Living Waters Christian Fellowship - Lake Nacimiento - California

37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the
mighty works they had seen,

38 saying: ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!

39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.

40 But He answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,

42 saying, If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side,

44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,

46 saying to them, It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’

47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him,

48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

Matthew 21

14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! they were
indignant

16 and said to Him, Do You hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected
praise’?

Introduction Jesus is reacting to what the leaders in the Temple were doing. They were supposed to be helping people come into a right relationship with God through offering
animal sacrifices for their sins, and to worship God through giving.

But they had quite the racket going. They wouldn’t let people give in the common currency, but only in the temple coins, and they had an amazing exchange rate.

They also were making a lot of money selling animals for the sacrifices. Each animal someone brought in had to be inspected and found to be flawless. But no matter how perfect
an animal was, the priests would always find something wrong with it, so you had to buy one of theirs. Then the worst thing, they would take the animal to supposedly sacrifice
it, but then often bring it back around and sell it to someone else.

At issue here is what Jesus called My House or My Father’s House. We could call it the Church, the Kingdom of God, organized religion. What is the purpose of it? What is it
for? What should go on there? What should not go on there?

1. What is the Father’s House? A structured meeting place between God and man. A definite facility with regular, scheduled spiritual activities. God knew that we needed to meet
with Him, and that we needed some structure - to do it together in an organized way, not the lone ranger, fly by night by the seat of your pants religion some people are trying
today.

The Father’s House is a structured meeting place between God and man.

2. Who does it belong to? It’s His house. What He says, goes. He knows best about how we should meet with Him, and what should be accomplished. He’s God and we’re not, but we
are His invited guests at His House.

3. What is the purpose of it? Humanity needs contact with Divinity. Creation needs a relationship with the Creator. We need information, inspiration, power, encouragement,
correction, spiritual expression. Prayer is the channel through which all these things flow. His House is a House of Prayer.

4. What is the role of people in the Father’s House? To minister the things of God to each other, and to be ministered to. Human leaders in the House of God are to make sure
the right kinds of ministry are going on.

5. What happens when the human leaders in the Father’s House get off track?

Jesus said, My Father’s house is...a House of Prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.

Finish the sentence - The church today is...

full of hypocrites

unnecessary

irrelevant

greedy and always asking for money

or

a vehicle for my spiritual pride

a place to show off how good I am and look down on others

a place I can make money, take advantage or rip people off

a way to play religious games

a place I can have power over other people to dominate their lives, get my way

or

too strict and demanding

legalistic

ineffective

a waste of time

frustrating

confusing

does more harm than good

or

The Church, the Father’s House is a great blessing. It’s a place I can truly meet with God and His people, get some help in my life. It’s a House of Prayer.

Because human beings are involved in the Father’s House on Earth, it is subject to error, corruption and may need correction and protection.

6. How important is it that the House of God be protected?

This was one of the only times we see Jesus become angry.

45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,

46 saying to them, It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’

The abuse of the meeting place between God and man is a cause for righteous anger, and demands swift action to correct it and bring it back to it’s true mission. The church is
too important to let it fall into error and corruption.

And yet how much error and corruption do we see today? And then we wonder why the church is not more effective. It’s because we are not praying, but playing religious games.

7. How do we fulfill the kingdom of God? Through Prayer, the connection between man and God - truly loving and worshipping God, and loving and ministering to other people in
the House of God.

Not using spiritual things for a profit motive, using the things of God to puff up our own spiritual pride, deceiving, manipulating, ripping people off, playing some kind of a
religious game.

Religion is big business today. It seems the ministries with the most gimmicks, marketing and emotional high pressure are the most successful. But is that truly what the House
of God is all about?

It’s a fact that prayer meetings are the poorest attended meetings in any church, and yet Jesus says that’s what it’s really all about.

8. In the Father’s House, we call on God, not man’s effort

In the true Kingdom of God, we focus on a relationship with God Himself, not on leaders, buildings, groups, programs, denominations, pet doctrines. If it is to be genuine and
right on, it has to be about the real power of God, not some religious game. We call on God Almighty Himself, not on man’s abilities, efforts, successes.

9. The results of Purity and Prayer in the Father’s House

46 saying to them, It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’

47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him,

48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

Matthew 21

14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! they were
indignant

16 and said to Him, Do You hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected
praise’?

Notice 6 results when the House of God is right on:

a. Prayer

b. True worship with no rip-offs

c. Violent opposition from religious gamers

d. God’s true people attentive to hear

e. Healing and other wonderful things God does

f. Children freely praising God

Conclusions My House is a House of Prayer, but you have made it into a ________. If we have made ours into anything but a house of prayer, we change it back.

Let us Pray.

John

14:1 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

Application to My Life