Parables about prayer (Luke 18:1-14)

as billy was talking um i was thinking about how easy it is for us to get kind of slip back into what's comfortable and get back to the familiar even though that's things that god has pulled us out of things that he said not to go that direction and we oftentimes want to slip back into it so it's good to have that reminder to to be cautious of those things and before service lyman mentioned to me that he's been thinking a lot about revelation chapter two and he showed me the verse in revelation chapter two and it says you know i have this against you you've forgotten your first love i thought that goes right along with what bailey was talking about there so thank you for sharing i know that was kind of a difficult one to share but i appreciate that would you bow your heads with me heavenly father we praise you lord we love you lord i pray that our worship is pleasing to you that you would accept our offering of praise the holy spirit we invite you to come and speak to us lord we praise you we love you in the name of yeshua amen all right so it's been a few weeks since we were in the gospels does anybody remember where we're at we're in luke luke chapter 18 is where we are today we're gonna start at verse one and today we're looking at two two parables that yeshua spoke concerning prayer so if you have your bibles turn to luke 18 and we're going to start in verse 1. then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart saying there was a in a certain city a judge who did not fear god nor regard man now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying get justice for me from my adversary and he would not for a while but afterwards she said within him afterward he said within himself though i do not fear god nor regard man yet because this widow troubles me i will avenge her lest by her continual coming she wears me then the lord said hear what the unjust judge said and shall god not avenge his own elect to cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them i tell you that he will avenge them speedily nevertheless when the son of man comes will he really find faith on the earth and one thing i want to point out before you know before we get too deep into this a lot of times people want to make parables into allegories and that's not they're not the same thing a parable is not an allegory an allegory is where you have everything in the story is connected to something else and this represents this other thing and that represents something else and everything has some kind of representation or you know a lot of things have some kind of representation in a parable a parable is meant to be a simple story to illustrate a simple point and there's usually not a lot of uh it's not allegorical in the sense that you know this judge doesn't represent god and the the woman doesn't represent you know the church or something like that like i've heard people try to say those kinds of things and it just doesn't it doesn't fit doesn't make sense and if somebody comes and says oh yeah the unjust judge represents god you should probably have a puzzled look on your face when you hear him say that because if you're familiar with the story it doesn't make any sense this is an unjust judge who doesn't fear god well that's very different from the scenario we have with the loving god who is just and righteous and holy and pure and so you can't make this one-to-one comparison between this judge and god but yeshua says to listen to what the judge says he says hear what the unjust judge said and shall god not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him right so the unjust judge is not an example of god this parable is an argument from the lesser to the greater and if you're familiar with this concept in hebrew thought they it was often done this way if the lesser is true how much more is the greater true and so if this judge this unjust unrighteous unholy judge who cares not about god or about men if he is willing to respond to this woman's plea how much more will god who is loving who is kind who is just who is righteous who is good respond to his people's plea do you see how this argument is from the lesser to the greater and so this parable in this parable the judge it says he was unrighteous that he was unjust and it doesn't go into a whole lot of details but i imagine you know this is the kind of judge who would take bribes you know somebody comes along and say hey you know let me give you some money and you rule in my favor because he he didn't have a moral compass it says he didn't regard or he didn't fear god he didn't regard men and so he was basically he was shameless he was one of these people he had no moral compass he was just doing what he wanted to do whatever he was in it for his own benefit this is the kind of person that's being described here and so he probably took bribes he probably showed favoritism bending justice to his own whims doing whatever he saw fit not ruling justly or righteously right but the bible says that god is a just judge he rules without favoritism he does not take a bribe he makes righteous judgment he defends the fatherless and the widow he keeps he helps the downtrodden he helps those in need he sets the captives free he does what is right and true and just right so you see there's a big difference between this unjust judge and god now this this judge he wasn't concerned about the widow he had no concern about her he didn't care about her plight he didn't care about her need he didn't care about her case he just was tired of hearing about it he was tired of being pestered and so just because he was worn out of hearing from her because day and night she kept continually coming to him and pestering him about it repeatedly every day every morning every evening she would come and pester him about this hear my case defend me and he got tired of hearing from her he was tired of her pestering and he said i'm going to do something about it just so she'll stop basically and that's that's what this story is illustrating is this guy he has no moral compass he's not doing it because it's right he's doing it for his own good for his own self-preservation so that he can keep his sanity basically she's pestering me she's going to drive me insane i'm going gonna do something just to get her to to stop right so it's for his own self-preservation is why this judge responds and helps this woman but the bible says that god is compassionate that he cares about us and we're not some stranger like this woman was a stranger to the judge he didn't know her he didn't know who she was she was just some random woman who come up day after day after day saying you know do something about this defend my case help me out give me justice he didn't know where he didn't care about her but we have a god who knows us it says that he chose us that we are his elect and that's even in this story right yeshua says here with uh and shall god not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night god's people are elect by god that means he chose us he selected us he he says you are my people i want you we're not just some random person who's coming and pestering him right we we are his people if a corrupt and evil judge would give this woman justice how much more will your loving heavenly father answer the prayers of his people this is the question that this story is supposed to raise this unjust unkind unloving wicked man helps this woman and answers her cries how much more will a loving god who cares for you and chose you answer your prayer this is the question this is the uh this is the thing we're confronted with with a story some people um have a hard time with prayer they say well i'm not i'm not a good speaker i'm not eloquent with my words i i don't pray well right this woman wasn't eloquent with her words either was she and what did she say she said get justice for me from my adversary and that's not she it's not a very compelling argument right that's not a very compelling speech she's not pleading oh this man did such and such to me and he you know he's been tormenting me for weeks or months or years and he's been doing this all this wickedness to me she says give me justice this man is my enemy get me justice it's not an eloquent speech she's not an orator she's just desperate and she comes to him with her desperation and says i need you i need your help you can do this i can't do it on my own i need you to intercede i need you to get me justice but people say well i'm just not good with words i'm not a very good prayer i'm not good at praying i don't have the right words the bible says that when we don't know what to say that the spirit intercedes for us with groanings that we don't understand right sometimes all you all you need to do is just fall on your face and groan and god hears your prayer okay the bible says that god knows your need before you even ask but yet he wants us to ask he tells us to pray he tells us to ask he knows your thoughts but he wants you to come to him one thing to point out is her persistence this is the main point of this story is her persistence says that she continued day after day morning and evening day and night to come before this judge pleading her case and at the beginning it said that the basically yeshua laid out the moral of this story before he even told it or the the gospel of luke lays out the moral of the story before he even told it says that it was to remind us to always pray right let me let me go back and it says he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart that we should always pray and not lose heart so what is that what does it mean to to not lose heart you think about what this woman was doing she was continually pestering this guy pleading day after day after day day and night day and night every day you think eventually she would get tired right say man i'm not getting anywhere with this he's not hearing my he's not hearing my plead he's not hearing my case i should just give up and that's basically what it means to lose heart isn't it to just give up i'm i'm done trying i tried it didn't work i'm gonna do something else this failed and i think a lot of times we do that with our prayers too you know we pray for something and we don't hear an answer quick enough and so we give up well i guess i guess god's not listening to me i guess god's not gonna do anything about this one are you guys familiar with uh i know you guys are the people do this prank right they'll go and knock on a door or ring a doorbell and then they run away you guys familiar with that it's kind of a prank you play on somebody you go knock on the door you ring the doorbell and you run and hide and when they answer the door nobody's there i feel like we do that with prayer sometimes we come and pray and and knock on the door ring the doorbell and then we disappear and when god finally answers the door we're not we're nowhere to be found because we gave up so quick i mean that that's happened even at times where you know somebody rings the doorbell and the person in the house is you know busy with something and it takes them a few minutes to get to the door they're they're trying to you know they got maybe they're cooking dinner they got food all over their hands they get their hands in the you know they're making meatloaf or something got hands covered in bloody meat so they have to go wash their hands or they're making bread and they have you know flour goo all over their fingers and they have to go wash their hands and by the time they get to the door the person's left like well why didn't they stick around i thought they wanted you know i don't even know who was at the door because they're gone and so just because it it takes a little bit there's a delay sometimes for response sometimes we get impatient we lose heart but this woman shows us perseverance right she shows us to continue to persevere and not to lose heart and that's the the moral of this parable that's the the point that yeshua's trying to get across is when we pray we need to be like this woman that we continue to persist continue to persevere and not to lose heart even though the lord may tarry in his response even though it made delay in his response we're to continue to press forward and to persevere and not lose heart it says she continued day and night to ask for justice and yeshua's conclusion in this was shall not god avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him this judge this wicked judge avenged this woman shall not god avenge his own elect and we see this similar statement in revelation right we see that it talks about the the saints who are beheaded because of their testimony who are under the altar you guys familiar with this in revelation and what do they say how long will we wait for you to avenge us how long lord will we wait for you to avenge us but they're they're waiting patiently under this altar god wants his people to pray and he does not grow weary of your requests there's another thing i want to point out here i think some people think well i'm pestering god i'm being a nuisance uh you know i've already i've already prayed about this before i don't want to keep bothering him with this he's got more important stuff to deal with than than my issues i think sometimes we're tempted to to discount our prayers and really to discount our worth in god's eyes to think that he doesn't care about the details of your life you know i'm just being a nuisance i'm being a pest i shouldn't bother him with this i've i've prayed this several times already and he's he's not listening i haven't had a response so i'm just gonna drop it yeshua is telling us to be persistent in prayer to to continue and not lose heart basically that you pray until you have an answer and i know there's a lot of bad teachings on this topic and a lot of the you know name it claim it prosperity gospel type of teachings on this topic like you just you pray it and god will give it to you you want a new car you pray for a new car and god give you a new car you know that kind of stuff and you got to be really careful not to go down that road so i just want to caution don't don't be saying hey god give me a car you know but unless you have a need and i know people who their car breaks down they have no money and they pray god can you can you help us can you provide a car for us and then somebody gives them a car or somebody comes along and they fixes the car and they say hey you got a broken radiator and i know how to fix it and they come and fix it and so god answers those kinds of prayers but it's not like hey god make me a rich dude i want to have you know i want to be rich like bill gates right you know like that's i i would caution you against praying like that i don't think that's a good way to pray um was it there's a country song about uh being rich like warren buffett and i'm gonna buy me a boat or something right you know i don't think that's the kind of prayer that that we should be encouraging people to pray it's uh but a prayer a sincere prayer real genuine prayer earnest prayer cry out for god's help this is the kind of prayer he's talking about right he's not talking about hey make me rich he's talking i'm in desperation i'm in need i need i need god to intervene in this situation this is the kind of prayer he's talking about here this woman is crying out for justice god i've been wronged come to my aid or you know the judge i've been wrong come to my aid and and he says how much more will god avenge his own elect who cry out day and night you see this has nothing to do with prosperity and health and wealth and that kind of thing right this is someone who has a desperate need and is coming to the lord saying help and to persist in your desperation to persist in crying out for help and not to lose heart but god wants his people to pray he wants us to cry out to him he wants us to depend on him he wants to hear from us you think about when major world catastrophes have happened right uh you know the the trade center event the you know the different bombings and schools and whatever you know the twin towers falling and all the different when there's major catastrophes hurricanes tornadoes earthquakes you know whatever it may be some kind of a major catastrophe the churches are flooded with people you know people haven't been to church in 10 years or all of a sudden at church right because why well they have a desperate need and they know that the only place they can go is to god so they turn to god they go and they pray and they go to church trying to find answers and then eventually they fall back off again and they go back to their routine and go back to their normal life and they stop calling on him and you know you think about that and it's like if that's the only time you come to god is when you have a catastrophe in your life you have a major issue going on that's the only way that god can get you to talk to him you think he's going to allow something to happen in your life to get your attention to get you to come back to him maybe he's allowing these catastrophes in your life maybe he's allowing these hard times just so that you'll come back to him just so that you'll turn to him and cry out to him have you ever thought about that because you know when things are going well we don't have any any major thing to pray about it's easy for us to just kind of get relaxed in our prayer life and stop spending time with the lord and so you know when you when you stop spending time with him he's like hey where'd you go why haven't we been having these conversations we used to talk all the time why aren't you here anymore and sometimes he has to send a wake-up call something to get your attention and cause you to turn to him and to cry out to him again i'm not saying that that's always the case but i'm saying that i think that happens sometimes but god wants his people to pray and he does not grow weary of hearing our prayers yeshua tells us to pray like this persistent widow not to cease from prayer and to persist day and night is the phrase that he uses he says that shall not god avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him okay i want to look now at luke chapter 11. i'm going to kind of flip back a little bit this is one we've talked about already but this parable reminds me of another parable in luke 11. 11 5-13 and he said to them which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him friend let me lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and i have nothing to set before him and he will answer from within and say do not trouble me the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed i cannot rise and give to you i say to you though he will not rise and give him to him because he is his friend yet because of his persistence he'll rise and give him as many as he needs so i say to you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened if a son asks for bread from any father among you will he give him a stone or if he asks for fish will he give him a serpent instead of a fish or if he asks for an egg will he offer him a scorpion if you them being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him notice again in this parable that the man does not receive because he's asking from a friend says that this this guy even though he was a friend he says i'm i'm already in bed i'm not getting up this is because of his persistence because he continues to knock and continues to ask that finally the friend gets up and again this is one of those arguments from least to greater from lesser to greater and so even though this is a friend he still is refusing to do this favor but because of the persistence of the man he finally is like okay fine how much bread do you want how much more will our father who is good who loves us who wants to take care of us give to those who ask and the thing that is striking to me about this is this is to build our faith in trusting in prayer and trusting in god through prayer that god does answer prayers and we should be confident that god hears and answers prayers and i think a lot of times that's part of our problem is we pray but we don't really think that god hears us we pray but we don't really think that god answers you know yeah god he answers that person's prayer but he doesn't answer my prayers he'll he'll respond when you pray but he doesn't respond when i pray and this is a lack of faith in our in our own ability to pray and the thing is your ability isn't what's important it's it's not who you are it's not how you pray that's not that's not the thing it's who are you praying to and are you putting your trust in him because what is prayer it's you are calling on god almighty the creator of heaven and earth and you're asking him for help the one the only one who is able to do anything right the one who can heal the sick the one who can make the blind see the one who can make the lame walk the one who can raise the dead he's the one you're calling on right but do you really believe that when you're praying or do you pray with mixed faith watered down faith faith that's not profitable yeshua says ask and you will receive seek and you'll find knock and it will be opened but this is in context of this story of a man persisting knocking on this door until he finally gets an answer so this persistent prayer again is being illustrated in this parable and so the idea is you you continue knocking you continue asking you continue seeking but again i think so many times we we just knock and run away we don't continue and i think this is actually what the the term pray without ceasing means i don't think it means stop everything else in your life and just spend all your time praying i don't think that has anything to do with what it's talking about there's never been anybody in history who that has been successfully worked for there have been a few sects of christians there they lived a monastic lifestyle basically you know they said hey you know i'm gonna give up everything i'm not gonna get married i'm not gonna have kids not gonna have a job i'm gonna go live out in the monastery and we're just gonna spend all day praying it didn't work out very well that wasn't that wasn't the goal that wasn't the they didn't accomplish anything with that but then we have other people who they raise families they're they're very successful at their job and they pray and god moves mountains so why is it that the guy who gives up all other things just to pray only and the guy who continues living his life to the glory of god what's the difference between these two where's their where's their heart where's their faith right it my point is that it's it's not about how much time you spend in prayer it's not about hey i need to spend 18 hours a day in prayer that's not what that's not what it talks about when it says pray without ceasing that's not what it means it means pray without giving up and i think that's the message in both of these parables is this persistent prayer the prayer that doesn't give up a prayer that continues to press on and look for an answer until an answer is found again yeshua said those who cry out day and night he didn't say those who cry out non-stop constantly 24 hours a day he says those who cry day and night and one thing a lot of people you may be aware of this but a lot of people may not be is the early church and judaism and you know as far as biblical judaism is concerned had a tradition of praying three times a day morning noon and evening and it was the time of the temple sacrifices and you know and the morning prayers and the evening prayers were considered to the most important ones and he says that they crap morning and evening or day and night this is a time of sacrifice this is the time of prayer we see in the in the book of acts that they were on their way to the temple at the time of prayer and they healed a man right there there are numerous examples of this um daniel he prayed three times a day at the at the time of prayer the psalms talk about it psalm 55 says 55 17 evening and morning and at noon i will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice and that's considered praying continually praying morning noon and evening is considered praying continually it doesn't mean you stop your job it doesn't mean you stop your life but it means that you take time out of your day to pray set aside that time and you pray intentionally you say you know what in the morning i'm going to set aside time and spend the time with the lord and be intentional about this at noon i'm going to set aside time and be intentional in an evening i'm going to set aside time and be intentional this is one of the things that in my discipleship group that we talk about is this discipline of praying and setting aside that time and being intentional about it being purposeful in your prayer and saying you know what i'm not gonna be haphazard about my prayer time i'm not gonna just pray when i get a whim i'm gonna i'm gonna dedicate time to the lord throughout my day and see this is time that i'm setting aside for him i'm not gonna be working on work i'm not going to be doing whatever i'm i'm not going to be doing school i'm not going to be eating whatever you might normally be doing at that time you say you know i'm going to set aside this time and just spend time in prayer be intentional about it but the earlier the early church taught people to pray three times a day and there's even examples of this in in some of the early church writings in first second third centuries of them saying that they prayed three times a day and they encouraged them to pray three times a day prayer is pleasing to the lord it's something that pleases him and he he asked for our prayers and he sees it as a sweet smelling aroma the bible says that your prayers go up to heaven like incense like sweet incense but it also compares your prayers to the sacrifices psalm 141 2 it says let my prayer be set before you as incense the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice so we see the incense and the sacrifice both are offered up to the lord and a burnt offering is considered it's called an ascending offering because the smoke ascends incense also ascends right the smoke from the incense rises up and the bible describes our prayers as ascending just like that smoke this is this it's beautiful and smells sweet to him and so when people say you know i i'm just not good at praying and i want to encourage you that your prayers are beautiful to him they're like a wonderful smelling incense that he loves your prayers and we need to understand that prayer is not a duty to be performed it's not just well i got to clean my room got to do the dishes gotta pray man when i gotta do anything for myself you know like that's not how we should treat prayer prayer is man i get to go spend time with the lord get to go speak with the father that's how we should be looking at prayer is it's a pleasure it's a it's a privilege not a duty and when you think about you have the opportunity to talk to the king of kings and lord of lords you have the opportunity to have an audience with the creator that he will hear your prayer and that he will respond to you when we think about it that way it it's like this isn't this isn't a duty this is a privilege this is something that i have access to god i have access to his his ear he will hear my prayer and he he's going to act and he's going to respond and he's going to speak to me and we need to remember that that is what prayer is prayer is about communicating with god and before i get too far and forget about it the the end of that parable do you remember what he says will will the son of man find faith on the earth when he returns is in connection to this persisting in prayer he says that we need to persist in prayer like this woman but he says but am i going to find that kind of faith on earth am i going to find people who persist in prayer because that's the kind of faith he's wanting to find god takes pleasure in our prayers the bible says that god says my house should be called the house of prayer this is spoken in isaiah but and it's also quoted by yeshua my house shall be called a house of prayer it's not a house of sacrifice it's not a house of worship it's not a house of teaching it's as a prayer and i think that's significant that that is what god desires of his house i think a lot of times we just look at it as a house of fellowship you know this is just a place where we can get together and hang out with our friends we have that sweet fellowship and there's nothing wrong with fellowship it's a good thing but it's supposed to be a place of prayer and in acts it says that the the attitude of the apostles the the idea of what church was to the first century church is it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to fellowship to breaking a bread and a prayer it says they devoted themselves to those things and i hope that that is something that can be said about us is that we are devoted to the apostles teaching to fellowship to breaking bread and to prayer i think that's that should be our goal that's that's the bar that's been set and that's what we should aim for is to be devoted to those things but to persist in prayer means that you continue in prayer that you don't give up that you don't stop that you don't fall away colossians 4 2 says continue earnestly in prayer being vigilant in it with thanksgiving the word the words earnestly and vigilant patience and to continue diligently waiting and watching eagerly and expecting an answer there's another way that that could be translated and it's devote yourselves to prayer continue earnestly in prayer can be translated devote yourself to prayer and devote to devote yourself means to give all or a large part of your time and resources to something that's devotion right giving of your time and resource giving of yourself putting something into it devotion also has to do with consistency consistently doing it consistently praying devoting yourself to pray on a consistent basis i remember i was probably in college i remember having this thought you know i look at at muslims and their strict regiment of prayer right you know they have when it's prayer time it don't matter what they're doing they drop everything grab their mat throw it on the floor and fall on their face and i remember thinking to myself man why aren't christians that devoted to prayer right i i'm busy right now i'll pray later yeah with with muslims they're like i don't care what i'm doing it's time to pray and that's the way we should be we need to have that kind of devotion that it doesn't matter what else i'm doing i'm not i'm not too busy to pray that's the only thing that i would credit the muslims for uh you know i'm not i'm not saying we should model our lives after them or anything so don't get me wrong i'm just saying that they they have a good perspective on prayer i think we need to have a better perspective on prayer they're praying to the wrong deity that's unfortunate but they're very devoted devotion has to do with consistency if we only pray occasionally we're not devoted to prayer some people just pray when they feel like it right i don't really feel like praying i'm gonna do something else that's not devotion being devoted to prayer means we pray consistently even when we don't feel like it and even when it's not convenient when you're devoted to something you don't let anything else stop you or get in your way right what's what devotion means you you press on no matter what obstacles get in the way consider daniel daniel was a man who was devoted to god in prayer even though the king came and said you know anybody who is caught praying to any other deity except the ones that we tell you they're gonna be cast casting the lion's den daniel said i'm just gonna keep praying anyway three times a day and he didn't hide he sat by his window so they could see him he didn't go crawl under his bed and throws covers over him and say oh they won't see me here he knocked by the window he said i'm not afraid because he knew who he was praying to the apostles were devoted to prayer into the teaching of the word right that's what the new testament tells us that they were devoted to prayer and to the teaching of the word that's why they elected deacons so so that the deacons could attend to other matters so that the apostles continue in their devotion to prayer in the teaching of the word they didn't want to waste their time on other things because they wanted to pray and preach continually and we waste so much time doing meaningless things have you ever thought about how you spend your time throughout the day what meaningless things you might spend your time on and i know i've mentioned this before but facebook is the devil right it is it's the biggest time waster in most of everybody's life right now and you guys say amen but i guarantee you you're gonna go get on it today or tomorrow or sometime in the next couple days and you know i just it is the biggest time waster in your life probably for most of you maybe not all of you some of you are smart and have stopped using facebook a long time ago but it is a huge waste of your time and not only that but what you're getting out of it is junk right you're getting goofy memes you're getting arguments you're getting false news i mean like the only beneficial thing to it is hey i could still talk to my aunt whoever in another state because this is you know apparently her phone doesn't work right well this is the only way i get to see pictures of my grandkids your your grandkids won't give you pictures have you ever asked i don't know there's i just feel like there's a lot of excuses for why people continue wasting time on facebook but uh you know video games is another one of those things people you know i can't believe how many people are in their 30s and 40s and 50s who still play video games seriously grow up i stopped playing video games when i was a teenager i realized that it's a big waste of your time what are you getting out of it seriously how much time do people spend watching movies and tv what are you getting out of that it's a big waste of your time not to mention it's morally compromising you there's nothing on there that's worth watching i mean how many times have you seen a tv show man oh i that show just really blessed me and brought me closer to god this doesn't happen very often does it i mean unless all you watch is like christian movies and shows if you watch anything that's on the mainstream media it is morally decaying it's designed to be that way they're trying to compromise your ethical standards that's why they're doing what they're doing it's just slowly pushing the bar a little bit further and a little bit further and a little bit further until pretty soon you don't realize how morally corrupt you are it's a waste of your time and is corrupting your morals there's so many things in our life that we waste time on and we're running short on time i don't know if you're paying attention but yeshua's gonna be coming back soon i'm not trying to set dates or times but just look around we're running short on time do you really want to be playing video games when he shows up do you really want to be playing on facebook when he shows up like what do you want to be doing what do you want to be doing when he shows up is he going to be like hey come on and you'll be like hang on a second i gotta finish this level right hang on there's somebody posted something really funny on facebook i got to respond to this person they they said something stupid i need to let them know oh yeah i'm not supposed to say that word sorry but that's come on is it really that important or is it just wasting your time time that you could be doing something more valuable with and i know i'm ranting we need to recognize the things in our life that are meaningless the things that are stealing our time away from god i mean it's we need to make spending time with the lord a priority hey really what else is more important can anybody think of anything more important than spending time with the lord something you could say you know what god you can wait because this thing is more important anybody think of anything god i can't talk to you right now because i'm too busy with this because this is more important to me than you are that's basically what we say when we refuse to spend time with him isn't it god i can't i can't spend time with you in the mornings because sleep is too important to me i can't fast and pray at lunchtime because food is too important to me i can't spend time with you in prayer in the evening because i got to watch my shows these things are too important to me to give up to spend time with you is what you're saying spending time with the lord should be the highest priority in our life you know i told you guys a while back that you know i i've never been a morning person and you know it's always been hard for me to get up i'd have jobs where i'm supposed to be at work early in the morning and i'd drag into work late most of the time because i just had such a hard time getting out of bed college i had a hard time getting the early morning classes i dragged myself to class late almost every time i've always had a hard time with the mornings and this year god has showed me the importance of coming early and spending time in prayer with him and unless i am just completely worn out beat exhausted cannot move which has happened a few times i've been waking up at like 6 or 6 30 to go pray and it's been amazing and i actually look forward to waking up in the mornings again unless i am just exhausted beat down worn out cannot move kind of tired because i've been working so hard and so long and so late that i just wore myself out after you know six or seven days of staying up late and get up early and working all you know around the clock but you know for months now since before passover right coming in up at like 6 or 6 30 and it's been the most amazing thing and i would encourage you guys seek him early he says he wants the first fruits he wants the first part of your day he wants the first part of your life give him the best give him the first give him you know start your day praying spending time with the lord in prayer because if you don't start your day in prayer you know put him first your the rest of your day is apparently more important right and that's basically what you're saying is i'm i'll i'll put you off till later when i'm done with all the important stuff i got to get out of i got to do all throughout the bible we see men of god who rise early in the morning to pray all through our christian history we see men of god rising early in the morning to pray spending time intentionally spending time throughout the day and prayer and again i'm i'm harping and i'm rambling so but it's important okay we're supposed to give ourselves continually to prayer again that doesn't mean don't do anything else you just spend all day in some kind of a you know my mind is praying while i'm trying to drive my car or something that's not what it means that's great if you can multitask like that but you know don't cause yourself to drive into the back of a semi truck because you're not paying attention what you're doing okay but it means to continue in prayer to persist in prayer to to be devoted to prayer to make it a priority in your life we're also told to pray with faith and this is this is what ties in to the end of what he said right will he find this kind of faith on earth when he returns we're supposed to pray with faith believing that we will receive like in luke 11 he says you know ask and receive seeking a fine knock the door will be open this is the kind of prayer that he's looking for is people who pray expecting an answer people who pray believing in a god who answers prayers is by faith that we receive anything from the lord that's the only way we receive stuff from the lord is by faith through faith because you believe by faith we are saved by faith we are healed the bible says we walk by faith we're to pray with faith faith is trusting in god faith is believing in god believing he is who he says he is faith is believing the word of god and that the word of god is true and that the word of god tells us the truth about god that he is what the bible says he is that he is who the bible says he is believing the word of god that's faith faith is believing the promises of god believing and trusting that what he said he's going to do he's actually going to do that he's a man of his word that he doesn't lie right this is faith faith is trusting that god hears your prayer faith is trusting that god is there and that he cares that he's listening faith is believing that god answers prayers this is the kind of prayer we should be praying is it praying to a god who listens who loves who cares who's compassionate who's kind who wants to hear your prayers and who wants to help this is who you're talking to and not only does he want to but he is able to he's he has the ability to answer your prayer there's no prayer you can pray that he doesn't have the ability to answer he's god right he created all things he has the ability and he loves you and he cares for you and he's compassionate he's kind and he wants to answer your prayer this is who you're praying to and so do we come to him in faith that he is who he says he is he's a loving kind of compassionate god who is able to do all things is this the kind of faith we have when we come to him consider that all of the great men of faith in the bible were made of prayer abraham moses david daniel the prophets they're all men of prayer right these men understand that nothing is impossible for god and so they prayed with faith when they went before armies vastly outnumbered they knew that they prayed the god would give them victory right because they knew what god they were praying to the sick are healed through prayer the dead are raised through prayer barren women give birth because of prayer storms cease and rain comes because of prayer we see all these examples in the bible battles are fought and victories are won through prayer all these things are possible because prayer gives ordinary men access to the almighty god it has nothing to do with you that's the thing a lot of people don't realize you know when you pray and somebody's healed it has absolutely nothing to do with you you did not heal that person god did don't take credit for it give credit to god because he answered your prayer james chapter one verse six three says but let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the lord he is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways it says ask in faith without doubting and i think this is one of the biggest roadblocks to our prayer is being double-minded okay we ask but we don't really believe you know on one hand we believe in god we believe that god answers prayers but on the other hand maybe he didn't hear my prayer or maybe he won't answer my prayer i know he answers prayers but i don't know if he answers mine i know he hears prayers but i don't know if he hears mine we have these doubts in our mind right it says we pray without doubt believe god is love but we think maybe he doesn't love me yes i know god is love god is love all throughout the bible god is love right it's a mantra that people chant god is love love is god you know we're we're just but does god love me i'm not sure and so when i offer up that prayer and i don't know if he actually loves me or not there's doubt we believe god is all-powerful but can he handle this one i mean this is a pretty big request can he really handled this prayer i mean i know he he did all kinds of amazing things in the bible but does he still do that i mean maybe he's not in the miracle business anymore right or maybe he's just not gonna do it for me because i'm not as cool as elijah or i'm not as godly as moses or you know whatever maybe he's not gonna answer my prayer because i'm not good enough i mean whatever your doubts are if you're you're praying with doubt you're you're not praying with faith and the bible says you're double-minded and that your prayers aren't going to accomplish anything because you're not praying with faith says let let not that man suppose that he will receive anything because he he didn't pray with faith it says he's double-minded and unstable matthew 17 verse 19-20 says then disciples came to jesus privately and said why could we not cast it out he was familiar with the story right they're trying to cast out this demon and they can't do it he comes along and he does it his response to them jesus said to them because of your unbelief for surely i say to you if you have faith as a mustard seed you will say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you the reason you can't cast out this demon is because you don't have faith you have unbelief he says if you have faith of a mustard seed you can cast this mountain tell it where to go and what he's getting at is true faith is single-minded it's not double-minded right what james was talking about you know me a double-minded man have faith mixed with doubt why does he use a seed all throughout the bible you look at the torah what what is the seed and we have various seeds going to plant right you plant seeds you grow crops and things like that you talk about the seed of men seed of god seed of abraham seed of the promise there's all kinds of seeds throughout the bible he told parables about seeds man scattered seed on the ground some grew some didn't all kinds of seeds throughout the bible why is a seed constantly being used and the torah we're told not to mix seeds this is why there's an issue with polygamy right is your mixing of seed he says you're not to plant two kinds of seed in the soil he says you're not to mix two kinds of animals together there's all kinds of mixing he says don't do this i don't want mixture i want it to be pure i gave you a seed of corn i want it to stay corn i gave you a seed of wheat i want it to stay wheat you have a cow i want it to remain a cow like whatever the thing is he wants it to stay pure and he doesn't want the mixture it's the mixing that's the problem and he's saying this about our faith too that if you have faith like a mustard seed this tiny little seed but it's pure right it's not mixed with anything else it's about the purity of your faith not about the size of your faith is what he's saying right this mustard seed's teeny tiny but it's pure it's unmixed it's faith without doubt it's not about the size of the seed it's about its purity now let's go back to luke 18. after the parable of the persistent widow yeshua told a second parable about prayer and in this parable he addresses the attitude of the person who comes to god so luke 18 verse 9 let's continue on also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they despised others okay this is he's telling us who he's about to describe okay he's already giving us the answer before he tells us the question right this is the cheat sheet he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others trusting in your own righteousness and despising others looking down on others two men went up to the temple to pray one a pharisee and the other tax collector the pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself god i thank you that i am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even this tax collector i fast twice a week i give tithes of all that i possess but the tax collector standing far off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but he beat his breasts saying god be merciful to me a sinner i tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted when we read stories like this in the bible we always like to put ourselves in the good guy the hero the the one who did right we want to think of ourself in that position right you know we read the parable of the the the soils and we say oh i'm good soil i'm not that rocky soil i'm not that uh weedy soil i'm i'm the good soil okay everybody should be like me we want to think of ourselves that way right that's the temptation but what we need to do is put ourselves in like for example in this story and see ourselves as the pharisee we always want to see ourselves as the the guy who prayed right i'm i'm the guy who comes before god the right way you know i i come humbly and i'm oh god please have mercy on me but more often than not i think we fall into the other category whether we realize it or not what he was describing here as a pharisee was a religious man a person who was a regular church attender someone who read their bible regularly someone who prayed regularly someone who worshipped regularly someone who didn't lived according to god's commandments who is trying to follow god when he's when he spoke about a pharisee the people of that day saw they saw the pharisee as someone to look up to someone to be like the pharisees set the standard they set the bar they were the religious leaders right they weren't the bad guy but yeshua was flipping it upside down and saying this guy who you all look up to this guy who seems so righteous this guy who seems like he's got it all together this this religious person that you know maybe he's maybe he's the pastor maybe he's the worship leader maybe he's an elder maybe he's just somebody who who is teaching a class maybe somebody who's just further along than you and you look up to him and you're like this guy he's got it all together that's who yeshua is describing here and he says when he says this he says there's a pharisee that's what people had in their mind was someone who they looked up to in our day and age we've heard these stories about the pharisees or whitewashed tombs the pharisees are hypocrites don't be like the pharisees avoid the leaven of the pharisees we've heard all these things right so when we hear pharisee we're like oh boo pharisee i don't want to be a pharisee in his day the pharisees that was the guy that everybody looked up to and he said this pharisee didn't approach god the right way you're saying this man that you all look up to this man that you see is so righteous he sees himself as righteous too and that's part of the problem because he thinks he's better than this other guy and he's judging this other guy he's casting judgment on this other person and saying i'm at least i'm not as bad as he is thank you god that i'm not like that guy and that's the attitude a lot of christians seem to have and when i say christians i mean messianic believers as well you know anybody who believes in yeshua i'm gonna lump into that category called christian and i say that because i know some people in this movement have offense at that term and they say oh i don't want to be called a christian i'm something else you believe in jesus you believe in your show you're a christian you may not like that term but that's a biblical term okay it's found in in the new testament right there in the book of acts at antioch they were first called christians right people want to reject that term but it's a biblical term and it's okay i know a lot of people in this movement are having issues with that right now it's not something to have an issue over the purpose of this parable is to show us our errors and our flaws when he says that this tax collector tax collectors in that day i mean they were like the scum of the scum and you think about what he's describing is a fellow jew who decided to go work for the roman government and rob and swindle and cheat his other fellow jews of their taxes and because their taxes weren't righteous they were constantly robbing and swindling people out of money okay any of you guys seen um what's that show called the the chosen matthew how they depict matthew in that and how everybody hates him that's because he was a tax collector and that was how they looked at tax collectors there everybody hates him he's getting rich by swindling us you know he's a turncoat he's a traitor he's he's working for the bad guys he's working for the romans and so when yeshua talked about a tax collector they would picture the scum of the scum like he is the worst of the worst you know we i think a lot of times we don't think about that you know we're like okay so you know he collected taxes i got to pay taxes everybody's got paid taxes what's the big deal it wasn't the same back then it was a very different attitude towards and i know people don't like tax collectors even today you know it's like i pay my taxes dang it why they always have to take money out of my check you know like we don't like it but we don't look at tax collectors as like you know the worst of sinners but that's kind of the attitude they had towards them and so he's describing this pharisee who's considered the most righteous of the righteous and the tax collector is the worst of sinners and that's basically who he's contrasting here excuse me i have a tickle in my throat that means i've been talking too much but we don't like to consider that we might be the pharisee in this scenario the one who goes before god in the right of the wrong way it's easy for us to want to point out other people's flaws and sins and we do that so we can overlook our own so many times we we get in this trap of comparing ourselves to other people you know i'm feeling kind of crummy about myself but you know what i'm not as bad as he is cory wears sneakers at least i wear boots right see i got one on you cory you wearing sneakers today you wearing boots yeah see it doesn't matter you're not wearing boots but you know we like to do that we want to lift ourselves up by pushing somebody else down we look down on somebody else to make us feel better about ourselves at least i'm not as bad as that person or you you may not even rationalize that to yourself you just see me like look at that guy can you believe him can you believe her what are they even doing here why are they here at church they're not they're not really believers well they don't believe like us anyway they got they're just going to ruin the church we we should just get them out of here like why are they here that's attitude a lot of people have right and it's like well you know yeshua said to take that thing out of your eye first before you try to pick that other thing out of their eye right take the plank out of your eye before you get the splinter out of their eye isn't that what it was that's that's how people act though they they look and they see everybody else's flaws but they don't want to look in the mirror and that's what this pharisee was doing thank you god that i'm not like that guy man i i tithe i fast i'm i'm not robbing people come on i'm a good i'm a good strong christian believer i go to church every week i read my bible i pray i fast i'm good to go i'm not like that guy not like that girl the pharisee represents a religious person who's trusting in his own righteousness that's the way yeshua described it right he's trusting in his own righteousness and despised others he isn't being humble he doesn't see his own sins or shortcomings but he's very aware of everybody else's yeah you know you've heard the the phrase when you you point a finger somebody there's three more pointing back at you you know that's you got to do this there's nothing pointing to me now right all of you not me no but that's that's the the pharisee right he's always pointing a finger somebody else not willing to look in the mirror they want to expose other people let's expose them do you know what so-and-so did do you hear what so-and-so put on facebook why are you on facebook i thought we talked about that they're too concerned with pulling the splinter from someone else's eye they don't even notice the plank in their own that's why yeshua refers to them as hypocrites and he tells us not to be like them matthew 6 5 says and when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues around the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men assuredly i say to you they have their reward okay is one to appear holy and righteous and good i must be going long the crowd's getting smaller am i saying things you don't like are you just getting tired and hungry right was the if they went out from us they they were never among us anyway is that the phrase maybe they'll be back these religious people like to make everybody think they have it all together right the pharisee wants to look good on the outside look like he's got it all put together look like there's nothing wrong with him i'm i'm such a godly righteous person i don't do that right that's the attitude of pharisee right i wouldn't dare do such a thing i don't even drink coffee right i mean that's that's like the kind of attitude you see in a pharisee they put on a show and they want to make themselves appear to be righteous and holy and they're always looking down on other people and pointing out other people's flaws they like coming to church because it makes them feel good about themselves right because they get all the attention they get everybody oh wow you know you're such a good guy you got it all together i wish i was more like you wow i loved it love it hear you pray i love to hear it when you sing right they get these feel-good accolades and they feel like they've accomplished something and so they love going to church because they feel great about themselves and they also feel good about themselves because they can look around everybody else and say oh do you see that do you hear about that this is a pharisee they like to judge others they like to gossip because it makes them feel good about themself they forget how great their own sin is and they forget their own need for grace and mercy they forget what god has done for them the grace and mercy and forgiveness that god extended to them they forget to extend that to other people i think that's the biggest problem because you look at this pharisee and he says i'm sure glad i'm not like that tax collector instead of saying wow do you see that the tax collector's here let's go let's go pray with him and encourage him and i'm so excited that god is god must be doing something in his heart because he's here and he's praying this is awesome i'm glad i'm not like that guy what's he even doing here anyway he's a tax collector can you believe it like that's the difference he forgets the grace and mercy of god and he doesn't extend that to others he doesn't go to the tax collector and say man i forgive you i know you robbed and swindled me but i forgive you and i'm so glad you're here i pray that god will continue to work in your life that's what he should have said to him right something along those lines but they're unwilling to forgive others for their sins and the bible says because this god is willing is unwilling to forgive them for theirs mark 11 25 says and whenever you stand praying if you have anything against anyone forgive him that your father in heaven may also forgive you your trespass when you stand praying you need to be willing to forgive others who've trespassed against you or else god is unwilling to forgive you for your trespass the bible says all of sin to fall short of the glory of god none of us are without sin so who are you to judge someone else for their sin when you have sin also when we pray we are supposed to be vessels of grace towards other people not look down on them in judgment that's why this pharisee why his prayer is an abomination why was not received because prayer is a time especially when we come before the lord that we are looking for grace from him we need to be willing to give grace to others luke 16 15 it says and he said to him you are those who justify yourselves before men but god knows your hearts for what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of god this is what's going on here in this parable this pharisee is trying to justify himself i'm not like these wicked people i i tithe i fast i attend synagogue i pray i do all these things right i'm keeping i keep the sabbath i keep kosher i keep the feasts like whatever you're trying to do to justify yourself you try to justify yourself you're acting like the pharisee the bible says that we go to yeshua and he justifies us that he is our justification he is our righteousness he is our salvation if you're trying to justify yourself you're doing it wrong he was unwilling to forgive that man so god was unwilling to forgive the pharisee matthew 6 14 and 15 says for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your father in heaven forgive you your trespasses but when we look at the tax collector we find a very different approach to god in prayer he realized his own sin and he was not trying to justify himself or compare himself with others he approached god in humility he cried out for mercy god have mercy on me this is how we should all come before the lord god have mercy on me who of us has the right to stand in god's presence on our own by our own righteousness by our own holiness who of us has that right to stand in the presence and the throne of god raise your hand okay none of us do we all fall on his mercy we all have to fall on our face before him and cry out lord have mercy on me i don't deserve your grace but please extend your mercy and your grace to me we all need to approach god the way this tax collector did this is it reminds me of david's prayer in psalm 51 after his sin with bathsheba psalm 51 1 have mercy on me o god according to your love and kindness according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions this is the kind of heart that this tax collector this is how he approached god when i'm unworthy to stand in your presence please have mercy on me extend grace and favor to me and hear my hear my prayer what this illustrates is when we come to god we need to come to god humbly and realize our flaws and realize who we are coming before the king of kings and lord of lords the holy one and when we come before god in that way when we realize i am flawed i am sinful i am fallen i am unrighteous i am unholy and i'm coming before a holy god who is perfect who is righteous who is good who never makes a mistake how can i dare judge anyone else when i have that realization that i know i fall so far short of the standard of righteousness i fall so far short of what god calls holy how can i judge you for not being what i think you should be for not being where i think you need to be look you've been a christian for at least three months now come on you need to be further along than that we need to be people who give grace to others extend them the same grace that god extended you you know i i grew up in church i was raised in in a christian home i was baptized when i was five i felt called to ministry when i was eight went to bible college and studied theology got a degree in theology pursued god my whole life basically i was in my early 30s when he opened my eyes to start seeing sabbath and the feasts that was a grace that he gave right that he he said you know what i'm gonna i'm gonna show you the sabbath you understand that's a grace because in hosea he says i'm gonna hide my sabbaths and feasts from them as part of a punishment and so for him to open up our eyes to keeping the sabbath the feast that's a grace that god is extending to us and so for me to judge my brothers and sisters who don't keep the sabbath and the feasts yet who are you to judge another man's servant romans 14 says who are you to judge another man's servant because they don't they don't get it yet because god didn't open their eyes i was a christian for 30 years before god opened my eyes to the sabbath and i was pursuing him studying pursuing trying to gain as much knowledge of the scriptures as i possibly could it didn't come by just simply opening up the bible and reading it it didn't it's because the holy spirit opened my eyes and said look again and so who am i to judge someone else if they don't see it yet god hadn't showed it to him yet i think so many times in this particular sect of christianity it's easy for us to want to play judge you know all those nazarenes and man they go to church on sunday they're sharing their building with us it sure is nice of him it's a nice space to meet we have a place where we can come together maybe we should be thankful we need to stop judging other people and realize that we are all sinners the bible says all of sin falls short of the glory of god romans 3 23 all of us have sinned so the next time you're tempted to judge someone else remember that pharisee when you look down on somebody else you think a negative thought about him you talk bad about him remember that pharisee look in the mirror and then repent for acting like him so yeshua tells two parables here about prayer this widow with the unjust judge and the pharisee and the tax collector and in both of these parables he's comparing righteousness and unrighteousness right we have this unjust judge this widow who's seeking justice we have this pharisee who's judging unrighteously and we have this tax collector who is calling on grace and so in two really in a sense we have the same story an unjust judge in both stories and someone who is praying crying out for grace in both stories you ever thought about that before it's interesting when yeshua pairs things up like that together oftentimes he does that with parables he tells two parables that are seem different but then you as you start looking at them you realize they're they're connected he says we're supposed to be like this widow persist in in our prayers continue and do not lose heart to be steadfast devoted to prayer but also remember not to be judgmental like the pharisee but come humbly calling out on god's god for grace crying out knowing that we are not worthy but that he is so good would you bury us with me

Channel: The Grafted Church

Views: 1,078

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Keywords: church online, sermon, Bible Teaching, Lex Meyer, Grafted Church, torah, Yeshua, prayer

Id: 7KTquTCPtTY

Length: 92min 32sec (5552 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2021