Faith-Prayer

We're going to be reading Luke chapter 18 and just the first 17 verses this morning, so not the whole chapter.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

We have three short little stories making up this and they'll make up our points for the passage or for the sermon this morning.

But follow along with me as we read.

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

He said,

In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying,

Give me justice against my adversary.

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.

And the Lord said,

Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

And will not God give justice to his elect who cried 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?

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous,

and they treated others with contempt.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

And 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, and I give tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift 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.

Now they were bringing even infants to him, that he might touch them.

And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

But Jesus called to them, 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.

Sorry, I was standing up front this morning, and my wife and the rest of the kids come in,

and I heard my two-year-old.

This wasn't planned.

Juliet, she said, Daddy, because she saw me up here.

And that was like, it was such a cool feeling.

And then I turn around, and in that moment, I'm singing these songs about God, and I'm floored.

Because just like that connection that Juliet felt towards me, her daddy,

I got to feel about God, and how he loves us.

Today we're talking about prayer, and it's such an important thing.

If Juliet and I had never talked, we never spoke, we had no relationship,

what would that mean?

So when we sang that God is a good, good father, and Lord, I need you, and it's not about me,

it's about him.

It was just hard to sing.

I'm just crying because God is so good, and I'm just a sinner.

But we do have a message.

That was just an introduction.

Sorry, Brian, that wasn't in my manuscript.

But God works that way.

In our passage this morning, God is teaching us that prayer is important to our faith.

It's so cool when God works that way, when he wants us to get a hold of something.

Sometimes he just keeps pushing in until we get it.

And so I'm thankful that we have a God like that.

But he teaches us that prayer is important for our faith, our relationship with him.

So how is your prayer life?

I'm going to ask you that this morning, and just pause for a minute.

I'm going to pause for a minute, and you just think about it.

You don't have to blurt out answers.

I just want you to think about how would you characterize your prayer life?

How would you characterize your faith in God?

I'm sure here this morning there's a few people who don't pray.

I'm sure there's some people here that you're, for one reason or another,

you're here but you don't believe in God, or you're learning, you're seeing,

you're testing the waters of the Bible and who Jesus is.

And I'm just glad that you're here this morning.

But my prayer is that by the end of this passage from the Word of God,

your faith in God might be stronger.

It might be changed in a way that will have effects on what your prayer life is.

And if you're a Christian and you believe in God and you know who Jesus Christ is

and what He did for you, and your prayer life is still non-existent,

I pray that after this message you will be encouraged to change that

because of its importance to your faith.

So in our passage this morning we're going to be looking at three characteristics

that Jesus gives us related to prayer and faith.

Three things that should define our prayer-faith life.

I say prayer-faith because these two things, although they're different,

they're very much connected together.

Verse 1 in our passage, chapter 18, verse 1,

and He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

So right from the beginning we get this connection of praying and not losing heart or a person's faith.

Here we see Luke does something a little different in this parable.

In the beginning he tells us right up front the reason for the parable.

Parables are given by Jesus to teach us something.

We know this, and Luke here tells us what it is right from the beginning.

He says He told a parable to the effect that,

to teach them that,

they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

Now from the end of chapter 17,

that we heard about last week and the week before,

we know that Jesus is talking to His disciples.

So why is He telling them that they should always pray and not lose heart?

Well, as you remember from last week especially,

Sean talked about how Jesus is returning.

He's going to be returning.

It'll be visible like lightning.

You're not going to miss it.

But no one knows when that's happening except for God Himself.

So it's going to be a while.

And what happens when something takes a while?

We don't know when it's happening.

We're kind of hoping in it.

And life continues to go on.

If we don't have a focus,

if we don't have a purpose,

then we're going to lose heart.

And so the other reason Luke is saying this

is because he wants us to make this connection

between faith and prayer.

And we're also going to see this connection made even stronger

at the end of this passage in verse 8.

We'll look at that in a minute.

But we need to understand that relationship between prayer and faith

because it's crucial to the framework of our Christian life.

That is, if our Christian life is like a house

that's built up and made stronger

and over time more usable for God,

then we must realize that the connection between prayer and faith

is needed to make that happen.

There's a role there that has to take place

in order for those things to work.

First, we should always pray and not lose heart.

And then if we jump down to verse 8,

when Jesus comes back,

will he find faith on earth?

So we have always pray and don't lose heart.

And will he find faith?

And what I'm going to argue this morning

is that those two things we can't separate.

They go together.

If there's no prayer, then faith becomes obsolete.

See, prayer is faith's main activity.

If your faith life is strong,

your prayer life is strong.

Strong prayer makes for strong faith.

No prayer makes for no faith.

So this morning, as we look at a Christian's prayer, faith, life,

we're going to be looking at three characteristics.

And the first one is taken from the parable.

Excuse me.

In the first eight verses.

I'm going to reread this section just because I think it's helpful.

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

And he, this is Jesus, said,

In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying,

Give me justice against my adversary.

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.

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?

So there are two characters in this parable.

First is a judge.

And the passage says that he did not fear God.

That is, he was not a believer.

He did not trust in who God was.

And secondly is he did not respect man.

Basically, he didn't really care what people thought.

He wasn't one who looked up more to a prominent person

versus, in this case, a widow.

The judge in this parable is not Jewish.

We know that because Jews, when they had a dispute,

they would bring them in front of Jewish elders.

They wouldn't bring them to the public court.

So this judge here would have been appointed by Romans.

And Roman judges were known for their corruption.

So the more clout, the more money that you have,

the more speedily and better a verdict will be for you.

So when we're talking about a widow,

you can imagine that speed and a good verdict

isn't really on her side.

We see that the judge refuses for a while

to give any relief to the widow.

But then he changes his mind.

It says in verse 5,

It's interesting that the words there,

so that she will not beat me down,

can actually be translated a couple different ways.

One is, the obvious is,

she exhausts me by continually coming.

So before she does that,

I'm going to go ahead and give her what she wants.

It can also mean that

she's going to eventually give me a black eye

if I don't give her what she wants.

So the judge is, in either case,

wants to save face, if you will,

by giving her what she needs.

Then in verse 6,

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.

See, in this parable,

Jesus is not saying

that God is like an unrighteous judge.

This parable is not one of similarities,

but rather a lesser versus greater.

If the lesser thing is true,

then how much more will the greater thing be?

If a slow-to-respond,

earthly, unrighteous judge

will finally answer this widow's request,

then how much more

will our all-knowing,

loving, righteous,

Heavenly Father

answer the pleas of his elect?

And who are his elect?

Take a look at verse 7.

Those who cry to him day and night.

Those who cry out to God day and night

are those who have faith in God.

You're not going to cry out to him day and night

for relief if there's not a faith

in who God is.

Jesus is not teaching,

also through this parable,

that if we ask God enough,

that we'll get whatever we want.

God is for us.

He knows what is best,

but he also knows what's harmful for us,

even if we don't know about that harm

ahead of time.

So to that end,

he will answer our prayers.

Thanks, man.

You got it.

We all know,

if we can remember far enough back,

that kids ask for a lot of things.

Christmas time, obviously,

but other times,

you go into stores,

they see things,

they want things.

One thing that...

Sorry, my pages are sticking here.

One thing our kids...

It wasn't things,

it was more freedom.

One thing that our kids wanted to do

once they learned how to walk

was they wanted to do it on their own,

especially if we pull into Walmart parking lot

or we pull into the mall,

we get out of the car,

it's freedom time.

Daddy, mommy, let me walk.

I don't want to hold your hand,

just let me walk.

Now, we know there's a couple problems.

The first problem is

they might not be that good at walking,

so you know if you hold their hand,

and you can keep them from falling

and skinning a knee.

The bigger issue is

they have no idea

of the death,

the injury that can happen

because of cars.

Cars aren't looking for little kids,

and little kids have no concept

of what could happen to them.

And so early on,

we just grab their hand,

as much as they hate it,

and we walk to the store.

Or we have this hand-or-hold philosophy.

That is, if you want to walk,

you'll take my hand.

If you don't, I'm going to hold you.

That's usually worse

because it's no freedom at all, right?

But there's safety.

And Cheryl and I know

that our responsibility

is to get them to that door safely.

And so if it means I'm holding your hand,

if it means I'm holding you close,

I'm taking you there,

and you're going to make it.

And that's what God is to us.

We want that freedom,

but we don't see the death,

the destruction, the heartache,

the pain that comes from that.

God sees that,

so His answer might be no

when we don't understand.

But you can know

that God answers those requests

because He loves you,

not because He wants to control you

and keep you held back.

Thank you.

He wants to give us good things.

James 5.13 says,

If anyone among you is in trouble,

let them pray.

Psalms, or Proverbs 15.8,

The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked,

but the prayer of the upright pleases Him.

1 Peter 5.7,

Casting all your anxieties on Him

because He cares for you.

He wants to give us good things.

He wants to hear about our requests,

and He wants to satisfy those requests

because He cares for His children.

By children, I mean those who are Christians, right?

Those people who realize that we are sinners

and we cannot save ourselves.

In God's eyes, we're like children.

So when I say that to you this morning,

I'm not putting anybody down

by calling you a children.

But if you're a child of God,

then you're a children.

You're a child that God loves.

He loves you,

and He needs us to act like children

in order for that to work.

We can't be His child

and then live the way that we want.

But He loves you,

and He loves me,

and He provided a way of salvation

through Jesus Christ, His Son.

So we repent of our sins.

We believe in what Jesus did for us,

and we can be a child of God.

If you haven't done that,

you can be a child of God as well

by doing that same thing.

Jesus Christ came here,

lived a perfect life,

so He could die on a cross

to cover the sins that we committed

because Almighty Holy God

required sins to be covered and paid for.

Since we couldn't do that,

He sent His perfect Son to do it for us.

And so if we believe in Jesus

and what He did for us,

we repent of those sins,

then we're able to be children of God.

It's that easy.

But if we try to go around it

and do it a different way,

then we're our own God.

We're circumventing what God put in place

through His Son for us,

and we're telling Him,

that's nice,

but I got a better way.

I think this way will work.

Back to the parable.

We know that God cares for His children.

If you remember back when we were in chapter 12,

Jesus was telling us not to be anxious

about food and clothes,

the necessities of life.

He says,

how much more value are you than birds?

How much more,

talking about the grass,

how much more do I clothe you

than the grass who passes away tomorrow?

In Deuteronomy,

Deuteronomy 32:10

chapter 32, verse 10.

Now this is Old Testament,

before Jesus was born.

So it was back when God had chosen

the Israelites as His people.

Moses wrote this,

He, God,

found them, the Israelites,

in a desert land,

in the howling waste of the wilderness,

and He encircled them,

He cared for them,

and He kept them

as the apple of His eye.

So we get this picture

from the beginning of God

choosing a people for Himself

and loving them,

protecting them,

and bringing them in.

God cares for His own.

And He wants us to pray to Him,

and He wants to give us

everything that is good for us.

And like I said,

it's not everything.

Some things are harmful for us.

But God knows what will help.

God knows what will make us stronger.

Verse 8, it says,

I tell you,

He will give justice to them speedily.

From our perspective,

when we pray,

things don't seem to happen speedily.

If we're honest, right?

Sometimes they seem like

they take forever.

It may seem like God is too late,

or maybe He's not listening at all.

But hear me,

and this is where verse 1 and verse 8

are so important for us to hold on to.

God's people are to pray and not lose heart.

Persistent prayer like the widow

was persistent with the judge.

So when Jesus comes back,

will He find those with faith on the earth?

Will those who say that they are Christians

be found praying?

Praying for anything?

Salvation for loved ones?

Healness from a disease?

Prayer for getting through rough days?

Will He find His children

praying for anything?

Will there be faith?

Or will they have lost heart?

Galatians 6, 9 says,

Let us not grow weary while doing good,

for in due season we shall reap

if we do not lose heart.

How do we keep from losing heart?

Through prayer and faith.

John 16, 33,

Jesus says,

In this world you will have trouble,

but take heart,

because I've overcome the world.

So if you grab on to those truths,

those promises that we get from God,

and you pray,

and you continue in your faith,

even through difficult times,

because you know God is with you,

has it, and will never leave you,

then you will remain strong in your faith

until the end.

Our prayer life,

by direct connection,

our faith life,

then should be continual.

I know that was a little long

getting to the first point,

but continual is one of the aspects

that we want for our prayer

and for our faith life.

The widow persisted in her coming to the judge,

and Jesus encourages us to continue also.

Verse 1 says that we ought always to pray

and not lose heart.

Our requests,

our struggles,

our needs,

they're ongoing.

So while this parable only showed the widow

having one request,

our requests don't end,

do they?

Life doesn't end.

Our struggles don't end.

Our prayers should not end.

Not this side of heaven.

We can't do it alone.

We can't do it in our strength.

It's not possible,

and it's not how God designed it.

So do you deal with the struggles of life yourself,

or do you take those to God in prayer?

Do you battle sin and temptation

using your own strength,

or do you pray to God

for a godly, supernatural strength

that only He provides?

We are told that we ought always to pray.

Thessalonians 5.17 says,

pray without ceasing.

Our prayer needs to be continual.

Now, when I say that,

we're not talking about praying nonstop, right?

Continuing through time and space

without ever ceasing prayer.

We do have things in life that we do.

We're talking about continual prayer

in the way that it is recurring frequently,

and especially at regular intervals.

I didn't have an example of this until this morning.

It's funny how God brings these out,

but recently we got a puppy.

Cute little Australian shepherd.

He likes to eat.

He loves food.

He's started small,

and he's getting bigger.

But his...

I can say that he eats all the time

because he eats three meals a day.

He has little puppy treats quite often,

and he licks up whatever food

is dropped from the table,

which at times can be plenty.

So I can say that he continually eats

or that he's always eating

when really it's on regular intervals.

Morning and lunch and dinner he eats.

Occasionally when he does something good,

he gets a treat.

And when he digs in,

like he sees the food falling onto the floor,

he goes after it.

What if our prayer life was like that?

What if we could say

that our prayer life was continual?

Because at regular times in a day

or throughout the week,

we know we're praying.

The puppy needs food in the morning

when he gets up.

Before we go to our work,

we need prayer.

Come on, you guys know we need prayer.

We can't do this on our own.

What if our prayer life was that way?

If it was continual,

so much that it was on a schedule.

And when we needed it,

we prayed more.

When it was made available for us,

we took the opportunity,

if we could,

and we prayed more.

Because we need it.

Because it's what,

it's the strength for our faith.

faith.

Jesus wants us to be continual in our prayers

so that our faith remains strong.

Let's take a look at our next passage,

our next parable,

starting at verse 9.

He also told this parable to some

who trusted in themselves

that they were righteous

and treated others with contempt.

Two men went up to 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 give,

of all that I get.

But the tax collector,

standing afar off,

would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,

but beat his breath,

saying,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

And 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.

Like the first parable,

this one starts out

by giving us the point.

It is aimed for those

who trust in their own righteousness,

their own good deeds to save them.

We depend on ourself,

and we start this mindset

that we don't need God.

And everything starts to be done

for our glory.

Our salvation starts to be

based on things that we do.

And after that,

we start comparing ourselves to others,

because I do all these things,

and you don't.

Because I live this way,

and you don't.

Well, I am more righteous.

God loves me more.

Thank you that I'm not like this guy.

Thank you.

So the second characteristic

we're going to look at this morning

in our prayer of faith life

is to be contrite,

that is,

humble and repentant,

to show remorse for sin

or for our shortcoming before God.

Like in the first parable,

there are two people.

One is a Pharisee,

one's a tax collector.

The Pharisee boasting

of his own accomplishments,

while the tax collector

is confessing his sin

and asking God for mercy.

That's what we should be like

with our prayer.

The first prayer,

if you want to call it that,

was from the Pharisee.

Wasn't even two full verses,

and he's got it packed

with five I's.

I thank you

that I am not like other men.

I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I get.

He's praying with himself.

Right?

He's bragging of his own righteousness,

of his own accomplishments.

This isn't prayer to God.

This isn't anything humbling

or confessing.

He's just telling God

how good he is.

Now we compare that

to the posture

and the prayer

of the tax collector

in verse 13.

He stands far off.

He would not even lift up

his eyes to heaven,

but beat his breast.

His posture is one

of humble unworthiness.

That's where we are.

Before God,

before an almighty,

perfect,

sovereign God,

we're just filthy sinners.

Sometimes that's hard to say,

but that's where we are.

We're just filthy sinners.

And so we come before him

knowing who and what we are.

Not bragging as if we're worth something.

See, salvation happens

when we repent of our sins

and put our trust in Jesus.

Again, knowing that we couldn't do it.

It took God

to send his perfect son

to make that even possible

because we're creatures

made by God

and we're sinners

and he's holy

and we're not.

And there's this chasm

like what Sean talked about

the other week.

There's this fixed chasm

that's there

between us and God.

And there's no way it crossed

except for

through the cross of Christ.

Any other way

that we try to fix that chasm

and we fall short?

We look again

at the prayer of the tax collector

in verse 13.

It says,

God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

That's the humility we want

in our prayer life,

in our stance before God.

Like we sang,

we do come boldly

to the throne of God,

but we boldly come humbly

knowing who we are

and who God is.

That's what it means

to be contrite.

Not looking down

at other people,

not boasting,

not judging,

not despising other people,

not making excuses,

just humbly bowing our hearts

before God

and asking for forgiveness.

Isaiah 66, 2 says,

All these things

my hand has made,

so all these things

came to be,

declares the Lord.

But this is the one

to whom I look,

he who is humble

and contrite in spirit

and trembles at my word.

We look to Jesus

and what he did

and we say,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

We repent.

We get it right.

That's how we fix

the relationship

between us and God

because I don't have to tell you,

if we're honest with each other,

we sin all the time.

Even when we don't think we sin,

we sin.

And before a God

who has no sin

and is holy,

we're way more sinful

than we think we are.

So we approach God that way.

If we take a look

at Jesus' response

in verse 14,

it's quite surprising.

At least it was

to the Pharisee

and to other religious people

who were standing around

listening to this parable.

See, Jesus justifies

the tax collector.

That's not what they expected.

They expected

that the good

and pious

and the one

who does everything

like the Pharisee.

They expected

him to be

made righteous

and justified.

But that's not

what Jesus said.

Jesus instead

justifies the tax collector.

That is,

God grants

the tax collector,

the sinner

who comes humbly,

he grants him forgiveness

and he counts him

as righteous.

You know what that means?

That means the sins

that he has done.

God takes

the righteousness

of Jesus

and puts him

in view

in front of

this sinful

tax collector.

So that when he sees

the tax collector,

he sees

the holiness

and the righteousness

of his son,

Jesus.

And he does that

for each

and every one of us.

that's why the belief

and the faith

in Jesus Christ

is important

because it's the

perfect holiness

of Jesus,

the perfect righteousness

that Jesus has

that God sees

us as.

If we stand out

from behind Jesus

because we think

we're good enough,

suddenly God doesn't

see a perfect

holy son,

he sees

a tarnished,

sinful person

who can't get it right

because

we're his

creatures,

because we're sin,

because we have a nature

that has fallen.

And so

we repent

and we get back

behind Jesus

and his righteousness

and things are right

again between us

and God

because we get

to go through

Jesus

and his righteousness.

So the last part

of that

in verse 14,

for everyone

who exalts himself

will be humbled.

The Pharisee

was humbled

because he came

exalted.

He brought himself

high and

puffed up,

but he was humbled

because Jesus

didn't justify him.

And the tax collector

who came humbly,

Jesus exalted him

and counted

his righteousness.

How do you

approach God?

Do you come

humbly before him,

acknowledging

who you are?

Do you expect

to be justified

based on the works

that you've done?

The only justifying

work that truly

counts is the work

that was done

by Jesus Christ

on the cross

2,000 years ago.

So if you bring

some other work,

it isn't holy,

it isn't righteous,

and it will leave

you humbled.

So we're going to

look at the last

portion of our

passages this morning.

and it's a,

it isn't a parable

like the first two,

but rather it's,

it's a dialogue

between Jesus

and his disciples.

From it,

we will see the need

for our prayer

faith life

to be

childlike.

And that's our

third characteristic

that we're looking at.

There should be

an aspect

to our

prayer faith

life

that is like

a child.

Last two verses

of this section,

verses

15 through 17.

Now they were

bringing even

infants to him,

him Jesus,

that he might

touch them.

And when the

disciples saw it,

they rebuked them.

But Jesus called

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.

It was

customary

at this time,

kind of is

in certain ways

now,

for parents

to bring

their infants

or their

children to

a prominent

rabbi

for a blessing.

And that's

what we see

happening here.

Children are

being brought

to Jesus

so that Jesus

can bless

them.

His thoughts

to them

were very

different from

other leaders.

See,

at this time,

children were

looked on

as a bother

mainly because,

well,

they can't

help much.

They just

get in their

way.

They require

more work

than they

can put

out.

Right?

So it

wasn't until

a child

was older

and they

could contribute

more to

the day-to-day

life of their

family where

they were

looked on

more as a

person.

But that's

not how

Jesus looked

at them.

Children,

here even

infants,

were being

brought to

him so

that he

could touch

them.

That is,

he's put

his hands

on them,

maybe pray

for them,

tell him

that he

loves them

and that

they're

cared for.

How loving

and encouraging

is that?

For the

parents,

but also

for the

child,

if you

think about

it.

They may

not remember

it then,

if they

remember it

later in

life or

it's told

to them

what takes

place,

what encouragement

that would

be.

Jesus Christ

was here

on earth.

He's on

his way

to the

cross,

but he

takes time

to put

his hand

on me

and say,

you're

special.

God loves

you.

Before they've

done anything,

they're an

infant.

God loves

you.

That's the

kind of

love that

Jesus is

showing.

Now,

as the

children are

coming,

we see the

disciples are

stepping in

and they're

like,

oh,

back up.

Now,

it could be

that they

were just

acting insensitive

and not

wanting to be

bothered with

kids.

That's true.

I don't think

that's the

case because

they know

at this

point how

Jesus feels

towards people

and especially

children.

So I think

what probably

is taking

place is

the disciples

have in

their mind

Jesus is

starting to

become

burdened and

stressed

internally.

He's on

his way to

Jerusalem

where something

big is

happening.

We know

it was the

crucifixion.

They don't

get it yet.

They just

know something's

happening.

So in

order to

care for

Jesus and

help protect

Jesus,

they want

to pull

away any

extra stress

that could

be on him.

I think

of like

a father

who comes

home from

a stressed

day at

work.

Something bad

happened or

he's just

overly tired

and one of

his kids

runs in and

just wants

to talk to

daddy and

hug on

daddy and

mom or

the other

kids,

hey,

back up.

Dad's had

a tough

day.

Just give

him a few

minutes.

And that

could be what

the disciples

are doing

here.

Hey,

just give

Jesus some

space.

He's talking,

doesn't really

have time for

the kids.

That could

have been

their thought.

I'm going

to go with

that because

it's a good

thought to

have towards

the disciples.

But Jesus

didn't feel

that way.

He says,

no,

no,

no,

don't stop

them.

I want

them to

come to

me.

Verse 16,

let the

children come

to me.

Don't hinder

them.

For to

such belongs

the kingdom

of God.

Now,

he wasn't

saying that

the kingdom

of God

belonged to

children,

because he

clarifies that

in verse 17.

Truly,

I say to

you,

whoever does

not receive

the kingdom

of God

like a

child

shall not

enter it.

In order

to have

faith to

receive

salvation,

or he

says the

kingdom of

God,

God,

one needs

to be

like a

child.

What does

that mean,

be like

a child?

Be small?

Think

small?

There are

many aspects

of that

childlikeness

we could

talk about,

but really

there's just

one main

one we're

going to

look at

today,

and that

is a

child's

natural

tendency

to trust

and not

worry about

things.

Right?

If you

remember

growing up,

unless

something bad

happens early

on,

a child's

natural

tendency

to trust

their parents

to take

care of

them is

there.

You didn't

question when

you were

three years

old,

where's my

food coming

from?

You might

want to

know what

you're

eating,

but you

never

question

that it's

going to

be there.

Right?

If you

went to

some place,

an amusement

park,

or anything

like that,

you never

questioned how

you were

going to

get in,

your parents

were going

to take

care of

you.

You may

have been

nervous or

scared at

some time,

but you

knew that

your parents

were there

and you

could trust

in that.

That's that

childlike

faith and

trust that

Jesus is

talking about.

So that

third characteristic

is childlikeness.

There should be

an aspect of

our faith that

is childlike.

That is,

I can't do

it,

God.

You can do

it.

You got me.

And if

God calls

us to

something,

then we

ought to

know he's

going to

give us

what we

need for

that.

Not think

that we

have to

come up

with it

on our

own.

So it's

that

childlike

faith.

I don't

know how

this is

happening,

God,

but I

trust you.

You got

me.

So I'm

walking.

I don't

know how

this is

going to

work,

but I'm

walking

because my

God has

got me.

like a

child

through the

parking

lot when

they don't

even know

the dangers.

God's

got me.

Be

childlike

in your

faith.

Don't

rest in

your own

faith to

get you

there.

Let

things go

because God

has them.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I

realize

that

with an

audience

this large,

there could

be a few

people here

that didn't

grow up

with that

foundational

example of

trust.

Maybe you

didn't have

parents.

Maybe you

had bad

parents.

But I

want you to

know this,

that God

can be,

if you let

him,

that perfect

loving

father that

you didn't

have.

Maybe you

had one,

but he

gave you

a bad

example of

one.

Don't

push God

away because

you're holding

on to a

bad example

of fatherhood

or motherhood

or lack

of trust.

Romans

8.15

says,

You have

received the

spirit of

adoption as

sons,

by whom we

cry,

Abba,

Father.

The spirit

himself bears

witness with

our spirit

that we are

children of

God.

2 Corinthians

6.18

I will be a

father to

you.

You shall

be sons and

daughters to

me, says

the Lord

Almighty.

So when

Jesus talks

about receiving

the kingdom

of God like

a child,

he's talking

about having

childlike faith

and trust.

We come to

him with

total faith,

with total

trust,

knowing he

is always

in control

and he

loves us.

He knows

what is

best for

us.

We aren't

in control.

We don't

come trusting

ourselves.

Because when

we do,

then we

don't need

Jesus.

We don't

need God

anymore in

our lives.

God is

teaching us

to be

continual in

our prayer

and our

faith,

to be

contrite and

humble

before God

and to

have a

faith that's

childlike.

So before

we end,

I just want

to go back

and ask our

original question.

How would

you characterize

your prayer

life?

How would

you characterize

your faith

in God?

Do you

pray at

all?

Well,

I believe

in God.

I have a

lot going

on.

I'm pretty

busy.

I don't

pray.

But I

believe in

God.

So I'm

good.

Really?

You have a

relationship

with God

and you

don't pray?

Do you

have a wife

or a

girlfriend and

you don't

talk to

them?

Tell me

what your

relationship

is like

with them.

I don't

think I

would call

it a

relationship.

So do

you pray

to the

God that

you have

faith in?

Or you

just hold

on to

that because

it feels

nice and

religious?

I believe

in God.

The demons

believe in

God.

It's got

to be

deeper than

belief in

God.

There's got

to be a

prayer, a

trust in

God that

the demons

don't have

or we're

not any

different.

And the

demons are

going hopefully

to a different

place than

we're going.

I don't

want to

go where

they're

going.

So do

you pray?

Now I

know we're

going to

struggle because

life gets

busy.

But fight

for your

relationship

with God

because your

faith in

God depends

on it.

You can't

tell me that

you have a

good relationship

with your

boss if you

never talk

to your

boss.

You have a

good relationship

with your

kids but

you never

talk to

them.

You never

interact.

You never

talk about

needs or

wants, how

life's going.

There's no

prayer.

How can

there be

faith?

How can

there be a

relationship?

So my

encouragement

for you this

morning is

how is your

prayer life?

How can we

fix that?

prayer?

Yes, I

realize some

of it is

a discipline.

We have to

discipline

ourselves to

pray.

But it's a

relationship with

Almighty God

that's made

available for

you.

And if we

don't pray,

then we can't

expect to have

faith in very

much from God

because it

doesn't work

that way.

Prayer is the

fuel that our

faith needs in

order to grow,

in order to

grow and

remain strong.

Our faith

needs our

prayers,

brothers and

sisters.

So what does

your prayer

life look

like?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.