God’s Toolbox
God’s Toolbox
God--Our Audience or Our Authority
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When we pray, are we trying to impress God or acknowledging His authroity over all things? Listen in and find out.
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Scripture comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 18 and we're going to be reading verses 9 through 14 and today we're going to be reading them from the New Living Translation. Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. And this is what the word says. Then Jesus told this story to some of some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else. He said, Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer. I thank you, God, that I am not like other people, cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I'm certainly not like that tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income. But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, Oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner. I tell you this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Thus ends our reading for today. Our subject for this noonday sermon is God our audience or our authority. God, our audience or our authority. This parable that Jesus told had two characters. A Pharisee, generally known for their Pharisees were known for their religious authority and their practices regarding religion and religious obedience and ways to worship in the temple and so forth. And a tax collector was generally known in those days as a sinner, as a thief, not a good person at all. So this parable talks about what Jesus has to say about how we approach the Lord in prayer. And he uses these two people to illustrate it. So, right from the beginning, I want you to consider two things about your own prayer life. What is your motivation in prayer? Think about when you pray to the Lord. Why are you praying? What is your motive behind it? And then the second thing I want you to think about is do your prayers make God your audience or your authority in your life? Are you trying to impress God? Are you trying to seek out his unchanging hand upon your life? So let's look at the Pharisees' prayer first, as it's written in the scripture. The Pharisee in his prayer seems to be reminding God of how much he does in the name of God. In other words, he's trying to say to God, You're lucky, God, that you have me, somebody who's on your side, because I do all these things in your name. But the problem with that prayer was that it didn't need God because he was trying to impress God. When we pray like this, it is to remind God that we believe we're doing our best, and not just our best, we're better than other people. That the other people are liars and stealers and cheating and living riotous lives. But we're better because we're Christian people who do all the right things. But the prayer was selfish and arrogant. And do you think God wants to hear that? After all, those other people are his children too, and he loves the bad ones just as much as he loves the good ones. But so often we want to tout our religious accomplishments as a badge of honor, expecting to earn some kind of reward in heaven. Maybe we don't say it aloud, perhaps we think it. And God knows the thoughts of our hearts. As if we're trying to get extra credit for all that we're doing. Look at me, God. I tithe, I sing in the choir. You know, I'm this officer. I have my uniform spotless. You know, I'm there every time the church doors open. I know all the right religious things to say. I'm the person you want me to be. But somehow in doing that, in praying that way and speaking to God in that way, we forget, like the Pharisee forgot, the connection between faith and our deeds. Because we work not to earn salvation, but because of our gratitude to God for salvation. Ephesians two and eight says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. A gift of God, not something we're trying to earn from God. It's a gift He offers to us. And the word goes on to say in verse nine, not of works, lest anyone should boast. It's not something we've done for ourselves. We've worked to get, you know, pulled ourselves up from our bootstraps. No. So we can't brag about it because it's a gift that God has given us. So since it's a gift, we can't be prideful and boastful about what we do for God. He isn't impressed. Our self-righteousness will turn into pride if we keep at it, and then cause us to have a know it all attitude. You know those kinds of people that have their chests puffed out. They know it all. And they won't even listen to the ideas of other saints because they feel like they're above other people. But you know what I like to say. Leave the judging to Jesus. Stop worrying about other people. Take care of yourself. Sweep around your own front door. Because when we don't do it, when we pray like that Pharisee prayed, I believe that God has given us a SMH emoji. You know that SMH stands for shaking my head. And that's what God is doing for us when we pray like the Pharisee. So let's look at the tax collector whose prayer is full of humility. Humility is defined as freedom from pride or arrogance. And in this case, it's recognizing the authority and the power of God. Cause basically, what the tax collector is saying is God, show me mercy because I am not perfect. I need your help. I cannot manage life on my own. I need your righteousness because mine is as filthy rags. All my deeds amount to nothing without you. The tax collector was putting his accomplishments in the right perspective. Paul said in Philippians three and seven, something like this, and I'm paraphrasing. He says, I once thought everything I accomplished and have done was so great. And we know if we study Paul that he studied among the greatest of all theologians, he knew the Hebrew Bible front and back. He was very passionate about everything he did. When he was against God, he was the most passionate person against God. But when he got on the Lord's side after his Damascus Road experience, nobody could beat Paul in passion. And so he says, I once thought everything I accomplished and have done was so great. But Lord, when I see the stars and I hear the rolling thunder, I consider all the worlds your hands have made. I must say how great thou art, how great thou art. So we must hold our accomplishments loosely and come to God for mercy and renewal and restoration. And when we look at others who are evildoers, and that's a lot of people, we know them, but this is what our attitude should be. We should say to ourselves, there but for the grace of God go I. In other words, Lord, if you don't help me, I'll be just like them. That's our attitude towards the evildoers around us. That it's the grace of God that helps us be not like them, not anything we've done, but all that God does for us in and through us. So today let's examine our motivation for how we approach God in prayer. Do we approach God as our audience, as a fan of ours? Are we trying to impress Him? Get extra credit to win an award, a reward in heaven? Is that why we're doing what we do? Or do we approach God as our authority, from whom we are grateful, and we seek his help, his guidance, his protection, and all the things. Let's be humble and reach out for God's unchanging hand. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this revelation today that we need to examine our motives in prayer and in life with how we see ourselves and how we see others. Because Lord, we know that every person is someone you created, that you put the breath of life in all of us. You died for all of us, you love all of us, and there's no need for any one of us to think we're better than anybody else. We thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in the midst of us and how you're growing us up. But we ask you, Lord, to help us show others that if God did it for us, He can do it for them as well. We thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in, through, and around us. We ask you to help us shine our little light so that others will look upon us and see you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. So today, everybody, I'm so glad that you've joined us. And now unto him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior. Be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say Amen. Go and be great for God. Amen. Amen.