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This is the audio from the November 19, 2023 sermon, “Good News: A Time To PRAY”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Deer Run Church of Christ.

Text: Luke 18

Today I continued a series from the gospel of Luke as we gaze deeply into God’s Word to find the good news of Jesus shared with us by Luke the physician.  As Jesus walked this earth, prayer was more than just something to open a meeting or bless the food, it was His lifeline with His Father.  His example and His teaching not only shows us how to pray, but tell us it is time to . . .

• Persist: — (Luke 18:1-8)

  • While many people find the parable in the beginning of Luke eighteen to be confusing, the Bible makes it clear that this was told by Jesus to teach people that they should always pray and never give up.  If unjust people will eventually do what is right because of the persistence of a person seeking justice, how much more will our persistence pay off with a greater understanding of God always doing what is right.  Our persistence in prayer isn’t about us changing the mind of God but rather it is about us staying in communication with God so that we understand more fully His will in all circumstances.  When we realize that now is a time to pray, we find that now is a time to persist in our prayers.

• Repent: — (Luke 18:9-14)

  • As Jesus teaches about our need to remain faithful in our conversations with the Father, He tells a story of two men who went to the temple to pray.  The story was told to address the problem of people putting their confidence in their own righteousness and thus looking down upon others.  The self-righteous Pharisee prayed to himself, or about himself, or probably a bit of both.  In fact, his prayer was even thankful that he was not like the sinners of the world or even like the other guy who had come to pray.  The other guy was a tax collector that came in a spirit of repentance asking God to have mercy on him.  His prayer brought him closer to God where he was justified and exalted through a humble spirit.  When we realize that now is a time to pray, we find that now is a time to repent.

• Accept: — (Luke 18:15-17)

  • One of the favorite pictures in my mind is of a line of parents bringing their little children to Jesus just to have Him touch them.  As Luke tells this story, the picture is marred by the rebuke of the disciples who thought that Jesus was too important to bother with the little ones.  Jesus makes it clear that it is the children who understand the kingdom of God in a way that we never will until we become like little children.  At times, we have a tendency to create in our mind an idea of who should come to Jesus and who shouldn’t.  We push people away with our words and actions while Jesus desires for us to call them near.  It is not that we are called to accept the sin of others anymore than we are to accept our own sin, but we are called to accept the people.  When we realize that now is the time to pray, we find that now is the time to accept others just as we ourselves have been accepted.

• Yield: — (Luke 18:18-30)

  • Jesus continued to teach about our communication with His Father as He interacted with a rich ruler who seemed to have a desire to relate to God on his own terms.  His desire is to know what must be done to gain eternal life and initially believes he has done everything that the law would require.  Jesus lists off a number of commandments which the man claims to have kept from the time he was a young boy.  It is interesting to me that he knew the law and felt he had kept the law, but was still concerned about whether his goodness was good enough.  The instructions of Jesus to this man calling on him to sell everything he had and give to the poor struck at the heart of this man’s real god, his wealth.  God knows even more clearly than we do regarding who or what is our god and His desire is that we would learn to yield fully to Him.  When we realize that now is the time to pray, we find that now is the time to yield to God in everything we think and do.

Today, how will you PRAY?