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.
And we're going to begin reading again and hearing again.
Luke chapter 11.
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
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
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 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
and if you go back later on
and you read
what you need to do
is you need to
read Luke chapter 9
because what you'll discover
in Luke chapter 9
is in Luke chapter 9
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
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
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
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
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