Lord It Is Thee Not Me

Luke 18:9-14

Lord It Is THEE Not Me

Sermon Prayer: “Heavenly Father, I stand before Your people, to deliver Your message. Though the words are mine and I prepared this message, I pray that this message is Your message in its entirety. I pray your blessing and anointing on its delivery, its reception and most of all its application in our lives.” Amen

The Reading

“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. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘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 tithes 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 a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be [a]humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

When I begin researching through resources to put together a message/devotion, I wind up getting enthralled with some of what I come across. For instance, in today’s reading I garnered from my favorite go to commentator Warren Wiersbe, a catchy overview: “Are we self-satisfied or are we justified?”

Author and theologian Bruce Larson shares what someone once told him: “Larson, do you know what’s wrong with you? You judge other people by their actions and yourself by your intentions.”

This parable is meant to show us that same comparison. On the one hand we read of the Pharisee who is very self-righteous, very obedient to the law, and very upright. His problem is that he wants everyone to see him as “special” unlike the common man. He wants to be admired. We all have experienced people like that, haven’t we? I envision that person as carrying a mirror everywhere he goes, so he can admire himself, anytime and anywhere. This same guy elevates himself by demeaning others and seeing always looking for something to criticize.

On the other hand, we have this publican, a tax collector. It was a common trait among tax collectors to cheat and extort money. Tax collectors in this time were not trusted and not liked, even worse than tax collectors of our times. Being fair in saying this, we really don’t see them today as being dishonest but not very well liked anyway.

The Pharisee exalts himself and does so very publicly. The publican stands afar off and humbles himself in prayer, confessing that he is a sinner and asking for God’s mercy.

Here we have it again – that word humble! To be humble doesn’t mean to exaggerate abasing ourselves, but rather just being open and honest before God. God will not be impressed by one who belittles himself and cries out with the “woe is me” with any intention of gaining ground. That kind of prayer creeps toward deception. God sees right through it.

Few won’t get very far with God by trying to impress Him with a litany of our good deeds and stellar Christian life. He knows.

From what Larson shared, we can start by looking for and seeing the intentions of others and assessing our own actions and motivations. “Are we self-satisfied or are we justified?”

As we so often say: God hears the prayers of our hearts NOT the prayers of our lips.

Let us do that now. Let us pray

Now let us go forth Loving and Serving God by Loving and Serving Each Other – EVERY Each Other!

I humbly and sincerely ask for your prayers!

https://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/311609-how-to-pray-for-your-pastor-ronnie-floyd.html?utm_source=outreach-cl-daily-nl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=read-more&utm_campaign=cl-daily-nl&maropost_id=&mpweb=256-7370272[HG1]

“…but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4)

Note: It is the practice of this church to preach straight from the bible. We follow the lectionary assigned readings from which the sermon/messages are derived.