This year we've been emphasizing prayer in our vision meeting at the beginning of the year. Several times since then we've mentioned prayer. Some of our men's gatherings we've talked about prayer specifically. I know the ladies retreat will be focusing on prayer as well. Tonight I just want to take a few minutes to think about prayer from the Gospel of Luke chapter 18. Gospel of Luke chapter 18. We're going to begin in the beginning of that chapter and we'll look at a section that maybe is one that you think of frequently when it comes to prayer. But then we're also going to look at several others. We'll look at two parables and two accounts of things that happened in Christ's life going down through verse 30. of Luke 18. And as we look at that, sometimes when we come to the Gospels, it seems we can, especially if you are very familiar with the Gospels, if you've grown up in church and you've heard them preached, we think of these stories, these accounts, these parables, and we can think of them separate from their context often. And it can help us to understand them more and to see an emphasis when we realize that when Luke sat down to write this, he wrote these stories accounts consecutively and he did it for a reason as God guided him accomplishing what God wanted when he wrote but there's a reason these things come one after the other and they're they're pieced together so that it helps us to see a bigger picture than what we see in just the individual parable or account of what happened here and so we're going to read I'm going to begin at verse one I'll read all the way down through verse 30 Luke chapter 18 and he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon 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 that exalted himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. And they brought unto him also infants that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother. And he said, all these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing, sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all and followed thee. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting. This is God's perfect word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have spoken this word to us, and we pray in our time tonight that you would open our eyes, help us to see clearly what you have communicated to us, help us to love you more, and to be devoted to living in such a way that we honor you with all of our thoughts and all of our actions, I pray that you would work this in our lives as a result of our time here tonight. Free us from distractions. Strengthen me to know what to say. Strengthen all of us to have our ears and our hearts inclined towards your word. We pray this in your name. Amen. What I want to do is walk through each of these accounts and get the big picture, the main point. We'll touch on some details throughout, but probably not everything you could draw from each of these accounts if you spent a whole sermon on each of them. But I want to get the overall point of this section. I think that they all tie together well, and they give us a picture of what prayer should be. This first parable that he tells, I love it when God tells us, Jesus told this parable for this purpose. You don't have to guess, right? You don't sit here and go, well, why is this story here? He tells us exactly what it is in verse one. He spake a parable to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. He says, you should keep praying. You should keep praying and you should, it's not just you should keep praying on and on, but you should not be discouraged in prayer. You should not faint or you should not lose heart is another way this is translated. You know that experience when you pray for something and it hasn't happened yet and you keep praying for it, but there may be a point where you say, yes, I'm praying for this, but I'm just really discouraged about it. I want to pray for it, but it's really hard. You've probably many of you have been there where you say, I know that God is good. I know that he does what he wants. I just I don't know what he's going to do in this situation. And maybe you the words keep coming out of your mouth. But you're discouraged. This parable is not just to say, keep the words coming out of your mouth. He's saying we ought not to faint. Just to give you an idea of that phrase when he says not to faint, there's a couple other sections, familiar passages in scripture that use the same phrase. Second Corinthians chapter four uses the same phrase. Verse 16. Paul says, We look at this and we see a lot of stuff around us that looks bad. And that if we just paid attention to that, we would be discouraged. We would lose heart. We would faint. But we don't because we look at what is unseen, at what is true. Because of that surpassing value of something unseen, he says, don't lose heart. Galatians 6 is one that maybe we're familiar with, where he says, do not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not. If you don't lose heart, if you don't become discouraged and quit. Ephesians chapter 3, Paul uses the same language. He says, I'm going through lots of terrible stuff, but you don't faint at my tribulations. Don't lose heart at my tribulations. When you see me going through bad things, don't be discouraged and quit. That's why this parable is here. It's so that we would always pray, so that we would keep praying confidently, but also that we would not be discouraged. So, since he tells us that's why the parable is there, we should expect then, as we look through the details of the parable, to see things that encourage us in both of those ways, right? Something that would say you should keep praying and something that would say don't be discouraged and lose heart. So let's continue looking. Verse 2. There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. The emphasis right off is that this judge is not a good guy. He says he doesn't do good because he fears God. He doesn't even do good because he fears man. Think about, we might know, we can imagine a ruler. who would have people come to him and say, I don't really want to do this good thing, but I know that it's going to go badly for me in the next election or in our context, or I know that the people are going to not like it and they might riot and there's an uprising. Because he regards man, maybe he would do good. This judge has neither of those. He doesn't fear God. He doesn't really care what his people do. He's a judge, and then later it says he is an unjust judge, which that's not surprising if he doesn't fear God and doesn't regard man. It's not surprising that he's unjust. So the emphasis from the beginning of this is there is a negative character about this judge. Now this is important for us to understand too as we come to parables. If you read through that and you think, okay he's saying something about a judge and then he's saying this widow comes to the judge asking for things and he's saying we should come to God. Right now if you make the judge and God out to be the same, You have a really weird picture and a bad picture. You have heresy because you have God as someone who's unjust. That doesn't work. So we need to recognize when we come to parables, it's not that all of the details will necessarily fit. Here, what he's doing, rather than saying, you come to the judge, you come to God, so they're basically the same, he's saying, you come to the judge, and even the bad judge is going to act in a certain way. So what if you come to a God who is not unjust? A God who is, in fact, perfect? He's contrasting the two. So there's this judge, he sets it up by saying, this judge is a bad guy. Negative character reference across the board. Doesn't fear God, doesn't regard man. Verse three, he gives you the other main character. There was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, avenge me of mine adversary. There's a widow, there's someone who, especially at that time, she didn't have the ability to go avenge herself. She was helpless. She needed a judge, a ruler, someone to execute justice. And notice what her request is. Avenge me, give me justice from my adversary. She says, there's an enemy who's attacked me in some way. And we don't know what it is. He didn't tell us. But there's some way that this person is against her. And she says, give me justice because this person's against me and it's wrong. That's what she's coming and asking for. Which is interesting because you would think she would know this judge was a bad guy. It doesn't sound like he hid it. He didn't regard man, he didn't fear God. It sounds like he was probably out there, this would be a bad judge in this story. But she comes and asks him for justice, which means that she believes, whatever she thought about his character, she believed he could actually help her. There's no reason for her to come ask for justice if she thought he's just a weak ruler who can't do anything anyway. So she is coming, and though it's almost a weird way to say this, she came with faith in the judge. Not in the judge's character, because he was not trustworthy, but she came with faith in his power, that he could help her. And so she keeps coming back and coming back. Says he would not for a while. Again, he doesn't give us details. You say, well, how long is this story talking about? Is this like you come in and you bring your request once, twice, 30 times, 300 times? What is it? He doesn't tell you. He says she kept coming. And afterward, he said within himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man. Notice the emphasis on his negative character. And the judge character here says it himself. This is not like, oh, I'm wrongly accused, he's actually a good judge. He's saying, I don't fear God, I don't care about man. But basically, she is just bugging me all the time. So fine, give her justice, do whatever it takes. He doesn't want to be wearied himself. And so then Christ gives us the contrast. Verse six, and the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith. Even the unjust judge does this. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. Now he specifically puts this in context of vengeance, when someone has wronged them. But we could take this beyond that to say that God wants us to come to him and pray, and keep coming to him, praying with confidence, in his character. Notice the contrast of the characters. So he said, the judge, and he made a point several times of saying this judge was bad. His character was awful. He didn't respect God. He didn't care about people. He was unjust. But when he gets down to verse 7, he says, will not God do this? If that guy did this, and what he's saying is he does rightly honor God's reputation. The judge didn't, but God will. He does care about man, about his people, specifically about his own elect. He does care about man. The judge didn't, but God will. The judge was unjust, but God is going to bring justice. So the contrast of the character here should make us recognize that if a widow can come with faith in the power of a completely unjust judge and can keep coming, then we should come and keep praying with confidence, not discouragement, because of God's character. Because he is the opposite of this judge. And so we should come and keep coming. So do we pray this way? Do you pray this way? Do we pray with faith that says, I know without a shadow of a doubt that God can work in this situation? The widow had that kind of faith even in an unjust judge. He can do this. Do we come that way to God? That's the point of this parable, is if she had that kind of faith in this terrible thing, we should have way more faith in this great God. So we trust, do we come, do we pray, believing God can give us justice? When somebody wrongs you, do you believe God can handle that? I don't have to get them back myself. Do we come with faith that he can handle that and give us justice, and that he will in his good timing? What if he delays, do we waver? Do we start saying, well, I mean, I don't know, maybe God just, I know he could, but maybe he just doesn't care enough, or maybe he won't, or maybe he can't. Sometimes those thoughts might creep into our mind too. That's not what this widow did. The widow just kept coming. She said, he's an unjust judge. He's not giving me justice, but I'm going to keep coming. One other point with this story. Sometimes people hear this and they think, so God wants me to annoy him into answering my prayer? But that misses the point, again, that the unjust judge is not an example of God, he's a contrast to God. The unjust judge is annoyed and says, look, I don't care anything about this woman, but just get her off my back. But his point is that God is not like that at all. And so you come to God with faith that he will answer, with faith that he can work in every situation, and you keep coming, But we're not to faint, we're not to lose heart, we're not to be discouraged. Why? Because the God we're coming to is not an unjust judge. He's a loving father. So then we go into verse nine. We get the second parable. He spake this parable and he tells us again why it's here, which is awesome. He said, some people trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. So he said this parable to them. You might think, coming off of what we just read, say, well, we're supposed to pray persistently and confidently because we trust in God's character. But what is the basis that I, how do I come to God? How do I know that he will actually be good to me? How do I know when I come to him, I say he's a good God? Sure. But will he accept me? Will he actually hear my prayer and care about me, or have I just done enough wrong that he won't do that for me? And so he gives this parable and says, well, if you come trusting in yourself, that's not going to work. He gives this example in the story. The Pharisee comes. And what does he do? He comes and prays, God, I thank Thee. Expressing gratitude to God starts off pretty good right there, right? I thank Thee. But what does he do? He compares himself, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. He trusts in his own record. He says, look, I'm worth listening to, God. I'm not like any of these people. Not only that, I fast twice a week. He's above and beyond. He gives tithes of all that he possesses. He looks at himself and says, God, look, this is my record. It's pretty good. We can do this way. We can come to God and we can say, Lord, I've done this. I've been in church. I've tried to raise my family for you. I've tried to minister in all these different situations. And then we won't ever, almost ever, say it this way. But we might think, so God, you have to do this for me. You have to give me a life that is easier than whatever it might be that comes to your mind. You have to give me health. You have to give me healing. You have to do this because I'm coming with this pretty awesome record, God. That's what the Pharisee does. He comes with his record of his worth, his merit. And then he comes also, and you see the way he views others. He looks at this public and says, I'm not like him. I'm not like the extortioners, the unjust, the adulterers. And that always happens. If you come to God with your own record and trying to say, I'm worth it, God, listen to me because I've done some good stuff. You always have to look around at everybody else and say, see, they're not quite measuring up. And there may be some people who do, but there's got to be plenty who make you feel good about your record. That's what he does. He comes and he looks around at others and he despises them. That's the way verse 9 describes it. He trusted himself that he was righteous and he despised others. But we can never come to God appealing based on our worth or our merit. The previous parable mentioned this too, not directly, but he said God will avenge his own elect. This parable mentions that it says the publican goes home justified. That's the reason we can come and know God will respond with goodness to us. It's not because of anything we've done. It's because we are born again through Jesus Christ. We have his righteousness credited to our account. We are God's people. We are his elect. We are justified. We look at these things. That's why I can come and know that if I come like the widow over and over and say, Lord, please give me good, I can know that God gives his people good. I come on this basis, on the basis of not my record or despising other people, but like the publican did, he comes, he is humble. He won't even come and put any of his record forward. In fact, notice the only thing he says about his record and his worth is that he's a sinner. So the only thing he brings is the worst possible thing. He doesn't come with anything to say, Lord, you need to listen to me because I tithe, I am in church all the time, I have good Christian friends, I only listen to good Christian music or watch certain movies that aren't bad or whatever it might be. There's no record that he puts forward. He says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He comes and his only appeal is, God, I know you are merciful. And I'm a sinner, so I need mercy. That's it. He ignores the fact that he is better or worse than anyone else around him. Because it doesn't matter. He knows he's a sinner. Unlike the Pharisee who can't take his eyes off of these people, extortioners, unjust adulterers, publicans, he can't take his eyes off of them. He has to compare himself and bring his record forward. The tax collector puts his eyes down, says, God, you are merciful and I'm a sinner who needs mercy. Do we pray this way? Do we pray with humility? As I said, I find Sometimes more subtle ways of saying these things creeping into what I pray. Sometimes they're less subtle. When I pray and I think God has to answer because of what I've done. No. I pray and I think God should give me something good because I have done this or I am this. No. I'm a sinner. God be merciful to me. That's the only way I can come and think I have any confidence that he will give me good. But notice the connection between the two. If you come to God based on your record, then there will be days you feel like you can come to God confidently. And there will be days when you don't. We've been there, right? When you sin and you sin again in the same way that you said you were never going to do again, and you come to God and you want to pray to him, and sometimes it just feels like, no, I can't do that. I can't come before you. Because God is holy, and there's a right fear of that. But the question is, do you come before God because you have performed to a certain standard, or do you come before God because you're a sinner who needs mercy? If I'm gonna come, and I'm gonna come confidently over and over, I have to know that I'm not coming based on my performance. I'm coming based on God's mercy alone. Moving on to verse 15. Now those two we might think of as about prayer and certainly as we go on through this next section there are other themes but I think there's a reason that they follow those two parables. It says that they brought unto him also infants that he would touch them. This is interesting to me because a lot of times you read, especially you read children's Bibles, and they aren't usually infants, but the word there in Greek is infant. It's the same word used when it talks about you'll find a babe lying in a manger. The word babe is the same word. That's how it's translated almost everywhere. So really this is probably not six-year-olds frolicking up to him, at least not initially. This is people are bringing babies. And you say, that baby's not going to remember a thing, you say, Lord. That's what the disciples are thinking. They're saying, great, we love babies, but all these people want to hear you teach, and they don't remember anything you do. That's when Jesus says, suffer little children to come unto me, which is a more inclusive word. That's not merely babies, that's also children, but it can include babies. Don't forbid them, for such is the kingdom of God. And he says, whoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. Think about babies for a minute. How much merit and worth do they bring into your life when they're born? Only the fact that they are a human made in God's image, right? They can't do anything for you. I've yet to meet babies who sweep the floor or clean anything up. They bring you joy, sure, sometimes, right? And sleepless nights and frustrations. They bring you all kinds of stuff, but they don't bring a record of like, look at all the wonderful stuff I've done. Aren't you glad I'm your child? They don't do that. And Jesus says that if you come In any other way, if you do not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, you will not enter therein. I think he's saying the same thing in an account of that actually happened that he just said in the parable before. He says, if you come with your record, you won't enter the kingdom. But if you come as a child, let the little children come to me. Jesus says, let them come. Don't forbid them. Why? Because this is how you have to come. You have to come trusting in Jesus Christ and not in your own record in any way. The disciples say, surely he should spend his time on people who are more worthy, who have more to offer. Jesus says, that's not how you come. We might think, but if I come before God and I just ask him for something and I haven't done anything to make him, like, want to do it? Well, that seems presumptuous. But not when you come to God. Not when you come to Jesus because, really, you couldn't do anything to manipulate him into doing it anyway. The best you could do would be polluted by sin. And so we would think, I need to bring something so God will answer my prayer. And he says, no, you come like a child. In fact, you come like a baby. Babies bring nothing but the cries that say, I need you, which is exactly what the publican did, right? He cries, God, be merciful to me. I need you. He's older, so he uses language, but it's the same thing that a baby says when they just cry for mommy and daddy. So then we get to verse 18. This section, definitely there are many things we could talk about, but just looking at a few things to connect with this section right before. We have an example of one person coming to Christ, and this person comes in the wrong way. The ruler comes, he asks, says, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Okay, he comes to Jesus knowing, saying, Jesus is a good master and he knows how to get eternal life. There's some good in that. He's not coming with just, well, forget Jesus, who cares what he says? He's coming to ask, that makes sense. We've already seen the answer to this question, though, right? Not in so many words, but we've seen if you want to inherit eternal life, you come as a child. You come not bringing your own merit or worth. You come trusting in God and his character completely. You come as one who is justified because he relies on God's mercy. You come as one who is elect, God's elect that he will avenge. If you come that way, yes. But this guy didn't come that way. Instead, this rich ruler comes and he says, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus turns around and says, why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is God. So he says, look, you called me good master. Do you really mean that? And it's interesting, we don't actually have an answer to that here. I think we can assume from his response that he didn't really understand what it meant for Jesus to be God. If he thought Jesus was the Messiah, he didn't understand what it meant, because the Messiah, his God, then would have told him, do this, and he says, I can't, because this is better. So he didn't understand what it meant, for sure, for Jesus to be God. if he thought that was true at all. But I think probably he didn't think that at all. He was being polite. He was coming a little bit of flattery. Good master, what shall I do? And he was pretty sure. He's like, my record's good. He might have even, I don't know, but maybe he had done this before. Maybe he had talked to some other teachers and said, what should I do to be right with God? And they might've told him, well, do this and this and this. And he says, I have done it. And they might've patted him on the back and he might've went on. Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus says, do you really mean what you said? Doesn't give us an answer to that. Instead, Jesus continues, says, thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother. He gives these commands and Jesus basically says this, if you want to come on your own merit, all right, you have to be perfect. You have to keep the commandments. You have to be perfect. If you're going to come and you're going to come on your own, You must be perfect. Now Jesus knew these commands were not really what he needed. Because Jesus knew everything. Jesus knew his heart. He knew that he did not trust in God enough to turn from his riches. He knew that the covetousness, the self-trust that hung on to his riches was too strong. Jesus knew that. But he gives him these commands first to point out and say, let's see what your record's like. And I think the reason it's there is because we've just had two sections here that have talked about, what if you come with your own record? That won't work. So Jesus says, what's your record like? And the guy gives, says, I've kept these for my youth up. Now, you know Jesus could have challenged him on that, right? Jesus could have said, really, you've honored your father and mother in every thought from when you were born. And if the guy was honest, he would have to say no. Jesus could have said, well, if you hate your brother in your heart, that's like murder. In fact, Jesus says that other places, right? If you hate your brother in your heart, that's like murder. So have you ever been angry with someone? He could have called him on all of these things. He could have said, you've never stolen anything. You've never said anything that's not quite true in order to hurt someone else. You've never looked upon a woman with lust in your heart. You've never done any of those things. Jesus could have called him on any of those commands. And I would think any of them, if he was honest, he would have to say, internally, I've not been completely perfect. But Jesus doesn't do that. Instead, what Jesus does, And even then, he doesn't challenge him directly on the command that he obviously has broken. He's obviously broken the command to not covet, because right here he demonstrates it. Whether he got his riches in a completely honest way or not doesn't matter. At this point, he loves his stuff too much to follow God. So he's broken that command at least, but Jesus doesn't say, well, I left out this command about coveting. How are you doing with that? Jesus doesn't do that either. And I think the reason for that is because the man's record isn't the point. The man coming and saying, I've done this, that's not the point at all. The point is, are you coming like a child? Are you coming trusting in God to be merciful? Are you coming with confidence in God's character? Are you coming that way? Because if you're not, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven. And so Jesus points out that he is not coming that way. Jesus calls for his obedience. He says, lackest thou one thing, sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come follow me. He says, give up your record and what you trust in and instead trust in me. And if you will do that, you'll have eternal life. And that's true. For anyone in this world, it may not be money, it may be something else, but they trust in something. that they think they can bring forth as their record. They can say, I'm worth something because of this. I've merited something because of this. And if they will turn from that and cling to Christ as a child, they will inherit eternal life. But when the man heard this, We see he did not come as a child. He was sorrowful for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that, he said, how hardly shall they have that have riches enter the kingdom of God. Jesus says it's so difficult. Why? Because riches just snag our hearts so easily. They make us trust ourselves so easily. For it's easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Some people have looked at old archaeological evidence and tried to come up with a gate into Jerusalem that was called the needle's eye, and there's some evidence that they did call some things like that. But I don't think that's Christ's point here, because he goes on to say, the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. That's the point. He's saying it's impossible for a camel to go through a needle's eye. We all know that unless we try to come up with some other way to say it. It's impossible. So you say, well, is he really saying then that rich people can't be saved? No. Because he says it's impossible with men, but it's possible with God. Because God has to change this person's heart. God has to take this rich Maybe he feels pretty self-sufficient person. You know people like this. Maybe they're not rich necessarily, but they feel just very self-sufficient and self-made people. And for that person to come to God as a child, he has to do a miracle in their heart so they will let go of what they're trusting in. That's what he's saying here. It takes a miracle. It takes God doing something that is impossible with men for a rich person or anyone who trusts in themselves to come to God. So then Peter pipes up, and I'm thinking, Peter says, oh, by the way, we're not like him. We left all our stuff. Peter says, OK, I saw you send this guy away. Great. We're not like him, actually. We have left all and followed thee. And what does Christ say to him? He says, I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come, life everlasting." He says, yes, Peter, you have left all and followed me, and you will be rewarded now and forever. So this last section tells us when we come to Jesus, It's legitimate to come and say, God rewards the people who come to him. That's great, that's a motivation he sets forth here. He says, look, you should come, because you're going to receive more than you lose. But we're not free to define our own reward. So we're not free to say, I'm going to leave all this stuff, as long as you'll return it to me in cash with 20% interest. It doesn't work like that. It says, I leave all this stuff to follow you, and he says, you don't know exactly what that reward will look like, but it will be better. You will receive reward if you follow Christ. And we must come not clinging to our own sin like this rich ruler who says, I can't give this up. We can't come clinging to our own sin. So what I want to do is take that into Four statements, if we looked at this whole section, Luke 18, 1 through 30, four statements about prayer specifically. I want to encourage you to take these, consider where in your life maybe you are praying in a way that is not glorifying to God as much as it should be, where you may fall short, where you may be doing really well in this and want to encourage others to do this. Consider what he says about prayer. First, keep praying with confidence because of God's character. He's a good God, so I keep praying. He's a good God, so I'm confident that he will give good to his people. Pray humbly because of God's character and his honor, not your worth or your record. Whether subtly, I've done these good things, now I'm asking this, and in my head I think, surely God's going to give it to me because I've done such and such. Or if we say it outright, like the Pharisee. Then he says, if you come humbly, not relying on your record, you will be received because you're coming as a child. And lastly, he says, pray by turning from your sin to follow Christ and you will be abundantly rewarded. And one last thing I want you to think about. Think about the character, the unique glory of God revealed in this passage, specifically in Jesus. In the first set, the first parable, God is a perfect judge who will not delay out of any flaw in his character. He is perfectly trustworthy and has all power to give help to his people. What a God! We get to come to that God and pray? God is merciful to those who deserve nothing. We love it when we see this in people. When we see a person who is kind and merciful to someone who really doesn't deserve it, we think, wow, better man than I, we might say something like that. We think, wow, that's a good guy. I love what they do. But how much more Jesus Christ, who rightly deserved all worship. And if we come and say, God, be merciful to me, He is, though we deserve nothing. We come to a God who exalts the humble and humbles the proud. I imagine some of you in here, when you see sports games, you love watching the underdogs. I do, generally, unless it's my team that's favored. I love watching the underdogs win. Why? Because there's just something wired in us that says, that team, they're lower, but it's great to see them raised a little bit. That team, they spent all the big bucks they've got, but it's great to see them knock down a peg or two, unless it's your team, I understand. But in general, we're wired that way. We watch movies, we see entertainment. The good guys never have the super weapon. The good guys never have this incredible thing that's going to just destroy the galaxy whenever they want to. That's always the bad guys. Why? Because we are wired to like it when the underdog wins. When the humble person is exalted and the proud person is knocked down a notch or two. We love that. And God does that in real life, not in Hollywood. He humbles the proud. And he exalts the humble. So he's a perfect judge, a merciful judge who gives to those who deserve nothing. He exalts the humble, but he also welcomes children and people who come with nothing. Again, we love seeing this, don't we? We love it when somebody who is powerful or is successful and we see them talking to a little child and we think, wow, what patience. How great it is that they're doing this. How much more the God of the universe who is here as a person and said, keep bringing the babies to me, not the babies that are related to me, just the babies, the kids, bring them to me. Let me talk with them. Because you have to come that way to come into God's kingdom. This is the God we serve, the unique glory that he's a perfect, almighty judge who says, bring the kids to me. And in fact, you come like them too. And then lastly, we see he is a sovereign Lord who demands complete allegiance. What glory there is in that. But not just that, he also promises his help and his abundant reward. This is the God we come to. This is the God we come to pray to when you pray throughout your week. What a glorious God. Let's come to him in prayer now. Lord, we thank you that we come to you and you are a king. You are a king.