Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word by the power of your Holy Spirit. May you speak to our hearts and change our lives. In the precious name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
So the British actor and playwright, uh, Noel Coward, was once asked, what do you think about God? To which he replied, we’ve never been properly introduced. Throughout his [00:01:00] life and ministry, his teaching, his actions, Jesus is revealing God to us. In October, uh, we have been focusing upon our core values again, uh, up in and out, and looking at these through the lens of Luke’s gospel.
Uh, for our visitors here with us, uh, we’re preaching through Luke’s Gospel since last, uh, December. So hence some of these big chunks we’ve been reading from various Sundays. Today, we focus on up, but rather than focus on how we worship or how we pray, uh, we’re gonna think about who is the one to whom we pray and worship.
Going through most of the passage of Luke. Uh, next slide.
Don’t worry, that’s the last time you get lots of quotes on, on the screen. The way we view God, uh, look at teen verse one did a story. We Noel a story about a widow [00:02:00] who comes demanding justice. The judge kept ignoring her. Then he gave in, uh, she’d worn him down. But like our kids sometimes, you know, they keep asking and asking and then we just.
Give in, you know, listen to what the unjust judge says and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night. Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.
And Pete, Greg, uh, one of the finders 24 7 says. After more than 25 years in pastoral ministry, 20 of them teaching on prayer. I’ve come to the conclusion that most people’s biggest problem with prayer is God. They envisage him. S skyling, perpetually disapproving, invariably disappointed and needing to be placated or persuaded in prayer.
If [00:03:00] that’s how you picture God, I really don’t blame you for trying to avoid his gaze. Who Jesus, Jesus reveals to us. A God who is someone else. As Greg goes on to say God wants to bless you, he is lovingly attentive to your needs. Always pleased to see you predisposed to answer the cries of your heart.
The image of God that we have, the view of God is important. I remember, uh, a minister. I had a four week placement with called Howard Aston. Howard Aston was leading a very creative, innovative, Anglican church in Brantford, and he once said that he realized that his view of God had been shaped by how he misread the parable.
See, deep down, he had come to see God as like the judge. He felt Jesus was comparing God to the judge. [00:04:00] So God had to be made to listen to his prayers, but then it clicked for Reverend Aston, he said, Howard said it wasn’t a comparison, it was a contrast. If an unjust judge is really reluctant to act, then a just God will act willingly.
Will he keep putting him off? Jesus says, I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. So if an unjust judge will do that, then how much more will adjust God, listen and act. And Howard shared that, then renewed his enthusiasm to pray again ’cause his view of God had changed. To what Jesus was saying.
Next slide.
We worship [00:05:00] and we pray to our God of mercy with whom we can be honest again. We hear second parable and prayer. A Pharisee who exalts himself at the temple looks down in others. He’s full of self congratulation talking about all the great things he has done compared to others and the tax collector.
He’s concerned with the sin and with God’s mercy, God have mercy on me as sinner. And Jesus says, this man went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Who is the God we worship and pray to? He is merciful. We remember those words defined.
What is mercy that we do not get what we deserve? And what is grace? We get what we do not deserve? [00:06:00] You know, God revealed his character to Moses. Exodus 34. He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord, the Lord. The compassionate and gracious God slowed anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.
Other translations like you can see on the screen, say the Lord. Merciful and gracious, the God we approach here today. The God we approach in our quiet times is full of mercy and grace. That is such good news. You know, I think we live increasingly in a world, at least in the West, where mercy and grace are increasingly rare.
Yet when in our world or in our situation, it seems to be lacking in mercy or grace, we have a God who’s full of it. It is who he is, [00:07:00] merciful and gracious. We can come to him like the tax collector, recognizing our failures, our sins. Maybe we’ve lived a life constantly putting, pushing God to the margins, pushing God out.
Yet as Jesus said, any of us who turn to him will receive mercy. Or maybe we’ve done that thing, maybe we’ve made that decision. Maybe we’ve sinned. That’s how we feel today, and yet we can always come back. We have a merciful God
and we see honesty. Our tax collector is honest. Honest how his life is broken and messed up. Maybe he’s aware of how he’s messed up other [00:08:00] people’s lives. How he’s messed up the lives of his family, his children, his siblings, and he admits that to God. You know, again, in western soci, uh, western society, particularly in social media, the pressure is to be, is to be sorted.
The pressure is to be growing, to be improving, to be thriving, to share those perfect images, to be strong. And yet Jesus says, come as you are.
He says, take your mask off. He says, come to the father. Jesus encourages honesty. God have mercy in me, as sinner says, A tax collector, you know, if you simply read through the Psalms, start to finish, you can hear the honesty in those words of prayer recorded. For us. Words about personal struggle, words about enemies, words about [00:09:00] fear, words about anxiety, worried about as well as words of praise and confession of thanksgiving.
All sorts of emotions are in the Psalms, and the Psalms remind us of how people bring all sorts of stuff to God, and they remind us that we can do the same. God invites us to bring not what we think. People want us to present, but God invites us to bring us who we are. C. S Lewis once said the prayer that should come before all of the all other prayers is the prayer preceding all prayers is, may it be the real eye who speaks, and may it be the real though that I speak to.
He was talking about having the right view of God. And to be the real eye who speaks to him in prayer. And next slide, please.[00:10:00]
We worship and pray to a welcoming Gods people. Were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them, but Jesus called the children to him. So parents. Are bringing children to Jesus, to place his hands on them, to bless them, to pray for them, and the disciples rebuke the parents.
But Jesus called the children. Now, Jesus, in that those words calls us to imitate the attributes of a child, but I wanna focus on the fact that he called the children to him. He welcomed them. We dunno why the disciples rebuked the parents. Uh, maybe they wanted to protect Jesus from over, over busyness.
Maybe they did not think the babies were as important as the adults. Jesus’ response in [00:11:00] Mark Sea incident says he was indignant. He was angry and frustrated with his disciples at their rebuke of these parents. And again, this is inspiring for our worship, our prayer. God welcomes us as we come to him. It isn’t about tolerating us, it’s about welcoming us in this place, welcoming us as we come to him.
He does not act like the disciples thinking, why are you here?
You know, years ago there was a course, uh, we’ve, we’ve implemented some of the, i, many of the ideas here at DOL Saints called everybody welcome. And, uh, one of the course ideas is that our welcome at the door in our service, in our hospitality after the service should reflect the welcoming God to flip it, [00:12:00] imagine that you’re not welcoming to somebody new.
Or to a neighbor on the bench with you today who clearly doesn’t understand what’s going on or the voice of the person at the front, or even unwelcoming after service, what impression does that give of the God we worship if we do not welcome? What example does that point, what example does that give of the welcoming God?
Never say, what are you doing here? In your out outline or in your mind for that is what the disciples said to the children and response to Jesus, he was indignant. Next slide, please.
The God to whom we pray and worship. He wants your heart. Jesus approached by a rich ruler. He the ruler, asks him, what must he do to inherit eternal life? Jesus [00:13:00] shares about the commandments. The man says he’s kept him. Jesus says, you still like one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven, and the man cannot.
This is not about doing stuff to get into heaven. It’s about what’s in your heart. Who’s King of your heart? The king, the ruler of the kingdom of God wants your heart.
Money had the heart of this young influential man by giving it away. His heart would be free to be captivated by God instead of being captivated by money or wealth. This is not about whether you’re rich or wealthy or not. It’s about who rules your heart,
what rules your heart. Today it’s a core. Your heart is a [00:14:00] core of who you are. When your heart is given to God, other things take the rightful place, or maybe some things may need to change or to stop. Jesus reveals to us a God who doesn’t want your activity. He wants your heart.
And that’s where each of us, every day have to make a choice. Do we offer our heart the core of who we are? That’s what the Hebrew thinking is. The heart is not your emotions. The heart is who you are. Deep down you each day, do we offer our heart afresh to God? Ask him to put his throne there. And maybe for some of us here, we’ve never ever done that.
We do lots of activity that’s good, but we’ve never asked the king to be under throne in our heart.[00:15:00]
I love the prayers used at the end of most Lexi three six fives, and I feel that that’s a good direction and maybe it’s a way of offering our heart. Each Sunday for those who use that prayer app, you’ll know the prayer very well. But I’ll just read out the prayer here. Father, help me to live this day to the full being true to you in every way.
Jesus help me give myself a way to others being kind to everyone I meet and Spirit helped me to love the lost proclaiming Christ in all I do and say amen. Next slide.
We pray to and worship a God of the impossible as well as the possible. Jesus says at the end of our conversation, as a rich man is in the area, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who’s rich to enter the kingdom of God, [00:16:00] those who heard disaster, who then can be saved.
Jesus replied, what is impossible with man is possible with God. It struck me when I was preparing how years earlier, uh, his mother had asked the angel, Gabriel, how can she the mother be the mother of the son of the most high when she was a virgin? The angel talked about the work of the spirit and then ended by saying, for nothing is impossible with God, for nothing is impossible.
As God seemed to be like the banner over Jesus’ life and Mary’s response, behold, I’m the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me, according to your word. And I, I want to point to this because this can give hope to us. Who may say, I want my heart to be Jesus shaped, but I struggle so much. Our God is a God of the impossible.
That’s where the honesty comes and say, God, I can’t, but can you help me too? Or we may think of other [00:17:00] people like that rich ruler. People who seem so far from faith and yet we again can have faith and prayer to say our God is a God of the impossible. We think of Blind Barnes sitting by that road, a man born blind, but who kept shouting to Jesus because he believed in a God of the impossible.
The God we worship and pray to is a God of the possible and a God of the impossible. Uh, next slide please. Our final, there’s always many more things inside a passage, as you know, but this is the final one, just to draw it. Jesus then predicts his death a third time. He says very graphically, he’ll be handed over, he’ll be mocked, insulted, spat on, flogged killed.
You know, this is how salvation is achieved for us.[00:18:00]
And Jesus knows this is what awaits him, and this is a plan as he approaches the great city. The plan is to be handed over, to be mocked, insulted, spat on flogged and killed. This is salvation’s plan and this was done for you and for me.
God loved you that much. He loved us this much, that he’s willing to go to those lengths to save you. He didn’t get others to do it. He did it. He went through it. So every time we stand here and take bread and wine, we remember how great is the Lord’s love for us and how committed he is to us, that he’s willing to go through all that for us so we can be saved.
Our salvation is achieved through the suffering of our God. And he did it all for you.
But like we just said, the one who suffers. Is God. Jesus is God among [00:19:00] us. So Jesus is not some innocent Jewish man suffering on behalf of some harsh, nasty God. Jesus is God among us. God, the Son suffered. God suffered. Hence the title of that theological book, the Crucified God God who endured humanity’s, cruelty and evil, who not only saw suffering, saw people suffer.
But in Christ, he endured it and he understands it. And over the years, for many people, that has been a great source of comfort. Yorgen Moltmann, who is a title of that book, he reflected on post World War II Germany as a, as a German theologian. And he said, only a suffering God could speak to the situation that Germany had find itself in after what a suffering God.
Who could understand the suffering that had been done [00:20:00] and been experienced. It gave people new hope in their prayer. The God to whom they would pray and worship. Final slide. Yeah,
so you could say that through chapter 18 to finish, Jesus is helping us to be properly introduced to his heavenly Father. As well as reflect on Jesus’ life and character. His words make us ask, what is our view of God? Really,
we pray to God of mercy and to whom we can be totally honest. We worship a welcoming God, but God wants your heart, not just your activity. I got a miracles. All things are possible. Nothing is impossible with God. People can be converted, hearts can be changed, [00:21:00] miracles can happen. He’s the suffering God, the risen, crucified one who loves you, who died for you.
This is our God, the one to whom we pray, and the one. We worship.
So shall we pray. I’ll give, um, a few moments in silence for your own personal prayers, and then I’ll, I’ll use our prayer from Lectio.