Wednesday, February 14, 2007
"Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess." And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, 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, and he who humbles himself will be exalted' " (Luke 18:9-14).
IDEA: We never outgrow our need of grace.
PURPOSE: To have our listeners understand that we need the grace of God as much at the end of our lives as we do at the beginning of our Christian lives.
Listen to the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector as we find it in Luke 18:9-14. If you think of this in terms of the tax collector’s pilgrimage with God, where would you place the experience? We would probably place it at the beginning. We’d see it as a conversion experience.
Do you think that 10 years later, as he grew and developed as a Christian, he would have prayed a prayer like this?
I. Do we ever feel we have outgrown our need of grace?
Other men in the Bible seem to be as disturbed about their sin as the tax collector:
Do you think that Job was converted at the end of the book by that name?
Do you think Isaiah is reporting what we would call a “conversion experience” in Isaiah 6?
Do you think that Paul is saying, “I AM the chief of sinners” merely because of his past?
Do we as we mature, need God less than when we first believed?
II. Whenever we worship and we see God, we always recognize how far we have to go rather than how far we’ve come.
We always recognize our need of God and His forgiveness more than the successes we’ve had in God from whom we draw strength.
The most godly person you know needs the grace and forgiveness of God as much today as the pimp or prostitute coming to Christ in a rescue mission.
We never outgrow our need for God’s grace.