Tag: Pastor Mike

03 21 2021

Martinwood Ministries

Pray Preparation

It’s great to have you all here and we look forward to spending the next half hour or so with you.  What better way than to spend time with the Lord and His great goodness.

If you would, please pray with me. 

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Lord Jesus,

We repent of any sins we knowingly or unknowingly have committed.  We come to you with open arms and ready to do your work, the work you set out in front of us.  We know you are there for us and our families as we fight back anything that comes against us and tries to stop us from doing your work.  We know you will break any chains we have that try to take us down or hamper us from our relationship with you.  Open our ears and our eyes to your words.  You know what you meant when You wrote Your Word and we ask you show us what you meant as we read, hear and ponder Your Word to uncover the work you have for us.

In Jesus name we pray Amen.

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Last week we talked about Hope. Your tasking was to spread Hope.  I hope you gave hope to a lot and that you got a lot of hope in return.     

Today I am going to talk about Pray Preparation.  This may sound strange, but this is pray preparation.  It is not prayer preparation because the way I look at it, prayer is something you pray with.  I want to be sure you are ready to pray.  We want God to answer your prayers, and He will, if we have prepared to pray.

In the book of Leviticus around about the 10^th chapter Aaron asked Moses a very important question about God. It had to do with whether God would have accepted his sin offering because of some recent events. 

You See:  Aaron had just lost two of his sons; Nadab and Abihu.  They were part of the Tabernacle and thought they would light their censers even though in Leviticus 10:1 the Lord commanded them to NOT do that.

The NIV states “they had unauthorized fire.”

Things change when the Lord commands you to do something, whether it’s to stop doing something or do something.  Both are actions, but the Lord specifically said to NOT do something.

Because of what they did, fire came out from the Lord and devoured them. 

As you can imagine Aaron was pretty shaken.  Now we go back to where we started; Leviticus 10:19 to that very important question Aaron asked Moses. 

Moses had just gotten upset with Aaron because he had not eaten the Sin Offering and the Sin Offering was now burned up (but not as a Burnt Offering, though).

What Aaron said after all this is “…..should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD?” kjv

Leviticus 10:19

19And Aaron said unto Moses, Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD; and such things have befallen me: and if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD?

And this is what we should be asking during our prayer preparation.  Are  you ready to have a conversation with God?  Do you feel you are prepared to pray with the Lord? 

Do you feel your prayer will be accepted?  I’m not giving you an excuse to not pray, but think about these things as you prepare to pray.  Me, I like to keep the door open.  What I mean is I am, for the most part, constantly praying. 

I am in a perpetual conversation with the Lord.  He has a way of reminding me when I’m not communicating, so for me, I have to always be ready to ask forgiveness and repent.

That’s what I saw as I was reading Leviticus, and I want to walk you through a short story.  The more I thought about it I realized what the Old Testament was doing.  They were being commanded to do things that were in the Natural World (see, touch, smell hear). 

When Jesus arrived on the scene, His ministry was not a ministry in the Natural.  His is a Supernatural ministry (you can only feel it; you cannot touch, hear or smell). 

His ministry was not as much about what we do.  As about changing our attitudes towards others and realize how others are affected by our attitudes; which come out of how we feel inside. 

Luke 6:45

….For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of

Luke 6:45

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

I’m sharing this because this is what you need to know to pray, to prepare to pray, and pray in His name.  Don’t you want to know the language of the person you’ll spend eternity with?  I do.

Okay, so let’s go to the other day when I was reading the Old Testament.  I  was reading in Leviticus about the offerings people make through the priests of the time; the Levites.  It came to my attention the sacrifices were in preparation for meeting with the Lord. 

Leviticus chapter nine talks about Aaron’s first offerings (sacrifices) as a priest.  In Leviticus 9:6 Moses told Aaron that “the glory of the LORD shall appear unto you.”

Isn’t that what happens when we pray?  The glory of the Lord appears to us.  We talk directly to God, but through Jesus.  He’s the one who is our intercessor.  And we feel, the Glory; it’s Supernatural.

So this is the way the sacrifices go that I thought were the coolest. 

Sin Offering – Giving up our sins.  Telling God we know we did wrong and asking forgiveness. 

Burnt Offering – We’re burning our sins by repenting.  They’re all burned up so they can’t come back. 

Peace Offering – We want peace with our Heavenly Father.  We’ve done wrong and now we’re asking to make a truce with him.

Wave offering – Presenting the sacrificial offerings to God.

After all this took place

Leviticus  9:23

23And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people. 

24And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

This story caught my eye as guidance as how to pray. 

Admit sins – We need to come before the Lord with clean hands.

This is sometimes hard for us to do. Hard for us to admit our sins.  How bad do you want your prayers answered?  Bad enough to save someone’s life, or maybe save a soul?  You have to be willing to admit your sins.

How hard do you think it was for Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross? And Jesus never sinned, yet he died for our sins. That fact alone should be enough to want you to be saved.

Repent of those sins – Burnt offering

We want to make sure our hands are clean for the reason that Moses told Aaron what the Lord had said in Leviticus 10:3.

Leviticus 10:3.

The Lord said, I will be sanctified in them that come unto me and before all the people I will be glorified….

This is why it is so important that we prepare to pray because the Lord wants to be sanctified in those that come before Him.  He also wants to be glorified before all people. And that’s what he wants when we come before him.  Nadab and Abihu went before the Lord, even though they were commanded not to.

The Lord in chapter 10 verse 1 stated the Lord commanded them, so they knew they shouldn’t have done that.

Make Peace – Peace offering to make peace before asking for what we want in His name.

So when we go before the Lord to pray, we have to be clean so the Lord can be sanctified in us.

Aaron’s question to Moses is one we need to ask ourselves as we are going before the Lord.

Leviticus 10:19

19……. should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD?

We need to ask ourselves, will what we are praying for be accepted in the sight of the Lord?  If we have not prepared ourselves to pray it might just be like a clanging gong.  I don’t want that for you. 

I want your prayers to be answered.  To have them answered, we need to be ready to pray.  Be ready to go in front of the Father, but ask everything in Jesus Name!!

This week think about how you prepare to pray.  Make sure you are ready to go before God. Even better yet, live a life to boast about before the Lord.  Always admit your sin, repent as quickly as you can, then offer peace to the Lord and ask for things in His Son’s Name; Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus,

Wow!!  Such a powerful message of hope and guidance.  We ask you to watch over this entire congregation as we go our separate ways this week.  You have us here for a reason and in Jesus Name we ask you to guide us to your tasking.  Help us boldly come before you with Glory so you can sanctify yourself in us.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

I want to give you the opportunity to give your life to the Lord.  Just say

We Love you,

We care about you and

we can’t wait to see you again next time.

Take care and God Bless.

Marketing:

Mike Bitter walks us through how the Sin Offering, the Burnt Offering, and the Peace Offering  compare to post Resurrection of Admit sins,

Repent of those sins, Make Peace as a way to come before the Lord in prayer.

Luke 6:45

….For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of

Pray Preparation PDF