 And so let's get into our study together here. Let's begin reading here in Luke chapter 18 at verse one. We'll read to verse eight and we'll get into our study. Luke chapter 18, beginning at verse one, reading to verse eight. Luke writes, then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Saying there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God, nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she weary me. I think he was married to her, but I'm not sure. Just kidding, I shouldn't have said that. Ah, who cares? And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? And so Luke now here in chapter 18 introduces to us a parable. And it's interesting how he actually gives to us its heart when he tells us in verse one, he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. And so this isn't a mystery to us. He tells us right from the beginning, this is what Jesus intends to communicate, that men ought to pray and not lose heart. So from the very beginning, he makes it clear that believers are those who pray. We know that prayer is the heartbeat of every believer in Jesus Christ. And we know that prayer is simply put a conversation that we have been given the privilege of having with the God of the universe. And the interesting thing about prayer is that we actually have been invited to speak to God. We actually have been invited by God, encouraged by him to have a conversation with him. In Jeremiah, the Bible tells us in chapter 33 verse three that God says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Call unto me and I will answer thee. That's an invitation that God gives to us to speak to him, to have a relationship with him, to communicate to him. And he even promises that he's gonna reveal things that are beyond our comprehension. He's gonna show us things about himself and all that are beyond anything that we would understand normally. And so he says, call unto me in Psalm 50 verse 15. God says, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. And so call unto me, I'll deliver you. Call unto me, I will deliver you to the point that you will actually bring glory to me. Again, in Matthew, Jesus in chapter seven verses seven and eight said, ask, it will be given to you. Seek, you will find. Knock, and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, it will be opened. And so we have access to God and promises from God that as we call unto him, he will answer us, he will deliver us and reveal things to us that we don't know or don't understand, but we do ask with persistence. We ask, we seek and we knock. And when Jesus said, ask, seek, knock, when you study the Bible, you'll discover that there are certain tenses, Greek tenses, that you can actually gain deeper understanding of the point he's making. And so ask and seek and knock are in a sense in the Greek that means persistent or continue to do so. So he's inviting us to continually be asking, continually be seeking and continue to knock. And he says, the door will be open, you will find it. He says, I'm gonna reveal myself to you. So we have access to God and promises from God because we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Now, before we got saved, we had a bit of a problem in the problems called sin. And sin made a separation between God and ourselves because that's what sin does. Sin interrupts communication, sin interrupts communion, it interrupts, it destroys actually fellowship. I mean, every father knows that if you have a problem with one of your kids and it's a sin issue, that there's no relationship with that kid until that problem is settled, until that issue is dealt with. Every husband in this room knows that when you have a difficulty with your wife and your marriage, that if there's an issue that relates to an offense, somebody has done somebody else some harm or hurt, that there's no communication until that's settled. And we understand in human relationships, and it's also true in our relationship with the Lord. The Bible tells us that sin makes separation in Isaiah in chapter 59, verses one and two. The writer says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. Sin makes separation. But as Christians, we know that the sin issue has been dealt with through Jesus Christ because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed us from all sin and has restored us to a relationship so that we now as God's children can call unto him and bring our concerns to him. And because we have a relationship with him through Jesus Christ, we can pray to him. The Bible in Psalm 34, verse 15 says, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. Now we're righteous, not because we have made ourselves righteous, we'll see that in the second parable that we'll be looking at in verses nine through 14. It's not because we've done something on our own to somehow warrant a relationship with God. It's through God's grace that we can take our concerns to him and we can come with a confidence because he's our Father. Hebrews 4, 16 says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so we have access to the Lord and we can come with a confidence to find the help that God has made available to us. And that's what happens when we pray. Now sometimes, and we know this, every person in this room has prayed and had unanswered or prayers that seem to be unanswered and there are various reasons scripture outlines for us that that can be true. Sometimes my prayers aren't gonna be answered because to be honest with you, I'm just making a selfish prayer. I'm just making a selfish prayer. James tells us in chapter four verse three, you ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures. I'm asking something very selfish. I wonder in American Idol, I wonder if the contestants are lifting up prayers as they go up. I wonder, possibly, maybe not, possibly. Maybe they're saying, you know, God help me, help me to hit notes I've never discovered before. I don't know, help me to win. Do you think that's possible? I think it is. Do you think that people when like professional baseball player, do you think he might pray when he's at bat, you know, God, give me a hit? I think it's possible. Do you think that people who are playing any sport might be praying to win, I think so. Do you think that God pays attention to that? Well, that'd be an interesting thing. That's not the point of my message, but I wonder about it. You know, hmm, let's see, he wants a hit, but there's somebody right now in Iraq who really is calling unto me. Do you think, sometimes I wonder if my prayers might be a bit selfish, a bit self-centered, a bit about me, and then I get mad at God because he didn't let me get that hit or become the American Idol or whatever it may be. I mean, I think it's possible, don't you? That we can sometimes ask a miss, hoping to consume it upon our own lusts? Well, absolutely. There are times that I ask for the wrong thing and I believe that that's gonna end up with a prayer that seems to be unanswered, even though the answer came, it was no. But it can seem to be unanswered. We call it unanswered because we didn't get what we wanted. Sometimes we will pray, but they're half-hearted prayers. They're kind of like, hmm, well, if you're there, can you kinda prayers? You know, I wouldn't mind if you kinda stepped in, big guy. I think some people pray like that too, but we have these half-hearted prayers that we really don't expect an answer from God at all. James in chapter one, verse six, says, let him ask in faith, this is how he puts it, let him ask in faith with no doubting, because he says, he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. There are times that we can be like James later on, says a double-minded man unstable in all our ways. You know, we're asking, but we're not asking with the confidence that God is listening. We're not asking with the sense that he even cares. Sometimes God seems not to answer my prayer or doesn't answer my prayer because it simply doesn't line up with his will for me. It just doesn't line up. In first John, chapter five, verses 14 and 15, John said, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. But of course, we ask according to his will, and so I spend time seeking the word of God to see how the Lord works and the things that please him, and then I learn over time how to pray according to his will and ask him for those things that would bring pleasure to him, and ultimately, will be a blessing to me. And so as Christians, we believe in prayer. As Christians, we learned and have learned to take our requests to God, to make our requests known to him. And we realize that sometimes he will say yes, and then sometimes he will say no, and sometimes he'll say wait. And so it's up to us to simply look to discern the will of the Lord, try to pray according to the will of the Lord, and wait on the Lord, and I know that there are times of difficulty that I have found myself in, that I've cried out to the Lord, and I've asked God to deliver me, and sometimes he doesn't seem to deliver me in the way that I would have liked him to, or as quickly as I would have liked. And yet I still made that prayer and I still asked the Lord, and I knew that ultimately he would hear me, and I knew that ultimately whatever it is that I'm going through is gonna work out for good because the Lord loves me and makes sure that those things do occur that work out for my blessing, and so I just trust him, and that's what prayer basically is all about. And so as we look at here, look at this passage here, we need to remember the context, and also you need to remember that the Bible, the New Testament, as well as the old, the New Testament wasn't written with verses and chapter headings. This is actually a continuation of chapter 17, and what Jesus had been speaking of concerning the end days and troubles that people would be finding themselves in, and a variety of things as we looked at last time. Remember in chapter 17, verse 22, remember how Jesus had said to his disciples, the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you will not see it. And so he went on from there to give, according to Luke's account, basically a synopsis of the last days and gave an insight into the times that would be prevailing just prior to the return of Jesus Christ, especially as we consider a period of time that is called the tribulation period, a very difficult time in all, and he was making it very clear that it would be difficult times for believers. And so sometimes he allows us to go through the hard time because he has something that he's gonna do within us. Now Matthew records much more information concerning the return of Jesus and makes it very clear that the days just preceding his return will be very difficult. And I wanna refresh your memory by turning you to Matthew chapter 24 for a moment. I'm gonna read a few verses to develop this with you so that we can get an understanding of what Jesus is referring to here in this parable that we're examining in Luke chapter 18. But in order to do so, let's remind ourselves of some of the things that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24. I'm not gonna read all of these verses to you in terms of the whole chapter, just pick up a few things just to give you some insight into what he's referring to because he's speaking of difficult times in the last days and how that he's not gonna necessarily deliver them from that. So in Matthew 24 and verses five through seven, he said, many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. He goes on in verse nine and he says, they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. You'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Then many will be offended, will betray one another and will hate one another. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Notice in verse 17. Let him who is on the house top not go down to take anything out of his house. Let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. Woe to those who are pregnant, those who are nursing babies in those days. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. There will be a great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time. No, nor ever shall be unless those days were shortened. No flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. If anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ there. Do not believe it. False Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect. Notice verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven. The powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now we're all used to think it said with power and great glory. No, with power and great glory is what he says. That's a corny joke, but I like it. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So turning back to Luke 18, Jesus was describing the conditions that people would be going through and so it could appear as if God wasn't listening to their prayers and that's why in chapter 18 as he speaks this parable to them he gives a heart of it that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. What he's been saying, the kind of information he's been giving to them could cause his disciples to become discouraged. They could lose heart thinking he was not returning at all. So his point is hold on and do not lose heart. He had said in Matthew 24, 13, he who endures to the end shall be saved so hold fast to the Lord Jesus Christ. So in light of that what are they to do? Well they're to pray constantly. He's making it clear that he'll return at the right moment and he will destroy powers of evil and those who were alive during that time who have trusted in him they will rejoice and they will be victorious. Now obviously being constant in prayer is not just for those who are going through the tribulation. Habitual fervent prayer is something that should be practiced by every believer. All believers ought to be prayer warriors. The Bible tells us in James 5, 16 the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. That ought to be our lifestyle. Prayer for the believer is the oxygen that we breathe. I mean it's our communion with God. It's our opportunity to speak our heart to him. When we read the word of God he speaks his heart to us. And so we have communion with him because as we read through the word of God and he communicates to us and says this is what I want for you. This is what I have done in the past. This is what I'll do in the present. This is what I will do in the future. Then we communicate to him in prayer and we say Lord even so come quickly Lord Jesus or let your will be done in heaven and on earth Lord. And we do that in our prayer life Lord. We communicate with him and we commune with him constantly that's what we do. Romans chapter 12 verse 12 says that we are to be rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. And so Jesus is teaching us that. Don't give up, hold fast. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Don't be discouraged. Don't think he's not listening. Look at your heart. See whether you're lined up with the things he desires for you. Then ask and hold fast to his promises and watch what God will do. He can do things abundantly above all that I can ask or think. And God's desire to bless me is beyond my understanding of what he wants from me. I have a tendency of limiting him so much. I have a tendency of saying oh, you wouldn't want that for me. I have a tendency of saying how can you say that in your word? It's easier for me to think the negative than it is to think of the blessings of the Lord. But one of the things I'm discovering is if you hold fast to the Lord, he holds fast to you. We are to persist in prayer. We are to continue in prayer. Even when the answer doesn't come immediately. You know, sometimes we may get an answer we don't want. The apostle Paul had a 10th stake, a thorn in his flesh. And he refers to it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and he says that he sought the Lord three times to remove it from me. Three times he said, God, this is torture, this is destroying me. This is a messenger from Satan sent to buffet me. And God in Jesus' name removed from me. It's a 10th stake. It's not just a little thorn. When you hear about the thorn that Paul had and he uses the word thorn, oftentimes when you read 2 Corinthians 12, he speaks concerning the thorn. We think of like a rose thorn or something like that. No, he's speaking about a stake that has been driven into him. And he says, and I sought the Lord three times that he might remove it from me. And he did, all the Lord said to him is my grace is sufficient. He says, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And he said, well, seeing that that's how God works, then I'll glory in that thorn. I'm gonna allow God to do what God wants to do. Though in my great desires, it would be to remove whatever it is that was bothering him, whatever it was that he was dealing with. My greatest request is for him to remove it. God said, no, my strength is made perfect in weakness. You come to the end of yourself in order to discover where I begin. And you need to understand that, Paul, because I'm gonna use you. And by the way, when you got saved, there was a man by the name of Ananias that I had sent to pray for you. You remember that, Paul? You remember how you were breathing out threatenings about those who were of the way and you were taking them and arresting them and they were being condemned to death? You remember that? You remember how you obtained papers, documents, so that you could go to Damascus and any that you encountered who were Christians and you could put in shackles and bring them on back? Try them as heretics and witness their death. You remember that? Do you remember how Jesus encountered you there on the road and how you were blinded and led by the hand and a man by the name of Ananias came and prayed for you? Do you remember that? Well, Ananias had been given instructions by God to go and pray for Paul and Ananias thought, you know, Lord, I know that I'm not hearing you properly, so let me communicate something to you. Perhaps you've been busy running the universe and haven't noticed that Paul is a very dangerous man and I really don't want to go and pray for this guy because if he discovers somebody is a Christian, he puts them in shackles, takes them back to Jerusalem, they end up being killed. So I know that you're busy running the universe, but if you don't mind, I'd rather not do that. And the Lord says, no, you go and you pray for him. As a matter of fact, Paul is praying right now. You go and you pray for him because he is a chosen vessel of mine and I am going to show him the things that he must suffer for my namesake. You go and you deal with it. And Paul, throughout his ministry, went through one affliction after another and ultimately learned what some have called the glory of the thorn. He came to understand that even in our difficult circumstances and situations, God has not abandoned us. God is still there doing the work that we may not be aware of at that moment, but it's a work that's lasting because he's bringing us to the end of ourselves and we might discover where he begins in terms of how he works in our lives. And so Jesus is giving us a parable related to prayer. Here's your parable, verse two. There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. And so he set in the tone of the parable by using the illustration of an ungodly judge. This is a man who's described as not caring about God and this is someone who doesn't listen to the opinions of others. So what it does is it shows us that he's insensitive about the feelings and concerns of people. And so this is an ungodly man. He does not fear God. But verse three says, there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her less by her continual coming, she weary me. And so widows. He uses a widow as an example because widows were amongst the most vulnerable people in Israel. They had no source of support. They needed someone to defend them. As a matter of fact, when you look in the Old Testament, you'll see that God chose great concern for them in his commands to the nation of Israel. In Exodus in chapter 22, for example, verses 22 and 23, he says, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry. Psalm 146 verse nine says, the Lord watches over the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and widow. The way of the wicked, he turns upside down. So this woman represents a vulnerable person and she's in need of help. Now she comes and speaks to him and she says, get justice for me from my adversary, but he doesn't want to listen. At first, he just doesn't listen, but then he says to himself, I don't fear God and I don't fear man, but this woman's driving me crazy. So it's not out of concern, it's out of fatigue, and he finally acts on her behalf. Now it may be that he knew her claim was just, but he also knew that she couldn't afford to bribe him, so he's going to act just to relieve himself. Well, Jesus says in verse six, hear what the unjust judge said. Shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Now there will be believers crying out to God for help and thinking that help is not coming. In context, this is going to be taking place in the time preceding the return of Jesus Christ. But it gives to us a lesson on persevering in prayer. The Bible makes it very clear that God loves his children in response to those who cry to him for his help. Again, sometimes it may seem that he doesn't listen, sometimes it may seem that he doesn't hear us, but he does. The Psalmist in Psalm 22 verse 2 said, oh, my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear. And in the night season and am not silent. In Psalm 86 verse 3 be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to you all day long. I think some of us understand what that means. I cry to you all day long. I am not silent. I am constantly taking this petition before you. And sometimes when you pray like that, sometimes when your prayers can be even punctuated by tears, when you go through what the Psalmist refers to night seasons, darkened seasons of the soul where you're crying out to God sometimes it seems like you're all by yourself and sometimes you can lose heart. Sometimes you can begin to think God isn't listening to me. Every believer understands that. Every one of us understands that. How many mothers have cried for children who are not doing well and cry out and cry out and cry out and say, God, touch my son, touch my daughter, Lord in Jesus' name, and it seems sometimes like the heavens are brass and God's ear is not listening to you and you fall in your face sometimes or you can cry yourself to sleep or you're going through a bad marriage and things seem to be getting worse and not getting better and you're saying, God, help me, I'm searching my soul. I want to have marriage. I don't want to lose my family and you cry out and it seems sometimes that your tears are simply dry. Somebody listen, it's like you're crying out against the hurricane force and your voices drowned out by everything else around you. I can't tell you over the years. I've been a Christian for a while now. I can't tell you how many times over the years there have been seasons like that in my own life and I'm sure for you too where you've sought the Lord and you've said God in Jesus' name. There have been so many times that I've looked at Scripture and I've seen Lord, you heal the sick. He's a dead Lord and sometimes it's like the Lord is just saying but I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that now. You know I'm standing there at the bedside of my father-in-law and he had had a stroke and I had spoken to him a couple of days earlier but he slipped into a coma and we the family are there and we're all silently praying sometimes out loud Lord in Jesus' name and it seems like well the Lord just he didn't heal him. He didn't bring him back and there have been times with my kids that I've said God in Jesus' name Lord, do you know my concern right now? The brokenness of my heart over this and Lord says, you know my strength is made perfect in weakness. Trust me, I'm doing something you can't see. There's a church writer, influencer his name was Augustine Callum Augustine and he was known for being a very rebellious man. He was known for being a very worldly man and his mother was a Christian but he was anything but and so he comes to his mother and he says to her, Mom I'm going to go to Rome she says what? I'm going to Rome now Rome was the center of debauchery during that period and I don't know what city in your mind might give you the image of something that's pretty bad San Francisco comes to mind but there are various other places that are just known for being debased and she began to pray and she started saying God anything but Rome anything, any place but Rome Father any place that is an evil, evil city please God in Jesus' name, please any place so let him go to Rome and that's where he got saved that's where he got saved so mama's greatest fear was that he'd get worse but God had an appointment with him in the city of Rome and so that's why it's always wise for us not to give God conditions do things this way Lord you know I've got it all figured out and the best thing you can do is what I'm telling you to do you know Jeremiah says Lord I'd like to speak to you about your judgments you know sometimes we think that we can command the Lord and tell God what to do a long time ago I began to learn the lesson of simply saying Lord you do right you do what is right and you will you know everything the end from the beginning everything that's going to go into this kid's life everything and I don't like some of the things that I'm seeing but I know it breaks your heart a lot more than mine I know you love them more than I do see that's one of the things I as a father had to come to understand my God loves my children more than I ever will more than I ever could my God loves my kids more than I ever will and I love my kids and with that knowledge of how deep my love it gives me a strength to know that God loves them more because they were lent to me but they belong to him you see so I say Lord they're yours your kids acting up would you take care of them please now wouldn't mind if you broke his legs it's up to you it's up to you you know what I'm trying to say there are times when you hit those seasons of the soul that are so dark and so difficult that your prayers cease being with words and there's simply groans that you can't even utter there are times and Paul speaks about that in Romans chapter 8 how sometimes we make moans and groanings into God that the spirit can actually interpret because we can't put our need into words there have been times and some of you understand this there have been two words you know that's it you know God you know I don't you understand what I'm trying to say and I have a God who does know I do he understands the psalmist says that God has our tears in the vase and he remembers you see so if we understand that about God then we can trust him and he says and he will avenge he says in verse 7 he goes on in verse 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily when the son of man comes will he really find faith on earth though God may not act quickly as I would like him to he does act now sometimes he doesn't act quickly there's that delay because he's giving people a time to repent you know I've been saying come quickly Lord Jesus ever since I got saved but people were saying that before I got saved and so think about that what if he had come before I got saved you know I wouldn't have been a good thing at all so he has his own timing and so I want to trust him in that in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9 the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness but is long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4 God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth and so he waits until the right moment but when he comes he will deal with now in his return notice the question will he really find faith on the earth when he returns true faith will be extremely rare even as he had said earlier even as in the days of Noah and during the days of Lot the days prior to his return will be filled with unbelief filled with apostasy and filled with persecution Matthew 24-12 says because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold the love of faith on the earth there will be such an absence of it is the point that he is making now moving into verse 9 and we will touch this briefly this isn't going to take that much time in verse 9 also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others two men went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector God I thank you that I am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector I fast twice a week I give tides of all that I possess and the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me as sinner I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted when I got saved at the age of 20 ancient history time when I got saved in 1970 at the age of 20 the long hair barefoot raggedy jeans torn up t-shirts perfect Calvary Chapel guy when I got saved at the age of 20 there were people religious people who were absolutely opposed to what at that time was called the Jesus Revolution and for some of you who are too young to know what I'm talking about giant revival God began to move in wonderful ways he used various pastors in various places including my own pastor Chuck Smith and Chuck and his wife Kay used to go to Huntington Beach and they would be there right off Main Street and Beach praying for the kids that they saw the hippie kids that they saw now at first Chuck didn't like us Chuck Chuck we were everything that Chuck and my mom and dad's generation everything that they hated everything we were slobs we were druggies we were dirty we let our hair grow long we didn't wear shoes we were everything that his generation did not like and at first when pastor Chuck would see the hippies it would do something inside of him and he did not like hippies but Kay did Kay did and Kay would go with Chuck and she'd say we gotta pray for these kids Chuck and they would be there and indeed they would pray and Kay would cry as she saw the lost kids walking pastor and that touched the heart of her husband Chuck and so Chuck said I gotta meet one of these hippies and so his daughter happened to know one and invited him over and he walked in and Chuck got to know him and before he knew it a young man by the name of Lonnie Frisbee from San Francisco came on down was an evangelist kind of guy and before he knew it Lonnie and hippie kids started showing up and the little church they there's a song called little country church that love song did it's just a small church it only sat two three hundred people they had to take the walls and they removed the some of the wall there and they actually put in glass windows and so if you came in late you would actually be sitting out there in a patio area and you had to get there early in order to get into the Bible city people actually went early and the whole place was filled and God began to do incredible things he moved in wonderful ways and I was one of those kids I was one of those kids who would walk in their barefooted and Chuck speaks about now the elders got upset because these hippie kids would stick their toes in the communion cup holders in the pews and I remember specifically doing that because if you crossed your legs your big toe would get stuck in that community I still remember that I still laugh about that because the elders got upset about that and they had just put some new carpet there in this chapel and somebody put a sign up that said no shoes no entrance because they knew that bare feet would be carrying in the oils on our feet and the dirt and it would be ground into this brand new carpet but Chuck had showed up early in that sign and he took it and he had a meeting with his elders and he said to him if this carpet is going to keep one kid from coming in here and finding Jesus Christ and I am in favor of removing the carpet and that's how Chuck was and that's how he reached people like me he didn't put these barriers there he didn't put some false thing there at all but people didn't like it people didn't like people like me and others of my generation getting saved they cut their hair if they are really saved they put shoes on me a break because I used to say you know what Jesus I was a brand new Christian but I said Jesus I like him I like him because he is so cool because he wore sandals he had a beard long hair and I would say he is like us he is a hippie I am telling you he is like us he is the number one hippie because we talk about love and he is love and that message just reverberated but there will always be people who will say things like I thank you God that I am not like other men I am better than them so how do you feel when you see some kid with tattoos up and down her neck see I come from a generation that tattoos only bikers and gangsters and prisoners had tattoos you know and girls who weren't really nice wore tattoos my cousin who is just a few years older than me had a tattoo on her hand some of you have seen these tattoos maybe you have one I will see you hiding your hand it was a cross with little points on it and during my early years that was what was called Pachuco and so she was like a gangster is what she was and my aunt took a razor blade and cut it off of her people didn't like tattoos when I grew up they didn't only certain people had them piercing are you kidding me only girls have their ears pierced and do you know what we do now I thank you God that I am not like like that sometimes we had complaints what are you going to do about these people of these tattoos nothing who knows they are reaching people you can't reach they are reaching and talking a language that I can't talk see people look at me and they say that's some old ex hippie but you know what there are a lot of kids in this church who may not look like I would dress them and I say come on man you know put on a Hawaiian shirt man what's wrong with you grow your hair what's this shaving grow your hair come on Jesus is speaking about that outward appearance of righteousness that so many people are taken by because it looks good because it looks good you know and Pharisees they looked righteous and that's the picture that Jesus is giving now notice again in verse 9 this is the second parable he gives in chapter 18 and again he gives us the heart of it he said he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others because when you're self righteous you can't love somebody else there's not too much in love with you and so he says two men went up to the temple to pray when a Pharisee the other attacks collector and so these are the two whom he refers to obviously Pharisees during the time of Christ were a very influential religious sect they had the majority of scholars and they held sway great influence over the majority of the Jewish people the Pharisees were guarded as holy they were separated from all the outward appearance of moral purity and so people looked at them as being righteous and not only that they saw them as extremely intimidating and so during the time of Jesus the Pharisees had actually degenerated to simply an outward show of religious faith they kept up the outward appearances of faith but had lost the spirit they had lost what it's all about to love to serve God and what they became during Christ's time was an example that Jesus uses often an example of religious hypocrisy Jesus in Matthew 23 said the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat therefore whatever they tell you to observe that observe and do but do not do according to their works for they say and do not do they are in Moses' seat in the sense that they are communicators of God's word to you when they are dividing God's word do what they say but do not follow their practices because though they are speaking the truth they are not living the truth see so the Pharisees now tax collectors as a class were hated and they were hated specifically because of the greed many Jews especially hated them because the tax collectors collected taxes for the Roman government and because of this they were considered betrayers of their country for helping their conquerors what's interesting is a tax collector as well as a Pharisee go to the temple to pray in other words it's just another way of saying they both went to church both of them the Pharisee and this one who was an outcast each one has a different reason though for going to the temple I want you to see in verse 11 how the Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself he stood by himself but he also prayed by himself and may have been that he was just praying to himself obviously he doesn't want to associate with a tax collector and notice he doesn't even pray for this tax collector outwardly he's addressing God but in reality he's talking to himself about himself and he speaks of the things that he doesn't do in verse 11 he says I'm not guilty of extortion in other words I see no man's property through false intentions he says I'm not unjust I don't take advantage of people when buying or selling I'm not an adulterer I am qualitatively better than the average person is what he's saying here he goes on to say I fast twice a week I give tides of all that I possess so long with prayer these were the basic actions that demonstrated religious faith fasting giving and praying are the disciplines of every godly person that's why Jesus in Matthew 6 when he's speaking concerning what really makes you a righteous person he uses prayer uses fasting and uses the illustration of giving because he's saying that these are the three elements of a genuinely religious person a genuinely religious person is somebody who takes time to fast a genuinely religious person is somebody who prays a genuinely religious person is somebody who's generous these are the basic elements of true faith and that's what he's talking about you see and so as this guy is there to pray he also eludes to the fact that he gives and that he fasts now the problem is his outer appearance is spotless but it's not coming from the heart so he's guilty of hypocrisy because he doesn't care about other people Luke speaks of it as being that he despises others you see true religious faith is always expressed by generous concern for other people in Galatians 6 verses 9 and 10 Paul said let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart and therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all especially to those who are of the household of faith he was guilty of practicing a religious faith that was only external on the other hand you have the public and the tax gatherer notice how he's described as one who would not even raise his eyes to heaven but he smote his breath saying God be merciful and to me I'm a sinner this is the point Jesus is making this is what the Lord would require of of us of me of us humility and brokenness humility and brokenness that's what you're seeing here he won't even raise his eyes to heaven he's not looking at the Pharisee he won't even look up to God he just has this attitude of brokenness and this genuinely humble spirit in Jesus's story here and he's beating his breast mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa he would say in latin it's my fault my most grievous fault it's my fault I am the sinner so that would be I'm the one who was at fault nobody else Micah chapter 6 verse 8 says he has shown you oh man what is good what does the Lord require of you but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God the Psalmist in Psalm 34 18 says the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and save such as have a contrite spirit Psalm 51 17 the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart these oh God you will not despise so you go to the Lord instead of lifting up your eyes saying look at me how good I am look at all the good things I do I'm better than everybody including this verse next to me now you say Lord be merciful into me I am a sinner God without you I am nothing oh wretched person that I am what is Jesus saying verse 14 I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted he approaches God humbly the Pharisee is filled with contempt and lacks love so God hears the broken man and rejects the other one if you were to be judging on the basis of outer appearance the Pharisee wins but God doesn't see as man does because man only looks at the outer appearance God looks at the heart God looks at the heart God knows the internal workings of our heart and God gives mercy when we ask for it God be merciful unto me I'm a sinner that's how you got saved that's how I got saved it wasn't a long flowery prayer I didn't start reciting every sin that I could remember God forgive me for this and God forgive me for that 27 times I did this 27 times I did that and I didn't do that that was my religious tradition bless me father for I have sinned it's been three weeks since my last confession I lied to my mother six times I was angry four times always reducing by the way and always forgetting always doing a rosary rosary was the worst that you would do I mean a priest told you go out and do a rosary and if your mom caught you doing a rosary she knew you'd been pretty bad it wasn't anything like that at all God be merciful to me a sinner and I tell you that sinner went home justified and not the other why Jesus? because the other was proud I truly believe this with all of my heart that there's something about brokenness that attracts Jesus Christ there's just something about needs that attracts him that he's drawn to and I know that arrogance repels him arrogance pushes him away the brokenness humility draws him how do I know that? God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble because when you just say God be merciful to me forgive me I am a sinner God says of course I will I'm rich in mercy call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not I'll forgive you your ear is not dull to your cry I will forgive you all you need to do is repent all you need to do is ask