Latest / HBCWestminster / 10.3.21 Luke 18:9-14 Pastor Danny Gardner

Transcript

10.3.21 Luke 18:9-14 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  If you have your Bibles, you can open to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, verses 9 to 14 is our text. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. And as you're turning there, I just want to say thank you for being a church who loves its pastors so well. Honestly, I am...
• 0:16
  I'm grateful to be called here. You are an easy, an easy people to pastor. This is not a difficult job. You're an absolute joy to me and to the other pastors. And so I know that this is Pastor Appreciation Month, but let me just say thank you. I appreciate you as well. I'm so thankful to be called to serve this church in that way. I really am grateful. I know that there are quite a few people who are new with us this morning. If you're brand new, we're so glad that you're here. Make sure that you grab on your way out. If you didn't get one on your way in, on your way out, grab.
• 0:45
  a welcome book. There is some more information about the church. There's also a CD in there, what we call our realignment sermon. And so once a year, I kind of go through and remind everybody who we are, what we do, what our vision and mission are. And so that's in there. If you're interested in hearing more about the church, you can reach out to anybody on the stage, anybody on staff. Would love to answer more questions about it. And also want to invite you, especially if you're new, invite you back on Wednesdays. Wednesdays we call Thrive. It's a midweek Bible study. Wednesdays from 6.30 to 8 o'clock.
• 1:14
  And it is a ministry for the whole family. And so adults meet in here. We sing and worship the Lord together and then spend time in his word. Our youth group meets, our kids ministry meets all at the same time on Wednesday nights and would love to have you back. It is honestly just a fantastic time together. This coming Saturday, for all of you moms, would love to have you all back for Insight. Please come as we launch a new season of Insight. Hallie, my wife, who is our women's director, is very excited for this coming school year.
• 1:43
  Once a month, you guys get together for a potluck brunch, time in God's word as well. And then typically go through a book together. I think that this year you guys are gonna go through a book called Mama Bear Apologetics. Mama Bear Apologetics. And so that is apologetics. It's defending the faith, specifically as moms and how to teach your kids about how to defend their faith. And so we'd look forward to that. We could use some help on those days. And so if some of you guys are available that once a month,
• 2:12
  To help in childcare, that would be great. We need help in there. From nursery through elementary school, we've got tons of helpers, but they're all too young. They're all in that high school kind of category. They're all too young to be actual official teachers. And so could use a few men to step up one time a month, the second Saturday of every month in the morning to help with that. Just reach out to my wife, reach out to Lori Wentz in the office if you're available. And last thing, I wanted to touch some more on that Harvest Fun Fair. This year, Halloween is on a Sunday.
• 2:42
  And we normally do our Harvest Fun Fair on Sundays. No, we don't normally do them on Sundays. We normally do them on Halloween, on October 31st. But because this year it's on a Sunday, it's going to be difficult, obviously, just logistically to tear everything down, to be ready to go, to welcome the community and the neighborhood in to do that. And so what we've decided to do instead is move our Harvest Fun Fair, rather than just canceling it because it's on a Sunday, to move it to that Wednesday prior. And so our kids are going to get to enjoy Harvest Fun Fair.
• 3:10
  All of that will be on that side of the building with the blow-ups and the carnival games, that whole thing. They can dress up. They can wear their costumes. They can all come, enjoy that time together on Wednesday. While they're doing that, the adults will be having even more fun, right, doing budget meeting. And so once a year, we do have to have, and it's a joy to have, a budget meeting where I will give kind of our proposed spending plan for the next fiscal year, which will begin in January.
• 3:39
  As the elders and trustees have started working through what we believe the Lord is calling us to do with our money next year, we want to hear back from you. And so October 27th.
• 3:48
  That Thrive Night, the kids will all be doing their thing. Adults, I suppose you can dress up if you want to. You can come in here. We are going to go through kind of line by line through the budget. As always, I will make that as entertaining as possible. I've already started collecting some jokes. They're good ones, all right? So, and you guys who have been to them before know that, you know, it's one of those things we do. It's an important part of what we do.
• 4:10
  we want to get feedback from you. You could be members, non-members alike. We want to get feedback from you on what you believe the Lord is calling us to do as a church with his money. And so that'll be October 27th. All of that being said, allow us to get to our text. Luke 18, verses 9 to 14. I'm going to read our text. And if you're able to stand in honor of God's word, I would ask you to do that now. Beginning in verse 9. He also told this parable.
• 4:45
  to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.
• 5:15
  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 humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. And Lord, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And without your word, Father, we stumble and fumble around in the dark. As we open our Bibles now, would you also open our minds and our hearts to understand it?
• 5:48
  May your gospel be preached. May your name be praised. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. I've heard. I've heard. A whole bunch of you guys went to the women's retreat last year. Stories have been trickling back in. I've heard that there is a new game being played among some of our Highlanders called, What Are You Willing to Do for $100? I've also heard that in this new game, there are no winners.
• 6:20
  You know, there's almost nothing I wouldn't do for a hundred bucks, although anything involving feet or toes and specifically toenails is probably out. Yes, I have seen the video. It is revolting. You know, when Allie and I were dating, there was almost nothing I wouldn't do to win her approval. I was willing to do almost anything to garner her attention. Whenever I knew I was going to see her, I made sure that my shirt was pressed and my teeth were brushed, made sure that I smelled nice.
• 6:52
  If we were going to go out, I washed my car. If she was coming over, I cleaned up my apartment. Perhaps, however, my greatest personal compromise in order to win her affections, the affections of my beloved soon-to-be wife, was my willingness to shop at Ikea. I even at one point pretended to like Ikea. Whatever it took to get her to say yes, can I get an amen from all the single fellas?
• 7:20
  Anything, yes, whatever, Ikea. Is Ikea your favorite? It's absolutely my favorite place. I have since, now that we've been married 22 years, I have since stopped pretending to like Ikea. At this point in our marriage, I openly express my disdain. People have asked me why I dislike Ikea so much, and honestly, the reasons are numerous. I don't like the arrows on the floor. I don't like people telling me where I'm supposed to walk in their store.
• 7:51
  I don't like that it takes hours to navigate the store. That is intentional. In fact, it took me years before I realized that there are shortcuts through the marketplace. I didn't know that. I thought you just had to kind of follow the thing. They want you to look at every single display, and it took me years before I realized, and they are hidden, but there are secret passages you can take that will save you hours, men, hours. I don't like that their so-called Swedish meatballs are kind of green.
• 8:22
  Meatballs aren't supposed to be green. But I especially don't like their furniture. Ikea furniture is funny. It looks good. But as soon as you sit on it, you think, something's not right. Something's wrong with this thing. I mean, it looks really nice, but something isn't right. I remember vividly the day that I realized that no actual trees were harmed in the making of their products and that no actual tools are required in their assembly.
• 8:53
  You shouldn't be able to construct a bunk bed using nothing but an Allen wrench. Hallie learned very quickly that as soon as we could afford not to shop at Ikea, our regular trips together would cease. She found out very quickly how I actually feel about particle board furniture. It might look good on the outside, but looks can be deceiving. There are few more profound parables than the one before us this morning. In fact, it's one of my favorites. It calls to account the spiritual pretenders.
• 9:25
  Those who think that because they look good on the outside, they must also be good on the inside. That there may be those even among us who think that because they're right before men, they must also be right before God. Recall the theme of the Gospel of Luke as our church has been walking through Luke the last couple of years. We've said many times that Luke is the best news for the worst people.
• 9:50
  Luke is the gospel for the sinner. It is the gospel for the outcast. If you're here this morning, you're thinking, man, I can't be forgiven. I don't belong here. If you recall from last month, our sermon on Manasseh, right? I mean, these are not my people. If that's what you're thinking, then you're thinking wrong. The gospel is for you. You cannot out sin the forgiveness of God. And that is the message.
• 10:14
  Of the gospel of Luke, we have said many times, we will say many times more, Luke's gospel is the gospel for those for whom the world had had no gospel. If you thought Jesus came to save those who were already righteous, Luke says, no, he came for the sinner. We've also said that Luke is one of the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The stories and events of these three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are often repeated.
• 10:42
  In some cases, almost verbatim in the other two. Now, this means that when one of those authors varies from the others, or when they specifically include some details the others did not, those unique events are a really big deal because they show what was most important to that particular author. And church, listen, the Pharisee and the tax collector is unique to the gospel of Luke. Without Luke's gospel, we would have never heard this.
• 11:11
  Which means it's important in Luke's theme. It answers the question, what type of person does God bless? The world tends to promote, we know, self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, wealth, social status. But what we find this morning is that something very different is emphasized in God's qualities. The parable boils down to two prayers. Reflected in these two prayers, we see two different kinds of hearts.
• 11:41
  The hearts of each of these men are contrasted, not only by the way they make their request, but even in how each approaches the throne of God. Carla, just a few moments ago, read from Hebrews 4 that we can approach the throne of grace with confidence because of the blood of Jesus. And in that chapter, in that text, is extended to us one of the greatest and probably most often neglected invitations in Scripture. That we...
• 12:11
  Because of the blood of Jesus, may approach the throne of grace and make our requests known. And yet we see this morning that simply approaching God's throne in prayer is not enough. The manner in which we approach also matters. And so beginning in verse 9, notice what Jesus says. It says he told a parable specifically. So here's the target audience to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
• 12:40
  and treated others with contempt. In verse 9, we see Jesus here aiming the parable, focusing the crosshairs of the parable squarely on those we see who trusted in themselves. Another translation says Christ's parable was aimed at those who were confident in themselves. And maybe even your translation uses that word confident. The Greek word for confident is a present participle.
• 13:10
  Which means that their confidence in their own ability to live righteously apart from anything else never waned. Let me say that again. Their confidence in their own ability to live righteously apart from anything else never waned. In other words, there were men among Jesus' crowd, in Jesus' crowd, who thought they didn't need a Savior.
• 13:34
  You catch that? They thought they were good enough. They thought if they had messed up, they were able to work their way to heaven. They thought they could actually achieve perfection on their own. They trusted or had confidence in themselves. And the same word is used by the Apostle Paul. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3 when he says, For we are the circumcision.
• 14:01
  who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and listen, and put no confidence in the flesh. Who put no confidence in the flesh. That confidence in the flesh meant that they genuinely believed that their own righteousness would gain them entrance into heaven. Man, listen, if you're thinking, I've done pretty good. I mean, I don't know why God wouldn't accept me. I'm better than a whole lot of other people. Then take this parable as a warning. It's a warning.
• 14:35
  That whatever confidence we have in the flesh will not last on the judgment day. That there will be, according to Matthew chapter 7, many, many who stand before the throne and say, Lord, didn't we do all of these great things in your name? Didn't I preach? Didn't I perform miracles in your name? And Jesus on that day will say away from me, evildoers, I never knew you. I never knew you. And so the parable acts as a warning to those who think that they're good enough.
• 15:06
  Pharisees who were with Jesus actively set aside the teachings of Scripture, even in the Old Testament, that they were inherently evil. They did not believe in the depravity of their own souls. They did not believe that they were incapable of any meritorious works apart from the grace of God. And so they began to treat others with contempt. This also, in verse 9, is strong language. It could be translated that they despised others, that they rejected others.
• 15:36
  This Pharisee in the parable found it easy to declare his self-righteousness as long as he compared himself to people he believed were lower than him. And that makes sense. Think about this church. If you are trusting in your own self-righteousness, if you think you're good enough, if you think you can work well enough, if you think you can even achieve perfection, then it doesn't take long before reality sets in and wickedness creeps in and you have to at some point be honest with yourself.
• 16:06
  And the only way to check to see if your self-righteousness is working is to compare yourself to others. Like, I wonder if it's working. The only way to know if you're good enough is if you compare yourself to people who you know are not. Church, do you ever compare yourselves to others? Do you ever find your value in comparing yourself to others, thinking yourself better than others? When my son Pearson was a baby, he was less than a year old.
• 16:38
  He's coming on 20 years old now. Hallie, my wife, her best friend, Carrie, who also had a baby the same age named Jaden. And Jaden and Pearson were and still are best friends. Hallie and Carrie took Pearson and baby Jaden on a walk, each in their baby's stroller. Now, Carrie had a high-end Eddie Bauer stroller. It was the Eddie Bauer edition. They had paid up for that.
• 17:05
  We purchased the meager Graco brand from Target. Later on, and it was years later, church, Carrie confessed to Hallie how proud she was of her uppity stroller. And, no kidding, she actually said how much she looked down on our Target special. She confessed that as they were walking along and taking the babies for a walk, and in her swollen-headed pride, her stroller wheel snapped off.
• 17:35
  The Eddie Bauer broke down and literally cracked in half. The stroller cracked in half as they're walking. Babies, you know, in their strollers. The whole thing broke and cracked into two big pieces right in between the names Eddie and Bauer. A crack. And I didn't want to make any chorus rebellions references, but that is what I thought as the earth would open and swallow those rebellious people.
• 18:02
  Her Eddie Bauer stroller cracked in half and Hallie had to carry baby Jaden in one arm while she pushed baby Pearson in the other arm while Carrie walked along embarrassingly behind holding all of the pieces of her stroller and had to carry it home. You know, church, it's easy to come out shiny depending on who we compare ourselves to. But the Lord is faithful.
• 18:32
  In those moments when we are swollen with conceit, the Lord is faithful to bring reality crashing down on our heads. Notice verse 10, Jesus says, two men went up into the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. So there are two men, a Pharisee and a tax collector. Now, don't forget church, we have been conditioned to view the Pharisees as the bad guys. When we call someone a Pharisee or we say that they are acting Pharisaically, we don't mean that as a compliment.
• 19:01
  So we know this is the bad guy. But in first century Israel, the Pharisees were the spiritual superheroes. I mean, they were practically wearing capes. They were revered and respected. They were admired. In fact, to become a Pharisee required hard work and self-sacrifice. When people's kids grew up to become Pharisees, their parents were proud.
• 19:26
  The way that parents brag now, well, my son became an MD or whatever. You're like, my kid became a doctor. Okay, they take pride in their kid's profession. Parents would have been unbelievably proud of their Pharisee sons. It was the highest aspiration one could achieve in that culture. That was it. That was the pinnacle. Now, on the flip side, the tax collector...
• 19:51
  was the bottom rung of the social ladder. He was the worst. You can grow up to do anything, just don't become a tax collector. I'm going to tell you my shortest joke. You guys ready? My joke, my shortest joke is five words long. Here it goes. Hot dog jokes are the worst. No one? Yeah. Ah! Worst is another name for hot dogs. Like brat. Worst.
• 20:29
  Let me give you the cultural sentiment toward tax collectors in a mere five words. You ready? Tax collectors were the worst. They were the worst. The bottom. They were the social equivalent of ground up and pigmented tubes of leftover animal parts.
• 20:46
  That was it. I mean, they were the spiritual equivalent of hot dogs. They were the leftovers. They were the refuse. I mean, you know, ground up and jammed into a tube. I mean, that was tax collectors. They were treated with disdain. They were the targets of every joke. They were friendless. We've talked before about their corruption. Maybe that reputation was earned. But let me remind us briefly why tax collectors were hated so badly.
• 21:15
  Now, tax collectors in Israel were Jewish, but they represented Rome. Rome was the occupying force in Israel. Rome was the evil empire. I mean, that was them. Which means that the taxes being levied...
• 21:31
  were not for their own country, but rather in support of Roman occupation. So these taxes were being extorted, extracted from the people, and then used to fund a military force, an occupational force that the Jews didn't want there anyway. Imagine for a moment, April 15th, our tax day has come and gone. It's difficult every year to cut those checks, right? Nobody wants to pay tax. Nobody finds delight in paying taxes.
• 22:00
  But it's hard to cut those checks in order to square with the federal and state governments. Imagine for a moment, church, if the checks we cut weren't even going to America. What if our tax money was going overseas? Now you can insert your snarky comment here. Here's how it worked. The Roman government expected certain amounts of money based on the region in which you lived.
• 22:27
  which was based on the last census taken. So they would take a census, they'd find out how many people lived where, and then they would let that governor or king know, here's how much money you owe us based on our census. Imagine Herod Antipas, who was the king of Galilee during the time of Christ. Herod Antipas, therefore, would be expected to pay a certain amount to the Romans for his region every year. And so in order to collect taxes,
• 22:56
  In his region, from his citizens, Herod Antipas, king, would sell tax booth franchises, for lack of a better term, to the highest bidder. So let's say you wanted to become a tax collector. You would buy a tax booth as kind of a franchise. Now you, as the franchisee, would be authorized to collect any taxes you wanted.
• 23:24
  Income tax, property tax, land tax, travel tax, worship tax, whatever you wanted. And anything beyond what you were required to collect, you were allowed to keep. So the way that you would make money is to say, okay, Herod Antipas owes a million dollars to the Roman government. He's going to charge me a million and a half dollars to him. He's going to keep 500,000. I'm going to charge everyone else 2 million.
• 23:55
  So that the Romans get paid and Herod gets paid and I make half a million bucks. Did everybody follow? This is why they were hated. You guys remember, we're coming up on Luke 19. Zacchaeus, the wee little man. Remember the wee little man? The wee little man was a tax collector. He was hated and he was wealthy. He was wealthy. He was robbing from his neighbors. He was extorting money using the muscle of the Roman army.
• 24:22
  to steal from his neighbors and so you can imagine why this guy was so badly hated now we would call that organized crime you think of like a roman-backed ancient jewish mafia that was this guy that was the tax collector okay so here's the two guys now notice he continues verse 11 look at the pharisee the pharisee standing by himself prayed thus standing by himself
• 24:51
  prayed thus the wording here is crazy it could also have been translated the pharisee prayed to himself about himself can you imagine that he's praying to himself about how great he is he went to the temple to pray not to god but to pray to himself and this verse says that the pharisee thought so highly of himself that he actually began to view god
• 25:23
  as an equal listen to his prayer in verse 11 it started out it seems like pretty good god i thank you the first four words are good but man it didn't take long for that to fall downhill pretty fast god i thank you now normally when we begin our prayers with god i thank you we would then thank god for something he had done and perhaps some blessing that he had provided but it turns out that this pharisee really was just thankful for himself
• 25:53
  Instead of praying, God, I thank you that you are so great. He prayed, God, I thank you that I am so great. In fact, in the next verse and a half, he uses that personal pronoun, I. He uses it five times in a verse and a half. God, I thank you. I, I, I, I, I, I, I. Look at how great I am. He believed himself above the spiritual peasants as he viewed them of his time. Extortioners, the unjust, adulterers.
• 26:24
  but more specifically, even the tax collector. And you can almost see him in your mind's eye pointing at the tax collector. Thank you that I'm not like this tax collector. He continues in verse 12 by listing his accolades. Look at how great I am. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Now, this type of fasting would have meant that for two days a week, most of the time, Mondays and Thursdays are the days that men like this would fast.
• 26:54
  Those two days, he would only take bread and water. So I'm going to sacrifice physically in order to show my devotion. But it also says I give tithes of all that I get. Now, all of Israel was commanded in the Old Testament to tithe 10% of their earnings as an offering to support the temple and the Levites, the priests, the Lord's overall work. Everybody in Israel had to give 10% of their income. This Pharisee says he tithed not only on his income, but he also tithed on everything else.
• 27:25
  Jesus at one point spoke about certain Pharisees. Do you guys remember this? Who would even tithe on their spices all the way down, all the way down to their spices. Like I got salt this week and you can imagine him pinching 10% of it and walking it to the temple and dropping it in the offering plate. 10% of my cumin, 10% of my, like all the way down to like flavored dust. These guys were tithing in the thought that
• 27:54
  The Lord would somehow be more pleased with them. We see that this man, this Pharisee, wore his fasting and his tithes like badges of honor. You can almost see him with his sash there, like he's got all of his pins and his badges. His relationship with God, we find, was merely transactional. Like, I do this and therefore you do that. But we find that his efforts were for naught. By fasting, he merely ended up hungry. The Lord wasn't pleased. By tithing,
• 28:24
  He merely ended up 10% poorer. It's like if his soul was a pig, he was just putting lipstick on the pig. All of this effort, all of this work, all of this thinking that he was holy, thinking that he was righteous, thinking that he was earning his way to heaven, he was just dressing up and putting makeup on a pig. Now let's contrast that with the tax collector. Notice verse 13, the very first word, but. But, that conjunction of contrast, it's one of the best words in the Bible. It is the total opposite.
• 28:55
  Was this tax collector refusing even to approach the presence of God or to gaze upon his majesty? The tax collector, we find, stood far off and entreated the Lord's mercy. What a contrast. Verse 13, the tax collector, standing far off, wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. His posture was bowed. It's a sign of humility. The Pharisee is standing up.
• 29:24
  proud declaring himself to be the best guy in the temple and yet the tax collector is on his face before the lord his eyes were kept down like a sign of contrition and he approached the lord fully aware of his own sin of his own dependence upon the lord's grace there was no self-congratulation in his prayer look at how good i am there was no summary of good deeds performed there was certainly no sense that he felt like god should feel honored to be in his presence
• 29:53
  It is the perfect passage, the perfect parable to study on Communion Sunday. Because isn't that what we do every Communion Sunday as we gather and we recognize, we remember the sacrifice of Jesus by taking the cup and the bread. We remember that we could not be saved. It is a declaration of our utter dependence upon the Lord for salvation. Lord, I'm not righteous. If I were righteous, I wouldn't need communion. If I were righteous, I wouldn't need your son.
• 30:23
  And that's exactly what this man does. He is laying on his face, wouldn't even lift up his eyes, beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The Greek word here for mercy, halaskamai, could also be translated, be propitiated to me. Be propitiated to me, the sinner. You say, well, what does that mean? What is propitiation? To propitiate means to satisfy the demands.
• 30:53
  or to appease, in this case, the anger of or wrath of a deity. Let me say that again. To propitiate means to satisfy the demands or appease the anger or wrath of a deity. If you thought that your God were angry at you, to propitiate means to go through whatever process he demands in order to satisfy his wrath, right? You go and hike up and you throw the virgin in the volcano.
• 31:21
  Or whatever it is, right? The heathens want it done. You would go and propitiate. And so what this guy is saying, make sure you catch this. He is asking the Lord to propitiate for him. Did you catch that? What does that mean? Maybe I didn't explain it very well. Did you catch what he's saying? Lord, I can't do it. I can't do it. I'm a sinner. I'm wrecked. I'm not even going to stand up.
• 31:56
  I can't work my way to you. I'm going to need you to work your way to me. Be merciful to me, Lord. Not because of how great I am, but because of how great you are. In the case of our Lord, sacrifice, we know, was the method chosen to appease his wrath. Specifically, the sacrifice of his own son. Listen to 1 John 2 and verse 2. He, Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins.
• 32:24
  And not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world. You catch what this tax collector is saying? You're picking up, right, what he's laying down. He's asking God to die for him. Imagine here the humility of this tax collector. Lord, I cannot do it, and unless you do it for me, I cannot be saved. And notice the response of Jesus. Verse 14, I tell you, this man, the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other.
• 32:54
  The Pharisee left feeling very good about himself, but not saved. Jesus says, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. And church, how often appearances can deceive. On the outside, the Pharisee looked great. He's like Ikea furniture. His stitching, his piping were so tastefully done. His cushions looked so comfy, and yet it didn't take long to realize something wasn't right. On the contrary, the tax collector,
• 33:25
  The despised and rejected and yet humble tax collector, because of his dependence upon the Lord, went away justified. You may recall in the Old Testament when Samuel the prophet is going to find the new king, the king who would replace King Saul. The people had chosen King Saul. The Lord chose King David. And the Lord commands Samuel, go to the house of Jesse. I've chosen one of his sons to be the next king of Israel.
• 33:52
  and samuel says okay i'll go to jesse's house and jesse starts parading he had many sons he starts parading his son starting with the oldest and working his way down right and the oldest comes in and jesse says well certainly this would be the next king right if any of my sons it's certainly this one he's tall he's handsome he grows a great beard right and so therefore he looks kingly he must be kingly samuel says no then eliab comes in another son of jesse and he looks very kingly he looks like he should be king and samuel makes this statement
• 34:22
  He says, man looks at the outward appearance. You guys remember? The Lord looks at the heart. And that's where they work all the way down to David. Jesse even denying that he has another son at one point. Like, I'm out of sons. And Samuel's saying, there's got to be one more son. I don't have any more sons. There's got to be one more son. The Lord doesn't make mistakes. Well, I do have one more son. He's this shepherd, right? He's this kid out there tending the sheep. But surely it's not him. And it turns out, no, David is a man after the Lord's own heart.
• 34:54
  That man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart and church. Don't be like Ikea furniture. All the scrambling we often do to make ourselves look good to others, the Lord sees through. Let's not be the kind of people who pray to ourselves about ourselves, clapping each other on the backs and saying how great we are, but rather be honest with ourselves before others and before the Lord. And in the end, we know that the one who will leave justified is the one who simply says, Lord.
• 35:27
  Be propitiated to me. Be merciful to me. Lord, die for me, a sinner. And God, I pray that that is the message that would be ever on our lips, that you alone can save and apart from our own righteous acts. God, it is your grace that saves and that it is therefore your name that will be praised. Lord, not ours. We've done nothing to deserve our own salvation, our own forgiveness. God, thank you for sending your son to be sacrificed so that we could live. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.