October 28, 2007 am   The Perfect Prayer    Luke 18:9-14

By Ronald E. George Jr.  at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

As a child I was taught to pray.   At lunch time we were taught to pray God is great and God is good.  Now we thank Him for our food.  By his hand we all are fed.  Now give us Lord our daily bread.   At bedtime I prayed: Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Now there came a point in my life I realized that prayer was a conversation with the everlasting Father.   At this point my prayers became more than just a form prayer.  I was taught to pray and I am thankful for that.  But now I am thankful that someone taught me to talk to the Lord my God. 

Scripture Text:  Luke 18: ^9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ^10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ^11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about^a himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ^12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ ^13 “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.’ ^14 “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.”^[1]

The prayers.  Out of these two prayers which would you say is the perfect prayer?

The Pharisee:  The not so perfect prayer.  False prayer is seen in light of true prayer. 

1.      The Pharisee stood up to make himself known and heard.  He exalted himself instead of God.  I want everyone to know all the good things that I have done.  He is proud of his fasting and tithing. 

2.      He prayed about himself and to himself.  (Pride and the deceitful nature of sin) Confident of their own righteousness

3.      He displayed his pride. He shows his arrogance. “I thank God that I am not a sinner like everyone else.“

4.      He shows that his sin has deceived him.  He didn’t recognize who he was.  He was an unrepentant sinner.  He gave an unrepentant sinner’s prayer. 

5.      He shows his disdain or dislike (He had no love for others) for the others in his life who aren’t as good as he is. Looked down on everybody else

6.      He shows his distance from God who cares for all these.

7.      He shows his vain religion.  Being a child of the King has not changed his life.  So then we recognize that he wasn’t  a true child of the King. 

The Tax Collector or the Publican.  The perfect prayer.

1.      A prayer that is offered to the Lord, not to others or for others benefit.

2.      A prayer that is sincere or from the heart. A prayer that is not a vain repetition of meaningless words.

3.      A prayer that shows humility of life. He wouldn’t even look up because he was ashamed of his sin.

4.      A prayer that expresses the desire for God in one’s life. He asked God to give him mercy because he was a sinner.

5.      A prayer that recognizes one’s true position in life and true need of forgiveness. He stood at a distance. 

6.      A prayer that shows your gratitude.

7.      A prayer that shows your faith. He recognized who he was.  He wanted God.  He wanted God to forgive him. 

^Are you justified before God?  Do you want to be?  How can you be?  Humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up.  Humble yourself and you then can be lifted up.

On Long Prayers

“Pa,” asked a little boy, “does the Lord know every thing?” “Yes, my son,” replied the father; “but why do you ask that question?” “Because,” replied the boy, “our preacher, when he prays, is so long telling him every thing. I thought he wasn’t posted.”  —Foster^[2]

Fishermen’s Prayer

The fishermen of Brittany utter the simple prayer when they launch their boats upon the deep: “Keep me, my God; my boat is small and the ocean is wide.”^[3]