JESUS ON TALKING TO GOD

Father, teach us to talk to you.

Help us to talk to you.

Father, you know that many of us are afraid of talking to you about certain matters.

Maybe matters that are too hard for us to bring to you.

Father, you know that some of us have given up talking to you about certain matters

because we've lost heart.

We don't believe that you hear.

It feels as if we talk to just empty space when we talk to you about certain things.

Father, you know those amongst us who struggle with talking to you

because we have given up and lost heart.

Father, you know how easy it is for us to talk to you

in ways that's really just talking about only ourselves

and how we can look down on others and not even be aware of it.

Father, we ask that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us

to teach us and help us to talk to you, to pour out our heart to you,

to be honest with you, to hold nothing back in talking to you.

Father, this is our prayer.

This is our cry.

Teach us from your word.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Amen.

So another Starbucks story.

They should start paying for my coffee, I suppose.

I don't know.

So just a couple of weeks ago, a Jewish friend of mine at a Starbucks,

and he knows I'm a Christian, he knows a pastor,

and he came up to me and he said to me,

George, George, he said,

why aren't Christians doing something about what's happening

to other Christians in the Middle East?

He said, do Christians know just that,

and he used the word genocide,

he said, does he know that,

do the Christians in Canada know the genocide

that's going on in places like Iraq and Syria against Christians?

Why?

This is a Christian nation.

That's what he said to me.

This is a Christian nation.

Why are you silent and doing nothing about such genocide?

And so we talked about it for 10 minutes or so,

and I'm not going to tell you everything that I said,

although partly, I guess, by sharing it with you,

I'm doing at least a tiny bit about it.

And I did tell him that at least in our church,

we pray for persecuted Christians.

And I also, we had a bit of a conversation

as to whether or not Canada's a Christian nation

and what it means to be a Christian.

But, you know, still sort of that is a bit of a challenge for us,

that there is genocide as a killing of people,

really usually for racial lines,

and of course, Christians are not of one particular race or culture.

We come from every race and culture,

but there still is such a slaughter going on there.

Some people would maybe wonder that the reason

that we Christians don't speak up about such matters

is because our Bible tells us not to speak up,

that our Bible tells us to be like little children,

that our Bible tells us to grovel,

like Jesus' parable.

Some might say that the tax collector was groveling,

and if we are being taught to grovel,

then we won't stand up.

If we're taught to be like little children,

we won't stand up.

And so part of the reason that that slaughter goes on

is because our Bible is teaching us to not stand up.

Well, let's look and see what the Bible actually says

about some of these issues.

So if you have your Bibles,

please turn in them to Luke chapter 18,

Luke 18 · chapter mention

beginning at verse 1,

and we're going to look at those.

There's sort of three little units of teaching.

Some of you who are familiar with the Bible,

all three of them are quite familiar.

Others of you who are maybe newer on the Christian walk

or are seekers,

some of them might have come to you as a bit of a surprise.

But let's, one of them,

the thing about children is in three of the Gospels,

but let's look at this and see,

is the Bible in fact encouraging us to grovel?

Is it encouraging us to never stand up for ourselves?

And what on earth is Jesus doing

with these different analogies?

And why does he compare God to an unjust judge?

So Luke chapter 18, beginning at the first verse,

Luke 18 · chapter mention

and here's how it goes.

And Jesus told them a parable to the effect

that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

Just sort of pause here before we read.

This is going to be a bit of a different sermon than others,

because in this sermon,

I mean, in these three texts,

especially the first two,

Jesus basically gives the purpose of the parable

and he tells us what the parable's about.

Often that happens, by the way, in the parables,

but in these two particular things,

Jesus sort of tells us what the point is.

And here it is in first one.

An old Christian writer who wrote about,

you know, many hundreds of years ago

said that in these parables,

it's Jesus left the key to the parable outside the door.

So that you had the key that you could open up

the meaning of the parable

and he gives it to you outside the door

as you come up to the parable,

rather than at the end

or maybe a few verses after the parable.

So this is going to be the purpose of the first parable.

He told them this parable, verse one,

to the effect that they ought always to pray

and not lose heart.

And so how does he sort of illustrate that

or try to bring it home?

He tells a parable, verse two.

He said, in a certain city,

there was a judge who neither feared God

nor respected men.

And that's sort of a general Christian teaching

about other times,

some other time I'll talk about the fear of God,

but it's sort of a very common Christian understanding,

New Testament understanding

that we are to have a fear of God,

but we are to respect human beings.

Most of us struggle with fearing human beings

and completely and utterly ignoring God.

But the Bible tries to encourage us

to understand that we're not to fear human beings,

that we're to have a fear of God,

which we'll talk about some other time,

but we're to respect human beings.

Anyway, so verse two again.

He said, in a certain city,

there was a judge who neither feared God

nor respected men.

And there was a widow in that city

who kept coming to him and saying,

give me justice against my adversary.

Just sort of pause here.

Some of you have rich imaginative lives

and you picture things.

So when you're picturing this widow,

don't necessarily picture an old woman.

In the ancient world, at the time of Jesus,

women were usually given in marriage

at the age of 13 or 14.

So this widow could be 15.

Okay?

She could be 15 or 16.

She could be very, very, very young.

And as well as that,

given the context of the parable,

it's probably some type of,

it's probably something to do with inheritance,

mentioning the widow.

In other words, her adversaries are her family,

who would have controlled the inheritance

from their son who died

and are probably withholding it from her.

Okay?

So if you want to sort of enter into it imaginatively,

that's what's sort of going on.

I mean, it could be an old woman,

but it could very well be just somebody who's 15.

And so we read verse 3 again.

And there was a widow in that city

who kept coming to the unjust judge

and saying, give me justice against my adversary.

For a while, the unjust judge refused,

but afterward he said to himself,

and it's really interesting what he says to himself.

It shows that he's not bothered in the least

by the fact that he doesn't fear God

or respect people.

He knows that about himself.

He still has a good night's sleep every night.

I mean, that's just the way some of us are, isn't it?

It's not the fact that we deal with people

who might oppress others

and then go home and have tormented sleep.

The world is filled with people

who do horrendous things to other people

and then have a really good night's sleep.

And they know they do horrendous things to other people.

And that's what's being portrayed here with the judge.

He knows about himself.

It doesn't bother him at all.

It doesn't stir anything within him whatsoever

about repentance or amendment of life.

So listen to how he speaks to about himself.

Verse four, for a while he refused,

but afterward he said to himself,

though I neither fear God nor respect man,

yet because this widow keeps bothering me,

I will give her justice

so that she will not beat me down

by her continual coming,

coming back to him time and time and time again.

Sort of going to be, it's relevant for the prayer.

The woman doesn't have family connections.

She doesn't have wealth.

She doesn't have a social system

that's going to force the judge to act.

She only has one thing, persistence.

That's a very relevant thing for us.

Some of us have high IQs.

Some of us are, IQs aren't very high.

Some of us are rich.

Some of us are well off.

Some of us aren't.

Some of us are well educated.

Some of us aren't.

Different races, different nationalities,

different ethnic groups, different things.

The Bible isn't telling us

we have to all have high IQs

or high income or high education.

If it did, it would leave a lot of us out.

What it's telling us about

is something that we all can potentially do,

which is persist.

To persist.

To persist.

It's something within the grasp

of every person who hears.

So verse six,

and the Lord said,

hear what the unrighteous judge says,

and will not God give justice to his elect

who cry to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them?

I tell you,

he will give justice to them speedily.

Nevertheless,

when the son of man comes,

will he find faith on earth?

Now,

I'm not going to talk about unanswered prayer today.

One of the reasons

I'm not going to talk about unanswered prayer today

is that in a couple of weeks,

we're going to deal with

the most famous example

in the New Testament of unanswered prayer,

where Jesus asks for something

that he doesn't get.

So I thought,

and you can remind me

when you can see it coming up,

that I'll talk about unanswered prayer

that particular week.

I'm not going to talk this morning

about those of us

who struggle with talking to God

about when we've talked to him

about all sorts of things

and nothing seems to have happened.

We'll talk about that in another day.

But the thing that we need to sort of,

there's some other things here

that we need to see about the text.

And the first one is this.

This is the point,

if you could put it up, Andrew.

As I walk with Jesus and others

on the Jesus way,

he wants me to talk to him

again and again and again

and never lose heart.

That's what Jesus wants.

That's what he's asking you and me to do.

The Jesus way is not a private way.

It's personal, but it's not private.

Jesus, we all enter into the Jesus way

one by one

when we put our faith in Jesus

and trust what he's done for us.

We trust his person and his work.

But we walk the Jesus way.

In other words, we live our lives 24-7 lives.

We walk it with Jesus and with others.

That's what the Jesus way is.

And so these first three points

that I'm going to share with you,

they're always going to begin

with this same phrase.

As I walk with Jesus and others

on the Jesus way,

here's the first thing.

He wants me to talk to him

again and again and again

and again and again and again

and never lose heart.

That's what he wants.

He wants to commune with me

and have communion with me.

And it tells me something about who I am

and about who God is.

It's quite astounding

that he wants me to talk to him.

He wants you to talk to him.

Now, my wife is not able

to be at church today

because somebody foolishly

put the car keys to the van

in their pocket and left the house.

And you're looking at him.

So, yeah, I feel really bad about it.

I really do.

I got a text and I got,

oh, dang.

Anyway, so, but here's the thing.

If I go back to Louise

and after I've apologized to her,

I said to her,

you know, Louise,

I've had a great spiritual breakthrough.

I'm no longer going to talk to you.

I'm going to meditate in your presence.

I'm going to do yoga in your presence.

I'm going to do rituals in your presence,

but I'm not going to talk to you.

Well, that would fly like a lead balloon, right?

In fact, if I tried to actually meditate

in her presence,

she'd probably hit me,

you know, slap me or punch me,

you know, in a playful wake-up type of way

to try to get my attention, right?

Because in a marriage,

you talk to each other.

I mean, you have times

when you're just silent in the house

and maybe you have times

when you're mad at each other

and you're silent because you're mad,

but, and sometimes you're just silent

because you're comfortable with each other,

but you talk.

You talk to each other.

And so, you see,

this is one of the things

which is so astounding

about the Jesus way

is that in many other ways,

like in most Eastern religions,

you don't talk to God.

The primary thing you do

is you follow certain types of steps

or processes

and maybe you learn how to do yoga

as part of a process

of self-enlightenment,

of getting in touch

with the God within

or the God without

or whatever it is,

but you don't actually talk to God.

And it's because that,

it doesn't mean that

the biblical account is true,

but it's just important

that you understand it,

is that the Bible portrays

that God is a God

that we talk to.

He wants us to talk to him.

He doesn't want us to be

in his presence

just meditating

or doing yoga

or doing rituals.

He wants us to talk to him.

And it's because God is personal

and we are made in his image

as personal beings

and so we are to talk,

to talk to him again

and again

and again

and again

and again.

The other thing is that

some of you might say,

well, why does God want us

to talk to him again

and again

and again

and again?

Many of you have maybe heard

the famous saying by Einstein

that one definition of insanity

is doing the same thing

over and over and over again

hoping for a different result.

And so for some people,

the idea that we would talk to God

time and time and time

and time again

hoping for a different result,

that if we think that way

or we feel that way,

then what we're doing

is we're not thinking of God

as a person.

We're thinking of God

as something like a machine,

something completely

and utterly impersonal.

So for instance,

if you go to your bank machine

and you type in your PIN number

and it doesn't work

and then you type in your PIN number

and it doesn't work

and then you type in your PIN number

and it doesn't work

and you type in your PIN number

and it doesn't work

and you have some type of disorder

and it doesn't work.

And in fact, actually, as you know, with machines,

machines that are impersonal, they don't sort of say,

oh yeah, that's sort of in the ballpark of the PIN number,

so I'm going to accept it, because I know the person's heart.

No, it has to be exactly, precisely right,

and if your PIN number doesn't work,

it means either you've got the wrong PIN number

or the machine's broken or something's happened,

and that's how impersonal things work.

But, you know, my wife and I have to talk about things

time and time and time and time again.

I know sometimes I'm a real slow learner,

and that's just, you don't just talk about your kids once

and then that's good for the next 30 years.

You talk about your kids all the time.

You talk about your relationship.

You talk about your plans.

You maybe go over the same thing over and over and over again

about just, you've just got to talk it through,

and that's what Jesus is saying.

He's saying that in our relationship with himself,

that in our relationship with our Father,

we're to talk to him again and again and again and again

and again and again, not give up talking.

And, you know, sometimes later on in your life,

like later on in my life, I'll think back to some of the things

I asked God for that bothered me that he didn't give them to me,

and I'm so happy in hindsight that he didn't give those things to me.

It would have been not good for my life if he'd answered my prayer

exactly the way I wanted him to answer my prayer.

And often, and other times when I'm praying and praying and praying

and talking about the same type of thing,

and by the way, don't think that I'm really great at persistence in prayer.

One of the things you can do is pray for me that I will be better

at praying with persistence.

Please pray for me that that will happen.

Pray for our church that we will be a church that prays

and talks to God time and time and time and time again,

that we'll trust in prayer more than we'll trust in techniques,

that we'll trust in prayer more than we'll trust in our own abilities

or the things that we can do.

Pray that we will be a congregation that talks to God again and again

and again and again.

And sometimes as we talk to God again and again and again and again,

we realize that we need to sort of switch in the things

that we're talking about, that God teaches us as we talk to him.

He tells us of something new that we have to become

or something new that we have to do or something new that we have to,

something that we've been doing for a long time,

we have to stop doing because prayer changes us.

And that's what Jesus is telling us to do.

As I walk with Jesus and others on the Jesus way,

he wants me to talk to him again and again and again and again

and again and again and never lose heart.

Now, some of you might say,

George, are you saying that Christians are better prayers than others?

And George, if Christians are such good prayers,

why is it that, I mean, you began this thing

by talking about the terrible things going on for Christians in the Middle East,

Christian communities that have existed for 1,900-plus years

all being obliterated and emptied.

Many of them killed and then they have to flee.

What about their prayers?

Maybe the Muslims pray better than the Christians

because the Muslims seem to be kicking butt over there

and the Christians are the butts that are being kicked.

Does that mean that Muslims are better prayers than Christians?

Like, are you saying that,

but are you saying that Christians are better at praying than others?

Like, what's going on with this talk

about how we are to be persistent in prayer?

Is Jesus talking about us somehow being better at things

or knowing more than others?

And what's he saying?

Well, let's read the next thing that Jesus talks about

because Jesus gives these sort of three,

actually, it's four linked things,

but we're going to talk about the rich man next week.

What is Jesus saying?

Well, let's look that he continues to sort of help to unfold

how we are to talk to him

and what's the attitude and the heart attitude

that we are to have when we talk to Jesus

and we talk to the Father.

Let's look at verse 9.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves

that they were righteous

and treated others with contempt.

So just pause.

Remember I said to you that in these two parables,

in some ways Jesus gives the key to the parable

on the outside of the door

so that we can unlock it.

This is partially the point of the sermon

and more primarily the target.

Sorry, not partially the point of the parable,

but primarily the target of the parable.

Okay?

He's zeroing in on something.

And he's zeroing in on those of us,

on those disciples and others

who trust in themselves that they were righteous

and treat others with contempt.

Two men, verse 10,

went up into the temple to pray,

one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus,

God, I thank you that I am not like other men,

extortioners, unjust, adulterers,

or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector standing far off

would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,

but beat his breast saying,

God, be merciful to me.

And actually, literally in the Greek,

it's the sinner.

And it's emphatic.

God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

I tell you, this man went down

to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,

but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

Just go up to verse 11 again.

Did you notice the I language of the first prayer?

There's a difference between making our prayers personal

and having our prayers be all about us

with the royal I, the royal ego at the heart of our prayers.

And this man isn't making his prayers personal.

It's all this I language.

Five times he says I.

Look at that.

God, I thank you that I am not like other men,

extortioners and just adulterers,

or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I get.

That's the heart of this guy's prayer.

And I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Braveheart.

By the way, when I say a movie like this,

it's pretty gory and stuff,

so I'm not necessarily recommending it.

But you might remember,

isn't this scene an Irish guy, of course,

who says that it's an other way.

He talks to God all the time,

and he says an Irishman has to talk to God

because he can't find an equal on earth to talk to

or something like that.

And that's the same type of idea here.

It's that type of an arrogance in the man's prayer.

And here's the point.

As I walk with Jesus and others on the Jesus way,

he warns me against all talking to him,

which flows from self-trust, self-righteousness,

self-congratulation, and contempt of others.

And he speaks it not to the Pharisees,

not to the Sadducees,

not to the politicians,

not to Pilate, not to Rome.

He speaks it to his disciples.

It's something that we who gather here in his name

need to take deeply to heart,

deeply to heart.

That's very easy for us to start to trust in ourselves,

trust in our own righteousness,

trust,

and congratulate ourselves in our prayers,

and treat others with contempt.

Now, some of us

have a hard time

sort of thinking that this could actually be about us.

I mean, basically,

one of the things that the Bible is telling us here

is that every one of us

struggle with self-righteousness.

You know, if you went to an AA meeting,

you'd begin, when you speak to yourself,

you'd say,

Hi, I'm George.

I'm an alcoholic.

In a sense, what Jesus is telling us

is that we need to realize

that we almost have to come into a church

and say,

Hi, Jesus.

I'm self-righteous.

I'm self-righteous.

And I'm trusting in a power higher than myself

to deal with my self-righteousness addiction,

my self-trust addiction,

my self-congratulation addiction,

and my contempt of others addiction.

You know why?

Well, because we're not like those charismatics

who always just talk about

Holy Spirit type of stuff.

Good grief.

All they do is crazy things.

You know, they bark like dogs

and run around like crazy.

We're not like those Anglo-Catholics.

All they do is this all the time

and this all the time

and kneel and bow and scrape

and wear frilly, lacy clothes,

and we're not like those.

No, we never would think and talk like this.

That would never be part of our self-awareness.

It would never be that any charismatic

would look down their nose at reformed types.

independence.

Or Anglo-Catholics.

It would never be the case

that some Anglo-Catholic

would look down their nose

at evangelicals or charismatic.

It would never be the case

that some brethren type or Baptist type

would look down their nose at Anglicans.

It would never be the case

that an Anglican would look down their nose

at a brethren or a Baptist.

It would never be a case

that any of us

would ever do something like that.

It would never be the case

that some of us

who vote conservative

would look down our nose

at those who vote liberal or NDP.

and it's never the case that anybody who votes NDP

would look down their nose at somebody who votes conservative.

This is a completely and utterly irrelevant problem.

Why does the Bible even talk about it?

See, it's a human problem.

One of the things I try, I'm not very successful about it,

you can pray for me,

but one of the things I try to talk about

when I talk with people in a Starbucks

and they make accusations against the Christian faith,

and I don't try to pretend that Christians haven't done really bad things,

I don't try to pretend that I haven't done any bad things,

but what I try to have them understand

is that what they're talking about is a human problem.

And the question is, as a human problem,

what does your religion or spirituality or ideology say about it,

and what resources does it have to deal with it?

And so here, Jesus very frankly puts his finger on a human problem.

Ford Nation in Toronto looks down their nose at the Toronto Star

and people who live in the Annex.

And people in the Toronto Star and the Annex look down their nose on Ford Nation.

It is a human problem,

and Jesus identifies it.

We struggle.

Actually, sorry, we don't struggle.

That's the problem.

A lot of us don't struggle with self-righteousness at all.

Don't struggle with contempt of others at all.

We're like the unrighteous judge.

We spend our whole day feeling self-righteous, self-satisfied, self-congratulatory,

look down our nose on others,

and then we have a great eight hours sleep and wake again to do it

with no self-knowledge, even in the least.

In the Bible, Jesus is trying to bring to us a human problem,

a human problem that causes division and keeps us separate from God.

And so Jesus warns us that as we walk with him and others in his way,

he warns me against all talking to him,

which flows from self-trust, self-righteousness,

self-congratulation, and contempt of others.

As I've said to you before, I don't know who first said it.

It wasn't my line.

We can't look up to God if we're looking down our nose at other people.

It's physically impossible.

And this text is just encouraging us to,

in a sense, partly what this text is teaching us to do,

I'm going to return to it in about 10 minutes,

but partly what this text is just trying to teach us is just to adore.

I mean, I was born a lot longer ago than maybe most of you here,

not all of you, but, you know, I haven't lived.

I have a beginning.

I have an end.

God is just big.

Like, you know, sometimes when I'm flying across the continent

or something like that, and I just think to myself,

it's as if God just puts into my thought a little bit for a moment,

this planet is so big,

and God has to be bigger than the planet to make the planet.

This galaxy, this universe, it is so big.

God has to be so big to form the galaxies and the stars

and the universe and the planets and all of these people.

God just has to be so big and so great

why am I thinking that I'm somehow his equal?

Why am I looking down my nose at other people

when God asks me to look up to the great God,

the planet shaping, planet spinning, galaxy holding,

universe forming God,

and this God asks little me to speak to him honestly,

as a creature,

as one who is self-righteous, self-satisfied,

self-trusting, and shows contempt to others,

and still he asks me to speak to him honestly,

and he invites you to speak to him honestly.

This is the real world,

not a false and an imaginary and religious and spiritual world,

but it is the real world.

Now some of you might say,

okay George,

but doesn't Jesus contradict himself?

You know, okay,

you're telling me that it's all about,

it's about not being,

you know,

about being humble

and not being like a black hole

and thinking about yourself

and looking at the bigness of God,

but George,

you have nine kids

and you have really good kids,

but kids are not humble.

They're not.

Kids do not spend all of their time

thinking about others.

I want,

I want,

I want,

and they throw little temper tantrums

when they don't get what they want.

I didn't intentionally pinch a child,

have somebody pinch a child at that moment,

just so you know.

I'm not that well organized.

You know,

kids aren't particularly humble.

Kids aren't particularly,

well, you know,

kids throw temper tantrums.

Adults throw temper tantrums on the inside.

Kids say,

why bother with it being on the inside

when I can go all out

to get that thing that I want?

You know,

kids are all about

wanting at least the same amount,

if not more.

Like,

once kids have siblings,

he has more space.

He has more cake.

He has more cookies.

She has more time with you.

She has,

he has,

she has.

That's what kids are like.

So, George,

isn't Jesus being a little bit contradictory?

Well,

let's look.

Verses 15 to 17.

Now,

they were bringing even infants to him

that he might touch them.

And when,

that's to bless them.

And when the disciples saw it,

they rebuked the,

the parents.

Um,

the,

the original language here is that

it's very,

very young children.

You're talking about kids

who are like 10 months old

and you're talking about

14 month old little toddlers

who walk like Frankenstein.

Okay.

It's the,

the language is it's identifying

very,

very young children.

So the disciples aren't rebuking

the children,

they're rebuking the parents.

And,

uh,

and then Jesus says,

verse 16,

but Jesus called them to him saying,

let the children come to me

and do not hinder them

for to such belongs

the kingdom of God.

Truly I say to you,

whoever does not receive

the kingdom of God

like a child

shall not enter it.

Um,

listen again,

let the children come to me

and do not hinder them

for to such belong

the kingdom of God.

Truly I say to you,

whoever does not receive

the kingdom of God

like a child

shall not enter it.

Now I'm going to explain

this point in a moment,

but I want to sort of

take a bit of a time

out in the sermon

and this is volunteer Sunday

and I'm not really good

at raw,

raw,

uh,

let's,

uh,

tackle these mountains.

Uh,

we're having everybody sign up.

Like I'm,

I'm just not very good at it.

Some of you have read my blog.

Um,

you know,

I,

I think a lot of churches

like pastors

who are like football coaches

who give inspiring speeches

and try to get you pumped up

and give you five great points

for success

and six reasons

why you should do something.

You read my blog

on Volunteer Sunday

and,

and it's like an exercise

in,

in whether the word volunteer

is in the Bible or not

and,

um,

it doesn't maybe

necessarily inspire you

although hopefully,

well,

I'm trying to make

an important point

because the word volunteer

isn't in the Bible

and,

um,

but,

but here's the thing.

Uh,

Jesus here is giving us

a very,

very specific challenge.

We're taking a bit of a break,

time out from prayer.

He's giving us

a very specific challenge

is that Jesus loves children

and one of the things

I can ask you to pray for

is just pray that God

will send more children

to the church.

Like,

please make that part

of your,

of your daily prayer

that God will send

children to the church

that he will find

that,

that God will change us

in some ways

so that we can minister

to children,

that we can love children,

that we can encourage children,

that we can bless children,

that we can share the gospel

with children,

that we can disciple children.

Pray that God

will use us

to bless children

by bringing them to Jesus.

Just pray for that

and ask yourself

whether God is calling you

to be involved

in some way

in this ministry

and I don't just mean

our established ministries,

I don't just mean

getting involved

with Sunday school

or the nursery

or with the youth group

but I'm also talking about

there's this huge potential

out there

and you know,

you know,

maybe what God

is calling us to do,

maybe God is calling

one of you to say,

you know what,

we can do six vacation

Bible schools this summer,

can't we?

We can do three downtown

and we can do three

in different neighborhoods

and surely that we can find

some way to do that

and maybe if not six,

maybe it's seven,

maybe it's four,

maybe it's some after type

of school program,

I don't know what it is

but the fact of the matter

is that Jesus tells us

that he loves children

and his people

should love children

and I just want

to really encourage you

not just to think about

whether God is calling you

to be involved

in reaching out to children

but just,

this is a Sunday

where we just want

to encourage people

that Jesus walked,

we enter one by one

but we walk it with others

and that means

that all of us

have some role to play

in walking with each other,

to encourage each other,

to equip each other,

to walk with each other

and I just want

to encourage you

to just pray to God,

talk to different people

and if none of the ministries

sort of scratch,

you don't want to sort of,

they don't just fit in

and maybe God is calling you

to help us

to walk into some new area

of ministry

and you should talk to Amy,

you should talk to me,

I just want to encourage you

to pray,

to pray about how

you can be involved

and specifically

on a Sunday like this,

how we can be involved

in heeding the words

of Jesus

of let the little children

come to me.

Okay,

back to the sermon.

Sorry.

I,

okay,

here's the point

and then I'm going to

start to unpack it.

As I walk with Jesus

and others

on the Jesus way,

he wants me

to receive his way

like a child.

As I walk with Jesus

and others

on the Jesus way,

he wants me

to receive his way

like a child.

Now this text

has caused lots of mischief

amongst Christians.

Lots and lots of mischief.

I,

when I was still part

of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa,

you would not believe

how many workshops

and other things

that I went to

and I'm not going

to just pick on them.

I've been at other types

of clergy things

and other things

where people encourage us

to get in touch

with their inner child,

to be more childlike,

to learn how to play.

I was a couple of years ago

at a major Christian

graduate institution.

I went for a,

for some continuing ed

and there were

a variety of speakers

and I came in after lunch

for the speaker

and,

and as I'm coming in,

there's somebody at the door

handing out paper

and crayons

for the workout.

And I said,

why are you handing out

paper and crayons?

She said,

well,

it's going to be

really necessary.

She's talking about

being more childlike.

And I told the person,

I'm sorry,

I was,

this is a very rude moment.

I was being very un-Canadian

and I said that

one of the rules

I have now developed

in my life

is I never go to a talk

by a professor

where I'm going to need

a crayon.

And so I went for a walk

instead

because I didn't want

to sit there

and try to play

with crayons

through a presentation.

The text is not

telling us

to get in touch

with our inner child,

to try to be like children.

What is that?

Anyway,

no,

I was going to say

something that

Johnny Depp said

that that would have

been a bit rude

so I won't say it.

You have to be careful

when you preach

the things that pop

into my head

you would not believe.

Sometimes I get in trouble

with it afterwards.

Here's the thing

a little bit about,

so first of all,

if Jesus only said

this about prayer,

if that's the only thing

Jesus said,

we'd be sort of stuck

with it.

But you notice

that this is a text

that talks about

a range of things.

And so from the very,

very first story

of the woman

and the unjust judge,

we can see that

what God gives us

is justice.

And we know

that children

aren't always really

concerned about justice.

In some ways,

children can be

like the unjust judge

in that they don't

necessarily respect

their parents,

respect their brother

and sister,

or fear God,

and they can still

have a perfectly fine

night's sleep.

And so the text

is telling us

that we have to be

concerned with justice

and fairness.

And the earlier text

is telling us

we have to be concerned

with humility

and understanding

that we're sinners

and that we're at fault.

So that the text,

whatever it means

about being like a child,

it's going to be balanced

by these other teachings

of Jesus on prayer.

But here's a way

to enter into it

at its heart.

When I was in Eganville,

it was a very unusual

experience for me.

I was a child,

am a child of immigrants

who came from

another country,

obviously.

I was born here

about a year after

they immigrated to Canada.

I grew up in Montreal.

I lived in Ottawa.

In a sense,

I don't have a home.

Like really,

for me,

home is where Louise is.

When I'm with Louise,

I'm home.

When I'm with Louise

and my kids,

I'm home.

It could be any city

in the world.

I don't have roots.

But there were people

in Eganville,

there was this one man,

his name was Jimmy,

and one of his great sorrows

was that he was

the fifth generation

to live and work

on that farm,

and he had not been able

to have children.

And there were many people

in Eganville

who were five

or six generations

in the same spot.

But here's the thing.

How would the sixth generation

on that same spot

and how would I,

as a child,

learn about Canada?

Same way.

It doesn't matter

that one's five generations

on the land

and I'm just

a brand new immigrant.

The same way.

Children just accept

their country.

They just accept

that there's certain ways

that you dress.

They just accept it.

It's like it's

even deeper than trust.

It's just,

that's just the way it is.

Now,

the text isn't telling us

that we shouldn't

be concerned with justice.

The first text tells us

that we should be

concerned with justice.

This is talking about

something which is

far simpler.

That a child,

the children here

in this church

who are being brought up

in Canada,

it doesn't matter

where their parents

were from,

they come up

in this country

and they learn

the language

of the country.

They learn the way

the country works.

That's just the way it is.

Their parents

are just their parents.

And so what this is

asking us to do

at a very,

very deep level

is to accept

the Jesus way,

to accept

his kingdom,

to accept

its language,

to accept

its purposes,

to accept

its priorities,

to accept

its warnings,

to accept

its exhortation,

to accept

what we should long for,

to accept

what we should fear,

that at a very,

very deep level,

it doesn't mean

we don't use

our brains

and everything,

but at a very,

very,

very deep level

that our predilection,

that our basic preference

is just to accept

that God knows.

Just to accept.

Because you'll notice

in the text,

go back and look at it,

verse 16,

let the little children

come to meet

and do not hinder them

for to such belongs

the kingdom of God.

It's a communal image.

Truly I say to you,

whoever does not receive

the kingdom of God,

like a child

shall not enter it.

So that's what we can pray for.

That at a deep level,

it doesn't mean

we don't try to

meditate upon Scripture

and go into the depths

of Scripture

and try to understand

how the Scripture

is dealing with our heart,

but at a very,

very,

very fundamental level,

we just accept it.

We accept Jesus

and his way

at a deep level

and that's what we can

cry out for to God

in terms of our prayer.

And that leads me

to my concluding point.

One of the things

that's regularly mocked

in our culture

is the idea

of the sinner's prayer.

And some of you,

if you're not from

an evangelical background,

you don't even know

what the sinner's prayer is.

It's often mocked

that there are,

in many, many

wide ranges of Christianity,

it's mocked

within evangelicalism.

This idea

that there's a prayer

that can change your life,

that you can,

that there's a time

in your life

for some people

where they have to come to God

and they have to say a prayer

about accepting Jesus

into their lives

and asking.

And it's sort of mocked

and the whole idea

of altar calls

which is just a form

of an invitation

or a minister asking

for people

to invite Jesus

into their lives

and to pray

a particular prayer.

And it's disbelieved

and it's mocked

by many, many, many people

who call themselves Christians

and many, many people

outside of the Christian faith.

It's an idea

that people make fun of.

Some of you

who have been here before

know that I issue invitations.

I'm going to issue

an invitation today

and I invite people

to say a prayer

to ask Jesus

to come into their lives.

So why do I do that?

I'm a Canadian.

I'm sensitive

of cultural pressure.

You know why I do it?

I do it because

Jesus tells me to.

That's why I do it.

Because I want to be

like a child.

Look at verses 13 and 14.

Remember,

he's talking about

the tax collector.

Verse 13.

But the tax collector

standing far off

would not even lift up

his eyes to heaven

but beat his breast

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

but the one

who humbles himself

will be exalted.

I know that for myself

I actually walked an aisle

and went forward

to give my life to Christ

and I have to confess

that one of the things

that kept me

from doing that

for many months

was that I did not

want to humble myself

in front of a congregation.

I did not.

I'm not proud about that.

There's all sorts of things

in this life

that we do not do

because we compare ourselves

to others

and wonder what they would think.

But here's the amazing thing.

This is actually,

this guy,

all he prays

is these in English,

God, be merciful to me,

the sinner.

Seven words in English.

The word

which is translated

as merciful here

is actually a unique way

in the original language.

It's a unique word.

It's only found

in one other place

in the Bible

which is Hebrews 2,

Hebrews 2:17

verse 17.

And most of us

when we think of mercy

we think of

give me a break.

Like if I owe you

a hundred bucks

I don't have it with me today.

You know,

in a sense I'm saying

give me some mercy,

give me some grace,

give me a break,

cut me some slack,

give me an extra few days

and I'll get it to you.

And that's what we tend

to think of mercy

that person

cutting us some slack,

being patient

and being kind.

But here the original word

is not actually

what,

it's only here

in two verses,

this in Hebrews 2, 17.

And what it's actually saying

is it's actually asking

to be covered

by the atoning,

the atonement.

It's asking to be covered

by a sacrifice

that God makes

to make us right with him.

It's in fact,

in the Greek word,

it's the Greek word

for the Hebrew word

for atonement.

You've heard of

Yom Kippur,

the day of atonement?

The Hebrew word,

because this is from Psalm 51,

is Kippur,

atonement.

Have your atonement

be on me.

Have your covering

of my sins

be on me.

It's pointing to Jesus

and what he's going

to do on the cross.

And the man,

he prays from his heart.

It emerges from his heart.

He understands

his separation

from God

and his need.

And he cries out

from his heart.

And it begins

in his heart

and he uses words.

And Jesus says,

this man goes home justified.

And the same word

that is translated there

as justified

is translated

in many places

in the Bible

as righteous.

It means redeemed.

It means forgiven.

It means made right

with God.

And Jesus says,

this man prays

this prayer

and goes home

right with God.

And so why do I

give an invitation?

Because Jesus

teaches us this.

Here, Andrew,

if you could put up

the final point.

Jesus wants me

to enter his way

and walk his way,

praying from my heart,

God,

be merciful to me.

A sinner.

Jesus wants me

to enter his way

and walk his way,

praying from my heart,

God,

be merciful to me,

the sinner.

We enter the Jesus way

with such a prayer.

and we walk the Jesus way,

always asking to be covered

by what Jesus did for us

on the cross.

You know,

I ask,

in a sense,

my marriage to Louise

begins by me telling her

I love her

and will she marry me?

And in a sense,

every day for the rest

of my life,

in a sense,

I'm to renew my vows

by telling her

that I love her.

And every day

of the Christian walk

is to remember

that we need to be covered

by the blood of Jesus,

by what he did for us

on the cross.

That's to grip us.

It's to be what we understand

as the central thing

that makes us right with God.

It's not how many good works,

we don't have to do

a whole pile of good works

and then finally

Jesus accepts us.

We don't have to do

a whole pile of good works

and get our lives

in a particular type of order

or a particular type

of obedience

and then Jesus applies

what he's done

on the cross for us.

Nothing in my hands

I bring simply

to the cross I cling.

We only enter

the Christian way

and live the Christian way

by grace

and by what Jesus does

for us on the cross.

And, you know,

here's the thing.

You know,

some people,

they're raised by Christians

and there's never

a time in their lives

when they haven't trusted

in Jesus

and that's really good.

But if there's never

been a time in your life

that you haven't trusted Jesus,

then it's the easiest thing

in the world

to say,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

You might not be able,

you might not have to walk

down an aisle to say it,

but it's an easy thing

to say to Jesus,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

And some of us

don't know

the particular moment

when we realize

that we had to give ourselves

to Jesus.

Maybe it was in September,

we would still have not

wanted to do that

and then somehow in May

something changed

and we realized

that our heart had changed

and we were now trusting

Jesus as our Savior.

Then if that's described you,

there's nothing,

you just say to him,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

I don't know when I said it first,

you don't care about that,

you just care that it comes

from my heart.

And if it comes from my heart,

I can say it,

God, be merciful to me,

the sinner.

But others of us,

it would be like me,

your pride is keeping you

from saying such a prayer

and the Holy Spirit's

pressing upon you

to say,

God, be merciful to me,

the sinner.

And if that's what

you're going to pray today

and I'm not going to,

you just,

you have your Bibles,

you have it on the screen,

I'm not going to try to,

Jesus said this works

if it's coming from your heart.

I'm not going to try

to gild the rose.

Just pray it from your heart

and enter the Jesus way

and walk it with Jesus and others.

Please stand.

Father, you know

how much we're influenced

by the people around us.

You know, Father,

how much that keeps us

from doing things?

I guess, Father,

sometimes that's a good thing.

But you know, Father,

there's lots of times

that our obedience to you

is circumscribed

and hindered

by what others will think.

Father, make us like a child

who just accepts your way

and will walk in your way

and trust your words.

Father, we want to make it complicated.

We want to make it like

we have to get our act together

by ourselves

or do exemplary service to you

before you will accept us

as your child.

But Father,

Jesus himself

tells us to cry out to you

from our heart,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

Father, that's what we want to do.

Help us, Father,

to do that in such a way

that we enter the Jesus way

and help us to say that

every day as we walk

the Jesus way.

Father,

we come to you.

We are self-righteous,

self-congratulatory.

We treat others with contempt.

We are sinners.

I acknowledge

and confess that before you.

May the blood of Jesus

and what he did for me

on the cross,

may that cover me.

Only that, Father,

will make me right with you.

Jesus,

I am your child

by adoption and grace.

Thank you

for what your son

did for me on the cross.

Thank you that you want me

to talk to you again

and again

and again and again.

All this we ask and thank

in the name of Jesus,

your son

and our savior.

Amen.