Father, teach us to talk to you.
Help us to talk to you.
Father, you know that many of us are afraid of talking to you about certain matters.
Maybe matters that are too hard for us to bring to you.
Father, you know that some of us have given up talking to you about certain matters
because we've lost heart.
We don't believe that you hear.
It feels as if we talk to just empty space when we talk to you about certain things.
Father, you know those amongst us who struggle with talking to you
because we have given up and lost heart.
Father, you know how easy it is for us to talk to you
in ways that's really just talking about only ourselves
and how we can look down on others and not even be aware of it.
Father, we ask that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us
to teach us and help us to talk to you, to pour out our heart to you,
to be honest with you, to hold nothing back in talking to you.
Father, this is our prayer.
This is our cry.
Teach us from your word.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Amen.
So another Starbucks story.
They should start paying for my coffee, I suppose.
I don't know.
So just a couple of weeks ago, a Jewish friend of mine at a Starbucks,
and he knows I'm a Christian, he knows a pastor,
and he came up to me and he said to me,
George, George, he said,
why aren't Christians doing something about what's happening
to other Christians in the Middle East?
He said, do Christians know just that,
and he used the word genocide,
he said, does he know that,
do the Christians in Canada know the genocide
that's going on in places like Iraq and Syria against Christians?
Why?
This is a Christian nation.
That's what he said to me.
This is a Christian nation.
Why are you silent and doing nothing about such genocide?
And so we talked about it for 10 minutes or so,
and I'm not going to tell you everything that I said,
although partly, I guess, by sharing it with you,
I'm doing at least a tiny bit about it.
And I did tell him that at least in our church,
we pray for persecuted Christians.
And I also, we had a bit of a conversation
as to whether or not Canada's a Christian nation
and what it means to be a Christian.
But, you know, still sort of that is a bit of a challenge for us,
that there is genocide as a killing of people,
really usually for racial lines,
and of course, Christians are not of one particular race or culture.
We come from every race and culture,
but there still is such a slaughter going on there.
Some people would maybe wonder that the reason
that we Christians don't speak up about such matters
is because our Bible tells us not to speak up,
that our Bible tells us to be like little children,
that our Bible tells us to grovel,
like Jesus' parable.
Some might say that the tax collector was groveling,
and if we are being taught to grovel,
then we won't stand up.
If we're taught to be like little children,
we won't stand up.
And so part of the reason that that slaughter goes on
is because our Bible is teaching us to not stand up.
Well, let's look and see what the Bible actually says
about some of these issues.
So if you have your Bibles,
please turn in them to Luke chapter 18,
beginning at verse 1,
and we're going to look at those.
There's sort of three little units of teaching.
Some of you who are familiar with the Bible,
all three of them are quite familiar.
Others of you who are maybe newer on the Christian walk
or are seekers,
some of them might have come to you as a bit of a surprise.
But let's, one of them,
the thing about children is in three of the Gospels,
but let's look at this and see,
is the Bible in fact encouraging us to grovel?
Is it encouraging us to never stand up for ourselves?
And what on earth is Jesus doing
with these different analogies?
And why does he compare God to an unjust judge?
So Luke chapter 18, beginning at the first verse,
and here's how it goes.
And Jesus told them a parable to the effect
that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
Just sort of pause here before we read.
This is going to be a bit of a different sermon than others,
because in this sermon,
I mean, in these three texts,
especially the first two,
Jesus basically gives the purpose of the parable
and he tells us what the parable's about.
Often that happens, by the way, in the parables,
but in these two particular things,
Jesus sort of tells us what the point is.
And here it is in first one.
An old Christian writer who wrote about,
you know, many hundreds of years ago
said that in these parables,
it's Jesus left the key to the parable outside the door.
So that you had the key that you could open up
the meaning of the parable
and he gives it to you outside the door
as you come up to the parable,
rather than at the end
or maybe a few verses after the parable.
So this is going to be the purpose of the first parable.
He told them this parable, verse one,
to the effect that they ought always to pray
and not lose heart.
And so how does he sort of illustrate that
or try to bring it home?
He tells a parable, verse two.
He said, in a certain city,
there was a judge who neither feared God
nor respected men.
And that's sort of a general Christian teaching
about other times,
some other time I'll talk about the fear of God,
but it's sort of a very common Christian understanding,
New Testament understanding
that we are to have a fear of God,
but we are to respect human beings.
Most of us struggle with fearing human beings
and completely and utterly ignoring God.
But the Bible tries to encourage us
to understand that we're not to fear human beings,
that we're to have a fear of God,
which we'll talk about some other time,
but we're to respect human beings.
Anyway, so verse two again.
He said, in a certain city,
there was a judge who neither feared God
nor respected men.
And there was a widow in that city
who kept coming to him and saying,
give me justice against my adversary.
Just sort of pause here.
Some of you have rich imaginative lives
and you picture things.
So when you're picturing this widow,
don't necessarily picture an old woman.
In the ancient world, at the time of Jesus,
women were usually given in marriage
at the age of 13 or 14.
So this widow could be 15.
Okay?
She could be 15 or 16.
She could be very, very, very young.
And as well as that,
given the context of the parable,
it's probably some type of,
it's probably something to do with inheritance,
mentioning the widow.
In other words, her adversaries are her family,
who would have controlled the inheritance
from their son who died
and are probably withholding it from her.
Okay?
So if you want to sort of enter into it imaginatively,
that's what's sort of going on.
I mean, it could be an old woman,
but it could very well be just somebody who's 15.
And so we read verse 3 again.
And there was a widow in that city
who kept coming to the unjust judge
and saying, give me justice against my adversary.
For a while, the unjust judge refused,
but afterward he said to himself,
and it's really interesting what he says to himself.
It shows that he's not bothered in the least
by the fact that he doesn't fear God
or respect people.
He knows that about himself.
He still has a good night's sleep every night.
I mean, that's just the way some of us are, isn't it?
It's not the fact that we deal with people
who might oppress others
and then go home and have tormented sleep.
The world is filled with people
who do horrendous things to other people
and then have a really good night's sleep.
And they know they do horrendous things to other people.
And that's what's being portrayed here with the judge.
He knows about himself.
It doesn't bother him at all.
It doesn't stir anything within him whatsoever
about repentance or amendment of life.
So listen to how he speaks to about himself.
Verse four, for a while he refused,
but afterward he said to himself,
though I neither fear God nor respect man,
yet because this widow keeps bothering me,
I will give her justice
so that she will not beat me down
by her continual coming,
coming back to him time and time and time again.
Sort of going to be, it's relevant for the prayer.
The woman doesn't have family connections.
She doesn't have wealth.
She doesn't have a social system
that's going to force the judge to act.
She only has one thing, persistence.
That's a very relevant thing for us.
Some of us have high IQs.
Some of us are, IQs aren't very high.
Some of us are rich.
Some of us are well off.
Some of us aren't.
Some of us are well educated.
Some of us aren't.
Different races, different nationalities,
different ethnic groups, different things.
The Bible isn't telling us
we have to all have high IQs
or high income or high education.
If it did, it would leave a lot of us out.
What it's telling us about
is something that we all can potentially do,
which is persist.
To persist.
It's something within the grasp
of every person who hears.
So verse six,
and the Lord said,
hear what the unrighteous judge says,
and will not God give justice to his elect
who cry to him day and night?
Will he delay long over them?
I tell you,
he will give justice to them speedily.
Nevertheless,
when the son of man comes,
will he find faith on earth?
Now,
I'm not going to talk about unanswered prayer today.
One of the reasons
I'm not going to talk about unanswered prayer today
is that in a couple of weeks,
we're going to deal with
the most famous example
in the New Testament of unanswered prayer,
where Jesus asks for something
that he doesn't get.
So I thought,
and you can remind me
when you can see it coming up,
that I'll talk about unanswered prayer
that particular week.
I'm not going to talk this morning
about those of us
who struggle with talking to God
about when we've talked to him
about all sorts of things
and nothing seems to have happened.
We'll talk about that in another day.
But the thing that we need to sort of,
there's some other things here
that we need to see about the text.
And the first one is this.
This is the point,
if you could put it up, Andrew.
As I walk with Jesus and others
on the Jesus way,
he wants me to talk to him
again and again and again
and never lose heart.
That's what Jesus wants.
That's what he's asking you and me to do.
The Jesus way is not a private way.
It's personal, but it's not private.
Jesus, we all enter into the Jesus way
one by one
when we put our faith in Jesus
and trust what he's done for us.
We trust his person and his work.
But we walk the Jesus way.
In other words, we live our lives 24-7 lives.
We walk it with Jesus and with others.
That's what the Jesus way is.
And so these first three points
that I'm going to share with you,
they're always going to begin
with this same phrase.
As I walk with Jesus and others
on the Jesus way,
here's the first thing.
He wants me to talk to him
again and again and again
and again and again and again
and never lose heart.
That's what he wants.
He wants to commune with me
and have communion with me.
And it tells me something about who I am
and about who God is.
It's quite astounding
that he wants me to talk to him.
He wants you to talk to him.
Now, my wife is not able
to be at church today
because somebody foolishly
put the car keys to the van
in their pocket and left the house.
And you're looking at him.
So, yeah, I feel really bad about it.
I really do.
I got a text and I got,
oh, dang.
Anyway, so, but here's the thing.
If I go back to Louise
and after I've apologized to her,
I said to her,
you know, Louise,
I've had a great spiritual breakthrough.
I'm no longer going to talk to you.
I'm going to meditate in your presence.
I'm going to do yoga in your presence.
I'm going to do rituals in your presence,
but I'm not going to talk to you.
Well, that would fly like a lead balloon, right?
In fact, if I tried to actually meditate
in her presence,
she'd probably hit me,
you know, slap me or punch me,
you know, in a playful wake-up type of way
to try to get my attention, right?
Because in a marriage,
you talk to each other.
I mean, you have times
when you're just silent in the house
and maybe you have times
when you're mad at each other
and you're silent because you're mad,
but, and sometimes you're just silent
because you're comfortable with each other,
but you talk.
You talk to each other.
And so, you see,
this is one of the things
which is so astounding
about the Jesus way
is that in many other ways,
like in most Eastern religions,
you don't talk to God.
The primary thing you do
is you follow certain types of steps
or processes
and maybe you learn how to do yoga
as part of a process
of self-enlightenment,
of getting in touch
with the God within
or the God without
or whatever it is,
but you don't actually talk to God.
And it's because that,
it doesn't mean that
the biblical account is true,
but it's just important
that you understand it,
is that the Bible portrays
that God is a God
that we talk to.
He wants us to talk to him.
He doesn't want us to be
in his presence
just meditating
or doing yoga
or doing rituals.
He wants us to talk to him.
And it's because God is personal
and we are made in his image
as personal beings
and so we are to talk,
to talk to him again
and again
and again.
The other thing is that
some of you might say,
well, why does God want us
to talk to him again
and again
and again?
Many of you have maybe heard
the famous saying by Einstein
that one definition of insanity
is doing the same thing
over and over and over again
hoping for a different result.
And so for some people,
the idea that we would talk to God
time and time and time
and time again
hoping for a different result,
that if we think that way
or we feel that way,
then what we're doing
is we're not thinking of God
as a person.
We're thinking of God
as something like a machine,
something completely
and utterly impersonal.
So for instance,
if you go to your bank machine
and you type in your PIN number
and it doesn't work
and then you type in your PIN number
and it doesn't work
and then you type in your PIN number
and it doesn't work
and you type in your PIN number
and it doesn't work
and you have some type of disorder
and it doesn't work.
And in fact, actually, as you know, with machines,
machines that are impersonal, they don't sort of say,
oh yeah, that's sort of in the ballpark of the PIN number,
so I'm going to accept it, because I know the person's heart.
No, it has to be exactly, precisely right,
and if your PIN number doesn't work,
it means either you've got the wrong PIN number
or the machine's broken or something's happened,
and that's how impersonal things work.
But, you know, my wife and I have to talk about things
time and time and time and time again.
I know sometimes I'm a real slow learner,
and that's just, you don't just talk about your kids once
and then that's good for the next 30 years.
You talk about your kids all the time.
You talk about your relationship.
You talk about your plans.
You maybe go over the same thing over and over and over again
about just, you've just got to talk it through,
and that's what Jesus is saying.
He's saying that in our relationship with himself,
that in our relationship with our Father,
we're to talk to him again and again and again and again
and again and again, not give up talking.
And, you know, sometimes later on in your life,
like later on in my life, I'll think back to some of the things
I asked God for that bothered me that he didn't give them to me,
and I'm so happy in hindsight that he didn't give those things to me.
It would have been not good for my life if he'd answered my prayer
exactly the way I wanted him to answer my prayer.
And often, and other times when I'm praying and praying and praying
and talking about the same type of thing,
and by the way, don't think that I'm really great at persistence in prayer.
One of the things you can do is pray for me that I will be better
at praying with persistence.
Please pray for me that that will happen.
Pray for our church that we will be a church that prays
and talks to God time and time and time and time again,
that we'll trust in prayer more than we'll trust in techniques,
that we'll trust in prayer more than we'll trust in our own abilities
or the things that we can do.
Pray that we will be a congregation that talks to God again and again
and again and again.
And sometimes as we talk to God again and again and again and again,
we realize that we need to sort of switch in the things
that we're talking about, that God teaches us as we talk to him.
He tells us of something new that we have to become
or something new that we have to do or something new that we have to,
something that we've been doing for a long time,
we have to stop doing because prayer changes us.
And that's what Jesus is telling us to do.
As I walk with Jesus and others on the Jesus way,
he wants me to talk to him again and again and again and again
and again and again and never lose heart.
Now, some of you might say,
George, are you saying that Christians are better prayers than others?
And George, if Christians are such good prayers,
why is it that, I mean, you began this thing
by talking about the terrible things going on for Christians in the Middle East,
Christian communities that have existed for 1,900-plus years
all being obliterated and emptied.
Many of them killed and then they have to flee.
What about their prayers?
Maybe the Muslims pray better than the Christians
because the Muslims seem to be kicking butt over there
and the Christians are the butts that are being kicked.
Does that mean that Muslims are better prayers than Christians?
Like, are you saying that,
but are you saying that Christians are better at praying than others?
Like, what's going on with this talk
about how we are to be persistent in prayer?
Is Jesus talking about us somehow being better at things
or knowing more than others?
And what's he saying?
Well, let's read the next thing that Jesus talks about
because Jesus gives these sort of three,
actually, it's four linked things,
but we're going to talk about the rich man next week.
What is Jesus saying?
Well, let's look that he continues to sort of help to unfold
how we are to talk to him
and what's the attitude and the heart attitude
that we are to have when we talk to Jesus
and we talk to the Father.
Let's look at verse 9.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous
and treated others with contempt.
So just pause.
Remember I said to you that in these two parables,
in some ways Jesus gives the key to the parable
on the outside of the door
so that we can unlock it.
This is partially the point of the sermon
and more primarily the target.
Sorry, not partially the point of the parable,
but primarily the target of the parable.
Okay?
He's zeroing in on something.
And he's zeroing in on those of us,
on those disciples and others
who trust in themselves that they were righteous
and treat others with contempt.
Two men, verse 10,
went up into the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus,
God, I thank you that I am not like other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I get.
But the tax collector standing far off
would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast saying,
God, be merciful to me.
And actually, literally in the Greek,
it's the sinner.
And it's emphatic.
God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Just go up to verse 11 again.
Did you notice the I language of the first prayer?
There's a difference between making our prayers personal
and having our prayers be all about us
with the royal I, the royal ego at the heart of our prayers.
And this man isn't making his prayers personal.
It's all this I language.
Five times he says I.
Look at that.
God, I thank you that I am not like other men,
extortioners and just adulterers,
or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I get.
That's the heart of this guy's prayer.
And I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Braveheart.
By the way, when I say a movie like this,
it's pretty gory and stuff,
so I'm not necessarily recommending it.
But you might remember,
isn't this scene an Irish guy, of course,
who says that it's an other way.
He talks to God all the time,
and he says an Irishman has to talk to God
because he can't find an equal on earth to talk to
or something like that.
And that's the same type of idea here.
It's that type of an arrogance in the man's prayer.
And here's the point.
As I walk with Jesus and others on the Jesus way,
he warns me against all talking to him,
which flows from self-trust, self-righteousness,
self-congratulation, and contempt of others.
And he speaks it not to the Pharisees,
not to the Sadducees,
not to the politicians,
not to Pilate, not to Rome.
He speaks it to his disciples.
It's something that we who gather here in his name
need to take deeply to heart,
deeply to heart.
That's very easy for us to start to trust in ourselves,
trust in our own righteousness,
trust,
and congratulate ourselves in our prayers,
and treat others with contempt.
Now, some of us
have a hard time
sort of thinking that this could actually be about us.
I mean, basically,
one of the things that the Bible is telling us here
is that every one of us
struggle with self-righteousness.
You know, if you went to an AA meeting,
you'd begin, when you speak to yourself,
you'd say,
Hi, I'm George.
I'm an alcoholic.
In a sense, what Jesus is telling us
is that we need to realize
that we almost have to come into a church
and say,
Hi, Jesus.
I'm self-righteous.
And I'm trusting in a power higher than myself
to deal with my self-righteousness addiction,
my self-trust addiction,
my self-congratulation addiction,
and my contempt of others addiction.
You know why?
Well, because we're not like those charismatics
who always just talk about
Holy Spirit type of stuff.
Good grief.
All they do is crazy things.
You know, they bark like dogs
and run around like crazy.
We're not like those Anglo-Catholics.
All they do is this all the time
and this all the time
and kneel and bow and scrape
and wear frilly, lacy clothes,
and we're not like those.
No, we never would think and talk like this.
That would never be part of our self-awareness.
It would never be that any charismatic
would look down their nose at reformed types.
independence.
Or Anglo-Catholics.
It would never be the case
that some Anglo-Catholic
would look down their nose
at evangelicals or charismatic.
It would never be the case
that some brethren type or Baptist type
would look down their nose at Anglicans.
It would never be the case
that an Anglican would look down their nose
at a brethren or a Baptist.
It would never be a case
that any of us
would ever do something like that.
It would never be the case
that some of us
who vote conservative
would look down our nose
at those who vote liberal or NDP.
and it's never the case that anybody who votes NDP
would look down their nose at somebody who votes conservative.
This is a completely and utterly irrelevant problem.
Why does the Bible even talk about it?
See, it's a human problem.
One of the things I try, I'm not very successful about it,
you can pray for me,
but one of the things I try to talk about
when I talk with people in a Starbucks
and they make accusations against the Christian faith,
and I don't try to pretend that Christians haven't done really bad things,
I don't try to pretend that I haven't done any bad things,
but what I try to have them understand
is that what they're talking about is a human problem.
And the question is, as a human problem,
what does your religion or spirituality or ideology say about it,
and what resources does it have to deal with it?
And so here, Jesus very frankly puts his finger on a human problem.
Ford Nation in Toronto looks down their nose at the Toronto Star
and people who live in the Annex.
And people in the Toronto Star and the Annex look down their nose on Ford Nation.
It is a human problem,
and Jesus identifies it.
We struggle.
Actually, sorry, we don't struggle.
That's the problem.
A lot of us don't struggle with self-righteousness at all.
Don't struggle with contempt of others at all.
We're like the unrighteous judge.
We spend our whole day feeling self-righteous, self-satisfied, self-congratulatory,
look down our nose on others,
and then we have a great eight hours sleep and wake again to do it
with no self-knowledge, even in the least.
In the Bible, Jesus is trying to bring to us a human problem,
a human problem that causes division and keeps us separate from God.
And so Jesus warns us that as we walk with him and others in his way,
he warns me against all talking to him,
which flows from self-trust, self-righteousness,
self-congratulation, and contempt of others.
As I've said to you before, I don't know who first said it.
It wasn't my line.
We can't look up to God if we're looking down our nose at other people.
It's physically impossible.
And this text is just encouraging us to,
in a sense, partly what this text is teaching us to do,
I'm going to return to it in about 10 minutes,
but partly what this text is just trying to teach us is just to adore.
I mean, I was born a lot longer ago than maybe most of you here,
not all of you, but, you know, I haven't lived.
I have a beginning.
I have an end.
God is just big.
Like, you know, sometimes when I'm flying across the continent
or something like that, and I just think to myself,
it's as if God just puts into my thought a little bit for a moment,
this planet is so big,
and God has to be bigger than the planet to make the planet.
This galaxy, this universe, it is so big.
God has to be so big to form the galaxies and the stars
and the universe and the planets and all of these people.
God just has to be so big and so great
why am I thinking that I'm somehow his equal?
Why am I looking down my nose at other people
when God asks me to look up to the great God,
the planet shaping, planet spinning, galaxy holding,
universe forming God,
and this God asks little me to speak to him honestly,
as a creature,
as one who is self-righteous, self-satisfied,
self-trusting, and shows contempt to others,
and still he asks me to speak to him honestly,
and he invites you to speak to him honestly.
This is the real world,
not a false and an imaginary and religious and spiritual world,
but it is the real world.
Now some of you might say,
okay George,
but doesn't Jesus contradict himself?
You know, okay,
you're telling me that it's all about,
it's about not being,
you know,
about being humble
and not being like a black hole
and thinking about yourself
and looking at the bigness of God,
but George,
you have nine kids
and you have really good kids,
but kids are not humble.
They're not.
Kids do not spend all of their time
thinking about others.
I want,
and they throw little temper tantrums
when they don't get what they want.
I didn't intentionally pinch a child,
have somebody pinch a child at that moment,
just so you know.
I'm not that well organized.
You know,
kids aren't particularly humble.
Kids aren't particularly,
well, you know,
kids throw temper tantrums.
Adults throw temper tantrums on the inside.
Kids say,
why bother with it being on the inside
when I can go all out
to get that thing that I want?
You know,
kids are all about
wanting at least the same amount,
if not more.
Like,
once kids have siblings,
he has more space.
He has more cake.
He has more cookies.
She has more time with you.
She has,
he has,
she has.
That's what kids are like.
So, George,
isn't Jesus being a little bit contradictory?
Well,
let's look.
Verses 15 to 17.
Now,
they were bringing even infants to him
that he might touch them.
And when,
that's to bless them.
And when the disciples saw it,
they rebuked the,
the parents.
Um,
the,
the original language here is that
it's very,
very young children.
You're talking about kids
who are like 10 months old
and you're talking about
14 month old little toddlers
who walk like Frankenstein.
Okay.
It's the,
the language is it's identifying
very,
very young children.
So the disciples aren't rebuking
the children,
they're rebuking the parents.
And,
uh,
and then Jesus says,
verse 16,
but Jesus called them to him saying,
let the children come to me
and do not hinder them
for to such belongs
the kingdom of God.
Truly I say to you,
whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God
like a child
shall not enter it.
Um,
listen again,
let the children come to me
and do not hinder them
for to such belong
the kingdom of God.
Truly I say to you,
whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God
like a child
shall not enter it.
Now I'm going to explain
this point in a moment,
but I want to sort of
take a bit of a time
out in the sermon
and this is volunteer Sunday
and I'm not really good
at raw,
raw,
uh,
let's,
uh,
tackle these mountains.
Uh,
we're having everybody sign up.
Like I'm,
I'm just not very good at it.
Some of you have read my blog.
Um,
you know,
I,
I think a lot of churches
like pastors
who are like football coaches
who give inspiring speeches
and try to get you pumped up
and give you five great points
for success
and six reasons
why you should do something.
You read my blog
on Volunteer Sunday
and,
and it's like an exercise
in,
in whether the word volunteer
is in the Bible or not
and,
um,
it doesn't maybe
necessarily inspire you
although hopefully,
well,
I'm trying to make
an important point
because the word volunteer
isn't in the Bible
and,
um,
but,
but here's the thing.
Uh,
Jesus here is giving us
a very,
very specific challenge.
We're taking a bit of a break,
time out from prayer.
He's giving us
a very specific challenge
is that Jesus loves children
and one of the things
I can ask you to pray for
is just pray that God
will send more children
to the church.
Like,
please make that part
of your,
of your daily prayer
that God will send
children to the church
that he will find
that,
that God will change us
in some ways
so that we can minister
to children,
that we can love children,
that we can encourage children,
that we can bless children,
that we can share the gospel
with children,
that we can disciple children.
Pray that God
will use us
to bless children
by bringing them to Jesus.
Just pray for that
and ask yourself
whether God is calling you
to be involved
in some way
in this ministry
and I don't just mean
our established ministries,
I don't just mean
getting involved
with Sunday school
or the nursery
or with the youth group
but I'm also talking about
there's this huge potential
out there
and you know,
you know,
maybe what God
is calling us to do,
maybe God is calling
one of you to say,
you know what,
we can do six vacation
Bible schools this summer,
can't we?
We can do three downtown
and we can do three
in different neighborhoods
and surely that we can find
some way to do that
and maybe if not six,
maybe it's seven,
maybe it's four,
maybe it's some after type
of school program,
I don't know what it is
but the fact of the matter
is that Jesus tells us
that he loves children
and his people
should love children
and I just want
to really encourage you
not just to think about
whether God is calling you
to be involved
in reaching out to children
but just,
this is a Sunday
where we just want
to encourage people
that Jesus walked,
we enter one by one
but we walk it with others
and that means
that all of us
have some role to play
in walking with each other,
to encourage each other,
to equip each other,
to walk with each other
and I just want
to encourage you
to just pray to God,
talk to different people
and if none of the ministries
sort of scratch,
you don't want to sort of,
they don't just fit in
and maybe God is calling you
to help us
to walk into some new area
of ministry
and you should talk to Amy,
you should talk to me,
I just want to encourage you
to pray,
to pray about how
you can be involved
and specifically
on a Sunday like this,
how we can be involved
in heeding the words
of Jesus
of let the little children
come to me.
Okay,
back to the sermon.
Sorry.
I,
okay,
here's the point
and then I'm going to
start to unpack it.
As I walk with Jesus
and others
on the Jesus way,
he wants me
to receive his way
like a child.
As I walk with Jesus
and others
on the Jesus way,
he wants me
to receive his way
like a child.
Now this text
has caused lots of mischief
amongst Christians.
Lots and lots of mischief.
I,
when I was still part
of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa,
you would not believe
how many workshops
and other things
that I went to
and I'm not going
to just pick on them.
I've been at other types
of clergy things
and other things
where people encourage us
to get in touch
with their inner child,
to be more childlike,
to learn how to play.
I was a couple of years ago
at a major Christian
graduate institution.
I went for a,
for some continuing ed
and there were
a variety of speakers
and I came in after lunch
for the speaker
and,
and as I'm coming in,
there's somebody at the door
handing out paper
and crayons
for the workout.
And I said,
why are you handing out
paper and crayons?
She said,
well,
it's going to be
really necessary.
She's talking about
being more childlike.
And I told the person,
I'm sorry,
I was,
this is a very rude moment.
I was being very un-Canadian
and I said that
one of the rules
I have now developed
in my life
is I never go to a talk
by a professor
where I'm going to need
a crayon.
And so I went for a walk
instead
because I didn't want
to sit there
and try to play
with crayons
through a presentation.
The text is not
telling us
to get in touch
with our inner child,
to try to be like children.
What is that?
Anyway,
no,
I was going to say
something that
Johnny Depp said
that that would have
been a bit rude
so I won't say it.
You have to be careful
when you preach
the things that pop
into my head
you would not believe.
Sometimes I get in trouble
with it afterwards.
Here's the thing
a little bit about,
so first of all,
if Jesus only said
this about prayer,
if that's the only thing
Jesus said,
we'd be sort of stuck
with it.
But you notice
that this is a text
that talks about
a range of things.
And so from the very,
very first story
of the woman
and the unjust judge,
we can see that
what God gives us
is justice.
And we know
that children
aren't always really
concerned about justice.
In some ways,
children can be
like the unjust judge
in that they don't
necessarily respect
their parents,
respect their brother
and sister,
or fear God,
and they can still
have a perfectly fine
night's sleep.
And so the text
is telling us
that we have to be
concerned with justice
and fairness.
And the earlier text
is telling us
we have to be concerned
with humility
and understanding
that we're sinners
and that we're at fault.
So that the text,
whatever it means
about being like a child,
it's going to be balanced
by these other teachings
of Jesus on prayer.
But here's a way
to enter into it
at its heart.
When I was in Eganville,
it was a very unusual
experience for me.
I was a child,
am a child of immigrants
who came from
another country,
obviously.
I was born here
about a year after
they immigrated to Canada.
I grew up in Montreal.
I lived in Ottawa.
In a sense,
I don't have a home.
Like really,
for me,
home is where Louise is.
When I'm with Louise,
I'm home.
When I'm with Louise
and my kids,
I'm home.
It could be any city
in the world.
I don't have roots.
But there were people
in Eganville,
there was this one man,
his name was Jimmy,
and one of his great sorrows
was that he was
the fifth generation
to live and work
on that farm,
and he had not been able
to have children.
And there were many people
in Eganville
who were five
or six generations
in the same spot.
But here's the thing.
How would the sixth generation
on that same spot
and how would I,
as a child,
learn about Canada?
Same way.
It doesn't matter
that one's five generations
on the land
and I'm just
a brand new immigrant.
The same way.
Children just accept
their country.
They just accept
that there's certain ways
that you dress.
They just accept it.
It's like it's
even deeper than trust.
It's just,
that's just the way it is.
Now,
the text isn't telling us
that we shouldn't
be concerned with justice.
The first text tells us
that we should be
concerned with justice.
This is talking about
something which is
far simpler.
That a child,
the children here
in this church
who are being brought up
in Canada,
it doesn't matter
where their parents
were from,
they come up
in this country
and they learn
the language
of the country.
They learn the way
the country works.
That's just the way it is.
Their parents
are just their parents.
And so what this is
asking us to do
at a very,
very deep level
is to accept
the Jesus way,
to accept
his kingdom,
to accept
its language,
to accept
its purposes,
to accept
its priorities,
to accept
its warnings,
to accept
its exhortation,
to accept
what we should long for,
to accept
what we should fear,
that at a very,
very deep level,
it doesn't mean
we don't use
our brains
and everything,
but at a very,
very,
very deep level
that our predilection,
that our basic preference
is just to accept
that God knows.
Just to accept.
Because you'll notice
in the text,
go back and look at it,
verse 16,
let the little children
come to meet
and do not hinder them
for to such belongs
the kingdom of God.
It's a communal image.
Truly I say to you,
whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God,
like a child
shall not enter it.
So that's what we can pray for.
That at a deep level,
it doesn't mean
we don't try to
meditate upon Scripture
and go into the depths
of Scripture
and try to understand
how the Scripture
is dealing with our heart,
but at a very,
very,
very fundamental level,
we just accept it.
We accept Jesus
and his way
at a deep level
and that's what we can
cry out for to God
in terms of our prayer.
And that leads me
to my concluding point.
One of the things
that's regularly mocked
in our culture
is the idea
of the sinner's prayer.
And some of you,
if you're not from
an evangelical background,
you don't even know
what the sinner's prayer is.
It's often mocked
that there are,
in many, many
wide ranges of Christianity,
it's mocked
within evangelicalism.
This idea
that there's a prayer
that can change your life,
that you can,
that there's a time
in your life
for some people
where they have to come to God
and they have to say a prayer
about accepting Jesus
into their lives
and asking.
And it's sort of mocked
and the whole idea
of altar calls
which is just a form
of an invitation
or a minister asking
for people
to invite Jesus
into their lives
and to pray
a particular prayer.
And it's disbelieved
and it's mocked
by many, many, many people
who call themselves Christians
and many, many people
outside of the Christian faith.
It's an idea
that people make fun of.
Some of you
who have been here before
know that I issue invitations.
I'm going to issue
an invitation today
and I invite people
to say a prayer
to ask Jesus
to come into their lives.
So why do I do that?
I'm a Canadian.
I'm sensitive
of cultural pressure.
You know why I do it?
I do it because
Jesus tells me to.
That's why I do it.
Because I want to be
like a child.
Look at verses 13 and 14.
Remember,
he's talking about
the tax collector.
Verse 13.
But the tax collector
standing far off
would not even lift up
his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast
saying,
God, be merciful to me,
a sinner.
I tell you,
this man went down
to his house
justified rather
than the other.
For everyone
who exalts himself
will be humbled
but the one
who humbles himself
will be exalted.
I know that for myself
I actually walked an aisle
and went forward
to give my life to Christ
and I have to confess
that one of the things
that kept me
from doing that
for many months
was that I did not
want to humble myself
in front of a congregation.
I did not.
I'm not proud about that.
There's all sorts of things
in this life
that we do not do
because we compare ourselves
to others
and wonder what they would think.
But here's the amazing thing.
This is actually,
this guy,
all he prays
is these in English,
God, be merciful to me,
the sinner.
Seven words in English.
The word
which is translated
as merciful here
is actually a unique way
in the original language.
It's a unique word.
It's only found
in one other place
in the Bible
which is Hebrews 2,
verse 17.
And most of us
when we think of mercy
we think of
give me a break.
Like if I owe you
a hundred bucks
I don't have it with me today.
You know,
in a sense I'm saying
give me some mercy,
give me some grace,
give me a break,
cut me some slack,
give me an extra few days
and I'll get it to you.
And that's what we tend
to think of mercy
that person
cutting us some slack,
being patient
and being kind.
But here the original word
is not actually
what,
it's only here
in two verses,
this in Hebrews 2, 17.
And what it's actually saying
is it's actually asking
to be covered
by the atoning,
the atonement.
It's asking to be covered
by a sacrifice
that God makes
to make us right with him.
It's in fact,
in the Greek word,
it's the Greek word
for the Hebrew word
for atonement.
You've heard of
Yom Kippur,
the day of atonement?
The Hebrew word,
because this is from Psalm 51,
is Kippur,
atonement.
Have your atonement
be on me.
Have your covering
of my sins
be on me.
It's pointing to Jesus
and what he's going
to do on the cross.
And the man,
he prays from his heart.
It emerges from his heart.
He understands
his separation
from God
and his need.
And he cries out
from his heart.
And it begins
in his heart
and he uses words.
And Jesus says,
this man goes home justified.
And the same word
that is translated there
as justified
is translated
in many places
in the Bible
as righteous.
It means redeemed.
It means forgiven.
It means made right
with God.
And Jesus says,
this man prays
this prayer
and goes home
right with God.
And so why do I
give an invitation?
Because Jesus
teaches us this.
Here, Andrew,
if you could put up
the final point.
Jesus wants me
to enter his way
and walk his way,
praying from my heart,
God,
be merciful to me.
A sinner.
Jesus wants me
to enter his way
and walk his way,
praying from my heart,
God,
be merciful to me,
the sinner.
We enter the Jesus way
with such a prayer.
and we walk the Jesus way,
always asking to be covered
by what Jesus did for us
on the cross.
You know,
I ask,
in a sense,
my marriage to Louise
begins by me telling her
I love her
and will she marry me?
And in a sense,
every day for the rest
of my life,
in a sense,
I'm to renew my vows
by telling her
that I love her.
And every day
of the Christian walk
is to remember
that we need to be covered
by the blood of Jesus,
by what he did for us
on the cross.
That's to grip us.
It's to be what we understand
as the central thing
that makes us right with God.
It's not how many good works,
we don't have to do
a whole pile of good works
and then finally
Jesus accepts us.
We don't have to do
a whole pile of good works
and get our lives
in a particular type of order
or a particular type
of obedience
and then Jesus applies
what he's done
on the cross for us.
Nothing in my hands
I bring simply
to the cross I cling.
We only enter
the Christian way
and live the Christian way
by grace
and by what Jesus does
for us on the cross.
And, you know,
here's the thing.
You know,
some people,
they're raised by Christians
and there's never
a time in their lives
when they haven't trusted
in Jesus
and that's really good.
But if there's never
been a time in your life
that you haven't trusted Jesus,
then it's the easiest thing
in the world
to say,
God, be merciful to me,
a sinner.
You might not be able,
you might not have to walk
down an aisle to say it,
but it's an easy thing
to say to Jesus,
God, be merciful to me,
a sinner.
And some of us
don't know
the particular moment
when we realize
that we had to give ourselves
to Jesus.
Maybe it was in September,
we would still have not
wanted to do that
and then somehow in May
something changed
and we realized
that our heart had changed
and we were now trusting
Jesus as our Savior.
Then if that's described you,
there's nothing,
you just say to him,
God, be merciful to me,
a sinner.
I don't know when I said it first,
you don't care about that,
you just care that it comes
from my heart.
And if it comes from my heart,
I can say it,
God, be merciful to me,
the sinner.
But others of us,
it would be like me,
your pride is keeping you
from saying such a prayer
and the Holy Spirit's
pressing upon you
to say,
God, be merciful to me,
the sinner.
And if that's what
you're going to pray today
and I'm not going to,
you just,
you have your Bibles,
you have it on the screen,
I'm not going to try to,
Jesus said this works
if it's coming from your heart.
I'm not going to try
to gild the rose.
Just pray it from your heart
and enter the Jesus way
and walk it with Jesus and others.
Please stand.
Father, you know
how much we're influenced
by the people around us.
You know, Father,
how much that keeps us
from doing things?
I guess, Father,
sometimes that's a good thing.
But you know, Father,
there's lots of times
that our obedience to you
is circumscribed
and hindered
by what others will think.
Father, make us like a child
who just accepts your way
and will walk in your way
and trust your words.
Father, we want to make it complicated.
We want to make it like
we have to get our act together
by ourselves
or do exemplary service to you
before you will accept us
as your child.
But Father,
Jesus himself
tells us to cry out to you
from our heart,
God, be merciful to me,
a sinner.
Father, that's what we want to do.
Help us, Father,
to do that in such a way
that we enter the Jesus way
and help us to say that
every day as we walk
the Jesus way.
Father,
we come to you.
We are self-righteous,
self-congratulatory.
We treat others with contempt.
We are sinners.
I acknowledge
and confess that before you.
May the blood of Jesus
and what he did for me
on the cross,
may that cover me.
Only that, Father,
will make me right with you.
Jesus,
I am your child
by adoption and grace.
Thank you
for what your son
did for me on the cross.
Thank you that you want me
to talk to you again
and again
and again and again.
All this we ask and thank
in the name of Jesus,
your son
and our savior.
Amen.