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Mar 24, 2024

The Prayer of the Sobered

The Prayer of the Sobered

Passage: Luke 18:9-14

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Practice the Presence - Prayer

Keywords: mercy, pride, righteousness, humble, contempt, exalted

We’ve said there is no true repentance without praying. To that we add a corresponding truth that how you pray, the heart you cultivate in your praying, will have bearing on the life you then manifest. How you pray and the heart that is formed in the practice of it, will have an effect on your living. We’re going to look at a parable involving two very different people, offering two expressing very different character in their prayer, and all because they demonstrate two diametrically different versions of their confidence before the Lord. On what basis can anyone be confident to approach and address the Lord? We’ve heard the repentant prayer of the sufferer and the sinner; this week we’ll hear the repentant prayer of one sobered.

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Psalm 24:3-6; John 12:13
LEADER: Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?

ALL: He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.

LEADER: He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

ALL: Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

LEADER: They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

ALL: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/CREEDAL STATEMENT/SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 5:1-11
LEADER: On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

CENTRAL TEXT: Luke 18:9-14
Luke 18:9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

CONFESSION OF SIN:
LEADER: Let us confess our sin to God.

ALL: We sense a thin line between an appreciation for what is right and a capacity for contempt for who is wrong. If we are honest, we have crossed that line more times than we can count. Each time we do, we deceive ourselves. Each time we do we forget no one is yours apart from your choice and your Grace. Help us to see the line. Help us to grieve and repent of its crossing. Most of all help us to believe the One who crossed the line between heaven and earth, between justice and mercy–to pull us back from the line between death and life.

ABSOLUTION OF PARDON: 2 Corinthians 5:14-18a
LEADER: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself

BENEDICTION: Hebrews 4:14-16
LEADER: Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

ALL: Amen

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Psalm 51
  • Matthew 20:1-19
  • Luke 5:8 
  • Luke 6:20-26
  • Romans 3:1-10
  • 1 Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:15

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Who hates each other these days? Identify the people on polar opposite sides of whatever spectrum who tend to revile or have contempt for? What’s in it for those who hold others with contempt–what’s the payoff, so to speak? (why else would we do something if we didn’t assume some benefit?)
  2. Play the armchair psychologist for a moment: why does contempt–looking down on another–follow from one impressed with his own moral character? Ever seen something like that in real-life? What else was true of the person (maybe it was–is--you!) that pegged them as perhaps too impressed with themselves?
  3. In the person of the Tax Collector, is Jesus commending self-hatred? (how you define that word may influence your answer)
  4. What does Jesus here mean by “he went down to his home justified”? (Though not identical to the more technical meaning Paul uses that word, certainly full of overlap.)
  5. Preach the Gospel to the Pharisee in this passage. Try to speak as succinctly and precisely to “him” as you can. Now do the same to the Tax collector in this passage.

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

 

 

QUOTES: 

 

  • If I’m consumed by this belief that that person over there is both Other and Repugnant, I may never discover that my favorite television program is also his favorite television program; that we like some of the same books, though not precisely the same reasons; that we both know what it’s like to nurse a love one through a long illness. All of which is to say that I may all too easily forget that political and social and religious differences are not the whole of human experience. Alan Jacobs, How to Think
  • If God had wanted somebody with St Francis’s consistently winning personality for the job in the New Testament, he’d’ve picked him, you can be sure. As it was, he picked the best, the smartest, the most loving, the least sentimental, the most unimitative master he could possibly have picked. And when you miss seeing that, I swear to you, you’re missing the whole point of the Jesus Prayer. From J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey
  • Finally everyone was saying, "He doesn't have anything on!"  The emperor shuddered, for he knew that they were right, but he thought, "The procession must go on!”  Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes"
  • Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke – ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. Eustace Scrubb in C.S. Lewis’, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

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