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Sermon Audio: Let The Little Children Come To Me
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 18:15-17
Duration: 17:41
Size: 8.10 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
Let The Little Children Come To Me
Luke 18:15-17

Jesus wanted people to understand how to enter into heaven.

And so the right approach is to believe that we can gain access into heaven only by the merits, the good works, and the righteousness of Jesus.

I. The Disciples Rebuke the Parents

Jesus thoroughly enjoyed his interaction with the children and he loved to bless them.

It is one of the loveliest things in all the gospel story that Jesus had time for the children even when he was on the way to Jerusalem to die.

II. The Savior Receives the Children

A. Jesus Allows the Children to Come to Him.

Children are able to enter into the kingdom of God, and we should never them from entering the kingdom of God.

Every born-again child of God is completely and totally helpless and dependent.

B. Jesus Compares the Reception of the Kingdom to a Child’s Attitude.

1. Unmitigated Trust
They believe in Jesus, but it is more than a mind-belief – they trust Jesus for everything to do with salvation and life.

2. Untutored Humility
Because children have not developed the pride of adulthood, they readily repent.

3. Untarnished Receptivity
The soul that receives the kingdom is grace-oriented. It is open to the unmerited favor of God.

4. Unabashed Love
Unabashed love is the province of those who receive the kingdom as little children.

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Sermon Audio: Thank God I’m Not Like…
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 18:9-14
Duration: 14:36
Size: 6.69 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
Thank God I’m Not Like…
Luke 18:9-14

“In the eyes of Christ a person confessing sin is nearer to true goodness than a person boasting of his goodness.” (F.F. Bruce, Theologian)

Specifically, the parable of The Pharisee And The Tax Collector deals with the attitude with which we offer up our prayers:

Two Men

A Pharisee was a member of the Jewish faith set apart to maintain and further the divine cause.

A tax collector was at the other end of the spectrum. He would have been perceived by the community as the worst of the worst of Jewish citizenry, perhaps even lower.

Two Prayers

Yes God, thank you that I am not like these other people.”

He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven as was common among those who came to pray but rather, he pounded his chest over and over again crying, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Two Outcomes

Pharisee
Measured himself to others rather than to God who is absolute in holiness; he built his self-worth on the moral failings of others.

Tax Collector
He recognized the sin in his life; he didn’t hide it or deny it. He recognized his need for God’s grace and pleaded for it.

Pray with a spirit of humility recognizing that we are sinners saved by grace.

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Sermon Audio: Persistent Prayer
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Luke 18:1-8
Duration: 23:03
Size: 10.5 MB

Luke-The Investigative Gospel
Persistent Prayer
Luke 18:1-8

Probably more than just a few of us actually have given up and stopped praying, maybe not altogether, but at least quit praying for certain things.

1. Don’t Give Up There Is Too Much At Stake.

Who among us has not felt like since our prayers are not being effective, we might as well just quit?

We are told up front that this judge does not care about God or about men.

2. Don’t Give Up When Circumstances Seem to Be Against You.

As hopeless as her situation must have seemed, she was persistent.

3. Don’t Give Up the Answer May Be Just Around the Corner.

The judge is finally moved to help her not out of sense of justice or compassion but one of self-preservation.

4. Don’t Give Up God is Working Out the Answer.

Unless we see that Jesus is pointing out contrasts, we will get the idea that God must be argued or bribed into answering our prayers.

5. Don’t Give Up Jesus Always Keeps His Promises.

Without faith, prayer becomes little more than a ritual that we perform and then stand in wonder “Does it really work?”

What we need to concern ourselves in not the Lord’s faithfulness, but rather our own!

We are really faced with a choice between:

Praying or losing heart,
Going on with God or Giving up on God.