JESUS ON PRAYER

Father, we confess that it's very easy for us to bring our natural human tendencies

and the fallenness of our heart to the reading of your word.

So, Father, we confess before you that it's not that your word is not clear.

It's not, Father, that your word is not wise.

It's not that Jesus isn't the Savior.

Father, we confess before you that our left to ourselves in our natural human tendencies,

we will misread your word and mishear your word and change your word.

So we ask, Father, in your mercy and in your kindness that your Holy Spirit would gently but deeply fall upon us

so that we might truly hear your word and receive your word

and so be gripped by the gospel as disciples of Jesus, learning to live for your glory.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

I saw a truly heart-rending incident yesterday morning when I was working on my sermon at a Starbucks.

So I'm in there working.

My Bible's open.

I'm working on the sermon, trying to put my notes together,

trying to figure out the best way to word different things.

And I noticed this guy come in.

He's probably in his late 30s, and he looks nervous.

And he's sitting there, and he keeps sort of looking around.

And he looks nervous.

He's looking around, looking around, looking around, keep turning his phone on and looking at the time.

Eventually, I can see that he's texting somebody and calling.

And it's a Saturday, so I just sort of keep noticing his nervousness.

And, you know, I don't know how many of you go into places like Starbucks or Second Cup or Bridgehead,

but often a lot of business gets done during weekdays.

I often see real estate agents and lawyers and others in there doing work.

But it's a Saturday.

I was just a bit curious.

I thought he was waiting for a date, actually.

But then, here's the heart-rending part.

I hear the squeal of a high-pitched boy's voice.

And I turn around, and I'm just guessing the ages of five-year-old and a seven-year-old

come hurtling down through the Starbucks to sit with the fellow,

and the youngest one of them immediately goes on the fellow's knee.

And coming along quite slowly behind them was a stony-faced young woman.

And it was hard not to hear the conversation that's going on,

but it's very obvious that this is the dad of these two boys,

that he hasn't seen them in a while.

And he obviously can only see them for an hour.

And they're asking him where he lives.

They're asking him why they don't see him anymore.

And it just makes him very uncomfortable and nervous when they ask him those questions.

And, um, as the hour's coming up, he says,

I have to go.

I can't stay with you anymore.

And the youngest one just, you know, wraps his legs and his arms around the guy.

And the young woman continues just to look very stony-faced throughout it.

And, um, and then they go out and they're wondering where he lives.

And it's a very, very heart-rending hour in a Starbucks in this city on just yesterday morning.

And, um, you know, in light of this story, this is often, stories like this are often in the back of our minds,

or back of people's minds when they think about something like,

think of someone like Jesus and they think of something like the Christian faith.

Today we're going to be talking about prayer, what Jesus teaches on prayer.

And for many people in our culture, what they would say is, you know,

how can Christians talk about prayer when this is what real life is like?

Like, how can we take Jesus seriously, or even really listen to him or hear him,

when this is what real life is like?

Don't you think that maybe these young boys have prayed for their dad,

and yet they're still in this terrible situation?

Who knows what prayers the dad or the mom said,

and still they're in this situation.

How can we take the words of Jesus seriously?

How can we take prayer seriously when such things happen in the world?

So let's look and see what Jesus has to say about prayer.

So if you have your Bibles, and if you don't have Bibles with you,

there's always some extra Bibles up here at the front.

Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel text, which I just read a couple of minutes ago.

Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin reading again and hearing again.

Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

From verse 1 on.

And just as you're turning to that, we're sort of starting a new series,

or recommencing an old series today.

The series' name is Jesus for Pagans and Skeptics.

It's really the Gospel of Luke.

And if you look in the bulletin today, there's my so-called blog,

and it talks a little bit about why the title is as it is,

Jesus for Pagans and Skeptics.

The thing to mainly get out of it is that this Gospel was written probably the year,

between year 62 and 65.

And Luke was a pagan who became a Christian.

And from the introduction, you'll see that he's writing it to a fellow with a pagan name.

So whether the fellow is a pagan Christian, who's now become a Christian,

or what the status is, nobody knows.

But he's writing this letter.

And you'll notice again in a couple...

Anyway, so let's start reading from this, verse 1, and here's how it begins.

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished,

one of his disciples said to him,

Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.

Now just sort of put your finger there for a moment.

And this is just like a bit of an important little thing to notice.

It's not a point.

There's so much of something to notice.

In all of the Gospels, in all of the four accounts of Jesus' life,

this is the only time recorded when somebody asked Jesus to teach them to pray.

Only time in the four Gospels.

So it's sort of a significant thing.

It's a significant passage to come to again and again and again and reflect on,

that this is the only time.

And it's not the only time Jesus teaches on prayer.

In fact, if you're a guest here this morning and you maybe don't know about it,

if you go in the bulletin, or if you don't have a bulletin,

go online later on on our webpage.

Every Sunday, the normal part of the year,

I do something called Going Deeper and Growing in Grace.

And in Growing in Grace, I give a couple of biblical attitudes

that emerge out of the text.

I model how to pray part of the text.

And in going deeper, what I do is I take out of my notes

a couple of things that can be pursued after the sermon.

So for instance, this week, it's just a very, very simple thing you can do by yourself.

It's better if you do it with somebody else.

But you can follow all of the different references to Jesus praying in Luke's Gospel.

And then another track is you can look at all of the different times

that Jesus tells us about what to pray for in Luke's Gospel.

And then there's sort of, you know, just an opportunity first to reflect upon that.

And so anyway, those are things in the bulletin that are provided,

or you can go online and you can find them every week.

But this is the only time in the Gospel that somebody asked Jesus how to pray.

And so what does he say?

Verse 2.

Now just sort of pause here for a second.

Don't worry, I'm going to get to the question that I began the sermon with.

When we left off doing Luke's Gospel about a year and a half ago,

I did a six-week series or seven-week series on Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer.

So today I'm actually going to really be looking at verse 5 and following.

And if you're interested in what I preached on about that,

you can go onto the webpage and you can see the old sermons.

But if you're hoping I'm going to preach on the Lord's Prayer,

I'm not going to do it this morning.

But for some of you, and this is sort of a helpful way to sort of understand Luke's Gospel,

you might be wondering why is it that what we just read here sounds very similar

but it's also different from the Lord's Prayer that we customarily recite.

And some of you might be wondering if this is just yet another reason

why we can't really trust the Bible because they get the stories all mixed up.

Often if you talk to somebody who's a Muslim,

they'll say that the Bible's filled with errors and that you can't trust it,

that only the Koran is a true book.

And they might look at a text like this and say that the differences show

that you can't trust the Bible.

But that's a very, very, it doesn't work that way at all.

I mean, just if you were actually, just me, I only preach once a week,

probably over the course of the year in this church,

I'll preach about 45 times or something like that.

And if you were to go back and listen to my sermons throughout the years,

you'll see that I talk about the same thing more than once.

If you were to follow me around throughout the week,

and maybe, you know, maybe I speak on Parliament Hill occasionally,

I speak in other types of venues occasionally,

I talk to the staff, and you would hear that I tell the same jokes.

Maybe some of the staff would say he tells the same joke over and over and over again,

he's getting old, he can't remember when he's told us something before.

You know, you get questions, and maybe you answer the question,

and you take five minutes, and you say the same thing slightly different each way.

And that's what it's like with Jesus.

That's all that shows.

You know, do you think, actually, that in the whole three years of his ministry,

that Jesus only talked about prayer once?

Oh, come on.

I mean, that's pretty unreasonable, actually.

So Luke just records one of the times that Jesus talked,

and so what it shows is you can see some real commonalities

between Matthew and Luke about how Jesus taught about it,

and we're to learn from that.

But you see, if you go back later on,

and you read the very beginning of Luke's Gospel,

and then you read the very beginning of Acts,

the book of Acts,

and Luke wrote the same two books somewhere between the years 62 and 65,

approximately 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And you'll see that Luke claims to be telling us,

after much research and careful thought and examination,

in a sense, weeding out legend and exaggeration and stuff

that couldn't be counted on and couldn't be depended upon,

Luke claims to be writing a true story, a true account of Jesus.

And this is very important.

If at the end of it, you won't see like you see in movies,

inspired by true events or based on true events,

which might mean that, I don't know,

that there actually was a person like that who lived

and everything else is completely and utterly fabricated.

You know, who knows what it means in a movie.

But Luke is making the claim,

we might disagree with it,

and it'll be something we talk about in other sermons,

but Luke is at least claiming that what he's giving us here

is after careful research,

even though he himself was not an eyewitness of the events

because he became a Christian after the death and resurrection of Jesus,

but that he's really looked into this very carefully,

and this is a true story of Jesus.

In fact, here's the first point, if you could put it up, Andrew.

Truth always matters.

Luke claims that these are the true and trustworthy words of Jesus on prayer.

If you want to make notes, if that's helpful to you

and you can't get them because I moved through some of the points fairly quickly,

you can always go online on Monday,

and the points will be there online.

Truth always matters.

Luke claims that these are the true and trustworthy words of Jesus on prayer.

So some of you might say,

Okay, George, so I take it you're not going to talk about this,

you know, thing about only calling God Father,

and I understand that you did that like a year and a half ago,

and I'll look it up online and see what you said.

But here's the thing, George, okay?

What about that dad with his kids and the stony-faced woman?

And I'm guessing an ex-wife or an ex-lived common-law partner or girlfriend or whatever.

And, you know, I seem to remember some of the things that you haven't gotten to earlier on in the text.

And, like, what about that?

Don't, isn't Jesus' words, aren't they extreme?

George, don't you think like most religious and spiritual people that Jesus is exaggerating?

And we've got to either tone it down or maybe just sort of ignore it or just say whatever

and just sort of go on with what we want?

Like, don't you think, George, that's the way to hear the words?

Let's listen to the words again.

Verse 5.

So basically in verses 1 to 4,

Jesus is outlining or mapping out things to pray,

whole areas of our lives to pray about.

But now he does something different.

He goes in, well, here's what he says, verse 5.

And Jesus said to them,

Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him,

Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey,

and I have nothing to set before him?

And he will answer from within, Do not bother me.

The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.

I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend,

yet because of his impotence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

We'll just sort of pause there and camp here for a second just to sort of settle on these words.

Now, here's, there's sort of two things you get out of the sermon today.

By the grace of God, here's one of the first things.

And I'm going to try to explain the text, but you need to understand this thing first.

If you could put the point up, Andrew, that would be great.

Natural human religion focuses on me without the heart.

Jesus focuses on both my heart and the true and living God.

This is a really important thing to understand all of the Bible

and how we read and misread and mishear the Bible,

even those of us who have maybe been followers of Jesus for a very long time,

is that natural human religion focuses on me without the heart.

Jesus focuses on both my heart and the true and living God.

And some of you might wonder, I always try to put that,

if you're writing notes about this for yourself, that's why I always say me or I,

rather than us often, so that you're reading it for yourself.

And so what does this mean?

Well, first of all, when the Bible uses the word heart,

the word heart in the Bible is a very, very important word.

And we tend to use the word heart to refer to the place of the emotions.

But the Bible, I mean, the emotions are connected to the heart in the Bible.

But actually, the Bible usually uses the word heart to refer to the center of who you are.

The very, very center of who you are.

The central, continuing thing, even though your body ages,

even though your body changes, even though your circumstances change,

that central, continuing, deep thing that makes you who you are,

that's expressed in a wide variety of things,

in terms of your strengths, your interests, your talents, your passions,

your inner conversation.

It's the very, very center of who you are.

And that's how the Bible refers to heart.

And so the natural human religion focuses on me without the heart.

We might be, we don't really ultimately like to really examine deep within

what it is that's driving us, what it is that's propelling us,

what it is that's really drawing out certain behavior and certain attitudes out of us.

We don't like to look within.

And we like to always sort of think the best of who we are.

Or maybe we feel very bad.

But we don't like to really think deep within.

And there's this fundamental self-centeredness about how we understand reality.

And it's natural human religion.

And so often what we have problems with when we're reading the Bible

is that we read the Bible from the eyeglasses of our natural human religion

and read it from the perspective of me and my

without wanting to examine the heart.

And when Jesus doesn't speak within that contour, we can't, we find it funny.

So you see, here's what happens with the text.

Is that, you see, in natural human religion,

there might be a focus on the proper way to ask boldly and shamelessly.

That's what the word here, which is translated as impudence,

means it's like a type of shameless boldness in asking.

And so we see this text.

And natural human religion will maybe want to tone it down a little bit

because in natural human religion, you don't want it to be shameless and bold.

So it gets, you want to water that down a little bit.

And you might want to focus on duty.

And you might want to focus a little bit on if things aren't going the way you want

and the way you pray, then there's probably something which is your fault.

And natural human religion wants to teach the proper way to pray.

And often at the center of natural human religion and religious organizations

is a focus on my will.

That if my will was just stronger, if my will was more articulate,

if my will knew the secret, if my will knew the right steps,

then I would be able to accomplish.

And whatever it is, I might accomplish that my kids are perfect

or that my neighbor becomes a Christian or that the business deal goes forward.

But the natural focus is on me learning the right technique

to get the right accomplishment.

And so I read the text about there's an obviously there's a correct way

to be boldlessly shameless so that I get what I want to accomplish.

Well, what is that?

And dang it all, I'm so frustrated with George because he's not telling me.

Like if George was more spiritual,

he would tell me these religious things that I've got to do

so that it would work.

I'm going to find a better church

that can tell me these secret things.

How many times, how deeply I have to bow,

how often I have to do this,

how to speak in tongues,

how to sing praise courses,

how to pray in a small group,

how to give more money,

how to give less money,

how to give more time,

how to give less time,

how to do this,

how to do that,

how to be able to think through the problem,

how to be able to analyze what's going on within myself.

And in more touchy-feely religious things,

it's often that what we need is therapy.

And so what we need to do is we talk,

we need to do some therapy

to get you to work on your self-image,

your inner confidence,

get you in touch with your inner child.

That's sort of an 80s type of thing.

You know?

And that's what we want.

And so whether it's more like a therapeutic type of model,

or a ritual model,

or in spiritual, not religion,

it just means that we can be more cutting edge

and transgressive.

But it's still natural human religion.

And in moralism, it's just key to success.

And so many people looking at what's going on

with natural human religion,

they say, whatever.

You know, whatever.

Just give me a glass of Jack

and put me in front of a TV

and I'll watch the NFL all day on Sunday.

Like, whatever.

Don't bother with all that other stuff.

You know, just make the business deal

and let's just move on.

Like, whatever.

Forget about all that stuff.

And so because we have this natural human religion

when we read the text,

we're very frustrated with the text.

But the story does encourage

a bold, shameless asking.

But what is it that Jesus asks us to think about?

Not the bold, shameless asking,

but the fact that

it's going to come out again later on.

Okay, Sinclair,

think about yourself for a second.

You know how you get limited by your resources.

You know how self-centered you can be.

And, you know,

you know how afraid you can be

if things aren't going the right way.

And you know what, George?

You can be generous occasionally.

Just think how generous God is.

Just think how unbelievably generous God is.

Like the texts saying

that as we think about

the bigness and generosity of God,

bold, shameless praying follows.

In fact, if you could put up the next point,

here's what we could pray.

Father, grow in me a humble, trusting knowledge

of your greatness and your glory

and your generosity.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Father,

stop, help me to stop

spending all my time

thinking about how I can,

you know, if I just listen to more Bach

or more jazz

or more praise music

so I can get really pumped.

If I could just learn

the proper therapeutic technique,

if I could just learn

the proper amount of prayer meetings to go to,

if I could just learn

the proper way to genuflect,

if I could just learn

how to sing the old rugged cross

all by myself as I walk along,

if I could just learn to pray

every hour for five seconds,

I'd set my watch and always do it,

if I could just learn to pray.

Jesus is saying,

shut up.

Natural human religion focuses on me,

but not my heart.

I'm inviting you to talk to God

and say, God,

grow in me

a humble, trusting knowledge

of your greatness

and your glory

and your generosity.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Some of you might say,

George, okay,

I can sort of see that,

but, you know,

okay,

I'm a little bit confused, George.

Are you just saying

that all we have to do

is just sit around in our house

and think great thoughts about God?

I don't know how many of you

read John Sanford novels.

I like them.

By the way,

just because I like them

doesn't mean that they're,

I mean,

they're very non-Christian.

Okay,

I'm not saying,

okay,

this isn't like,

he's not C.S. Lewis

or J.R. Tolkien,

but one of the characters

in about five of his novels

is a guy by the name

of Virgil Flowers

who grew up

in a very,

very devout religious,

pietistic Lutheran home,

but he himself

lives a completely

and utterly irreligious life

except he has one

very, very interesting

characteristic.

What he likes to do

at night

is when he glides

down to bed,

he likes to think

about God.

That's all he does.

He thinks about God,

helps him fall asleep,

and he sort of finds

it interesting

to think about God.

It's a very curious

characteristic

in Virgil Flowers.

So George,

are you telling me

that, okay,

all you want us to do

is think great things

about God,

but George,

it did talk about

shameless asking

and isn't the next bit

ask, seek, and knock?

Like, isn't that

as if we should be

doing something?

Like, I'm a little bit

confused.

Let's look

at what goes on

after we've read

verse eight.

It's verse nine, right?

So,

verse nine says,

and I tell you

and ask

and it will be

given to you.

Seek and you will find,

knock and it will be

opened to you.

For every,

and just to make sure

we get it,

it sort of said

the same way

slightly different

in the next verse.

For everyone

who asks receives

and the one

who seeks finds

and the one

who knocks

it will be opened.

And then Jesus continues.

It sort of links

in to what he just said

about the knocking

on the door

at the middle

of the night.

what father

among you

if he asks,

if his son

asks for a fish

will instead

of a fish

give him a serpent?

Or if he asks

for an egg

will give him

a scorpion?

If you then

who are evil

know how to give

good gifts

to your children

how much more

will the heavenly

father give

the Holy Spirit

to those who ask him?

So, Andrew,

if you could put

the next point up here.

Here's,

remember my earlier

thing I said,

this is the exact

same point

as point number two

by the way.

Natural human religion

focuses on me

without the heart.

Jesus focuses

on both my heart

and the true

and living God.

In other words,

as we hear

the words of Jesus

he's going to keep

challenging our heart

like what's going on

or not going on

in the center

of who we are.

and he's going

to keep talking

to us about God

and something else

which we'll get to

in a moment.

So, like at a very

simple level

just so you understand

Jesus does talk

about three types

of prayer

and ask

just means

you know literally

that like he says

ask and it will be

given to you

that we ask God

for certain things

it might be knowledge

it might be help

maybe part of the reason

that God had me

witness that

heart-rending

heart-wrenching hour

yesterday

was that

he's calling me

and a few other

Christians in the room

to pray for the man

and the kids

and the woman

maybe that's

what I'm asked

to pray for

and to pray

for persecuted Christians

and the text

does say to ask

and it says

to seek

and that means

to seek to know

to seek to have more

to have a fanning flame

within us

of desires

that we don't be

complacent

that we don't just be

always just feeling

that we

it's all over

that we have enough

of God

that we have a

great enough relationship

with our wife

or with our kids

or with our church

or with ministry

or with our job

that we are to seek

we are to seek

that there's to be this

that God

Jesus doesn't want us

to stop hungering

but we are to seek

and the image of knocking

is an image of presence

that we are

it's an image

of knocking

on a door

to enter

into God's presence

and that's

at a very

very simple level

what God

is telling

Jesus is telling us

to do

but here's

sort of a development

of this point

if you could put

the next point up

Andrew

it's another

I could have said

natural human religion

a second time

but I just wanted

to mix it up a bit

my natural tendency

is to link

proper prayer

with proper sacrifice

so that God

is in my debt

my natural tendency

is to link

proper prayer

with proper sacrifice

so that God

is in my debt

many people

after we left this

after we walked away

from our building

three and a half years ago

we believed

many people believed

that God was going

to give us a building

within two years

our sacrifice

put God

in our debt

all godly people

all read the Bible

natural human religion

somehow

our sacrifice

with our prayers

puts God

in our debt

yes

he owes us

we got him

it doesn't come through

wasn't the proper prayer

and the proper sacrifice

if you knew

the proper prayer

George

it would have happened

if the church

knew the proper prayer

it would have happened

if we did morning prayer

more often

if we did evening prayer

if we spoke in tongues

if we sang more praise choruses

we deserve it

we didn't do the proper prayer

we made the proper sacrifice

we didn't do the proper prayer

dang it

I'm going to go somewhere else

where they have better proper prayers

and better sacrifices

they know the proper prayers

they know the proper sacrifices

they know that you got to go to

Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 4

Habakkuk 3:4

to interpret all of the proper steps

you got to take

they wear funny clothes

they don't wear funny clothes

you see

I read the Bible

and I'm disappointed

in what Jesus says

because I want him

to outline to me

the proper prayer

and the proper sacrifice

how much money

do I have to give

and then

on one level

we want that

but on the other hand

we sort of have this sense

of obligation before God

because

you know

something doesn't happen

we don't get that promotion

we don't get the girl

we don't get the type of kids

that we think we deserve

we don't get the

you know

we don't get the marriage

we think we deserve

we don't get the recognition

we think we deserve

and inwardly

we are very very depressed

because we think

it's our work

and our sacrifice

and God

why didn't you give that to me

I mean after all

I go to this church

I've made this sacrifice

you know

God

I'm a pastor

why don't you do this thing for me

because I'm a pastor

look at all the time I spent

look at all this I did

look at all the

look how much I know the Bible

look at all the things

I've sacrificed

and done and accomplished

and why aren't you showing up

doing what I want

like

don't you realize

you're in my debt God

Jesus just says the words

the Holy Spirit tries to get us

to understand

that natural human religion

focuses on me

and not my heart

and that in my natural

human religion

I want to figure out

the proper prayer

with the proper sacrifice

so God is in my debt

like in Islam

you have to pray

five times a day

and you don't only have to

pray five times a day

you have to go through

it's very complicated

washings

and rituals

and other types of things

and because you have to get

the proper prayer

there's rules for what happens

if there's no water

and how you use sand

and how you don't use sand

and we can say

oh well that's just those people

but it's not just those people

it's us at the same time

like we

we look for the proper type of prayer

you know you see

if it's

if it's

see

like

Luke is writing

as a pagan to pagans

and what is it that pagans do?

things aren't going up

they figure out

okay I gotta

I gotta make this sacrifice

to this goddess

I gotta make these sacrifices

to this god

and when I've done it successfully

the proper prayer

with the proper sacrifice

then there's

those gods only

but for us

we want to know

the rituals

we want to have the knowledge

we want to have the duty

we want to have the understanding

of the proper type of will

we want to understand

the principles

maybe the romantic principles

of the right types of feelings

in our hearts

maybe it's the

the rational

the things that we have to do

or the relational types of things

and

and maybe if we've been influenced

by the therapeutic culture

we want to have

the proper type of therapy

to

to inwardly know how we can ask

or get over our problem of asking

or our problem of seeking

and

and actually religion

doesn't even really like seeking

because it

that's

that raises all sorts of problematic questions

and knocking

and actually having God's presence

and

and if you're spiritual

not religious

it's just transgressive

types of proper prayers

and

and

and you can

you know you can

you can say she rather than he

trying to offend the Bible belt

or something like that

because it's

it's transgressive

it somehow is more cutting edge

but it's still just the proper prayer

with the proper sacrifice

because it's natural human religion

and so when we read the words of Jesus

he doesn't tell me what to sacrifice

or the proper words

and if we're honest

we're disappointed

in our natural selves

so what's going on

well here's where

one of the problems

one of the things that we have to recapture

as Christians

is reading

not just snippets of the Bible

but reading books of the Bible

as books of the Bible

that

Luke doesn't just sort of

plunk in these thoughts

from Jesus

just in the middle of

with no context

I mean he's been writing a story

from Luke chapter 1 verse 1

Luke 1:1

and if you go back later on

and you read

what you need to do

is you need to

read Luke chapter 9

Luke 9 · chapter mention

because what you'll discover

in Luke chapter 9

Luke 9 · chapter mention

is in Luke chapter 9

Luke 9 · chapter mention

for the first time

Jesus announces

to his disciples

that he's going to die

in Jerusalem

and he's going to die

a sacrificial death

in Jerusalem

and then a few verses

after that

Jesus sets his face

towards Jerusalem

and that means

that every single thing

that you see

from chapter 9

to the middle end

of chapter 19

is Jesus

walking to Jerusalem

to die

everything

is within that context

he's walking

to Jerusalem

to die

upon the cross

and he keeps telling

his disciples

I'm going to Jerusalem

to die

upon the cross

so that gives us

a little bit

of an understanding

of how to understand

Jesus' words

if you can put it up

Jesus is on his way

to Jerusalem

to die

as God's one

perfect

complete

and all sufficient

sacrifice

so prayer

is now linked

with his sacrifice

for me

not my

sacrifice

for me

that means

that when I accept

and receive

what Jesus has done

for me

in the cross

which is God's

provision

for me

God's provision

for me

of something

that I could

never accomplish

by myself

if I live

a life

of unbelievable

sacrifice

I have not

added

even the

tiniest drop

to the sacrifice

of Jesus

and when I receive

that which

Jesus has done

for me

once for all

perfectly

completely

and completely

and utterly

sufficiently

I am no more

forgiven

as I walk

into heaven

brought into heaven

by God

than I am

right now

when I have

given my

life to Jesus

if my prayer

is a type

of figuring out

the sacrifice

I can do

to get God

to owe me

there's nothing

I can do

to get God

to owe me

I am one

only one

I am always

in his debt

I'm always

and only

in his debt

what a glorious

debt

not debt

in a way

that crushes us

like our debt

it's a sacrifice

that reconciles

me to God

fits me

for heaven

and it's all

because God

does something

I can't do

he does it

once

he does it

perfectly

he does it

completely

and he does it

in such a way

that it's

completely

and utterly

sufficient

for everything

that makes me

me

and makes you

you

that is sufficient

to be with him

reconciled with him

forever

actually in a

very very subtle

way

at the original

language

this is even

taught in the text

in the original

language

in the earlier

story

the guy says

come on neighbor

loan me bread

there's two words

in the original

language for loan

and one of the

words for loan

says loan

and it implies

that there's

interest

charge

so that he's

saying

give me these

three loaves

of bread

and I understand

that the interest

rate is half

a loaf a day

and if I don't

pay you back

by two days

in two days

I owe you

four loaves

in four days

I owe you

five loaves

but there's

another word

for loan

that says

there's no

interest

and that's

the word

that's used

in Luke 11

nothing added

nothing added

by the person

asking

see here

here if we could

put up the next

thing

as we sort of

wrap this up

to the close

as I am

gripped by the

greatness and

the glory of

the gospel

prayer as

ask

seek

knock

grows

a smug

Christian

is a deluded

Christian

Christian who

thinks that

they don't need

more of God

or to know

more

and have

their desires

for God

grow

and his

greatness

and his

glory grow

and have

greater surrender

to desire

more

a Christian

that doesn't

desire those

things is a

deluded

Christian

one who

doesn't want

to knock

in the presence

of God's

door

and know

God's

presence

more and

more

is a

deluded

Christian

I'm a

deluded

Christian

when I

let those

things happen

but as

I'm

gripped by

the greatness

and the

glory of

the gospel

the gospel

is what

Jesus

accomplishes

for me

in Jerusalem

upon the

cross

and is

once for

all

perfect

complete

sacrifice

as I'm

gripped

by the

greatness

and the

glory

of the

gospel

prayer

as

ask

seek

knock

growth

you see

it's not

that we

need the

gospel

to become

a Christian

and then

after that

we don't

need the

gospel

we just

need

willpower

proper

techniques

proper

rituals

and oh

yeah

and then

we'll talk

about somebody

else

we need

the gospel

to get

them in

the door

but then

all they

need

they don't

need the

gospel

we always

need the

gospel

we always

need to

have a

greater

greater

sense

and depth

of what

it is that

Jesus accomplished

for us on the

cross

and as

as we're

gripped by

the greatness

and the glory

of the gospel

as we

as we

get this

sense

all of a

sudden

hopefully by

God's

Holy Spirit

we came in

here not

realizing our

natural human

tendencies

and natural

human religion

and now

maybe the

gospel is

coming to

our heart

the center

of who we

are and as

we start to

understand the

center of who

we are as the

gospel is applied

to our heart

and at the same

time it's applied

to our heart

not to condemn

us not to break

us down not to

make us depressed

not to make us

despair not to

make people think

that George is a

superstar or

somebody else is a

superstar such a

pastor layperson is a

superstar if we go

on but as the

gospel is applied

to our heart

in the context

of the greatness

and the glory

of what Jesus

does for us

in his person

and his work

prayers ask

seek not

growth

it grows

you see

we

and by the way

this is sort of

showed in a

very very

interesting way in

the text again

remember how it

says you know

after all of this

thing about the

stones and the

bread in the middle

of the night and

says if you how

much more will the

heavenly father give

the Holy Spirit to

those who ask and

the Holy Spirit who

guides us in prayer

who causes us to

seek who hope

who's God's very

presence who's God's

very direction

who's if God has

not withheld his

son why can't I

ask if God has

not withheld his

very presence in the

person of the Holy

Spirit given to me

freely not weighing my

marriage but pardoning

my offenses why can I

not speak and ask

pray for that man for

his kids and for his

wife and pray for my

own wife and for my

family and my church

and pray for fruit

thanks for the next thing

I'll have to do with you

and I'll have to do it

I'll have to do it for my

Lord and I'll have to do

you and I'll have to do it

and I'll have to do it for

you and I'll have to do it

prayer not a prayer not a

perfect prayer not you do this

with the right sacrifice

things are going to work

sorry folks

I'll have to say Lord

deliver me from natural

human religion

have mercy upon me

but I'm going to ask you in a

moment to stand in a moment

to stand and pray with me if

the Holy Spirit is pushing

putting it upon your heart

Father please pour out your

Holy Spirit upon me and

grant me a humble trusting

knowledge of the greatness and

the glory and the immensity of

your son's death upon the

cross for me and so draw me

into prayer in Jesus name

and for some of you you

know maybe this is the

moment that you give your

lives to Jesus because you

see what this wonderful

thing is maybe you think

you know I thought I you

know I spent time I heard

about Islam I heard about

Buddhism I heard about

spiritual not religious I

heard about Christianity I

heard all it was is rules

and and I just couldn't

follow those rules I

couldn't follow those I'm

hopeless at following

instructions I'm hopeless at

making the right

and so and so you turn your

back on God but the gospel

offers us something

different than any form of

natural human religion

for maybe some of us we are

weighed down with depression

and despair because we

believe that we have put God

in our debt and we have not

realized that God is never in

our debt

and so this prayer is to grow a

humble trusting knowledge is

also maybe for some of us the

time that we truly give

ourselves to Jesus and begin

the Jesus walk with Jesus

entering the Jesus way walking

with Jesus and others always

mindful of this once for all

perfect sacrifice for you please

stand

and as the Holy Spirit leads you please join me in with me because I need this prayer I need this I need something like this every day let's pray father please pour out your Holy Spirit upon me and grant me a humble trusting knowledge of the greatness and the glory of the

and the immensity of your son's death upon the cross for me and so draw me into prayer in Jesus's name amen

taking a posture of prayer we're now going to go into a time a brief time of intercession

Boom

operation

and this is a ready to change m