Matthew 21, as Bo said, from verse 18, and we'll be reading to the end of the chapter.
In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
! And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it, and found nothing on it, but only leaves.
And he said to it, May no fruit ever come from you again.
And the fig tree withered at once.
When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How did the fig tree wither at once?
And Jesus answered them, Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt,
you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain,
Be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen.
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith.
And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching,
and said, By what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority?
Jesus answered them, I also will ask you one question,
and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John, from where did it come?
From heaven or from man?
And they discussed it among themselves, saying,
If we say from heaven, he will say to us, Why then did you not believe him?
But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus, We do not know.
And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
What do you think?
A man had two sons, and he went to the first and said,
Son, go and work in the vineyard today.
And he answered, I will not.
But afterward he changed his mind and went.
And he went to the other son and said the same.
And he answered, I will, sir, but did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?
They said the first.
Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.
But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him.
And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
Here another parable.
There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.
And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them.
Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son.
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.
And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?
They said to him, He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.
Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the scriptures, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?
This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.
And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Dave. If you're visiting, I'm the pastor here.
A warm welcome to you.
Well, let's pray as we come to God's word.
Amen.
Father, I ask that your word might break down wrong thinking in our minds and in our hearts,
and help us trust you in that, that you want to help us live and thrive.
Lord, we need your spirit's power to understand your word and what you're saying to us,
and to have that spiritual discernment.
So I ask for it now in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, this miracle of the cursing the fig tree, it's bizarre, isn't it?
Like, why Jesus would do it in the first place, like, is he just hangry?
It's just, does he just, it's bizarre that he does it in the first place.
And then Matthew wastes ink and precious parchment to record this for us and our instruction,
rather than all these other miracles he just sums up.
Like, oh, yeah, and Jesus killed many.
Like, why do we need to listen to this cursing of the fig tree?
If you're living in the same broken world that I am,
most weeks we're just trying to keep our head above water.
Wouldn't your time be better spent listening to a podcast about financial planning or parenting
or look up the footy scores or something?
A fig tree, like, who cares?
Like, why should you and I care about this?
Well, let me ask a question.
Obviously, I do think you should care.
Please don't look up the footy scores.
But let me ask a question, and I don't want you to answer it too quick in your mind.
Since God will only accept and is only pleased with fruit-producing people,
as God looks at your life, will he find fruit?
Or just green leaves?
Now, don't answer that too quickly, please.
There's some in this room you're going to have confidence of many years of serving God,
and others in this room you're going to feel like God could never find anything good in you.
Don't answer the question too quickly.
We need to listen to this passage first.
We need to know what the fruit is.
What is the fruit that God wants?
I've been asking myself that lately.
Every now and then I'm just like, am I pleasing you, God?
One of the things I'm learning going through Matthew this time is that the religious leaders didn't simply attack what Jesus came to build.
They are resisting him.
But Jesus is on the offensive.
He came to destroy something as well as build something.
Something insidious and deadly.
He's condemning a counterfeit, a fake way of living for God, a fake love for God.
People who had false assurance, represented by these chief priests and rulers.
Our passage today ends with the pronouncement in verse 43.
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
This section is within a bigger section that ends in chapter 23 with Jesus pronouncing judgments, woes on these leaders.
He's come to destroy something.
He's confronting something.
Now he's not condemning Jews.
This is not anti-Semitism.
I need to say this given our current social environment.
Jesus was a Jew.
The apostles were Jews.
The blind and lame who came to Jesus were Jews.
The children who worship him are Jews.
He's come to attack a counterfeit way of expressing love for God.
So how do we know if we here today, as a church, if we're truly listening to God's voice and obeying him?
How do we know?
Because these leaders, they know their Old Testament scriptures.
They could recite it to you better than any of us in this room, except for maybe Don.
They know their scriptures.
They could probably enter in a debate and we'd be intimidated.
The DNA of this counterfeit religious type is, I think, trying to sum it up, Jesus uses one phrase repeatedly in Matthew's Gospel, and that's hypocrite.
Now, all of us do not live up to God's ideals.
I do not live up to God's ideals.
That's not hypocrisy.
If our message is, I'm a sinner and I need a great saviour, that's not hypocrisy.
Hypocrite is a word for a mask that an actor would wear.
It's a performance for people to see and applaud.
But this section, I think we see how focused these leaders are on people and their praise.
We see it in this section as well.
It starts and finishes with them.
They're fearing the crowds.
Their identity depends on the recognition of people.
So, like this fig tree bearing green leaves, there can be so much religious activity going on, but it's just making a show.
It's a performance for people to see it.
But as you look closer, as Jesus gets closer, there's no fruit at all.
I was once at this trampoline park.
You know where everyone breaks their legs and things, but a trampoline park.
And we were doing flips and stuff.
Well, some people were.
I was going to try and do a flip.
And I was about to go.
And then I realized at the last moment, no one's watching.
And I stopped.
It was just this weird moment in my life where I'm like, why did I stop?
Like, why didn't I just flip?
Or try to flip and probably land on my head.
But why didn't I do it for the love of the thing itself?
It was just this weird moment of introspection.
But we know that feeling, right?
We can do all this thing just for people to see.
There can be lots of religious activity.
But if it's just for people to see, it's making a show of being alive when there is zero fruit.
So as we, those of us who have grown up in the church and heard the Gospels many times,
we've got a bit of a danger when we hear about the chief priests and the Pharisees.
When we hear these enemies of Jesus, it's like we're watching a performance and we all know now's the time to boo, hiss.
Here's the enemy.
They're not just characters like, oh, there's the problem out there.
I think so much attention is given to these guys because we need to look at the hypocrisy within ourselves.
Our own tendency to do things just for people's sight and not for God.
So what fruit is God looking for?
If you have your Bibles open, we've got a lot to go through today.
So verse 23.
What fruit is God looking for?
I want to come back to verses 18 to 22 at the end.
So we're not skipping it.
But verse 23 to 27.
These leaders, they hold a legitimate office from God.
They're responsible for correct teaching and correct religious observance.
They sit on Moses' seat, Jesus says.
So when they ask, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority?
In one sense, it's a legitimate question.
It's their role to preserve true religion, to lead the way.
But the context and Matthew's gospel overall make it really clear that their intentions aren't pure.
They know where Jesus thinks he's getting his authority from.
The day before, he's ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey, declaring himself king.
He's gone into the temple and cleared out the outer court in the temple as if it's his own house.
He's done miracles inside the temple.
He's received praise from children, redirecting praise from God to himself in the temple.
And he's now teaching in the temple.
There's no doubt about where he thinks he gets his authority from.
But their question is saying, where's your authority from?
Because it sure ain't from us.
We are God's appointed authority.
We are God's authority.
They're confronting him.
But Jesus' response, I first thought he's kind of ducking and weaving like a boxer.
I don't think he is.
I think that was a wrong assumption.
He's not avoiding.
I think he's answering their question with his question.
He's not avoiding their question.
He's not like a school kid going, I'll tell you my secret if you tell me your secret.
His question is turning the tables on them.
His question is going to end up exposing why God is kicking them out of authority.
He's not on the defense.
He's on the offense.
Where did John the Baptist come from?
Where does his authority come from?
Heaven or from man?
The highest office in the Old Testament was not priest.
God ruled his people by prophet.
Prophet is the highest office.
He rules by his word.
He sends prophet after prophet.
And he sent John.
And they rejected John's message of repentance and forgiveness of sin.
They had no need of repentance, they thought.
Jesus has exposed their problem.
Even while implicitly answering their claim, like, John is from heaven and I've got the same source.
So what fruit is God looking for?
Despite these religious people's green leaves, they did not listen.
They didn't listen to God's prophet, his messenger.
They weren't convicted to their heart by his voice.
You can know the Bible really, really well and not be listening.
And Jesus keeps pressing in on them.
He keeps exposing their problem.
And he does it in a very surprising way, doesn't he?
Like, if you want to take someone down in a debate, don't you find impressive, like, logical arguments?
Someone who just, on the spot, can just bring an argument together and great rhetoric, great knowledge,
attacks your point and tears someone down.
He uses stories.
It's, it's, the weapon he uses is parables, stories.
I love that because I think it just shows the theme through scripture.
God loves to work through what the world counts as of weak.
He uses these little children's stories to bring them down.
someone described the power of parables like if you're running 10 minutes late for a school
musical you're running late you it's a bit dark outside you you think you're entering the back
door so that you can just sneak in the back and and be in the audience watching the story
but to your horror you walk in on stage and the lights are on you and you're the one being exposed
that's the power of these stories you think you're just listening to this
harmless story but then you find yourself the lights are on you
you're drawn in in both of these parables jesus draws a response from maybe from
the crowds but maybe even from the chief priests themselves it's not super clear
so here here's the first story what do you think a man had two sons and he went to the first and said
son go and work in the vineyard today and he answered i will not but afterward he changed his mind and
went and he went to the other son and said the same and he answered i go sir but did not go
which of the two did the will of his father
now we who have grown up in the west we love our personal freedom and we treat our parents poorly
all the time nah i'm not doing that it's but i think if you if you've grown up in a traditional
culture like a family where a patriarch matriarch is the center of the family your identity and
your will for the day and agenda is is revolves around them you you get the offense here like
to to to just go i will not it is so disrespectful
whereas the second son is respectful i will sir i will
but who does the will of his father who listened
who is the father pleased with
the disrespectful son
who repents that's who the father is pleased with
not this not making a show
of being respectful to god now repentance
means a change of mind which which we got
in the story itself it changed his mind it's a change of intention it involves conviction
of doing wrong and then changing
so i don't think we should see this disrespectful son begrudgingly going and doing the will
but changing wanting to do the father's will
i remember this time as a teenager my parents are going to call me after this illustration later today
but my parents needed to go out and um
they were expecting someone to drop something off i think
at our house and they told me just stay home
um this is really important that uh we told them that you'll be home
but as soon as they left i got on my push bike
and rode as fast as i could to mackers
which like it was only 10 minutes away i was pretty quick
and as i waited across the main street
who should be coming in the car
but my parents
i broke their trust pretty badly that day
because to their face
i was obedient
i was respectful
but in my heart
i was preparing to go to mackers
that's how god feels towards
some of this
so much religion going on
who cares it's just green leaves
he actually wants us to listen
jesus drives the point home
when he says truly he says
this is something you gotta hear
you base your life on this
truly
i say to you the tax collectors and the prostitutes
go into the kingdom of god before you
it might be able to translate that
and you do not go in
you outwardly appear good
you're not in the way of righteousness
john showed you the way of righteousness
you were too good to need forgiveness
you you don't need to repent
but hear me
it's the disrespectful sons of the world
who god is pleased with
when they listen
and receive forgiveness
and change their mind
and want to live for him
repentance is the fruit god wants
not a show
actual conviction of sin
is the fruit of listening to him
he drives the point home for these chief priests
he's like
you saw the changed lives
of these tax collectors
this is the scum of society
i don't know who you think the scum are
maybe the ceo's making
300 million dollars
i'm not sure who you picture
but the scum
come in
ahead of you
you saw their changed lives
only god could have brought that about
and you still didn't listen to john
in their goodness
in their sense of superiority to others
they rejected john's message
of god's free grace
his forgiveness
i wonder who the kinds of people are
you think god can't love as much as you
it's going to be different for all of us
i won't get your response by the way
just have a think about it
but whenever we think like that
it can only come
from a belief that i'm offering god something more than them
i'm superior
we've got to grow in this message of grace
if we actually hear the message of grace
i'm the worst person i know
because i know my own thoughts
i don't know your thoughts
i know mine
and here's the good news
such hopeful news of this parable
is god cares where you end up
some of some of you might
some of us
have these huge sins in our past
that you think god can never forgive you
he can
he cares where you end up
the past
grace means the past
i've got to be careful
i'm just going to go for it
and correct me later
but it doesn't matter
it's where you end up
he has the power to change
it's the disrespectful sons of the world
who hear god's voice
and are convicted
and repent
they're the ones god's pleased with
that's the fruit he's looking for
a broken
a broken heart
is the kind of worship he wants
psalm 51 tells us
jesus keeps going
he's on the offensive
he tells another story
from verse 33
now he's
he's already mentioned
vineyard
and he sticks with that theme
he's not just plucking this out of nowhere
vineyard was
hugely significant
to describe israel
let me read
i should have had a bookmark here
but isaiah 5
my beloved
speaking of the lord
my beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill
he dug it
and cleared it of stones
and planted it
with choice vines
he built a watchtower
in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it
and he looked for it
to yield grapes
but it yielded
wild grapes
for the vineyard
of the lord
of hosts
is the house
of israel
and the men of judah
are his pleasant planting
and he looked for justice
but behold
bloodshed
for righteousness
but behold
an outcry
these hearers would have
known
what
jesus was
saying
the purpose
of israel
of god creating israel
was to create
a holy nation
godly lives
the owner
of the vineyard
creates it himself
he owns it
it's a gift
he does everything
for it
it's pure gift
he leases it out
to tenants
who should be paying
the rent
of giving the fruit
in its season
the master
is owed it
but they beat
kill
stone
the servants
sent to it
the prophets
sent
and this story
draws the hearers
to pronounce
their own
judgment
what will the
master of the
vineyard do
to such tenants
he will put
those wretches
to a miserable
death
and let out
the vineyard
to other tenants
who will give him
the fruits
in their season
i think there's
three things
we learn
from this parable
jesus is answering
the original question
of his authority
where's your authority
come from
as you know
australia
expelled the
iranian
ambassador
recently
now how you
treat an
ambassador
is how you
treat
the supreme
leader
but jesus
is inferring
a world
of difference
for himself
when the
vineyard
owner
sends
his son
he's the
he is the
owner
he
he is the
heir
it's
he's not
just an
ambassador
he's the
owner
that's his
authority
so he is
not holding
his punches
he's
saying
his authority
the second
thing i think
we learn
from this
parable
is
something of
the fundamental
sin of the
religious leaders
why they don't
like to listen
they're tenants
they forgot
it's all gift
and god is
owed
everything they
have is
owing to god
and
but when they
see the son
coming
come let's
kill him
and he'll be
ours
they want
to be
the
owners
they're
refusing
to be
tenants
they hate
anyone who
reminds them
that they
belong to
god
everything is
gift
pure gift
from him
and everything
we have
is for
him
and so
they killed
the prophets
every time
they bring
that message
every human
heart
even religious
hearts
naturally
wants to
forget
that all
is gift
and all
is owed
to god
and i think
the third
thing
and the
most surprising
thing we learn
from this
parable is
the heart
of the
master
after sending
many servants
whom they beat
and kill
and more
servants who
they beat
and kill
this
owner
has the
law
on his
side
he should
have sent
soldiers
that's
that's what
he should
have done
i don't
know if
you've seen
seven news
the
spotlight
interview
it's
there's this
gripping
interview
of a
father
denny
he comes
face to
face with
samuel
who got
drunk and
high and
crashed his
car killing
his three
kids and
another child
i don't know
if you've
seen it
but it is
it is a
moving story
of forgiveness
i'll go
look it up
but denny's
asked
about justice
for samuel
and denny's
response says
if it was
up to me
i'll bring
him out of
prison
tomorrow
justice
is to have
my kids
back
i found
that quite
moving
because no
amount
you can't
pay it
back
it's
such a
big
sin
you can't
pay it
back
and yet
he's
chosen
to
forgive
and
apparently
he talks
on the
phone
with
samuel
from
prison
on a
weekly
basis
he's
visited
sam's
parents
he says
he's
gonna have
sam
over
for a
barbecue
when he
gets out
of prison
like
you gotta
watch it
for yourself
and see
it's
incomprehensible
i'm
struggling
to believe
he's
fully
forgiven
him
but it's
it just
doesn't
it's
incomprehensible
his
forgiveness
this father
in this
parable
is more
incomprehensible
than that
who would
send his
son
knowing
the danger
who would
do that
if he
just wants
the rent
send
soldiers
he wants
the tenants
back
they will
respect
my son
he wants
the relationship
i think
it's this
little
picture
god's
love
for rebellious
people is
incomprehensible
!
that he would
send his
son knowing
he would be
thrown out
of the
vineyard
and killed
in verses
42 to
46
jesus
presses
the
implications
of all
this
he changes
metaphors
from vineyard
to building
quoting
psalm
118
now it's
not so
abrupt
a picture
if we
remember
they were
in the
temple
this isn't
quite a
temple
we're never
going to
call it
a temple
but
they're in
the temple
their
identity
as a
people
of god
was in
these
beautiful
stones
around
them
the
centre
of
their
life
was
bound
up
here
the
psalm
the picture
is
the
builders
are
looking
for
stones
to
build
and
they
find
this
one
it's
ugly
it's
useless
and
they
chuck
it
in
the
rubbish
piles
it's
worthless
and it's
that stone
that the
whole
building
ends up
depending
on
now the
original
context
is
Israel
is that
stone
and
Jesus
is saying
I'm
that
stone
he's
building
a whole
new
people
on
himself
therefore
I tell
you
the
kingdom
of
God
will
be
taken
away
from
you
and
given
to
a
people
producing
its
fruits
when
Jesus
curses
the
fig
tree
it's
a
metaphor
for
Israel
eagles
in
America
apparently
are
protected
by law
because
eagles
represent
the
nation
the
government
the
people
I
heard
a
comedian
joke
that
an
eagle
made
a
nest
in
his
backyard
and
he
looked
at
it
from
his
deck
and
he
could
do
nothing
about
it
he's
not
allowed
to
do
a
thing
it's
like
the
eagle
was
just
looking
at
him
going
this
is
my
land
that's
the
metaphor
that's
the
kind
of
significance
this
fig
tree
had
Jesus
is
saying
may
no
fruit
ever
come
from
you
again
this
is
the
end
of
an
era
of
salvation
history
centred
on this
temple
building
now
how
is
he
going
to
replace
it
here's
the
wonder
of
it
he's
not
going
to
turn
the
crowds
against
the
religious
leaders
he
had
the
crowds
in
his
pocket
he
could
have
easily
done
that
he
creates
it
by being
rejected
himself
by
taking
the
curse
himself
he
only
cursed
a tree
he
didn't
curse
them
in
that
moment
he's
actually
giving
them
a
warning
still
it's
a
loving
warning
he
takes
the
curse
Jesus
isn't
a
strong
saviour
who
welcomes
the
morally
strong
and the
morally
religiously
superior
he
welcomes
the
tax
collectors
and the
prostitutes
that's the
kingdom
he wants
it full
of
prostitutes
he wants
it full
of people
who are
cut to
the
heart
and look
at his
son who
was rejected
and go
this was the
Lord's doing
and it is
marvelous
in our
eyes
this is the
day the
Lord has
made
let us
rejoice
and be
glad in
it
that's the
temple he's
building
that's the
kingdom he's
building
repentant people
who just marvel
that he would
take the curse
for you
for your
lack of
fruit
and my
lack of
fruit
the fruit
the father is
pleased with
is listening
to his
son
to the
point of
being convicted
in our
hearts of
having no
fruit to
offer
accepting the
forgiveness
and marveling
that you
are in
the people
of God
simply by
faith
I want to
return and
finish in
that second
lesson of
the fig tree
in verses
20 to
22
Jesus says
truly I say
to you
he's talking
to the
disciples
if you
have faith
and do
not doubt
you will
not only do
what has
been done
to the
fig tree
but even
if you
say to
this
mountain
be taken
up and
thrown
into the
sea
it will
happen
and
whatever
you ask
in prayer
you will
receive
if you
have
faith
now I
think we're
pretty good
in this
church
I don't
suspect
we're
tempted
to go
okay
if I
pray
for a
million
dollars
and I
truly
believe
it
I'll
get
it
that
is
now
some
churches
are saying
that kind
of message
and it's
it's
wretched
now I
don't think
I'm not
suspecting we're
in danger
of that
I kind of
don't like
how much
Jesus is
promising us
here
I feel a bit
uncomfortable
I don't know
about you
you can
move a
mountain
this is
not the
power of
positive
thinking
and it's
not saying
you need
to just
work
yourself
up
I'm
going to
believe
against
what I
don't
actually
believe
it's
not
saying
that
there
are
massive
mountains
that
are
impossible
for me
to move
on my
own
I
can't
produce
fruit
on my
own
like
the
hypocrisy
in my
heart
still
where I
want
people's
applause
rather than
serving
people
that is
a
mountain
I
can't
actually
change
I
don't
think
I
can
change
my
own
heart
or
when
you're
feeling
powerless
to
change
knowing
you
sinned
this
week
the
same
you
did
last
week
and
for
months
and
months
and
you
think
you
would
never
change
it
is
a
mountain
you
can't
produce
fruit
on
your
own
or
we're
raising
money
for
missionaries
do
we
really
think
money
on
its
own
is
going
to
make
any
headway
in
people
being
convicted
of
their
sin
and
trusting
in
a
place
that
is
totally
hostile
to
God
that
is
a
mountain
!
I
think
we
absolutely
we
must
believe
this
promise
I
don't
think
it's
an
option
if
you
want
to
produce
obedience
to
God
in
your
life
you
have
to
believe
this
promise
we
have
no
power
but
when we
look to
Jesus
if
we
want to
produce
good
fruit
that's
pleasing
to
God
if
we
look
to
him
he's
saying
you
have
every
divine
present
power
not
to
be
victorious
like
the
world
counts
victory
this
is
the
rejected
stone
remember
he's
in
the
line
of
the
suffering
prophets
expect
God
to
work
through
weakness
and
pain
but
we
need
to
be
assured
when
we
look
to
him
we
have
divine
power
for
real
change
to
actually
produce
fruit
he's
pleased
with
and
that's
the
kind
of
fruit
he
loves
praying
when
we
say
in
the
name
of
Jesus
it's
not
just
this
sincerely
add
on
we're
saying
we're
helpless
God
but
we're
dependent
on
you
in
the
name
of
Jesus
and
we
have
present
power
now
may
not
be
in
our
timing
but
we
must
believe
this
it's
a
wonderful
promise
he
will
produce
the
fruit
that's
the
kind
of
fruit
he
wants
listening
to
his
word
repentance
marvelling
at his
son
and
prayerful
dependence
on
him
so
can
I
finish
with
the
question
as
God
looks
at
our
church
when
God
looks
at
your
life
is
he
is
he
just
going to
find
green
leaves
or is
he
going to
find
fruit
that
he's
really
pleased
with
look
to
Jesus
and
the
father
will
be
pleased
let's
pray
our
father
thank you
that we
can call
you
father
thank you
for
your
incomprehensible
love
that
despite
our
hard
hearts
that
refuse
to be
tenants
knowing
that
all
our
life
is
from
you
sent
your
son
knowing
we
would
reject
him
and
reject
you
that
you
did
it
in
love
to
win
us
back
lord
my
words
have
no
power
to
reach
into
our
hearts
but
I
know
your
word
does
have
power
I
pray
that
you
would
move
us
to
marvel
fresh
that
you
would
send
your
son
and
I
pray
that
especially
for
those
who
feel
helpless
at
the
moment
and
guilt
ridden
and
shameful
lord
I
pray
that
your
words
of
grace
that
the
tax
collectors
and
sinners
are
the
ones
you're
pleased
with
lord
please
speak
into
their
hearts
lord
pray
for
all
of
us
that
you
would
help
us
to
depend
entirely
on
Jesus
to
please
you
not
on
put