come out to pray Tuesday night, and you've gotten up Wednesday morning and spent time with God. And you let it be known that you've been in prayer.

People, whether or not they rise physically, there's something that wants to stand at attention. Because the reverence of God in your life starts to produce that testimony of who God really is. And the question begins to come into people's hearts.

Why would this person go to this limit? There's never been an awakening ever in history without somebody building a tabernacle somewhere and starting to pray, never. You research it as I have over the years. There's never been an awakening, whether it's been in South Africa where a group of people just met in a cow shed for two years.

Somebody, somebody moved their tabernacle away from this common thought of this is just the way it is. And this is just the way we're gonna have to live. Somebody said, no, God still is.

God still is alive. God, God. God, who made the universe by the word of his power.

God, who holds everything in the palm of his hand. God, who sent his son to redeem us from all of our enemies and all of our sins. God, who sent his Holy Spirit to indwell us and to make us into what we could never be in our own strength.

God still is. God still is. And so I'm going to meet with God.

And when Moses went to meet with God, not only did the people stand up, but in verses nine and 10, it says, it came to pass when Moses entered the tabernacle, the pillar of the cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses and the people saw the pillar of the cloud standing at the tabernacle door. And now look what happens.

All the people rose and worshiped. Each man in his tent door. When people see the presence of God in your life, they will begin to worship.

It might be behind a closed door, but they will begin to worship because history does repeat itself. Human behavior does repeat itself. When they see you standing in the marketplace, when they hear the confidence in your voice in your own home, they will stand not only and watch you, but they'll stand and begin to worship in their heart.

Even if that worship is just a cry, if it's just a whisper, a whisper that says, oh God, can you help me? It's the whisper in your teenage son, your teenage daughter that have ignored everything you've believed seemingly thus far. And suddenly they're behind their door in their bedroom and the presence of God, they watch you go out and they watch you come in. No, you're not perfect.

They don't expect perfection. They expect reality. They see you come home with the presence of God.

They see that the source of your strength is not dissipating in spite of your circumstances. And prayer begins to form. They stand in their bedroom and they say, oh God, can you help me like you helped my mother? Can you do for me like you've done to my father or my uncle, my friend, people who have been watching you through their windows, your neighbors, whose houses are in turmoil, begin to see the presence of God in your life.

I believe there's a day coming when on the subways, people won't necessarily have to preach, they just start to pray. Just bow your head. Say, God, will you have mercy? Please have mercy on these people.

Will you give them the strength that I've come to know? Will you help them in their homes and the schools and their finances? Would you help them to find their future? Would you help them to be free from what oppresses their mind? Can you imagine sitting in the subway next to somebody like that? And you're going through struggles and trials, difficulties. And the third thing that begins to happen when one man decides to pray, says the Lord spoke, verse 11, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend and he would return to the camp. But his servant, Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man did not depart from the tabernacle.

He did not depart from the tabernacle. The next generation, when we pray, begins to rise up and follow. What will we leave the next generation, you and I? I'm getting to the point where my prayers is similar to the prayer, I think it's Psalm 78 of an aged person who says, oh God, don't take me until I have showed your power to the next generation.

The children we dedicate to the Lord in this church, what will we leave them in the future? I dare say not much if we don't pray. We leave them messengers and strategies, psalms and a hopeless feeling, overpowered by a society that's hell bent on its own destruction. No, I say it with all my heart, it's time to take everything we are and it's time to pray.

Not in our strength, but in our weakness, not in our success, but in our failure. Not in our everything, but in our nothingness. It's time to meet with God.

It's time to do what Moses did and talk with him face to face. Moses said to the Lord, I know you by name and you found grace in my sight. You spoke these words to me.

Now, therefore, I pray if I found grace in your sight, show me your way that I may know you and I might find grace in your sight and consider that this nation is your people. God, guide me, empower me, enable me. Help me to be a city set on a hill that can't be hidden.

You said that I'm the light of the world. Well, God, turn that light on. Have honesty with God.

If you don't really have a heart for him, just tell him. He already knows anyway. You're not hiding anything from God.

Say, Lord, I really, I don't wanna go to hell, but I don't wanna live for heaven. I wanna turn from sin, but I like sin. Just be honest.

Say, but oh God, if I found grace in your sight, which you've already told me I have. That's what Moses said. You've already told me I found grace.

He remembered the burning bush. You must remember the day you came to Christ. You must remember everything you've learned and you've heard because we are living at a special moment in history now.

The Lord is not looking to the strong. He's calling the weak. He's calling the marginalized.

He's calling the nobodies, the nothing. He's calling those that are willing to take off their ornaments and stand and say, God, without you, I'm nothing. Without you, I have nothing.

Without you, I'm going nowhere. But with you, I possess all things. So now Lord, show me your way.

Show me your way, oh God. Lead me, guide me, empower me, strengthen me. That was his prayer because I can't do this on my own.

I can't even gain victory. Moses had a terrible temper and his temper got the best of him 40 years before and his temper got the best of him again when he came down from the mountain. Don't get discouraged because you fight with besetting things in your life.

God's Holy Spirit will give you the power that you will not be dominated by anything that's birthed or born of sin. He will give you the power. Show me your way, oh God, that I may know you and find grace in your sight and consider that this nation is your people.

God, be merciful to your people, was the cry of his heart as you have been merciful to me. You can change the mind of God in prayer. God had already said, I'm not going up with you.

I'm not going with you. By the time Moses was finished praying, he said, my presence will go with you. There are many people that say that America has gone too far.

We've crossed some line, some place of no return. I don't believe that can happen until God's people refuse to pray. If we will hear the call of prayer, we can be on the verge of one of the greatest awakenings this nation has ever known.

It doesn't mean our sandcastles will stand when it's all over. It doesn't mean that the ship won't fall apart as it did in Paul's day. Doesn't mean the Dow Jones will go on forever and everybody's retirement plan will still be there.

It doesn't mean any of these things, but it does mean the house of God will be filled again. It does mean there'll be life and light in the people of God. It does mean that thousands and hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions will turn to God in this last hour of time that we're living in.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from that which is wicked in the sight of God. God says, I will hear their prayer. I'll forgive their sin and bring healing to their land.

It's not too late. Jesus Christ is still on the throne of heaven and earth. All things are still in subjection to his name.

Yes, men will do what men will do. They'll rail into the wind, they'll spit in the face of God. Yes, they'll do what they do, but God is still God and we can still move his hand when we pray.

If I found grace in your sight, oh God, go with me. And remember that these are your people. And remember that these are your people.

Moses was no longer there to judge anybody. He realized as the Psalmist once did, oh God, if you marked iniquity, who would stand? And so I thank God for the privilege of being part of a nation that has such a rich history. The ornaments of great preachers, great revivals, giftings, intelligence, prosperity, safety, security, victory in our battles.

And even in our struggles and our failings, there's the willingness to deal with it at some point and bring it to the light. It's really what has made this a great nation. Now we stand at a crisis moment in history.

I believe the greatest days, not financially, not militarily, but spiritually, the greatest days could be before us when God's house is full again. And it all starts when somebody decides to pray. There's a call today going out to the weak, but you have to make the choice to leave that place of common weakness and come and talk to God about the future.

Lord saying, will you let me use your life for great good in spite of your past failure? There's great power in mercy, great power in grace, and there's great power in prayer. Will you step out of your failure and step into strength? Step away from your past and step into the future that God says that I have for you. Will you simply come and talk to me? Will you believe that I'm good and that my mercy endures forever? Will you believe that if I pray, if you pray that God can move mountains, we sang it this morning, do you believe that? God can change society as he has in the past.

Sometimes at the darkest moment, they say in England at the time, just prior to the rise of Wesley and Whitfield, two great preachers have brought the nation to her knees in that generation. The people were fornicating in the streets in some parts of the cities. The botchery had reached an unprecedented level.

Drunkenness, fighting, theft, society was breaking down. And suddenly somebody rises up and begins to proclaim the goodness of God. The people were tired of their sin.

I believe Americans are tired of their sin, I do. There's always a percentage that just are gonna wallow in their muck and they're gonna stay there. But as a whole, many people are not happy.

There's an inner sense we've lost something. The good news is that God is more than willing to give it back. Thank God for this.

I wanna give an overcall this morning to the weak. All of us are weak and know that we're weak. Those who are willing to take off their ornaments, pride, pretense of coming in and pretending to be something we're not, all of us, myself included.

The willingness to say, God, without you we're nothing, we're going nowhere. It's been a wonderful past, but we live in today and we have to go into tomorrow. And without your presence, we're not going there in victory.

I'm not willing to just hear messages about God that have no power. I'm not willing to be in a place of false worship and prayerlessness, where my life is of no account in this generation. I just live to survive and to hide as Gideon once did in his own backyard.

I'm not willing to live like that. I wanna step into the open, I wanna be strong. I wanna make a difference, but God's gonna be you that does it in my life.

But if you're inviting me, I'm deciding to pray. We're living in a moment in history, a moment where God is calling the weak to prayer. If that's you today in North Jersey and the annex here at Times Square Church, those that are listening online and here in the main sanctuary, I'm gonna invite those in the sanctuary to come to this altar and others to stand between the screens.

And remember the scripture says they stood in their tent door. So you stand in your home, if you're listening online today, and we're simply gonna meet at this altar and we're gonna take a few moments to pray together and to believe God for the strength to go into the future. Would you stand please, stand in the balcony, go to either exit to make your way down here in the main sanctuary.

Just come, join with me here. We're gonna pray together. You know, for those that want to pray, remember that the scripture says that God spoke with Moses and Moses with God as a man speaks to his friend.

It means you don't have to speak a hundred miles an hour and come up with all the conversation and repeat phrases. Talk to God like I'm talking to you right now. That's prayer.

You can start by saying, God, I know you're great, but I'm having a lousy day. That's prayer. You don't have to be fancy.

You don't have to interject it with a bunch of phrases. Just talk to God and let him talk to you. If you have a friend and you do all the talking, you're not gonna have that friend for very long.

You'll let your friend talk and just be quiet in his presence and let him say what he wants to say. Let him show you your future. Let him show you his mercy, his keeping power, his strength, things that he plans to do that you've not even dreamt of.

You've not even thought of it. Don't let prayer become another burden. It's not meant to be.

Talk to him as a friend talks to his friend. You can change his mind. Father, thank you, Lord, that you're not calling us because we're strong and we make no boast of being a strong church.

We need your strength as much as the least of the least in your kingdom does. Without your covering, without your grace, without your leading, we are nothing and go nowhere. Lord, thank you for the victories we have known, but that will not become the source of our strength.

It's your presence, Lord, that makes the difference. Your day-to-day presence with us, your promises, the whispers that you speak into our heart, guide us and guard us and teach us to pray. Help us, Lord God, to live outside of our own struggles and as Moses did, to pray for other people.

Thank you, Lord, that in this church, people from over 150 countries are standing in their doorway watching us pray now. We are living in a divine moment. Give us the grace to accept it, to realize it, to embrace it.

Thank you for this with all my heart today. Oh, Jesus, you are so good to us, Lord. You are so good to us, God.

And that's our whole message. That's everything we're required to say. God is good and his mercy endures forever.

Thank you for this church. I thank you, God, for these wonderful men and women of God. Give courage, Lord, to all of us, to press in and find the fullness of what you would have for us here on this side of eternity.

Help us to put away the gods of gold and to get away from the camps of weakness. Father, we thank you for this with all of our heart. I ask you, Father, in Jesus' name to bless this congregation.

Bless our coming in and bless our going out. Bless our understanding of the ways and the person of Almighty God. Bless us with hearts, Lord, that wanna live for you and serve you and love you.

Bless us with kindness to other people. Bless us, O God, with a vision for the future, with faith to believe that mountains can be moved. Bless us with these things, O God.

Bless us with homes, Lord, where your praises are sung. Bless us, O God, with children that wanna live for you, with the Joshua's of the next generation who won't depart from the place of prayer. When our time is done, God Almighty, bless us by giving us a generation who will live for you and follow you.

I ask about this church, Lord, that this church may live. Long after we're all gone into eternity, may this church live. May the testimony burn.

May there be a whole other generation here living for you, God, because we ask for it. Thank you for these things, Lord. Thank you, God.

With all of our hearts, Lord, we thank you. Lord, you did shed your grace once on this nation. We ask one more time for your glory.

One more time, because you're good. One more time. You would shed your mercy and call more than we can count into your house and into your kingdom.

All over the nation. Give us the grace, Lord, to turn and to turn to you. Father, we thank you for these things and we praise you.

We bless you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen and amen. Amen.