Rev. Michael McGuire - God Comes To Prepared Places

you may be seated it's good to see everyone in the house of the lord on this wednesday night what a wonderful day wonderful weather that we had today no rain that was a great change there tonight i want to focus your attention on this thought god comes to prepared places god comes to prepared places and this definition of prepare or prepared is to put in proper condition or readiness to put things or oneself in readiness or or get ready prepare to prepare is to make ready beforehand for something approaching and i as i was thinking about this word prepare or prepared it dawned on me that that many things in life we try to prepare ahead of time for let's start with meals since i love to eat weekly meals kelly and i we we prepare for the week a lot of times we sit down and we we figure out what we're gonna have uh for dinner every night and she makes the order and and we get all those things together and then of course after you get uh that figured out you get all the ingredients you gotta prepare all of those ingredients put all of those things together when we uh go on vacation we don't just hop in a car at least i don't do that maybe some of you just do that we usually prepare for it we make sure that the oil is changed we make sure that there is air in the tires we make sure that there is gas in the tank uh i we we figure out a hotel or the condo wherever we're going to stay we figure that out we prepare ahead of time some of you may just roll into town and say i'm going to try to find a hotel for seven nights i don't do that maybe you do i don't do that and of course you know we we prepare as far as clothes and and get those packed and if you're like me and if you're like jared and bishop and maybe pastor we're preparing where we're going to eat on the way we're going to prepare where we're going to eat when we're there and i'm preparing where we're eating when we come home man i'll tell you what we're we're in a vein of something here it's not really where i was trying to go but i'm getting hungry we pray we prepare for retirement hopefully making sure there's enough money in the bank so that we can live comfortably in our later years and the list can go on and on and on we seem to plan and prepare so that we are ready for what is coming i want to talk about god comes to prepared places laying a foundation tonight about preparation i want to turn your attention to the tabernacle and the preparation that took place in the old testament we find that as we read through the book of exodus that god spoke to moses and gave him commands to build and set the tabernacle up the tabernacle consisted of the gate and the brazen altar of the tabernacle sacrifices the labor basin the menorah the lamp stand the table of showbread the golden altar of incense the holy of holies and the veil and the ark of the covenant and within the holy place of the tabernacle there was an inner room called the holy of holies or the most holy place judging from its name we can see that it was a very sacred room a place no ordinary person could enter it was god's special dwelling place in the midst of his people the holy of holies was a perfect cube its length and width and height were all equal to 15 feet and a thick curtain separated

the holy of holies from the holy place the curtain known as the veil was made of fine linen with blue purple and scarlet yarn the word veil in hebrew means a screen or a divider or separator that hides what was this curtain hiding in essence it was shielding a holy god from a sinful man whoever had entered into the holy of holies was entering into the very presence of god in fact anyone except the high priest who entered the holy of holies would die even the high priest god's chosen mediator with his people could only pass through the veil and enter this sacred dwelling once a year on a specific day called the day of atonement we find in leviticus 23 that the most holy day of all the israelites feasts and festivals occurring once a year on the tenth day of the seventh month in the hebrew calendar known as the day of atonement on that day the high priest was to perform elaborate rituals to atone for the sins of the people the atonement ritual began with aaron or the next high priest coming into the holy of holies the seriousness of the day was underscored by god telling moses to warn aaron not to come into the holy place whenever he felt like it only on this special day once a year lest he die that's in leviticus 23 and 2. this was not a ceremony to be taken lightly and the people were to understand that the atonement of sin was to be done god's way even the high priest entered into the holy of holies on the day of atonement and as they did that they had to make some thorough and particular preparations that priest had to wash himself he had to put on special clothing he had to bring a burning incest incense to let the smoke cover his eyes from the direct view of god and bring blood with him to make atonement for sins you see going into the holy of holies was not something to take for granted it was not something to do irreverently or just out of duty it was here that the presence of the almighty god would come down and it required special attention the high priest didn't get to jump into the tabernacle whenever they wanted but they went through much training to make sure that everything was in place and everything was prepared for a visitation of a holy god as the priests entered into the holy of holies there was preparation as stated before the the priest would wash himself and put special clothing on and and it was a special day then when jesus died on the cross and the veil was torn no longer was it just the priests that were able to experience the presence of god but now you and i have unlimited access to his presence hebrews 10 and 19 having therefore brother in boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh because of the sacrifice of jesus christ he giving his life for us no longer is the pres the presence of god limited to a certain few on a certain day but now we have access to his presence would you clap your hands and would you just thank god for this access to his presence thankful for the access and what a privilege and honor it is to be able to experience the power and the presence of god i don't want to take that for granted we had the power of god and the presence of god move in here on sunday and began to take over i thank god for that i thank god

for his presence that we feel even on this night here tonight ezra chapter 7 and 10 says for ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the lord and to do it and to teach israel statues and judgments we must prepare our hearts we must prepare our hearts there are many ways we can prepare our hearts to encounter god's presence and one such way that i want to talk about tonight is repentance when we repent we are acknowledging that there are some things in our life that should not be there all of us no matter how young or how old you are need repentance and can i go as far to say that repentance should be a daily occurrence happening in each of our lives as we repent we are acknowledging that god is sovereign we're acknowledging that god is in control and that god is holy and that we have some things in our life that shouldn't be there and it is through this repentance that our heart is prepared to experience the presence of god and we are then in a place to hear the voice of god i don't know when you choose to do it but i choose to do this in the morning when i wake up when i'm starting my day i begin to ask god to cleanse me and and to forgive me and to wash me thoroughly and to make me clean and pure and holy before him and i don't know if this happens to you but when i do that every time that i do that there is such a relief there is such a presence of god that comes in and i feel his presence and i feel like i'm going to be okay today i can make it through this day because he has forgiven me and it doesn't matter what sin you've committed or how many sins you've committed if you will repent and you will ask god to forgive you he will forgive you for that sin and joel chapter 2 and verse 12 god speaks to israel and says that is why the lord says turn to me now while there is time give me your hearts he said come with fasting and weeping and mourning don't tear clothing in your grief but tear your heart instead return to the lord your god watch this for he is merciful and compassionate he is slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love he is eager to relent and not to punish god here is asking israel for repentance a turning away from sin and a turning to him a turning away from sin and a turning to him he assures them that if they will repent and turn their heart toward him that he will show mercy and compassion and he will show his love and he will give them forgiveness second chronicles 7 14 we often quote this when we're talking about prayer it says if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways he said then i will hear from heaven and i will forgive their sin and i will heal their land he is asking them here to repent turn from your wicked ways and if you will do this along with humbling yourself and praying and seeking my face he says i will hear you and i will forgive you and i will heal you as you do these things you are preparing your heart and it is a place where god can work the act of repentance is a turning away from sin but it is also a turning toward god when we do this we are preparing ourselves to experience the wonderful power and presence of god

in our life god comes to prepared places as followers of christ we prepare our hearts and lives to meet with his presence and one key way we do this is through the atmosphere in our homes and i want to ask you a question and i want you to think about this for just a minute does the atmosphere of your home invite the presence of god to live and work among you does the atmosphere in your home allow god to live and work among you this is something that kelly and i talk about very often are the things that we allow in our home pleasing god are the things that we allow in our home honoring his name and honoring his word because only in a a home that is prepared for his presence will there be an atmosphere where his spirit can come and dwell i don't know about you but i want that abiding spirit and presence to come and dwell in my home and in my family i want my home to please god we have to prepare our home in our home we are striving to prepare an atmosphere that would be inviting to the presence of god can i say that it is our duty as parents and as leaders to remove things that are not pleasing to god in our home a few several months ago my son austin he's nine uh he actually happened at junior camp there was an incident that happened and austin became very fearful and when i say he became fearful he he didn't want to leave our side he he didn't really want to go to nana or papa's house without me or kelly being with him he didn't want to go anywhere he didn't want to go to school he didn't want to go into children's church he he just was battling with something and during that time during that time austin be started to have some nightmares at night and he would get up uh many of the nights and he would uh come into our room and he would begin to tell us about these nightmares that were happening when he was sleeping and so one night i remember kelly was folding laundry on the bed and austin was in there i was in there and uh i believe it was it was that atmosphere it was revelation that came to kelly and kelly said austin do you think it's this game that's causing that and let me tell you there was the presence of god came in that room at that very time and there was revelation that came down in that room and austin began to think about that and kelly and i had talked and we discussed a little bit about what was going on and we decided that that game was no longer going to be played in our house now i'm not i'm not there to tell you what games you can play and what you can do that's not my job i'm telling you for our home this specific game wasn't right and we felt in the holy ghost that it was causing some issues in austin's life so we decided that we were going to he wasn't going to get to play that but we wanted austin to come to the same terms with this why did we want him to do that because he's a nine-year-old boy and it's well everybody else is doing it over and over and over and well i don't think it's that bad we just didn't want to deal with that we wanted austin to come to terms with that on his own it wasn't very long we weren't going to let it go on for very long it wasn't very long and austin came in and this

is what he said i remembered this kelly when we were talking about this he said dad and mom i think that god wants me to give this game up we're talking about a nine-year-old boy wanting to give a game up he recognized and realized because of the power and the presence of god that was in that house that there was something going on with that video game it wasn't long after that that those nightmares disappeared and he no longer had them and i believe it was because there was obedience to the voice of god that was in his life hear me somebody we have to be on guard about what comes into our home i feel the holy ghost right now we've got to watch what comes into our home are the things that are coming on on your tv and on your computer pleasing to god do they line up with the word of god because we want to create an atmosphere that though that the spirit and the power of god can move and work in our homes and in our families it's what cut what's coming on on the radio in your car and in your house pleasing to god i mean it's a simple question i'm not trying to pastor you tonight i'm just trying to give you some uh ask you some questions the things that you are listening to can you put those through the test and say god would be pleased with that and i'm creating an atmosphere for god to work and move or the video games the things your kids are playing i'll tell you this kelly cracks me up i'm glad she does this she gets that ipad and she goes through that thing all the time what's he watching what's he listening to who's he talking to why because we are trying to create a spiritual atmosphere in our home where god can move and dwell and speak and work and if we've got some things that aren't pleasing to him then i want to get rid of those out of our house because god god is looking for some strong families some apostolic families that are willing that are willing to get rid of those things out of their own hear me are they sin i i'm not pastoring you i'm not telling you what's right and wrong are they sin i don't know that they're sin maybe they're not sin maybe they're just a weight but if they are prohibiting the move and the spirit of god get rid of those things get rid of those things create an atmosphere for god to work and move the bible tells us that we must teach our children the word of god and the truths of god and the testimonies of god deuteronomy 6 6 and these words which i command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children thou shalt talk of them when they'll sit us in thine house and when they'll walk us by the way and when they'll lie us down and when they'll rise us up we have to talk about god in our homes we've got to talk about his word and our homes we have to love his word and we've got to help our children love his word we talk about all kinds of things there's nothing wrong with that around the dinner table about school about sports about fishing about hunt about all those things if we're going to talk about all those things let's make sure that we talk about god let's make sure we talk about the things of god let's make sure that we discuss the word of god in our homes many days throughout the week austin gets up around 6 30

and he reads his bible and he prays i told bishop this he'll more than likely read his entire bible through genesis to revelation this year at nine years old we don't make him do that we don't make him get up early and do that he desires to do that he desires to do that we must spend time with jesus in our homes it's wonderful that we have this place of worship and we can come together as a family and but if my kids only see us pray while we are at church then they will never experience the presence and the power of god in our home praying in our home prepares a place for god to meet with us in a very intimate way those times of going into your prayer closet and being alone with jesus are going to set the atmosphere and your home for god to do powerful things i'm going to say that again those times that you are alone and in your prayer closet are going to set the atmosphere for god's presence to come and work and do mighty things in your family and in your home disciplining ourselves to daily devotions will build relationship and depth in our walk with god god comes to prepared places and i want my home to be a prepared place that he can come and live and dwell when we prepare our personal lives through repentance and we prepare our homes through prayer we also have the opportunity in our times together and our services to prepare a place through worship and prayer we must prepare for his presence and i'm talking about in our church services when we come together as a body of believers there is a different dynamic that happens in the spiritual realm there is faith in this place to see miracle signs and wonders when we unify as the body of christ and the presence of the lord fills this house as a church when we come together we prepare ourselves for an outpouring of a spirit through worship when we worship we we turn our eyes away from our needs and our problems and and our to-do list and we turn our eyes to the master as pastor preach we have moments with the master of course the preparation and our service includes many things the worship team prepares and practices theirs the preacher prepares his sermon and every one of us should prepare our our hearts through prayer and worship to prepare for the presence of god can i just throw this in there that is why pre-service prayer is so important i know that a lot of us have things going on and we have ministries that we're doing and i even have things that i've got to take care of in the connect center with the greeters and then there's a i know that a lot of people are doing a lot of different things i hope i'm okay but pre-service prayer is important because when we come in here and we begin to pray we are setting an atmosphere of faith there's an atmosphere of faith there's an atmosphere of obedience and we're preparing our hearts and our minds for the presence of god we're preparing an atmosphere for god to move we are preparing our hearts for god to speak to us and we are preparing a place for others to come and experience the power of god do you know do you know that we shouldn't this is an apostolic pentecostal church right i'm in the right church right we shouldn't have any dead services we shouldn't have any dry services and do you know how we don't have those type of things when we are unified together and we are praying and we are worshiping and we are getting

our minds and our hearts ready to receive what god is going to do when we are sensitive to the move of god and what he's going to do i want this to happen i want there i want it to be power packed every service you know why even on wednesday night you know why because there's a fred bradley that's going to walk in on a wednesday night that's getting ready to buy a shotgun to take his life but the power of god was in the service his presence was there and there was a man that was sensitive to the word of god and because of that we have a man sitting on this pew instead of a grave wednesday night's important and sundays are important we've got to be prepared for the presence of god and what god wants to do god comes to prepared places and when we prepare our service through worship and prayer we open up the door for the anointing of god to fall and through this we see an invitation we send this invitation to heaven for god to come and have his way among us number four we must prepare others we must prepare others we find in mark chapter 1 that john the baptist prepared the way of the lord for others john was preparing others to receive the words of jesus mark 1 and 2. as it's written in the prophets behold i send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the lord and make his path straight john did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins verse 8 i indeed have baptized you with water but he shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire john came that is that he might provoke people to repent and prepare them by the outward cleansing of their bodies to receive the cleansing of their souls through christ's baptism which is to follow his he said jesus is going to baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire john the baptist prepared others through his preaching of repentance and through his preparation he laid the groundwork or prepared the way for jesus to enter his ministry you and i have been called and commissioned to prepare others luke 14 and 23 and the lord said unto the servant go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled john was the voice preparing the hearts for their messiah today the church like john must be the voice preparing others for his second coming finally john chapter 14 and 1 let not your heart be troubled you believe in god believe also in me in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so i would have told you jesus said i go to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you i will come again and receive you unto myself that where i am there ye may be also and whither i go you know and the way you know the preparation of our lives through salvation through an atmosphere of prayer in our homes through worship with the body of christ is all in preparation for this beautiful day and beautiful place that jesus has prepared for us so when we live a life that is wholly sold out when we live a life that fixes our eyes on the king of glory then we have an inheritance that is beyond this life it surpasses death and the grave and no one and nothing can take it away from us we have an inheritance of eternal glory eternal life and glory

jesus told his followers that he was going to prepare a place for us jesus desires to be with us he desires to be with us now in this life that's why there's prayer and worship he desires to be with us he desires to be with us now but his ultimate desire is to be with us for all eternity a couple of years ago kelly taught ashland this old song some of you might know it it's soon and very soon we are going to see the king does anybody know that song this was a few years ago so uh she began singing that song and ashlyn picked up on that song and ashlyn loved that song and she loved that song and and she began to sing it and she sang it all day long the problem was i guess it really wasn't a problem but she started asking when jesus was coming and she asked all day long over and over and over you know how these kids are finally it was time for bed and when kelly tucked her in ashlyn started crying and she was very very upset and she told kelly you said that we were going to see jesus soon and i can't go to bed yet because i have not seen him so in an effort to calm ashland down she told her that before jesus comes we're going to hear the sound of a loud trumpet so she said listen for that trumpet and when you hear that sound it's when jesus is coming thankfully that solved her concerns and she went to bed but she had spent the entire day anticipating seeing jesus she anticipated seeing jesus in matthew 25 there's a parable about five dir virgins five were wise and five were foolish the wise took oil with them as they were awaiting the bridegroom they were prepared the foolish did not bring oil and they ran out they were not prepared while they went to get more oil the bridegroom came back and they that were ready and prepared went with him to the marriage do you remember that matthew 25 and 13 says watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the son of man cometh in other words there's a marriage that's going to happen that's being prepared right now make sure that you are prepared and ready church we're going to see jesus one day and we're going to see him soon it's always been his desire to have relationship with us so here on earth we prepare a place for him to come and live and dwell in our hearts and in our homes as we're preparing a place for him while we're here on earth he is preparing a place for us it's a place that there will be no pain and no sorrow and no tears and no mourning there will be walls of jasper and streets of gold and gates of pearl it's a place of joy where we will finally meet our jesus face to face we will hear his voice say well done thy good and faithful servant and we will have won that race are you excited and looking forward to it and anticipating that day oh what a day it will be when my jesus i shall see would you stand with me the priest in the old testament prepared to go before the power and the presence of an almighty god with reverence and fear jesus tore the veil and the church today has unlimited access to his power and presence we don't have the limitations or even the same preparations as they did in those days however preparation for his spirit is still a vital part of the christian life preparing our hearts preparing our homes preparing others in

our place of worship for a move of god is what keeps us spiritually alive and alert god comes to prepared places so while we're here on earth it is important for us to have prepared places where god can come and dwell and soon we will be on our way to the place that he has prepared for us are you thankful today that we can prepare a place and that he comes in that way would you lift your hands right now why don't we just do that with thankfulness lord we thank you for this place called heaven that we know we're going to get to see one day we're going to get to see you and spend eternity with you i thank you god for this opportunity to prepare our hearts and our homes to feel and hear your spirit and your presence thank you jesus would you clap your hands together and thank the lord for that place he's prepared for us thank you jesus oh we thank you lord you haven't just called us to prepare a place for you but you've done it for us