October 27, 2024 • 46 mins
Ever wondered how the power of persistent prayer can reshape your faith journey? Tune in as we explore the teachings of the parable of the persistent widow from Luke 18, revealing how unwavering prayer aligns us with God's timing and justice. Discover how this biblical story becomes a blueprint for maintaining hope and patience, even when divine responses seem elusive. We'll challenge the common expectations of prayer as a simple wish list and instead emphasize its role in deepening our connection with God.
Picture this: a spontaneous hunting trip turns into an unexpected lesson in faith and family. I share a personal story with my son Ames, which highlights the beauty of being present and appreciating the blessings God gives us every day. This narrative serves as a reminder to recognize past blessings and trust in God's plan, even when life's outcomes are unpredictable. Reflect with us on whether God will find faith within us upon His return and how our trust in divine sovereignty shapes our lives.
True worship goes beyond routine rituals—it's about embracing humility and mercy. We delve into the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, emphasizing the transformative power of acknowledging our sins and seeking God's grace. By adopting a childlike faith, we're called to trust in God's provision and justice, free from societal expectations. Join us in understanding how genuine spiritual growth comes from seeking a deeper relationship with God, fostering a heart open to His boundless love and mercy.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Will Hawk (00:02):
Jesus has been teaching and I just want to give
you a heads up of something tolook for.
Here's how our text is going toplay out Parable, parable, true
story.
So Jesus is going to tell astory.
He's going to make anillustration in a parable.
He's going to do it again, butI don't want you to think.
The third story is following inline.
It's not a parable.
(00:23):
It's something that washappening historically as well.
If you have ever struggled inprayer, if you have ever
wondered if I've already saidthis to God, why do I need to
say it again?
If you have ever said I'veprayed for this thing so long,
do I really need to continuepraying for this thing?
Welcome to one of the greatesttexts that you can put your eyes
(00:44):
and your hearts on.
Father, I just want to brieflyask that you would show us mercy
this morning.
Know our hearts, know ourthoughts and show us your text
and fill us with your spirit.
I pray, amen.
The parable of the persistentwidow, luke 8, beginning in
verse 1.
And he told them a parable tothe effect that they ought
(01:06):
always to pray and not loseheart Before we even get to the
story.
This is the way Will's heartwould be working if I was not on
stage but I was sitting in thepew.
I would scoot up in the pew.
That's what I would do, becauseit's my sign of being
interested.
One of two things would happenwith my hand when I read that
(01:29):
Jesus is already telling me whathe's going to tell me, that I'm
going to tell you a story thatshould bring about this effect
in your life, the effect thatyou would always pray and not
lose heart.
I'm scooting up in my chair andmy hands are either rubbing
together, or I'm up in my chairand they're coming together
between my knees and I'm leaningforward and I'm rocking in my
chair like this.
(01:49):
Those, if you're talking andI'm doing that, you've got me A
hundred percent my attention.
When Jesus says hey, christians, do you want to know how to
pray all the time and not loseheart?
Here is what it's going to looklike.
I remember being 12 years old.
I was in Ronnie and Rhonda'sSunday school class and they
(02:12):
gave me this simple truth thatdoesn't sound theologically
profound but is incrediblyaccurate.
They said when it comes toprayer, god will always give you
one of three answers he willsay yes, he will say no or he
will say not yet.
I've never forgotten that sinceI was 12 years old.
It's not terribly deep ortheological You're not going to
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have to memorize a large word,but this is the reality of how
God answers our prayers yes, noor not.
Yet the problem is, when I lookat this first verse, the longer
I pray about something, theharder it seems to pray for it.
Always.
If I've already spent this manyhours, days, weeks, months,
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years some of you in the roomdecades praying for this thing
always becomes an incrediblydifficult word for me, and the
harder always seems, the morecertain losing heart seems.
How is this supposed toencourage us, especially for
those of you who have dealt withchronic issues?
(03:18):
Might be pain, might bedifficulty, might be
relationship, might bemistreatment.
Well, let me tell you a storythat Jesus told his followers to
give them some hope.
He said verse 2, in a certaincity there was a judge who
neither feared God nor respectedman.
We would not call this a goodjudge.
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Keep in mind, jesus is tellinga parable.
This is a caricature the judgewho walks to the bench and sits
down and looks at his docket andthe eyes of people whose lives
are hinging on his decision.
It would be a very odd thingfor him to sit at his bench and
say at the beginning of themorning hello, my name is judge.
(04:00):
Fill in the blank for last name.
Just want to let you know asyou come into my courtroom, I
neither fear God nor man.
Don't really not really beingmoved.
I'm going to do whatever I feel, whatever I want, whatever the
whims of the day bring.
This is a caricature, but whatwe read next feels very, very
real.
And there was a widow in thatcity who kept coming to him and
(04:23):
saying give me justice againstmy adversary.
For a while he refused, butafterward he said to himself,
though, I neither fear God norrespect man.
Yet because this widow keepsbothering me, this widow keeps
(04:50):
bothering me, I will give herjustice so that she will not
beat me down by her continualcoming back to court and asking
over and over again Christian,please note this.
The character in this story thatJesus tells is a widow, and
that day and age is telling youthat she has nothing except one
thing at her disposal she ispersistent.
(05:13):
It's all she's got.
She has no advocates, she hasno money, she has no resources,
she has no clout.
She cannot impress anyone.
She cannot influence anyone.
All she has is persistence.
Why would Jesus use this whenit comes to prayer?
Because this widow keepsbothering me.
I will give her justice so thatshe will not beat me down by
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her continual coming.
And the Lord said did you hearwhat the unrighteous judge says?
Did you hear how he responds?
This judge, who just operatesoff of a whim, doesn't care for
the decisions he makes when heanswers to God, doesn't care
about the men and the women andthe children that it affects.
He is exceedingly selfish,living only for himself.
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But did you hear what he didwhen the widow was persistent?
And will not verse 7, and willnot verse seven?
And will not God give justiceto his elect who cry to him day
and night?
Will he delay long over them?
The context here is no, I tellyou.
He will give justice to themspeedily.
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Nevertheless, when the son ofman comes, will he find faith on
earth?
Do you want to know how to notlose heart in prayer?
Your heart needs to be gearedto pray, as the Word of God
gears you to pray.
(06:39):
If you're trying to fix aproblem at your house, let's say
there's something wrong withyour kitchen sink.
And you get on YouTube and yousay to fix a problem at your
house, let's say there'ssomething wrong with your
kitchen sink and you get onYouTube and you say my sink is
leaking from the handle, what doI do?
And you hit search and thefirst thing that comes up is
fixing a leaky sink handle andthe next one is how to clean out
(06:59):
a carburetor.
If you pick the second videoand then get irritated that your
sink is leaking, that is a youissue.
Just typing into the searchthat this is something that
matters to me matters not ifyou're not going to the place
that fixes the problem.
Christians, when it comes toprayer, if praying day and night
like this persistent widowfeels like an impossibility, if
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you look at verse one and yousee the word always and you
immediately say well, that's notgoing to be me.
Maybe I'll try evangelisminstead.
If you look at this and you seethe verse say do not lose heart
and you say I am not that levelof a Christian.
I have not attained varsitystatus yet.
Maybe after I put a casserolein a pan, I'll try this thing
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again.
I'm just telling you you'reclicking the wrong video.
The Bible is being very clear.
Do you wanna know how not tolose heart?
You need to believe what God'sword says when it comes to what
it says about prayer, verseseven God will be just.
It is impossible for him not tobe.
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God will do what is right.
It is impossible for him not to.
The second thing that you willsee is this truth, this justice,
is going to be perpetuated onhis.
Maybe a tough word for some inthe room elect.
Now.
I'm not gonna spend an entireSunday talking about election
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and free will.
I'm just letting you know theword elect exists in the Bible
and it is referring to thosewhom God has chosen to make his
children.
What this tells us is thatthese justice type prayers that
will be answered that Godpromises will be answered
speedily are couched for hischildren.
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I want to be generous tochildren in general.
One of my favorite things is tohang out with y'all's kids when
you're not around them.
It's hearing about teeth thatfall out and arguments that I
got in with my brother or sisterwhen mom and dad can't clean it
up and say what actuallyhappened was.
Now I know what happened.
I got four of the things.
It's Lord of the Flies.
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It's a wonder.
You make it to the end of thenight and everybody still has
limbs and a beating heart Like Iget it.
I love coming and hearing whatthe children of the church have
to say.
I have a big heart for thechildren of this church.
I feel like it's very much myresponsibility to shepherd them,
or shepherd those who areshepherding them.
(09:33):
I'm just going to tell you Ihave a bigger heart for my
children and I have a biggerheart for your children than I
do a child whom I do not know.
Now, look, god can manage toknow all things at all times and
all places.
I cannot.
I just want you to know that ifyou are pleading something from
God and you are not his child,it is not that he doesn't know
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you.
It is not that he does not wantto answer.
Here's the problem.
He wants you to be his childfirst.
He wants your first prayer tobe a prayer for mercy.
Whatever it is that you aredealing with, believe me, he
knows it and he knows that it isa big deal.
But there is no possible wayfor him to love you well and
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take care of this minor thing ifthe major thing of your soul
being right with him has yet tobe dealt with.
I say this to the people inthis room who may not be
trusting in Christ yet Whateveryou are asking of him pales in
comparison to knowing him, and Iknow that that may feel like a
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cop-out answer.
I promise you that it is true.
Whatever you are asking for orasking to be taken away pales in
comparison of him rescuing yoursoul for all eternity by you
simply saying God, would youshow a sinner like me mercy?
Would you call me son ordaughter?
And I trust that, as a goodfather, you will take care of
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the rest.
And how on earth in verse eight,does the word speedily exist
when it comes to prayer?
I don't know about you.
That word bothers me a littlebit.
It bothers me a little bit.
I've been following the Lordsince I was nine years old, and
do you know what word I wouldnot typically use to define my
relationship with God in prayer?
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Speedily.
It's probably not what I wouldgo with, speedily.
So I will tell you this reallygreat story of what happened to
me recently.
I told y'all last week that Idon't think if I knew that
Christ was coming back in a day,week or month.
I don't think I'd be holdingthe repent sign.
I think I would probably go andhave lunch with my dad.
I think I would probably justsit in a deer stand with my son.
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I think I would talk to mychildren and say, where are you
in trusting Christ?
That's probably what I would do.
Well, I was able to pull it off, and Ames and I, yesterday,
because my wife woke me up.
I didn't even set an alarm, itwas just this beautiful thing.
My wife was like the sun'sabout to come up, you need to
get up and throw on some camoand get in a deer stand.
I was like, yes, I should, and,like zombied out, walked into
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the bedroom and I said, ames,let's go bro, we're hopping in
the stand, it's go time.
The way it works in the hawkhouse is no one can shoot a deer
until the son whose year it isto shoot the deer gets one, and
it was Ames' year.
So Ellis and Thad are cheeringon Ames that he be in the stand
every moment of the huntingseason, because they're just
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like Lord, answer my prayerspeedily.
Lord, answer my prayer speedily.
Be, just be.
Just.
So Ames and I go and we sit inthe stand and, as a Christian,
with my son in an isolated,quiet environment, the first
thing that comes to mind isTrent told me that he prays with
his kids, or tries to, whenthey get in the deer stand.
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And I was like, all right, Iwanna be a good elder too.
So I'm like we're going to praywhen we get in the stand.
So I was thinking we mightmemorize a verse.
If you've ever gone huntingbefore, sometimes you got to
come up with something to do tofill the time while you're up
there.
And so I'm working through somestuff and we sit there and I'm
like, buddy, let's just pray,let's just pray.
And so here was my prayer.
It was something real short.
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It was like Lord, thank you foryour creation, that we get to
enjoy it for quality timetogether.
We're not praying that youwould send a deer out.
If you do, that'd be great, itwould really cap off the morning
.
But I just pray that our timein your creation with one
another would be the win.
That's how long the prayer was.
We open our eyes and Ames goes,and a buck, while we were
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praying, has walked up frombehind.
Can I just tell you that ifyou're not a hunter.
It's not how it works.
Most of the time we get in thestand right after 7, 30.
We say amen, and one's walkingup behind.
It's a little spike, can'tshoot it, but he's probably
itching too just because it'salive and moving and you have to
work through that stuffhonoring God and creation, and
it just walks and eats someacorns and walks off and I'm
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like that was enough, like wow,god, thank you, if nothing else,
like we got to see that andenjoy it together and we're just
sort of whispering togetherhaving a good time with it and
then another one walks up.
Now, if you do not like huntingpictures, I'm letting you know.
Now, don't look at the screen.
I tried to pick one that was astasteful as possible.
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Then that walked out.
I know, oh, y'all are clapping,yeah, way to go.
I'm not leaving it up too long.
Because he was like dad, areyou going to talk about my dear
at church?
I was like now you've askedabout it, I can't do it, but it
was too good of an illustration.
God does not always answer ourprayers speedily, but when he
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does, what a gift, what awonderful thing for God to step
in.
And just so you know.
We sit in that tree stand a lot.
We sit in it for hours andnothing comes out.
It was abnormal, it was unusual.
It was sheer grace of God whenit comes to prayer.
And why it feels slow.
Why does it feel like God movesslowly?
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Can I give you two opinions?
Number one you forget hisanswers in the first place.
One of the reasons prayer feelsslow is because when we receive
what we have asked for, we moveit out of the category of
praise, out of the category ofremembrance, and we move on to
our next thing.
If you have amnesia for theprayers that God has answered,
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you will feel like he is rarelyanswering your prayers.
The second thing that I wouldsay is God's justice may require
more timing than you would liketo give.
We may have a lot of questionsabout prayer, but I want you to
notice in this text there isonly one question, and it's the
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last thing that we read in verse8.
I tell you God will givejustice, verse eight.
I tell you God will givejustice, he will give it
speedily.
Nevertheless, do y'all havethis one, verse eight?
Nevertheless, when the son ofman comes, will he find faith on
earth?
This, by the way is thequestion of prayer?
It is not.
Will God be just?
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It is not.
Will he answer it?
It is not.
Am I supposed to be praying allof the time, and should I keep
from losing heart?
The question is when he seesyou, is he going to find faith
inside of you?
God's part is that hedetermines what is justice, he
determines what is speedy.
He is looking for faith, and Ithink for some of us there is a
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gap, especially for those of uswho trust in God's sovereignty
in all things.
If our prayers are a part ofGod's sovereignty and scripture
says they are then our responseto prayer should not be this I
have prayed for A.
God has now heard.
I have accomplished what I amsupposed to do.
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God is sovereign.
He's sovereign in his timing.
He's sovereign in his goodness.
He will always be just.
I have said my prayer, I havesent it up to the Lord.
Now I can play hands off ball,not according to this scripture.
Believing in God's sovereignty,believing in God's timing,
believing in God's goodness andpraying daily with unceasing
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prayers in God's goodness andpraying daily with unceasing
prayers, fervent prayers somehow, in the mystery of Jesus,
looking for faith, blendtogether perfectly.
Let me move out of preachingtone to make sure y'all
understand what I'm saying.
All I'm simply saying is this Ibelieve that God is sovereign
in all things.
I do not believe in consequence.
I believe that God hears everyone of the prayers of his
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children.
He has saved me by grace.
I have cried out for mercy.
I am one of his kids.
Why do I need to keep sayingthe same thing over and over?
That's what I'm saying, and Ithink about it all the time when
I drive.
I think about it all the timewhen I pray.
I think about it all the timewhen I read scripture.
Is praying for the same thing achore?
Is the concept of praying dayand night a chore?
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If it is, I would be willing tobet that here is your problem.
When you pray, what is it thatyou're most desiring?
To get something?
To get something fixed?
To get something accomplished?
Or is the goal of your prayerto know someone?
Can I give you the secret topraying always and not losing
heart?
Please choose option B.
(18:14):
Please select the right videowhen you put in the correct
search engine algorithm.
Pick B.
If your goal is to know someone,to know the living God who
condescended and put on flesh,who broke that flesh and bled
out, so that you wouldn't haveto bleed out for all eternity.
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Who invites you to simply sayGod, would you forgive me of my
sins and give me mercy?
You can do it right now.
You don't have to come and praywith the pastor, you don't have
to pray with the elder, youdon't have to pray with the
prayer team.
You don't have to fill out acard, you don't have to raise
your hand, you don't have towalk down.
You simply just need to ask formercy.
If that is the case, it is nolonger about Lord.
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Here's what I need to get.
It's about here's who I need toknow.
Because if I know the God ofall creation, if the goal isn't
to get something but to knowsomeone, then all of a sudden,
prayers that require moreprayers are still in the win
category.
To put it more simply, we needto pray less selfishly and pray
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more spiritually.
I think this is why, so often,we read in scripture.
God says I am going to fill inthe blank.
I'm going to think about theOld Testament.
I'm going to destroy yourenemies.
I'm going to obtain this landfor you.
I am going to bring new life.
I'm going to bring food, I'mgoing to provide water that they
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may know that there is a God inIsrael.
Why is God answering all of thesome things we want?
That you would get to know thesomeone worth knowing In prayer.
You must have the right heartand seek the right things.
Let me show you one of thecoolest scriptures on this.
It's in Revelation, chapter 6,verses 9 through 11.
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We're going to jump to thefuture a little bit.
And when he opened the fifthseal, I saw under the altar the
souls of those who had beenslain for the word of God and
for the witness they had borne.
So what's happening is you'rebeing drawn into the future,
you're being drawn up to heavenand you are looking at this
group of people, an impressivegroup of people by biblical
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standards.
They're in heaven now becausetheir life was ended here, not
because they turned 80 or 90years old or because they got
cancer or they were in a caraccident.
They are there because theylove the word of God and they
witnessed who Christ was, and itcost them their lives.
And here is their prayer to God.
They cried out with a loud voiceoh sovereign Lord, don't miss
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that they are asking forsomething that is yet to be done
, while recognizing God issovereign even in something that
is yet to be done.
Oh, sovereign Lord, holy andtrue, we're not doubting you.
It's just a question how longbefore you will judge and avenge
our blood on those who dwell onthe earth?
How long until the ones whoripped our family apart?
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How long until the ones whosnuffed out our futures?
How long until the ones whowere unjust and cost us job and
relationship and all of thesethings?
How long until you are a judgeto them?
My life was a match that neverfelt like it started a fire.
It was snuffed out as quicklyas it began.
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God, are you not just?
Are you not speedy?
Then they were each given awhite robe.
Here's what I'd like for you tohear in this.
They were given comfort andconfirmation, a white robe
proving to them son, daughter,you're in the right place, pure,
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not because of you, but becauseof me and comforted, and they
were told to rest a littlelonger.
I don't know exactly when thisconversation began, but some of
these real people have reallybeen near God for millennia.
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I'm not being tongue in cheekhere, I'm just being honest.
There's not a soul in this roomwho has prayed for anything for
longer than a lifetime, becauseyou're still here.
This is a myriad of people whohave been longing and waiting
for lifetimes that God would dothis.
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Why is it that he's waiting?
It's beautiful.
He's waiting until the numberof their fellow servants, their
brothers, should be complete.
He's waiting for some of you togive your lives for the gospel.
He's waiting for your childrento not outlive you because they
are carrying the gospel todangerous places.
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He is waiting for people inChina and in the 1040 window
whose lives are beingextinguished now, to join this
wonderful chorus of people whohave deemed Christ more worthy
than the 60, 70, or 80 yearsthat we hope for.
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This is what it looks like tohave the right heart in prayer.
It also means we must ask forthe right things.
One of my if y'all wanna grabyour phones.
Sometimes when we do this weshut down the website.
So if this doesn't go through,we check the link.
It worked, just get with meafterward.
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One of my favorite articles onpraying in the spirit was
written by a guy named JasonMeyer, who's a pastor at
Bethlehem Baptist Church, whereJohn Piper was.
He studied in a great deal,martin Lloyd-Jones, and he said,
in studying all of his sermons,what it actually taught me most
was to pray.
I want to give you this as aresource, because I look at this
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almost every single week whenI'm writing sermons.
I've adapted it not to prayingin the spirit but writing in the
spirit, and I cannot tell youhow often I go to his
illustration of riding a bicyclein prayer and think about it as
I'm pursuing the Lord.
To bicycle in prayer and thinkabout it as I'm pursuing the
Lord.
To simply summarize it, here iswhat he says are the three great
aspects of praying in theSpirit Admitting our inability,
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enjoying the creation of aliving communion with God.
This admitting my inability isI don't deserve to be here.
Number two is saying it's notabout me getting what I want,
it's about knowing who I oughtto know.
And then, thirdly, it'spleading the promises of God
with boldness and assurances.
You'll see on that site thislittle quote.
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One of the key differences herebetween praying in the flesh and
praying in the spirit is thatyou don't feel the need to rush
to say anything when you pray inthis way.
I cannot tell you how often myprayers feel rushed, probably
because I try to squeeze them inbetween what's really important
.
No, you don't feel rushed.
The living reality the Spiritcreates is the awareness of
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God's presence that I havealready won.
Experiencing His presence willseem much more important than
that any petition you are goingto make.
But the Spirit will not leadyou merely to rest in God's
presence in a passive way.
It's what I'm prone to do as ahigh sovereignty guy.
There will be a holy boldnessto plead the promises of God.
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Brothers and sisters, do notgrow weary in prayer.
There is a good God who islistening.
He's not just listening, he isinvested.
You will do more on your kneesin prayer than you will ever do
making plans.
You will accomplish more inprayer than you will in writing
lists.
You will accomplish more inprayer than when you talk to an
expert or organize your calendar.
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You will accomplish more inprayer, believer, than when you
spend money, spend time, spendresources or ask chat GPT how to
organize this thing.
You will accomplish more inprayer.
And if you want to watch allthree of these things
beautifully lay out, look at thenext story Jesus tells.
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He also told this parable verse9, to some who trusted in
themselves that they wererighteous and treated others
with contempt.
Pause, eyes on me.
I've been very.
That's not true.
I haven't been heavy.
This has been a very heavy text.
It's about to get funny for asecond.
Just letting you know this isyour chance to come up for air
and smile a bit before you goback to your conviction for how
(26:27):
you feel about your prayer life.
This is your moment.
Here you go.
This guy that we're about toread is the closest thing to
Gaston and Beauty and the Beastthan anyone else I have ever
read about in scripture thatcomes to mind.
Okay, here's the story.
Remember?
It's a parable.
Jesus is giving this story.
Two men went up to the temple topray, one a Pharisee,
(26:51):
impressive religious guy, theother a tax collector, an
outcast.
The Pharisee, standing byhimself, prayed thus Like just
imagine somebody's like.
Here's the scene.
The scene is we're all here.
Somebody stands up, gets in themiddle of the sanctuary and
prays this prayer loud enoughfor you all to hear it.
(27:12):
God, I thank you that I am notlike other men extortioners,
unjust adulterers, or even likethis tax collector.
He points off to the side,probably with his eyes open, in
prayer.
I fast twice a week more thanhe had to.
I give tithes of all that I get, probably more than what God's
(27:36):
law required, but the taxcollector, standing far off,
wouldn't even lift up his eyes,wouldn't lift his eyes to heaven
, but he beat his breast sayinghere's his whole prayer God be
merciful to me, a sinner.
(27:57):
Except I didn't read it quiteright.
There is no period at the endof his prayer.
Don't get me wrong.
The Pharisee ends with a period.
This man does not.
This man's prayer was God bemerciful to me, a sinner.
His head is in the carpet, hishands on his chest.
He has no impressive words, notheological phrases.
(28:22):
He can't quote Spurgeon.
All he knows is he needs mercyfrom a God who just might give
it.
And he is praying this while animpressive person, standing up
quite confident, prays a verylavish prayer.
You are in the midst of threeweeks of people crying out for
(28:45):
mercy.
In the event that you didn'tnotice it, guys, I don't know if
we have this slide or not.
If we don't, that's okay.
I'll just shoot you to theverses In 1730,.
We do awesome last week.
Do you remember what the oneleper who came back said Jesus,
master, have mercy on us.
(29:06):
He does, but only one receivesthe kind of mercy we're talking
about today.
This, this week, a taxcollector, god, be merciful to
me.
Next week, a blind man.
Jesus, son of David, have mercyon me.
And what you are looking at hereis the beauty of Dr Luke
writing filled by the Spirit ofGod, letting you know that mercy
(29:28):
from God exists for people whonobody wanted, people who
everyone despised and people whowere constantly ignored.
That's what you're looking athere.
Mercy, if you want a fancydefinition, is that quality in
God by which he faithfully keepshis promises and maintains his
covenant relationship with hischosen people, despite their
(29:50):
unworthiness and unfaithfulness.
And I like this and it's trueand it's accurate.
But I think this would be thePharisees version of it.
Although accurate, this is whatI think would be trucker talk.
For what it is, mercy iscompassion for the miserable.
That's what it is.
It is God looking at amiserable creature.
You me not telling you thatyou're not miserable, because he
(30:13):
is just and he will not lie,and he gives compassion to the
miserable.
If you have been coming to Godfor a long time and you wonder
why he is not drawing near toyou, I would simply ask this?
Did you first start coming tohim miserably or did you start
coming to him in an impressiveway?
God, before I ask for this,just know that I've gone to
(30:33):
church and I've tried to wearthe right clothes and I'm not
cussing anymore, and you knowwhat?
I'm not doing this and I'm notdoing this and I'm doing this
and I'm doing this.
Can't you see just howpharisaical I am?
No, the right way to prayjustice prayers, speedy prayers,
daily prayers is just to saybefore anything else, would you
(30:54):
give mercy to this miserablecreature?
By the way, his answer to thatis always yes, it's always yes,
and the reason I know the answerto that is always yes is
because he literally stamped iton wood and wrote it in stone.
That's how I know.
The death and the resurrectionof Jesus is a yes promise to
(31:16):
this all the time, everywhere.
I highly doubt any of you aretempted to pray like the
Pharisee.
God, I am just so glad I'm notlike anybody else.
I'm so glad you have me on yourteam.
I'm so glad that my gifts getto be used at your church and
that my wonderful dispositiongets to be a blessing to my
(31:37):
family.
I doubt there are any of youwho are praying like this.
But when we come to the one whoGod lifts up, look at what it
says in verse 14 about the manjust asking for mercy.
I tell you, this man went downto his house justified, just as
if he'd never sinned, made clean, white robe, comforted, rather
(31:58):
than the other.
For everyone who exalts himselfwill be humbled, but the one
who humbles himself will beexalted.
He offers no justification, noexcuses.
He doesn't blame anyone else.
He simply admits he's a sinnerand needs mercy.
Jesus, would you save me frommy sin?
Would you save me from theconsequences of my sin, and
(32:19):
would you give me the gift ofnew life in Christ?
One of the things that I thinkis important for us to realize
is what is so sad about thisPharisee.
It's sad that he thinks he'sokay.
It's more sad that he treatsothers poorly.
But I think the most sad thingis that they both showed up to
(32:40):
church in the first place andthey went home very, very
differently.
Please hear me on this.
God doesn't just that word justmatters.
He does care that you come tochurch.
It's an expectation of being abeliever, a constant pursuit of
him.
Do not forsake meeting together, but God doesn't just care that
you show up to church.
He cares about how you show upand he also cares about how you
(33:04):
go home.
Pick that up from this text.
Jesus ends the story not bytalking about what happened just
at church, but what happenedwhen he was leaving church, as a
response to how he showed up atchurch.
Like the Pharisee and the taxcollector, we are all alike in a
couple of ways.
We've all been created in theimage of God.
(33:25):
We've been imbued with thisimmense value and we have,
because of our sin, taken thatvalue and we have tarnished it.
And when it comes to your sin,here is what I would plead of
you and it doesn't matter to meif you've been a Christian for
50 years or if you have justheard the name of Jesus for the
past 50 minutes here is what Iwould plead of you Please do not
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pretend that your sin does notexist.
Please do not explain it away,please do not minimize it and
please do not ignore it.
I know that none of us like tolook at the dirty pieces of
ourselves.
We especially don't want otherpeople to see it.
Please, please, do not minimize, hide or push it away.
And it is not because you knowwhat guys.
(34:07):
I just wanna be a church wherewe have a lot of responsiveness.
At the end of the sermon, I needyou guys to sing a little bit
louder and come down to thefront so I can feel good that I
wrote a decent sermon.
No, I don't care if anybodyever stands up and walks to the
front.
I don't care if anybody evermeets me.
Do you know what I care about?
I care that when you go home,it matters that you showed up.
(34:27):
That's what matters, and itmatters to me because it matters
to God.
One of the most unhealthy thingsthat could happen in your life
is you show up to church and youleave day after day, week after
week, and there is nothing thathappens there.
This, to me, is indicative ofsomebody who shows up to God
saying what can I get, ratherthan showing up to God saying
who do I get to know?
(34:48):
I have never, ever come to theword of God with the right
intention and not grown in myknowledge of who he is.
And if that is the goal, then Ihave never left unsatisfied.
Don't explain it away.
One of the greatest lies of theenemy is that if people knew
how dirty your life was.
(35:10):
It would mar the work of Christ, it would diminish you, it
would shrink your ability tolove people and to serve him.
Nothing could be further fromthe truth.
I'll give you an example ofthis.
Recently, did y'all hear thisstory?
They found a constitution, acopy of the constitution, in
some file cabinet, I think inNorth Carolina.
(35:31):
They they're just diggingthrough, like children's artwork
and old deeds and titles for ahome, probably many tax returns
that have just been stacked up,with a year written on them, and
they find this copy of the USConstitution.
The thing sells for ninemillion dollars.
(35:52):
Why do I point this out to you?
It is actually more valuablenow than it ever originally was.
Originally, it was a documentwith a bunch of expectations,
laws and some really goodsignatures on it.
But now, all these years later,because it is weather time,
because it has gone throughdifficulty, because it was cast
aside as worthless, itsrestoration actually brings it
(36:17):
greater value.
Christian, please hear me onthis.
It is the same for you.
It doesn't get back to itsoriginal value.
I don't know what it would havecost the day that it was made,
but $9 million is way higher.
Why?
Because when you cry out formercy, christ gets exalted.
When God responds in mercy, itexalts his generosity.
(36:40):
You moving from fallen sinnerto restored child of God is more
compelling and more beautifulthan if you had avoided sin in
the first place.
God has displayed his endlesslove for you because of you
being cast aside, because of yousquirreling away, because of
(37:00):
your brokenness, because of yourtornness, because of your filth
.
All of those things exemplifythe love of Christ.
It doesn't diminish it.
We are better off than we hadbeen.
Christ is honored as supreme.
God is praised for his abundantgenerosity.
If I were to say it this way,here's what I would say.
God has walked us from justiceto prayer, to mercy.
(37:24):
That's what this text is on.
Justice is a very good thing.
The right thing happening isgood.
Injustice is a very bad thing.
But please hear me on this.
Mercy is far better than both.
Mercy, when given to someone ina way that changes their life,
(37:44):
is so much better than justclean justice.
The right thing at the righttime in the right place, that is
good.
It is the character of God.
It ought to be sought after andpraised.
But it doesn't even compare toGod showing mercy to somebody
who doesn't deserve it, theirlife changing and them wanting
to live a life of justice andtruth.
(38:07):
This is why God shows us whatappropriate behavior at church
looks like.
Now let me challenge you withit.
When we look at verse 13, thisis Jesus' example of appropriate
worship, of justifying worship.
(38:28):
Standing far off, not evenfeeling able to lift up eyes to
heaven, beating on breasts,saying and exclaiming God, be
merciful to me, a savior, listencarefully.
I do not want to get rid of aculture of warmth.
I love the fact that when wethrow these things on and tell
you guys to talk for a minute,you go after it.
(38:48):
I love conversations in thehallway that are so loud that we
have to close those doors sothat people in here can hear the
call to worship.
And yes, I wish I would show upon time so you don't miss the
first song and we're having torush you in.
But I also love the fact thatyou want to get to know the
people who are around you.
I love it.
I love it, I love it.
I'm not trying to squeeze thatout, but when I look at this, I
do wonder if, occasionally,there should be these moments
(39:11):
where we tremble before we walkthrough those two doors, I
wonder if, yes, god has calledme a son, he has called me a
daughter.
He, in Hebrews, has invited meto come boldly into the throne
room of God.
Yes, but I think there shouldalso be these moments when, if
I'm honest, I can't even look atthe screen to know what the
words are.
I need to hear them sung overme because I'm not able to sing
(39:34):
them right now.
I think it's beautiful thingslike Bethany Page praying during
our night of worship and as sheis pleading to God, she just
says guys, I think we need tokneel right now out of reverence
for who God is.
I think it's things like mepraying with a young man in the
past few weeks up here and he isweeping and bawling as he is
(39:56):
crying and pleading that Godwould do what is just.
I think it is a man who hasbeen more seasoned in walking
with Christ, coming to me andjust during prayer not even
going into prayer, but justsaying I am so grateful for who
God is.
I've been waiting for him toshow up in this kind of a way
and he has, and his voice isloud and it might be
(40:17):
interrupting 15 people aroundhim, but he is praising God for
who he is.
I wonder how many of us wouldlook at this and say I'll never
worship that way.
And if that is you, I'm justtelling you you are the one
missing out.
I don't care that.
You're appropriate, honestly,when it comes to Christ and the
(40:42):
New Testament giving us advicefor worship.
It's the opposite of what Nanatold you.
Nana told you to have your haircombed.
She told you to be buttoned upand make sure that you wear a
collar and no stains on yourslacks.
What you actually read in theNew Testament is don't come in
in fancy clothing.
Don't come in in beautifuljewelry.
No, come in as somebody who isa what was I'm trying to
(41:08):
remember my definition Miserable.
Yes, Come in as somebody who isjust miserable and says man, I
need mercy.
One of the greatest hindrancesto people coming to grace is you
looking like you have your lifetogether.
I can't tell you, when I talkwith people after church, how
often I hear them say I don'tknow that this is the right
(41:30):
place for me, and I'm not eventalking about ministry, I'm just
talking about church.
My life is a hot mess, I don'thave it me, and I'm not even
talking about mid-year, I'm justtalking about church.
My life is a hot mess.
I don't have it together, andthese people know answers to
questions and their lives arebuttoned up and their marriages
look fine and their childrenhold onto your sleeves so they
don't interrupt your adultconversation.
Okay, yeah, shoot for all ofthat stuff, but if we are
(41:51):
missing displaying the reality,that what this ought to look
like is a place where our headis in the carpet sometimes and
our head is in our hands and ourprayers are not impressive,
they're just simply crying outfor mercy, I think we've missed
out on what Jesus is pointing to.
Pride vertically will alwaysturn into contempt horizontally.
(42:11):
If you feel like I gotta be allbuttoned up like this, you're
going to look down on the peoplebeside you.
So Jesus closes us out with astory that is not a caricature,
not a caricature of a judge, nota caricature of this Gaston
looking dude.
No, now, all of a sudden,children start coming to Jesus.
(42:33):
They were bringing even infantsto him that he might touch them
.
Zach, I'm having so much funwatching, I forgot the iPad I
got.
You Do not see the man walkingbehind you?
That's what I mean Like, that'sokay, we don't need to be
polished, we need to be pursuingChrist.
(42:54):
They were bringing even infantsto him that he might touch them
.
We don't need to be polished,we need to be pursuing Christ.
They were bringing even infantsto him that he might touch them
and when the disciples saw it,they rebuked them.
The disciples look at these kidsapparently as though certain
persons are not worthy of God.
Others are, but not these kids.
But Jesus called to him and hesaid let the children come to me
, do not hinder them, for suchbelongs to the kingdom of God.
(43:15):
A lot of times we look at thisand we think Jesus is saying hey
, I'm going to put kids on mylap.
Have a heart for him.
Okay, love a kid.
It's not what he's saying here.
Jesus isn't showing you how tolove kids.
Jesus is saying kids areshowing you how to love me.
And it happens every time inthis room a kid makes too much
noise with a wrapper and they goand they look at mom and dad,
(43:38):
was it too loud?
Did I make too much of amistake here?
It's every time in a kid's roomthey want goldfish.
They do not go and climb up andopen the cabinet.
They look up at the adult inthe room Are you going to
provide my needs?
It's every time a dress getstugged in the foyer it's a kid
(43:59):
saying, hey, mom, dad, hopefullydad's not wearing the dress.
I'm banking on the fact you'renot going to keep me here
forever because I'd like to eat.
Noisy, fidgety, hungry.
Looking upset Moms and dads area graceful reminder of what
Christ began us with, luke 18,eight.
When the son of man comes, willhe find faith?
(44:22):
This is what children put onhis boy Faith that when they ask
, when they look up, am I goodenough?
What they will hear from momand dad and what they will hear
from their heavenly father ischild.
Receive mercy.
This is our only job thismorning.
Receive mercy.
(44:43):
If you need to receive it,sitting, sit.
If you need to receive it.
Standing, stand.
If you need to receive it,wailing, wail.
If you need to receive it,walking, walk.
Please do not be impeded bysome social convention.
Be miserable and come to Godand be comforted by a white robe
(45:05):
that he promises will bringspeedy justice, and the most
important thing will not be yougetting something, but you
knowing someone.
When the son of man comes, willhe find faith on earth.
Pause and ponder for a moment,and then we'll close in worship.
Jesus has been teaching and I just want to give
you a heads up of something tolook for.
Here's how our text is going toplay out Parable, parable, true
story.
So Jesus is going to tell astory.
He's going to make anillustration in a parable.
He's going to do it again, butI don't want you to think.
The third story is following inline.
It's not a parable.
(00:23):
It's something that washappening historically as well.
If you have ever struggled inprayer, if you have ever
wondered if I've already saidthis to God, why do I need to
say it again?
If you have ever said I'veprayed for this thing so long,
do I really need to continuepraying for this thing?
Welcome to one of the greatesttexts that you can put your eyes
(00:44):
and your hearts on.
Father, I just want to brieflyask that you would show us mercy
this morning.
Know our hearts, know ourthoughts and show us your text
and fill us with your spirit.
I pray, amen.
The parable of the persistentwidow, luke 8, beginning in
verse 1.
And he told them a parable tothe effect that they ought
(01:06):
always to pray and not loseheart Before we even get to the
story.
This is the way Will's heartwould be working if I was not on
stage but I was sitting in thepew.
I would scoot up in the pew.
That's what I would do, becauseit's my sign of being
interested.
One of two things would happenwith my hand when I read that
(01:29):
Jesus is already telling me whathe's going to tell me, that I'm
going to tell you a story thatshould bring about this effect
in your life, the effect thatyou would always pray and not
lose heart.
I'm scooting up in my chair andmy hands are either rubbing
together, or I'm up in my chairand they're coming together
between my knees and I'm leaningforward and I'm rocking in my
chair like this.
(01:49):
Those, if you're talking andI'm doing that, you've got me A
hundred percent my attention.
When Jesus says hey, christians, do you want to know how to
pray all the time and not loseheart?
Here is what it's going to looklike.
I remember being 12 years old.
I was in Ronnie and Rhonda'sSunday school class and they
(02:12):
gave me this simple truth thatdoesn't sound theologically
profound but is incrediblyaccurate.
They said when it comes toprayer, god will always give you
one of three answers he willsay yes, he will say no or he
will say not yet.
I've never forgotten that sinceI was 12 years old.
It's not terribly deep ortheological You're not going to
(02:32):
have to memorize a large word,but this is the reality of how
God answers our prayers yes, noor not.
Yet the problem is, when I lookat this first verse, the longer
I pray about something, theharder it seems to pray for it.
Always.
If I've already spent this manyhours, days, weeks, months,
(02:56):
years some of you in the roomdecades praying for this thing
always becomes an incrediblydifficult word for me, and the
harder always seems, the morecertain losing heart seems.
How is this supposed toencourage us, especially for
those of you who have dealt withchronic issues?
(03:18):
Might be pain, might bedifficulty, might be
relationship, might bemistreatment.
Well, let me tell you a storythat Jesus told his followers to
give them some hope.
He said verse 2, in a certaincity there was a judge who
neither feared God nor respectedman.
We would not call this a goodjudge.
(03:38):
Keep in mind, jesus is tellinga parable.
This is a caricature the judgewho walks to the bench and sits
down and looks at his docket andthe eyes of people whose lives
are hinging on his decision.
It would be a very odd thingfor him to sit at his bench and
say at the beginning of themorning hello, my name is judge.
(04:00):
Fill in the blank for last name.
Just want to let you know asyou come into my courtroom, I
neither fear God nor man.
Don't really not really beingmoved.
I'm going to do whatever I feel, whatever I want, whatever the
whims of the day bring.
This is a caricature, but whatwe read next feels very, very
real.
And there was a widow in thatcity who kept coming to him and
(04:23):
saying give me justice againstmy adversary.
For a while he refused, butafterward he said to himself,
though, I neither fear God norrespect man.
Yet because this widow keepsbothering me, this widow keeps
(04:50):
bothering me, I will give herjustice so that she will not
beat me down by her continualcoming back to court and asking
over and over again Christian,please note this.
The character in this story thatJesus tells is a widow, and
that day and age is telling youthat she has nothing except one
thing at her disposal she ispersistent.
(05:13):
It's all she's got.
She has no advocates, she hasno money, she has no resources,
she has no clout.
She cannot impress anyone.
She cannot influence anyone.
All she has is persistence.
Why would Jesus use this whenit comes to prayer?
Because this widow keepsbothering me.
I will give her justice so thatshe will not beat me down by
(05:35):
her continual coming.
And the Lord said did you hearwhat the unrighteous judge says?
Did you hear how he responds?
This judge, who just operatesoff of a whim, doesn't care for
the decisions he makes when heanswers to God, doesn't care
about the men and the women andthe children that it affects.
He is exceedingly selfish,living only for himself.
(05:57):
But did you hear what he didwhen the widow was persistent?
And will not verse 7, and willnot verse seven?
And will not God give justiceto his elect who cry to him day
and night?
Will he delay long over them?
The context here is no, I tellyou.
He will give justice to themspeedily.
(06:18):
Nevertheless, when the son ofman comes, will he find faith on
earth?
Do you want to know how to notlose heart in prayer?
Your heart needs to be gearedto pray, as the Word of God
gears you to pray.
(06:39):
If you're trying to fix aproblem at your house, let's say
there's something wrong withyour kitchen sink.
And you get on YouTube and yousay to fix a problem at your
house, let's say there'ssomething wrong with your
kitchen sink and you get onYouTube and you say my sink is
leaking from the handle, what doI do?
And you hit search and thefirst thing that comes up is
fixing a leaky sink handle andthe next one is how to clean out
(06:59):
a carburetor.
If you pick the second videoand then get irritated that your
sink is leaking, that is a youissue.
Just typing into the searchthat this is something that
matters to me matters not ifyou're not going to the place
that fixes the problem.
Christians, when it comes toprayer, if praying day and night
like this persistent widowfeels like an impossibility, if
(07:21):
you look at verse one and yousee the word always and you
immediately say well, that's notgoing to be me.
Maybe I'll try evangelisminstead.
If you look at this and you seethe verse say do not lose heart
and you say I am not that levelof a Christian.
I have not attained varsitystatus yet.
Maybe after I put a casserolein a pan, I'll try this thing
(07:44):
again.
I'm just telling you you'reclicking the wrong video.
The Bible is being very clear.
Do you wanna know how not tolose heart?
You need to believe what God'sword says when it comes to what
it says about prayer, verseseven God will be just.
It is impossible for him not tobe.
(08:04):
God will do what is right.
It is impossible for him not to.
The second thing that you willsee is this truth, this justice,
is going to be perpetuated onhis.
Maybe a tough word for some inthe room elect.
Now.
I'm not gonna spend an entireSunday talking about election
(08:27):
and free will.
I'm just letting you know theword elect exists in the Bible
and it is referring to thosewhom God has chosen to make his
children.
What this tells us is thatthese justice type prayers that
will be answered that Godpromises will be answered
speedily are couched for hischildren.
(08:52):
I want to be generous tochildren in general.
One of my favorite things is tohang out with y'all's kids when
you're not around them.
It's hearing about teeth thatfall out and arguments that I
got in with my brother or sisterwhen mom and dad can't clean it
up and say what actuallyhappened was.
Now I know what happened.
I got four of the things.
It's Lord of the Flies.
(09:12):
It's a wonder.
You make it to the end of thenight and everybody still has
limbs and a beating heart Like Iget it.
I love coming and hearing whatthe children of the church have
to say.
I have a big heart for thechildren of this church.
I feel like it's very much myresponsibility to shepherd them,
or shepherd those who areshepherding them.
(09:33):
I'm just going to tell you Ihave a bigger heart for my
children and I have a biggerheart for your children than I
do a child whom I do not know.
Now, look, god can manage toknow all things at all times and
all places.
I cannot.
I just want you to know that ifyou are pleading something from
God and you are not his child,it is not that he doesn't know
(09:58):
you.
It is not that he does not wantto answer.
Here's the problem.
He wants you to be his childfirst.
He wants your first prayer tobe a prayer for mercy.
Whatever it is that you aredealing with, believe me, he
knows it and he knows that it isa big deal.
But there is no possible wayfor him to love you well and
(10:20):
take care of this minor thing ifthe major thing of your soul
being right with him has yet tobe dealt with.
I say this to the people inthis room who may not be
trusting in Christ yet Whateveryou are asking of him pales in
comparison to knowing him, and Iknow that that may feel like a
(10:40):
cop-out answer.
I promise you that it is true.
Whatever you are asking for orasking to be taken away pales in
comparison of him rescuing yoursoul for all eternity by you
simply saying God, would youshow a sinner like me mercy?
Would you call me son ordaughter?
And I trust that, as a goodfather, you will take care of
(11:02):
the rest.
And how on earth in verse eight,does the word speedily exist
when it comes to prayer?
I don't know about you.
That word bothers me a littlebit.
It bothers me a little bit.
I've been following the Lordsince I was nine years old, and
do you know what word I wouldnot typically use to define my
relationship with God in prayer?
(11:23):
Speedily.
It's probably not what I wouldgo with, speedily.
So I will tell you this reallygreat story of what happened to
me recently.
I told y'all last week that Idon't think if I knew that
Christ was coming back in a day,week or month.
I don't think I'd be holdingthe repent sign.
I think I would probably go andhave lunch with my dad.
I think I would probably justsit in a deer stand with my son.
(11:44):
I think I would talk to mychildren and say, where are you
in trusting Christ?
That's probably what I would do.
Well, I was able to pull it off, and Ames and I, yesterday,
because my wife woke me up.
I didn't even set an alarm, itwas just this beautiful thing.
My wife was like the sun'sabout to come up, you need to
get up and throw on some camoand get in a deer stand.
I was like, yes, I should, and,like zombied out, walked into
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the bedroom and I said, ames,let's go bro, we're hopping in
the stand, it's go time.
The way it works in the hawkhouse is no one can shoot a deer
until the son whose year it isto shoot the deer gets one, and
it was Ames' year.
So Ellis and Thad are cheeringon Ames that he be in the stand
every moment of the huntingseason, because they're just
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like Lord, answer my prayerspeedily.
Lord, answer my prayer speedily.
Be, just be.
Just.
So Ames and I go and we sit inthe stand and, as a Christian,
with my son in an isolated,quiet environment, the first
thing that comes to mind isTrent told me that he prays with
his kids, or tries to, whenthey get in the deer stand.
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And I was like, all right, Iwanna be a good elder too.
So I'm like we're going to praywhen we get in the stand.
So I was thinking we mightmemorize a verse.
If you've ever gone huntingbefore, sometimes you got to
come up with something to do tofill the time while you're up
there.
And so I'm working through somestuff and we sit there and I'm
like, buddy, let's just pray,let's just pray.
And so here was my prayer.
It was something real short.
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It was like Lord, thank you foryour creation, that we get to
enjoy it for quality timetogether.
We're not praying that youwould send a deer out.
If you do, that'd be great, itwould really cap off the morning
.
But I just pray that our timein your creation with one
another would be the win.
That's how long the prayer was.
We open our eyes and Ames goes,and a buck, while we were
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praying, has walked up frombehind.
Can I just tell you that ifyou're not a hunter.
It's not how it works.
Most of the time we get in thestand right after 7, 30.
We say amen, and one's walkingup behind.
It's a little spike, can'tshoot it, but he's probably
itching too just because it'salive and moving and you have to
work through that stuffhonoring God and creation, and
it just walks and eats someacorns and walks off and I'm
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like that was enough, like wow,god, thank you, if nothing else,
like we got to see that andenjoy it together and we're just
sort of whispering togetherhaving a good time with it and
then another one walks up.
Now, if you do not like huntingpictures, I'm letting you know.
Now, don't look at the screen.
I tried to pick one that was astasteful as possible.
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Then that walked out.
I know, oh, y'all are clapping,yeah, way to go.
I'm not leaving it up too long.
Because he was like dad, areyou going to talk about my dear
at church?
I was like now you've askedabout it, I can't do it, but it
was too good of an illustration.
God does not always answer ourprayers speedily, but when he
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does, what a gift, what awonderful thing for God to step
in.
And just so you know.
We sit in that tree stand a lot.
We sit in it for hours andnothing comes out.
It was abnormal, it was unusual.
It was sheer grace of God whenit comes to prayer.
And why it feels slow.
Why does it feel like God movesslowly?
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Can I give you two opinions?
Number one you forget hisanswers in the first place.
One of the reasons prayer feelsslow is because when we receive
what we have asked for, we moveit out of the category of
praise, out of the category ofremembrance, and we move on to
our next thing.
If you have amnesia for theprayers that God has answered,
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you will feel like he is rarelyanswering your prayers.
The second thing that I wouldsay is God's justice may require
more timing than you would liketo give.
We may have a lot of questionsabout prayer, but I want you to
notice in this text there isonly one question, and it's the
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last thing that we read in verse8.
I tell you God will givejustice, verse eight.
I tell you God will givejustice, he will give it
speedily.
Nevertheless, do y'all havethis one, verse eight?
Nevertheless, when the son ofman comes, will he find faith on
earth?
This, by the way is thequestion of prayer?
It is not.
Will God be just?
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It is not.
Will he answer it?
It is not.
Am I supposed to be praying allof the time, and should I keep
from losing heart?
The question is when he seesyou, is he going to find faith
inside of you?
God's part is that hedetermines what is justice, he
determines what is speedy.
He is looking for faith, and Ithink for some of us there is a
(16:30):
gap, especially for those of uswho trust in God's sovereignty
in all things.
If our prayers are a part ofGod's sovereignty and scripture
says they are then our responseto prayer should not be this I
have prayed for A.
God has now heard.
I have accomplished what I amsupposed to do.
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God is sovereign.
He's sovereign in his timing.
He's sovereign in his goodness.
He will always be just.
I have said my prayer, I havesent it up to the Lord.
Now I can play hands off ball,not according to this scripture.
Believing in God's sovereignty,believing in God's timing,
believing in God's goodness andpraying daily with unceasing
(17:11):
prayers in God's goodness andpraying daily with unceasing
prayers, fervent prayers somehow, in the mystery of Jesus,
looking for faith, blendtogether perfectly.
Let me move out of preachingtone to make sure y'all
understand what I'm saying.
All I'm simply saying is this Ibelieve that God is sovereign
in all things.
I do not believe in consequence.
I believe that God hears everyone of the prayers of his
(17:31):
children.
He has saved me by grace.
I have cried out for mercy.
I am one of his kids.
Why do I need to keep sayingthe same thing over and over?
That's what I'm saying, and Ithink about it all the time when
I drive.
I think about it all the timewhen I pray.
I think about it all the timewhen I read scripture.
Is praying for the same thing achore?
Is the concept of praying dayand night a chore?
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If it is, I would be willing tobet that here is your problem.
When you pray, what is it thatyou're most desiring?
To get something?
To get something fixed?
To get something accomplished?
Or is the goal of your prayerto know someone?
Can I give you the secret topraying always and not losing
heart?
Please choose option B.
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Please select the right videowhen you put in the correct
search engine algorithm.
Pick B.
If your goal is to know someone,to know the living God who
condescended and put on flesh,who broke that flesh and bled
out, so that you wouldn't haveto bleed out for all eternity.
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Who invites you to simply sayGod, would you forgive me of my
sins and give me mercy?
You can do it right now.
You don't have to come and praywith the pastor, you don't have
to pray with the elder, youdon't have to pray with the
prayer team.
You don't have to fill out acard, you don't have to raise
your hand, you don't have towalk down.
You simply just need to ask formercy.
If that is the case, it is nolonger about Lord.
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Here's what I need to get.
It's about here's who I need toknow.
Because if I know the God ofall creation, if the goal isn't
to get something but to knowsomeone, then all of a sudden,
prayers that require moreprayers are still in the win
category.
To put it more simply, we needto pray less selfishly and pray
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more spiritually.
I think this is why, so often,we read in scripture.
God says I am going to fill inthe blank.
I'm going to think about theOld Testament.
I'm going to destroy yourenemies.
I'm going to obtain this landfor you.
I am going to bring new life.
I'm going to bring food, I'mgoing to provide water that they
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may know that there is a God inIsrael.
Why is God answering all of thesome things we want?
That you would get to know thesomeone worth knowing In prayer.
You must have the right heartand seek the right things.
Let me show you one of thecoolest scriptures on this.
It's in Revelation, chapter 6,verses 9 through 11.
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We're going to jump to thefuture a little bit.
And when he opened the fifthseal, I saw under the altar the
souls of those who had beenslain for the word of God and
for the witness they had borne.
So what's happening is you'rebeing drawn into the future,
you're being drawn up to heavenand you are looking at this
group of people, an impressivegroup of people by biblical
(20:21):
standards.
They're in heaven now becausetheir life was ended here, not
because they turned 80 or 90years old or because they got
cancer or they were in a caraccident.
They are there because theylove the word of God and they
witnessed who Christ was, and itcost them their lives.
And here is their prayer to God.
They cried out with a loud voiceoh sovereign Lord, don't miss
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that they are asking forsomething that is yet to be done
, while recognizing God issovereign even in something that
is yet to be done.
Oh, sovereign Lord, holy andtrue, we're not doubting you.
It's just a question how longbefore you will judge and avenge
our blood on those who dwell onthe earth?
How long until the ones whoripped our family apart?
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How long until the ones whosnuffed out our futures?
How long until the ones whowere unjust and cost us job and
relationship and all of thesethings?
How long until you are a judgeto them?
My life was a match that neverfelt like it started a fire.
It was snuffed out as quicklyas it began.
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God, are you not just?
Are you not speedy?
Then they were each given awhite robe.
Here's what I'd like for you tohear in this.
They were given comfort andconfirmation, a white robe
proving to them son, daughter,you're in the right place, pure,
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not because of you, but becauseof me and comforted, and they
were told to rest a littlelonger.
I don't know exactly when thisconversation began, but some of
these real people have reallybeen near God for millennia.
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I'm not being tongue in cheekhere, I'm just being honest.
There's not a soul in this roomwho has prayed for anything for
longer than a lifetime, becauseyou're still here.
This is a myriad of people whohave been longing and waiting
for lifetimes that God would dothis.
(22:30):
Why is it that he's waiting?
It's beautiful.
He's waiting until the numberof their fellow servants, their
brothers, should be complete.
He's waiting for some of you togive your lives for the gospel.
He's waiting for your childrento not outlive you because they
are carrying the gospel todangerous places.
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He is waiting for people inChina and in the 1040 window
whose lives are beingextinguished now, to join this
wonderful chorus of people whohave deemed Christ more worthy
than the 60, 70, or 80 yearsthat we hope for.
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This is what it looks like tohave the right heart in prayer.
It also means we must ask forthe right things.
One of my if y'all wanna grabyour phones.
Sometimes when we do this weshut down the website.
So if this doesn't go through,we check the link.
It worked, just get with meafterward.
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One of my favorite articles onpraying in the spirit was
written by a guy named JasonMeyer, who's a pastor at
Bethlehem Baptist Church, whereJohn Piper was.
He studied in a great deal,martin Lloyd-Jones, and he said,
in studying all of his sermons,what it actually taught me most
was to pray.
I want to give you this as aresource, because I look at this
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almost every single week whenI'm writing sermons.
I've adapted it not to prayingin the spirit but writing in the
spirit, and I cannot tell youhow often I go to his
illustration of riding a bicyclein prayer and think about it as
I'm pursuing the Lord.
To bicycle in prayer and thinkabout it as I'm pursuing the
Lord.
To simply summarize it, here iswhat he says are the three great
aspects of praying in theSpirit Admitting our inability,
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enjoying the creation of aliving communion with God.
This admitting my inability isI don't deserve to be here.
Number two is saying it's notabout me getting what I want,
it's about knowing who I oughtto know.
And then, thirdly, it'spleading the promises of God
with boldness and assurances.
You'll see on that site thislittle quote.
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One of the key differences herebetween praying in the flesh and
praying in the spirit is thatyou don't feel the need to rush
to say anything when you pray inthis way.
I cannot tell you how often myprayers feel rushed, probably
because I try to squeeze them inbetween what's really important
.
No, you don't feel rushed.
The living reality the Spiritcreates is the awareness of
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God's presence that I havealready won.
Experiencing His presence willseem much more important than
that any petition you are goingto make.
But the Spirit will not leadyou merely to rest in God's
presence in a passive way.
It's what I'm prone to do as ahigh sovereignty guy.
There will be a holy boldnessto plead the promises of God.
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Brothers and sisters, do notgrow weary in prayer.
There is a good God who islistening.
He's not just listening, he isinvested.
You will do more on your kneesin prayer than you will ever do
making plans.
You will accomplish more inprayer than you will in writing
lists.
You will accomplish more inprayer than when you talk to an
expert or organize your calendar.
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You will accomplish more inprayer, believer, than when you
spend money, spend time, spendresources or ask chat GPT how to
organize this thing.
You will accomplish more inprayer.
And if you want to watch allthree of these things
beautifully lay out, look at thenext story Jesus tells.
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He also told this parable verse9, to some who trusted in
themselves that they wererighteous and treated others
with contempt.
Pause, eyes on me.
I've been very.
That's not true.
I haven't been heavy.
This has been a very heavy text.
It's about to get funny for asecond.
Just letting you know this isyour chance to come up for air
and smile a bit before you goback to your conviction for how
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you feel about your prayer life.
This is your moment.
Here you go.
This guy that we're about toread is the closest thing to
Gaston and Beauty and the Beastthan anyone else I have ever
read about in scripture thatcomes to mind.
Okay, here's the story.
Remember?
It's a parable.
Jesus is giving this story.
Two men went up to the temple topray, one a Pharisee,
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impressive religious guy, theother a tax collector, an
outcast.
The Pharisee, standing byhimself, prayed thus Like just
imagine somebody's like.
Here's the scene.
The scene is we're all here.
Somebody stands up, gets in themiddle of the sanctuary and
prays this prayer loud enoughfor you all to hear it.
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God, I thank you that I am notlike other men extortioners,
unjust adulterers, or even likethis tax collector.
He points off to the side,probably with his eyes open, in
prayer.
I fast twice a week more thanhe had to.
I give tithes of all that I get, probably more than what God's
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law required, but the taxcollector, standing far off,
wouldn't even lift up his eyes,wouldn't lift his eyes to heaven
, but he beat his breast sayinghere's his whole prayer God be
merciful to me, a sinner.
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Except I didn't read it quiteright.
There is no period at the endof his prayer.
Don't get me wrong.
The Pharisee ends with a period.
This man does not.
This man's prayer was God bemerciful to me, a sinner.
His head is in the carpet, hishands on his chest.
He has no impressive words, notheological phrases.
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He can't quote Spurgeon.
All he knows is he needs mercyfrom a God who just might give
it.
And he is praying this while animpressive person, standing up
quite confident, prays a verylavish prayer.
You are in the midst of threeweeks of people crying out for
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mercy.
In the event that you didn'tnotice it, guys, I don't know if
we have this slide or not.
If we don't, that's okay.
I'll just shoot you to theverses In 1730,.
We do awesome last week.
Do you remember what the oneleper who came back said Jesus,
master, have mercy on us.
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He does, but only one receivesthe kind of mercy we're talking
about today.
This, this week, a taxcollector, god, be merciful to
me.
Next week, a blind man.
Jesus, son of David, have mercyon me.
And what you are looking at hereis the beauty of Dr Luke
writing filled by the Spirit ofGod, letting you know that mercy
(29:28):
from God exists for people whonobody wanted, people who
everyone despised and people whowere constantly ignored.
That's what you're looking athere.
Mercy, if you want a fancydefinition, is that quality in
God by which he faithfully keepshis promises and maintains his
covenant relationship with hischosen people, despite their
(29:50):
unworthiness and unfaithfulness.
And I like this and it's trueand it's accurate.
But I think this would be thePharisees version of it.
Although accurate, this is whatI think would be trucker talk.
For what it is, mercy iscompassion for the miserable.
That's what it is.
It is God looking at amiserable creature.
You me not telling you thatyou're not miserable, because he
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is just and he will not lie,and he gives compassion to the
miserable.
If you have been coming to Godfor a long time and you wonder
why he is not drawing near toyou, I would simply ask this?
Did you first start coming tohim miserably or did you start
coming to him in an impressiveway?
God, before I ask for this,just know that I've gone to
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church and I've tried to wearthe right clothes and I'm not
cussing anymore, and you knowwhat?
I'm not doing this and I'm notdoing this and I'm doing this
and I'm doing this.
Can't you see just howpharisaical I am?
No, the right way to prayjustice prayers, speedy prayers,
daily prayers is just to saybefore anything else, would you
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give mercy to this miserablecreature?
By the way, his answer to thatis always yes, it's always yes,
and the reason I know the answerto that is always yes is
because he literally stamped iton wood and wrote it in stone.
That's how I know.
The death and the resurrectionof Jesus is a yes promise to
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this all the time, everywhere.
I highly doubt any of you aretempted to pray like the
Pharisee.
God, I am just so glad I'm notlike anybody else.
I'm so glad you have me on yourteam.
I'm so glad that my gifts getto be used at your church and
that my wonderful dispositiongets to be a blessing to my
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family.
I doubt there are any of youwho are praying like this.
But when we come to the one whoGod lifts up, look at what it
says in verse 14 about the manjust asking for mercy.
I tell you, this man went downto his house justified, just as
if he'd never sinned, made clean, white robe, comforted, rather
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than the other.
For everyone who exalts himselfwill be humbled, but the one
who humbles himself will beexalted.
He offers no justification, noexcuses.
He doesn't blame anyone else.
He simply admits he's a sinnerand needs mercy.
Jesus, would you save me frommy sin?
Would you save me from theconsequences of my sin, and
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would you give me the gift ofnew life in Christ?
One of the things that I thinkis important for us to realize
is what is so sad about thisPharisee.
It's sad that he thinks he'sokay.
It's more sad that he treatsothers poorly.
But I think the most sad thingis that they both showed up to
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church in the first place andthey went home very, very
differently.
Please hear me on this.
God doesn't just that word justmatters.
He does care that you come tochurch.
It's an expectation of being abeliever, a constant pursuit of
him.
Do not forsake meeting together, but God doesn't just care that
you show up to church.
He cares about how you show upand he also cares about how you
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go home.
Pick that up from this text.
Jesus ends the story not bytalking about what happened just
at church, but what happenedwhen he was leaving church, as a
response to how he showed up atchurch.
Like the Pharisee and the taxcollector, we are all alike in a
couple of ways.
We've all been created in theimage of God.
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We've been imbued with thisimmense value and we have,
because of our sin, taken thatvalue and we have tarnished it.
And when it comes to your sin,here is what I would plead of
you and it doesn't matter to meif you've been a Christian for
50 years or if you have justheard the name of Jesus for the
past 50 minutes here is what Iwould plead of you Please do not
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pretend that your sin does notexist.
Please do not explain it away,please do not minimize it and
please do not ignore it.
I know that none of us like tolook at the dirty pieces of
ourselves.
We especially don't want otherpeople to see it.
Please, please, do not minimize, hide or push it away.
And it is not because you knowwhat guys.
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I just wanna be a church wherewe have a lot of responsiveness.
At the end of the sermon, I needyou guys to sing a little bit
louder and come down to thefront so I can feel good that I
wrote a decent sermon.
No, I don't care if anybodyever stands up and walks to the
front.
I don't care if anybody evermeets me.
Do you know what I care about?
I care that when you go home,it matters that you showed up.
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That's what matters, and itmatters to me because it matters
to God.
One of the most unhealthy thingsthat could happen in your life
is you show up to church and youleave day after day, week after
week, and there is nothing thathappens there.
This, to me, is indicative ofsomebody who shows up to God
saying what can I get, ratherthan showing up to God saying
who do I get to know?
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I have never, ever come to theword of God with the right
intention and not grown in myknowledge of who he is.
And if that is the goal, then Ihave never left unsatisfied.
Don't explain it away.
One of the greatest lies of theenemy is that if people knew
how dirty your life was.
(35:10):
It would mar the work of Christ, it would diminish you, it
would shrink your ability tolove people and to serve him.
Nothing could be further fromthe truth.
I'll give you an example ofthis.
Recently, did y'all hear thisstory?
They found a constitution, acopy of the constitution, in
some file cabinet, I think inNorth Carolina.
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They they're just diggingthrough, like children's artwork
and old deeds and titles for ahome, probably many tax returns
that have just been stacked up,with a year written on them, and
they find this copy of the USConstitution.
The thing sells for ninemillion dollars.
(35:52):
Why do I point this out to you?
It is actually more valuablenow than it ever originally was.
Originally, it was a documentwith a bunch of expectations,
laws and some really goodsignatures on it.
But now, all these years later,because it is weather time,
because it has gone throughdifficulty, because it was cast
aside as worthless, itsrestoration actually brings it
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greater value.
Christian, please hear me onthis.
It is the same for you.
It doesn't get back to itsoriginal value.
I don't know what it would havecost the day that it was made,
but $9 million is way higher.
Why?
Because when you cry out formercy, christ gets exalted.
When God responds in mercy, itexalts his generosity.
(36:40):
You moving from fallen sinnerto restored child of God is more
compelling and more beautifulthan if you had avoided sin in
the first place.
God has displayed his endlesslove for you because of you
being cast aside, because of yousquirreling away, because of
(37:00):
your brokenness, because of yourtornness, because of your filth
.
All of those things exemplifythe love of Christ.
It doesn't diminish it.
We are better off than we hadbeen.
Christ is honored as supreme.
God is praised for his abundantgenerosity.
If I were to say it this way,here's what I would say.
God has walked us from justiceto prayer, to mercy.
(37:24):
That's what this text is on.
Justice is a very good thing.
The right thing happening isgood.
Injustice is a very bad thing.
But please hear me on this.
Mercy is far better than both.
Mercy, when given to someone ina way that changes their life,
(37:44):
is so much better than justclean justice.
The right thing at the righttime in the right place, that is
good.
It is the character of God.
It ought to be sought after andpraised.
But it doesn't even compare toGod showing mercy to somebody
who doesn't deserve it, theirlife changing and them wanting
to live a life of justice andtruth.
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This is why God shows us whatappropriate behavior at church
looks like.
Now let me challenge you withit.
When we look at verse 13, thisis Jesus' example of appropriate
worship, of justifying worship.
(38:28):
Standing far off, not evenfeeling able to lift up eyes to
heaven, beating on breasts,saying and exclaiming God, be
merciful to me, a savior, listencarefully.
I do not want to get rid of aculture of warmth.
I love the fact that when wethrow these things on and tell
you guys to talk for a minute,you go after it.
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I love conversations in thehallway that are so loud that we
have to close those doors sothat people in here can hear the
call to worship.
And yes, I wish I would show upon time so you don't miss the
first song and we're having torush you in.
But I also love the fact thatyou want to get to know the
people who are around you.
I love it.
I love it, I love it.
I'm not trying to squeeze thatout, but when I look at this, I
do wonder if, occasionally,there should be these moments
(39:11):
where we tremble before we walkthrough those two doors, I
wonder if, yes, god has calledme a son, he has called me a
daughter.
He, in Hebrews, has invited meto come boldly into the throne
room of God.
Yes, but I think there shouldalso be these moments when, if
I'm honest, I can't even look atthe screen to know what the
words are.
I need to hear them sung overme because I'm not able to sing
(39:34):
them right now.
I think it's beautiful thingslike Bethany Page praying during
our night of worship and as sheis pleading to God, she just
says guys, I think we need tokneel right now out of reverence
for who God is.
I think it's things like mepraying with a young man in the
past few weeks up here and he isweeping and bawling as he is
(39:56):
crying and pleading that Godwould do what is just.
I think it is a man who hasbeen more seasoned in walking
with Christ, coming to me andjust during prayer not even
going into prayer, but justsaying I am so grateful for who
God is.
I've been waiting for him toshow up in this kind of a way
and he has, and his voice isloud and it might be
(40:17):
interrupting 15 people aroundhim, but he is praising God for
who he is.
I wonder how many of us wouldlook at this and say I'll never
worship that way.
And if that is you, I'm justtelling you you are the one
missing out.
I don't care that.
You're appropriate, honestly,when it comes to Christ and the
(40:42):
New Testament giving us advicefor worship.
It's the opposite of what Nanatold you.
Nana told you to have your haircombed.
She told you to be buttoned upand make sure that you wear a
collar and no stains on yourslacks.
What you actually read in theNew Testament is don't come in
in fancy clothing.
Don't come in in beautifuljewelry.
No, come in as somebody who isa what was I'm trying to
(41:08):
remember my definition Miserable.
Yes, Come in as somebody who isjust miserable and says man, I
need mercy.
One of the greatest hindrancesto people coming to grace is you
looking like you have your lifetogether.
I can't tell you, when I talkwith people after church, how
often I hear them say I don'tknow that this is the right
(41:30):
place for me, and I'm not eventalking about ministry, I'm just
talking about church.
My life is a hot mess, I don'thave it me, and I'm not even
talking about mid-year, I'm justtalking about church.
My life is a hot mess.
I don't have it together, andthese people know answers to
questions and their lives arebuttoned up and their marriages
look fine and their childrenhold onto your sleeves so they
don't interrupt your adultconversation.
Okay, yeah, shoot for all ofthat stuff, but if we are
(41:51):
missing displaying the reality,that what this ought to look
like is a place where our headis in the carpet sometimes and
our head is in our hands and ourprayers are not impressive,
they're just simply crying outfor mercy, I think we've missed
out on what Jesus is pointing to.
Pride vertically will alwaysturn into contempt horizontally.
(42:11):
If you feel like I gotta be allbuttoned up like this, you're
going to look down on the peoplebeside you.
So Jesus closes us out with astory that is not a caricature,
not a caricature of a judge, nota caricature of this Gaston
looking dude.
No, now, all of a sudden,children start coming to Jesus.
(42:33):
They were bringing even infantsto him that he might touch them
.
Zach, I'm having so much funwatching, I forgot the iPad I
got.
You Do not see the man walkingbehind you?
That's what I mean Like, that'sokay, we don't need to be
polished, we need to be pursuingChrist.
(42:54):
They were bringing even infantsto him that he might touch them
.
We don't need to be polished,we need to be pursuing Christ.
They were bringing even infantsto him that he might touch them
and when the disciples saw it,they rebuked them.
The disciples look at these kidsapparently as though certain
persons are not worthy of God.
Others are, but not these kids.
But Jesus called to him and hesaid let the children come to me
, do not hinder them, for suchbelongs to the kingdom of God.
(43:15):
A lot of times we look at thisand we think Jesus is saying hey
, I'm going to put kids on mylap.
Have a heart for him.
Okay, love a kid.
It's not what he's saying here.
Jesus isn't showing you how tolove kids.
Jesus is saying kids areshowing you how to love me.
And it happens every time inthis room a kid makes too much
noise with a wrapper and they goand they look at mom and dad,
(43:38):
was it too loud?
Did I make too much of amistake here?
It's every time in a kid's roomthey want goldfish.
They do not go and climb up andopen the cabinet.
They look up at the adult inthe room Are you going to
provide my needs?
It's every time a dress getstugged in the foyer it's a kid
(43:59):
saying, hey, mom, dad, hopefullydad's not wearing the dress.
I'm banking on the fact you'renot going to keep me here
forever because I'd like to eat.
Noisy, fidgety, hungry.
Looking upset Moms and dads area graceful reminder of what
Christ began us with, luke 18,eight.
When the son of man comes, willhe find faith?
(44:22):
This is what children put onhis boy Faith that when they ask
, when they look up, am I goodenough?
What they will hear from momand dad and what they will hear
from their heavenly father ischild.
Receive mercy.
This is our only job thismorning.
Receive mercy.
(44:43):
If you need to receive it,sitting, sit.
If you need to receive it.
Standing, stand.
If you need to receive it,wailing, wail.
If you need to receive it,walking, walk.
Please do not be impeded bysome social convention.
Be miserable and come to Godand be comforted by a white robe
(45:05):
that he promises will bringspeedy justice, and the most
important thing will not be yougetting something, but you
knowing someone.
When the son of man comes, willhe find faith on earth.
Pause and ponder for a moment,and then we'll close in worship.
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