Top 10 Prayers of the New Testament #10

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Speaker 1: So whenever I speak about prayer, there's always the few in the room who are riding away bright windfield sun splash. Prayer feels like sitting natural to them, and them a dynamic answered. They speak of God's nearness the way others speak of the weather, right frequently and with the light. If that's you, God bless you, keep going, don't adjust a thing, stay on the board, feel the spray. I bless you, and yes, I envy you. But this conversation is for the rest of us, the bulk of Christianity, for those whose prayer life feels less like surfing and more like dragging a net through sand. So's your prayer struggle a quiet source of shame, hit or miss or theory that experience? Do you avoid talking about it with other Christians? Do your quiet times really feel quiet? And so you're not broken, You're not alone. Let's be honest enough to take a little inventory. If prayer feels like a spiritual performance review, if you suspect God is more inclined to bless the serious prayers, if you carry guilt when you forget to pray, if shame follows you in your quiet times, if silence feels like disapproval from God. If you imagine God liking you just a little more when you're consistent, well, something in the wiring has been crossed. And here's my surprising counsel. Stop it. Don't pray more, not what you're doing. Just stop, because what many of us have sort of devolved into doing doesn't resemble the freedom prayer of Jesus. It resembles negotiation, a kind of modern paganism. It feels less like love and more like leveling up in a game. You know, you pray enough and maybe God advances you to the next next stage, and miss a few days and perhaps you slide down to the lower stage. That's not how Jesus prayed. Jesus didn't pray to get more of the Father's love and attention. Or we've taught that he prayed because he was experiencing the Father's love and attention more. That makes sense. He didn't pray to secure affection. He prayed from affection. That's a world of difference. Welcome to Gospel Ran podcast and Doctor Bill Singored YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill Senored. We're free wherever you get podcasts and of course on YouTube as well. Please subscribe. If you're on YouTube. One of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below. Thank you sincerely. Also, thanks for making Gospel and Podcast one of the top ten percent in the world. Thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love for the unlovable, love the unlovely, the unworthy, the unlikely, and from last two weeks, the hurting that's all of us on any given day. If we were just a little bit honest, Well, I'm going to start going through my list of the top ten prayers the New Testament. Ah man, that's arrogance, right. I know it's my opinion. They're all God's favorite, right. I did my top ten prayers of the Old Testament last summer, and I wasn't struck by lightning. It actually was a big hit, led to lots of dialogue and some disagreement. I love it. Bill at gospeldeeshapp dot com, go ahead, bring it on. It is bold. I was gonna say something else but to try to list the top ten of either Old or New Testament. But you know that's what we humans do. Top point guard of all time, the top NFL defense, the top ten restaurants, right the top place to live in the world. There is a purpose, as you who follow me will see. I'm trying to stay into my lane, which is called by God to proclaim his love for the unlovable, the love the unlovely, the unworthy, unlikely, and the hurting. As I said about the Old Testament ranking, they are all favorites of God. This list represents my highly subjective assessment. You may disagree. You probably will. You know which one or two, which one's ranked over another. Great again Bill at god'splitysap dot com. Bring it on one way or another. Each is a powerful testimony of how real people really prayed. Spoiler alert. The top five are from the lips of Jesus himself, which makes them clearly worthy of study and embracing. Welcome to the top ten prayers of the New Testament. I want to get right into it. After this brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back. Number ten. Top prayer of the New Testament Luke eighteen, verse thirteen, God have mercy on me a sinner. There are times in our lives when we can barely bring ourselves to look up into God's face. In moments of deep failure, cowardice, selfishness, or outright sin, we shrink back. We're terrified of what we might see in his eyes or hear from his lips, perhaps confirming confirmation that He's finally done with us, that we've crossed some line beyond reconciliation. You want to call it guilt, shame, self loathing. We crave restoration, yet we feel utterly undeserving of it. And then there's other seasons. When we're writing high, we're praying consistently, relatively speaking, giving generously, relatively speaking, we're studying scripture faithfully, relatively speaking. In a word, we feel righteous. We can't wait to stand close enough to God to till you know basque and his lavish praise. Surely now he must be impressed. Surely, now he'll declare loud enough everyone to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. You're my beloved child, you know, not like those others with whom I am well pleased. Same person, two radically different outlooks on our relationship with God. Jesus captures this tension so well and Luke eighteen, Verses nine to fourteen. Here it is to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone 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 by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like the other people. Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, are even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I 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, says Jesus that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, for those who humble themselves will be exalted. So in this parable, Zesus presents two men. The pharisee write, the religious professional who spends his days doing God's stuff, meticulously guarding his righteous reputation before God and before others. And why all that work well? Jesus highlights the core reason the pharisee believed he deserved an acknowledgment for his efforts, and more than anyone else, he had entered God's favor and loved and deserved it. Look at you, Oh good job. I'm so pleased with the person that you've become. You're so worthy of my love, my praise, and a spot in front of the line. In stark contrast to the tax collector, a Jew collaborating with the occupying Romans, viewed as a traitor to God, to his people, he expected nothing but wrath and judgment from God and from fellow Jews. That's what he expected, right, So think of it, a notorious sinner drawing near to God's presence, like Darth Vader hawking to church and praying to the force. It's completely out of its place. It's a parable, and we're left wondering what got endo the task collector. He was risking ridicule, rejection, defaming from the religiously upright. He was risk exposing himself to potential divine rejection. This was either a foolishness or profoundly heroic or something else. So what could possibly motivate such a spiritual failure? A disenfranchised enemy of God's people to approach God pleading for mercy, for forgiveness of his abuses, deceptions, and countless failings, and to somehow be welcomed as a favorite child. That's what the mercy was for, Like David and Moses, Abraham and Mary. Humanly speaking, it didn't make any sense that he would ever have such expectations. He would run the other direction. Yet this man did. It's an unlikely, shocking scene, and even more astonishing in Jesus telling, the righteous pharisee left unrecognized by God, ignored, overlooked, criticized, while the tax collector he went home justified, declared right with God, a favored and accepted son, well done, good and faithful servant. It's crazy, parable, It's so unlikely. We wouldn't have thought about that at all. Think of the worst person you know walking down the isle at your church and being baptized, the worst person that you know, and your feelings, and you leave the temple going I'm not feeling that this is it. This would have stunned Jesus's listeners. It should stun us because it defies any expectations we might have of God's love and honor for the dishonorable. Shouldn't the tax collector do something, approve his repentance and worth, maybe offer sacrifice or get baptized, confess publicly repay what he'd stolen before God would say, you did it, We're good. I've seen your righteous works and I'm willing to overlook the rest. You know, And if that doesn't happen, isn't that enabling sin? Jesus? Are you possibly saying that real slimeballs who failed this week or last year, who portrayed God's people, ignored the needy, profited off of the poor, can simply come to God in humility and ask for healing of the breach and receive it. Yeah, that's exactly what he said, and of course it's the parable one of Jesus's most brilliant ones. The scene is so unlikely, right, I mean, can you imagine it ever happening? I mean, Matthew, maybe no tax collector, though, would dare show up with the temple and even imagine that God wouldn't strike him down? That's human unless unless what might compel the tax collector or you or me to dare approach the one we've most offended, hoping, even minutely, expecting to be made right. The possibility of being made right with him. My answer is the Holy Spirit. Yeah, the Holy Spirit making us see something that we didn't see before, giving us faith. The God's Spirit is more than capable of causing even a tax collector to come before the President of the Holy God and beg for mercy. Somehow, the Spirit can make us know, even though humanly speaking, it's unreasonable, totally unreasonable, that he loves the unlovel the love the unlovely, unlikely and unworthy, the hurting. That's what he does. That's within his power, that's within his jam, his laying, that's his faith. That's the only type of person that he steps down to rescue. By the way, way is people that don't deserve it. Be and you the only type of person he steps down of redeemed to pursue, to publicly dance with, to embrace, to kiss people like you and me. The Pharisee couldn't see that he belonged in the same category with the tax collector. Despite this impressive record. Humanly speaking, it's all relative. He brought nothing of true worth, nothing that could earn the rights standing with God. What he needed was need himself, and he lacked it all he had to do was to say the same prayer, God, have mercy on me, a sinner, and he would have been received as well, but his brain couldn't. It was arrogance. There. This is the heart of the tax collector prayer number ten, the posture that moves God. I mean, don't fake it till you make it right. Don't manipulate God. Ask for this heart. Humility opens the door to grace, heaven born humility, exalting ourselves not close his doors. May we all learn to come as needy centners, trusting not in our merits, but in His mercy, by first accessing his spirit. What does his prayer tell us about God? God justifies the desperate, not the performers. God's mercy atones failures. God's resists the proud, but graces the humble. God's spirit draws that empowers the unlikely, bids enemies to approach boldly. God's favor is a gift to the unlovable, the love the unlovely and likely unworthy. What does this prayer say about us? I think we swing between Pharisee and task collector Christians. I'm just being honest. Second, we crave earned love. We want to earn it. Third, shame paralyzes the approach. Fourth spirit awakens hunger draws us despite our unworthiness, guilt, and shame. Well, So in this series to the top ten, I'm going to give you a prayer at the end that yeah unpacks the verse and here it is for the tax Collector's prayer. God, I realized my praying has been pretty messed up. I've struggled in this area for years without much progress. Honestly, I'm frustrated. I've wondered if I was doing something wrong or not doing something right. My prayer life has been a major source of shame and guilt. But now I'm starting to understand why I've been praying to make you like me, to prove my worth by getting what I asked for. My prayers have been needy, soaked in insecurity and doubt. So now first things first. Here I am holding up empty, needy hands, palms up, ready to receive everything Jesus has already purchased for me. Fill me with your power through Christ's spirit, so I can truly grasp how much you love me. Like me, adore me right now as I am now, as they should be or could be, make it sink deep into my mind and heart. I've returned to my knees in your presence, waiting to feel your love for me. Now please by other prayers our summer urgent for my well being. But first things first, Abba, let me feel your love for me? Now, Amen, what's next? Sollet you know after a brief word from our sponsors, So what's next? The next prayer is a fascinating choice, different from every other prayer in this list. This one is not of your voice. It's an unheard and critical grown uttered by the Holy Spirit himself in you for you very deserving to be on this list of top prayers right as a matter of fact, probably higher than number nine. Fyi, I am finishing up a book that's going to include all twenty top prayers, old and new, hopefully released sometimes later this year. Tentative title Good Enough Prayer. Email me Bill at Gospel dash app dot com if you want to know exactly what it's going to be released. Great for devotions or group studies, discussion questions will be included, like this one. Jesus says, God justifies the desperate, not performers. What prerequisites right, confession, sacrifice, good needs? Do you subconsciously add to grace. How does the spirit draw the unlikely like the tax collector for you, Well, we'll see you next time. Take heart, child of God.