Red Letter Day 31/32 Luke 18 Recap

[00:00:00] We see that we can have persistent prayer because we have a persistent God.

[00:00:19] I'm Alnesha, the host of this show, GloriBites.

[00:00:24] GloriBites is a short podcast that encouraged women to taste and see that the Lord is good

[00:00:29] and blessed are you as you take refuge in Him.

[00:00:43] Today on our Re let a challenge, we take a look at Luke chapter 18.

[00:00:47] Starting out on what it means to persistently pray, looking at the difference between how to

[00:00:54] approach God in humility or in self-righteous. How we are blessed when we bring our children to the

[00:01:02] Lord and when we come to Christ in childlike faith ourselves. So let's jump right in.

[00:01:08] So now from yesterday we see that it starts out with the word now.

[00:01:16] So I say yesterday that it does not say that the message that we had yesterday verse 23-38,

[00:01:25] 37 was apperable but this says now he tells apperable so changing the story to apperable

[00:01:33] about the need to pray always and not give up. There was a judge who did not fear God or have any

[00:01:42] respect for people but there was this widow who kept coming to Him for justice against her adversary.

[00:01:49] Before a while it says that he was unwilling and later he said to himself,

[00:01:54] even though I don't fear God or respect people, this widow keeps pestering me so I will give her

[00:02:00] justice so that she don't worry me out by her persistent coming. Look how many times he is saying the

[00:02:07] word, me, it's like me, me, me, me, me, me, he is definitely all about himself and his image.

[00:02:15] Then the Lord said, will not guide grant justice to his elect in verse 7, who cry out to him day

[00:02:26] and night, will he delay in helping them? I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice.

[00:02:33] Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? He tells us about a prayer

[00:02:42] between these two men one who trusted in himself and looked down on everyone else

[00:02:50] and one who sees himself as a sinner. See the Pharisee thought that he had it all because he did

[00:02:57] all checked all the boxes of the law, he thought that he was in right standing with God

[00:03:03] and he focused his prayer on himself. It says praying about himself, God I thank you that I am not

[00:03:10] like other people greedy, righteous, adulterers even like this text collector. I fast twice a week,

[00:03:17] I give a tenth of everything I earn. And so the task collector is standing far off, can't even

[00:03:25] hold his head up, striking his chest and asking God to have mercy on him because he identifies himself

[00:03:34] as a sinner. The word says that this is the one who went home justified because God, whoever

[00:03:42] it zawks himself will be humble but the one who humbles himself will be it zawts it.

[00:03:49] In the next scripture we see that people were bringing infants to Jesus that he might touch them

[00:03:56] and the disciples were getting mad and rebuked, but Jesus invited them. He said let the little

[00:04:02] children come to me and don't stop them because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

[00:04:08] I truly tell you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

[00:04:16] A rich ruler comes up and asks him, good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?

[00:04:25] Jesus said why you call me good no one is good except God alone. You know all the commandments he

[00:04:32] breaks it down do not commit adultery do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness

[00:04:37] honor your mother and father. And he says I've kept all of those since my youth and so Jesus

[00:04:44] hurt this he says but you lack one thing sell all you have distribute to the poor you will find

[00:04:50] treasure and heaven then you can follow me and he was very sad because he was very rich.

[00:04:56] And in his sadness Jesus explains to him how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter in

[00:05:02] the kingdom of God that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needer than

[00:05:06] a rich person to enter in the kingdom of God. So then that disciples was like well who then can

[00:05:17] be saved and Jesus says what is impossible with man is possible with God so Peter is like we left

[00:05:26] everything to follow you. And Jesus reminds him that no one who has left the house a wife,

[00:05:32] a brother, sister, parent, children for the kingdom of God will not receive many more times

[00:05:38] and eternal life so not only you gonna get blessed right now you gonna get the eternal blessing.

[00:05:44] So he takes his 12 and he explains to them that they're going to go to Jerusalem

[00:05:48] that everything that's written about the through the prophets about the son of man will be

[00:05:52] accomplished. He will be handed over to the Gentiles, mocked and sorted, spit on, flot, killed,

[00:05:59] and wrote right, raised on the third day. They did not understand these things it says it had been

[00:06:05] hidden from them and as they get ready to approach Jericho we see the chapter ends with this blind man

[00:06:13] who was sitting on the side of the road begging and he's listening he's listening to the people say

[00:06:20] that there is Jesus of Nazareth coming through and he calls Jesus Jesus son of David have mercy on me

[00:06:29] and those who were around him was saying be quiet but he kept crying out all the more repeating

[00:06:35] again son of David have mercy on me. Jesus stopped he commanded him to be brought to him

[00:06:42] and he asked him what do you want me to do for you and his response was Lord I want to see

[00:06:50] and Jesus said to him receive your sight he told him your faith has saved you and instantly

[00:06:58] he sees and he begins to follow Jesus and gives glory to God and all the people who witness it

[00:07:04] gives glory to God. In today's reading we see a lot of things we all have a tendency to get

[00:07:12] discouraged to stop praying about a specific thing because it may not be answered in our time

[00:07:18] and but Jesus reminds us to pray and not give up this widow would have been desperate and destitute

[00:07:26] she didn't have an opportunity to get remarried or have a family to take care of she would have just

[00:07:31] been by herself so she was begging for help from this judge who didn't seem to care he was

[00:07:37] worried about his reputation but she remained persistent the comparison between this unjust judge

[00:07:45] and our just got God reminds us that he will grant justice to his children and he will do it swiftly

[00:07:53] the question that is asked is when the son of man returns will he find faith

[00:08:00] will he find you faithfully waiting on him to answer your prayers in his timing

[00:08:08] so the Pharisee he used other people as his standard to measure his self with his own self righteousness

[00:08:17] and he thought that God would be pleased with him but the humility of this tax collector who

[00:08:22] couldn't even raise his eyes recognize that he was a sinner in need of God's grace that is the

[00:08:28] only way to access the kingdom of God is to be in humility because God always and he always

[00:08:36] exalts the humble and he will bring down the ones that's in pride what does the word say

[00:08:43] God gives grace to those who are humble but not the proud and we seek children I have five children

[00:08:49] myself they come to me all day mom mom mom he compares access to the kingdom of God like a child

[00:08:57] we are to come to him like our father we are to have a dependency on Christ just like when we were

[00:09:04] little that we had on our parents this verse also reminds us the important that these people were

[00:09:11] bringing their children to the Lord we are to take our children to the Lord and bring them up in

[00:09:17] the training and abomination of the Lord from birth this rich ruler he in his mind he thought he

[00:09:24] had kept all the commandments but the Lord reminded him that he lacked care for others and given to

[00:09:30] the poor maybe he thought that he could work his way for his salvation but we cannot work for salvation

[00:09:37] salvation is only achieved by grace through faith when this disciples acts what then who can

[00:09:45] be saved Jesus reminded them that what is impossible with man what we see in our common eye

[00:09:52] it's possible with God things that we cannot see because everyone can be saved but it's only

[00:09:58] possible through the grace of God when he works in someone's heart no matter how rich how poor

[00:10:05] no matter what gender what race he can work in the hearts of those and change them to bring about

[00:10:12] salvation in their life he when Peter is like we gave up everything he reminds Peter that when

[00:10:20] we leave these to follow Jesus it is not that we are abandoning people that we love but our allegiance

[00:10:28] now be to Jesus Jesus must be over everything and everybody he explains to them about his

[00:10:36] income and death it's upcoming death and they could not see it God was keeping that meaning from

[00:10:44] them until they saw the resurrected Christ because they was not expecting a Messiah that was

[00:10:49] suffer and die but that blind man who saw Jesus as son of David he saw him as Messiah even before

[00:10:58] he could see him in his physical body and Jesus asked him what do you need what is it that you

[00:11:06] want Jesus knows our needs but he desires us to be in communication with him telling and bringing

[00:11:13] all our needs and being persistent as we see in the beginning of this chapter this man immediately

[00:11:20] becomes a disciple of Jesus the whole thing that you just see that there was a spiritual blindness

[00:11:29] in the land and God wanted to he wanted them to be able to see Jesus as the Messiah but they

[00:11:35] just could not see it they were spiritually blind we must persist in prayer believing that God

[00:11:42] answers our prayers and faith and as we persist in bringing our requests to him we also will be

[00:11:48] increasing in our faith we'll be increasing in our strength and persevering and we must remember

[00:11:54] to take our children to Jesus in prayer and show them how to find him and seek him out for

[00:12:01] their self just like children we love our parents we are to be loving our Father God we ask

[00:12:10] questions children love to ask questions and be inquisitive of discovering new things we are to

[00:12:16] be seeking him discovering new things about him daily in his word listening to his Holy Spirit

[00:12:22] he is our Heavenly Father so we should come to him in childlike faith and as a result

[00:12:27] we will receive the kingdom of God salvation is a gift it's nothing that you can do to earn it

[00:12:36] we may he may never ask us to sell and get rid of all our possessions but he may need for you to

[00:12:42] get rid of some things that are in his rightfully placed in your heart he may ask you to remove

[00:12:47] some places in people to be able to follow him because in following Jesus you have security we

[00:12:55] must trade our possessions for his presence i love you ladies i hope you have been encouraged by

[00:13:02] the reading of the word today and i will talk to you guys on Monday as we continue enjoy your

[00:13:11] rest break and reflect on the things that you have read in the word this week be blessed

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[00:13:38] will be at the link of this episode thank you and have a great day

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