Series: The Parables of Jesus
Speaker: Steve Hixon
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Date: September 24, 2000
Series: The Parables of Jesus Speaker: Steve Hixon |
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| Listen to Steve's message (37 min) |
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| Listen to entire service (78 min) |
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Luke 18:9-14
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” | |||||
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Problem (v. 9)
People (vv. 10-14a)
Trusting One’s Own Achievements
The Religious Man (Pharisee)
Confident
Comparing
Condemning
Complacent
He Left...
Trusting God’s Mercy
The Tax Man
Clearly Seeing
Confessing
Contrite
Consecrated
He left...
Principle (v. 14b)
Life Responses
Have I become complacent in my relationship with God – impressed more with what I’m doing than what God has and is doing?
Do I approach worship of God as a routine – or with expectation I’ll be changed as I come before a merciful God? Are my prayers dominated with a sense of self or of God?
Do I believe the exaltation of God is better than the heights I can achieve?